A Realistic Sniffer

The sniffers (Olfaciosauria) are the most enigmatic of the dinosaurs and their evolutionary history is a strange one, starting sometime in the Toarcian when a population of Scelidosaurus-like thyreophorans ended up on an island off the coast of what would become Sweden. Their distant offspring would gain a mutation of unknown cause that allowed them to have 6 limbs. However, this was no defect for these early sniffers and they have even made some use out of these additions. Thanks to the lack of predators, they would quickly diversify and conquer many niches, from being mainly ground-dwelling (and sometimes arboreal) frugivores to even sometimes predators. Out of these, it would be the small members of the former that would be the only non-avian dinosaurs to survive the Cretaceous-Paleogene Extinction, thanks to their seed-eating lifestyle, size and shaggy coat of feathers, which helped them in the cold. In the now mammal dominated world, they were able to fill the niche of large frugivores (mainly granivorous) as they sized back up, giving rise to modern species like the 3 tonne Common sniffer (Olfaciosaurus nekofresai). The sniffers were successful, and lived all across the Northern Hemisphere, but after humans arrived to their habitat, their numbers dwindled fast, being seen as an exotic source of meat and feathers. Only 4 species of sniffer currently exist in Europe in smaller populations than prior, but luckily, conservation efforts to protect these Cenozoic dinosaurs are succsessful, with the help of zoos, sanctuaries, nature reserves, national parks and rewilding projects. The bill of a sniffer is akin to a parrot’s, often to digest plant-matter, mainly such as seeds and nuts, but also fruits, shoots, roots and plants in general. It is also sometimes used for defence. Osteoderms, a thyreophoran trait, are often hidden underneath a sniffer’s shaggy feathers, but are externally visible around the tail. Aside from owls, many species of sniffer have also developed long ear tufts for display.

This fanart I am reposting two years later is of the Minecraft’s recent sniffer, a mob that was added in its last year’s Trails & Tales update thanks to a mob vote in Minecraft Live 2022 (voting it myself because I needed it so much), which is naturally extinct in the world, but can be resurrected by hatching its eggs found in the chests of ocean ruins. This piece (as well as another redesign of the sniffer from a year later) is probably my most famous, for it literally appears right away in the featured images section of searches related to "realistic sniffer."