Prehistoric Media Pastiche - A contemporary fictional setting.
Hello again,
Today I will show you a setting I have had in my head for a long time. I have tried a few iterations but only just recently got it right.
The setting is a typical schlocky "Lost World" setting that is typical of so many pieces of media featuring prehistoric fauna. I took influence from a lot of them, but foremost in my mind were "Land of the Lost" and Pellucidar.
The setting features many typical known dinosaurs and prehistoric fauna, coexisting on an earth-like planet, alongside humans, both primitive and civilized. My rationale is that it's much like "The Land of the Lost", anomalous holes in time open and close here, connecting it to earth during the past and present. This has, over millions of years, allowed many creatures and civilizations to establish there. In this time, many species have remained almost the same due to genetic drift from these holes, but numerous fictional creatures and races exist, that have evolved to exploit this new land.
I have not drawn every creature involved, because many typical ones simply look as they do in contemporary, accurate portrayals. The full list of fauna and civilizations is here:
https://www.deviantart.com/boverisuchus/art/My-Prehistoric-Setting-884965025
I have based a lot of these occurrences on the standard tropes and beasts of typical prehistoric fiction.
Now that the setting is set up in your mind, here is the fun bit, I will show you creatures that are unique, ones that evolved in this setting, and exist nowhere else.
Flamboyantly feathered Caenagnathid dinosaur, maybe 4 meters long.
Very tiny Compsognathid, about 27cm long.
Large, nearshore-marine Hupehsuchian ichthyopterygian, an 8-meter long fish-eater that is able to haul out on land.
A sapient race of omnivorous, tool-using Marginocephalian dinosaurs. About 5 feet tall.
Horse-sized, athletic fast-running Hyracodontid rhino, unique in having a horn, and resembling the mythical unicorn.
Small primitive Pterosaur which is a nocturnal sanguiphage, a vampire of large tetrapods, mainly dinosaurs.
3.5 meter long Shuvosaurid, about as tall as a large man.
Large-billed, Kookaburra-like Enantiornithine bird.
Goose-sized, Dodo-like flightless rail.
Leviathanic, 18-meter long macropredatory Thalattosuchian.
5 and a half foot tall, lizardman-like Poposaurid sapient.
2.5 meter-long, herbivorous beaked Troodontid, having defensive quills and a keratinous pygostyle-like "thagomizer".
Spacefaring "Alien Astronaut" which sometimes occupy and visit this planet, which has a completely alien body-plan.
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16-meter long, dinosauric alien livestock, both domestic and feral.
Tree-sloth-like theropod, which lives in the treetops feeding on leaves and fruit.
Rhinoceros-sized, slurpasaur-like horned armadillo.
Capuchin-sized, bat-winged monkey, feeding on fruit and insects.
Near-shore and lagoon-dwelling "aquatic ape".
Bull-elephant sized primitive Proboscidean, semi-aquatic, resembling Koch's Missourium.
Fair-sized, wallaby-like Macropod, having tusks and cranial horns.
Komodo-dragon sized, Palaeosaniwa-like lizard, able to spit venom defensively and in order to hunt.
9.5 meter long macropredatory ceratopsian, bipedal.
Mahar-like sapient race of Darwinopterus-like pterosaur, feet are analogous to hands, are used to make and operate tools and weapons.
Raccoon-like invasive alien creature, former pets of the "alien astronauts".
A 3.5 meter long primitive Ceratopsian, which reproduces as prodigiously as a pigeon, because it rears its young on a a glandular substance similar to pigeon-milk.
Eusocial, swarming species of small Suminia-like Anomodont, having a caste system and building giant woven "hives" out of plant fibers in the crowns of trees.
Fair-sized Coelophysoid having a venomous bite and grooved teeth.
Smallish Hadrosaurid which sprays defensive fluid from an anal gland, like a skunk or even the mythical Bonnacon.
Large species of Ceratopsid resembling the apocryphal genus Agathaumas.
4.3 meter long, well armed basal Thyreophoran, descended from something like Jakapil.
Another bipedal, basal Thyrophoran of the same family, larger, reaching 8.5 meters long.
A draconic, flying Scansoriopterygid, reaching the size of a large pterosaur, wingspan perhaps 7 meters.
Komodo-dragon sized, ornate Agamid lizard having a Hydrosaurus-like sail, chameleon-like horns, and a frill like Chlamydosaurus. A living slurpasaur.
An emu-sized race of sapient paravians, descended from troodontid ancestors. A "Dinosauroid".
Large marine Isopod, a parasite of big marine reptiles.
A smallish Stegosaur, which possesses scales, armor and plumes which are both fluorescent and iridescent.
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Update August 2024
I recently revised this setting into a more expansive list that embraces the idea of this game as a whole world, that you might find in a novel series or open-world-style videogame. In doing that I edited the list, included more plants for utilitarian purposes and set-dressing as well as adding many more invertebrates, insects and fish for mostly the same reason.
I also decided at this point to add some more speculative creatures, some of which were transferred and re-drawn from older or aborted projects, others added here were in the list before, but I only illustrated them just now.
A long-jawed, raptorial cave-cricket.
A small, seahorse-like Placoderm.
15-meter-long, frilled oceanic deep-diving Trematosaur amphibian. Based partly on the idea of sea serpents being giant newts.
An armored giant Amphisbaenian, shaped partly like Bipes, that burrows in order to feed on termites.
A lizard-sized, colorful-plumed Protorosaur.
A kangaroo-shaped, beaked, turkey-sized hopping Dinosauromorph, related to Lagerpeton and Marasuchus.
A robust, burrowing badger-esque Noasaurid.
Manatee-like aquatic grazing Psittacosaur.
A dwarf, short-tailed swimming Nodosaur taking the niche of a snapping turtle.
A long-snouted Dicobunid the size of a goat, which squirts noxious defensive fluid from its pre-orbital gland.
Flightless, stalking and wading Azdharchid.
A giant, 1.5 meter long predatory Ottoiid worm, found burrowing in estuaries, river mouths and shallow coastal waters.
A relatively tiny, dwarf freshwater-porpoise found in some tropical rivers and estuaries, it reaches only about 76 centimeters long.
A 45-centimetre-long stem-species of snake, somewhat resembling the original 4-legged "missing link" between snakes and lizards. Unlike the most primitive snake, this species is larger and a somewhat more active predator. It is able to burrow, swim and crawl fairly swiftly.
A smallish, oxpecker-like bird that feeds by picking parasites from various large herbivorous dinosaurs, as well as by picking at scabs and orifices much like a real oxpecker. Another member of the same genus is broadly similar except for feeding mainly from big meat-eaters, including picking between their teeth.
This is an idea I decided to add recently, it is based loosely on schlocky horror movie monsters such as Poseidon Rex and Dinoshark. This is a 10-meter-long marine descendant of Spinosaurids that lives mainly in near-shore waters, much like a shark. It is a generalist predator with teeth that have a cutting edge, it will prey on fish, sharks, cephalopods and the young of marine reptiles.
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So that's it, be sure to check the link at the top of the page which leads to the list that outlines the setting, in order to see what other stuff I added.
I have hammered out most of this setting. If I add other species, or draw more fictional kinds, I will add them here, updating this entry. I may eventually make maps to go with it, too.
All images, designs and writing on this blog are the property of Timothy Donald Morris, do not use, reproduce, or copy them without my permission.
© Timothy Donald Morris 2022-2024
© Timothy Donald Morris 2022-2024
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