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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.

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Topic Started: Dec 9 2009, 05:22 PM (1,202 Views)
Carlos
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Adveho in me Lucifero
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While Terra Alternativa is still nonfunctional for now, me and Venatosaurus planned a new alternative evolution project, which basically focuses on a world where the Permian extinction wasn't present. Don't, as long as Venatosaurus's still motivated I will not withdraw.

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Triassic

In the late Permian, the vast landmasses of the Earth formed a single supercontinent known as Pangaea. In this process, tthe global warming that went on during the Permian increased significantly, as energy was released into the atmosphere during the creation of the giant landmass. Pangaea extends from pole to pole, and the climate went progressively dry. Aside from the coastoal margins as well as wetter regions in the poles the typical landscape is various shades of aridity, from dry tropical plains of seed ferns to deserts with little to no vegetation. In HE, the changes from the more temperate, wetter Permian into the arid period that lasted from the late Permian to the early Jurassic had the company of a tremendous mass extinction, resulting in the extinction of over 90% of all living organisms, thanks to various bursts of volcanism. However, in this world, this chain volcanism never happened; instead, live went on, adapting as the continents united and as the planet turned into a hot hell. The Triassic in this world is not a new period that formed at the dusk of the Permian, but rather a continuation of the Permian. The Mesozoic is, so far, nonexistent as the Palaeozoic goes on.

While large scale extinctions don't happen, smaller scale extinctions still occur. On the course of the period that would be the late Permian to that which would be the middle Triassic in our world various clades perish, mostly on the sea; numerous clades of sea dweeling invertebrates die out, predictably many of the groups that died out in HE. Trilobites and ceratitid ammonoids, clades that were gone in HE, notably survived for quite some time into the "Triassic", the last members of these clades lasting as recently as the early Jurassic; sea lillies hardly suffered at all. Things were much better for fish, though even they had several losses; interestingly, the middle "Triassic" had a radiation of petromyzontids, smething unusual as lamprey like fish had long since lost the past diversity; conodonts had their diversity untouched, and were very common as well.

On land, changes weren't so fast, and occured over a long period of time. Whatever remaining early amniotes were gone as synapsids and sauropsids - specially they newly fledged diapsids - continued to diversify. Pelycosaurs, solely represented by Varanopsidae, produced a small array of forms that echoed the days they were the dominant animals, but they soon vanished by the middle of this era. Therapsids were at their best though; while early forms like biarmosuchians were gone, eutherapsids continue to flourish like they did before. Within Dinocephala, Anteosauridae and Estemmenosuchidae are gone, but Tapinocephalia diversified over the globe, present as both the generally omivorous titanosuchids and the entirely herbivorous tapinocephalidae. Anomodonts are present as various clades of dicynodonts (one even taking the sea) as well as the smaller otsherids, not very common as of yet, being specialised tree climbers. Gorgonopsids are the dominant predators, and while the "traditional" forms persist, evolution provided new opportunities, the most notorious examples being marine gorgonopsids and cursorial ones (which would be the first cursorial synapsids). Therocephalians become also widespread as small predators, from shrew to wolverine size, from otter like to gliding forms. Cynodonts don't stay behind either; the seas and waterways are the stage for the diversity of procynosuchids, while on land omnivorous, herbivorous and carnivorous forms are present everywhere.

Sauropsids, whose diversity began back in the Permian, never had the imense radiation of the Triassic since therapsids are stiull around, but evolution was benign to them. Captorhinids and bolosaurids occupied many small herbivore niches, the first diversifying as iguana like forms and the later as species akin to HE's small ornithopods; in both cases, the success lasted until the early late "Triassic", the last bolosaurid living to see the onset of the Jurassic. Pareiasaurs on the other hand had a stable radiation of species all through the period, and while not as common as tapinocephalians nor as large dicynodonts during most of the period they became a very common presence by the late "Triassic". Chelonians never evolved, but several armoured pareiasaurs and captorhinids evolved. Diapsida saw the evolution of many lizard like forms, which then produced various unusual forms. Thallatosaurs dominated the seas alongside the procynosuchids, while the weird hupehsuchians, while now fairly uncommon, were having way more luck then their HE counterparts, on both fresh and salt water. Lepidosaurs produced sphenodontians and champsosaurs (if they are lepidosaurs), but squamates seemingly never evolved or died out very early; instead, several clades of lizard like reptiles were having success. Archosauromorpha radiated, and while Archosauria itself didn't took off many groups like procelartiformes (including pterosaurs, since here I decided to take the suggestion that they are drepanosaur relatives), euparkerids, proterochampsids, proterosuchids, erythrosuchids, rhynchosaurs and trilophosaurids did take important roles as fairly large animals, specially towards the end of the period. As mentioned before, pterosaurs evolve as the first true flying vertebrates.

Temnospondyls, while not doing as well as before, still hold on and are everywhere. Notably are terrestrial and marine forms, as well as conservative freshwater ones.

Taxa will come soon.
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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ATEK Azul
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Transhuman
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Okay just a suggestion.
I am dyslexic, please ignore the typo's!
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