Random Palaeo-Work idea of the Day #1

Happy Halloween to y'all! For the end of spooky season and Aquatober, here's a special treat! A new thing i here! My palaeontology-obsessed mind is always coming up with all sorts of ideas for documetaries, movies and other fiction works about all kinds of prehistory, so I'm writing down many of them whenever I want and posting them here for you to read and judge!

So without further ado, I present....

Dragon Island: Prehistoric Wales

(Ynys y Ddraig: Cymru Cynhanesyddol for welsh speakers)

Inspired by a relatively recent fossil find, this would be a documentary about Late Triassic Britain, specifically Wales and southeastern England and in particular the Pant-y-Ffynnon Quarry site. According to many studies (Whitside 2007), the area was an archipelago of limestone islands dominated by dry forests and limestone caves known as karst, hereby known as Gwaelod, after a mythical sunken kingdom in Celtic Welsh mythology. We'd follow the lives of its small but fascinating reptilian inhabitants. The climax of the doc would be a massive forest fire that sweeps the island as the animals try to escape or hide from it, a thing supported by actual fossil evidence. This is all intercut with talking head interviews with palaeontologists and geologists discussing the fossils and sites of southwestern Britain and provide essential context of them, When Dinosaurs Roamed America-style.

Species that would appear in the work would include (but wouldn't be limited to): 

• Pendraig milnerae, a small theropod dinosaur only a metre long, yet its the largest predator of the Gwaelod islands, only described in 2021. Its our main focus species, with one named Arthur being the lead, from hatching to adulthood (in reference of his father, Uther Pendragon).
• Pantydraco caducus, a small sauropodomorph dinosaur and the largest native animal of Gwaelod.
• Clevosaurus and Diphydontosaurus, two rhynchocephalians (lizard relatives).
• Kuehneosaurus latus, a relative of lizards that which uses its ribs to glide and parachute from trees. (going with assumption it and the gliding Kuehnosuchus were same animal)
• Terrestrisuchus gracilis, a small crocodilian built for running.
• Aenigmaspina pantyffynnonensis, another crocodilian
• Ichthyosaurus, one of the many marine reptiles that swims the seas around Gwaelod and the rest of the islands. Preys mostly on fish and cephalopods, but won't turn down any small enough land-dwelling creature that's washed out to sea...
• Thalassiodracon hawkinsii, a plesiosaur swimming in the same ocean.

Ideally Dragon Island would be between 30 and 75 minutes long, depending on how much you can do with each species.

Also, now that I think about it, this could even be part of a larger series. Perhaps on on Triassic environments, or Mesozoic Britain/Europe, or something else entirely. Who knows? Maybe I'll write it down some other time.

Well that's it for Aquatober. Well admittedly I could have done more for this post and the last to emphasise the aqua part, but whatever. Happy and safe Halloween, and work to ensure a happy remainder of the year!

Sources

• Spiekman SN, Ezcurra MD, Butler RJ, Fraser NC, Maidment SC (2021). Pendraig milnerae, a new small-sized coelophysoid theropod from the Late Triassic of Wales. Royal Society Open Science. 8 (10): Article ID 210915. doi:10.1098/rsos.210915.
• Stein, K., Palmer, C., Gill, P.G., and Benton, M.J. (2008). "The aerodynamics of the British Late Triassic Kuehneosauridae." Palaeontology, 51(4): 967–981. DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-4983.2008.00783.x
• Whiteside DI, Marshall JE. 2007. The age, fauna and palaeoenvironment of the Late Triassic fissure deposits of Tytherington, South Gloucestershire, UK. Geol. Mag. 145, 105-147. (doi:10.1017/S0016756807003925)