Some of you guys have seen my anthro character Paya's birdy dinosaur mount, Cyd (he's the red-orange one seen here as the adult male example). Well, I decided to do a little ref for his species! I'm considering releasing a few of these as cash adoptables, or maybe design trades (with friends/mutual watchers only, sorry uvu)

You can now see their stages of development with that little red-violet guy. I ended up liking him, as well as the purple and yellow female ;3;

A few things not mentioned here...

Their crest feathers display emotion. They can move them and spread them out to communicate how they're feeling.

If you haven't noticed, the males' crests are 'brows' where the females have a burst of feathers from the center. The males tend to have much longer crest feathers, but long crest feathers are possible (though uncommon) in females.

Feathers may appear very, very rarely on other places of the body, such as the arms or down the center of the back, neck, or on the tail, as traits from ancient ancestors sometimes show through.

The beak notches can either be rounded or more triangular. They show up anywhere from the center of the beak back towards the nose. Sometimes they may have two on each side. Occasionally there will be no notch at all, but it's not very common.

In some thunderfoot, teeth may poke out down from what appears to be the beak. The inside of the upper part of the mouth is like the bottom, with sharp teeth, and with a fleshy roof. (Try to) imagine the inside of a raptor's mouth. The beak is just the hard, bone-like outer coating where the inside is more bone, flesh, and teeth. The beak is attached by extremely strong connective tissue.

For some thunderfoot, the non-plated skin may be smoother or softer than others. It really depends on how long they have lived and their lifestyles. If they live the cushy life, they're likely to be softer and smoother, where as if they spend their lives running through shrubs and thorns or getting into fights and rolling on the hard ground, they tend to have the rougher and thicker skin.

Thunderfoot tend to live in primarily warm climates, as they don't have the metabolic rates to produce their own body heat.

Some of you may ask...

Q: "If the ref claims that males can't be trained for riding, why is Cyd a mount?"

A: For the purposes of the story I'm (sort of) writing, Cyd is a very special case. To stay authentic to the story, no other males may be used as mount animals. Part of Paya's being a legend has to the do with her special relationship with Cyd.

Thunderfoot species belongs to me... uvu Please do not use the species, this image, or any of the art without my permission. This is a closed species.