Favorite Prehistoric Creatures?

[Uatu]

So, Dinonykos's module is chock-full of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures (I think) ...but what are your favorite prehistoric creatures? AD&D has a whole bunch of them (especially dinosaurs), and it would be fun to add these to our mods...

Among the prehistoric animals that were included in 1e AD&D:

Dinosaurs (lots of them! Too many to name...)
Prehistoric mammals (titanothere, baluchitherium, hyenadon, smilodon, mammoth, mastodon, irish deer, cave bear, etc.)
Prehistoric birds (axe beak)
Prehistoric reptiles (elasmosaur, etc.)

[Dinonykos]

Originally Posted by Uatu So, Dinonykos's module is chock-full of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures (I think)

That's not the case... but most of the creatures in my design are specific to the storyline of the adventure, so I won't post them until the design is out.

Originally Posted by Uatu ...but what are your favorite prehistoric creatures? AD&D has a whole bunch of them (especially dinosaurs), and it would be fun to add these to our mods...

I don't know what AD&D has to offer, but I like
- marine arthropods of all epochs
- therapsids and pelycosaurs
- all the mammals you mentioned... There should definetely be more mammals from the whole Tertiary in literature, movies and games!!! Giant sloths, glyptodons and certainly CARNIVOROUS KANGAROOS!

[Arcalian]

Myself, I always wanted to see a Dinosaur vs Dragon battle. Our (by now scientifically outdated) notion of T Rex vs, say, a Red Dragon....

[Dinonykos]

Originally Posted by Arcalian Myself, I always wanted to see a Dinosaur vs Dragon battle.

Ah... I always thought dragons WERE dinosaurs (with secondary hexapody)...

[Uatu]

Hexapody? I tried looking up this term on Google, but I can't find it...

Well, let's list the prehistoric animals in the Monster Manual, Monster Manual II, and Fiend Folio (actually, none in the latter I can find) then...

Axe Beak
Baluchitherium
Bear, Cave
Dinosaur, Anatosaurus (Trachodon)
Dinosaur, Ankylosaurus
Dinosaur, Antrodemus (Allosaurus)
Dinosaur, Apatosaurus (Brontosaurus)
Dinosaur, Archelon Ischyryas
Dinosaur, Brachiosaurus
Dinosaur, Camarasaurus
Dinosaur, Ceratosaurus
Dinosaur, Cetiosaurus
Dinosaur, Dinichtys
Dinosaur, Diplodocus
Dinosaur, Elasmosaurus
Dinosaur, Gorgosaurus
Dinosaur, Iguanodon
Dinosaur, Lambeosaurus
Dinosaur, Megalosaurus
Dinosaur, Monoclonius
Dinosaur, Mosasaurus
Dinosaur, Paleoscincus
Dinosaur, Pentaceratops
Dinosaur, Plateosaurus
Dinosaur, Plesiosaurus
Dinosaur, Pteranodon
Dinosaur, Stegosaurus
Dinosaur, Styracosaurus
Dinosaur, Teratosaurus
Dinosaur, Triceratops
Dinosaur, Tyrannosaurus Rex
Hyena, Giant (Hyaenodon)
Irish Deer
Mammoth
Mastodon
Rhinoceros, Woolly
Shark, Giant (Megalodon)
Tiger, Sabre-Tooth (Smilodon)
Titanothere
Wolf, Dire

Dinosaur, Ankisaurus
Dinosaur, Camptosaurus
Dinosaur, Compsognathus
Dinosaur, Dacentrurus
Dinosaur, Deinonychus
Dinosaur, Dilophosaurus
Dinosaur, Dimetrodon
Dinosaur, Euparkeria
Dinosaur, Kentrosaurus
Dinosaur, Mamenchisaurus
Dinosaur, Massopondylus
Dinosaur, Nothosaurus
Dinosaur, Ornitholestes
Dinosaur, Phororhacos
Dinosaur, Podokesaurus
Dinosaur, Pterosaur, Giant
Dinosaur, Struthiomimus
Dinosaur, Tanystropheus
Dinosaur, Tennodontosaurus

Hmm - unfortunately, I don't see any glyptodonts, giant sloths, or carnivorous kangaroos here, not to mention any marine arthropods... Perhaps we can take any of the various "giant" creatures (giant crayfish, giant marine spider, etc.), though, and find the most similar prehistoric actual variant out there...

The dinosaur lists are quite extensive (for a monster manual), but not everything in there is actually dinosaur Do you see any therapsids or pelycosaurs in there? (I defer to your far greater knowledge in this area... )

[Uatu]

Another interesting thing of doing possible icons/pictures for DC of dinosaurs is that our knowledge of those creatures has changed significantly since the time when the MM and MMII were written... So we would have to design these icons faithfully, adding hair to some, feathers to others, changing stances, etc....

[Uatu]

Oh - and I noticed Phororhacos in the MMII list there ... Not sure what axe beak is supposed to be then (it does state that it was a prehistoric creature, though)...

[Dinonykos]

Axe Beak may be a Diatryma/Gastornis. Not sure... I have seen a homepage where it was put to the cocatrices...

Originally Posted by Uatu Hexapody? I tried looking up this term on Google, but I can't find it...

I see... Strange... The word is definitely used in english publications. I meant the additional pair of limbs in dragons, making them theoretically "six-legged".

Originally Posted by Uatu Hmm - unfortunately, I don't see any glyptodonts, giant sloths, or carnivorous kangaroos here, not to mention any marine arthropods... Perhaps we can take any of the various "giant" creatures (giant crayfish, giant marine spider, etc.), though, and find the most similar prehistoric actual variant out there... The dinosaur lists are quite extensive (for a monster manual), but not everything in there is actually dinosaur Do you see any therapsids or pelycosaurs in there? (I defer to your far greater knowledge in this area... )

Let's see...

Baluchitherium (is generally named Paraceratherium today), that's certainly something you want to see in any design with prehestoric mammals, since it equals small sauropods in size.

Archelon ischyryas: Should be a giant turtle, not a dinosaur

Dinichtys: This is certainly a fish (also named Dunkleosteus), and a rather cool one! That's certainly something for Uatu's oceans!!! In older books on vertebrate evolution, you may quite often see him hunting our ancestors, the Coelacants, out of the water...

Elasmosaurus: A sauropterygian, no dinosaur...

Dinosaur, Paleoscincus: I like this one!
Dinosaur, Pentaceratops: This one is also cool!

Plesiosaurus: sauropterygian

Pteranodon: Interestingly, "Giant Pterosaur" is also seperately mentioned below. Well, certainly, there are further giant pterosaurs like Quetzalcoathlus...

Hyena, Giant (Hyaenodon): I don't want to sound like a know-it-all , but there are Giant Hyaenas (e.g. Pachycrocuta brevirostris), which are extinct hyaenas, and there are Hyaenodonts, which, although carnivorous, don't even belong to the order Carnivora... They are well known to have the biggest carnivorous mammals among their ranks (e.g. Megistotherium).

Shark, Giant (Megalodon): Uatu has a great icon of this one, right?

Ankisaurus: don't know that, Anchisaurus perhaps?
Dimetrodon is a pelycosaur
Massopondylus: Massospondylus (?)
Nothosaurus is a sauropterygian
Phororhacos (or Phorusrhacos): This is called a dinosaur? Strange... lived at least 45 million years after the cretaceous...
Pterosaur, Giant: In comparison to the detailled list of dinosaurs, it's interesting that they use such a term...
Tanystropheus: Is no dinosaur, but at least an archosaur

I understand about the giant carnivorous kangaroos, but with this detailled list of dinosaurs, it is strange that they have not included more mammals like the sloths or the glyptodonts. A shame...

[Uatu]

Hmm - guess they should have changed the heading "dinosaur" to "prehistoric animal!" I think I will be doing a barichitherium (paraceratherium) icon soon, then - seems a nice addition to a DC mod!

Dinichtys is definitely cool, but I am having some trouble understanding exactly what it looked like - depictions seem to contradict each other (how thick was the skin on its facial bone plates?).

Phororhacos - was Gygax being prescient and listing birds with dinosaurs back in the day already?

Giant Pteranodon - yeah, seems a bit redundant (and nonspecific) compared to the rest of the list... Although there are spelling errors abound, apparently

It IS a bit sad that not so many prehistoric mammals were included in the Monster Manuals - perhaps some other supplements had more (I will do some searching, but I am not too hopeful ).

[Uatu]

One other thing we could do, now that you mention the hyaenodon's different lineage, is to use specific prehistoric animals for "giant" versions of animals in the Monster Manuals, i.e.:

Ant, Giant
Badger, Giant
Crayfish, Giant
Crab, Giant
Crocodile, Giant
Eel, Giant
Gar, Giant
Octopus, Giant
Owl, Giant
Pike, Giant
Ram, Giant
Rat, Giant (Sumatran)
Scorpion, Giant
Sea Horse, Giant
Skunk, Giant
Slug, Giant
Stag, Giant
Toad, Giant
Turtle, Sea, Giant
Turtle, Snapping, Giant
Weasel, Giant
Crane, Giant
Dragonfly, Giant
Mantis, Giant
Raven, Giant
Solifugid, Giant
Vulture, Giant

...of course, not all of these are suitable for conversion (some have still-extant versions that would be fine while others are just too much of a stretch)...

Also, Megalodon - ha ha, actually I will have to go and fix that one of these days... Wish we knew what color those things were (as of now it is just the same colors as its closest living relative, the Great White Shark).