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Description
Yeah, it’s another one. Another submission for the Lost World Spec Challenge by Hyrotrioskjan . But this time I’m trying to make a creature that was actually in the original book instead of some random speculative creature.

In his initial expedition to the Maple-White Land, Challenger and his team mentioned many teams of seeing creatures he referred to as the pterodactyl, believing it to be a species of Pterodactylus or Dimorphodon. He even brought a young individual back to England to prove his discovery of animals thought to be extinct that he found alive on the tepui. However as more teams did research on the local wildlife in more recent times it has been found that the dinosaurs and other Mesozoic fauna he claims to have seen were all misidentified, for example the animal he thought was an Allosaurus or Megalosaurus is now known to be a large tegu lizard, the tyrant tegu , which kinda makes sense since older interpretations of dinosaurs showed them as more lizard-like. Multiple animals from the tepui could be the pterodactyl he claimed to have seen, like the large bats Chirodactylus and the wyvern bat , or the bird Teratodactylus. Another creature that it may have been is the pajarantiguo. Chimaerornis paradoxus, commonly called the pajarantiguo, is a large bird so different from other birds it is placed in its own order, the Chimaerorniformes. Its beak has a serrated edge, giving it false teeth, and it has a bony head crest and even clawed fingers on its hands like a juvenile hoatzin, and a tail feather like that of a racket-tailed hummingbird. With features like this, the silhouette of one in the distance could be mistaken for some pterosaur, but throughout his journey Challenger has stated that the pterodactyls he saw had no feathers and he saw one up close, and the bird can be clearly seen feathered when close enough. However it is possible that the pterodactyl is actually the pajarantiguo, but not a healthy one. Some individuals are found to be infected with an unknown polypore fungus. The fungus is parasitic and when spores land on the bird, the animal will start showing symptoms like shedding feathers. Ultimately the bird will have lost all its feathers except the tail vane, leaving it flightless. But the fungus’ large reproductive parts grow on its now bare arms. These structures are leathery and bare, as Challenger described the wings of the pterodactyl, and are so large that when the bird jumps it can glide a bit, possibly mistaken for flight. Smaller fungal growths also appear all across the infected birds body. Also written in The Lost World, “From this crawling flapping mass of obscene reptilian life came the shocking clamor which filled the air and the mephitic, horrible, musty odor which turned us sick.” And indeed the fungus produces a foul scent, attracting flies towards it that spread its spores (but the spores can also be wind dispersed). An entire infected flock of these birds may be what Challenger saw, but the exact identity of the pterodactyl may never be known, like the strange bathysphere fish. And fungus-infected specimens are now quite rare, and the man claims to have seen a large colony (though it may have once been more common).

Description
Yeah, it’s another one. Another submission for the Lost World Spec Challenge by Hyrotrioskjan . But this time I’m trying to make a creature that was actually in the original book instead of some random speculative creature.

In his initial expedition to the Maple-White Land, Challenger and his team mentioned many teams of seeing creatures he referred to as the pterodactyl, believing it to be a species of Pterodactylus or Dimorphodon. He even brought a young individual back to England to prove his discovery of animals thought to be extinct that he found alive on the tepui. However as more teams did research on the local wildlife in more recent times it has been found that the dinosaurs and other Mesozoic fauna he claims to have seen were all misidentified, for example the animal he thought was an Allosaurus or Megalosaurus is now known to be a large tegu lizard, the tyrant tegu , which kinda makes sense since older interpretations of dinosaurs showed them as more lizard-like. Multiple animals from the tepui could be the pterodactyl he claimed to have seen, like the large bats Chirodactylus and the wyvern bat , or the bird Teratodactylus. Another creature that it may have been is the pajarantiguo. Chimaerornis paradoxus, commonly called the pajarantiguo, is a large bird so different from other birds it is placed in its own order, the Chimaerorniformes. Its beak has a serrated edge, giving it false teeth, and it has a bony head crest and even clawed fingers on its hands like a juvenile hoatzin, and a tail feather like that of a racket-tailed hummingbird. With features like this, the silhouette of one in the distance could be mistaken for some pterosaur, but throughout his journey Challenger has stated that the pterodactyls he saw had no feathers and he saw one up close, and the bird can be clearly seen feathered when close enough. However it is possible that the pterodactyl is actually the pajarantiguo, but not a healthy one. Some individuals are found to be infected with an unknown polypore fungus. The fungus is parasitic and when spores land on the bird, the animal will start showing symptoms like shedding feathers. Ultimately the bird will have lost all its feathers except the tail vane, leaving it flightless. But the fungus’ large reproductive parts grow on its now bare arms. These structures are leathery and bare, as Challenger described the wings of the pterodactyl, and are so large that when the bird jumps it can glide a bit, possibly mistaken for flight. Smaller fungal growths also appear all across the infected birds body. Also written in The Lost World, “From this crawling flapping mass of obscene reptilian life came the shocking clamor which filled the air and the mephitic, horrible, musty odor which turned us sick.” And indeed the fungus produces a foul scent, attracting flies towards it that spread its spores (but the spores can also be wind dispersed). An entire infected flock of these birds may be what Challenger saw, but the exact identity of the pterodactyl may never be known, like the strange bathysphere fish. And fungus-infected specimens are now quite rare, and the man claims to have seen a large colony (though it may have once been more common).