Monday, August 2, 2010

Got the horn.



I've been looking at some horned lizards- and gee they kind of remind me of styracosaurus.
So I go browsing for styracosaurus- and man there are some fanatical nuts out there- I'm goin to call them 'scalies' from now on. I think the trouble is they have these dinosaur reconstructions that produce essentially a flayed animal- but think of all the mind bogglingly surprising non bone crests and spikes and folds lizards can have.
And all the wattle type things birds have.
And size of the' beer gut' that komodo dragons have.

Anyway....back to the horns
Oddly they pronounce that the horns are for display- then they paint eye spots on the panels of its crest- but surely the horns themselves are the display, on a crest so they can be hoisted higher. Consider the horny toad- its like a little tiny styracosaurus- and I don't think its taking anything out with its horns..

And I've seen some komodo dragons on the new attenborough documentaries- and the way they have this menacing bow to their heads and the way their tails arch down- are very cool things to apply to a tyrannosaurusy thing. Actually I wonder if they were like komodo dragons- biting and poisoning and then following along waiting for the victim to die(trex wasn't supposed to be a fast runner). Its got a big 'nose' like a bloodhound- or would it have a komodo tongue.
So I present the amazing discovery of komodosaurus and the greater styracohornytoad in quick scribble before bed form. thought I'd give komodosaurus upper lips to cover his teeth- like lizards instead of being buck/exposed toothed the way you'd normal see em.
Tada!

2 comments:

Robert said...

oy looking at your dinosaurs :)

I saw that komodo dragon thing as well, but I had read somewhere else that they do not have true venom, and their bite is so virulent because of all the bacteria and whathaveyou in their mouths.

Anyway incase you weren't aware abc has this website where you can see all their shows after they air.

http://www.abc.net.au/iview/#/docs

lach said...

Yeah I'd previously heard that it was the bacteria, but then in the attenborough one it said they'd actually discovered it was poison after all...so I guess I'm believing david.
still they look like they mean business- which was the main thing