**Lacertocyon plumocrista** (feather crested lizard dog), also known as Feather Maned Dragon or simply Maned Dragon.
Despite the name and similarities, L. plumocrista isn't directly related to nowadays reptiles or canids, but it shares similar traits. 

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Lacertotheriidae
Genus: Lacertocyon
Species: plumocrista

Average size: 100 cm at withers, weight 45 kg
Speed: Up to 50 km/h in short sprint

**Traits** 
Warm-blooded, Mammal, Predator, Omnivore, Venomous

**Appearance**
Whole body covered in thin fur. 
Feathered mane reaches from head down to end of the tail. The mane can puff up to appear bigger when threatened.
Long ears with tufts at the end. 
Depending on the environment, color can vary between yellows, browns, and greens. Light countershading.
Canine like teeth. 
Whiskers as wide as the body front profile.
Five 3-segmented fingers and four 2-segmented toes, which are closer to reptilian hands than canid. 
Head is similar reptiles like Komodo dragons and lack rhinarium, but smell receptors are still located in nasal cavity.
L. plumocrista has long digitigrade legs to be able to see in tall foliage. Making their run look similar to Maned Wolves.

**Behavior**
Diurnal. Doesn't have great dark vision, as trichromatic color vision is more advantageous in foraging.
Habitat is dry tropical forest and semiarid desert. Ideal temperature when the species is active is around 10-25C.
Solitary hunters during the day, but they may have overlapping territories. Despite this, they are rarely aggressive against others of the same species unless food is scarce.
Hunts prey usually not bigger than 60 kg.
Omnivorous. Often forages and eats various vegetable matter.
When food is very scarce, it can resort to scavenging, and its stomach acid is strong enough to digest bones.
Communicate via howls and barks or roars similar to Maned wolves.

**Reproduction**
Sexual organs are similar to some aquatic mammals. The males don't have external testis, and both males and females have a genital slit.
During mating and nursing litter, the pair may share territory.
Gives live birth to a litter of size 2 to 6, which is nursed by the female and sometimes by both parents.
Very little sexual dimorphism.

**Venom**
Has venom glands in the lower jaw. Some of the bottom teeth have grooves for the venom.
Venom is useful if the prey is too big to be disabled quickly as a threat by just teeth and claws. 
If the prey becomes troublesome to kill, L. plumocrista may stalk the prey until the venom takes effect.
The venom may also be used in defense, as it induces intense pain to repel the attacker.

Venom effects and potential analogs
Intense pain: Bradykinin, Capsaicin
Muscle paralysis: Alpha-latrotoxin, Maurotoxin, Tetrodotoxin
Venom spread promoters: Phospholipases, Metalloproteinases, Vasodilator

Fictional lineage would have needed to diverge far in the past if this species had evolved on earth, as it has such an unusual mix of traits.
Amniota -> Therapsida (279.5 mya) -> Cynodontia (259 mya) -> Eutheria (145 mya) ->  ... -> Lacertotheriidae

L. plumocrista evolved from a semiaquatic mammal more akin to crocodiles in their hunting habits.

Edit: formatting new lines. Newlines never work in forums properly

  • Kaelygon@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
    4·
    11 days ago

    Edit: I made the original art 2021: https://www.deviantart.com/caecuss/art/Tiena-Feral-876502282 I mostly wanted to share the species description that I just came up with. The art is visual aid but there will likely be some changes.

    Few people have asked what my sona Tiena species is. I’ve said it’s a furred dragon because he shares some similarities with them but I finally decided to make basically a wiki page of feral version of my sona. I came into conclusion that my sona doesn’t share any similarities with wingless dragons in mythology. Biggest inspirations have been Komodo dragons and Maned wolves, hence the name Maned Dragon even though it is a misnomer.

    I have absolutely no background in taxonomy, biology or scientific classification. I just spend several hours of googling animal facts and learned with the help of chat gpt, but all of the text above is hand written. But it may need an other rewrite to make it more readable. This species is open for anyone and you are free to make variants. But I will differentiate canon and non-canon features. There will be guide-lines about allotropes, e.g. coloration can be almost anything if the environment is exotic enough.

  • TheHarpyEagle@pawb.socialEnglish
    2·
    10 days ago

    Love the tail finishing that arc, really cool composition.

    Do they still retain some if the aquatic capabilities of their ancestors, or are they largely land based now?

    • Kaelygon@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      2·
      7 days ago

      Thank you! It’s fun to draw all sorts of lines of action with tails. Mainly just the head, tail shape and streamline body are remnants of the aquatic ancestors. After I posted this, I came up with more detailed explanation of the evolutionary lineage https://pastebin.com/3v1RSEh2

      I just liked the idea of starting as a semi-aquatic to explain some of the reptilian features, and later found out it is speculated that semi-aquatic otter or shrew like creatures could have survived K-Pg extinction event (the big asteroid impact). That’s where I decided that this species would have branched off 100-70 million years ago.