Rivers, Lakes and Marshes
The freshwater habitats of Teratopia are distinctly menacing, being home to some rather fearful creatures. Rivers flow down from the upland rainforest and form river deltas and marshes. The larger lakes are to be found generally where rivers have changed course and left larger depressions.
The freshwater habitats of Teratopia are distinctly menacing, being home to some rather fearful creatures. Rivers flow down from the upland rainforest and form river deltas and marshes. The larger lakes are to be found generally where rivers have changed course and left larger depressions.
Cosesaurus is a tiny proto-bird no larger than a sparrow, being quite common along the banks of rivers and lakes. They prefer to feed on small snails, worms and insects that they find by foraging along the shoreline and amongst riparian vegetation. Though they can swim by paddling their webbed hind-feet, they mostly stay on the shore, as such a small creature has many predators, even decent-sized fish may snatch it. Cosesaurus can be found in small family groups, they mate for life, and eggs are laid in plant-fibre nests, hidden amongst shoreline vegetation. Their calls range from a quiet strained squeak to a chirring hiss when agitated.
Teratopian rivers thrive with small fish, shrimp and aquatic insects, and preying upon them is a small aquatic dinosaur related to Compsognathus. The Sinosauropteryx is even better adapted for the water than its relative, swimming with powerful undulations of its finned tail. Often it will anchor itself to aquatic plants by its hands and feet, and wait for passing shoals of fish. This aquatic dinosaur is only 90 centimetres long, but it is well able to swim powerfully in pursuit of fish, though it usually prefers an ambush. Sinosauropteryx will often also forage on the riverbed for shrimp and insect larvae. Though its main element is the water, it is still able to run swiftly on land, mating occurs out of the water. A mound nest is built for the female’s clutch of up to 12 eggs, and the male will tend the nest until the young hatch.
Hypuronector is a common small reptile averaging about 13 centimetres long, found mostly in slow moving rivers and creeks. Camouflaged amongst the water weeds, it will surge forward with strokes of its broad tail, to snatch small fish and aquatic invertebrates. The rest of the time it will generally stay still, cryptically blending in amongst the water plants, and clinging to them with its feet. At any sign of a predator, it will dive downward out of sight, clinging to the bottom until danger has passed. Females will give birth to live litters of 5 or six well developed babies during the wet season. Hypuronector are mostly silent unless taken out of the water, in which case they will make an anxious nasal squeal in an attempt to startle a predator.
Macelognathus is a common kind of freshwater turtle found in the swamplands of Teratopia. Reaching about 35 centimeters in carapace length, it is a primitive turtle which still possesses teeth behind its beak. Being a predator of fish and soft-bodied invertebrates, it commonly forages on the bottom of ponds and bogs. During the dry season when it is warmer, after a brief mating, females lay clutches of up to 50 small eggs buried in sandy banks or dunes.
Psittacosaurus is a herbivorous dinosaur related to Protiguanodon, which lives and feeds mostly in well vegetated rivers and creeks. They have numerous adaptations to swimming, including broad webbed feet, flipper like forelimbs, and a deep caudal fin. Spending most of their time searching for food, they will dive down to the bottom to gather water weeds and the roots of reeds or water-lilies to feed on. Also they occasionally feed on plants along the edges of waterways, though they never stray too far from the shore. Each individual has a territory made up of a section of waterway, which they defend against intruders, and when they are aggressive they can give a painful and even crippling bite. The only exception to this is the breeding season, where females will wander in search of males. Clutches of 15 or 20 eggs are laid in a large riverbank nest, usually under the cover of shrubs or trees. Calls vary from a beak-clacking to a series of chuckling coughs, most calls are to proclaim their territory or express agitation.
Conodontophyta is a common kind of water-weed that grows in the swamps and floodplain marshes of Teratopia. Each leaf has a cluster of spines which partly serve to protect it from marsh-dwelling herbivores, despite this some herbivores still consume this plant, especially Claosaurus and Ceratops whose robust dentition make short work of it. The main function of the spines is to aid in dispersal and reproduction, often portions of a larger growth will adhere by the spines to the skin or foot of some large marsh-dweller, and be carried to a new body of water, where the fragment will take root and grow.
The Missourium is found mostly in rivers, but will also stray into marshes in search of food. Up to 9 metres long and 5 metres tall at the shoulder, it is truly an enormous beast, weighing several tons. Due to its size, and aquatic habits, it prefers rivers which are particularly deep and wide, where it walks on the bottom much like a hippopotamus. Missourium is an omnivore, feeding partly on water plants, reeds, and other riparian vegetation, and partly on animal matter. The animal part of its diet includes clams, crabs, crayfish and even other large animals, either as carrion, or as prey, which it bludgeons to death with its tusks.
The great river floodplain is an extensive marsh interspersed with wide river channels, and supports a diversity of large dinosaurs. The Crawling Diplodocus is a very large dinosaur which lives on the marshy banks of these rivers, crawling from place to place through the mud, dragging its huge belly and leaving great trenches behind it which soon fill with water. It feeds mostly on reeds and other green plants that grow on the river margins, but they will occasionally swim in the depths of the river in order to travel more widely. The largest males reach up to 27 meters long and 20 tons in weight. Females make a nest in a sloping high bank during the dry season, and will lay up to 30 eggs which hatch incubated by the sun.
Parasaurolophus is a fairly large hadrosaur, reaching a length of 10 meters. It is found entirely in swampy areas and around rivers and lakes, where it feeds on submerged plants. This dinosaur has a long snorkel-like crest which is an extension of the nasal passages, and it only has to bring this aperture to the surface to take a breathe, the rest of the animal remaining submerged. Spending most of their time at the bottom of the swamps, they graze and browse on the thick growths of water weeds and submerged vegetation, propelling themselves with their webbed feet and deep, paddle-like tail. It is quite common in some swampy areas, to hear their spouting noises as they bring their snorkel to the surface for a breath, but they can also make a trumpeting noise in case of alarm. Males and females will pair for life, sharing a large territory that may overlap with others. Females lay a large clutch of eggs in the dry season, a compost mound that is deposited on higher ground; the young are left to fend for themselves.
The great swamp delta of western Teratopia is pervaded by a river system which is extensive; these rivers become very wide and deep, allowing a very particular ecology. Part of this ecology is the Brontosaurus, a huge 21 meter long dinosaur which is immensely heavy, and amphibious. These massive beasts spend most of their time submerged, feeding on plants which grow underwater, or on the margins of the great rivers. In this way, the constant feeding and disturbance of the growth here keeps the rivers from becoming clogged with an overgrowth of plants. Without this process, the rivers would eventually become so slow, clogged and shallow, as to simply form an extensive tract of marsh, continuous with that which forms the margins of the delta. Brontosaurus are bulk feeders that feed continuously throughout the day, their relatively small heads have fairly robust jaws which easily rip away large chunks of water weed or riparian vegetation such as reeds or overhanging trees. Generally slow-witted and unintelligent, they do not form cohesive family groups, but will tolerate each-other so long as food is abundant. Babies are born live, which is unusual for a dinosaur, most often there are twins. These babies are quite large already, and live independently from the start. Calls and vocalisations are mostly deep rumbles and growls; this usually serves to keep individuals from passing to close to each other.
A common medium-sized herbivore, congregating in herds, the Claosaurus reaches a maximum of 4 meters long and 1 ton in weight. These ornithopod dinosaurs feed on a variety of swamp vegetation, including reeds and bushes but especially submerged weedy plants. They are adept at swimming and diving to gather food, sculling with their deep muscular tail and webbed feet. Even coarse plants are pulverized with the heavy battery of chewing teeth in their powerful jaws. Alpha males compete in vigorous displays during the courting season, thrashing about in the water, kicking up mud. Nests are made and laid on higher ground in the dry season, the young are fairly independent from birth, but must avoid a gauntlet of predators. Vocalisations are usually belching gurgles, but the alarm call is a loud bellow.
Reaching 7 meters long, and having a huge fiercely toothed head, Deinosuchus is a formidable predator of the marshes and swamp delta. It is a crocodile which is just as at home on land as in the water, the head is proportionally very large and the legs are long and powerful. Generally lone hunters, they will search far and wide for suitable prey, dinosaurs being their preferred food. They can run powerfully and with great stamina on land, but if the prey takes to the water, Deinosuchus can follow, and many kills are usually made in the water as their prey tires. The killing blow is invariably a crushing bite to the neck or flank. Breeding season consists of males staking out a territory that they will defend against rivals, any wandering females being courted and mated, a successful male can father clutches by as many as 5 females in any one season. One individual clutch can contain as many as 70 eggs. Calls vary between a resonant bellow to attract females, to a low hiss of aggression.
Naosaurus are 2-meter long Synaspids which are common in river channels and marshes. They harness the wind in order to sail about on the water’s surface, often using this as a technique to catch their prey, usually fish and amphibians. Naosaurus are preyed upon somewhat often by larger aquatic predators, though they can retaliate fiercely. Mating occurs in the dry season and the female lays a clutch of up to 20 eggs which are abandoned to hatch on their own. Their only vocalizations are a throaty hiss.
Around the banks of large rivers, lakes and shallow marshes, one can sometimes find the Platybelodon wading in search of food. These unusual looking, ox-sized gomphotheres use their shovel-like lower tusks, and wide flattened trunks to dredge aquatic plants from riverbanks and swamp margins. Water plants gathered in this way make up most of their diet, but they will also sometimes browse on waterside vegetation. They never swim or dive for their food though; they require a good deal of leverage to work their shovel-like jaws against the mud, so they always wade. Platybelodon usually live in small herds of females, which move about between feeding grounds, solitary males seek these herds out in the mating season.
The great eastern river floodplain plays host to many large animals that would not do well elsewhere, such as Ford’s Stegosaurus. This 7 meter long animal uses the plates on its back and its spiny tail flipper, along with its broad webbed feet, to scull powerfully in the deep river channels, in search of the various water plants which make up its diet. It feeds selectively, as opposed to in bulk, as evidenced by its narrow snout. Some of the larger aquatic predators may pose some threat to it, but generally they are fearless. They emerge from the rivers to breed during the dry season, when extensive banks are exposed in which are laid their clutches of eggs. Though they are generally silent, they will sometimes make a heavy moan or exhalation at the surface.
The king of the great Teratopian rivers and lakes is Dinichthys, a huge predatory lungfish longer and heavier than a great white shark. Possessing powerful shearing, fang-like plates of bone in its jaws, it can rip apart large and medium-sized prey with its powerful bite. As well as catching aquatic creatures, Dinichthys can lunge out of the water to seize land-dwelling animals as they come to drink, dragging them beneath the water to be quickly disemboweled. Generally they are solitary, even anti-social, much like crocodiles are, and males will defend their extensive territories viciously, though females may come and go during mating season. Large strings of marble-sized eggs are laid by the female in quiet stretches of weed-choked water; the fry are able to hunt from birth.
One of the larger flying birds (though not the largest) of Teratopia is the Samrukia, this grey waterbird has a wingspan that reaches up to 4 meters. Though they may fly far and wide from one water-source to the other, Samrukia are generally tied to waterways, which provide their food. These birds feed mainly on fish, frogs and crabs, but they also scavenge any dead meat or fish that they can find. The floodplain marshes are the site of the yearly rookeries where Samrukia breed, males will congregate initially to attract females with raucous squawking calls, and eventually the rookery is full of turret-like mud nests where each female broods up to 5 fair sized eggs. Such nesting sites are a magnet for predators, and many chicks are snatched by predators before reaching one year old.
Gastornis is a giant, flightless crane-like wading bird that is a common sight along most waterways, and in floodplain marshes. Being 2 and a half metres tall, it is supremely good at wading in search of food, even in relatively deep water. Its large bill helps it subdue crabs, fish, frogs and eels, and it will sometimes also eat carrion and fruit. Nests are made in a secluded place on the ground, away from water, a single large egg is laid, but incubated by the male.
Palaeopropithecus is a remarkable creature, an aquatic lemur weighing about 35 kilograms, as large as an ape. These animals inhabit weed-choked slow moving rivers, swamp-forest and marshes, and possess many adaptations to aquatic life, also being well-able to climb trees. Eyes, noses and ears are all perched on the top of the head (like a hippopotamus), allowing them to surface without making themselves obvious, their hands and feet have long webbed digits, and they are powerful swimmers. They feed mainly on aquatic vegetation such as reeds, algae and water-lilies; they will often eat the most nutritious part, such as the bases of stems, roots or tubers which they pull from the riverbed. Able to climb well, they will also forage for fruits and buds in waterside trees, diving acrobatically into the water at the first sign of danger. Paleopropithecus live in small groups generally numbering around five or six, with an alpha male protecting a number of females and their young. Infants are well-developed and able to swim from birth.
Deinotherium is an unusual animal, being almost an intermediate between elephants and dugongs. As large as a larger elephant, it prefers to feed in and around water on reeds and other water plants, and its habitat is mostly the floodplain marshes. It uses its downturned lower-jaw tusks to dig in the marsh-bottom for food, particularly the rhizomes of certain water weeds and reeds. The tusks are also of some use when it needs to emerge on to land, giving it an anchor with which to gain traction against the banks as it climbs out. Deinotherium are usually easy to find by the trench it makes as it eats its way through the reeds, making soupy mud as it goes.
A common dinosaur of the marshes is the unusual Segnosaurus, 6 metres long and a ton in weight. With broad webbed feet, this medium-sized dinosaur commonly wades waist-deep in the water, hunting for fish, frogs and crabs. It has a beaked- almost birdlike head with relatively weak teeth at the back of the mouth to crudely chew food. Though generally ponderous and slow in its movements, its head and neck can lunge swiftly to snatch fish or frogs from the water, and it can defend itself with fierce swipes of its powerful clawed forelimbs. Though a competent swimmer, it avoids deeper waterways because of the predators that often lurk there. Outside of the mating season they are solitary, courting is ritualised but brief and females lay a nest of 8 to 10 eggs which they deposit in a compost-mound nest on higher ground. Vocalisations are mostly only made when agitated or angry, and are a low crooning or a deep croak, like a heron.
At night, the floodplain marshes vibrate with the deep croaking of many Labyrinthodon. These giant, toad-like amphibians are up to 1.5 metres long from snout to rump, and are voracious carnivores. Generally they sit in ambush, camouflaged in the reeds and mud, or underwater, waiting for prey that strays too close. Their usual prey includes large fish, smaller frogs and toads, smaller land animals up to the size of a cat or dog, and waterbirds. In the breeding season, after mating, the female jealously guards a large brood of up to 700 eggs; she will attack any other creature that threatens her brood.
The floodplain marshes, due to the high amount of tropical rainfall, are so expansive as to harbour more than one kind of large semi-aquatic herbivore. One of them is Ceratops, a 10 meter long 6 to 7 ton dinosaur that spends a lot of its time partially submerged, feeding on a variety of wetland plants. It is able to reach higher up to feed on swamp trees such as cypress and dogwood, as well as dredging submerged water weeds and lilies from the water. Even the deeper stretches of swamp are no hindrance to it, as any water too deep to wade can be navigated by swimming, with strokes of its huge armoured tail. These dinosaurs possess considerable armour, with crocodile-like armour plating over most of its body, as well as long back spines. The pointed cranial horns serve more of a display function in the breeding season, more desirable vigorous males having generally larger horns, whilst females and subordinate males have shorter stubbier ones. Though they are mostly solitary, they tolerate one another when they come across each other; so long as food is plentiful they tend not to fight. Females lay a large clutch of up to 35 eggs in the dry season, in a very large mound nest upon higher ground.
A constant presence around any body of fresh water are the Marsupial Pterosaurs. These winged, pouched mammals feed mainly on fish which they catch on the wing, but will also eat frogs, large insects and small birds. When not in flight, they usually roost in trees in large flocks, hanging upside-down by their hind claws, chattering and squawking. In breeding season, the males will mate with a small harem of females, and each female will raise 2 joeys in her backward facing pouch, the orientation of the pouch stops the young falling out when the female is perched upside-down. The pouch also has a sphincter at the opening, and closes tightly while they fly, still allowing a small gap to let the joeys breathe.
Dicynodon is a large primitive turtle, an animal at home in freshwater, and distinctive by its large tusks. These 2 metre long chelonians can be found almost wherever there is sufficient fresh water in Teratopia, from rivers and lakes to weed choked swamps. It is an omnivorous opportunist, feeding on fish, crabs, carrion, water plants and their roots, even birds or pterosaurs resting on the water’s surface. The tusks serve some purpose in biting and holding struggling prey, but they are best employed in the breeding seasons, when competing males will tussle and bite in ritualised combat. Though generally slow swimmers, Dicynodon can hold their breath for over an hour, and will lunge powerfully to snatch prey. Breeding occurs in the dry season, when plenty of riverbank or sandbar is exposed in which to bury eggs, each clutch contains about 70 eggs.
Reaching an average of 30 centimetres long, Tullimonstrum is an unusual predatory worm that is common in many areas of marsh and swamp. It swims by beating its lobed tail from side to side, and by undulating its body. The prey of Tullimonstrum includes small fish, crustaceans, and other worms, which it snatches with its toothed proboscis. Spawning occurs in large aggregations when floodwaters are high, at this time many pairs can be seen squirming about on the surface.
Commonly as long as 20 centimetres, Eurypterus is a kind of catfish which is very common in the swamps and river deltas of Teratopia. They form part of the diet of many fish-eating vertebrates, as well as larger kinds of fish. Eurypterus feed mostly on small crustaceans and snails, as well as the eggs and young of other fish. Spawning occurs in the wet season, when the father will guard large masses of eggs against cannibalistic males and other small predators.
The size of a large hen, Masitisisauropus is a relatively common protobird of the swamps and deltas, which can swim and climb equally well. These versatile creatures are constantly in search of food, such as snails, crabs, insects, seeds, roots, eggs and carrion. Using their large clawed hands, they can climb relatively tall trees, and prefer to leap from them into water or mud instead of clambering down. Equally at home in the water, they paddle and dive much like a duck, as well as grubbing in shoreline mud in search of invertebrates. They pair for life, but both members may separate for most of the day to forage, so as to avoid competition. Mating occurs in the dry season, and a nest of 10 large eggs are laid. Calls are usually a plaintive honk when alarmed.
The dominant predator of the marshes and river deltas is the Megalosaurus. This 10 meter long, 3 ton beast is able to pursue prey best overland or in swampy terrain, but has dogged patience should its quarry retreat to the water, and may even dive in after them. It deals the killing blow with heavy crippling bites of its crocodile-like jaws, often shaking its prey like a dog. Even relatively large animals such as Deinotheres are sometimes brought down, though most often easier prey such as Claosaurus or Segnosaurus are targeted. These animals are solitary to the point of being antisocial outside of the breeding season, and sometimes fight fiercely over territory. Females lay a clutch of 10 large eggs on higher ground in the dry season.
Sivatherium is a very large ungulate, reaching over a ton in weight; it is thought to be related to both elephants and camels. Found mostly in the wooded fringes of the marshes and river deltas, it feeds on twigs, leaves, bark and water plants, much as a moose would. It is able to convey food to the mouth with the aid of its trunk-like nose, through which it is also able to make resonant braying sound to proclaim territory. Males enter a very aggressive rutting stage in the dry season, and will charge at anything that they see to be a threat, during this time males clash horns in competition for females. Females give birth in secluded places some months later, to a single large calf, which only the mother cares for.