tallosaurs

Tallosaurs are the most common large long necked dinosaur in Lustria's jungles. Not counting the fabled thunder lizards. Full grown tallosaurs are the largest creatures in Lustria in terms of sheer size and mass.
Tallosaurs have thicker scales and small spikes on their backs and the backs of their necks for protection, but like most real world longneck dinosaurs, they use their size and strength to deter predators, but their young are quite vulnerable, so tallosaurs typically travel in small herds to look after their offspring until they are big enough to fend for themselves.

Additional Information

Social Structure

A typical herd of tallosaurs includes one bull, two to four adult females, and five to eight juveniles.
Both male and female juveniles leave to look for new herds when they grow up to adulthoods. Young adult females rarely have any problem being adopted to a new herd but young males have to defeat the bull in a challenge or be lucky enough to run across lone unattached females (other than his sisters).
A lot of bull tallosaurs travel alone without a herd. Some of them are young adult males that haven't hit their prime yet and others are older bulls that were driven out of their last herd by a successful challenger. A lone male is far from helpless, but lone males are far more likely than other tallosaurs to meet an lethal end at the hands of a carnosaur or Lizardmen hunting party.

Uses, Products & Exploitation

The Lizardmen regularly tame and train tallosaurs as beasts of burden and on rare occasions as beasts of war but never in large numbers. Trained tallosaurs are regularly seen in the so called "Big Four" temple cities but they are rarely if ever seen in the smaller smaller Kahoun and with few exceptions, are not often used in occupied ruined temple cities. It is the larger temple cities with the taller construction projects that can actually put tallosaurs to good use. Elsewhere, their inclusion is a bit of overkill.
Comparatively speaking, Stegadons are considered superior beasts of burden and superior beasts of war most of the time. Stegadons are less difficult to feed as they eat a wider variety of plant material, will sometimes eat meat, and they eat less overall than tallosaurs. Tallosaurs pretty much eat leaves exclusively. Another aspect that makes Stegadons preferred over tallosaurs is that Stegadons live a lot longer, so a group of Lizardmen can get two and half Skink generations of use out of a trained Stegadon wheras Tallosaurs rarely make it much longer than fifty years.
Tallosaurs are tall. Even without their long necks, most full grown Carnosaurs only reach up to their chests. With their long necks they can act as living cranes to move workers and materials up and down great heights quickly and easily. Otherwise Lizardmen would not bother to train and keep them at all.
It is rare to see tallosaurs deployed as beasts of war, but when the Lizardmen do use tallosaurs in a martial capacity, it is usually as sieging instrument carry soldiers over enemy walls. While tallosaurs are not docile by any stretch of the imagination, they are less tolerant of the chaotic battlefield noises and smells than Stegadons, Bastiladons and Carnosaurs. To counteract this, tallosaurs used in battle are often controlled by very experienced beast caste Skink priests or younger or multitasking Slann.
Most Lizardmen prefer meat over all other food sources and Tallosaur have a lot of meat on them. One adult tallosaur can feed many Lizardmen. It is always a cause for celebration when a hunting party brings a tallosaur. Lizardmen hunting parties rarely hunt tallosaurs indiscriminately not wanting to overtax the ecosystem. Lizardmen typically only hunt older males without a herd not wanting to disrupt the next generation of tallosaurs.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Tallosaurs rely on their keen eyesight (and the vantage point their height and long necks give them) to detect food, water, and potential dangers.
Their hearing is very sensitive, but their sense of smell is underwhelming compared to most of Lustria's larger beasts. They are quite intelligent for animals and have their guard immediately if anything looks, sounds, or smells out of the ordinary.

Geographic Distribution

• Lustria