Desert raptor

In the early days of the War it seems the two Archmages couldn't resist the temptation to resurrect yet another one of the terrible lizards...

The Desert Raptors are a species of bipedal reptiles descendant from a genus of dinosaurs who used to live in eastern Phaldorya several milions of years ago.
These reptiles reach around 2 meters of height when standing on their hind legs, and a weight of around 100 kg. They have strong hind legs that allow them to run at the speed of a good racing horse and jump, with the aid of the long tail that functions as a third leg, hights up to twice their size.
Differently from their ancestors, their skin is bald and delicate, and they need to protect it from the desert sun by rolling on mud and dirt.
The Raptors are carnivores and have no predilection in what they would hunt. ranging from rabbits and lizards, to organize in hunting group to take down Mastodons.
Their main weapon is the hawk like mouth on which are mounted 30 sharp teeths per side and that they often use to start devouring their prey still alive but immobilized by the powerful back claws.

by John Fowler

The researcher think the evolutionary advantage that consented their survival after the war of mages is their reproductive rates. A female can lay an egg a month during all her life and though not all of them are fertilized and many fall prey to other creatures, enough of them hatch four weeks later a baby raptor who is already independent and capable to hunt efficiently small preys.

A resurrected species or a natural evolution?

The remains of the Archeoraptor are still found in considerable number in the deeper layers of the Bone Valley sediments, and from their study it can be recunstracted an image of the exctinct animal very similar to the modern Raptors. The most striking difference seems to be that the Archeoraptor used to be covered in thick plumage and feathers, though it seems improbable that it was capable of flight.
Despite the fact that the stratigraphy seems to suggest an exctintion occurred much earlier than the The conflagration many researchers think that these ancient reptiles actually survived in small number up to the War of the Mages and from these small group of survivors a new species emerged, helped by the magical radiation of the aftermath.
Others think that their birth (or rebirth) was an entirely magical process performed by one of the archmages, with the intention of using an army of these creatures against their enemy.
From the historical documents, it seems a fact that several monstrous creatures similar to dinosaurs were roaming Fyrth during the War of the Mages, but only the raptors have been so successful at surviving the extermination from the sentient species.

The baby raptors are adorable when they are just out of the egg, all gangly limbs and wet snouts... but better not linger too much admiring them

— Amaya Loyola

by Mehmet Turgut Kirkgoz

The Desert Raptors seem to have developed a symbiotic relationship with Phaldorya goblins, they frequently live in the same areas and sometimes the goblins are allowed to a portion of the raptors preys. Some of them can even be seen mounted by the little creatures. How this relationship came to be can't be reliably investigated due to the nature of the species involved, but some likened it to the relationship between dogs or cats with humans.

by Stephen Leonardi