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What if the Air had been Colonized?
Topic Started: Dec 18 2009, 03:16 PM (1,667 Views)
Scrublord
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OK. You might remember that I earlier posted a topic about the plausibility of the atmospheric animals in Kenneth Oppel's novels. Well, that inspired me to post an entirely new topic of the sort about how the Earth's atmosphere could have been colonized by vertebrates, starting about 30 million years ago.

Step 1, 30 million years ago: The first colonist, an the keystone species of this aerial ecosystem, is a species of fly. This fly's larvae have evolved the ability to "balloon" great distances, like baby spiders, feeding on airborne pollen grains and algae. They only touch the ground to pupate and when they are eggs--the adults are also exclusively airborne.

Step 2, 25 million years ago: One species of these flies evolves swarms, great masses of larvae that float thousands of feet in the air. They are, however, easy prey for predatory insects such as wasps, some of which evolve a similar life cycle to prey on them specifically.

Step 3, 20 million years ago: The next breakthrough occurs when birds begin to evolve species specialized in these atmospheric insects. Most of these birds are related to swifts and swallows, and they spend the majority of their lives in flight, hunting the insect "plankton." Naturally, they are followed by birds of prey.

Step 4, 15 million years ago: Here's the difficult part. Some of these birds become even more specialized. They overcome their inability to evolve vivipary by storing their eggs in a brood pouch of skin as they fly, and almost never land. They reach enormous sizes, with 12-foot wingspans and weighing over 35 lb. With arrays of bristles around their mouths to funnel in insects, they are the baleen whales of the sky. They, in turn, are preyed on by highly specialized raptors. By this point, the sky is a fully functioning ecosystem

Any thoughts?
Edited by Scrublord, Dec 23 2009, 05:39 PM.
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Carlos
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Sounds like a fun ecosystem. Incidently I have having thoughts of aerially ecosystems lately, and by far you idea is the best
Lemuria:
http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/topic/5724950/

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ATEK Azul
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I am not sure about the timeline but it looks relatively good.

Do any Mammals or Plants live up there?
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sam999
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Sounds like it would work on a gas gaint planet.
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Scrublord
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I specifically created this as an example of how an airborne ecosystem could evolve ON EARTH. I think it's quite plausible, and I'm kind of surprised that nothing like this has evolved. As for mammals and plants, there are no plants larger than the floating algae that the flies feed on, and mammals are represented solely by bats.
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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.
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ATEK Azul
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Okay.

How high up is this ecosystem?
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Flishster
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I have speculated something about the same, but with plants at the begging of the chain. the plants float around on special helium filled gas bladders and have air roots. their seeds parachute around and begin growing when they come in contact with clouds. then small bat like creatures glide from one plant to the other to feed on them. and then raptor like birds feed on these animals. my version takes place about as high as the clouds.
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ATEK Azul
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That sounds like an interesting ecosystem as well.
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Scrublord
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helium can't be generated organically
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ATEK Azul
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Hydrogen can though.
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The Dodo
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About the large birds, how do they get the eggs into the brood pouch, do they land or do it in flight with the pouch near where the egg comes out?
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ATEK Azul
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Maybe they use their legs to get them in the pouch?
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The Dodo
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Yes, but there would still be the risk of dropping them.
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ATEK Azul
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Well that would be a form of selection wouldn't it?

Mothers who drop their eggs are not yet fit to teach their young how to survive.
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Carlos
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The same problem occurs with marine birds, which would be forced to come ashore to put the eggs in the pouches. To make things simple, simply have the cloaca connected to the pouch.
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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