#Rodrigues Solitaire

[cypressure]

Flocking 5/31/24 -- Crassigyrinus + Kelenkelen + Diplocaulus + Pezophaps solitaria

[the-dragon-girl-27]

Flocking drawings!

Crassigyrinus surfacing for air showing off its weird ass teeth

two female Kelenken nuzzling under a rainbow

Diplocaulus catching its prey

one of the last Rodrigues Solitaire crying out trying to find a companion to no response

[squawkoverflow]

A new variant has been added!

Rodrigues Solitaire (Pezophaps solitaria) © Frederick William Frohawk

It hatches from extinct, and last eggs.

squawkoverflow - the ultimate bird collecting game          🥚 hatch    ❤️ collect     🤝 connect

[he-who-needs-to-be-silenced]

Results from todays flocking paleostream

We did

Crassigyrinus

Kelenken

Diplocaulus

And the Rodrigues solitaire

Now for the sillies (and redraws)

[cryptid-quest]

Cryptid of the Day: Rodrigues Solitaire

Description: Lesser known then its more famous cousin, the Dodo, the Rodrigues Solitaire was another flightless bird that went extinct on the Madagascar island of Rodrigues in the 18th century. However, there have been reports of a similar bird on Reunion Island, though there is no fossil record showing that solitaires were found on the island.

[sijctghen]

Yall hear about this in the news?

[yuribait]

europeans in the 17th century or whatever were always like ohh this is such a unique animal ive never seen anything like this. what if i shot all of them with my gun

[ppaleoartistgallery]

Paleostream 1/06/2024

here's today's #Paleostream sketches!!! today we drew Crassigyrinus, Kelenken, Diplocaulus (D. minimus), and Pezophaps solitaria (Rodrigues solitaire)

[critter-captures]

Nicobar pigeon (Caloenas nicobarica), family Columbidae (doves and pigeons)

The closest living relative of the dodo and the Rodrigues solitaire.

Avifauna, taken July 2024

[weirdmarioenemies]

When you think of enemies from Super Mario Bros. 2, who comes to mind? Personally, one of the first that comes to MY mind are those weird birds that you find as early as World 1. The borderline flightless ones that were colored red, white and black in the original, but weirdly got some purple coloring in the All-Stars remake — the ones who weirdly barely appeared again. You know,

Name: Pidgit

Debut: Super Mario Bros. 2/ Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic

Did I actually trick anyone into thinking today’s enemy would be sweet old Tweeter? I don’t know if Tweeter is well-known enough to get that kind of anticipation!

Regardless, Pidgit’s a weird enemy, to be certain! Of course, one could say almost all Super Mario Bros. 2 enemies are weird, but “flightless crow riding on a carpet” is a bit more weird than enemies like “walking bomb”, “walking cactus”, and “bird that drops walking bomb”.

And that’s right: despite its name, Pidgit is a crow, which is not a pigeon at all! It is actually more wrong to name Pidgit after a pigeon than it is to name a gorilla enemy with some sort of hare-related pun in mind. And that’s science!

However, even its original Japanese name is just a portmanteau of “dodo” and “Rodrigues solitaire”, both of which are pigeons…this is Pidgit’s Trick.

This guy’s an oddball, one that didn’t debut in a Mario game and has had very few reappearances since, but has left an inescapable impact since. Before that, though, let’s cherish the reappearances it HAS had!

Pidgit’s first reappearance is a weird one—instead of riding a magic carpet, it finds itself being blasted out of Turtle Cannons in Fall as the Pidgit Bill! Super Mario World sure seems pretty fond of Super Mario Bros. 2, and this might be one of its most blatant callbacks. Funnily enough, in the SNES version only horizontally-moving Bullet Bills get replaced, which seems fine until you realize Super Mario World also introduces vertically- and diagonally-inclined Bullet Bills. Woopsie!

Pidgit Bills appear in the ending of Super Princess Peach, too, congratulating the player! That’s cute.

Pidgit’s next appearance would be another weird one. Wario’s Woods has it be one of Wario’s goons, replacing the fairy when Wario appears on the upper right screen to drop only bombs. Remember when Wario was a villain who could have minions? Yeah. Pidgit can fly here without a carpet at all, no foolin’! Is this part of the spell Wario put over his Woods? Is this why Pidgits fight for him? I don’t know! I think they just forgot.

They wouldn’t reappear until Partners in Time, and wow! This might actually be their only in-game reappearance where they actually ride their carpets! Which reminds me, do Pidgits make their own carpets, or do they get them from somewhere, or…?

I’ve never had nor played this game so I don’t know exactly how they act, but what I do know is that in the American version, they’re stronger and more likely to drop loot than any other version! That’s fun.

Do you remember 12 paragraphs ago, when you still had your youth and I said we’d get back to how Pidgit left an inescapable impact on the franchise? Well, that time is now, and that inescapable impact is the Lakitu!

“But Weirdma Rio Enemies dot Tumblr dot Com!,” you cry. “Lakitu debuted in Super Mario Bros., before Doki Doki Panic and thus long before Super Mario Bros. 2 was even conceived!” And on that, you’re right. But let’s look at an attribute unique to Pidgit!

You see, Pidgit rides a magic carpet, yes, but when it’s picked up, the player can ride the carpet themselves temporarily — after a certain amount of time, though, the carpet starts flashing before disappearing completely. Sound familiar?

Sounds a lot like Lakitu’s Cloud, if you ask me! While Lakitus have been riding their fair-weather friends since 1985, we weren’t privy to that same experience till long after Super Mario Bros. 2, in a little game called…Super Mario World! In a game which already has Pidgit, is it truly at all absurd to say it would have just one more reference to it?

So remember, in every game where you can ride a truculent terrapin’s silly cirrus, be sure to thank your local Pidgit!

…man, too bad we couldn’t segue into at least something about Tweeter, huh? First they were bought out by a rich muskrat, now this. Is there anything Tweeterheads get to look forward to?

the answer is ME!!!!!!

Hi!! I’m Mod Tweeter, and today’s post was written by none other than moi! It’s a real tweat and an honour to join the cast of Oddball Red-Cloaked-Daisy Critters, and I hope you will all enjoy my writings about more sillybeasts in the future!

For now, let’s close this post with a smooth songbird’s swingin’ serenade…

[veloci-raptor]

This Flocking Together was 50% Amphibians and 50% Birds

Crassigyrinus

Kelenken

Diplocaulus

Rodrigues Solitaire

[professorzamitespokemons]

I love Breloom! I mean you probably guessed from profile picture... Punching is a key but underappreciated aspect of Breloom's design, commonly ditched by most efforts at making it more 'realistic'. Punching is a rare ability in nature, only really observed in crustaceans like mantis shrimps. The closest thing to boxing in vertebrates is probably what we see in birds (wink wink) like Steamer ducks or the now extinct Rodrigues solitaire and the Club winged Ibis (Xenicibis xympithecus). I also jumped around on wether I wanted it to have a mushroom shaped casque (like in my PP) or caruncle. Caruncles are soft and fleshy, like a mushroom cap so I went to this for thise version. One idea I may explore in the future is making Breloom a mammal, since it is likely in part inspired by kangaroos (hence all the punching and hopping it does)

Flavor text: "Breloom (Typtopteryx mycocephalus)

Brelooms are a species of bird-like pokémon, whose primitivity is best shown by a long bony tail. Like some smaller passerines, it is an adept hopper. Males bear a larger and more vivid 'mushroom cap' and spurs. They fight viciously for females, punching, kicking and bitting their way to victory. Once a male has earned the favors of a female, they will mate and the female will lay a large, circular egg, brownish grey on the top and deep green on the bottom, camouflaging amoung the humus. They also some some eye like black spots. The eggs are commonly called 'shroomish' These woodland dwellers feed on anything they can get their beak on. From seeds to rodents, nothing is safe from the insatiable appetite of the mushroom birds"

[thiefbird]

"actually, we're leaving early, we have something to get to." For Diana

Thank you for this perfect prompt - and for the conversation about Diana's insecurities that helped inspire this fic! I didn't get the exact quote in, but the Vibes hopefully match! (under a cut because it got long, as usual)

On Auks and Solitaires (on ao3)

Lady Anderson’s dinner - one in a long, long series of dinners celebrating the taking of the Chesapeake - was, if nothing else, a distraction from the slowly mounting worry in Diana’s chest. She was determined to ignore it; only time would tell if it had any foundation in reality or was a mere paranoid terror that she should never be free of Johnson’s grip on her. The company was rather dull, and entirely familiar: the same group of army and naval officers, the same simpering girls and stuffy wives. It should have been entirely intolerable, but for the fact that she was seated beside Stephen Maturin, and could whisper indiscreet commentary into his ear whenever she was overcome with boredom.

With boredom, or with a strange sort of awkwardness at watching Aubrey make a fool of himself, as he did now: blatantly staring into Miss Smith’s decolletage as she simpered outrageously; she could hardly make her mind up whether she felt sorry for him, or outraged on her cousin’s behalf. Certainly, Sophie would not condone such behaviors if she knew - not sweet Sophia who hid a tremendous sort of jealousy under her gentle ways. She had fair savaged Diana, all those years ago - nearly ten, she realised with a quiet shock, ‘Could it have been so long?’ - when they had competed themselves for Jack Aubrey’s attentions, and surely she would savage Miss Smith now, were she to see how the two of them carried on. Diana, for one, would have been delighted by the spectacle: she was no particular fan of Aubrey, the overgrown puppy of rather too close to forty; she tolerated him for Stephen and for Sophie, not for himself at all.

She was preparing a comment on the absurdity - Stephen could be mortally sensitive about Aubrey, in a way he never was when she was sharp-tongued towards Stephen himself - when the man seated to Stephen’s left began to speak, drawing Stephen’s attention. “I believe, sir, I heard you introduced as Doctor Maturin - surely you are not the Doctor Maturin who wrote so well on the Rodrigues Solitaire?” He was an army captain, in an eye-catching red jacket and snow-white trousers, and Diana felt a wash of pity for Stephen’s poor rusty black coat in comparison to its neighbor’s brilliance.

Stephen confirmed he was indeed such gentleman, in his strange and awkward way whenever anyone took any notice at all of his works - ‘for such a prideful creature,’ Diana thought affectionately, ‘he does hate to be thought of as ever showing away; you should think it were a mortal sin to admit to having ever written papers at all.’ - and begged pardon for not having caught the man’s name.

“Captain William Ainsworth, of the Nova Scotia Fencibles.” Captain Ainsworth gave Stephen a courteous bow, and Diana watched him with some interest; she had seen him at various parties and dinners they had been obliged to attend before now, and he had never caught her attention before, but he was a handsome man: tall, though not quite so tall as Aubrey, and with the slim build of a man accustomed to a good deal of riding - nothing at all like the solid Navy build; his hair was just dark enough as to not be considered red and therefore a detriment, and his eyes were a rich chestnut brown that sparkled with delight at each of Stephen’s words. “And may I say, sir, it is a great pleasure - a true honour, certainly - to meet the esteemed Doctor Maturin.”

Stephen glanced back at Diana, an endearing look of confusion on his face, before returning his attention to the captain. “The honour is mine, sir; the Nova Scotia regiment has done well for itself, I find.”

Captain Ainsworth shook his head. “No, no - nothing so fine as all that - nothing so fine as your solitaire-bird. I had no idea such a bird existed in all the world.” There was a certain sort of bravado in those words, as strange as it seemed to boast about a long-dead sort of dodo-bird, and Diana had the distinct sensation that the captain did not care nearly so much about Stephen’s solitaire as he claimed; her interest was piqued by this inconsistency, and she turned her attention fully from Jack Aubrey’s indiscretions to study Stephen’s interactions with Captain Ainsworth.

“They once existed, sure - oh, to be able to handle a specimen with any sort of soft tissue remaining! But they are all long gone - hunted until they could not sustain themselves. It is the shame of the age that no natural philosopher thought to bottle one.” Stephen’s hesitancy had faded entirely, and he now spoke with a vehemence that made Diana smile with fond affection; he, unlike all other men of her acquaintance, was entirely unchanged in these last ten years, other than his poor ruined hands. “I do not think we shall ever understand what we have lost to similar incidents - the dodo, the sea-cow of Stellar’s observation only a handful of examples-”

“I should give my eye-teeth - no, my left arm! - to provide such a sample!” declared Captain Ainsworth, his colour high as he watched Stephen with a particular fervour. Diana was certain, now: the man was a sodomite, and for some reason was entirely taken with Stephen; she could hardly comment, she was sure, for she loved him more than she had loved perhaps any man, but she had always thought that such men were invariably attracted to pretty slips of things, as she had always seen in India. Stephen, though desperately slight, could never even with the most charitable of hearts be described as pretty - she had already glowered at two of the more irritating girls in Halifax that night for tittering at his admittedly dreadful wig and tinted glasses - but there was no mistaking that gleam in Captain Ainsworth’s eyes, that almost breathlessly eager note in his voice as he spoke.

Stephen was scarcely less enthusiastic in his response, leaning in towards the captain as he was encouraged to speak more on his birds, and Diana felt a strange and familiar twisting in her chest. She knew full well the rumours surrounding Stephen - it was hard not to be aware, living for all that time with Mrs Williams, of how Hampshire had seen the handsome young captain and his strange choice of companion. The rumours had not ceased in the time since: talk had followed him in India, and even that insufferable slattern Wogan had been convinced that “that dear fool Maturin” was a sodomite hopelessly obsessed with Jack Aubrey - she had even gone so far as to reassure Johnson that he had no reason to be jealous of anyone’s attentions being stolen away by him.

She had not given them much notice, at first; there was always such talk of Navy men, and Aubrey certainly was no paederast - that was obvious to speak to him. But Maturin… Oh, he had certainly paid her attentions, of course, but he spoke so strangely at times, his queer comments about not being interested in women but in persons, his careful notice of all of Aubrey’s moods and needs - that had certainly not changed in all these years, either - and she had developed doubts of his sincerity quite quickly, even when he would walk three or more miles to sneak into her rooms at Mapes and take brandy or tea and kiss her under cover of darkness.

She had needled him on the subject to no end; he had an insupportable ability to let her sharp words fall without comment and make her feel an immediate guilt for speaking so, and yet she always tried, again and again, to get him to lash out. It had been a habit started when they first met, and one reinforced by first Canning’s and then Johnson’s treatment of her, and she was only glad she had managed to keep a leash on her tongue this last week they had been in Halifax; she did not trust her ability to keep mum were she to let herself speak freely. He had never once responded with anything less than quiet and resigned acceptance when she had ridiculed his relationship with Aubrey, when she had accused them of playing at marriage in Melbury Lodge, but there had been a peculiar look in his eyes that he tried to disguise that had told her the rumours might have not been far off.

And then, in India, Aubrey had been so harsh to her - had spoken so chuff when she had fair begged him to let her nurse Stephen and return to England on his Surprise, and she had feared the worst: she would not be made a fool of, with a chaste marriage to a man too busy with his captain to pay her mind - and so she had left for America in the company of Johnson. Oh, she had been doubly the fool there, no doubt of that; Johnson had ruined her reputation far worse than any buggerer of a husband could, no matter how blatant.

And yet she did love Stephen, and she knew he felt some sort of strong affection for her: that was the worst of it. A husband she did not like could be given freedom to do whatever he wished. A beloved husband that preferred the company of a bumbling clod like Aubrey to her own? That was why she had left with Johnson from the Company ship, and while not the whole reason she had left with him again, the fear of Stephen renewing his offer, and not being strong enough to refuse him had certainly contributed. However much it rankled to accept being kept by a married man, she could countenance a marriage where she was not truly and devoutly wanted even less.

Despite her preoccupation with her own thoughts, Diana had kept half an eye and half an ear on Stephen’s conversation with the handsome captain; he had not in any particular way encouraged Ainsworth’s attentions - she was not altogether certain he was aware of them, so enthused over the opportunity to discuss the rarer birds of North America with an attentive audience was he - but neither had he discouraged them, and now the man’s hand was on his forearm as he gazed into Stephen’s face.

“I am afraid, my dear doctor-” how many times had she heard that exact address to Stephen from Aubrey’s lips? “-that we are at risk of neglecting our dining companions.” Ainsworth gave Stephen a pleased, secretive smile that made Diana feel a sick dread. “But I am so loathe to put a true halt to our conversation - perhaps you might accompany me to a small, private card-party being held this evening by a… particular friend of mine, if you do not have a prior engagement?”

The emphasis Ainsworth placed on ‘particular’ would have confirmed for Diana what he was about, had she not already been entirely convinced, and she felt her mood shift from blue to a deep, hot red.

“I should be pleased-” Stephen began, halting and turning to look at her in surprise when she rapped his other arm none too lightly with her fan.

She ignored his look and gave Captain Ainsworth her most simperingly insincere smile. “My fiance and I should be delighted, of course, Captain,” she said, placing a possessive hand on Stephen’s forearm - where it would certainly be sore from her fan - in a deliberate mimicry of his own posture. “But unfortunately, we had already arranged to spend the evening elsewhere. Perhaps another time?” Her words were perfectly polite, but her tone was carefully chilly, and her smile faded away into a look of pure hostility she had no interest in disguising.

Captain Ainsworth turned pale and then pink in turn, and snatched his hand away from Stephen with a betrayed glance at him. Stephen, for his part, looked tolerably confused, but nodded wisely. “Mrs Villiers is correct, of course. If you should like to give me your direction, however, I could send you a copy of some notes I have collected on the northern penguin, the great Auk - they are mere notes, of course, but they may be of interest to you.”

The captain stammered some excuse - he would be leaving Halifax shortly, he should not like to trouble the doctor, the notes would certainly be too learned for him to make heads or tails of - and turned with a miserable desperation to the man on his left. Stephen then gave Diana his full attention, rather perplexed and peevish both, and she set her jaw. “I will not be made a fool of, Maturin,” was all she said to him, in a tight whisper, until she was able to make their excuses to Lady Anderson after dessert, and he followed her out into the streets.

“I do not believe, Villiers, that I have ever seen you behave with so little in the way of social graces,” Stephen said when they had walked in silence for a few blocks. “Whatever did poor Captain Ainsworth do, to incite your fury? I must be sure to avoid such an offense.”

“He was a bore, Stephen - he did not care one whit about your solitaire, only that he should be seen talking so to you.” She, perversely, no longer wished to comment on Stephen’s predilections, or whether they might lean more towards a tall, handsome, auburn haired military captain - or a tall and brutish, blond naval one - than towards her own figure, and so she did not mention how utterly and preposterously blatant Ainsworth’s flirtations had been. It was a wonder he had not been caught and hanged, if that was how he accosted any gentleman who might share his tastes - it was a wonder more eyes had not been on him and Stephen than on Aubrey and Miss Smith. “I wonder that you should waste your time at him, and complain that I saved you the effort; he is not worth half a thought.”

“I thought him an amiable fellow - he did not know overmuch of birds, sure, but he seemed a good sort. But I am sure you have the right of it, my dear,” Stephen said, tucking her hand through his arm. “I fall to your opinion in all matters social.”

She allowed their steps to come together, and herself to enjoy the warmth that came off him, but her heart was still uneasy as she remembered the apologetic glance Stephen had given a concerned Aubrey as they left the dinner party. She would not be made a fool of - she would not let herself come under the control of another man who did not want her for anything other than a pretty distraction.

[anomalouscorvid]

thinking more about my pigeon-harpies (sapient vulture-like pigeons)... before they were just unusually human-like fancy pigeons (or in that genus) but actually i'm going to turn them into rodrigues solitaires (flightless pigeons, very close to dodos, also extinct like dodos). descendants of solitaires at least. maybe a few vulture-ish magic-influenced detours along the way... but still big pigeons

one of the fun things about solitaires is that they had bony knobs on their wings that could be used for combat and/or sonation. so i have even more reason to add those kinds of clicking/rattling noises to harpies' language..

[hottestvampiresimp]

Okay, semi serious post now with more tags and pics

I've been working on a dinosaur-themed video game on and off since 10th grade (I'm about to be a college sophomore if that helps showing how long it's been). It's supposed to be like The Isle or Beasts of Bermuda, but with a lot more prehistoric creatures from all parts of Earth's history (and I'm planning on including some living fossils and recently extinct creatures such as the Dodo and Rodrigues solitaire). And because of the multi-player capabilities, I'd want the game to have boss battles with hybrids.

Here are some concept art pieces for said boss battles.

These two are colored

And these are currently just sketches

I've lately been working on a document filled with game mechanisms and creature classes to keep everything more organized. Here's the Google Doc version of it in case you want to suggest ideas or modifications!

(I'm also looking to migrate everything on Google Drive to somewhere new, so I'd appreciate suggestions on where i could go)

(Side view of Sacabambaspis)

My goal is to make a video game that, like it's predecessors and inspirations, teaches people about the world before humans in a fun and accurate way. My designs aee supposed to be as close to accurate as possible but without making boring designs.

(Side View of Liliensternus)

But also, I'll be including a couple groups of playable creatures that show how we used to think prehistoric creatures looked like and how fictional and outdated media has fundamentally changed how certain creatures are portrayed in media (you'll have to wait for a future post to go into detail about that, but here's a picture of the "Fantasy T rex" that I'll be making. It's based off the Jurassic Park and Walking with Dinosaurs Tyrannosaurus)

I've counted everything up, and it turns out even though I didn't grab every prehistoric creature discovered, I still have a bunch of work to do regarding 3d modelling, texturing, mechanic planning, rigging and everything else that comes with a game.

(Side view of Simosuchus)

I'll leave my Kofi here in case you feel like financially supporting me. And if you do, let me know with proof and I'll gladly draw something of your choice! Don't feel like you have to though, I'd appreciate any sort of suggestion regarding my game design just as much!

Thank you for listening to me talk about my project! I'll probably be back in the future with more in depth posts, including sneak peeks at DLCs and my design process for the in-game designs.

-Auper