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RickRaptor105 — WWB - Planet of the Primates
#anthropophagus #dinofelis #habilis #hippopotamus #homo #sivatherium #crocodylus #deinotherium #gorgops #pachycrocuta #paranthropus #boisei #pelorovis #bozasi #theropithecus #oldowayensis #brevirostris #oswaldi #piveteaui #maurusium #throbjarnarsoni
Published: 2016-09-24 19:34:31 +0000 UTC; Views: 23644; Favourites: 144; Downloads: 60
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Description
The fifth episode of my own Walking with Beasts is about our African hominid ancestors, because this is another must-have of every Cenozoic documentary. While the original episode was about Australopithecus afarensis in Aethiopia, 3.4 million years ago, I selected the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, 2 million years ago (earliest Pleistocene), so this still counts as a new setting
Homo habilis: A 1.2 meter tall omnivorous adaptable hominid. I wanted to feature a creature that is already a little bit closer to humans than Australopithecus. Traced over this reconstruction from the Encyclopedia Britannica: media1.britannica.com/eb-media…
Paranthropus boisei: A 1.4 meter tall hominid specialized to eat tough plants. Paranthropus boisei serves as an example of the diversity of hominids. Traced over ´s reconstruction: www.deviantart.com/art/Paranth…
Theropithecus oswaldi: A 2 meter long plant-eating baboon from the same genus as the modern gelada. Their diet is 90 % grass, but due to their size and aggressiveness they can still be dangerous for our ancestors. Traced over a reconstruction by Mauricio Antón, but fur changed to look more like the modern gelada. anth.la.psu.edu/research/jablo…
Dinofelis piveteaui: A 1.5 meter long sabertoothed cat that hunts easy prey like our ancestors. Traced over ´s reconstruction: prehistoric-fauna.com/Dinofeli…
Pachycrocuta brevirostris: A 1.5 meter long powerful hyaena that hunts in packs. While our ancestors are easy snacks, these hyaenas prefer the common ungulates in their environment. Traced over a reconstruction by Mauricio Antón: s255.photobucket.com/user/Fran…
Crocodylus anthropophagus: A 7.5 meter long crocodile that feeds on anything it can clam its jaws onto. Despite its name it is not specialized to eat hominids, our ancestors are just snacks to this monster.
Hippopotamus gorgops: A 4.3 meter long hippopotamus that only differs from the modern species in its size and the location of its eyes. The most dangerous animal at the water. Traced over ´s reconstruction: prehistoric-fauna.com/Hippopot…
Sivatherium maurusium: A robust giraffid with a shoulder height of 2.2 meters. The African Sivatherium used to be known as Libytherium. Traced over ´s reconstruction: www.deviantart.com/art/Sivathe…
Pelorovis oldowayensis: A 3 meter long bovid with long horns. Traced over ´s reconstruction: rom-u.deviantart.com/art/Pelor…
Deinotherium bozasi: Another proboscidean whose type species is from Germany. Deinotherium had its heyday in the Miocene, Africa is where the last species existed. With a shoulder height of more than 4 meters it is among the biggest mammals that ever walked the earth. Traced over ´s reconstruction: romanyevseyev.deviantart.com/a…
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Comments: 39
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Wasn’t Pachycrocuta like Dinocrocuta, but more slender and larger?
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Pachycrocuta is just a large hyena. Dinocrocuta is bigger and not a true hyena, it's essentially the feliform version of a bear dog.
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Right. I looked on Prehistoric Fauna AND Wikipedia. You actually ARE correct. Although it did probably reach sizes of 2m long and 120cm+ tall, the average was closer to what you said. In the desc. 110-115cm is what the average looks like, and the length was a fair bit longer than what the desc said; 1.7m long. Basically, I wasted a ton of time forming an argument.
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Around 2m long and 1.2m tall?
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Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!
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Isn't 2 million years ago now Pleistocene, IIRC they moved the beginning of the Pleistocene to around 2.5 MYA?
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Well great, I fell into the very "no more than one setting per epoch" trap I wanted to avoid.
The Pliocene itself isn´t that remarkable, anyway.
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''The Pliocene itself isn´t that remarkable, anyway''
You said it bro lol
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Ah fair enough, was gonna say that this is probably my favourite setting you've done so far anyway so I'm fine with it as it is. XD
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Nice!
However, didn't Dinofelis prefer hoofed mammals over primates?
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Even if it did, at least one felid was preying on archaic hominins in the Pliocene.
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Doesn´t matter, easy prey is easy prey.
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Oooh, let me guess. . . maybe you're going to throw a curveball and have the last one take place in the modern day.
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That would be awesome, especially if extinct megafauna are included.
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But speculating on what the world would be like today if these animals had not been killed off is nothing more than fiction, because the fact remains that in real life these animals no longer exist. If the aim of a documentary is to show what the world was like before these animals went extinct, then it would make more sense to avoid any unnecessary speculation and instead set it during a time when they did still exist.
This isn't to say that the Pleistocene megafauna don't "belong" in modern ecosystems, but rather that for the purposes of a documentary--which is what RickRaptor105 is trying to put together-- it's best to show places and events that actually happened.
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The WWD, WWM and WWB series are always going to involve speculation, even if we make it as accurate as possible.
Since the current reality is the inaccurate version, why not just make an accurate fictional version?
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what do You mean the current reality is inaccurate? accurate fictional version?
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Not the way things should be running
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I'm not sure I get it.
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A man-sized baboon vs. dinofelis? This would be serious.
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Bit of a long trunk for Deinotherium. Any reason for disagreeing with Markov et al., or did you just want to not deviate from your traces?
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I think Deinotherium did have a long trunk, but I only think that because ut doesn't seem physically possible for it to drink otherwise.
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I'm not a functional anatomist, but considering the range of motion and length in Deinotherium's neck I think it would drink just fine. See giraffes.
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After examination of several restoration, I get your point. I still think it's trunk is always depicted a little too short. BUT ONLY A LITTLE.
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True.
Markov said that Deinotherium had a small trunk because it didn't have marks that indicated big trunks muscles were attached to its skull, right?
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Effectively: 'As already pointed out by Tarabukin (1974), the deinothere skull provides no sufficient insertion surface for a typical elephantine proboscis. The large, more or less horizontally positioned premaxillae would be a hindrance rather than help to an operating cylindrical trunk.'
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Ok.
Just to point this out (can't remember where I saw this), but elephants don't actually have the marks that indicate that they have trunks on their skulls, as those connect to other trunk muscles.
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Not to sound condescending, but you might want to reread the quote, unless you are just making a statement.
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Yeah, that was condescending. Sorry.
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I feel like a certain trunk length is needed so this animal can drink water and pick up food.
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Deinotheroids had long-enough necks, with a greater range of motion than modern elephants.
Wasn't Deinotherium a browser, not a grazer?
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Didn't expect a walking with caveman creature (or two). Good job.
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