T-rex's tiny ancestor could hold clue to predator's dominance, scientists say

The horse-sized primitive tyrannosaur Timurlengia euotica from the middle Cretaceous (ca. 90-92 million years ago) of Uzbekistan.

The fossils of a newly discovered, smaller ancestor of the Tyrannosaurus rex may hold clues as to why the iconic dinosaur rose to the top of the food chain, scientists say.

The comparatively tiny Timurlengia euotica — yet to receive the notoriety and catchy nickname of its larger descendant — was similar in size to a horse as opposed to the elephant-sized T-rex.
But it had already developed the large brain needed to track and devour prey.

Researchers said the previously unknown relative was just one in a long lineage of animals, but should help illustrate how small tyrannosaurids evolved to become smarter and larger over time, and eventually the undisputed top predator at the of the food chain.

"The ancestors of T-rex would have looked a whole lot like timurlengia, a horse-sized hunter with a big brain and keen hearing that would put us to shame," Steve Brusatte from the University of Edinburgh's School of GeoSciences said.

"Only after these ancestral tyrannosaurs evolved their clever brains and sharp senses did they grow into the colossal sizes of T-rex.

"Tyrannosaurs had to get smart before they got big."

New discovery part of a missing link
The first tyrannosaurs appeared about 170 million years ago and was about the size of a human.
Until now, researchers had little evidence of how the iconic predator grew to become one of the largest carnivores to ever roam the Earth before dinosaurs became extinct 65 million years ago.

The bones of the Timurlengia euotica were uncovered in Uzbekistan, where it lived about 90 million years ago.

By the Late Cretaceous Period, between 66 and 80 million years ago, the Tyrannosaurus rex was the king of the big lizards, weighing up to seven tonnes.

But a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences said little had been known about how the T-rex got so big, "largely because of a frustrating 20-plus-million-year gap in the mid-Cretaceous fossil record, when tyrannosauruses transitioned from small-bodied hunters to gigantic apex predators but from which no diagnostic specimens are known."

The new discovery is "the first distinct tyrannosauroid species from this gap".

The specimen was discovered between 1997 and 2006 by a team of palaeontologists, led by researchers at the University of Edinburgh, working in the Kyzylkum Desert in northern Uzbekistan.
"The early evolution of many groups like tyrannosaurs took place in the coastal plains of central Asia in the mid-Cretaceous," Professor Alexander Averianov of Saint Petersburg State University said.

Timurlengia's skull was much smaller than that of the T-rex, suggesting it didn't grow as large, but its skull shape reveals "that its brain and senses were already highly developed," the report said.

"Timurlengia was a nimble pursuit hunter with slender, blade-like teeth suitable for slicing through meat," said professor Hans Sues of the National Museum of Natural History in Washington.

"It probably preyed on the various large plant-eaters, especially early duck-billed dinosaurs, which shared its world."

'Pre-historic foreplay': Dinosaurs may have danced like modern birds to woo mates

Artist's reconstruction of dinosaurs engaging in scrape ceremony display activity, based on trace fossil evidence from the Dakota Sandstone, Colorado. Scientific Reports/Xing Lida

Fancy footwork similar to that of modern birds may have been involved in some prehistoric mating rituals, researchers say.

Physical evidence of large scrapes made by the feet of theropod dinosaurs has been discovered at four sites at Dakota Sandstone, a single Cretaceous rock unit in Colorado.

The scrapes are similar to those made by some modern ground-nesting birds — including Atlantic puffins and ostriches — during breeding season.

The behaviour, known as nest scrape display, involves males showing off their ability to provide for females by excavating fake nests.

The largest site discovered by the team, led by palaeontologist Martin Lockley from the University of Colorado Denver, was about 750 square meters and contained at least 60 traces of scrapes.

The display arenas contained marks of different sizes and depths, meaning they were likely used by different species of therapods.

"These are the first sites with evidence of dinosaur mating rituals ever discovered, and the first physical evidence of courtship behaviour," Professor Lockley said.

"These huge scrape displays fill a missing gap in our understanding of dinosaur behaviour."
The discovery supports theories about the nature of dinosaur mating displays, which, until now, scientists could only speculate about.

"This is physical evidence of pre-historic foreplay that is very similar to birds today," Professor Lockley said.

The findings were published in Scientific Reports.


 

Pyromalfic

Pyromalfic, known in Shyr as Grymvane, was a weakened dragon that lived in the Castle of the Keys until he was consumed by his brother Everblight.

Like the rest of the dragons, Pyromalfic was spawned by the Dragonfather Lord Toruk when he divided his athanc to create a brood dragons as servants in his image. Unfortunately, Toruk’s sons were too similar to him and were unwilling to bow down to anyone, including their father; and they turned on him. Toruk eventually destroyed many lesser dragons, and the rest fled. From that point forward, Toruk sought to hunt the dragons down and gather the pieces of his athanc to undo his mistake.

By 2100 BR, Pyromalfic blighted and enslaved a sect of Iosans, who seized the fortress called the Castle of the Keys, on the mountains of the Bloodstone Marches. He created his lair beneath the fortress complex.

In 1000 BR – by the time Toruk has already consumed three dragons – Pyromalfic participated in an alliance of dragons organised by Blighterghast to drive Toruk from mainland Immoren. The dragons ambushed Toruk, forcing him to retreat to the Scharde Islands southwest of Immoren.

In 230 BR, an Orgoth expedition into the Castle of the Keys decimated the Iosan cult serving Pyromalfic but was defeated by the dragon. A fragment of an Orgoth tome detailing this encounter suggests Pyromalfic was somehow poisoned or cursed.

Several centuries after that, Pyromalfic was reportedly destroyed in a clash with another dragon, Scaefang; though the rumours carrying details of that battle have been questionable. In truth, Pyromalfic retreated deep in the ruins of the Castle of the Keys to recover from his injuries. However, in the centuries following, Pyromalfic’s injury healed only bit by bit, and he became convinced something weakened his regenerative ability, perhaps a problem with his athanc, which weighted on his mind for years.

Pyromalfic’s lair was eventually discovered by the Iosan Ghyrrshyld Vyre, who later became a Cryxian lich in service of Lord Toruk. However, he never revealed this information to his master.
In the spring of 607 AR, the newly-formed Legion of the disembodied dragon Everblight, having been revealed the location of Pyromalfic’s lair by Goreshade, march upon the Castle of the Keys intent on defeating Pyromalfic, consuming his athanc and greatly increasing the Legion’s power.

Pyromalfic is eventually discovered and roused to battle by a small group of Everblight’s minions led by the blighted ogrun Thagrosh, host to the largest portion of Everblight’s athanc. He immediately ascends from his lair and quickly gets swarmed by myriad of Everblight’s spawn: angelius, seraphim andharriers. Pyromalfic’s claws rip through them with ease, but there were too many, and he falls towards the courtyard before his athanc is cut out by the Legion warlock Rhyas. Thagrosh then climbs back to the surface, takes Pyromalfic’s athanc and swallows it whole, forcing it down his jaw and throat.

Even after being defeated, Pyromalfic still tries to convince Thagrosh that he isn’t an adequate vessel and Everblight will discard him as soon as he can, though his efforts prove futile. Pyromalfic’s mind and essence are later fully devoured by Everblight, his athanc and power added to the other dragon’s. Pyromalfic only continues to exist as glimmers of a shattered consciousness that once in a while invade Thagrosh’s mind.

Pyromalfic’s death and consumption alert the threat Everblight proves to the other dragons, and soon after Blighterghast, informed by the blackclad Krueger the Stormlord on the events at the Castle of the Keys, calls the other dragons again, this time not against their father, but against the new threat of their upstart brother.

Lexicanum Immoren

Help Build the Warmachine Encyclopedia

Epistle on Dragons (St. John Damascene)

The main purpose of St. John Damascene is to persuade his readers that dragons are real living creatures and not mythical personages like ghosts, werewolves and so on. To confirm this idea, St. John describes their birth, development, size, behavior, and refers to the catching of a dragon and the measuring of his hide.

Some people contrive that dragons can both take the human form and turn into serpents, sometimes small, sometimes huge, differing in body length and size, and sometimes, as was already stated above, having turned into people, start to associate with them, appear to steal women and consort with them; so we would ask [those who tell such stories]: how many intelligent natures did God create? And if they do not know the answer, we will respond: two – I mean angels and humans… So He created the two intelligent natures; but if a dragon changes its form while associating with people, becoming at one moment a serpent, at another a man… so it follows with all possible clarity that dragons are intelligent beings exceeding men greatly, which has not [ever] been true, and never will be.

Let them also say who in particular tells about it. For we trust the teaching of Moses, and, more exactly, the Holy Spirit, having spoken through [the prophet]. This [teaching] reads: And God brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them; and whatsoever [Adam] called every living creature, that was the name thereof (cf. Gen. 2:19). Hence, a dragon was one of the animals. I am not telling you, after all, that there are no dragons; dragons exist but they are serpents borne of other serpents. Being just born and young, they are small; but when they grow up and get mature, they become big and fat so that exceed the other serpents in length and size. It is said they grow up more than thirty cubits; as for their thickness, they get as thick as a big log. Dio the Roman (A.D. 155 – 236) who wrote the history of Roman empire and republic, reports the following: one day, when Regulus, a Roman consul, was fighting against Carthage, a dragon suddenly crept up and settled behind the wall of the Roman army. The Romans killed it by order of Regulus, excoriated it and sent the hide to the Roman senate. When the dragon’s hide, as Dio says, was measured up by order of the senate, it happened to be, amazing, one hundred and twenty feet long, and the thickness was fitting to the length.”

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The “Dragon-Slayer” Saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church

St. Marina of Antioch (4th c.) is swallowed and exploded from the dragon’s belly at the same time.

According to the version of the story in Golden Legend, she was a native of "Antioch" and she was the daughter of a pagan priest named Aedesius. Her mother having died soon after her birth, Margaret was nursed by a pious woman five or six leagues from Antioch. Having embraced Christianity and consecrated her virginity to God, she was disowned by her father, adopted by her nurse and lived in the country keeping sheep with her foster mother (in what is now Turkey). Olybrius, Governor of the Roman Diocese of the East, asked to marry her but with the price of her renunciation of Christianity. Upon her refusal she was cruelly tortured, during which various miraculous incidents occurred. One of these involved being swallowed by Satan in the shape of a dragon, from which she escaped alive when the cross she carried irritated the dragon's innards.

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Tolkien--Concerning the Origin of Dragons

By Randall Johnson, cogitemusaccurate.blogspot.com

Introduction

Of all the mysteries that Tolkien left for us to solve, the origin of Dragons ranks somewhere in the middle. While more wars have been waged over the nature of such characters as Tom Bombadil and Ungoliant, fewer debates are sparked over the shoe-size of Hobbits (that is, if they wore shoes). The origin-of-Dragons debate is closer in popularity to the debates of how many Balrogs existed, how Orcs breed, and why the Eagles did not simply carry Frodo and the Ring to Mount Doom.

In this paper, I will briefly outline the cosmogony of the world created by Tolkien, especially concerning the taxis of created spiritual beings; then I will discuss the raiment of these spiritual beings shortly. Then I will explain the metaphysics of evil in Middle-Earth. Next, I will categorize the corruptions and perversions of the evil spirit, Melkor. Finally, I will classify the various theories of Dragon ontology, analyze them, and eliminate all but the best theory. I intend to prove that Dragons, though not Maiar themselves, originated from the union of Maia and beast. 

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Toruk - Dragonfather

Lord Toruk, the Dragonfather, is the progenitor of the dragons: malicious, god-like creatures that bring nothing but desolation and waste wherever they roam. For sixteen centuries Toruk has been worshipped as a god by those in the island empire of Cryx.

History
According to Everblight, the athanc was the first sentient entity on all of Caen, risen to consciousness and assuming the name Toruk in a language of his own devising long before he clothed himself in flesh and scale. Whether this primacy is true is a matter of debate, since the only one who would know is Toruk and/or Dhunia.

In ages past, Toruk became tired of his solitary existence. Desiring company or perhaps servants, he split off pieces of his own athanc to form others, and from each splinter a dragon came into being.

Unfortunately for Toruk, the essence of these dragons was too pure, for the lesser dragons were not capable of humbling themselves, even before their creator. Each considered himself a god in turn and refused to bow to the glory of the Dragonfather. Instead the dragons turned on their father and sought to consume him. Toruk eventually destroyed many lesser dragons, and the rest fled and scattered across Immoren.

From that point forward, Toruk sought to hunt the dragons down and gather the pieces of his athanc to restore their essence to his own.

In 1640 BR, Toruk consumed Shazkz, the dragon of the Scharde Islands. Shazkz's blighted blood rained on the island, creating the Satyxis. In 1400 BR, Toruk discovered Everblight hiding under the Kingdom of Morrdh and exerting his influence by turning several Morrdhic lords to him. Toruk threatened the lords whom Everblight was unable to corrupt and convinced them to end their alliance.

Everblight fled as Toruk descended. Toruk managed to inflict grievous wonds on Everblight, who led him to the lair of another dragon, Nektor. Toruk decided to go after Nektor, leaving Everblight alone. Momentarily sated by the consumption of Nektor, Toruk forgot Everblight and gave up the chase. Toruk continued his hunt elsewhere, consuming Gaulvang at the Castle of the Keys in 1387 BR.

A few centuries before 1000 BR, a great dragon, a champion of the wyrms, whose name is now lost, confronted Toruk to prove to the others that their father could be harmed. In this the champion succeeded, but after a great battle he eventually fell. The other dragons, smelling Toruk's blood, rushed from their hiding places, and Toruk was forced to flee, unable to stay behind and consume the champion's athanc, which was soon hidden from the dragons by Zevanna Agha, the Old Witch of Khador.

In 1000 BR, the dragon Blighterghast gathered the surviving dragons and convinced them to drive Toruk of mainland Immoren. The fight ended in a stalemate, with Toruk being forced to retreat to the Scharde Islands west of Immoren.

When Toruk came to the Scharde Islands, it was ruled by fourteen great pirate kings. Toruk sent an emissary to the pirate kings to force them to bow to him. The pirate kings slew the messenger rather than answer, and Threnodax, the mightiest of them, roused the others to defiance and convinced them to muster their armies and prepare to battle Toruk.

Though Toruk could easily destroy the pirate kings, he had need of an empire and generals to use against his brood, so he came to the Atramentous, a Tordoran dirgenmast ship stolen by Threnodax to use as his flagship, and obliterated its crew and captain in a breath of consuming fire. He extinguished their lives, collected their souls, and turned them into revenants bound so tightly to the ship that it could retain them even past death.

The ghost ship Atramentous came upon the pirate kings who had gathered at Threnodax’s fortress in Darkmoor. The revenant crew swept through the harbour, overwhelming the living defenders and added the killed to their number. Thirteen of the kings gathered in a fortress tower and watched in horror as all they had built burned. Only King Moorcraig absented himself.

When Toruk descended upon the fortress, crumbling it to ruin beneath his terrible weight, the pirate kings were the sole survivors. Twelve of the kings prostrated and humbled themselves in the surviving tower. Stubborn to the end, King Threnodax kept his feet, continuing to speak defiance.

Lord Toruk annihilated all thirteen in a single breath, but the twelve who had bowed were reborn. Their souls were enslaved and they would become the first lich lords, chosen by him as vassals to rule over a new empire. Threnodax was consumed for a special torment by Toruk.

King Moorcraig hid within his castle and hoped his collection of ancient relics would protect him, but when Toruk flew over the castle and unleashed unquenchable fire, all of Moorcraig’s plans and schemes burned and were buried in rubble.

At the Dragon's Roost, in the shadow of a great volcano, a blackclad prostrated himself before Lord Toruk and offered his service in exchange for even a fraction of his power. Toruk made no promises but challenged the druid to prove his willingness to sacrifice everything. He climbed atop the lip of the volcano and jumped into its depths. Toruk scooped his bones from the caldera with one massive talon and blew a spark of unlife into them. The blackclad's soul was put into a vessel of power, and from then he became known as Iron Lich Asphyxious.

The lich lords wasted no time or effort in founding Lord Toruk’s empire and were privy to secrets and powers known previously only to the Dragonfather. Toruk allows his servants to rise and fall by their virtues and ambitions, with the weak culled by the strong, who are elevated to replace them.

In those early centuries the lich lords divided the governance of Cryx among themselves, each finding his role in the construction of the empire. They unified the islands and culled the petty faiths of their inhabitants, and Lord Toruk became the sole god and master of these islands.

The arrival of the Orgoth from across the Meredius put any invasion plans of the lich lords on hold. The Orgoth seized the Thousand Cities one by one, then launched an incursion to seize the Scharde Islands. After a Satyxis fleet sent to intercept the Orgoth ships was annihilated, Toruk took to wing for the first time in centuries to deal with this threat personally. Toruk sunk the entire Orgoth fleet, and this was the last time Orgoth challenged Cryx. Toruk instructed his minions that they should deal with the Orgoth at a time of his choosing. The invaders were allowed to occupy the northern island of Garlghast, but any ship that dared Windwatcher’s Passage was destroyed.

When they were finally driven from their fortresses, the Orgoth retreated to their first and mightiest stronghold of Drer Drakkerung on Garlghast Island. Toruk gave his approval to commence the great attack, and five lich lords led an army of tens of thousands strong and sailed against Garlghast.

When the Orgoth saw Cryx would be triumphant, their warwitches invoked a final conflagration to obliterate both themselves and the Cryxian army, including three of the lich lords. The other two, Fulmenus and Tenebrous, forced into somnolent recovery after the near disintegration of their physical forms, were thereafter unsuited to the chaos of war. Toruk thought nothing of these losses and was satisfied with the outcome. The Orgoth could not keep their secrets from him in death, and in time his legions would grow ever more powerful. Certain occult traditions from the Orgoth now survive only among Cryx, such as the warwitches, which have become a vital Cryxian occult tradition.

After the fall of Drer Drakkerung, Lord Toruk gave his leave for additional forces to emerge from the inner island and extend deeper into the continent. He needed generals to replace those destroyed on Garlghast, and for this task he chose Daeamortus and Terminus.

As the duties of rule are beneath the Dragonfather, he has left the governance of Cryx to his twelve lich lords. Toruk currently dwells in a great citadel ornamented with metal spires resembling grasping claws. Beneath lies the Black Temple, the centre of Toruk’s worship, where his undead clergy gather at the direction of Lich Lord Divinitus to chant obeisance to the self-appointed 'God of Caen'.

Mainland faiths do not accept Toruk’s claim of divinity, but it is an unquestioned fact in the island empire, and to suggest otherwise is to invite the retaliation of the merciless blighted priests of the Church of Toruk.

Personality
Possessing vast intelligence and patience beyond that of any living thing, Toruk has no interest in traditional conquest. His only desire is the destruction of his progeny. He has been waiting, watching, plotting, building for thousands of years, and is willing to continue that plan for thousands more before making a move. In time, his armies will arise and lay waste to the petty kingdoms of humanity, enslaving them in death and preparing the army of his final victory. Once the nations of men have fallen, Toruk will drag his progeny from their hiding places and devour them once and for all.