Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Speculative biology is simultaneously a science and form of art in which one speculates on the possibilities of life and evolution. What could the world look like if dinosaurs had never gone extinct? What could alien lifeforms look like? What kinds of plants and animals might exist in the far future? These questions and more are tackled by speculative biologists, and the Speculative Evolution welcomes all relevant ideas, inquiries, and world-building projects alike. With a member base comprising users from across the world, our community is the largest and longest-running place of gathering for speculative biologists on the web.

While unregistered users are able to browse the forum on a basic level, registering an account provides additional forum access not visible to guests as well as the ability to join in discussions and contribute yourself! Registration is free and instantaneous.

Join our community today!

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
Atshara; basically, a wet Venus
Topic Started: Aug 26 2009, 08:06 PM (977 Views)
Canis Lupis
Member Avatar
Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

Posted Image

Imagine this world. Second from its sun, an extremely dense atmosphere with almost constant storms, an average surface tempurature of 900 degrees, and a surface that renews itself every 100 million years or so. This is Venus, as we all know and love it. A lifeless world which was thought to have life on it for centuries.





Posted Image

Now imagine this world. Third from its sun, a surface covered in 75% water, an atmosphere with about 70% nitrogen, 20% oxygen, and seasons. This is Earth, where you are most likely standing. The only place that harbors life. So far as we know.





Now, imagine if Venus was located a little farther from its sun (between the orbits of Earth and Mars). Imagine if Venus had a slighly thinner atmosphere. Imagine if Venus was about as wet as Earth. Imagine if Venus was twice the size of Earth. Now you've got Atshara.

http://specbiofan.deviantart.com/art/Crude-Orbital-Map-of-Atshara-134869795


Here's a biome map:

http://specbiofan.deviantart.com/art/Crude-Biome-Map-of-Atshara-134871485




First creature is part of a sister clade to the 'vertebrates': the Exogastrids. While most creatures on Atshara are xeprotostomes (alien protostomes), the Exogastrids (phylum Exogastria) and the Musostids (the sister phylum to Exogastria. Characterized by having a muscular tube running through the center of their bones for greater flexibility. Phylum name Musostia) are conclastomes (Latin and Greek for chamber mouth). This basically means that when theblastula-like object forms, their mouth forms first, but the gut never forms an anus; rather, it re-attaches to the mouth opening (hence chamber mouth).



I'll post an example species of phylum Exogastria tomorrow.




Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Canis Lupis
Member Avatar
Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

Since no one is responding, I'll kick it off with the first creature. The description is in the form of a letter between scientists:

Quote:
 
Dear Dr. Timothy Ashar:

An interesting find has crossed our observation post perched high in the branches of the Adnor Forest. This information has been gleamed from two weeks of intensive research:

Kingdom: Phusizoa
Phylum: Exogastria
Class: Notocerebra
Order: Duramantella
Family: Acerapodae
Genus: Ubranula
Species: pipaera

Common Name: Pipe Acmok

Ubranula pipaera, or the pipe acmock is native to the vast eboree forest of Adnor. It is an herbivorous conclastome, slithering along the intertwining branches of the eborees, digesting them as it goes. Its ambulatory organ is basically a remarkable convergent evolution with the molluscan foot. However, the pipe acmock’s foot is unique in that it is actually a stomach. Due to some as-of-yet unknown biological process, possibly similar to the human genetic disorder that causes the intestines to grow outside the body, the stomach grows outside of the creature’s only opening, basically combining the foot with the mouth so that it eats on the go. As the pipe acmock slithers along, acids are excreted from the foot (hence the family Acerapodae), breaking down the eboree’s bark so the pipe acmock can digest the bark (this is similar to echinoderm method of digestion).

All creatures in this phylum are hermaphroditic. During mating season, one member of the species releases a small glob of unfertilized eggs from the foot. In some cases (less than half. These egg sacks actually make for tasty meals), another member of the species comes along and swallows the egg sack. It travels to the gametery (since the creatures within this phylum are hermaphroditic, they produce both gametes in one organ) to be fertilized by sperm. The fertilized egg sack is then coated with a highly poisonous substance to prevent it from being eaten (the egg is also brightly colored to warn predators) and excreted out of the body from the foot. The egg sack then sits on the eboree branch (the poisonous coat is still quite sticky) and hatches in one to two months.

(picture pending)



More discoveries surely await us in the future.

Sincerely,


Dr. Jeffery Abaro

Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
StinglessBee
Member Avatar
Adolescent
 *  *  *  *  *
I like it: can't wait to see more. I'm especially curious about the "plant" life of Atshara (presuming that the black trees and black grass mentioned on the biome map are plant equivelants and not sessile relatives of the other clades mentioned) and about the Musostids. Like I said: I can't wait to see more :lol:
Edited by StinglessBee, Aug 29 2009, 08:11 AM.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Canis Lupis
Member Avatar
Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

Thank you. You win a prize for being the first one (other than me) to post here! Yeah! Your prize: some taxonomy and evolutionary history.


First, to answer your question, the eborees and black grass are the plant analogues. They use a substance called melasophyll. Basically, this substance is a black version of chlorophyll. As you may know, black absorbs a large amount of light, allowing it to be extremely efficient. This allows them to absorb as much light as possible in their hot, humid, and dim world.


So as not to keep you waiting to respond to your post, I'll post the evolutionary history later tonight.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
StinglessBee
Member Avatar
Adolescent
 *  *  *  *  *
Yeah! I won!

Seriously though, this thread looks like it'll be brilliant. I expect you'll get a larger audience soon enough ;)

Sadly I won't be able to read the evolutionary history today. It's getting rather late here, and I think I'll be snoring away shortly. I'll read it tomorrow morning. :)
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Canis Lupis
Member Avatar
Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

I'll give you a little something to look forward to:

I've got a phylum that I'll be discussing in that post that looks like a cross between a fish, squid, and balloon (unintentional of course).
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Scrublord
Member Avatar
Father Pellegrini
 *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
This looks like it has the potential to be a great project! By the way, are you still working on Tongban? I thought Tongban was pretty cool too, especially the way you made it a "sequel" to Snaiad. Also, you can always check out Valhalla, my alien world-building project in the Habitable Zone. No one's posted in it in a long time, but I've got lots of great ideas for it.
My Projects:
The Neozoic Redux
Valhalla--Take Three!
The Big One



Deviantart Account: http://elsqiubbonator.deviantart.com

In the end, the best advice I could give you would be to do your project in a way that feels natural to you, rather than trying to imitate some geek with a laptop in Colorado.
--Heteromorph
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Canis Lupis
Member Avatar
Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

I was kind of losing interest in Tongban, so my original partner (CarrionTrooper) adopted it. Let's hope he comes out with something. I'd like to see where he takes it, especially with so much freedom.

I'll be checking it out here real soon. Maybe you ought to post a creature idea to get people to start posting again.




Now, the moment you've all been waiting for: the evolutionary history. I'll be going into detail about the phylums later. Right now, I'm working on a brief tour of the phylums for you. Basically, I'm going to post the description of one organism in each phylum from Phusizoa and just a general description of the flora, then I'm going to accept niche requests.

I’ll start with the taxonomic list of the so-called lower kingdoms Micriota (similar ecologically to protists) and Paliuria (similar ecologically to plants). These are both advanced kingdoms, but I’m more interested in the Phusizoans (animal counterparts) than I am in these. If someone else wants to go into detail about them, knock yourself out. But for the most part, I’ll be focusing on the Phusizoans. So here’s just a taxonomic list for the two “lower kingdoms”, with their derivatives:


Kingdom: Micriota (micro creatures (like our protista))
Phylum: Naregrama (floating ‘grass’)
Class: Erinaria (free floating)
Class: Recicula (reef rope)


Kingdom: Paliuria (‘plant’ (obvious what it’s like))
Super-phylum: Chlorophyta (green ‘plant’)
Phylum: Chlorophytae (green plant’)
Class: Moncresa (mountain grower)
Super-phylum: Melasophyta (black ‘plant’)
Phylum: Eborea (black ‘tree’)
Class: Pumillibora (dwarf tree)
Class: Iunstipae (joined branches)
Phylum: Nigrae (black ‘grass’)
Class: Vestia (carpet)
Class: Magnoreptor (parasite ‘flower’)
Class: Frigusia (cold grower)
Class: Onigraema (storm ‘grass’)
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Canis Lupis
Member Avatar
Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

Since no one is posting, I'll just go ahead with niche requests. I'll list the Phusizoan phyla, of course, but I think more people want to see the actual organisms rather than a taxonomy. So here's the list of phyla, with brief descriptions:


Phylum List of the Phusizoans
 

  • Oradermata: these are the last vestiges of the earlist life forms on Atshara (the Vendiforms). As their name suggests, the oraderms have a skin that effectively functions as a mouth (similar to sponges). Some are sessile, looking like a ball on a stick. Most, however, are motile. They basically look like spheres, moving with cillia (the cillia also guide food particles into the many pores). This group of motile oraderms effectively takes the niche of plankton, with many creatures feeding on them, both in the ocean and atmosphere (which is like an ocean).

  • Dipharyna: these creatures are the first creatures with a recognizable mouth, though there isn't just one mouth; there's two. And these aren't really mouths. They're actually structures similar to the pharynx of the flatworms on Earth. The pharynx leads to a chamber full of bacteria which breaks down the food. What nutrients the bacteria don't get, the organism can use. Excretion is achieved through a tube connecting to the ventral side of their body. Basically, these creatures exude rings of waste, which prevent other organisms from growing or living in their vicinity (but it encourages the growth of other Dipharynians). However, some find this waste highly nutritious. All organisms in this phylum are sessile and marine.

  • Cephapentae: this phylum is one of two phyla that have pentagonal symmetry (phylum Musostia is the other). However, the cephapents only have pentagonal symmetry in their anterior (the rest of the body is bilateral). In other words, creatures in this phylum have eyes located on the anterior that are arranged in a pentagon and they’ve got five “jaws” (sort of like sea urchin mouths). They are also characterized by the presence of a siphon on the posterior (though in some species, it’s vestigial), striated skin (to help keep them aloft in the water and air), and a tentacle-like tongue on the ventral anterior portion of the body. Most, but not all, species have a gas bag on the ventral side of the body (basically, it’s like a fish’s swim bladder, except that it helps both the flying and swimming creatures stay aloft).

  • Pugoria: this phylum, whose name means “butt mouth” means what it says. They’ve got a mouth on the posterior end of their body, similar to Earth’s extinct trilobites. These are the precursors to the conclastomes. Due to some bizarre quirk in their early evolutionary development, their anus and mouth were effectively switched, so that the anterior housed the anus and the posterior the mouth. This strange mutation was actually quite advantageous to these small creatures in that they could watch for predators in front while feeding behind. However, another evolutionary development was needed to make this group one of the three dominant phyla on Atshara (Cephapentae and Musostia are the other two). This evolutionary development was a second set of eyes, located on the posterior. In this way, they could watch for predators on both ends of their body. This phylum has creatures that are located on land and in the water, but the fact that Pugorians possess a rigid endoskeleton and highly ineffective limbs (which is the reason for the strong skeleton and multiple eyes) makes it impossible for them to take to the air.

  • Exogastria: this is the first of the conclastomes. While it may seem primitive (it is compared with the other phylum of conclastomes (Musostia)), it actually evolved more recently than their more advanced cousins, evolving through branching from their musostian cousins. Some Atsharan biologists argue that the exogastrids should be placed in the musostian phylum, but the exogastrids share many characteristics that the musostians just don’t possess. These include an external stomach, a dual “notochord” system (the notochords are actually the brain, linked at the anterior end by the vision center), and boney rings.

  • Musostia: this is the second of the conclastomes, and one of the three most widespread phyla on Atshara (Pugoria and Cephapentae are the others). This group is characterized by having chiton-carbonate bones surrounding a complex network of muscle fibers. This gives the group amazing dexterity in most species, allowing most species to take arboreal and flying niches, with a few evolving to marine niches. They are the second phylum to evolve pentagonal symmetry (Cephapentae is the other), having radial symmetry and eyes arranged in a pentagon-like shape. Some creatures in this phylum have become overall become bilateral, so symmetry isn’t the best way to classify this phylum (but all species have five eyes in a pentagon-like pattern). Their evolution is a mystery to Atsharan scientists. Some argue that they evolved from the cephapents with the similar exogastrids evolving as conclastomes independently. Others argue that the musostians evolved from the cephapents and that the exogastrids evolved from a semi-vertebral variety of musostians. Still others argue that the musostians evolved from a very early ancestor of the cephapents before pentagonal symmetry was realized. If the latter was true, this would mean that pentagonal symmetry evolved twice on Atshara. More fossil information will have to be recovered before a conclusive evolutionary history is made.





I will now accept niche requests. You can use any format for them you want, but I prefer the following:

Biome (refer to the Atsharan biome map): [insert biome name here]
Earth "analogue": [insert analogue name here. This is there just to allow me to better understand your niche request]
A brief description of the niche: [insert description here]
Suggested phylum: [suggest a phylum to take this niche here. But I reserve the right to create a creature from any phylum for the niche. Your phylum suggestion is just that: a suggestion. But I welcome it]


So: who's up first? Keep in mind that it may take a day or two to post the description. I would much appreciate it if someone wanted to take it upon themselves to draw the creatures (it doesn't have to just be one artist who contributes. I'd actually prefer if I didn't have an official artist, just anyone who wants to submit a picture. But remember, I reserve the right to make suggestions for the creature you draw (such as anatomical structures and how they'd look alive)).
Edited by Canis Lupis, Sep 10 2009, 06:54 PM.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Canis Lupis
Member Avatar
Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

Sorry for the triple post, but is anyone going to respond?
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
StinglessBee
Member Avatar
Adolescent
 *  *  *  *  *
How about this:

Biome: oceans and seas
Earth analogue: black-tip reef shark
Niche description: a generalistic, marine predator that lives in shallower waters
Suggested phylum: maybe Cephapentae? I'm unsure.

Anyway, I'm surprised that few people are posting. I really like what you've created.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Canis Lupis
Member Avatar
Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

I'll work on it.

And thanks for posting.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
StinglessBee
Member Avatar
Adolescent
 *  *  *  *  *
My pleasure!
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Iowanic
Adult
 *  *  *  *  *  *
I'm a bit off-topic, I fear, but I had to comment...

How do we know Venus 'recarpets' itself every 100 million years or so? In the book 'Venus revealed' it was suggested the surface was, in fact, somewhat older then that?
(Sorry for the interruption)
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Canis Lupis
Member Avatar
Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

It's perfectly okay with me to go off topic. I ain't paranoid about it.

I'm not actually sure how we know. You'll have to ask our admin for that.




BTW, I think I'm just going to do away with formal niche requests. Informal ones like for Nereus are just fine.

But StinglessBee's request did help me think of another creature. I'll hopefully post that here soon.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
« Previous Topic · The Habitable Zone · Next Topic »
Add Reply