Therosaur

Summary
The Therosaurs were one of a number of genetic experiments undertaken by the Terrans near the end of the Second Terran war. It was an attempt to create a powerful but expendable foot-soldier, thought the experiment was never completed.

Evolution
With the Second Terran War turning badly against the Terrans, the Therosaurs were a desperate attempt to rapidly create more troops, by merging recovered dinosaur DNA with hominoid DNA. The initial attempts were only successful in re-growing the original DNA, or creating unstable mutations, but later processes resulted in a stable genetic strain. However, due to the repeated alteration and mixing of the DNA, the resulting Therosaur species broke into three different subspecies. The initial Therosaurs were too intelligent for the Terrans' purposes, but before any further developments could be made, the base prepared for evacuation in the face of an oncoming xenos fleet. The Terrans attempted to exterminate the Therosaurs but the Therosaurs fought back, occupying the main research station before the Terrains gave up and fled.

Physical Characteristics
The three subspecies of Therosaurs all have different characteristic to each other. The largest, the Tyran subspecies, stand between eight and nine feet tall and are extremely heavily built. The Allo subspecies stand on average just shorter than a Terran, about 5 feet or so. They are less heavily built than the Tyrans, but are still far more physical adept than most Terrans. Both the Tyrans and Allos have hard, leathery skin, normally in shades of brown, though both dark green and dark yellow colourations do exist. The final subspecies, the Mani, differ both in size, being on average three feet high, at most four, and in that their skin is covered with feathers. Their forearms also differ, being capable of flight. The presence of the large muscles required for flight gives the Mani a more hunched appearance than the other two subspecies, and when they walk, they commonly use both arms and legs, making them appear even shorter by comparison.

All three subspecies show variation in the development of their hands. For some the hand ends in a number of vicious claws, in others the hand has three fingers and a thumb. In the majority of cases, one hand is clawed, normally the left, and the other figured. The presence or absence of claws appears to determine an individual role in society.

Therosaurs have a very short lifespan, between thirty and 40 years at most. In a similar fashion, the childhood of a Therosaur is also short, and individuals are classed as adults at five years of age. Despite the large physical differences between the subspecies, the Therosaurs are none the less a single species. Therefore it is possible, though admittedly rare, for two different subspecies to mate, and in the same way, the offspring will not necessarily be of the same subspecies as either of its parents.

Attitude
With four exceptions, the Therosaurs do not interact with other races, and do not care about the Senate or expanding beyond their eight claimed systems. The Therosaurs hate any Terrans with a passion, and the Keleth race, with whom they went to war against near the start of the second age, and wiped out at the turn of the second age to the third. They have an interesting relationship with the Goblyrans; the two races trade with each other on an infrequent basis, but they also hold pitched battles with each other, seemingly only for the sake of fighting. These battles have also attracted the Aucindreth, and the Therosaurs appear to have struck an accord with the Aucindreth.