These things are curious. They have anapsid skulls (essentially skulls with no holes at the temples; extinct early reptiles exhibited this trait), but their overall skull appearance is canine (see here the heavy bottom jaw, well-defined canine teeth). Then, it gets weirder when you look at an Ahamkara's apparent claws. Three-toed talons with no balancing back claw (at least, that we can see) means these were most likely their forefeet (unless they were bipedal, in which case hands). These talons look similar in appearance to raptor claws (yes, as in raptor-dinosaur). The weirdest is the Dire Ahamkara's Skull, which holds almost no similarity to its juvenile form. Apparently, when growing from juvenile to adult to dire forms (this is my guess as to how they age physically), they lose teeth and gain more body and bone mass. Note that the Dire Ahamkara skull is not a complete skull, so its overall cranial volume looks to be roughly between 1.5 - 2 times our own, which would explain why Guardians were seeking them out for help. Clever girl...
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Edited by Pacemaster AJ: 2/10/2016 6:59:25 PMActually, not only did extinct reptiles exhibit this 'anapsid'skull design, but modern testodines - theorised by some (although I disagree with this, believing they are diapsid)- to be the only extant descendants of 'anapsida'. Although, research of supposed 'anapsids' (all of which lacked temporal fenestrae) suggests that other reptile 'groups' developed the 'anapsid' feature, too, making anapsida a paraphyletic clade (clade of which two creatures evolved distantly, but are grouped in one clade nonetheless). This may mean that anapsida is not necessarily valid as a clade. However, the very earliest reptile group could perhaps be donned 'anapsida', some say. I'm not overly sure, FyI. Biology aside (very mind-muddling topic!), the Ahamkara... strange creatures indeed. Magic and wings aside, I wouldn't necessarily call them dragons; they're said to have beaks and feathers (while some dragons have both of these features, none of said dragons are worm-like, rather more like a bird). Assuming Ahamkara and the Worm Gods are indeed the same things, then that would mean both have 'coiled lengths', 'folded jaws' and 'folded wings'. What's more, this means they have beaks and feathers, too. Which would make them very, very unusual dragons - so I wouldn't say they'd be like, basilisk or dragonlike at all. Probably like nothing anyone's ever thought of.
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Ahhh a fellow biologist and herp-lover... Hello!
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And hello to you as well. To be honest, I'm not a biologist, just a person that actually reads and makes an attempt to use deductive reasoning. But you are spot on with my interest in reptiles. Nice to meet you.
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Nevermind I see you're on PlayStation. Got any reptiles?
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Sadly, no. Apartment complex apparently frowns upon reptiles as pets.
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That's too bad. It's funny because if they're housed properly they'll make less of a mess than a cat or dog haha
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I know. All I'd want is a snake... Or two... My entire living room...
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Yup those are my favorite. I just got my first about a year ago. She's a rainbow boa.
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Very nice! We have snake issues here (primarily invasive species due to people), so chances are I'd get a corn snake. I like the little guys anyhow, so not having a boa would be fine.
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Oh you must be in southern Florida
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Well, Florida in general, really. I'm in what's considered North Florida and there are still issues here as well.
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Yeah I've just heard it's worse in the south. As a general rule anyways
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'Glades. They sure love it down there.
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I have one, yes, but it's currently a glorified cable box.