Earth Zoology, Wednesday

[livingartifact]

"Giant birds," Jenkins said, when the students had gathered. Apparently he was in one of his "no introduction" moods. "As we've seen in this class, animals on Earth come in all shapes and sizes, but large birds in particular have long held a certain fascination for mankind. Scientists have recently concluded that avians — to use the appropriate taxonomical name — are the direct descendants of the dinosaurs, an extinct variety of animal that many modern Earth humans experience an obsession with in their youth. The Pelagornis sandersi, the largest flighted bird known to science, is believed to have lived about 25 million years ago not far to the south of Fandom along the eastern coast of North America. The wingspan of the Pelagornis sandersi is believed to be as much as 24 feet, which would make it about the length of this room. And of course there's the elephant bird of Madagascar, who is believed to have gone extinct as recently as 1200 AD — about 800 years ago — though there are unsubstantiated reports of the birds living on the island as recently as 300 years ago. The elephant bird stood approximately 10 feet tall, so about. . . ." He pulled one of the stools provided for Peridot over to the table, stepped on top of it, and stretched his hand above his head. ". . . This tall." He stepped back down with a small smile. "Of course, both these creatures have been extinct for some time. If you'd like to know more about Earth's innumerable prehistoric creatures, I'm considering doing a course in paleozoology this summer. For the time being, well. The elephant bird and Pelagornis sandersi are the largest birds as known by science. Magic, on the other hand. . . ."

A blue light lit up behind the classroom door, and Jenkins led the students through the portal behind it, onto a dry and dusty mountain top. "Welcome to the Arabian desert, students," he said, holding down his ascot, which was attempting to blow away. "I'm afraid we cannot stay long, as this area of the world is quite dangerous in many ways. However, if my calculations are correct. . . ."

An enormous shadow blocked out the glaring sun, and Jenkins looked up and smiled. "There we are, students! This is a rare sight indeed! I would like you to meet what is truly one of the largest birds ever to exist on this planet, the majestic roc!" The shadow passed, and the jet plane sized eagle banked gracefully around the mountain peak, its feathers glinting golden in the sunlight, making it hard to look at directly. "That's without a 'k', I'm afraid, unrelated to mineral structures or creatures." He nodded to Peridot should she be there. "We are fortunate that the roc's preferred meals tend to be cattle and the occasional elephant, making us far too small to be worth a hunt. The roc's talons are easily as long as I am, and its legs alone are taller than the elephant bird in its entirety! It's thought in some circles to be a close cousin of the North American thunderbird, though I'm afraid that, other than being truly enormous flighted birds, that's a bit like comparing a wild dog to Coyote, trickster god of the American west. The roc, as far as we know, does not have a human-like intelligence, though it has done a remarkable job hiding itself from the various armed forces that have been patrolling land and sky in this region for the last several centuries. Speaking of: we must be heading back to the classroom shortly, students, before we can be spotted by any of the locals with human-like intelligence and accused of being members of some warring faction."

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[livingartifact]

Ready for some mega megafuana!

Listen to the lecture

[livingartifact]

Giant birds? Giant birds!

Oogle the animal

[livingartifact]

GIANT BIRD!

Talk to Jenkins

[livingartifact]

Preferably not while you're standing on a remote mountaintop in the midst of one of the most war-torn areas of the modern world.

OOC

[livingartifact]

Wanna see my very favorite website about giant birds? I have only a limited understanding of what it says (it's in Spanish), but the illustrations with the dude and his VW Beetle for size reference are amazing:


What? Oh nothing, just chilling with my giant flightless owl native to prehistoric Puerto Rico. . . .

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[era_two_triangle]

Peridot

Re: Listen to the lecture

[era_two_triangle]

Giant birds! One of the creatures on the planet that was capable of flight! Not that she could push a giant bird off the edge of a roof if she wanted to, but Peridot was at least a little proud of the fact that she was learning these things, anyway.

Re: Oogle the animal

[era_two_triangle]

Peridot was staring.

A lot.

That bird looked almost as though it could make off with one of the Diamonds, which on its own was a fascinating thought.

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[vrajna_kralis]

Hyacinthe