Some own Primeval Concepts

Recently I posted a really really long list of ideas I had for possible Primeval episodes on a thread in the JP-Legacy Forum, ranging from rescue missions in the Cryogenian to Palaeodictyopteroideans (giant Carboniferous insects) sucking human blood and carrying unknown diseases.


The three creatures above are just a small fraction of the creaures I´ve suggested and I just wanted to "primevalize" them so maybe one can easier imagine how they would fit with the episode concept.

1. Rhizodus
According to BBC´s "SeaMonsters" book Rhizodus was an 8,50 meter long fish with tusks. According to internet websites it is only 6-7 meters long, but hey this is Primeval! This would make Rhizodus larger than the Hyneria from Walking with Monsters, a creature I´ve always wanted to see in Primeval before I found out about Rhizodonts. Rhizodonts have very powerful jaws and got these noticeable tusks so they would make great Primeval creatures anyway. However, like with Primeval´s Kaprosuchus I exaggerated its tusks: While in the real Rhizodont they would have been hidden in the closed mouth they´re big and recurved and stick out of the mouth. Like the Hyneria from Waling with Monsters the Rhizodus is also capable of leaving the water and crawling above land (according to the book there are fossil traces of mudbanks from which these giant Sarcopterygians slid into the water to take Tetrapods by surprise). There is a fossil of a juvenile Rhizodont which shows eight finger-like radials so the Primeval Rhizodus obviously gets true hands (with only five fingers as that´s easier to animate than eight fingers). The rest of its body is more or less accurate.

2. Harpactognathus
An anomaly appears in the Eden Project, the world´s largest greenhouse. This vicious pterosaur is on the loose and kills humans like a leopard, mainly climbing around in the trees. When the team discover it they realize this is the source of all the myths of the Kongamato and Ropen in the African Kongo. Of course this Harpactognathus is bigger than the real animal to be capable of killing humans, though it isn´t as huge as the Pteranodon. It combines all the stereotypic depictions of pterosaurs - it is rather large, has a beak full of sharp teeth, a long tail with a vane at the end and a head crest made to resemble that of a Pteranodon a little bit more. Even the Primeval version keeps some unchangebale Pterosaur facts - for example it´s still a quadruped and can´t pick up humans with its feet. Not sure whether it would be scaly or covered in pycnofibers, I don´t know whether the Pteranodon and Anurognathus had pycnofibers or not.

3. Concavenator
A woman bitten in half is found near the Thames, surrounded by triangular serrated teeth - looking like those of a shark. An eyewitness claims to have seen a shark-like fin behind a wall, so the team assumes they´re dealing with some kind of semi-aquatic future shark. Thus they investigate the river but more dead bodies turn up in places far away from any bodies of water. Finally they realize the creature is not a shark, but a small Carcharodontosaur with shark-like teeth and a shark-like fin on its back. But things get worse when a whole pack of these "dino-sharks" come through the anomaly. The Concavenator is based on Primeval´s Giganotosaurus (yes its proportions really are that weird) and the hump on its back was changed into a typical shark fin.
Being discovered in 2010 it´s obviously impossible to have this dinosaur in series 5 of Primeval. On the other hand they apparently managed to get Balaur bondoc into episode 5.3 because it was discovered right when they were shooting it (they actually wanted to feature a fictional semi-aquatic raptor, and since Balaur bondoc´s home Romania was an island back then it might have been capable of swimming, too).