#thrysus project

You've seen all the invertebrates! Now it is time for the mytids.

The phyla Mytidoria was named mainly after the spear-like structure that defined their early ancestor. Though it's been modified, and changed- and it was slater discovered some members of this phyla don't even have it, changing anything major like that I'd always a fight- though some maintain it should be called something else.

Pictured here is the dorygnathan predecessor of all land vertebrates- and two Teutognathans. Basal mytids who never quite changed their form so extremely.

Dorygnathans are characterized by their head armor- and spear derrived from ossified appendages. Their 8 fleshy- almost akin to love fins- limbs are for cutting through and rowing in the dense water of Dionysus.

A fun fact here! Mytids have bones made of opal! It is a silica biogel. These bones have traces of magnesium and silica within them- as well as a carbon lamination over them. Their spinal structures are also, not quite like ours, characterized by a cartelidge tube, some carbon cushioning and line of floating disks. This is an extremely flexible and compressable structure.

From the scleridomorphs- such as sclerotoma, is when the evolution truly diverged again.

Much like the line between synaspida and sauropsoda, the Aeropsids and Ossids would separate based on two different skeletal strategies.

While current xenopaleontologists are unsure of when exactly Aeropsids began, the Sieve Snout is considered one of the earlier members.

Aeropsids evolved pneumatized bones (not unlike birds.)and air sacs, helping them be much lighter, and grow larger while moving quickly, while their three part mouth parts further evolved into a beak-like structure.. Paving the way for the beginning of their high energy lifestyle. It is believed this is around the time mesothermy may have begun to arise in the clade as well.

Their chemoreception appendages also began to develop more- experiencing an atavism, and becoming much like tentacles of old- filled with cartiledge muscle and membranes, these external organs would flick from a groove set in side of the skull to taste or smell the air.

I will be sketching concept art for later creatures as I write them, and will eventually have more finished pieces commed!

But for now...

I bring you the Ossids.

The sister clade to Aeropsids, this clade is took a different approach to the stressors of the planet- instead becoming slower, heavier and armored. Ossids benefit from the bouyancy of the dense atmosphere, but they're less efficient than the Aeropsids, and less suited for an active lifestyle. They also seem to have taken their mouth in a bit of a different direction- gaining a whisker-like adaptation around their mouth, which instead of moving to the front and becoming beak-like, has at least for now simply modified the three plates of its ancestor's mouth, and utilizes a small pair of sensory appendages, as I say again! True jaws never evolved on Dionysus, resulting in a variety of mouth adaptations within this phyla.

Not all Rotapods are becoming more complex. In fact, some of the most successful and numerous keep their ancestral biradial plan.

Another Mytid!

These creatures were extremely ancient- anamytads are the closest animal to earthly amphibians- and has quite a similarity in ways to them too.

This specific mytid is thought to be the ancestor to all fully terrestial mytids. You might notice their distinct lack of jaws- this is because Dionysus as of currently never really developed jaws proper.