Chapter 598

Chapter 598: The Great Dog of the Triassic Period, the Last Brilliance of Archosaurs in the Mesozoic Era!

Trilobite left the original spot.

But he didn’t completely depart.

All that remained were the decayed skins and broken bones left by the Serpent Tooth Dragon; what was there to see?

As a responsible “evolution operator,” Trilobite had to handle the after-sales service and check how his “customer” performed after evolution.

He couldn’t tolerate that the Baryonyx lady hadn’t fixed her pre-upgrade issues—proportional enlargement and lack of body coordination.

If any problems came up, he would handle them in after-sales before letting her go; otherwise, having a clumsy body running around would ruin his reputation!

Fortunately…

“While I can’t say it’s perfect, at least it passes!”

“Hmm!”

Trilobite watched the little monster he had worked hard to “evolve,” jumping around in the woods, and nodded with satisfaction.

“You are the Great Dog of the Triassic Period…”

“The crown-toothed beast of the suborder Carnivora and the infraorder Amphicyonidae!”

“At least something similar.”

The suborder Carnivora actually included the branch of mammalia; in other words, our Horror Upright Apes also belonged to the “suborder Carnivora.”

However…

Humans still belonged to the “order Primates”…

This classification relation was a bit tangled, since “suborders” and “infraorders” could even cover “orders” or “superorders”!

But this couldn’t be helped, because modern organisms were very complex, while paleo creatures were fewer due to fossil issues. So when modern animals were added, kinship classifications often led to such messes.

To be clearer, all modern mammals, when put into paleo classification, could mostly fit into one “family.”

However, the “mammalia” that covered living mammals didn’t belong to the infraorder Amphicyonidae, but to its sister group, the “superorder Pholidota.”

It could be said that creatures in the infraorder Amphicyonidae shared a common ancestor with our mammals, like “brothers.”

But the elder brother of the Amphicyonidae was gone, leaving only this group of younger brothers hanging on.

“Still, the fellows in the infraorder Amphicyonidae truly earned the title of elder brothers.”

“After all, they were once the main fighters against the dragon clan in the early Triassic Period!”

Amphicyonids looked quite like modern mammals.

Their bodies were covered in hair, fully warm-blooded, and likely had things like whiskers. Their limbs were almost right under the body, standing nearly upright.

If they hadn’t lacked ear blades, they wouldn’t have seemed much different from modern mammals; they could have fit into the Cenozoic Era without standing out.

Plus, the infraorder Amphicyonidae had large predators about two to three meters long, maybe as big as modern lions or tigers; with that size, they could definitely take on the dragon clan.

The crown-toothed beast was a bigger member of the Amphicyonidae.

Their Length was around 2.5 meters, about the size of large wolves or leopards!

But they had longer faces, not flat like felines; instead, they looked more like “dogs.”

These creatures also had large temporal fenestrae packed with strong jaw muscles, giving them immense bite force!

Their canine teeth were elongated and enlarged, forming structures similar to saber teeth.

Though compared to the true saber teeth of the Theriodont, they were still stubby and might not count as real saber teeth.

Trilobite called them the "Great Dogs of the Triassic," which made sense based on their looks.

This group of fighters should have stood a chance against the lizard-like creatures, right?

The answer was…

They fought fiercely, but ended up losing zero to five…

Although the Mass Extinction at the end of the Permian period wiped out both the lizard-like creatures and the archosaurs, the rising lizard-like creatures started crushing the archosaurs in their Ecological Niches.

The main reason wasn’t that their gear was poor.

Instead, it was the version…

Before the Carnian period, the Triassic was hot, dry, barren, and low in oxygen.

This gave the dragon clan, especially the true dragon forms that adapted perfectly to such harsh conditions, a huge edge. Meanwhile, the archosaurs, with skin that didn’t hold water well and weaker breathing efficiency, could only struggle to survive.

The widespread drought didn’t stop the true dragons from growing larger; soon, big creatures like the air sac crocodile appeared. In contrast, the crown-toothed beast seemed unimpressive.

The dry conditions also kept the infraorder Amphicyonidae from growing larger.

In the end, they failed helplessly in an environment that didn’t suit them.

Also, while taking over large Ecological Niches, the true dragon forms didn’t ignore smaller and plant-eating niches.

Many armored true dragon herbivores quickly became common, while surviving archosaur herbivores like the Two-tooth Beast grew larger in an arms race, making hunting harder for large fanged beasts.

In small niches, the bones of small true dragons were modified, making them great for fast running and jumping.

With an efficient breathing and circulatory system, some groups of small true dragons even soared high in the Triassic.

Later, under certain conditions, these quick small true dragons suddenly found that growing larger was also useful…

Of course, that was another story.

In short, when creatures including mammalia and the infraorder Amphicyonidae realized…

As predators, they couldn’t beat true dragons; as herbivores, they couldn’t beat them; and even when they shrunk to eat bugs…

They still couldn’t overcome the true dragons.

This all-around despair and crushing defeat probably never happened again later.

Under the multi-front attack of true dragons across various niches, the infraorder Amphicyonidae was already declining by the mid-Triassic; only a few plant-eating groups survived into the early Jurassic.

The relatives of the fanged beast, including the mammalian group, were smashed by small true dragons, forcing them underground to become "a bunch of rats."

When they finally developed gear to compete with true dragons again, it was nearly a hundred million years later.

In short, after briefly suppressing lizard-like creatures in the Permian period, the archosaurs were beaten down by true dragons from the Triassic onward, and this beating lasted the whole Mesozoic Era…

It was quite tragic.

The archosaurs’ later endurance and comeback are among the greatest epics in life’s history.

"However…"

“I had slightly enhanced this ‘crown-toothed beast’.”

“I called it ‘crown-toothed beast plus’.”

“These lumbar ribs…”

“For archosaurs destined for an agile path, they were indeed a bit unnecessary.”

“So, I removed them!”

Lumbar ribs, for animals with quadrupedal movement…

had their pros and cons.

Lumbar ribs could protect vital organs like the intestines and kidneys, but they limited the agility of the entire vertebrae.

Therefore, any quadrupedal animal with lumbar ribs could not run fast.

The agility of the dinosaur order came from the advantages of bipedal walking and digitigrade movement.

However, once the lumbar vertebrae were removed…

“Now, its entire body became a ‘big spring,’ capable of storing tremendous power.”

“Combined with the muscles in the hips, a quadrupedal animal without lumbar vertebrae could generate power not just from its legs, but also use the strength of its waist during each activity!”

“They could do things that many quadrupedal animals with lumbar vertebrae could not achieve!”

“Like…”

“Jumping high!”

Trilobite’s calcite eyes focused on the fleeing Coelurosaur, watching it scramble up a “tree,” thinking it was safe, which looked quite amusing.

Unfortunately, with his calcite eyes and the lizard-like expression, Trilobite couldn’t manage a smile.

But he didn’t need to smile…

The “Great Dog of the Permian Period crown-toothed beast plus” could!

“Roar——!”

After the lumbar vertebrae disappeared, its entire body flexed and moved significantly back and forth!

This made every step not just walking, but running with a leap!

So…

“Charge!”

“Jump!”

“Boom——!”

The whole “crown-toothed beast” nearly took flight!