No, said Aziraphale, it's ineffable.

pixel-cherry-pie

Speculative evolution side of tumblr I’m in need of your constructive criticism!
I tried to speculate some dragons based on synapsids instead of more “regular” reptiles. But do they make any sense???? Pls halp!
They’re loosly based on gorgonopsyds but I gave them wings in convergent evolution with the pterosaurs. I guess they shouldn’t be able to fly without air sacs in their body and hollow bones so I’m also guessing they conveniently evolved those as well.

I’m not entirely sure about the horns in general, because I don’t know wether or not they would make sense (I thought maybe could be an adaptation to protect the nose from cold winds and grew to be a communication display? Idk idk anything!). Should they actually be more scaly? More horned? I already know I’ll try with manes, cuz they might look nice in them!

Another thing that looks weird to me are the Feets. I can’t place myself where they look wrong. Please feel free to give me a heads up! I tried with a semi-plantigrade stance and took inspo from thylacines but clearly it ain’t it. (is it even a thing actually?)

For the marine dragon I went with sturdier constitution and small wings, for water propelling (should they be even smaller???) and big, hollow horns for (possible?) echolocation. Strong limbs to climb cliffsides and find nice safe spots to nest and from where to dive for food. (on this note… would these dragons lay eggs or… what???)

Let me know what you think about it, I’ll be more than happy to discuss these very incomplete stages of speculation!

synapsid-taxonomy

Synapsid specialist here with some late and unwanted feedback:

Avoid scales. No good evidence for scales past the earliest synapsids (i.e. nothing past Dimetrodon), and even there it’s questionable. Keratin-covered horns are plausible, though. We have weirdos like Estemmenosuchus

In fact lots of synapsids have these thickened bumps on the face (“bosses”) which would be really cool to take inspiration from, I think. Proburnetia looks particularly dragony

Front feet of the first guy look a wee bit too reptile/bird-like to me with the toe pads. I would look at mammals with longish fingers/toes for reference. And as a whole non-mammalian synapsids were generally plantigrade. Here’s a gorgonopsian paw:

I would recommend shortening the torso. Flying animals (birds, bats, and pterosaurs) generally have short torsos. The tail might be better off shorter or narrower as well. Many therapsids have pretty short tails, and a long bulky tail isn’t ideal for flight - it’s heavy and not aerodynamic. A long, narrow rod-like tail like those of early pterosaurs might look neat on these guys
Depending on where these guys branched off, you might want to lower the position of the ear. The synapsid ear started off at the back of the lower jaw, and only moved higher in the skull later on in their evolution, much closer to mammals. Gorgonopsians and therocephalians would have had those lower ears
All non-mammalian synapsids as far as we know laid eggs, so these guys probably wouldn’t be any different. The eggs would be soft-shelled, just like those of platypuses and echidnas (the only living mammals that still do lay eggs) - and incidentally also those of pterosaurs

Overall I love these designs though. Very good faces of both of them, and I’m a big fan of the pterosaur-like wing configuration

catceleste

my strangest legacy - in high school, for one reason or another (I can’t remember) my friends and I wrote “34 days until March 2nd” on the whiteboard in the drama classroom. It was completely arbitrary but we kept it it up, “30 days until March 2nd” ”23 days until March 2nd” etc. It spread around enough that the entire school is buzzing about what is going to happen on March 2nd. We figure we should think of something and decide to bring in cake. There were about 13 of us in total committed to bringing a cake. On March 2nd, during 3rd period lunch we all entered the cafeteria in a line (the parade of the cakes) and laid them out—a grand cake buffet for everyone in that lunch period. We did it the next year. And after we graduated it kept going.

This past March 2nd was the 9th year they’ve done it. It’s become a school sponsored event. There are t-shirts for this thing every year. March 2nd is cake day. I am a god.

catceleste

my former teacher sent me a package. it’s the 10th anniversary this year. they’re already getting ready for march 2nd. it’s january.

catceleste

it’s March 2021 and i’ve been told there will be cake on the 2nd. I was recently sent the t-shirt design for this year. it’s the 16th anniversary and it will be the last March 2nd Cake Day at school for my former teacher who is retiring this year

See, that’s what the app is perfect for.