The other day I was goofing around, seeing how tough the world bosses are if you crank up player damage and how much damage NPCs take and use Pippi mod to crank up your strength stat to like 300, when I noticed something odd. See if you can see what’s wrong with the crocodile boss’s face here:
That’s right, the nostrils. Crocodiles (and indeed all living crocodilians) have their nostrils on the ends of their snouts, like so:
(This is an alligator but you get the point.)
No crocodile has its nostrils located so far up the snout. So I don’t think these things are crocodiles at all.
Now hold on, hold on, hear me out here, because I am about to rock your world. You see, there were animals that, through convergent evolution, resembled crocodiles in basic body shape (or rather, since they came first, crocodiles resemble them), and had their nostrils located that far up their snouts: phytosaurs.
So, somehow, there are phytosaurs living in the Exiled Lands, over 200 million years after they had gone extinct everywhere else in the world. Had they simply managed to hang on for that entire time? Or were they somehow resurrected through the magic of the giant kings for some unknown purpose? I don’t think we will ever know, but I know I for one will ponder this question to the end of my days.
(Yes, I know they’re probably just crocodiles with funny snouts. I just thought this was funny. Let me have my dreams, okay?)
The “Hyborian Age” is supposed to exist mostly before the continents broke up and went their separate ways. It’s a sort of Pangea. So basically those critters are, from a time perspective, much closer to their origin date than you think.
This is a joke post and all so I’m not about to try to argue that the croc bosses are actually meant to be phytosaurs, but the paleo nerd in me has to comment on this:
The “Hyborian Age” is supposed to exist mostly before the continents broke up and went their separate ways. It’s a sort of Pangea. So basically those critters are, from a time perspective, much closer to their origin date than you think.
Depending on which source you go by, the “Hyborian Age” is anywhere from 32,500-10,000 years ago.
The Late Triassic was 237-201.3 million years ago.
I’m Just melding Howard’s handwavium with real scientific estimates for continental drift. Which puts us right in range for phytosaurs. Which, as long as we’re talking about an actual prehistoric animal in fantasy fiction, seems like as legit of a theory as any other.
