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Dragonthunders — The Redesigned Dinosaurs, Hall of the Titans

Published: 2018-09-26 16:42:46 +0000 UTC; Views: 26245; Favourites: 468; Downloads: 92
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Description In the TND timeline sauropods still stand out as the magnificent herbivorous giants that were held in their niches for another 65 million years, however, due to the cooling of the planet they became limited in range, being forced to live only in the tropical areas of South America, Africa, parts of South Asia and several surrounding islands with Titanosaurs being the last existing sauropods clade. Before the changes these have evolved in varied ways, from the most generic ones that did not change much to the strange and stubby short legged forms with armor or trunks.
In this redesign I had to update them according to the anatomy of the current sauropods, from minor changes such as the shape and morphology of the leg as  big changes like the whole body, but preserving some appearance and features of the originals with a more plausible approach.

a) Titanosaur: the original design could be said to be one of the few that has aged more or less well from the book, with an aspect not as derivative as the rest, however this still presents certain anatomical errors for a sauropod that required changes as updates of its design, among them was the modification of the shape of the body, with a less vertical neck and more inclined in conjunction with its back, front legs without claws, limb size adjustment, a lower but straight tail and more lifted off the ground.

b) Dwarf Titanosaur: this animal descendant of the continental giants is an example of the result of living on islands where the lack of sufficient resources to maintain large bodies are scarce, suffering from island dwarfism. The morphology of this is quite different from that of the continental titanosaur, with a more vintage-lookin body, being stubby with short legs and a neck that stand up like the one of a swan from the low base of the body, although it has a slightly raised head.
The new design that I did completely modified this aspect, giving it the conventional look of the titanosaurs, although with its own characteristics: medium length body, short legs, and a small and rounded head, and keeping the dwarfism due to their limited resources.

Note: although the silhouette of this one appears over Madagascar this inhabits one of the islands in the region.

c) Lumber: this sauropod is the largest terrestrial animal on the planet, with a length of 25 meters, its original design is of a rather plump, barrel-shaped creature, quite short legs, and with tail and neck almost near the ground, and in his face he has developed a short trunk that helps him take the grass. The redesign is complete removing the chubby and short, with a shape more consistent with the current reconstructions, however, maintaining its horizontal position as this is a grazing and its huge size, keeping it even as the largest land animal. Because the musculature of sauropods as far I know was incapable of form a trunk, I changed it for an ornamental structure of folds around the nose that can expand like a bladder.

d) Turtosaur: an high armored sauropod , this species evolved an heavily covered body to deal with the recent wave of new predators that migrated from the north, its head is remarkably covered by a shell, with a soft texture and boxlike shape and with two long triangular paddles in each side of the head; then it follows its neck that is covered to a series of ring plates, being followed by the one piece body armour similar to a Glyptodon and finishing with more ring plates in all the tail. In the redesign of this I retired the more mammalian look of armor and changed it to a more plausible type of defense in design and that already had several sauropodos, just it more, evolving almost convergently to those of the Ankylosaurs: rows of osteoderms and plates that they cover the entire upper part of the body to the tail, the head being less smooth and angled, and showing varied marks of the scales and plates. Due to the very heavy armour thishas more robust and short legs.

e) Graceful Sauropod (extinct): this species appears briefly on the left side of the page of the South American sauropods, with a small image of its skeleton and a description of its clade explaining that they resulted from several small forms that emerged during the Cretaceous and that were in this tendency until lightweight forms emerged, able to run gracefully through the pampas. I did nothing but modify it according to the current sauropod reconstructions, giving it a shorter neck compared to the skeleton in the image due to balance issues, and longer legs.

f) Rajaphant: this sauropod that evolved from the populations of Indian sauropods that had been isolated for millions of years until the sub-continent collided with Asia, it is characterized by being a very social sauropod, living in herds where they take care of the young, is also a more generalist herbivore unlike other species from other continents, as it is able to feed on both the foliage of the trees and the grass of the ground, being able to digest it thanks to its huge gizzard that allows it to grind the hard plant material and convert it into a digestible pulp by gastroliths.
In the redesign I wanted to balance the shape of a sauropod adapted to the lifestyle of an browser with a grazer, so I decided to give it an intermediate look with a straight body but even with an upright neck, and with an equally broad head, this has adapted teeth both to eat the leaves of the treetops and to grab the hard grass of the ground, counting on the gizzard to digest it. Their social habits are still maintained, being able to take care of their young and move in packs, keep the little ones at the center of this.
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Comments: 34

william023 [2024-02-11 22:00:09 +0000 UTC]

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geokk [2021-02-08 23:11:50 +0000 UTC]

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Din0boy1 [2020-08-09 00:45:46 +0000 UTC]

Your sauropods will be passing my speculative evolution contest

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SuperSpartanPikachu [2020-06-11 21:34:35 +0000 UTC]

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Dragonthunders In reply to SuperSpartanPikachu [2020-06-12 17:58:05 +0000 UTC]

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Dylan613 [2019-10-18 21:15:18 +0000 UTC]

Hidden by Commenter

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Dragonthunders In reply to Dylan613 [2019-10-19 00:25:05 +0000 UTC]

No

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LGJW [2019-03-08 23:50:19 +0000 UTC]

Stupendous work!  You did a very great job with the sauropods!

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Dragonthunders In reply to LGJW [2019-03-09 18:02:34 +0000 UTC]

Thank you

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Heytomemeimhome [2018-12-03 11:35:43 +0000 UTC]

shame you felt the trunk had to go, it was pretty charming, I thought. Again thank you for these.

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Dragonthunders In reply to Heytomemeimhome [2018-12-12 02:56:01 +0000 UTC]

Yeah, obligatoryly I had to do it since the soft tissue of the face on sauropods does not give the possibility of the development of a functional trunk

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Theriaetos [2018-10-08 23:43:43 +0000 UTC]

Am I the only one who thinks the graceful sauropod looks like Arlo from Pixar's The Good Dinosaur?

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minmi96 [2018-10-04 09:46:43 +0000 UTC]

Really amazing!

I hope you draw the other Dinosaurs and Animals from this Book.

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Dragonthunders In reply to minmi96 [2018-10-05 17:29:29 +0000 UTC]

Thank you and I will

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Gorgomoloch [2018-09-27 23:51:25 +0000 UTC]

Once again, fantastic!

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Dragonthunders In reply to Gorgomoloch [2018-09-28 13:28:06 +0000 UTC]

Thank you

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Gorgomoloch In reply to Dragonthunders [2018-09-28 20:41:00 +0000 UTC]

You're welcome

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Giatleclerc [2018-09-27 14:49:00 +0000 UTC]

<3 <3 <3

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IJGarza [2018-09-27 13:13:43 +0000 UTC]

Very fascinating

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Dragonthunders In reply to IJGarza [2018-09-27 15:02:10 +0000 UTC]

Thank you

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Dinosaurlover83 [2018-09-27 03:56:32 +0000 UTC]

Beautiful.

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Dragonthunders In reply to Dinosaurlover83 [2018-09-27 15:02:18 +0000 UTC]

Thanks

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ghaztmaster2 [2018-09-26 22:59:13 +0000 UTC]

Can’t wait for the two thumbed owl creature.

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malevouvenator [2018-09-26 22:58:12 +0000 UTC]

Cuando no hay suficiente thicc xD

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Dragonthunders In reply to malevouvenator [2018-09-27 15:02:30 +0000 UTC]

Hahaha

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Akradin [2018-09-26 22:34:04 +0000 UTC]

Great Work.

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Dragonthunders In reply to Akradin [2018-09-27 15:02:37 +0000 UTC]

Thank you

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AmineGherensi [2018-09-26 21:32:21 +0000 UTC]

The Graceful Sauropod is a very interesting concept. Had they survived in Dixon's world, would it be unreasonable for them to develop a carnivorous descendant. It would be terrifying to see a pack of carnivorous sauropods causing you.

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Sporedude135 [2018-09-26 21:19:45 +0000 UTC]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH Yes...

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Taliesaurus [2018-09-26 21:19:34 +0000 UTC]

nice work, I look foreward to the next one.

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Dragonthunders In reply to Taliesaurus [2018-09-27 15:02:48 +0000 UTC]

Thanks

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Taliesaurus In reply to Dragonthunders [2018-09-27 15:04:59 +0000 UTC]

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bhut [2018-09-26 19:16:32 +0000 UTC]

I think that they are from Dixon's 'New dinosaurs'?

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Dragonthunders In reply to bhut [2018-09-27 15:02:55 +0000 UTC]

yes

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Taliesaurus In reply to bhut [2018-09-26 21:17:58 +0000 UTC]

that's them

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