- Location
- Tarn-Vedra
[X] The First Extinction
Lords of the Lost World: A Jurassic Park dinosaur Quest
- Thread starter TheLordofAwesome
- Start date
- Sci-Fi
- Location
- Should be a bit higher
[X] The First Extinction
Since there's already momentum thata way...
Since there's already momentum thata way...
- Location
- Washington
*knowing smile & sinister chuckle*
- Location
- Sydney
[X] The First Extinction
AnimalKrazed
Caw Caw!
- Location
- Above You
[X] The Sea of Monsters (Expires January, 1994 - Week 4)
Night_stalker
Slava Ukraini!
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] The First Extinction
KnightDisciple
Brotherhood. Unity. Peace.
- Location
- Midwest, USA
[X] The First Extinction
Event Interlude: The First Extinction
- Location
- Washington
The Struthiomimus peered through the brush cautiously, looking from side to side from its hiding spot. Slowly it crept out, its claws fidgeting as its head twitched from side to side. The dinosaurs was wandering into the unfamiliar territory of the Deep Channel and the new sights and smells were putting it on edge. It warbled and squawked out to attract the attention of any of its kind that might be around, but no response came. As things were, it was the very last of its kind on all of Isla Sorna.
Originally, InGen had bred a total of four Struthiomimus before the storm had came and ravaged the island. More had been intended as they displayed the same flocking instincts as their cousins the Gallimimus and were to be put on display for Jurassic Park: Europe along with several other dinosaurs such as the Acrocanthosaurus and Iguanodon. But with the island's research station having been abandoned in the company's haste to leave before the storm struck this never came to be.
Named Boreas, Eurus, Notus, and Zephyrus, the four dinosaurs had difficulties adjusting to the new world they found themselves in.
Eurus died of malnutrition following the storm
Zephyrus was crushed to death under the foot of a Camarasaurus when she was sleeping.
And more recently, Boreas had been killed and partially eaten by an Acrocanthosaurus.
Now there was just Notus — the sole remaining Struthiomimus in existence, unaware that she was now the last of her kind in this hostile lost world.
She paced near the edge of the water way nervously, her head looking occasionally to the distance where a Baryonyx stood in the shallow water, its head snapping into the cool, dark water to capture fish into its crocodile-like jaws. Fortunately the predator had not noticed Notus from this long distance, but even if it did it would not care as the fish of the river were far more important to the predator. Still, the presence of a large predator, regardless of how distance, made the smaller herbivore anxious.
Carefully Notus drew closer to the water and dipped her head down to drink from it, the coolness of it washing over her tongue. Periodically she looked in the direction of the Baryonyx in the distance as it continued to hunt for the fish within the river. So concerned by the distant predator she failed to notice the large log that had appeared in the water and was slowly drifting towards her.
She drank more water.
The Baryonyx had stopped fishing. It looked around and seemed to have spot something in the water.
Notus froze.
The log was getting close.
The Baryonyx made a grunting sound, loud enough that Notus could hear it.
The log was getting closer.
The Baryonyx turned around and waded through the water to return to the land.
Notus' head shot up, looking in the direction of the predator. her body was still and unmoving as she carefully watch the movements of the large predator.
The log was closer.
The Baryonyx roared, the sound terrified the Struthiomimus and her primitive instincts told her to run but she stood there watching. Eventually the predator wandering away from the edge of the river and into the jungles, out of sight as it continued to roar.
Notus began to relax but was still alert and cautious of the potential dangers of the area. Slowly she moved her head back down towards the water to sate her thirst, just as the log-
The Sarcosuchus made its attack, its jaws wide open as the startled Struthiomimus squawked in horror. Notus tried to move away but it was far too late. The jaws of the prehistoric snapped shut around the terrified Struthiomimus, her panicked squawks becoming those of pain. The Sarcosuchus retched its head back towards the water, carrying Notus with it as she futilely tried to trash and escape its crushing grip. The large prehistoric reptile dove beneath the water with a thunderous splash with the struggling and dying prey with it.
Soon both it and Notus — the last Struthiomimus on the island — vanished under the water. The only remnant of their existence being the blood and the signs of struggle in the mud by the river.
Originally, InGen had bred a total of four Struthiomimus before the storm had came and ravaged the island. More had been intended as they displayed the same flocking instincts as their cousins the Gallimimus and were to be put on display for Jurassic Park: Europe along with several other dinosaurs such as the Acrocanthosaurus and Iguanodon. But with the island's research station having been abandoned in the company's haste to leave before the storm struck this never came to be.
Named Boreas, Eurus, Notus, and Zephyrus, the four dinosaurs had difficulties adjusting to the new world they found themselves in.
Eurus died of malnutrition following the storm
Zephyrus was crushed to death under the foot of a Camarasaurus when she was sleeping.
And more recently, Boreas had been killed and partially eaten by an Acrocanthosaurus.
Now there was just Notus — the sole remaining Struthiomimus in existence, unaware that she was now the last of her kind in this hostile lost world.
She paced near the edge of the water way nervously, her head looking occasionally to the distance where a Baryonyx stood in the shallow water, its head snapping into the cool, dark water to capture fish into its crocodile-like jaws. Fortunately the predator had not noticed Notus from this long distance, but even if it did it would not care as the fish of the river were far more important to the predator. Still, the presence of a large predator, regardless of how distance, made the smaller herbivore anxious.
Carefully Notus drew closer to the water and dipped her head down to drink from it, the coolness of it washing over her tongue. Periodically she looked in the direction of the Baryonyx in the distance as it continued to hunt for the fish within the river. So concerned by the distant predator she failed to notice the large log that had appeared in the water and was slowly drifting towards her.
She drank more water.
The Baryonyx had stopped fishing. It looked around and seemed to have spot something in the water.
Notus froze.
The log was getting close.
The Baryonyx made a grunting sound, loud enough that Notus could hear it.
The log was getting closer.
The Baryonyx turned around and waded through the water to return to the land.
Notus' head shot up, looking in the direction of the predator. her body was still and unmoving as she carefully watch the movements of the large predator.
The log was closer.
The Baryonyx roared, the sound terrified the Struthiomimus and her primitive instincts told her to run but she stood there watching. Eventually the predator wandering away from the edge of the river and into the jungles, out of sight as it continued to roar.
Notus began to relax but was still alert and cautious of the potential dangers of the area. Slowly she moved her head back down towards the water to sate her thirst, just as the log-
The Sarcosuchus made its attack, its jaws wide open as the startled Struthiomimus squawked in horror. Notus tried to move away but it was far too late. The jaws of the prehistoric snapped shut around the terrified Struthiomimus, her panicked squawks becoming those of pain. The Sarcosuchus retched its head back towards the water, carrying Notus with it as she futilely tried to trash and escape its crushing grip. The large prehistoric reptile dove beneath the water with a thunderous splash with the struggling and dying prey with it.
Soon both it and Notus — the last Struthiomimus on the island — vanished under the water. The only remnant of their existence being the blood and the signs of struggle in the mud by the river.
Struthiomimus Has Gone Extinct on Isla Sorna
- Location
- yorkshire
for a moment I thought that was us
- Location
- Should be a bit higher
RIP Struthiomimus
Life sucks for a small / mid-size herbivore.
Although the one that got trampled by a freaking sauropod in its sleep was a bit more on the tragicomedic side of things.
But yeah...stay away from large bodies of water. Got it.
Life sucks for a small / mid-size herbivore.
Although the one that got trampled by a freaking sauropod in its sleep was a bit more on the tragicomedic side of things.
But yeah...stay away from large bodies of water. Got it.
NaanContributor
Provider of delicious flatbread, and nothing else.
- Location
- Hawaii
When the possibility of Events was brought up as something we could vote for and had time limits for when we could choose them, I assumed that they were supposed to be encounters that involved our PC. I don't really see the point of voting for them under deadlines if they're all going to happen anyway without us being able to do anything to affect them. This is really more of an Interlude, there's no Quest interaction.
Side note, we're doomed to eventually go extinct too barring InGen Intervention, because our species is limited to three females.
Side note, we're doomed to eventually go extinct too barring InGen Intervention, because our species is limited to three females.
- Location
- Washington
Not all of the events are like this. A vast majority of the votable events will be ones that have player interactions, while a small minority of them are like this where they are one off interludes that will have major consequences on the over all game. It just so happen to be that the first vote most people voted for the one that was a one-off.
- Location
- Should be a bit higher
Well I wouldn't say we had nothing to do with this interlude either.
We did eat one of the quartet. If we hadn't even after Notus got nommed it wouldn't have been an extinction event.
We did eat one of the quartet. If we hadn't even after Notus got nommed it wouldn't have been an extinction event.
- Location
- Should be a bit higher
It's easy to get attached to the idea that Sarcosuchus was a merciless destroyer of dinosaurs of all sizes that dared to come down to its domain in order to sneak a drink.
It was certainly big and strong enough as a mature adult to challenge most things in its environment but it was actually far more adapted to be predominantly a fish hunter. Remember that the fish fauna in its Northern African environment was incredibly rich. We're talking about sedan size lungfish and bichirs, giant migratory sawfish, and truck size coelacanths. This was the same fish fauna that fed an entire lineage of large wading therapods that climaxed in Spinosaurus. Where we now think the Spinosaurids kept to the shallows close to shore, Sarcosuchus could have easily dominated the deeper waters.
Sarcosuchus' head / jaws were a little more on the long and narrow side of the crocodylomorph body plan. The shape of the jaws is a a strong indicator of what a crocodylomorph ate. A short, broad, shovel shaped jaws such as that of the modern alligators and caimans, the Deinosuchus, and the Purussaurus indicate a diet of hard things like snails, crustaceans, and turtles that are easy to snatch up but needs extra bite force and leverage to puncture and crush. Long narrow jaws like of the gharial slips through water very quickly and offers lots of surface area for contact with slippery, fast swimming fish. Big game hunters like Nile, mugger, and salt water crocodiles have triangular head/snout that's a compromise between length and width, surface area to bite onto fleeing prey versus strength to hold and crush. Sarcosuchus had a relatively longer and narrower snout than the big game hunters. There's actually a distinct tapering in its jaw width towards the snout. In younger animals this strongly resembles the modern gharial. In the really big mature specimens the jaws get very broad and strong near the back but that's still sort of a awkward configuration for attacking large land prey. Another instance of age determined form plasticity at work.
Sarcosuchus jaws also displayed a very strong overbite. The upper jaw was quite a bit longer than the lower and the tip of it curved downward so that the tip of the lower jaw actually fits behind and under it. This forms a distinct notch in the mouth line of the animal. We see a similar arrangement in the jaws of Spinosaurus, although not as pronounced. This notch probably helps with keeping a grip on small (relatively speaking) struggling, slippery fish. It would have gotten a bit in the way of holding onto large land animals though. We know that based on the shape of its head/jaws that mechanically it was impossible for Sarcosuchus to perform the "Death Roll", so it would have needed an some other way of actually breaking up the carcass of land dinosaurs it killed. What this alternate method was though no one have put forth any suggestions.
Probably only the really big, mature Sarcosuchus' would have went after land bound prey and rarely anything that big. Interestingly something like a Struthiomimus might have been a perfect target and the waterways of a island might not have enough big fish to support an adult Sarcosuchus. But in Cretaceous North Africa, considering everything else in the water that was available for them to eat at the time, there probably wasn't that much of draw for them to the shore. Then again a more generalized diet might have helped them survive longer and get through disasters like droughts.
It was certainly big and strong enough as a mature adult to challenge most things in its environment but it was actually far more adapted to be predominantly a fish hunter. Remember that the fish fauna in its Northern African environment was incredibly rich. We're talking about sedan size lungfish and bichirs, giant migratory sawfish, and truck size coelacanths. This was the same fish fauna that fed an entire lineage of large wading therapods that climaxed in Spinosaurus. Where we now think the Spinosaurids kept to the shallows close to shore, Sarcosuchus could have easily dominated the deeper waters.
Sarcosuchus' head / jaws were a little more on the long and narrow side of the crocodylomorph body plan. The shape of the jaws is a a strong indicator of what a crocodylomorph ate. A short, broad, shovel shaped jaws such as that of the modern alligators and caimans, the Deinosuchus, and the Purussaurus indicate a diet of hard things like snails, crustaceans, and turtles that are easy to snatch up but needs extra bite force and leverage to puncture and crush. Long narrow jaws like of the gharial slips through water very quickly and offers lots of surface area for contact with slippery, fast swimming fish. Big game hunters like Nile, mugger, and salt water crocodiles have triangular head/snout that's a compromise between length and width, surface area to bite onto fleeing prey versus strength to hold and crush. Sarcosuchus had a relatively longer and narrower snout than the big game hunters. There's actually a distinct tapering in its jaw width towards the snout. In younger animals this strongly resembles the modern gharial. In the really big mature specimens the jaws get very broad and strong near the back but that's still sort of a awkward configuration for attacking large land prey. Another instance of age determined form plasticity at work.
Sarcosuchus jaws also displayed a very strong overbite. The upper jaw was quite a bit longer than the lower and the tip of it curved downward so that the tip of the lower jaw actually fits behind and under it. This forms a distinct notch in the mouth line of the animal. We see a similar arrangement in the jaws of Spinosaurus, although not as pronounced. This notch probably helps with keeping a grip on small (relatively speaking) struggling, slippery fish. It would have gotten a bit in the way of holding onto large land animals though. We know that based on the shape of its head/jaws that mechanically it was impossible for Sarcosuchus to perform the "Death Roll", so it would have needed an some other way of actually breaking up the carcass of land dinosaurs it killed. What this alternate method was though no one have put forth any suggestions.
Probably only the really big, mature Sarcosuchus' would have went after land bound prey and rarely anything that big. Interestingly something like a Struthiomimus might have been a perfect target and the waterways of a island might not have enough big fish to support an adult Sarcosuchus. But in Cretaceous North Africa, considering everything else in the water that was available for them to eat at the time, there probably wasn't that much of draw for them to the shore. Then again a more generalized diet might have helped them survive longer and get through disasters like droughts.
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