#tizheruk

[kennythecatgirl]

✨Nessie-Like cryptids ✨

Tizheruk- Alaska, United States

Altamaha-ha- Georgia, United States

Sharlie- Idaho, United States

Chessie- Maryland, United States

Flathead Lake Monster- Montana, United States

Tahoe Tessie- Nevada, United States

Champ- New York, United States

The Conser Lake Monster- Washington, United States

If you know anymore, feel free to add!

[rugops]

Tizheruk, AK

[wodeworm]

Păl-raí-yûk

𝔖𝔠𝔞𝔱𝔥𝔢𝔪𝔟𝔢𝔯 16

also known as a Tizheruk, they are large coastal dragons patrolling Alaska and the bering strait, and has been known to frequent the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers.

one of Ravens many creations, it would lie submerged waiting in ambush to feed on human and animal alike, it has been noted to ram feed, crashing down on kayaks or large herbivores such as the Steller's sea cow sea cow but has equally been noted to hunt fish and people on the cost with a long chameleon like tongue, to be ingested in its multi stomached mass, slowly digested while looking out in horror of its massive frame . some brave hunters could even summon it by rhythmically tapping on the bottom of they're canoes or kayaks.

One of its most puzzling ability's would be its capability to swim in fresh water inlets and change its form to fill the rivers length, often passerby's would mistake its organs for the rivers rock bottom, it could seemingly even change its density, in some cases light enough to move through the water undetected or once slain becoming an immovable mound of flesh.

It would typically take large hunting party's and elaborate logged traps set in fresh water inlets, once captured it would allow the humans smash its head in with clubs, a task that's easier said then done.

[cryptidcurator]

revamped cryptid journal (pt. 4)

[draconesmundi]

Smaugust Day 10: Arctic

The Arctic isn’t a place with many dragons as it is very cold for a large bodied reptile - with the exception of the pal-rai-yuk or tizheruk, a sea serpent I’ve loosely based on Inuit folklore. I might make them more chubby/blubbery (like a leatherback turtle) or I might keep the serpentlike appearance and say “this sea serpent uses magic to help regulate it’s temperature”. These dragons are fully aquatic and hunt seals and fish. They can dive for many hours under the Arctic ice, very rarely needing to come up for breath.

This is day 10 on @saint-nevermore​‘s Smaugust prompt list which can be found here: https://draconesmundi.tumblr.com/post/625107202033778688

[lpbestiary]

The Tizheruk is a giant monster from Inuit mythology. Often described as a large, serpentine beast, it is said to dwell in the waters near Key Island, Alaska.

The Tizheruk is said to be so huge, its head is seven feet long, yet local Inuit people claim that the Tizheruk can snatch people from the water's edge before they even notice its presence.

Image source.

Monster master list.

Suggest a spook.

[cryptidcurator]

cryptid journal part ¿

follow for more cryptic art

[draconesmundi]

How large is the tizheruk? It might be able to enter gigantothermy ranges.

Not in Arctic waters, alas. The stoorwurm, an Atlantic sea serpent, can get to monstrous whale-sizes and they do not venture as far north as the tizheruk!

One legend describes tizheruk as having a 7 foot long head, but I don’t think I am going to make my tizheruk that big (I may change my mind!). A larger tizheruk might be able to achieve thermal innertia, but then it would run into the problem of having to eat enough food to sustain its carnivorous lifestyle. The largest carnivores in Arctic waters are the orca (Orcinus orca) which is 5-8m long and maintains it’s temperature using its metabolism (it is a mammal with brown adipose tissue) and the 6-7m Greenland shark (Somniosus microcephalus) which has a really slow lifestyle (swims slowly, eats infrequently, etc.) and maintains it’s temperature by thermal inertia (as you suggested, gigantothermy, being too big to cool down or heat up). I plan to have my design to be in the 5-8m range similar to these predators.

There are larger animals in Arctic waters, but these are filter feeders and specialise in eating nutrient-rich crustaceans, which is not something I want for my tizheruk design (feel free to look up the 17m long bowhead whale, Balaena mysticetus, to see it’s award winning smile though!). Filter feeders are a type of predator, but not the ‘big teeth serpent’ aesthetic I am going for.

I base my dragons on pseudosuchians because that is where my professional interests lie. My masters thesis is on thalattosuchians, which are ocean crocodiles, which are pretty much sea dragons. In a recent paper by Séon et al. (2020 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0139 ) it was suggested these animals could create their own body heat via metabolic processes (endothermy) but may not have been able to regulate this heat perfectly (relative poikilothermy compared to other marine reptiles at the time). Large body size definitely had a part to play in the success of thalattosuchians as the oceans cooled in the Late Jurassic, but a large marine crocodile surviving in cool tropical oceans is different from a large crocodile/dragon surviving in Arctic waters.

So, where does that leave us? I could look to other marine reptiles, such as the ichthyosaur Arthropterygius, which is speculated to have swum in very cool waters while being an active predator, but I haven’t read any papers on that yet so I won’t pretend to know its thermal strategy.

Some fish survive colder waters using a counter-current vascular system alongside thermal inertia (great white sharks, Carcharodon carcharias, are laminid sharks and capable of doing this), where muscle work in some parts of the body heat up blood, and this hot blood is passed in vessels physically close to cold blood vessels so that the heat transfers – like wrapping a cold water pipe in a radiator. I could have this Arctic dragon survive the cold with clever blood vessels.

The leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) is a modern reptile that can travel into the Arctic circle in search of jellyfish – while 2m is small compared to the orcas discussed earlier, my dragons could learn a thing or two from its counter current heating system (as seen in great white sharks) and from its metabolic thermal generation, something we thought was limited to birds and mammals (Goff and Stenson, 1988 https://www.jstor.org/stable/1445737?seq=1 ).

There are a variety of ways I can get a big reptilian dragon into the Arctic circle, especially as this fantasy reptile does not have to be fully ectothermic, but I haven’t settled on one yet. At 7m it could have thermal inertia like the Greenland shark, but it would have to move super slowly. If I want some ‘active danger in the water’ vibes I might add a little counter current flow, a little metabolic heat generation, and maybe a layer of fats.

The levitation magic in Dracones Mundi is in fact caused by specialised fats – I remember in first year of university (five years ago… wow) learning about brown adipose tissue, the substance that produces heat in mammals. A series of chemical reactions happens in brown fats similar to the reactions that happen in muscles when they are moving. Energy is converted from food energy to heat energy. I wondered if, in a fantasy world, a different adipose tissue could produce magical energy. So as dragons already have magic-adipose tissue they could easily have brown adipose tissue!

Or they might not… I am still undecided XD Thanks for the question!