Our planet is a truly amazing world. It's filled with so many beautiful and wonderful things that attempting to count them would be an impossible task.
Despite our best efforts to outdo nature with our own monuments, these structures are little more than poor imitations compared to the masterpieces created by the Earth itself.
From the mighty Himalayas to the magical Great Barrier Reef, every last one of these incredible environments outshine the landmarks we've ever erected; however, nature's greatest achievement is probably the discovery of life.
Coming in every shape and size imaginable, life has shown itself to be unbelievably adaptable, evolving to survive in any type of environment and successfully filling every possible ecological niche.
With natural pressures forcing life to constantly evolve, the many species that inhabit this planet have had to get creative. Whether it be a nose that acts as a hand or a throat pouch that can become a net, there are some truly extraordinary body plans that have appeared and disappeared over time; however, some species have taken their designs to the extreme, occasionally seeming almost supernatural.
Classified as monsters by the earliest zoologists, these creatures are in fact just like any of the other species of animals that roam the world, and many of them have been recategorized into their proper classes.
However, some of these so called monsters were unique enough to be put into their own groups.
This encyclopedia will lay out the truth about these incredible monsters, decode their magical abilities, and show how we can help them in this strange, modern world.
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Listed below are the groups that are uniquely found in the outdated monster classification.
Lynian: Belonging to the Primate order, the Lynian superfamily is split into two families: Fellyn, and Shakalyn. Despite not being part of the Homonindae family, the members of this group are just as intelligent as Homonins.
Wyvern: A suborder of Saurischia, the Wyverns are typically characterized by their long tails and powerful forelimbs, which are typically used for locomotion. The wyverns have also been separated into four families: True Wyverns, Pseudo Wyverns, Bird Wyverns, and Wing Drakes. Their exact evolutionary path is a little ambiguous, but from what we've been able to gather, it appears that they originated near the end of the Cretaceous as small, Pterosaur-like animals.
Titanocimex: This class of Arthropods is notable for its incredible variety in body designs and for having some of the largest living invertebrates, with some growing to be a meter long. Because of this, these abnormally large invertebrates are separated into three suborders: the crab-like Carapaceons, the false spiders Temnocerans, and the most insectoid of the bunch, the Neopterons.
Piscadraco: Meaning fish dragon in Latin, Piscadracos are a highly specialized order of Reptiles that have convergently evolved many fish-like traits, making them the most efficient swimmers amongst the class. Piscadracos are also some of the oldest orders of Reptiles, with fossils dating back to the late Carboniferous.
Leviathan: Also called sea serpents, the Leviathan superfamily is a highly derived group from the Crocodylomorpha superorder, best known for their long bodies and relatively short limbs.
Neotherapsid: This suborder of Therapsids are one of the last of the true mammal-like reptiles, characterized by the mixture of reptilian and mammalian traits. These creatures have evolved in a wide variety of ways.
Neosauropod: Unlike their ancestors, this family is very different in both shape and size, with many species converging on the designs of other animals groups.
Neokyngós: Some of the few remaining non-avian dinosaurs, these creatures have dispersed into three different families: the Neoraptors, known for their raptor-like designs; the Neotyrannid, those who've kept a body plan similar to their ancestors; and the Capucaudids, characterized by their massive head and tails.
Pelagus: These Primates are a very old infraorder characterized by their unique biology such as being digitigrades, only possessing four fingers, and having some truly bizarre abilities.
Eosdracon: More commonly known by the English translation, the Elder Dragons are some of the most diverse, bizarre, and powerful classes. With so many body plans and abilities at their disposal, the only way we were capable of classifying them was by studying their genetic codes, but even then, there are still plenty of mystery surrounding them and their evolution. Eosdracons are separated into five unique orders, each with their own unique characteristics.
The Hexadrakes are characterized by what we thought were six limbs, though we now know that their wings are almost entirely made from muscles.
Serpenlongs, or false sea serpents, are known for their serpentine bodies and surprisingly, many of them have the ability to use the winds from storms to glide for short distances.
Titanodracons resemble massive lizards and are known for being some of the most gentle of Eosdracons.
Equigons are the most elusive of Eosdracons and known for their unicorn-like appearance.
Gargantugons, also called god dragons and known for their two short but powerful limbs, their elaborate head designs and their size as some of the largest living creatures to have ever existed.