Galrauch -- The Great Drake, First of the Chaos Dragons

In the time of Aenarion, when the Elves fought their great wars against the tides of Chaos, the elder race of Dragons fought at their side. These great drakes were the nemeses of the armies of the Dark Gods, diving from the skies upon the scions of Chaos and crushing or incinerating them in their thousands. The might of the Dragons could only be matched by the greatest of Daemons, and the epic clashes between these mighty creatures were events of such magnitude that the mortal warriors could only witness them in awe.

It was during such a battle that Galrauch the Gold Drake came upon Fateclaw, the Lord of Change at the head of a Daemon horde. As Galrauch descended from the heavens like an avenging thunderbolt, the avian Daemon-thing below did nothing more than bare its teeth in a sinister expression of glee. Galrauch's great jaws snapped shut around Fateclaw's head, ripping it clean away in a multicoloured spray of ichor. Within a heartbeat, the broken body of the Greater Daemon had dissolved into a scintillating mist that enveloped the exultant Dragon and sank into his flesh. Galrauch, resplendent in victory, flew high into the air, and the Elf warriors below him raised cries of triumph. But their cheers died away when the Dragon's body became suddenly wracked by violent convulsions. The mighty drake froze in mid-air, and an evil, iridescent light appeared in its eyes. H is scales flowed like water, form ing into evil, leering faces that cackled maniacally in praise of Tzeentch. Foul tentacles and wicked spikes emerged from the Dragon's flesh, and finally the once-noble head of Galrauch split into two all the way down to the base of his neck. Where there was once one head, there were now two, and to the horror of the Elves below, both turned towards their ranks. One head belched dark fire, burning scores of Elves alive, but the other breathed a sorcerous mist that brought horrible mutations and madness. The heads were governed by the same will at first, but soon they started to tear at each other with hatred, a sure sign that the spirit of the great Dragon had not been completely destroyed. The mind of the Lord of Change managed to wrest control of the powerful body once again, but not before the Elves and Dragons had broken the back of the Daemon armies. 

Galrauch withdrew from the lands of mortals and slept for centuries at a time, emerging now and then throughout history to wreak havoc on the lands of Elves, Dwarfs and Men. Legend has it that he was the first of the Chaos Dragons, and that many were the dark creatures born of his blood and of his evil sorcery. It was Galrauch who slaughtered King Thurgrim Rockarm and all his kin and sacked their ancient halls. It was he who single-handedly destroyed the city of Languerre de Lac and plunged its ruins into eternal night. Hundreds of noble heroes have tried to slay him, but they have all failed.

Heldrake

http://www.frontlinegaming.org/ 

http://brushandminiaturetorture.blogspot.com/2012/11/heldrake.html

"Out of the storm it came -- a beast of brass and obsidian, of cable and bone, the wind from its jagged pinions reeking of brimstone and rotten souls..."

The Heldrake is a winged Daemon Engine of Chaos Undivided that plummets out of the skies like a living comet, hurtling towards enemy aircraft and crashing claws-first into them from above. Each Heldrake is a vicious predator, hell-forged deep within the Warp. These monstrous creatures take cruel joy in diving down upon the unsuspecting air support of their enemies in order to shred them into pieces with is scything wings and rune-carved talons. Heldrakes are usually found within the ranks of the Chaos Space Marine Traitor Legions, attaching themselves to the bottoms of Chaos warships and waiting until the ship reaches low orbit of its target planet, then the Heldrake will plunge into the world's atmosphere and engage enemy forces in the war-torn skies.  

Often, the first sign of a full-scale Chaos Space Marine invasion comes in the form of an attack by Heldrakes. These metallic monstrosities traverse the void between the worlds by clinging to the undersides of Chaos Space Marine attack ships, wings folded protectively around themselves in the manner of bats and their piston-driven claws clamped onto the fuselage above. Dark umbilical cables, sheathed in organic webbing, probe outwards from each Heldrake's body to burrow into the host voidship's outer surface, drawing away raw energy as a leech draws blood from its victim. When the Chaos warships arrive in low orbit, the Heldrakes detach themselves, unfurling their great wings as they plummet towards the atmosphere of the victim planet below. Some will soar through the skies as heralds of the destruction to come, retractable weapons pushing out from their gullets and spitting volleys of red-hot bullets that cut down the scrambling, earthbound defenders below. Others prefer to plunge through the clouds into the crucible of battle, screaming in savage joy as they crash headlong into the fight.

Sentinel of Lost Helligheim

Garyx

Scholars today know little of the keep’s founding though draconic legends do speak of mighty fortress of similar description around the close of the Dawn Ages, about twenty-five thousand years before man and elf raised the Standing Stone.

In that distant time, a terrible war spanning a thousand years had been raging between the mighty giant and dragon civilizations. Throughout the long war, the merciless dragon armies led by terrible Garyx had driven a wedge through the heart of Ostoria, leaving the fire giant realm of Helligheim terribly weakened and isolated. Centuries earlier, the fire giants had constructed twelve mighty fortresses across the breadth of Helligheim’s southern frontier along the shore of the Dragons’ Sea. Though impressive fortifications of earth and magic, one by one the citadels were overrun and shattered by the Dragon King’s armies. By the time the merciful King-Killer star appeared in the heavens to drive the wyrms into madness, only one remote keep remained standing.

Helligheim endured for another century or two but the Colossal Kingdom has been shattered and soon the defeated jotunbrud began retreating further into the remote wilds of the north. Sealed and protected by powerful runecasters, the lone basalt sentinel stood silently for several millennia, abandoned and forgotten.

Fafnir

Fáfnir guards the gold hoard in this illustration by Arthur Rackham to Richard Wagner's Siegfried.

In Norse mythology, a dragon guardian of gold, son of Hreidmar and brother of Regin and Otter. He was slain by the hero Sigurd, who then bathed in his blood, making himself invulnerable, except for one spot between his shoulders, where a linden leaf, sticking fast, prevented the blood from touching.

In the Volsunga Saga Fafnir, in his lust for gold, slays his father, Hreidmar, and steals the skin of his dead brother, Otter, which contains a gold treasure. To guard his treasure Fafnir transforms himself into a dragon. Sigurd comes to slay the dragon Fafnir and obtain the treasure. He kills Fafnir by a ruse. 

According to the Volsunga Saga, Fafnir engages in a long discussion with Sigurd to discover who his murderer is, then dies. In Der Ring des Nibelungen Richard Wagner makes Fafner (Fafnir) one of the giants who built Valhalla for Wotan (Odin). Fafner and his brother Fasolt accept Alberich's ring in place of the beautiful goddess Freyja, the price originally agreed on. Fafner kills Fasolt and changes himself into a dragon to guard his gold hoard. He is eventually killed by Siegfried (Sigurd). 

Megapiranha paranensis

Bite force quotients – considering both bite force and body size – compare the powerful bites of black piranha (S. rhombeus) and now-extinct Megapiranha (M. paranensis) with barracuda, blacktip shark (C. limbatus), bull shark (C. leucas), hammerhead shark (S. mokarran), the extinct 4-ton Dunkleosteus terrelli, great white shark (C caracharias) and the extinct whale-eating Carcharodon megalodon.Justin Grubich, et al/Scientific Reports

Name: Megapiranha ‭(‬Big piranha‭)‬.
Phonetic: Meg-ah-pee-raan-ha.
Named By: Alberto Luis Cione,‭ ‬Wasila M,‭ ‬Dahdul,‭ ‬John G.‭ ‬Lundberg‭ & ‬Antonio Machado-Allison‭ ‬-‭ ‬2009.
Classification: Chordata,‭ ‬Actinopterygii,‭ ‬Characiformes,‭ ‬Characidae,‭ ‬Serrasalminae.
Species: M.‭ ‬paranensis‭ (‬type‭)‬.
Diet: Uncertain,‭ ‬probably carnivorous,‭ ‬but teeth could have been used for a herbivorous diet.
Size: Estimated up to‭ ‬1‭ ‬meter long.
Known locations: Argentina.
Time period: Tortonian of the Miocene.
Fossil representation: Premaxillae teeth.

       Large and bioengineered Piranha have been staple components for B-movies since the‭ ‬1970s,‭ ‬but to find real monster piranha that once really existed you just have to look into the fossil record of South America during the Miocene.

       Unfortunately the only currently known remains of Megapiranha are the teeth from the premaxilla,‭ ‬the most forward portion of the upper jaw.‭ ‬Comparison of these teeth to other living Piranha species however has come to the conclusion,‭ ‬that assuming it had a similar body form‭ (‬and not just an oversized mouth‭) ‬it was up to one meter long,‭ ‬much bigger than modern piranha.

       Originally found in‭ ‬1900,‭ ‬and‭ ‘‬rediscovered‭’ ‬in the‭ ‬1980s before being formally described and named in‭ ‬2009,‭ ‬these teeth were serrated and arranged in a single zigzag line across the front jaw.‭ ‬While these teeth can lean towards a carnivorous diet,‭ ‬they are not exactly like those of carnivorous piranha,‭ ‬and are in fact intermediate between carnivorous piranha and the pacu,‭ ‬herbivorous fish of the Colossoma genus that are related to piranha.‭ ‬Because of this we cannot yet be certain if Megapiranha represented a monstrous carnivore or a peaceful herbivore,‭ ‬with further complications coming from the fact that the river systems of South America could have supported either lifestyle.

       The Miocene of South America seems to have been populated with familiar yet oversized animals.‭ ‬These include‭ ‬one of‭ ‬the biggest crocodiles known to have existed,‭ ‬Purussaurus,‭ ‬and also what may be the largest flying bid,‭ ‬Argentavis.

Dinosauroid

In 1982, Dale Russell, then curator of vertebrate fossils at the National Museum of Canada in Ottawa, conjectured a possible evolutionary path that might have been taken by Troodon had it not perished in the K/T extinction event 65 million years ago, suggesting that it could have evolved into intelligent beings similar in body plan to humans. Over geologic time, Russell noted that there had been a steady increase in the EQ (the relative brain weight when compared to other species with the same body weight) among the dinosaurs. Russell had discovered the first Troodontid skull, and noted that, while its EQ was low compared to humans, it was six times higher than that of other dinosaurs. If the trend in Troodon evolution had continued to the present, its brain case could by now measure 1,100 cm; comparable to that of a human. Troodontids had semi-manipulative fingers, able to grasp and hold objects to a certain degree, and binocular vision.

Russell proposed that this "Dinosauroid", like most dinosaurs of the troodontid family, would have had large eyes and three fingers on each hand, one of which would have been partially opposed. As with most modern reptiles (and birds), he conceived of its genitalia as internal. Russell speculated that it would have required a navel, as a placenta aids the development of a large brain case. However, it would not have possessed mammary glands, and would have fed its young, as birds do, on regurgitated food. He speculated that its language would have sounded somewhat like a bird song. Russell's thought experiment has been met with criticism from other paleontologists since the 1980s, many of whom point out that Russell's Dinosauroid is overly anthropomorphic. Gregory S. Paul and Thomas R. Holtz, Jr., consider it "suspiciously human" and Darren Naish has argued that a large- brained, highly intelligent troodontid would retain a more standard theropod body plan, with a horizontal posture and long tail, and would probably manipulate objects with the snout and feet in the manner of a bird, rather than with human-like "hands".

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