Troll_Man
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WWD: Europejara olcadesorum
🕑 Added 2023-05-17 09:24:52 +0000 UTCSo, in moving the locale to Europe-only, I have the main character starting his journey in Spain instead of Brazil (not impossible, as indeterminate "ornithocheirid" remains are known from the area at the time). Therefore, the tapejarid has been changed from Tapejara to Europejara. Or well, it was never really Tapejara, for the species featured in the episode has been reclassified as Tupandactylus. And, similar to Ornithocheirus/Tropeognathus, it did not actually live at the time depicted in the episode, being found only in deposits more than ten million years younger.
Tapejarids were some of the most unusual pterosaurs; fossils clearly showed that their cranial anatomy was nothing like that of any other pterosaurs. This made it difficult to determine what their crests were shaped like, or even what they ate. WWD depicted Tapejara as a coastal, fish-eating animal, but more recent speculation suggests they were more likely frugivorous or omnivorous foragers, the pterosaur equivalent of modern hornbills or toucans. This is indicated both by direct evidence of the tapejarid Sinopterus preserved with seeds in its gut and circumstantial evidence of the group's diversification just as flowering plants were becoming widespread. Also, there's no evidence for the ridged surface of the crests as portrayed; the crests were smooth in reality (I just made these into stripes in the redesign).
The episode portrays Tapejara/Tupandactylus with sexual dimorphism; tall-crested males with stubby crested females. This is speculative, but a 2021 study tentatively suggested the two Tupandactylus species may have been male and female of one species. Unfortunately, WWD depicts T. navigans as the male form (and a made up morph for the female), whereas this paper suggests this was the female form to the massively crested T. imperator, so it can't really be said the series was accidentally correct. An almost complete T. navigans fossil has also shown that the crest was more forward slung than depicted. Additionally is the issue with all of the series' pterosaurs, they are way too naked; fossilized integument indicates Tupandactylus had feathers even along the edge of its crest, while the episode has it almost completely bare.
Also, here is where another common issue with the series rears its ugly head: the prop recycling. I can't really blame them for this, because they were on a budget and the price tag for the series was already astronomical, but it does cause errors due to models made for certain animals being used for another animal that was not closely related. In this case, the Tapejara's body model is clearly recycled from the Ornithocheirus, resulting in the former having the latter's much longer wings and shorter back legs. As tapejarids are believed to have been inland foragers (possibly even arboreal climbers), they had more upright postures and shorter wings than the soaring "ornithocheirids".
