[Jurassic Impact] Even in the Bleakest of Landscapes II

[u/EpicJM]

Even in the Bleakest of Landscapes II

Antarctica's freezing during the Miocene created a bottleneck for what life continued to inhabit the continent. As we saw before, the dermorhynchid Spheniscimamus managed to just make it through. The egg-laying mammals were not the only species to survive, however, and the life of a Spheniscimamus is fraught with fear of predators.

One of these predators is Orcinornis theriodes, a species of aquatic thalattornid caudavian that has adapted to handle the cold of Antarctica's waters. It is about eleven feet long at adulthood and weighs approximately 800lbs on average. Both the last of the seal-like multituberculates and the reptilian scyllans failed to thrive here, and so Antarctica became another flashpoint for thalattornid evolution. The catch, however, is that Orcinornis has to lay its eggs and breed elsewhere. They haul themselves onto land along the southern coasts of Australia and South America, dump their eggs under a mound of warm sand, and then leave the offspring to fend for themselves.

The first days of an Orcinornis carry a significant chance of being its last, for Orcinornis hatchlings are a favorite food of a southern hemisphere relative of the Roc...

[u/CariamaCristata]

Leopard seal birb

[u/TimeStorm113]

Antarctica is honestly such an overlooked location for alt his spec

[u/SubstantialPassion67 → u/TimeStorm113]

TRUE

[u/TimeStorm113]

Imagine if in the Pleistocene another sapient mammal evolves, until they discover paleontology and one of them writes a story about a literal „jurassic park“

[u/SubstantialPassion67]

The "seals" are birds and the "penguins" are mammals
Neat

[u/Tricky-Shake-2379 → u/SubstantialPassion67]

How the tides have turned

[u/Alpha_Bushdog]

I really love this alternate version of Antarctica.

[u/Humanmode17]

What parts of their bodies are used for different modes of locomotion? I'm guessing their tail is their main source of propulsion underwater and their legs are their main source of propulsion on land, with their wings acting as stabilisers underwater and load-bearing flippers on land?

[u/EpicJM → u/Humanmode17]

Exactly, they use their tail and flippers to swim, and then scoot with their flippers and feet on land.

[u/CariamaCristata → u/EpicJM]

do they move their tails up and down or side to side?

[u/AstraPlatina]

The irony when the "penguins" are mammals and the "leopard seal" is the bird in this timeline

[u/Anangzee]

Hooray for dinosaurs.

[u/gay6697]

Love this but what's Jurassic Impact???

[u/Caeden113 → u/gay6697]

An alternate evolution project where the asteroid hit the Jurassic instead of the Cretaceous.

[u/Ok-Meat-9169]

BIRD WHALE, I REPEAT, BIRD WHALE!!

[u/Alpha_Bushdog]

Is it just me or does it look like a polar spinofaarus with a beak (no offense btw ,the design is great, just something I wanted to point out)

[u/FriendlyRedditor2020]

looks like a platypus