Ask Ptyra

Ptyra · **Reply #60 on:** July 07, 2010, 09:18:30 PM

I was at the Ft. Worth Museum of Science and History and a saw the model they had. I thought "Wow. I'd LOVE to have a Land Before Time character like that." I thought they were wicked awesome to have in the LBT universe. I decided to change my Mussasaurus character Murel into one named Pala.

I've been trying to work out a picture of her, but her neck and tail are NEVER long enough.

Pangaea · **Reply #61 on:** July 07, 2010, 11:19:31 PM

Is Pala going to be about the same size as Murel was (making her an adolescent), a full-sized adult, or closer to the age of the gang?

Ptyra · **Reply #62 on:** July 08, 2010, 01:36:49 PM

She's full grown, and getting to that "frumpy old lady" stage

Pangaea · **Reply #63 on:** July 17, 2010, 11:30:13 PM

When I get around to reviewing your LBT story, do you want me to bother pointing out text errors like spelling, grammar, and punctuation in addition to the basic "what I thought was good and what I thought could be improved" feedback, or just stick to the latter?

Ptyra · **Reply #64 on:** July 17, 2010, 11:33:41 PM

I would love to stick to the latter, but I would like some grammar checks, since the program I used does not tell me if I made an error in my sentence structure.

Pangaea · **Reply #65 on:** July 19, 2010, 12:48:21 AM

Quote from: Ptyra,Jul 18 2010 on 03:19 PM

I hate having to come up with an "original" dinosaur story. I want to, but it's pretty darn hard. Considering how many Ceratopsians that were in Western America/Montana.

I was just curious: how is the number of ceratopsians a problem for your story?

P.S. If you're looking to find out what kinds of dinosaurs and other organisms inhabited western North America at the end of the Cretaceous, you might find this site helpful. (Let me know if I can provide you with any direct information or help you find and/or translate more sources.)

Ptyra · **Reply #66 on:** July 19, 2010, 01:16:00 AM

Nothing. It just surprised me greatly. I am actually quite amused now. One of the main "issues" was that there were too many interesting species to pick from for main characters.

I have decided that there will be just two lead characters, though. These are a Troodon and a lost baby Pteranodon. I'll have them bump into some Ceratopsians on the way to the sea, or maybe just have some herds in the landscape. But I won't have anyone stick around.

I'm trying to make it as simple a story as possible (which is one reason why I decided to make them slightly more animalistic and not have them speak in human dialogue. Think of "Spirit", but with no talking from anyone.)

Pangaea · **Reply #67 on:** July 19, 2010, 01:24:58 AM

I've never seen Spirit, but I know what you're talking about as far as the style of the story is concerned. It sounds very interesting, and I'll be excited to read it if and when you write it.

That reminds me: have you ever read Raptor Red? It's a novel following the life of a Utahraptor, also without dialogue.

Ptyra · **Reply #68 on:** July 19, 2010, 01:38:34 AM

No I haven't. It might be a good source for some inspiration if I can find it. Maybe when I return the DVDs I rented to the library.

Pangaea · **Reply #69 on:** July 22, 2010, 10:24:01 PM

Quote from: Ptyra,Jul 22 2010 on 08:32 PM

I planned on the story taking place a few thousand years before the KT extinction 65 million years ago; there's a list of dinosaurs from that time period that included Pteranodon.

The last thing I want to do is sound like I am disagreeing with your choice to use Pteranodon in your dinosaur story, or casting aspersions on your judgement of research material, but I was curious about where you found this list. If it can be viewed online, I'd like to take a look at it. I'm concerned that it might have some inaccuracies. :unsure:

Ptyra · **Reply #70 on:** July 23, 2010, 12:11:23 AM

From this list
I did take a peek at the Pteranodon and have my thought disproved, though :/ . I was off my about ten million years.

Pangaea · **Reply #71 on:** July 23, 2010, 05:23:55 AM

^ It doesn’t particularly matter. Like I said in your art thread, there are no fossils of Pteranodon known from the Maastrichtian stage (the very end of the Cretaceous, spanning from roughly 70.6 to 65.5 million years ago), but pterosaur skeletons were very delicate, and it’s possible that Pteranodon DID exist at that time, but was simply not preserved.

Unless this counts as spoilers you’d rather not share, what other kinds of Late Cretaceous critters are you planning to use in this story?

Ptyra · **Reply #72 on:** July 23, 2010, 01:17:44 PM

I would like the Troodon to meet a Styracosaurus herd and some other Ceratopsians at some point along the way on his journey. There's plenty I could use, I just havn't selected absolutely for sure yet

. Since I decided that he probably going to trek into completely unfamiliar territories going into the middle of the South US, I'd have to look at those too. 'Course, some of them would have to be oceanic at some point. It would be really cool for him to meet some early mammals. There's so many possibilities that would make for a good mini-plot.

But Styracosaurus is one I would LOVE to get in. I don't know how yet, though.

Pangaea · **Reply #73 on:** July 24, 2010, 12:50:13 AM

If the Troodon were to meet any mammals, I would expect that he would view them as food.

Just out of curiosity, what made you decide to set your story so close to the time of the K-T extinction? (Personally I find it a little depressing that the characters’ descendants will be wiped out only a few hundred generations after the story.)

Ptyra · **Reply #74 on:** July 24, 2010, 11:49:05 AM

Well, I wasn't going to have the story set at the very beginning of that time, nor was I going to have it IMMEDIATELY followed by the extinction, or the middle of that time. A time when the heyday was still pretty big, but was starting to see some new mammals on the rise, seemed plenty fine. On top of that, Troodons must have been a lot smarter than they first evolved that that point in time.

If I were to give an estimate, I'd say about five or six thousand years before...with still isn't very much.

Pangaea · **Reply #75 on:** July 24, 2010, 10:30:31 PM

New mammals…what kinds of new mammals were you thinking of? (Though Mesozoic mammals didn't fossilize very well, their diversity isn't known to have increased much toward the end of the Cretaceous, or even for the first few million years after it. The largest mammal so far known from that time was an opossum relative called Didelphodon, about the size of a cat or badger.)

Ptyra · **Reply #76 on:** July 25, 2010, 12:01:41 AM

On the website where I got my dinosaur list, there was an early primate that was only known by its teeth, which I might use. Early rodents would definitely come into play, though.

Pangaea · **Reply #77 on:** July 26, 2010, 12:58:20 AM

Just so you know, there is some debate over whether Purgatorius is an actual primate, and even if it was, it probably resembled a modern tree shrew more than a lemur or other familiar primate.

Also, true rodents may not have evolved until after the K-T extinction, although there was a group of chisel-toothed mammals called multituberculates, which probably filled the same ecological niches. There were also opossum relatives such as Alphadon, and shrews or shrew-like creatures, some of which may have had a venomous bite.

It is possible that there were bats in the late Cretaceous, though there is no more evidence for them being present than there is for rodents. Given that effectively modern bats existed 52 million years ago, they must have evolved much earlier. If the most primitive known bat, Onychonycteris, is anything to go by, then Mesozoic bats probably would have been unable to echolocate, had claws on all five fingers and relatively long tails, and generally flew only short distances. I also read one study that proposed that the first bats were diurnal and ate mainly fruit (as well as insects). However, it’s mostly informed speculation, so if you decided to feature bats in your story, you could portray them as nocturnal, bug-zapping echolocators if you wanted.

Okay, better ask another question…Have you heard about Sanajeh indicus? It's a Mesozoic snake found fossilized with a sauropod nest; apparently it was preying on the eggs and/or hatchlings.

Ptyra · **Reply #78 on:** July 26, 2010, 01:47:30 AM

I think I saw that article ages ago. With me being a pretty obvious snake-lover, it was a pretty interesting find, since I didn't think legless snakes coexisted with dinosaurs

Pangaea · **Reply #79 on:** July 26, 2010, 02:18:24 AM

What kinds of snakes interest you the most?