TMHOTW Contest - Tsuni Prairie

Mammals:


Bearhog
Flagellacauda major (Greater whip tail)

One of the many lineages of mammals that survived extinction on the surface by hiding within world hearts were the oreodonts, a lineage of primitive ungulates related to camels that lived across North America throughout the Oligocene and occupied a wide range of niches; in the hearts, they have continued this diversity, taking up a large number of ecological roles. In several areas largely devoid of competition, they have even seized megafaunal roles, with one of the largest of these being the bearhog of the Tsuni Prairie.

This huge ungulate is without a doubt the largest oreodont to ever live, growing about 25% larger than an adult male American bison and weighing considerably more than one as well. The front feet bear large, curved claws, the back is sloped like a hyena or a bison, and the large, robust skull sports small ears and a pair of large fang-like incisors on the upper jaw that poke out from the lips like the fangs of the long-extinct Uintatherium. Extending behind it is a long thin tail that adds another eight or nine feet to the animal’s total length, almost like a rat’s but covered in fur like the rest of the body rather than in scaled skin.

Bearhogs are quite versatile herbivores, thanks to their versatile ungulate digestive systems; like surface camels, they are ruminants and chew cud, allowing them to make quick work out of even the toughest vegetation of the Tsuni Prairie. They travel in small herds of up to a dozen or so animals each lead by the largest and oldest male and female, protected from most predators by their size and strength - like surface rhinoceroses, they will charge at creatures that get too close for comfort, moving at incredible speeds for short bursts and attacking with their large fang-like canines, strikes from their claws, and blows from their whip-like tails. Despite their power, though, these huge oreodonts are still hunted by the larger predators of the prairie as well as humans, particularly the young and injured ones.

Calves are born one to three at a time after a 13-month pregnancy, and are cared for by the entire herd; when faced with predators, the entire herd forms a ring of fangs and claws around the baby bearhogs much like musk oxen or ceratopsians. Both males and females tend to stay with the herd they were born into, with the herd splitting into two when it grows too large; the second-oldest male and female will become the alphas of the new herd, while the oldest continue as the alphas of the old herd.


Pronga
Dromaeocervus acroceras (Sharp-horned running-deer)

In world hearts, things often are not as they appear, and a prime example of this is the pronga - despite its scientific name, it is not a deer at all, but a surviving antilocaprid, a lineage that's only represented by the pronghorn up on the surface. However, despite looking like a deer, this graceful herd-dweller lives more like an antelope, moving in large herds across the Tsuni Prairie and grazing upon whatever it can find.

Roughly the size of a white-tailed deer, the pronga is a quite elegant-looking animal, with long lean legs and a beautiful tawny brown-and-gold pelt. The horns, as the name suggests, sport prongs like those on a deer's antlers, and stick directly up into the air like leafless trees. Both genders have these antler-horns, but they are considerably larger and more elaborate in males, rivaling the surface world's mule deer in how large their rack can get.

Moving in herds of up to 250 animals, pronga are among the most common herbivores of the prairie, and live in much the same way as their ancestors did save for feeding on ferns - adapted for the surface world's tougher grasses as their ancestors were, the generally-much softer vegetation of Palkragar posed quite the challenge at first, but necessity is the mother of invention, and with very little else available, the ancestors of the pronga, as well as the other antilocaprids of the heart, managed to cope, their teeth adapting the ferns that carpet the ground, although some species do subsist on grass where it grows in the heart.

While their horns can be used in self-defense in times of extreme duress (They're mainly used in intraspecific battles, particularly by the males), pronga usually flee in response to predators; while they are nowhere near as fast as their surface-world cousins, they can still move with high speeds at nearly 35 mph, zigzagging to better confound predators similarly to impala. However, despite this, they are still a popular prey item of the prairie's various predators, chiefly wolfhawks and Kiro hunters. Reproduction is largely similar to surface pronghorns, with males mating with small groups of females to father one or two fawns at a time; said fawns are a highly-sought after meal for most local carnivores.


Hoofrat
Pseudoantilopos tsunensis (False antelope of the Tsuni Prairie)

Despite its name, the hoofrat is not related to rodents in the slightest; it is a dainty dik-dik-sized phenacodontid, an order of extremely primitive ungulates. Lanky and lightly-built with dun brown fur speckled with darker brown down its back, it greatly resembles the mara of South America in its general body shape, save for its legs, tail, and head. The legs are stronger than a mara's and are structured in a manner distinctly similar to that of an antelope, while each foot sports three toes that end in tapir-like hooves. The tail is shortened, but it's stiff like a pole, usually kept down and pointing groundwards, but when in distress, the hoofrat raises its tail straight upwards and lets out a squeal of alarm, revealing the bright white on the tip of the appendage. And finally, the head of the animal looks like a miniature cross between a camel and a gazelle; the camel in its general shape, and the gazelle in its narrow, delicate build and tooth arrangement. It also sports a small keratinous horn above each eye, larger in males than in females.

Moving in herds of 80-90 animals, hoofrats are dainty grazers of the prairie, subsisting on fern shoots and on wildflowers. Their ungulate dentition allows them to make short work of even the toughest plant life, giving them a role almost like a miniaturized goat as they dutifully graze. Of course, given their tiny size, the phenacodontids are often targets of predators; when faced with one, they immediately group together into a herd and bolt, with stragglers usually falling prey to whatever is attacking them. Dromaeosaurs and various predatory mammals tend to be the main predators, but humans do occasionally eat them - however, they don't have nearly enough meat on them to really be worth the effort. Besides their speed, the only real defense of the hoofrat is its fast reproduction - it actually has a gestation period and maturity time similar to the rodent, give or take a few weeks and months, respectively. Furthermore, they're small enough that they can simply duck into the ferns and hide in there, out of sight of most hunters.


Ogre horse
Equitherium mirabilis (Remarkable horse beast)

Another bizarre primitive ungulate that has made a home for itself in the Tsuni Prairie is the ogre horse, an immense and bizarre member of the already-bizarre chalicothere family. The family has done fairly well for itself in Palkragar, evolving into a wide array of species, but the ogre horse is by far the largest of the ones that can be found on the Tsuni Prairie, and is also among the most fearsome herbivores there.

Standing at a massive 15 feet at the shoulder with its head and neck adding another five or so feet to the total height and weighing in at over seven tons, this immense beast is utterly gargantuan. Its legs have become stronger and stockier, with the forelimbs in particular growing a bit longer in proportion to its body, with massive curved partially-retractable claws each measuring more than a foot long. Furthermore, its jaws have become stronger, the teeth becoming slightly sharper, and its upper incisors have developed into fangs like those of a male musk deer; it's even developed horns that evolved from an armored cranium, two on the top of the head like those of Synthetoceras and a rhinoceros-like one on the nose. Dark brown in color with black brindling over the shoulders and back, it looks like something out of a fantasy novel, a weird mishmash of animals into one bizarre whole.

Largely solitary but occasionally found in groups of up to five, ogre horses are largely herbivorous, tearing up shrubs with their claws and grazing upon ferns and ground plants as well as knocking down trees to browse upon the leaves. However, they're fully capable of feeding upon carrion and smaller animals - the chalicotheres' massive claws can kill prey animals just as well as they can tear up greenery, and they can charge with surprising speed in short bursts of nearly 38 mph to catch up to their prey. There are recorded instances of animals like wolfhawks attempting to ambush an ogre horse, only for the chalicothere to turn on the would-be predator and devour it instead. Hunting such a beast is a daunting task; ogre horses have thick, tough hide that can weather blows from most spears and arrows, and like surface world Cape buffalo, their skulls are sturdy enough that not much short of a shot through the eye and into the brain can get through the head; furthermore, they are more than strong enough to trash good-sized vehicles with blows from their deadly talons and horned heads. The creatures also have surprising cunning; they will often disappear into thick brush, then double back and leave a blood trail for their attacker to follow before bursting out from behind to rip, gore, stomp, and crush them into a bloody mess. Stories of ogre horses going mad and attacking humans after being wounded from a hunter's weapon are all too common; one of the most infamous of these tales is that of 'Grimm Eddy,' an unusually wiry ash-colored male with very large, pronounced claws whose mother was killed by hunters for her unique jet-black coloration. Eddy would then terrorize the Tsuni Prairie for over three decades, ending up with a kill count of nearly 180 before he was finally brought down - some, however, claim to report sightings of the beast at his old haunts nearly 45 years after his demise.

Calves are born in ones and twos after a pregnancy of roughly 18 months, with the young taking roughly 9-11 years to grow to sexual maturity; usually, the same pair of ogre horses will come to each other again and again each mating season, with the father helping to care for the offspring until they can walk and eat solid food, then splitting off to live on his own again.


Unlaphant
Pseudoelephas macrodonta (Large-toothed false elephant)

A bizarre creature found along the border brush between the Tsuni Prairie and the Tsunka Forest, the unlaphant is an amynodont, a group of animals that never really did too well on the surface, but have done pretty well for themselves in Palkragar. There's quite a few species in the marshes of the heart, but the unlaphant is by far the largest and most derived, becoming a terrestrial herbivore of immense size.

Greatly resembling an elephant in its general body plan, as per its name, the unlaphant still has quite a few differences from its namesake. The feet have definite hooves, large and curved like claws, and head is more like a tapir, complete with a fairly long trunk, albeit with massive fang-like tusks on the upper jaws that jut out from past the lips, shaped like the chin tusks of Deinotherium. The ears are also very small compared to the rest of the body; the skin is fairly wrinkled to maximize surface area. They're roughly the same size as the more social mastodons that they coexist with, but their stocky build means that they weight a bit more at nearly 7 tons.

Much like surface elephants, unlaphants move in small matriarchal herds of up to a dozen animals while adolescent males move in bachelor herds and adult ones live alone, feeding on virtually any vegetation that they can find. They'll dig up roots with their tusks and claws, graze upon ferns, strip bark from trees, browse with their powerful trunks if not just knocking them down, and even raiding the fields of farmers and eating their crops; the latter habit makes them highly destructive pests, although a few farmers have managed to capture young unlaphants and raise them as draft animals. Pregnancy lasts a little bit shorter than a surface elephant, and the calves grow to maturity roughly a week or so before an elephant calf of the same age would. While they're far from pushovers, they are often preyed upon by the various predators of the prairie, from the plains butcher to the Palkragar running bear.


Palkragar running bear
Arctodus tsunensis (Tsuni bear tooth)

A massive mammalian predator that originally arrived from Therobis, the Palkragar running bear is one of the large mammalian predators to be found on the Tsuni Prairie, having grown to tremendous size with the presence of such plentiful big game.

Standing nearly 8 feet tall at the shoulder and weighing in at over 4,300 lbs., these tremendous ursines are one of the largest bears to ever live on this planet, standing over 18 feet tall when they rear up on their hind legs. The legs have packed on additional muscle since arriving in Palkragar, the claws on the front paws have grown longer, and a midsized bison-like hump of muscle supported by high neural spines above the shoulders gives the bear a hyena-like sloped back, supporting the muscles of the thick neck and the massive jaws, which have grown even toothier and more robust in order to better tackle the tougher armored prey of the heart. The fur is relatively thin fur and is a light cinnamon in color, with a pale V-shaped mark on the chest like a moon bear that extends up to over the shoulders, giving the animal the nickname of 'collared bear'.

The lifestyle of the Palkragar running bear hasn't changed much from its ancestors - it's a pursuit predator, galloping after large animals like hadrosaurs and ungulates at speeds of nearly 35 mph and bowling it over before going to town with its massive jaws and terrible claws, although they will also steal kills from other predators. Even plains butchers are wary around the mammalian giants; they're regarded as demons made flesh by the Kiro, and killing them save for in self-defense is considered taboo for fear of incurring the wrath of its more incorporeal fellows.

Reproduction and mating seasons roughly coincide with the surface grizzly bear, but pregnancy is typically a few few weeks longer. Like all bears, collared bears are murderously protective over their young; unlike their surface cousins, though, the mother will often bring small animals to their cubs to teach them how to properly kill prey.


Devilhorn
Diabloceras rubracolla (Red-necked devil horn)

While brontotheres have taken up some quite strange niches across Palkragar, they have changed very little on the Tsuni Prairie; the huge carpets of ferns that cover the area, free of competition from ceratopsians thanks to natural barriers, are a paradise come to life for them, affording the animals with the opportunity to grow bigger and badder than anything up on the surface. One of the largest and most charismatic of these gargantuan beasts is the devilhorn, a mammal that rivals Triceratops in sheer size and in its horn array.

Standing nearly 11 feet tall at the shoulder and measuring about 20 feet in length, the devilhorn is structured very similarly to its surface world ancestors, but it is much stockier and more heavily built, with thicker skin almost like a rhinoceros', but it is the head that is most impressive. Like surface brontotheres, it too has developed horns from the cranial pads of its ancestors, but they are a far cry from the strictly ornamental arrangements of its extinct relatives. Growing above and just before the eyes are this immense animal's trademark ceratopsian-like horns, each one nearly a meter and a half long and curving upwards in a similar manner to Africa's Arsinoitherium. But while the unrelated embrithopod's headgear served mainly for display and to broadcast its calls, the devilhorn's cranial ornamentation is geared for defense against the allosaurs, mesonychids, bear-dogs, and other predators that it shares its habitat with. Like surface rhinos, they can charge with shocking speed at nearly 18 mph, allowing them to easily close the distance between themselves and attackers to bring their terrible horns into play

Devilhorns are largely solitary, only coming together during mating season. During this time, males will clash in a similar manner to the ceratopsians, locking horns and engaging in violent shoving matches; older males often sport dozens of scars earned from these bouts. After mating, the male and female will retire to the edge of the Tsunka forest, where they will remain until the calves are born 18 months later, usually singly although two calves aren't unknown. The male will take his leave roughly a month after his children are born, leaving the mother to care for the calves until they depart three to four years later, upon which she too will return to the plains. It will take another four years or so for the young devilhorns to grow to full size, but they are still only slightly smaller than African elephants at this age, and their horns have already grown in - few creatures are willing to trifle with them, although some of the largest predators of the prairie can manage.


Rhinophant
Behemotherium acrocanthus (High-spined behemoth beast)

Another gigantic brontothere native to the Prairie, the rhinophant is a relative to the devilhorn that has developed into a decidedly different role; rather than use horns to defend itself, it has elected to go for titanic size.

Rivaling the indricotheres of Agartha and Fantasia in sheer size, the rhinophant has a massively built body with straight column-like legs and a long, thick neck held horizontally with a fairly small head devoid of any armor or ornamentation. Measuring nearly 35 feet in length, these gigantic brontotheres weigh even more than the long-extinct Indricotherium at roughly 35 tons and stand over 14 feet tall at the shoulder, but their total height is roughly 18 feet, thanks to the heightened neural spines down its back from above the shoulders to above the pelvis that serve as anchoring points for the powerful neck muscles and form a tall sail that starts at roughly 4 feet in height, then quickly slopes down until it's little more than a ridge above the hip.

Fairly social creatures that move in herds of up to eight or ten animals, rhinophants spend most of their day moving slowly across the fern prairie, sweeping their necks from side to side as they constantly tear up ferns, only chewing minimally as they gulp the plants down; to compensate for this, their intestines are considerably longer than those of a typical animal their size. Predators that aren't fazed by the rhinophant's sheer size are warded off by another form of defense; much like the apatosaurines of the Jurassic, the immense brontothere can swing its neck around like a giraffe's to bludgeon foes and competitors for mates.

Females give birth to anywhere from one to three calves that stay with their mother for up to four years, reaching sexual maturity and full size at age eight, upon which the offspring strike out and form their own herd, usually merging their herd with the first group of youngsters that they happen across as a safeguard against inbreeding. However, these new herds are often vulnerable to predation from the prairie's various predators.


Timber sloth
Gigantonyx imperator (Giant emperor claw)

Ground sloths have done fairly well for themselves in Palkragar, so much so that in some cases, they have actually edged out chalicotheres in several places. Browsers by nature but able to stomach most plant life, they were easily able to adapt to Palkragar’s vegetation, and their immense claws, great size and strength, and chainmail-like coats of osteoderms provided ample protection against predators. One of the largest species to be found within Palkragar is the timber sloth (Gigantonyx imperator), a titanic native to the forests that surround the Tsuni Prairie that exceeds even the surface world's Megatherium in sheer size, occasionally venturing out into the plains to graze upon fresh fern shoots.

Standing at a massive 23 feet tall when rearing up on its hind legs and often exceeding six tons in weight, the timber sloth is one of the largest ground sloths to ever exist - it has to be in order to stand a chance against the various predatory dinosaurs that it shares the heart with, as well as to reach the higher-up plant life of its habitat. In order to support its tremendous size, its body has gone through considerable physiological changes: the claws on its feet are blunt and hoof-like, allowing the animal to walk in a digitigrade stance like other mammals rather than on the sides of its feet like other ground sloths in the fossil record, a stand that better supports its immense weight. It also sports callus-like pads of thick hardened skin on its knuckles; when moving on all fours, it walks on these knuckle pads, providing it with a better grip as it walks. The tail is also wider and thicker, used as a support for the sloth when it rears up on its hind legs, and the rich golden brown fur is much thinner than its ancestors', a necessity to keep the titanic animal cool in the warm environment of the heart.

Solitary by nature, timber sloths, like their ancestors, are primarily browsers, reaching up with their long powerful arms and pulling down high-up greenery, but they are fully capable of feeding upon lower-growing plants and roughage, uprooting shrubs and digging up roots with ease. The gigantic sloths are also not unwilling to feed on meat from time to time, ripping open trees to feed on the grubs under the bark or even chasing small predators away from their kills.

Timber sloth males are a bit bigger than the females, and battle one another fiercely over the right to mate with a female, charging at one another and slashing with their claws, backhanding one another, and even locking arms and wrestling until one drops from either death or exhaustion, with the winner earning the right to mate. Young are born one at a time after an 11-month pregnancy and are cared for by the mother until they reach maturity at about 15 years old; they are quite vulnerable to predation at this stage of their lives, as the osteoderms that protect them during adulthood have yet to fully harden. However, going after a timber sloth cub is an extremely dangerous task: these megafauna are already strong enough to go toe to toe with fully-grown theropod dinosaurs and come out victorious, and they are even more ferocious fighters when defending their young. During the Palkragarian War, several of these sloths were captured and used as war beasts, where they proved incredibly useful in smashing through enemy lines and wading through ranks of infantry. However, their massive food requirements and relatively slow speed resulted in the animals having limited use.


Hogsloth
Choeronychus inexpectatus (Unexpected pig-claw)

One of the more unusual ground sloths to be found in Palkragar, the hogsloth is a huge creature slightly smaller than the Megalonyx that it evolved from that, unlike the closely related timber sloth, spends its entire life out on the Tsuni Prairie, grazing upon ferns.

In terms of appearance, the hogsloth most closely resembles the long-extinct pantodont mammal Barylambda - it is fully quadrupedal, with fairly long front and hind limbs of roughly equal length, a stocky barrel-shaped body, and a short thick neck with a fairly large mammalian skull as well as a long, thick tail roughly 5 feet in length that drags along the ground. However, there are quite a few differences between the pantodont and the sloth: the digitigrade hind feet are tipped with blunt hoof-like nails, while the claws on the front feet are large and curved almost like those of a badger. They are primarily a dusty brown in color, although males have a ruff of rust red fur down the back of the neck and over the shoulders like the mane of a hyena.

Largely solitary animals, hogsloths aren't picky eaters, feeding on virtually anything that it comes across; the jaws are more robust than its extinct ancestors, as are the teeth, more suitable for grinding up the ferns and flowers that carpet the prairie; likewise, the claws are large and curved, used to unearth roots and shrubs and to defend the animal from predators. They also still have the subdermal osteoderms of their ancestors, keeping the sloths safe from most predators, but quite a few animals are known to prey upon them - wolfhawks, for instance, will knock the animal over and rip open the unarmored belly, while the dreadbeast has the jaw power to simply crunch through the armor.

Cubs are born in litters of four to six animals and are cared for by the mother until they reach sexual maturity at five years of age - their osteoderms haven't finished growing in at this point yet, so the young hogsloths retreat into the forests, utilizing cryptic mottled coloration like a young tapir to hide themselves within the thick foliage.


Dreadbeast
Phobotherium horridus (Horrible terror beast)

One of the largest mammalian predators of the Tsuni Prairie, the dreadbeast is a massive apex predator that is descended from the highly successful genus Hyaenodon; specifically, from the smaller species that escaped extinction by taking shelter in the heart. These small creodonts then diversified into a wide range of forms, from fox-like carnivores to big boar-like omnivores and even dainty dik-dik-like herbivores, but much like they were on the surface, most of them were driven to extinction upon the arrival of more intelligent mammalian predators. The dreadbeast, however, has stubbornly refused to go quietly, adopting a rather unique strategy of survival: sheer size and aggression.

Standing at a towering eleven feet tall at the shoulder and measuring nearly twenty-five feet in length, the dreadbeast isn't just the largest creodont to ever live - it's among the largest terrestrial predators ever produced by the mammal family, weighing more than an Indian elephant. The body is massively built, almost like a bear mixed with a boar in general shape; the forequarters are bulkier than the hindquarters, with a hyena-like sloped back, and forelimbs that are a little bit longer than the hindlimbs and sport four large curved talons on each front paw. The neck is very short and thick, while the skull is massively built and sports elongated jaws almost like that of the unrelated Andrewsarchus in shape, bristling with razor-sharp fangs and sharp-edged slicing molars. The ears are small, and it doesn't have a wet nose like a carnivoran, instead having nostrils like those of a horse; on the opposite end of the body is a quite long and fairly thin tail that adds four or five feet to the creature's total length. In terms of coloration, the majority of the dreadbeast's body is tan in coloration, with a reddish-brown ridge of fur going down from the back of the neck to the small of the back and similarly-colored tiger-like stripes.

Solitary animals, dreadbeasts are among the Tsuni Prairie's apex predators, tackling even large dinosaurs by bowling them over in a sudden burst of speed before finishing the job with its massive jaws; faster animals are simply walked after, wearing them out through endurance rather than waste too much energy. Even heavily armored prey is not safe from the titanic creodont's deadly jaws, which can exert nearly 3,500 psi of pressure; a necessary adaptation for crushing bones and biting through the armor of its prey. Primarily, however, dreadbeasts are kleptoparasites, driving off smaller predators from their kills or bullying scavengers away from carrion.

Young are born in litters of up to five cubs, and follow after their mother until they're roughly the size of grizzly bears at seven years old, upon which they depart and head off on their own; it will take another four or five years before they grow to full size - lacking much in the way of combat experience, it's not uncommon for these adolescents, colloquially known as 'punks,' to meet their end at the claws and jaws of other carnivores.


Tick bat
Purgipterx dermascenda (Skin-climbing cleaning wing)

Living in caves as they do, bats are practically a given species to be found within the hearts, and Palkragar is no exception. Although they face considerable competition from the likes of birds and pterosaurs, hundreds of varieties still exist all across the heart; one of the most unusual of these is the tick bat, a creature that makes itself useful by cleaning the massive creatures of the Tsuni Prairie like airborne cleaner wrasses.

Extremely small animals at roughly the size of a big brown bat, tick bats don't look like they've changed that much at first glance, but a closer look quickly proves otherwise. Their hind legs are unusually strong for a bat's, and the claws on the feet are much larger than average; similarly, the thumb claws on the wings are large and heavy, almost like the sickle claws of a dromaeosaur. The head is also quite large in proportion to its body, with a pair of large tusk-like incisor teeth on the lower jaw that jut forwards out of the mouth before curving upwards slightly about halfway along their length.

Tick bats follow after large herbivores as they meander across the plains in flocks of several dozen, swooping and darting close among the much larger creatures in hot pursuit of something that megafauna everywhere attract in droves - hordes of biting, stinging insects. Millions of bugs constantly harass the gargantuan denizens of the plains in an ever-shifting cloud, sporting all manner of biological weaponry in order to pierce the scales, fur, and hides of their prey and drain their bodily fluids. Such swarms of insects are a veritable buffet for these little bats, and their great appetites, rivaling if not exceeding that of their surface cousins, make them more than up for the job of thinning the numbers of these swarms by immense degrees. Tick bats will even alight upon large animals and climb over their bodies in a similar manner to surface world vampire bats, snapping up skin parasites, pulling off scraps of old scales and fur, and ambushing blood-sucking insects when they come in for a landing.

Despite their common nature, little is known about how tick bats breed; all that is known is that they give birth to one or two pups which are raised by the mother while the father brings back food for her.
 


Birds and Dinosaurs:


Magnificerr
Magnificeras ingens (Splendid magnificent horn)

Hadrosaurs have always played a large part in Palkragar's ecosystem since they arrived in the Late Cretaceous, present in nearly environment in the heart thanks to their ability to stomach all manner of plant matter, and the Tsuni Praire is no exception. Here there dwells one of the more flamboyant species of the heart's hadrosaurs; a lambeosaurine believed to be descended from Parasaurolophus itself, the magnificerr (Rhymes with Lucifer).

Measuring nearly 25 feet long (Males can reach around 28 feet) and weighing more than an African elephant, the magnificerr is a member of the graviohadrids, a group of hadrosaurs that seems to have become fully quadrupedal to better support a much larger, bulkier body; over two dozen varieties live in both Palkragar and Therobis, all with a largely similar body plan - The front limbs are much sturdier so as to permanently support the body's weight, while the hind limbs have shortened quite a bit, making the hadrosaur's limbs all roughly the same length. The fingers on the front feet aren't fused, instead having three blunt-clawed fingers on each hand, while the toes on the hind feet have become shorter and blunter, now matching the front feet; one or two more bizarre species have enlarged middle claws while the first and third toes have shrunken. The magnificerr, however, is not one of those; it has the standard three hoof-like toes instead. What sets it apart from other gravihadrids, though, is its cranial ornamentation. The swept-back crest of its Cretaceous ancestor has grown longer and broader, and has only become even more elaborate: it curves forward instead of downwards now and is ornamented with ridges like those on the horns of an antelope, as well as several pairs of prongs growing from the sides that curve forwards like the main horn does. The throat of the male is a deep vibrant crimson, and can be inflated like that of a frog, and the relatively unchanged beak, like the crest, is a dull orange in the males; females have chestnut brown beaks and crests, the latter of which is much less elaborate in them. The rest of the body is decidedly more bland, a mottled green and brown in both genders; however, the males have a two lines of golden spots that sandwich the neural spines in between them for further display.

Magnificerr move in small herds of up to a dozen animals, with each male usually mating with two or three females; the males are responsible for defending the herd from predators, charging and bellowing as loud as they can with the aid of the hollow crests, which acts like a resonating chamber in much the same fashion as its Cretaceous ancestor's. However, the real purpose that males find for said crests only becomes apparent during mating season; during this time, males will face one another in what can only be described as 'singing matches' - the hadrosaurs will face one another, then as one begin to belt out a booming, eerie chorus of loud moaning calls that can carry for miles, with the one with the most elaborate song getting pick of the choicest females. Many Kiro bards have used these eerie songs as the basis for epic works of their own.

Each member of a male's harem lays their clutch of up to two dozen eggs in a communal nesting mound, with the males of the herd guarding the nesting grounds from would-be predators. While smaller craftier predators do occasionally get past the males, they still aren't in the clear - even female magnificerr will charge at nest thieves, and their relative lack of ornamentation doesn't change the fact that they outweigh full-grown elephants. The young travel with the herd for up to eight years, then usually split off in separate bachelor herds of males and females until they find a herd with potential mates.


Horodor
Hadrobellator dreadnoughtus (Sturdy warrior that fears nothing)

The horodor (Rhymes with 'toreador') is a quadrupedal relative of the magnificerr that about as far as one can get from the popular conception of hadrosaurs as docile sweet-tempered reptilian cattle; instead of adopting speed or herding behavior for defense, it has chosen to stand and fight rather than take flight.

Measuring over 45 feet long, standing over 13 feet tall at the shoulder, and weighing in at more than 13 tons, the horodor is easily among the largest animals to be found within the Tsuni Prairie, with the bulky body and stocky legs typical of all graviohadrids. A bison-like hump of muscle is situated above the shoulders, supported by tall neural spines, and its toes sport large curved claws like a tapir's mixed with a badger's, while the tail is very long and muscular, with a twelve-spined thagomizer on the end with spikes that jut backwards before curving upwards and forwards. It's decidedly drab in color, with a dull brown scaled hide and a pale underbelly separated by a broad dark brown-black line, with a similarly-colored line down its spine and ash grey crests; however, it is the head that grabs the viewer's attention the most. Gone is the strictly ornamental crest of the its ancestors - in its place, the horodor has developed a truly fearsome array of horns. The cranium is armored with a hard, flat plate of armor shaped like a teardrop that widens from its starting point at roughly halfway down the snout to where it ends at the back of the head. A pair of horns jut directly outwards from above the eyes, angled backwards slightly before curving upwards - each horn is over two meters in length and wickedly sharp. Another horn grows from between the eyes, jutting forwards at a 45-degree angle and curving upwards, and the jaws are robust and powerful with a jagged-edged beak. And finally, its body sports two rows of raised arrowhead-shaped osteoderms that run from above the shoulders to about halfway down the tail like stegosaur plates, getting smaller as they go down towards the tail.

Massive and solitary, horodors are incredibly aggressive animals; like the cape buffalo, they can and will attack and kill predators that try to get too close to them, charging like a rhinoceros before trampling, goring, and pulverizing its opponents; its powerful tail ensures that attacking it from behind is just as bad of an idea as going head-on, and its tough scales act like organic chainmail. It's also fully capable of metabolizing animal protein; small to midsized animals, carrion, and bones are all on the menu for it right alongside ferns, shrubs, flowers, rotting wood, and leaves. This ability to eat nearly anything, combined with their incredible strength and natural weaponry, makes them nearly untouchable by virtually all predators, including humans: most small-scale firearms can't get through their heavy skulls and chain mail-like scales, and they display an incredible resistance to pain, shrugging off most wounds to just keep on coming. Several legends exist of horodors standing against entire armies and coming out victorious - while these are clearly exaggerated, the massive dinosaurs are still known for killing apex predators like plains butchers and dreadbeasts.

These hadrosaurs lay their eggs much like sauropods, laying a large clutch of over five dozen cryptically-colored eggs in a buried nest before abandoning them, with the offspring hatching roughly 8 months later and moving in a small group. Most of them will get eaten before the age of three, with sexual maturity being reached at age five; they reach full size at eight years old.


Runnerdome
Dromaeotholus cursorialis (Cursorial running-dome)

In contrast to the horodor is the runnerdome, a member of the pachycephalosaur family that, unlike its more aggressive relatives found throughout Palkragar, prefers to flee rather than fight. Standing around 2 meters tall and measuring roughly 6.5 meters long, it is much more lightly-built than its ancestors from the surface, with long powerful legs, a slimmer body, grasping four-fingered hands, and a fairly elongated neck that has a smaller head than its ancestors, with only a smooth inch-thick cranial dome remaining of the headgear. Its body is covered in pebbly brown scales with a lighter underside and a reddish-brown line down the spine with bongo-like stripes splitting from the main line; a double row of large raised scales runs down the length of the elongated tail.

Moving in herds of dozens of animals, runnerdomes are surprisingly dainty herbivores that act like ornithomimid dinosaurs, grazing on ground-dwelling and mid-level plants and fleeing from predators at top speeds of over 56 mph. If cornered, however, they can still fight, but not with their heads; instead, they attack with mule-like kicks and lashing blows from their powerful tails. They're also known for moving alongside herds of bigger animals like hadrosaurs and megafaunal mammals, enjoying the protection that the other animals provide while acting like sentries, sniffing out approaching predators and sounding a loud bugling call of alarm to the rest of the herd, allowing them to flee before the hunter can strike.

Runnerdomes lay eggs in clutches of over three dozen at a time and within buried nests of earth in communal nesting sites; they often share nesting sites with hadrosaurs and leptoceratopsids, the larger animals providing protection. These eggs take nearly 50 days to hatch, with both parents caring for the young and bringing the offspring along with them when the herds move on. Sexual maturity is reached at around 4 or 5 years old.


Plains butcher
Macellonychus tsunensis (Butcher claw of the Tsuni Prairie)

One of the largest dinosaurian predators of the Tsuni Prairie is in fact a living fossil in a land of living fossils - the plains butcher, a relic of Palkragar's Jurassic fauna and one of the last allosaurs within the heart. Its ancestors were driven from their long-held niche of sauropod hunters millions of years ago by the larger, burlier tyrannosaurs, but the dense Tsunka Forests have acted like a shield, preventing competition from reaching the Tsuni Prairie and allowing the allosaurs to survive here.

Plains butchers can grow to 35 feet long and weigh in at around 2.5 tons, and are handsomely colored in bronze scales with broad black stripes, the only traces of integument on its body taking the form of small spines down the back of its neck and over the back and shoulders; rather than stay similar to their ancestors like most living fossils, however, it seems that these allosaurs have evolved convergently to megaraptorans. The arms of these dinosaurs are nearly three times the length of the famous Allosaurus, almost able to reach the ground, and are much more powerfully built. Furthermore, each finger is tipped with a massive razor-sharp scythe-shaped claw nearly a meter in length. These massive claws are utilized in the butcher's primary means of killing prey; rather than hunting sauropods and other giant animals with the expanding jaws of their ancestors, the allosaurs prefer to use their long, powerful arms, ripping open massive bloody wounds into larger prey with the talons or using the claws to hold the struggling, squirming animal in place before delivering bite after massive bloody bite. It's even been known to simply carry off people and livestock - the plains butcher is more than strong enough to lift up and carry cow-sized animals. This is further aided by the structure of the wrists: they lack the crescent-shaped bone in most theropods that keeps the hand locked in a supinated position, instead having a setup rather similar to humans - a necessary adaptation for gripping struggling prey without causing damage to the allosaur's hands. Its legs have also adapted; the proportions of the hind limbs are similar to a tyrannosaur's, allowing the plains butcher to keep walking for extended periods of time either after wounded prey or to get to far-off sources of carrion.

For most of their lives, these allosaurs are largely solitary animals, although they do occasionally band together in groups of up to five or six when stalking large herds of prey; however, they mate for life, with the two working together to bring down their prey. Eggs are laid in a bowl-shaped nest in groups of eight or ten, with the male guarding the nest as the female hunts for the entire 110-day incubation period. The russet-colored fluffy hatchlings will stay with their parents for over two and a half years, learning to hunt and survive before they strike out on their own, with sexual maturity being reached at age twelve.


Wolfhawk
Lycaoraptor familiaris (Familiar wolf thief)

One of the most formidable predators of the Tsuni Prairie is a relic from the Late Cretaceous, a descendant of dromaeosaurs such as Deinonychus and Dromaeosaurus. While it is far from the largest or the swiftest of Palkragar’s predatory dinosaurs, it still has left a major impact on the humans of the heart, having been domesticated by the Kiro.

Standing at roughly the height of a grown man, Lycaoraptor haven’t changed so much from their ancestors as to be unrecognizable, but they have changed regardless. The hind legs are much longer and stronger than the dromaeosaurs of the Cretaceous period, more suited for long-distance running and seeing over the grasses of their native habitat. The skull has also changed considerably; the jaws are much more robust, with narrow blade-like teeth almost like those of a carcharodontosaur suited for slicing through flesh, and the eyes face forward to allow for binocular vision. The dinosaur’s arms are also quite a bit longer and more muscular than those of its ancestors, with larger claws and more flexible wrists, thanks to the distinctive half moon-shaped bone in the wrist being greatly atrophied - in an environment without trees, there’s no real need to keep their wrists stiff for gliding. The body is covered in smooth brown-tan plumage with yellow scales over the hands, feet, and snout; the males have a crest of rust red feathers on the top of the head that can be raised while excited and lowered when not in use. While bereft of crests, female Lycaoraptors are considerably larger than the males and quite a bit more robust, standing nearly a head taller.

Highly social animals, these dromaeosaurs rove across the prairie in packs of up to twenty animals, with one female mating with a harem of males whenever she feels like it - without seasons, there’s no real impetus to have a set mating season. Males in the harem will compete with one another for the right to mate through displaying to one another via flashing their crests, bobbing their heads, and swishing their tails from side to side while hissing loudly. Eggs are laid in clutches of six to eight, and take roughly 50 days or so to incubate. Male offspring are driven off as soon as they are old enough to survive on their own at around two years of age, sticking together in bachelor flocks until they find various harems to join; females, however, stay for up to a year longer, learning from their mother about how to properly lead the pack.

Large to midsized mammals and dinosaurs are the typical prey for the wolfhawk, dispatched by the whole pack working as a unit, but if separated from their pack, they’re perfectly capable of tackling larger ground birds, pursuing smaller reptiles and mammals, and in the case of some populations, even fishing in shallow rivers. They are also extremely intelligent animals, even when compared to mammals, coming up with different strategies to bring down different prey items that vary considerably from population to population - these strategies are taught by the females to their daughters, who will go on to teach said strategies to their mates and even tweak them slightly for different prey items. Kiro huntsmen often boast that their dinosaurian hunting companions are just as smart as any dog, if not more so, although this is up for debate.

Speaking of which, the wolfhawk is perhaps one of the most impactful dinosaurs upon Palkragarian culture for one simple reason; it has been domesticated by the Kiro people for use as hunting companions. Unlike hunting cats, these dinosaurs are naturally suited for the open grasslands, and their intelligence means that it’s quite easy to train them to do certain tasks; furthermore, while they do not imprint upon the first thing they see, wolfhawks raised among humans will quickly consider them to be part of the same pack, and will defend them accordingly. Various breeds of domesticated wolfhawks do exist, but they are generally no more distinct than having certain color morphs or different calls. Contrary to what some city slickers believe, however, this isn’t due to the Kiro being unable to breed their dinosaurs, but a simple case of practicality - why modify what is already perfect for its allotted role?


Storkhawk
Dolichopenna ophidophagus (Long-footed snake eater)

Stalking across the Tsuni Prairie is a peculiar bird that looks like a seriema mixed with a stork, albeit with small, useless wings; standing at eye level to a grown man, it has long powerful legs, tiny useless wings, and an elongated skull with a long hooked beak. The body is covered in reddish-brown feathers, while the neck is ivory white, the head and throat are dark red, and the tips of the wing and tail feathers are butter-yellow. Predators of smaller reptiles, mammals, and dinosaurs, these animals typically swallow their prey whole with the help of a somewhat elastic gular pouch, much like a stork or a pelican; larger prey is torn into bite-sized pieces with the hooked tip of the beak and the talons on the feet.

This creature is neither a stork nor a hawk, but a bathornid, a lineage of flightless predatory birds that lived across the surface of North America during the Oligocene, surviving and thriving in an environment filled with megafaunal mammals; when they arrived in Palkragar, they easily adapted, already used to living alongside much bigger, badder predators. Unlike its ancient cousins, the storkhawk mainly goes for prey much smaller than itself, but it won’t pass up carrion when the opportunity arises.

Eggs are laid in clutches of two or three, with both parents taking turns incubating them until they hatch roughly 34 days later. Sexual maturity is reached at age four, but the offspring usually depart at around two and a half, moving in small flocks of siblings and working together to down small prey.



Reptiles:


Riprunner
Velocisuchus adaptabilis (Adaptable speedy crocodile)

A relative of the rippertooth, the riprunner is another species of late-surviving rauisuchian that has taken a niche not unlike that of a coyote or a serval up on the surface. Unlike the larger coast-dweller, it took a very different approach to survival than size and aggression: sheer adaptability.

Riprunners look very much like their ancestors, but they're very sleek and lightly built, with long strong legs that sport the same thumb claw as the rippertooth, a thin elongated tail, a slender skull with forwards-facing eyes and meat-slicing teeth, and a dull straw-yellow scaly hide with dark brownish-black brindling. Essentially, the bauplan is like a cheetah mixed with a coyote in general shape, set in the mold of a rauisuchian.

In an environment filled with all manner of predators, the riprunner has developed a simple, yet unique solution to so much competition - instead of eating one sort of prey, it will eat anything. They're just as comfortable with chasing down small to midsized animals either alone or in packs and dispatching them with their sickle claws and slicing teeth as they are with digging up insects and burrowing animals, scavenging carrion, raiding nests and hatchlings, even swimming after fish in rivers and ponds and climbing trees in pursuit of birds and other arboreal creatures. It doesn't matter how many competitors are in the same area; no matter what food source is being taken advantage of already, the rauisuchians will find a way to keep themselves fed. They're also known to raid Kiro settlements, breaking into homes, raiding trash piles, and even making off with young animals.

Mating season lasts from February to April, with the female laying a clutch of eight or nine eggs in a mound nest incubated  of decomposing plant matter, guarding them alongside her mate but leaving the father to take care of the young as soon as they hatch roughly 54 days later. The male then teaches the young how to survive until they can hunt for themselves at age two, upon which the young rauisuchians will leave the nest in a small pack of their own, working together to hunt until they are old enough to survive for themselves at six years old.


Pebbleback dragon
Megaheloderma platensis (Great sun-skin of the prairies)

One of the largest lizards to be found on the Tsuni Prairie, the pebbleback dragon is a colossal helodermatid that evolved from stock that arrived in Palkragar roughly 65 million years ago, escaping the K-Pg Extinction in the heart. Nowadays, helodermatids are more successful here and in Therobis than they are on the surface, with dozens and dozens of species having adapted into all manner of habitats. The pebbleback dragon, for one, has evolved convergently with the Late Cretaceous Palaeosaniwa, which is indeed believed to be a fairly close cousin to the helodermatids, in that it is a predator of vertebrates, particularly reptiles and young dinosaurs.

Measuring around 11 feet in length and weighing up to 250 lbs., the pebbleback dragon outsizes any modern-day lizard species found on the surface, with a body plan similar to the distantly-related Komodo dragon, but much more massively built. The limbs are stockier, the tail is thicker and stronger, and the jaws are more rounded and more robust, with narrow blade-like teeth similar to those of a varanid lining said jaws; as per the course for most helodermatids, its scaled skin is tough and pebbly, acting much like organic chainmail, and is colored in a mosaic of dozens of shades of brown, cream, muddy green, and dark grey in order to camouflage itself. And like most helodermatids, pebbleback dragons are venomous; specifically, they carry a neurotoxin that targets the cardiovascular system, paralyzing the heart and killing quickly. The venom tends not to be fatal in organisms outside of the lizard's typical range of prey, which is usually animals of about the size and/or weight of a wolf or a wild boar, just extremely painful and can leave victims hospitalized for months, but it's entirely possible for human-sized creatures to expire from it, especially if the dose administered is large enough; and unfortunately, pebbleback dragons administer quite a lot of venom, thanks to their habit of 'chewing' the venom into prey. Despite their venom, however, the huge helodermatids are quite shy, reclusive animals towards humans, and do not consider grown adults as typical prey; almost three quarters of all recorded bites on humans occurring because the victim stuck their hands into the lizard's hiding spot without looking and spooked it, with the rest being from hungry lizards that attacked people out of desperation. That said, a good percentage of these cases were children that got too curious, and most of those kids ended up dead; as such, the pebbleback dragon has a nasty reputation of being a child killer.

These tremendous lizards are largely ambush predators, lying in wait in the grass or in crevices in rocks and lunging out to ambush prey with a quick, powerful bite to administer as much venom as possible, usually grappling with the front claws to hold its prey in place. Animals that manage to escape and die farther away are easily tracked down with the aid of the lizard's Jacobson's organ and its long varanid-like forked tongue; indeed, it is fully capable of active predation, and will do so from time to time. They also have a taste for eggs, often raiding the nests of dinosaurs and large birds to feast upon the nutritious treasure inside, as well as any hatchlings that may be present.

Males fight over females in the same manner as varanids, rearing up and wrestling with one another with the winner earning the right to mate. The female will then lay up to 50 eggs in a buried nest of soil, preferably in areas with thick brush or tree cover, then leave the young to hatch roughly 7 months later. The offspring tend to be more active than the adults, often dwelling in trees or skittering through the underbrush; they have to be when living amidst so many predators that would love to snap them up. Even the parents are known to eat their offspring, should they come across them.


Stalkerwing
Nonopteryx longipodis (Long-legged and wingless)

Among the more bizarre predators that can be found in the Tsuni Prairie is the stalkerwing, a massive pterosaur descended from the ground-stalking giants like Quetzalcoatlus and Hatzegopteryx - it has abandoned the skies and become a ground-stalking predator, using a mix of speed, claws, and a hacking, slicing beak to dispatch its prey.

Standing at nearly 20 feet tall and weighing roughly one and a half tons, the stalkerwing's body is much more powerful and robust than its ancestors, with a deeper chest, broader shoulders, and a sloped back like a hyena; the hind legs are also much longer and stronger, almost like those of a large theropod in general structure. The front limbs are long and powerful, set in a sprawl like a vampire bat's wings and with large curved claws on the front feet; the little finger has developed back into a normal digit; the wing membrane is totally gone. And finally, the neck has become fairly short and robust, with a large head and a deep, robust beak; the upper jaw is deeper than the lower jaw, and has a slight downwards hook. The animal's body is totally covered in leathery skin that is a dull orange-brown in color, with a hyena-like mane of brick red pycnofibers running down the back and shoulders.

Fast runners, stalkerwings are pursuit predators of smaller prey.... however, given their size, 'smaller' prey means animals up to the size of a horse. Able to run at over 35 mph for nearly half an hour at a time, very few creatures can escape the hunting pterosaurs; once the distance is closed, the stalkerwing lashes out with a front leg or the beak and knocks the prey to the ground, then clamps down with its beak and gets to work. Usually, prey is pinned down with a claw while the beak is used to rip it apart limb from limb, but they are also know to grab their prey and slam into into the ground like a roadrunner, or just swallow it whole, its elastic throat and gular pouch allowing it to handle the struggling of its meals. Even humans are on the pterosaurs' menu, although they won't go after large groups of people. However, they're not above scavenging; there are plenty of accounts of stalkerwings digging up graves and feasting on the bodies.

Unlike other pterosaurs in the heart, stalkerwing eggs hatch within the mother's body roughly 60 days after conception, with young being born in ones or twos and already able to run minutes after birth. Both parents care for the young, regurgitating food for them and eventually bringing back small animals for them to practice on. The offspring usually leave at around three years of age, reaching full size and sexual maturity about four years after that.


Dreadswoop
Deinopteryx ferox (Fierce terrible wing)

One of the largest pterosaurs to be found in Palkragar, the dreadswoop is a premier scavenger of not only the Tsuni Prairie, but in open environments all across the heart. Descended from rhamphorhynchid stock, it's changed drastically from its tiny ancestors, going from humble insectivores to an exceedingly nasty carnivore.

With a wingspan of over 25 feet across, standing nearly eight feet tall at ground level, and weighing more than 650 lbs., dreadswoops are much, much more heavily built than any surface-world pterosaur; their torsos are sturdy and robust, while the wings are broad and deep with powerful arms and large finger claws to match. The hind legs are likewise equipped with powerful muscles while the feet have blunt hoof-like claws. The neck is also quite short and thick, while the skull is robust and shaped somewhat like a wedge, with robust alligator-like jaws lined with stout steak knife-shaped teeth. Dark grey-brown in color, the body has a thin covering of silvery hair over the back and shoulders, but for the most part, dreadswoops are bald.

As their heavily-built bodies would suggest, dreadswoops aren't the best of flyers, but they manage to get by, launching themselves up into the air with a powerful leap and flapping hard for several beats to get to a good height before settling into a glide, flapping every so often to keep themselves airborne. As soon as the pterosaur's acute sense of smell picks up the reek of carrion, it is on the way, coming in for a landing and galloping towards the scene of the crime in a gait reminiscent of vampire bats. The pterosaurs' powerful jaws and sharp, sturdy teeth allows them to get through even the toughest hide and flesh, but they can't get through armor plates and bones; occasionally, though, dreadswoops will slam bones against rocks again and again to crack them open and get at the marrow within. If carrion is not available, however, the huge pterosaurs are fully capable of chasing after and devouring live prey, killing smaller animals with a single massive bite.

Dreadswoops nest on the ground in hilly areas, with each female laying about a dozen eggs per clutch that take roughly 3 months to hatch. The mother and father take turns guarding the nest while the other brings back food for its mate and offspring. The flaplings take almost a month to finally learn to fly and hunt on their own, but they stay with their parents for roughly two more months before they fly off.