"Charles C" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> For styling, I wanted the fierce yet mammalian canines and incisors, and big
> flaring nostrils.

"Fierce yet mammalian"?  I think canines were *invented* by mammals.  Come
to think of it, differentiated teeth (canines, incisors, molars, etc.)
seems to be an exclusively mammalian trait.

Those mammalian incisors look mighty fierce to those quivering blades of
grass, but if your dragon does not graze in the pasture, you might want to
check out a dog or cat's incisors.

The mammalian molars on your therapsoid dragon are upside-down.  The cusps
of a molar are its root.  However, if you right them, the dragon will once
again be a vegetarian.  Unless...

There's a glaring exception to the tooth-design and diet corelation,
however.  That is people, for whom MEAT is the centerpiece of the meal in
most cultures.  People, who can hurl fastballs, thanks to arms that evolved
for throwing spears at MEAT on the hoof.  People, whose unsurpassed manual
dexterity was selected of their ancestors most adept at sculpting
MEAT-piercing arrowheads.  People, whose fuel-guzzling brains required
nutrient-dense MEAT in order to develop the brains required to hunt MEAT
more effectively.  People, whose brains are so demanding of resources that
other body parts cannot develop properly.  Like our jaws, for example,
which aren't big enough to fit all our TEETH.  Those would be our
vegetarian incisors, vegetarian molars, and canines so pathetic that we
carnivore wannabes had to use that SUV-class brain to invent knives.  And
learn how to control fire, to soften up the MEAT so that our carniphobe
teeth could chew it.

Now is there any animal other that _Homo_ spp. with the ability to cook its
own food...?  :-D

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