Phorasaur

* Adult
* Juvenile

## General Info

The phorasaur is a giant carnivore, distinguished by its spotted skin and 3 sets of large protruding spikes. Both male and female phorasaurs look and act similarly. Phorasaurs are very bulky and powerful, and they have a very strong bite. Adult phorasaurs typically have bright colors with darker colored spots. While their bright colors may seem like a disadvantage, they usually dont have to worry about camouflage as they hunt very large and slow prey most of the time. Phorasaurs arent the fastest runners, but can let out short bursts of speed. They usually will track their prey for miles. Phorasaurs also have a lot of variety in size, this depends on how much they eat when young. Adult phorasaurs have very thick scales, which not many things can pierce. Phorasaurs typically live to about 80, but can live much longer, usually up to about 130 at the maximum. The phorasaur has a very deep and menacing voice, their growls send vibrations for a few miles. And their roars are very loud too, these roars will echo up to 40 miles away. The phorasaur is a very intimidating creature, that most creatures stay far away from. A phorasaur pair will work together to make a nest made up of grass, leaves, bones, logs, feathers, and any other material they can find. A female phorasaur will lay anywhere between 4-7 eggs.

## Juvenile Behavior

As soon as a baby phorasaur is born, they will bond with their parents. Young phorasaurs are very scrawny and weak, and depend on their parents to care for them. When phorasaurs are first born they are about the size of a human head. At around 5 months, the young phorasaurs will start to roam around the nest. As the baby phorasaurs get older, they will start to cannibalize the weaker ones. Leaving only 2 or 3 young left. Phorasaurs have a very high chance of surviving when young, because both of their parents are very protective over their young. The parents will regurgitate food that they've eaten, for their young, until the young can follow them to the sight of a carcass. Baby Phorasaurs dont have their spikes exposed when first hatched. But as they get older their spikes will pierce through their backs. This starts with the top row first, and then the side rows.

When phorasaurs become juveniles at 3 years. they start becoming much more active and will roughhouse with each other. And as they get larger, even their parents will join in (Still being careful of their size, of course) 3 years is also when they are old enough to follow their parents to eat directly from a carcass. At about 7 years, they young will join their parents on hunts. But they are still pretty small, so their parents will make sure to go after smaller and easier prey. The parents themselves dont usually hunt small prey, so its mostly the young learning to hunt while the parents try to help where they can. During this time, the parents and their young will leave the nest completely and become nomadic. By this point the young have all of their back spikes exposed.

At about 14 years, they young become much more independent. So this is when they usually leave, but the parents sometimes have a hard time letting their young leave. The young phorasaurs live a solitary life until they reach sexual maturity, which is at 19 years old. Before reaching sexual maturity, they still remain fairly scrawny. But after reach sexual maturity they suddenly grow ravenous and start to bulk up from eating a lot. But after reach their adult bulk, they start to calm down, and stop excessively eating.

## Behavior

Phorasaurs have a very bad temper, and are known for being very dangerous. They are mostly nomadic, only making a territory when raising young. These creatures are cathemeral, and have a pretty irregular activity time. They can be awake or asleep at any time. But they do have a slight tendency to hunt during the day. The Phorasaur has two sides to its personality, they are very fierce and aggressive towards prey and other carnivores. But on the other hand they are very loving, and friendly towards their mate and young. These creatures are very misunderstood. As most only know about their aggressive nature, and one reason for this Phorasaurs are so protective over their young that its very hard to research them.

## Competition

Phorasaurs being the apex predator in the areas they inhabit, dont have to worry about competition when full grown. But younger, solitary phorasaurs do have trouble with larger Phorasaurs and other large carnivores. Adult Phorasaurs are also known to cannibalize smaller phorasaurs that are not related to them, unless they are seeking a mate.

## Hunting Instinct

Phorasaurs are slow but very powerful, and are excellent fighters. So they usually go for larger and slower herbivores to attack. But when their young they are fast enough to keep up with smaller prey. If an adult phorasaur is desperate though, they will go after smaller prey, but they cant all out chase them. Phorasaurs have a very sensitive sense of smell, so they will track prey over several miles until it gets tired, or falls asleep. Then the Phorasaur will sneak up on them and once close enough, let out a short burst of speed and catch the sleeping or exhausted creature off guard. They also prefer to go after injured, sick, or young prey as most carnivores dont want to risk getting hurt.

## Danger Response

Adult phorasaurs usually only have to worry about each other, or equally large carnivores. But the phorasaurs body is built for battling larger prey, so most other carnivores arent capable of defeating them. Young phorasaurs are very weak, and have to rely on their parents' protection. Around 14 they are capable of defending against smaller carnivores, but are still venerable to predation.

## Courting and Reproduction

When a phorasaur reaches sexual maturity they will let out loud mating calls to attract a potential mate. When a potential mate shows up, they will have a sparing match. Their goal isn't to win the fight, but to test each other. They will continue to fight on and off for several days, until both are satisfied with each other's abilities. They will then spend many weeks together and hunt together. When they feel ready they make a nest that resembles a small mountain. Once mated it takes about 2 weeks for the eggs to gestate inside. Then the female will lay her eggs inside the nest mound and bury the eggs. Both parents will take tabs on the eggs warmth and remove or add dirt if necessary. During this time they will take turns watching over the nest while the other hunts. The eggs will gestate for about a year. When the young are hatched they will continue taking turns going out. But as the young get older the parents will start to leave together and come back to bring more and more food as the young get bigger. When the young grow up and leave, the parents will continue staying together and will have more young. This makes Phorasaurs a monogamous species. Phorasaurs typically have around 4 or 5 generations of young in their lifetime.

## Miscellaneous Info

* Phorasaurs are sometimes referred to as the Kings and Queens of Zemdros.
* Phorasaurs do not display sexual dimorphism and both males and females look and act alike.
* Phorasaurs are very good parents, and their young have a very high life expectancy.
* Documenting Phorasaur life stages and parenting behavior was a very difficult task, because of how hyper-aggressive the parents are.
* Phorasaurs are distantly related to Gekkons, as both belong to a family of "Knife-Handed Reptiles"

## Previous Iterations

The history of all of my creatures spans back to August 14th 2017, starting with the gnark, on my old DeviantArt page (Which I no longer use). And no matter how far I get, I will always look back and remember the humble beginnings! So lets appreciate the original drawings that made my creatures the way they are today!

[Publication Date: August/15/2017]Phorasaurs used to have sexual dimorphism. But not anymore. [Publication Date: August/15/2017][Publication Date: July/24/2019][Publication Date: July/24/2019]This was supposed to replace the original Krita Phorasaur, but I never got around to posting it.[Publication Date: Not made Public][Publication Date: Not made Public][Publication Date: Not made Public][Publication Date: Not made Public]