Eodraco

The eodraco (or "dawn dragon", in a dead language) was a genus of prehistoric proto-dragons. Many scholars believed eodracos were the first proto-dragon genus.

Description
According to information taken from incomplete fossil evidence, eodracos were similar in form and appearance to present age wyverns, with an average length of 35 feet (10 meters) and a 50-foot (15 meter) wingspan, with no evidence suggesting eodracos had a stinger on its tail like wyverns.

Due to the size of its skull, it was also believed their brains were smaller than those of wyverns, making them less intelligent than those creatures, but bigger than those of dinosaurs, making eodracos more cunning than their contemporaneous species.

History
It was widely believed by scholars from Candlekeep that eodracos were a divergent genus evolved from prehistoric dinosaurs, although they were never numerous enough to outnumber them. Due to their greater animal cunning, they developed the ability to anticipate and plan, and to cooperate with other members of their kind, making them a successful genus in a time dominated by powerful carnivorous dinosaurs.

It was theorized that their cunning and relatively small height enabled eodracos to survive the cataclysmic events that caused the mass extinction of nearly all species of dinosaurs. Most scholars believed this cataclysm was the Tearfall (although many counter-theories existed), and due to the harsh climatic change Toril suffered in its wake, eodracos were forced to undergo a process of rapid evolution in order to survive, eventually evolving into a huge variety of proto-dragon sub-species.