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Vabmojer; Dinosaurimimidae now online. Go to Vabmojer to find out more!
Topic Started: Sep 27 2009, 03:37 PM (4,945 Views)
Ddraig Goch
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Ar hyd y nos

First of all... hi! This is my first post on this forum (wow). Um, yeah. So anyway, about Vabmojer...

Vabmojer is an alien world which I have made with several of my friends. It is an earthlike planet, but we have done our best to make the animals as un-earthlike as possible. We are working on a website, although right now it is not complete. Still, feel free to have a look! (And I apologise in advance for the artwork - I'm not the best drawer ever)

Type this in the address box;

www.vabmojer.bravehost.com

See what you think!
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Empyreon
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Are you plausible?

It's a classification of life, and a relatively broad one. As it stands right now, the domains differentiate based on cellular structure and biochemistry. I don't know if you'll be dealing in domains too extensively, unless you're playing with some wildly different biochemistry. I myself don't even bother with them, since my interest is in macrofauna, so I work from kingdoms down.
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Canis Lupis
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

Yep. Most people don't deal with domains. That's mostly a microbiology thing.


And Empyreon: to the best of my understanding, there is no set limit to how many categories can fit under another. For example, there is no limit to how many classes can be in a phylum. For example, subphylum Vertebrata has at least eight extant classes within it. And the kingdom Animalia has between nine and fifteen (depending on who you talk to. Some people split the three worm phyla (Platyhelminthes, Nematoda, and Annelida) into more than three phyla). Class Mammalia has about sixteen orders. And order Carnivora has about seven families.

So there really is no limit to how many categories a category can have. However, this does not give you the excuse to (if you were doing Earth taxonomy) put all vertebrate in class X or have a class devoted to every vertebrate order.

There's a fine line. Creatures must be genetically similar to a certain extent to be in a class. It's genetic similarities and evolutionary relationships that determines what a class or phylum or anything is. The more genetically related two creatures are, the more likely they will be in a more confining taxonomy level.
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Empyreon
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Are you plausible?

Thanks for explaining, but maybe I should clarify...

Quote:
 
On average, genuses have about five species.


You said this in a previous post, and while I understand that the actual number of categories within a particular level can vary (and are technically unlimited), I'm interested to find out more about where you learned that a genus has five species on average.
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Ddraig Goch
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Ar hyd y nos

Thanks! So domains basically group microbes together? Which domain are animals under?
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Empyreon
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Are you plausible?

Eukarya (or Eukaryota), because of our complex cellular structure. We share this domain with plants, fungi, and other eukaryotes.
Edited by Empyreon, Dec 2 2009, 03:03 PM.
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Ddraig Goch
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Ar hyd y nos

Thanks.

So, what domains/ kingdoms/ phylums would you suggest for Vabmojer?

We have "vertebrates", "plants" (both green and blue), and single-celled organisms.
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Empyreon
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That's fine to start out with (as I don't expect you'll be dabbling with anything but macrofauna). Just come up with some appropriate scientific names for those kingdoms and you're set. Within each of the kingdoms, create phylums appropriate to the different kinds of life you're creating. Again, you don't have to come up with all of them right now. You can always add more later as you need them. For example, you mention that you have green plants and blue plants. If their phylogenetic differentiation goes back far enough you could make a phylum for each, "verdephytae" and "ceruleophytae" or something like that...
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Ddraig Goch
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Ar hyd y nos

Yeah, I thought I'd just stick to the larger lifeforms (ie, those you can see without a microscope).

Following on from the "Boom de Ya Da!" topic in General Discussion, I've made my own "Vabmojer" version;

I love Vabmojer
I love the oceans blue
The lush green forests
The mudpools thick like glue
I love Vabmojer
And all It's sights and sounds!

Boomdeyada, Boomdeyada, Boomdeyada, Boomdeyada!

I love the Rahzaks
I love the Grotuses
I love the Ashpas
And giant flowers, bliss!
I love Vabmojer
And all it's craziness!

Boomdeyada, Boomdeyada, Boomdeyada, Boomdeyada!

I love the Novu's
I love the truckles bright
Herds of Elopee's
What a tremendous sight!
I love Vabmojer
It's such a brilliant place!

Boomdeyada, Boomdeyada,
Boomdeyada, Boomdeyada,
Boomdeyada, Boomdeyada,
Boomdeyada, Boomdeyada...
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Ddraig Goch
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Ar hyd y nos

So, from the genus' post on the previous page, are there any that you wish to know more about?
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Empyreon
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Are you plausible?

One thing I'd be interested to see is the family classification of all of the sordicocephalidae. We have the genera and species names of each, but what are the families? Are any of them in the same family, or is there a different one for each? You could do the same for the ovuphysidae and the dinosauromimidae as well, if you like.

Also, you mention that the categories on your website are an order and a subfamily (not sure what the novus are), but what is their relation to each other? Is dinosauromimidae a subcategory of sordicocephalidae? What about the class(es) above them?
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Ddraig Goch
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Ar hyd y nos

No, Dinosaurimimidae are a family, wheras the Sordicocephalidae are a seperate order. The Dinosaurimimidae goes under the Sauridae order, like so;

Sauridae;

Sub-Orders;

Dicephalodae - contains a single, unique, "two-headed" species
Lacertidae - lizard analogues, including the famous Cissk, a gliding species
Cephalaspidae - varied herbivores, all with a head frill, which varies in size
Dinosaurimimidae - split into Theropodae and Ceratorhyncosauridae, dinosaur-like species

As for the Sordicocephalidae, I'll have to come back to you on them... (I've forgotten myself :o )
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Canis Lupis
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

Empyreon: That "on average, a genus has five species" is something I've noticed. I didn't get the statistic from anywhere. That's just my observation. Sorry if that was confusing.
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Empyreon
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Ah, gotcha. I believe it too, I was just wondering if you'd gotten it out of some official source or something, and if there was any such 'rule of thumb' for the rest of the classifications.

Ddraig Goch, I'm interested to see how those dicephalodae work...
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Ddraig Goch
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Ar hyd y nos

The Dicephalidae family contains just one species - the Ashpa. These have two heads, a lower head with no eyes that does the feeding, and an upper head, with eyes, and a mating-display frill. The upper head essentially acts as a lookout, whilst the lower head feeds. The upper head also has a mouth, but this is used for communication, as it is connected to the sirways, and the Vabmojan equivilant of the larynx/syrinx.

Problem is, however, that I have no idea how to make this work evolutionarily :( ... could you help me, please?

Below is a rough sketch of an Ashpa;
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Attachments: Speculative_Evolution___Ashpa.jpg (470.97 KB)
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T.Neo
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Translunar injection: TLI
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Looks Snaiadi.

You could have two things:

Eyes on a stalk, above most of the skull.

Or:

Jaws or jaw seperated from most of the skull and held below.

Either way, the adaptation would not be as drastic as shown and it would certainly result in some odd internal anatomy...
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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