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| Ediacaran-like World; Simple animal life dominates. | |
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| Topic Started: Dec 27 2008, 01:56 PM (1,337 Views) | |
| Toad of Spades | Dec 27 2008, 01:56 PM Post #1 |
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Clorothod
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Many creatures of the Ediacaran fauna were simple creatures that got raw nutrients straight from the water and adapted themselves for ways to obtain it. This got me thinking, what if animal life evolved in this direction? What if instead of finding different ways to obtain nutrients from each other triggering the predator-prey arms race, they evolved new ways to obtain raw nutrients faster and better, as well as ways of pushing away competitors. Adaptations could be covering larger surface areas, parasitism by stealing nutrients, filtering appendages, and boundry defending spines or spikes. In this way, with no predator prey arms race, things could stay simple and evolve slowly. Any thoughts? |
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Sorry Link, I don't give credit. Come back when you're a little...MMMMMM...Richer. Bread is an animal and humans are %90 aluminum. | |
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| Sliver Slave | Dec 30 2008, 11:14 PM Post #2 |
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I'm going back to basics.
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While speculating this far back can be difficult, I once had the off hand Idea of sapient Ediacarans. |
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Something is upsetting the ostriches. Spoiler: click to toggle | |
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| ATEK Azul | Jan 24 2009, 09:06 PM Post #3 |
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Transhuman
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i think that your ideas are quite on tract, and that maybe they could develope land species that slowly move across the land with a symbiosis with fungi and plants. and then they could become milipede like and worm like. |
| I am dyslexic, please ignore the typo's! | |
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| Venatosaurus | Jan 28 2009, 05:03 PM Post #4 |
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HAUS OF SPEC
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I actually wanna do a project similar to this. Though it takes place on another planet where rangeomorph-like forms are the only "animals". They eventually colonize land, with the juvenile stages resembling arthropods and cephalopods, as they age they become sedentary and plant themeselves in the ground, they then ossify and become tree-like, and act very much like the Stinger Fan from Extraterrestrial http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/extraterrestrial/ax/main_fs.html Some develop in an opposite manner, plant-like when juvenile , animal-like once mature. Some though over time develop neoteny and become the planets active "animals", some developing carnivory, herbivory etc (through a process much like Darwin 4's inhabitants). Developing a diverse ecology of mainly cephalopod and arthropod-like terrestrial animals, while the aquatic "rangeomorph-animals" independently evolve their own organ systems and eyes etc, and resemble eels. The only true plants are lichen,moss and grass-like. How does that sound
Edited by Venatosaurus, Jan 28 2009, 09:46 PM.
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| CarrionTrooper | Jan 30 2009, 11:47 PM Post #5 |
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I require more vespene gas?!?
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Hoom... while it seems weird, maybe organisms would behave something like nations. I mean, setting boundaries, expanding etc. But, I do believe that predatorism would still develop, maybe from the parasitic animals that went over-greedy and form packs. Small in size, high in ferocity, while the boundary-making water filterers would have to grow defenses to counter this threat... Somehow my mind keeps getting a biological, underwater version of aerial-to-ground combat... |
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| ATEK Azul | Feb 3 2009, 08:13 PM Post #6 |
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Transhuman
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sounds interesting maybe they will develope symbiotic relationships with more advanced animals, creating living countrys with protections and armys the countricarans would have there armys tear holes in the defenses of others so that the countricarans can expand into the borders and devour the wounded parts of countricarans, while the armys fight the other armys devour the deffences for food returning home after being wounded too heal. |
| I am dyslexic, please ignore the typo's! | |
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| CarrionTrooper | Feb 4 2009, 12:15 AM Post #7 |
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I require more vespene gas?!?
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Hoom! That's it! It could be that some of the nationformes develop a symbiosis with the parasites, and send them to other nationformes to ger more nutrients... and then there will be border war etc. |
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| ATEK Azul | Feb 4 2009, 12:12 PM Post #8 |
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Transhuman
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awsome!!!! now what type of animals would the armys be i mean would they be smaller ediacarans or more complex animals like vertebrates and invertebrates, what would evolve into the armys and what potential do the armys have for evolution with and with out the ediacarans. |
| I am dyslexic, please ignore the typo's! | |
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| Deleted User | Aug 16 2009, 12:38 PM Post #9 |
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Deleted User
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Sorry for resurrecting a dead topic, but I was interested in this. As someone who occasionally writes science fiction, I had an idea a while ago which is similar to this, similar to the aftermath of the nation-form period. If one nation-form were to out-compete the others, what would stop it from modifying the its environment and assimilating it? I read a while ago that seawater has a chemical composition similar to blood plasma, perhaps this dominant Edicaran creatures that expanded to cover the ocean-floor of its world could use the seawater itself to mediate the transfer of nutrients between cells. I would imagine that the primary motivator of evolution would be parasitism and disease. The creature's antibody-analogs might develop into multicellular creatures (jellyfish-like "filter feeders", etc.) Essentially, the idea is something that is neither quite an ecosystem or an individual creature, but a superorganism with traits of both. |
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| Canis Lupis | Aug 16 2009, 12:47 PM Post #10 |
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.
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On SE, there is no such thing as a dead topic. You can post anywhere, as long as the topic isn't closed. I'd critique or praise your idea, but I don't really know anything about Ediacarans. |
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| ATEK Azul | Aug 16 2009, 03:48 PM Post #11 |
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Transhuman
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I'm glad this is back. I would not know how to critic the sea water thing soI will leave it to some one else. As for how they evolve and what they would be classified as I agree with you. Also maybe a branch of these Countryacarans could split into floating forms like the animals in tfiw and sagan 4. |
| I am dyslexic, please ignore the typo's! | |
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| CarrionTrooper | Aug 19 2009, 03:33 AM Post #12 |
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I require more vespene gas?!?
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Interesting... reminds me of something I may have read in Animorphs and Solaris, of a whole planet being a single organism. The one in Animorphs tend to go somewhat like the Sarlacc in star wars, absorbing intelligence (neural links, perhaps?) from its prey, whilst in Solaris... it's kinda like it broadcasted a copy... hmmm. Kinda sketchy on Solaris. |
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| colddigger | Aug 20 2009, 11:59 AM Post #13 |
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Joke's over! Love, Parasky
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the idea of animal nations reminds me of the great anemone war... between the reds and whites... i can't find a link |
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Oh Fine. Oh hi you! Why don't you go check out the finery that is SGP?? v Don't click v Spoiler: click to toggle | |
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| T.Neo | Aug 20 2009, 12:25 PM Post #14 |
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Translunar injection: TLI
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Why would this happen? It's clearly more advantageous to consume other organisms (they have essentially collected and refined the nutrients for you) then to just suck nutrients from the surrounding water/sand. The only extant macroscopic organisms that I can think of that use raw nutrients are plants, although said nutrients often originate from other (dead) organisms, placed there by the soil cycle. After browsing the net for info on Ediacaran life forms, I found out that their exact evolutionary relationships are unclear- they have been postulated to have been members of a whole different phylum or even kingdom, or perhaps basal relatives of modern groups. Whatever they are, I think it is certain that they were outcompeted by animals with better feeding and defense techniques. |
| A hard mathematical figure provides a sort of enlightenment to one's understanding of an idea that is never matched by mere guesswork. | |
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| CarrionTrooper | Aug 21 2009, 01:05 AM Post #15 |
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I require more vespene gas?!?
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1. Because this is speculative evolution, 2. Read the original post. |
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