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Featured Guest - Aindrila Roy

The writing bug bit Aindrila at the tender age of eleven and she has been scratching that itch ever since. She likes to mix fantasy and horror and create a blend of dark fantasy with complicated, twisted characters. She is also a fairly adept romance writer and enjoys writing children's books as well.

When not writing, she can be seen feeding, fighting, running, building Lego tunnels and hospitals, and driving toy school buses- all for her two little boys.

And in the odd chance that she finds a moment free, she likes to read. An erstwhile voracious reader, she is now perpetually yearning to read more. As a paleontology lover she is now working on establishing a blog that talks about long dead animals.

I See You is her first book. She has published several articles in the magazines, Monster and Weng’s Chop. Her story, ‘If Only…’ is part of the anthology, ‘City of Screams’.

See more of their work below!


Novel

Anthologies

Liam’s life has become a waking nightmare. He’s plagued by constant headaches and is hounded by inexplicable events bordering on the insane. He is convinced that his vindictive ex, Lily, despite her vehement denials, is the one sending him disturbing packages. The only bright spot in a life gone berserk is Aliana, the woman Liam has loved ever since he saw her in a parking lot. But a shocking revelation about her leaves him questioning everything he knows. As Liam plunges deeper into the twin abysses of unbridled love and unexplained insanity, he has to do all it takes to stop his life from spiraling out of control.

Click here or the image to see more about this.

Feature Presentation

A Couple of Lesser Known Dinos

Therizinosaurus

Therizinosaurus Image credit: iStock images

The first remains of Therizinosaurus was found in the Gobi Desert in 1948. In 1954, Evgeny Maleev attempted to describe the specimen and thought that it belonged to a large turtle-like reptile. Later descriptions classified it as a sauropodomorph or an ornithischian. But after years of debate, it has now been placed in the clade Theropoda and in the family of maniraptorans. Theropods are a clade of dinosaurs that have hollow bones and three-toed limbs, like a T Rex or a Spinosaurus. Although theropods were originally carnivorous, many groups evolved to change their diets. Being a herbivore, Therizionosaurus was one such theropod. The maniraptoran is a family that includes birds and the dinosaurs that are closely related to birds.

The name Therizinosaurus means scythe lizard. A name given to it because of the three fingers in its forelimbs that bore the longest known claws (50 cm or 500 mm) for any land animal. The animal was estimated to have reached 9 to 10 m (30 to 33 ft) in length, weighing from 3t to 5t (3,000kg to 5,000kg), making it the biggest maniraptoran. Like other members of the family, this animal too had a small skull and a beak. It was bipedal (walked on two legs), had a large belly and had some feathers.

Containing a single species, Therizinosaurus cheloniformis, this genus is known from a few bones that include the gigantic claws. But the rest of the body has been extrapolated using the relatives of Therizinosaurus. Based on anatomical similarities with some herbivorous mammals (in an example of convergent evolution) it is suggested that the animal had a similar feeding habit. The long, slightly curved claws appear to be more suited for pulling vegetation than attack since they were fragile. However, the claws might have served to intimidate.

Citipati

Citipati Image credit: Citipati osmolsake by Victor Tero Vescan

Dinosaurs came in a variety of shapes and sizes, one of which was a group of bird-like animal called the Oviraptorids. They were toothless, had parrot-like beaks, and sometimes they sported elaborate crests. They were most likely feathered, since the fossils of some closely related dinosaurs were found with preserved feathers. The presence of a bone called pygostyle, a bone that holds the tail feathers of birds, adds to the possibility of feathers being present in these animals.

One of the best known Oviraptorid is Citipati (meaning ‘funeral pyre lord’ in Hindi). Many well-preserved specimens have been found in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia, several of which were in the brooding position. At 2.9 m (9.5 ft) length and weighing 75-83 kgs (165-183lb), Citipati was among the largest oviraptorids. The only species known in this genus is the Citipati omolsake, which was named and described in 2001.

Citipati, like all other oviraptorids, have elongated oval (elongatoolithid) eggs that resembled the eggs of birds like ostritches in shell textures and structures. The eggs are usually found in pairs arranged in concentric circles of up to three layers (as many as 22 eggs have been found in a clutch), with the oviraptorid sitting in the middle. They’re found with their limbs spread out with the feathers warming the eggs. At 18 centimeters, Citipati have the largest known oviraptorid eggs.

Originally, Oviraptorids were thought to be egg thieves, because when the first fossil was found, the eggs were thought to belong to the dinosaur Protoceratops. But later discoveries, including that of the Citipati specimens in similar brooding positions, have proven the idea to be an incorrect one. Their diets have not been understood yet, but it is speculated that they ranged from herbivores to omnivores.

Oviraptorid Image credit: Oviraptorid brooding position. Artwork by Zhao Chuang

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