A Permian Legacy Episode III The Capricorn

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:05][music] [music] [music] >> Goatfish or sea goats are esoteric legendary creatures.

[00:00:59]Though not one that has established itself as a modern fantasy staple like unicorns, griffins, and dragons have, they were quite popular in antiquity.

[00:01:08]Back during their origins in Babylon, in ancient Greece where they became incorporated as the constellation Capricornus, and eventually one of the iconic zodiac astrological signs, and in medieval art ranging from bestiaries to sea monsters filling out spaces on maps and charts.

[00:01:25]We might not think of these as a legendary icon, but to the early members of the assembly who came to Ky'mere and encountered many animals and homunculi that bore striking resemblance to monsters of myth, they were quite well known.

[00:01:41]A creature called the Huscata by the Centaurim captured the attention of the first assembly researchers.

[00:01:48]Reef dragon is a much more common name for them and their northern cousins nowadays.

[00:01:52]This is both in light of them being identified as a sister clade to the dragons of the Permian Islands, and a much more striking similarity to the long dragons of East Asia, which is why they are also called long or coiled dragons, and their scientific name is Plecta Draconidae.

[00:02:09]A connection to the worms of Germanic folklore was also made in early assembly texts.

[00:02:15]However, to the primarily European and classical antiquity oriented academics performing these initial translations and scientific descriptions in the 1700s, the illustrations and accounts given to them much more closely reminded these researchers of the Capricorn than dragons of Europe or Asia, so this is the name that was used in their initial description and remains in use for many circles.

[00:02:42]Capricorns are the only one of their kind in the known world.

[00:02:47]Fossils in the shores near the Great Library suggest at least one other species initially joined them around a million years ago, and there's also a potential set of much earlier remains on Rooster Crest itself, but today it is the last of its kind.

[00:03:03]They possess poor cold tolerance and only even venture into the northernmost corners of the known world proper at some spend in the summers of the shores of the Centaurim Islands.

[00:03:15]Most of their population, however, occupies the inland sea and gulfs of its northern range.

[00:03:22]They have occasionally been spotted all along our valves northern coast, but they also appear to be seasonal migrants when most of the remaining population stays in the northern half of the Trakai and seaway.

[00:03:38]Capricorns and their Plecta Draconidae kin are in the draconiform Arbor Felitherian Therapsid Felian's.

[00:03:46]Their ancestors were long-bodied arboreal predators that took to rivers and coastal waters after the dynastic extinction 15 million years ago, and not long thereafter fully took to the sea.

[00:03:59]Unlike the related Waketelu, Capricorns and other Plecta Draconids all still lay eggs.

[00:04:06]Because of this, females are a lot smaller and must dig and guard nests on land.

[00:04:12]This dimorphism is even more exaggerated in their larger cousins in the northern hemisphere, where females must still nest on land, while males are free to get as large as they like being entirely aquatic animals.

[00:04:28]Incubation of Capricorn eggs lasts around a month. Females tend to live in groups of 10 to 30 related animals, while males are solitary or live in small bachelor groups.

[00:04:43]Capricorns swim with a lateral or side-to-side stroke instead of the sagittal or up-and-down stroke of most marine mammals, and indeed their related Waketelu and kin.

[00:04:55]Many reasons have been suggested for this, but the continued employment of their caudal femoralis musculature is likely still a factor.

[00:05:04]Though their legs don't play much of a strong direct role in swimming outside of perhaps aiding in stability and a bit of a push from webbed toes, they still kick their legs in an alternating stride as they swim.

[00:05:17]As the leg kicks back, it flexes the muscle linking tail to femur.

[00:05:22]The flexion pulls the tail toward the backstroked leg.

[00:05:27]When it is time to swim fast, they instead take on a more conventional serpentine stroke and tuck the legs in, but this continued use of the legs while cruising has been proposed to be why they took to a lateral stroke when first getting into the water over the sagittal stroke of the Waketelu.

[00:05:45]This stroke and continued use of their legs may also be tied to how they have not yet developed live birth when many other egg-laying tetrapods in the stage of aquatic adaptation have.

[00:05:57]Unlike archosaurs, which seem to have a greater adaptive hurdle to overcoming preventing live birth even in situations like marine life when they would have a lot of advantages, Capricorn and their fellow marine dragons appear to face no such challenge.

[00:06:13]After all, Waketelu and Mogal both give live birth.

[00:06:19]Locomotion may not be the only thing holding them back, but the correlation in how these two related and analogous animals swim and which reproductive method each employ has been noted by assembly researchers.

[00:06:32]Capricorn are generalist predators.

[00:06:35]For the most part, they ambush fish around reefs, but they will readily take on crustaceans, marine scorpions, and both reptiles and mammals in their environment.

[00:06:45]They generally they prefer prey small enough to be swallowed whole, though they have been known to tackle walruses, sloths, and other mammals up to twice their size.

[00:06:56]They are themselves prey to numerous sharks and marine reptiles.

[00:07:00]On land, only the Modoru giant lizard, Alar, and very large saltwater crocodiles pose a threat.

[00:07:11]Like most Arbor Felitherians, Capricorns possess a venom.

[00:07:16]Like other draconiforms, this venom can be ejected from their caniform teeth through tubes that open halfway down the fang.

[00:07:23]Their ancestors used this venom as spray or jets to deter predators.

[00:07:29]Some of their cousins, like the nominative draconids themselves, eject venom at prey as a weakening prelude to attack as they fly past.

[00:07:39]Capricorns and other aquatic dragons have no reliable means of envenomating underwater, so they don't have much use for this in their regular hunting context.

[00:07:50]It can deter some predators and weaken potential prey on land, but their venom is not especially strong and is mostly reactive to therapsids, so it doesn't much help against the theropods, giant lizards, and crocodiles that pose the most frequent threat.

[00:08:07]Juveniles can use it to good effect against their more numerous mammal predators, but it's not especially potent.

[00:08:15]Their venom, instead of serving much of a defensive or offensive purpose, is more spectacularly used in their elaborate mating displays.

[00:08:26]Most Arbor Felitherians have exceptional color vision, and many can even see into the ultraviolet spectrum.

[00:08:33]The Waketelu has lost this trait like most marine animals, but the Capricorn and their kin retain color vision for mating displays.

[00:08:42]Even a few meters underwater can greatly mute color, so the bright hues on their faces don't seem to give them away.

[00:08:50]As they mate and display at the surface or on land, having these bright colors is worth the investment.

[00:08:57]Like many mosasaurs in Ky'mere, this means they can afford to be flashy while still having muted colors underwater.

[00:09:04]Though their faces are bright and especially colorful in males during the mating season, the venom spray is where they truly shine.

[00:09:14]Males can eject venom several meters in the air if in good health.

[00:09:19]A diverse diet is crucial to them developing a full range of pigmentation.

[00:09:24]A healthy billy in his prime can spray numerous different colors and seems to have a degree of control over which colors eject when.

[00:09:34]The glands on either side of his snout swell numerous times over the prelude of the mating season, so he can spray long and often as he seeks to impress numerous mates.

[00:09:46]A healthy male can often be the primary mate of at least one pod of a few dozen nannies, and sometimes he will be the mate for a time and still have the reserves to mate with another group.

[00:09:58]If he's not able to build up reserves for regular and spectacular display, it is unlikely he will pass on his genes to the next generation.

[00:10:07]Males, unsurprisingly given the strategy, do not participate in child care.

[00:10:14]Unlike the very dedicated parentage of Wakatelu, Capricorn Nannys lay between five and a dozen eggs each mating season and in late summer after males and females have bulked up from early summer upwells, she will feed them regurgitated seafood for a little while and guard her clutch for a few months, but by their third or fourth month of age, at the beginning of winter, they're on their own.

[00:10:40]Winter in the northern Trokai am is a pleasant post-storm time of year and a perfect time for little dragons to kick-start their independent lives.

[00:10:51]A Capricorn will reach adulthood by their second year assuming they eat well and survive, though it's usually not until females are three and males are six that they are respectively large and healthy enough to reproduce.

[00:11:06]Capricorn are not well known to most peoples of Kaimere. Only the Kenteram regularly encounter them and only when the Capricorn travel north over the summer to partake in the bounties carried through the channels by marine upwells.

[00:11:21]There's occasional confrontation between Kenteram fishermen and these dragons, but for the most part the southern islands get so many fish shunted inland and trapped in the area by currents that there's more fish than anyone could possibly want on their own, so little need to fight.

[00:11:37]There are accounts of injured and old Capricorn becoming very successful and dangerous man-eaters, but these are rare.

[00:11:45]Capricorn venom can be mildly dangerous to people, well though only a few are so allergic that it's lethal. And dragons would generally much rather store their venom for making displays later in the summer.

[00:11:56]So usually everyone gets along getting fat and happy together.

[00:12:06]Cheers to Ian for sponsoring these episodes. In the build-up to the release of my Dragon Rider story, which will take place on the Permian Islands, I'm happy to take some of my episodes exploring animals of the Permian harvested ancestry of the coming months, both in the known world and the islands on which the story will be set.

[00:12:26]I am having an absolute blast getting back into writing and I can't wait to share this novella with you all.

[00:12:33]Thank you so much to Ian, to my Patreon patrons for your support, to those who have sent me funds to generally support the project and my work, and thank you so much for watching.

[00:12:44]Cheers, folks.

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