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| Birdless world; stronger K-T | |
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| Topic Started: Nov 5 2009, 08:41 PM (4,595 Views) | |
| Canis Lupis | Nov 5 2009, 08:41 PM Post #1 |
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.
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65 million years ago, an asteroid struck Earth and wiped out a good percentage of life on the planet. Among the extinct were all dinosaurs (save for birds), all air reptiles, all marine reptiles, and a few groups I forgot to mention (I'm not a paleontologist, so if someone were to name all the groups that went extinct, I'd be grateful). Anyway, what I was wondering was: what if the asteroid had been slightly larger? Large enough to count the birds among those forever buried in the fossil record. What would the post K-T world be like without birds? Discuss ideas and possible creatures. P.S. If you're interested in turning this into an actual project, let me know. |
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| sam999 | Nov 14 2009, 09:26 AM Post #121 |
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Adult
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What would tarror bird's equivelents look like? |
I am not suffering from insanaty. I truely enjoy being mad.![]() ![]() ![]() Comeon, thy dragons need YOU! Visit them here please... | |
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| Holben | Nov 14 2009, 09:35 AM Post #122 |
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Rumbo a la Victoria
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Tarror birds? You mean terror birds like Phoshuracos? |
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Time flows like a river. Which is to say, downhill. We can tell this because everything is going downhill rapidly. It would seem prudent to be somewhere else when we reach the sea. "It is the old wound my king. It has never healed." | |
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| Canis Lupis | Nov 14 2009, 09:44 AM Post #123 |
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.
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I'm not saying that bats would occur only in the warmer regions and marsupials only in the colder. I'm saying just that bats would rule the warmer regions and marsupials the colder. Though, obviously, you'd have some marsupial fliers in the warmer regions and some chiropteran fliers in the colder. Anyway, it looks like we've got quite a bit of support for the ungulate carnivores. However, while I do believe most of you have some paleontological knowledge, I'm waiting for Metalraptor (who has friends who are paleontologists and may be studying to become a paleontologist himself) to tell me his opinion of the ungulate carnivores, or mesonychids. As for entelodonts, they won't be dominant. They could exist either as the odd carnivore you get in some mammalian orders or exist in almost the same way as on HE or never evolve due to the mesonychids taking the niches. For terror bird equivalents, mesonychids were restricted to Laurasia and so never reached South America until the Great Continental Interchange. The same thing happens on AL, due to the geography, techtonics, and climate being the exact same. Terror bird equivalents could be the marsupials, whether descendents the fliers or of terrestrial ones. Anyway, what do you think will become of primates in this world? |
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| Holben | Nov 14 2009, 10:31 AM Post #124 |
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Rumbo a la Victoria
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Stay in the trees, probably. |
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Time flows like a river. Which is to say, downhill. We can tell this because everything is going downhill rapidly. It would seem prudent to be somewhere else when we reach the sea. "It is the old wound my king. It has never healed." | |
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| Rick Raptor | Nov 14 2009, 01:03 PM Post #125 |
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Adolescent
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How about Sebecids (a group of land crocodiles) as South American apex predators? I don´t know whether it´s true or not, but I´ve read that they we´re outcompeted by the faster and larger terror birds. So without those birds Sebecids might have a glorious future. But I don´t know whether they would also survive the Great American Interchange. |
| [My DeviantArt account] | |
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| Canis Lupis | Nov 14 2009, 01:11 PM Post #126 |
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.
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Sebecisuchids. Interesting. I think they were outcompeted by birds in our timeline, so they could concievably take over the terror bird niches on AL. Oh, and the ungulate carnivores are a go. Of course, we are still having entelodonts. |
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| Holben | Nov 14 2009, 01:23 PM Post #127 |
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Rumbo a la Victoria
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Yay! What about brontotheres, and indricotheres? The largest land mammals ever... |
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Time flows like a river. Which is to say, downhill. We can tell this because everything is going downhill rapidly. It would seem prudent to be somewhere else when we reach the sea. "It is the old wound my king. It has never healed." | |
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| Canis Lupis | Nov 14 2009, 01:26 PM Post #128 |
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.
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Well, if we have an ungulate radiation (I know ungulates are among the most diverse animals in our timeline, but if the radiation is much bigger), we could potentially see things larger than the indricotheres or brontotheres. That is, if the mammalian skeleton can take it. I don't want brontosaur mammals. |
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| Carlos | Nov 14 2009, 01:30 PM Post #129 |
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Adveho in me Lucifero
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The main reason why mammals didn't reach the average gigantic proportions of the Oligocene is largely because forest ecosystems were replaced by grasslands, and thus most mammals opted for speed instead of size. However, mammals around the dimensions of Indricotherium could evolve again; they just wouldn't be common, unlike the dinosaurian sauropods |
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Lemuria: http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/topic/5724950/ Terra Alternativa: http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/forum/460637/ My Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Carliro ![]() | |
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| Canis Lupis | Nov 14 2009, 01:36 PM Post #130 |
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.
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So that's why. I thought I read somewhere that it was due to their warm-bloodedness. Anyway, herbivores would have to evolve some new defenses in response to the mesonychids. I'm imagining keratinous plates would be more common in this world. Mesonychids were known for their crushing bite force. Plus, hooves of herbivores have been known to crush bone. If we assume that mesonychid hooves had the same hoof structure and that they leapt onto prey to get at necks like our carnivorans, the mesonychid hooves could crush the spine. And thus herbivores would evolve plates or stronger skin of some kind. But I'm not completely sure about that. I've got a feeling mesonychids went for the stomach. |
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| Holben | Nov 14 2009, 01:49 PM Post #131 |
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Rumbo a la Victoria
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I think most herbivores would go down the 'run away' route, although some might end up like doedicaurus and the other glyptodonts. |
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Time flows like a river. Which is to say, downhill. We can tell this because everything is going downhill rapidly. It would seem prudent to be somewhere else when we reach the sea. "It is the old wound my king. It has never healed." | |
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| ATEK Azul | Nov 14 2009, 02:02 PM Post #132 |
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Transhuman
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Well alot happened While I was asleep. I will start with the terror Bird sitchuation. I think that the before mentioned Crocodillians would replace most terror Birds with different groups across the planet but in some areas Like australia I see other groups supressing Mammals Like in australia I can see the giant Monitor lizards doing that and then getting mostly replaced by Marsupials with only 1 or 2 species alive today. In South America Maybe some how the rise of Marsupial flyers(Maybe becoming large predators) some how loosens the Crocodillian hold on Marsupials allowing them to diversify allowing more evolutionary changes in life on the continent. Also it is possible that by the time of the continental interchange Crocodillians still rule North America which would reverse the interchange and drive Marsupials to dominate north america and then spread into the old world where they become secondary to Hooved carnivores with the opposite happening in the new world. But South American herbivores, having more armored species will quickly replace some of the worlds herbivores since their armor will be the perfect defense against them. I am also thinking that they would become faster as they spread from South America. Thats all I am saying for now. |
| I am dyslexic, please ignore the typo's! | |
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| Holben | Nov 14 2009, 02:09 PM Post #133 |
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Rumbo a la Victoria
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Nothing about the 'run away' herbivores? They've been successful against theropods, amphibians, humans, terror birds, caniforms, feliforms, birds and pretty much evrything else. So why not against mesonychians? |
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Time flows like a river. Which is to say, downhill. We can tell this because everything is going downhill rapidly. It would seem prudent to be somewhere else when we reach the sea. "It is the old wound my king. It has never healed." | |
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| Carlos | Nov 14 2009, 03:17 PM Post #134 |
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Adveho in me Lucifero
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I believe most herbivores would be cursorial; armoured herbivores wouldn't be the dominant type, as running away is much easier than to develop an armour (hell, even the not very cursorial hadrosaurs relied on speed to defend themselves from the dinosaurian analogues of mesonychians, the tyrannosaurs), though armoured herbivores could be more widespread, with species present in Africa and Australia for example |
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Lemuria: http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/topic/5724950/ Terra Alternativa: http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/forum/460637/ My Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Carliro ![]() | |
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| Holben | Nov 14 2009, 03:20 PM Post #135 |
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Rumbo a la Victoria
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Ok then. |
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Time flows like a river. Which is to say, downhill. We can tell this because everything is going downhill rapidly. It would seem prudent to be somewhere else when we reach the sea. "It is the old wound my king. It has never healed." | |
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7:18 PM Jul 10