The Sky's the Limit: Wyverns of Chortis
On Chortis, there are six groups of what we would call wyverns, which are a polyphyletic assemblage of various sarcopterygians.
Due to the high energy demands of flight, most wyverns are carnivorous (when they do eat plants, it is usually fruit). The exception is the elephant wyverns, which are flightless herbivores.
The following groups are listed in the order they were drawn:
• The first group of wyverns are the elephant wyverns (Clade Pachydermoptera), named due to their prehensile trunks and generally large size. This group includes the heaviest wyvern that ever lived, containing herbivorous and omnivorous taxa. They are also the smallest group of wyverns. When they were first discovered by European settlers that entered the magic portals, they were thought to be a type of monotreme. Then, analysis of their morphology showed that they were an aberrant clade of trionychian turtles (yes, you read that correctly).
The ancestral shell has atrophied, being reduced to rib-like components. Despite their forelimbs resembling wings, they did not evolve from flying animals, rather their ancestor possessed wing-like flippers. They physically can't fly due to their wings being too dense and the fact that they lack the adaptations seen in flying vertebrates. Nowadays, extant taxa use them for balance, intimidation, display, swimming, or quadrupedal locomotion.
• The second are the more common saurian wyverns (Clade Vernosauria), a group of primarily carnivorous winged saurischian dinosaurs that can be divided into quadrupedal and bipedal taxa. They were formerly thought to be closely related to the ichthyosaur-like dyptosaurs but they are now believed to be descended from a Pampadromaeus-like taxon, making them a bit closer to true sauropods. This group includes the highest number of wyvern species. Interestingly, most saurian wyverns are venomous. They may or may not have proto-feathers, depending on the vernosaur family.
• Then there are the bird wyverns (Clade Coccatraciformes (And yes I'm using Monster Hunter terminology) which aren't birds in the strict sense but an offshoot of the scansoriopterygids. Like the Yi+Ambopteryx clade and unlike the majority of maniraptorans, they have bat-like membranous wings supported by 3 digits and a styliform wristbone. Unlike their predecessors, many bird wyverns can fly. They are split into two groups, the Aviteratosauria (bird monster lizards), which are more reptilian in their physiology and then there are the Paratornithes, which are more bird-like in their physiology.
•Vintage wyverns (Clade Opisthoptera), named such due to their resemblance to Terran heraldic wyverns, are a clade of winged archosauromorphs descended from a member of the Sharovipteryx+Ozimek clade. Most vintage wyverns are raptorial predators, though waders, skimmers, scavengers, ovivores, and granivores are present. Unlike most wyverns, they possess wings derives from their hindlimbs, being sharovipterygians.
• The frog wyverns, also known as elf wyverns (Clade Elfinoptera) are a clade of volant temnospondyls nested in the Dissorophoidea, making them a sister group to Lissamphibia, which includes actual frogs. They are heterothermic, with their metabolism changing depending on factors such as their environment and the availability of food and water. The "elf" part is in part due to the ear-like protrusions of the lower jaw.
Many but not all taxa have a ballistic tongue, which aids in feeding.
• The last and oldest group, the piscine wyverns (clade Volanichthyes, more MH terminology for you). Strangely, unlike most wyverns, piscine wyverns are not tetrapods, let alone tetrapodomorphs. Instead, they are closely related to lungfish (being dipnomorphs, specifically porolepiforms) yet have converged with early tetrapods. While adults are terrestrial or semiaquatic, all volanichthyans (with the exception of mouthbrooders) must return to water to lay their eggs.
Based on an interpretation of the ocean flish by Fabio Alejandro/Dragonthunders as a different clade of lobe-finned fish. Subsequent piscine wyvern designs will be more "fishy", since this is just a generic example and not representative of any species native to Chortis (also too similar to tetrapods design-wise).
Extra notes: Saurian wyverns were the first type planned (since 2021), going through many phases, they were originally going to be an offshoot of varanoid lizards, then a clade of archosaurs endemic to an alternate Earth (before the idea for an exoplanet was thought of), then basal diapsids descended from araeoscelidids, then compsognathiforms (Compsognathidae is probably polyphyletic so it was changed to stem-tetrapods). Now, they are sauropodomorphs.
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I can draw any non-avian dinosaur as long as it's a theropod that's also a maniraptoran and also a member of paraves except for scansoriopterygids those are kinda hard to get right also it should be vaguely bird-shaped as you can see my skills are near limitless
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Happy Fossil Friday!
Who: Yi qi
name meaning: "Wing" "Strange" = "Strange wing"
pronunciation: Yee chee
What: a scansoriopterygid (climbing/gliding maniraptoran dinosaurs) theropod
When: Middle-Upper Jurassic
Where: Tiaojishan Formation in the Hebei Province in China
Fun fact!: Yi qi is the shortest binomial of any extinct animal discovered so far, sharing this status (ironically) with the extant Ia io, the great evening bat.
P.F. (personal flex) Fun fact!: One of the authors on the original paper describing the discovery of Yi qi was my undergraduate thesis supervisor.
Why are they cool?: When you think of birds you think feathers and Yi qi certain had those, but what sets this funky little lad apart from other maniraptorians of this time were the long rods of bone protruding from its wrists that supported membranous tissue not unlike the wings of a bat.
Here is a link to the original paper describing Yi qi if anyone is interested in learning more!
And just for fun cause she's super cool, here is a link to another of the paper's famous authers, Jingmai O'Connor's website, the punk rock palaeontologist!
Image Credits: (Left: Emily Willoughby, Right: Figure 2. Xu, Xing, Xiaoting Zheng, Corwin Sullivan, Xiaoli Wang, Lida Xing, Yan Wang, Xiaomei Zhang, Jingmai K. O’Connor, Fucheng Zhang, and Yanhong Pan. "A bizarre Jurassic maniraptoran theropod with preserved evidence of membranous wings." Nature 521, no. 7550 (2015): 70-73.)
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