Origin of the Dinosaurs

From: Peter Metcalfe <metcalph_at_bigfoot.com>
Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1999 15:29:09 +1300


David Dunham:

AJ>> Why are there Dinosaurs in Slontos without being Dragonewts there?

>Well, not all dinosaurs are failed dragonewts. I don't think the
>gazzam of Peloria are, and Maran Gor's earthshakers surely have a
>different origin as well.

I think they are descended from failed Dragonewts or Devolved Dragons considering that we are told in Cults of Terror:

:All the elements then tested the Form, each by its own evolving nature. 
:First made was the Dragonewt Rune, and all the world was trod by races 
:now extinct, whose lives and kinds must be guessed. Then came the Green 
:Age, when the world was covered by vast mountains and hills, forests and
:fields as the gods experimented with the Plant Rune. Next the world knew
:creatures modeled upon the Animal Rune. Finally came the Man Rune, and
:humanoid races spread across the would. 
				CoT p12.

No mention is made of the origins of the gazzam in the GRAY whereas the Entekosiad is uncertain whether the quakebeasts are dinosaurs or mastodons and also fails to give a creation myth for them.

As for Maran Gor, her cult writeup does not detail her creation myth of dinosaurs and only the Jonstown Compendium tells us that she spawned them (which conflicts with her described chasteness in her cult writeup).

>The Bestiary says that magisaurs are failed crested dragonewts, and
>are often "confused with such dinosaurs as trachodons and hadrosaurs."

And if the Magisaurs are Original Dinosaurs and the Hadrosaurs are Normal (classification as per Elder Secrets), then the confusion is amply explained IMO.

>Elder Secrets says the God Learners thought that dragonewts interbred
>with pre-existent dinosaurs,

Some God Learners thought so and this is actually true for the Triceratops according to Dragon Pass. But where did the preexisting  dinosaurs come from?

>So I think your premise is wrong. Instead, some dragonewts devolve
>into creatures resembling dinosaurs.

Given that Original Dinosaurs beget Normal Dinosaurs according to Elder Secrets, I do not believe there is any essential distinction between the two.  

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