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Mister-Blu — Early Cretaceous Australia

#lightningclaw #megaraptor #rapator #amicagraphica #koolasuchus #leaellynasauraamicagraphica #koolasuchuscleelandi #polarforest #polarcretaceous
Published: 2023-05-06 19:53:54 +0000 UTC; Views: 1482; Favourites: 12; Downloads: 0
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Description On a cold starry night at the south pole, survival is put at the test like nowhere else in the world. At this time, Australia was connected to Antarctica and while the Earth was much warmer than it was now allowing unique polar woodland habitats to form, completely contrasting the frozen wastelands of Antarctica. The only thing reminiscent of 21st century continent is the polar icecaps but even they are different, being restricted to the size of a 1/3rd of the size they are today. Past the glaciation the glacier free land bares such hostile conditions that only the most specialised and perfectly adapted animals can make a living here, a true example of how successful the dinosaurs were, is that they were the only few animals able to thrive here, however even these frozen conditions are a match for these unique polar dinosaurs. Cryospheric/cold temperatures and months of total darkness (with the only exception of luminescence coming from the Aurora's) present many challenges for living here.

One such dinosaur that has managed to evolve here is Leaellynasaura with a fully moulted white coat of downy integument to be active even in these colder months for the winter. Leaellynasaura possesses an incredibly long bushy tail, an adaptation to wrap around it's body when sleeping.

Fortunately one has escaped a failed hunt from a large 6 metre long polar megaraptorid [1], the top predator in these frozen lands, the polar megaraptor is a distant relative of the large Tyrannosaurids that will give rise in the north with a fearsome set of large meat hook like talons, megaraptorids let their hands do the work for disembowelling prey, they were even helpful feeding apparatus for feeding, unlike most meat eating dinosaurs, megaraptorids hands were like no other, they could partly rotate their hands to pronation (with the radius crossing over the ulna) to help the predator grasp prey and bring it to it's mouth.

The reason for this failure was the animals large size is his worst enemy (despite his brilliant low light eye vision), he's under the process of moulting too and takes longer than his small little prey, the bleak white snow makes his presence obvious for the keen eye little dinosaurs, for moulting this is the worst time for this carnivore, in order to carry out the energy demanding process of moulting properly and keep his body temperature stable he needs food fast...

The problem of endothermy is no issue for the large temnospondyl like Koolasuchus, this scaly amphibian hibernates with the cover of nearby trees in the water, this is one of the extreme examples were a group of animals benefit here than elsewhere. The rest of the world is devoid of large temnospondyls because of the outcompeting crocodiles but here it's too cold for crocodilians, preventing complete extinction of the 200 million year old reign. However the upcoming Cretaceous Thermal Maximum will warm up the Earth even at the poles, reducing ice caps to minimal or complete disappearance allowing invasive crocodilians species to outcompete Koolasuchus and driving the entire lineage with it.

[1] The polar megaraptor is based on the unnamed but described Lightning Ridge theropod from New South Wales while it has no formal name, as the lack of distinguishing material from the fragamentary Rapator and predating and differing from Australovenator from a sidenote I'd probably give the name Bellunguibus defulguriugum (Bell's Claw from Lightning Ridge)
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