#bulbasaurus

I wanted to do one more dicynodont to show just how diverse these guys were. Yes I could have done Diictodon... but instead I chose Bulbasaurus phylloxyron. Did I choose it just for that name? Maybe.

Apparently, Bulbasaurus was not originally named after the Pokémon bulbasaur, but rather for the “bulbous” headgear on its nose. However, its describers have admitted that its name and similarity to the Pokémon “may not be entirely coincidental.”

Image © Nix Draws Stuff 2013-2018, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (CC BY-NC 4.0). Accessed @alphynix here

[There’s a lot of dicynodonts I could have done, but I went with Bulbasaurus because I wanted to include a few familiar options in this project, and because it’s named after a Pokemon. The behavior includes some speculative elements--the hay piles are based on pikas, whereas the sequestering toxins in the body could be based on any number of creatures, but I was mostly thinking koalas.]

Bulbasaurus This odd, squat creature looks something like a furry lizard the size of a cat, with a short tail, a domed beaked head and a crest over its eyes.

One of many dicynodonts, the bulbasaurus is notable for being particularly strong and robust for its size. They are burrowing herbivores that feed on a wide array of vegetation. They are known to cache large amounts of greenery in their burrows for feeding on during the drier seasons of the semi-desert habitats in which they dwell. They have iron-clad stomachs and include large amounts of poisonous plants in their diet—chemicals from these plants imbue their flesh with a bitter taste that repels all but the most desperate predators. Bulbasauruses are sexually dimorphic—males are slightly larger, and their nasal bosses are brightly colored, especially during mating season.

Bulbasaurus as Familiars A bulbasaurus can be taken as a familiar. A spellcaster with a bulbasaurus familiar gains a +1 bonus to their CMD.

Who’s that synapsid?

It’s Bulbasaurus phylloxyron!

This creature was a member of the dicynodonts, a group of herbivorous mammal-relatives with beaks and protruding tusks. Its fossils are known from the Late Permian of South Africa, about 259-254 million years ago, and it would have been roughly the size of a cat, around 60cm long (2′).

Bulbasaurus phylloxyron

Artwork by Matt Celeskey

Bulbasaurus is a herbivorous relative of mammal from the dicynodont group that lived in the Permian Period. It is named “bulbous reptile” for its bulbous snout while the species name, “leaf razor,” refers to its leaf-shearing, keratin-covered jaws.

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