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| [ARCHIVED] Postozoic (old); Earth, 25, 100, & 200 MYF -- old thread | |
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| Topic Started: Feb 24 2010, 03:42 AM (5,048 Views) | |
| Pando | Feb 24 2010, 03:42 AM Post #1 |
Obey or I'll send you to the moon
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In this world, Earth is inhabited by humans for the next 5 million years, until they finally leave. Even though they have found out how not to harm nature, a mass extinction has occurred, and animals that are Extinct in the Wild have not been released back into the wild of Earth. Plus evolution has been slow as we have not allowed any mutants that have occurred to breed. Here we jump forward to year 25 million, where we will be looking at life. Also I would like to do 100 million years in the future and 200 million years. World in 25 million years: California has separated and drifted north west, and is covered in lush forests. North America has separated from South America (though not by much) and moved slightly North, causing huge taiga in the North, forests around the current U.S.-Canadian border and around the coasts, huge prairie in the center, in Central America is a rainforest, and the south-eastern corner of the U.S. (around Florida to Louisiana, north to Southern Missouri (due to Mississippi river) and north to South Carolina) is a huge swamp from the slightly higher ocean level (due to more ice melted in Antarctica than frozen in Greenland). South America has drifted slightly northward, causing the entire Northern 2/3 to be covered in rain forest, and the southern third to be covered in savannah. Antarctica has drifted north too, and the southern half is covered in ice sheets, while the northern half covered in tundra savannah (coniferous trees). This has caused unique fauna to evolve in Antarctica. Africa has crashed into Gilbratar, blocking off the Mediterranean and causing it to dry out, forming a huge salt desert. The northern half of Africa is dry savannah with Acaica plants littering the landscape, similar to todays African Savannah. Europe’s western and northern side is covered in forest, the southeastern side is covered in prairie. Asia is covered in rain forest to the south-east, the center of Asia in a huge strip is covered in forest, and now-Russia is covered in taiga. There is also a huge desert in the area of the Gobi desert today. Australia has moved northward to the equator and crashed into Papua New Guinea, it is now covered in rain forest everywhere except for the central savannah, not too different from Africa’s savannah. Africa east of the Nile has broken off and formed East Africa (AKA Lemuria) and is covered in rain-forests. Madagascar has drifted farther from Africa, and is still covered in rain forest. The primary herbivores are lemurs, the primary carnivores are tenrecs, which are very diverse, resembling hedgehogs, otters, weasels, rats, etc... Greenland has become bigger by way of the Canadian isles, and has moved northward to become an Australia-sized north pole Antarctica, effectively keeping the sea level at about the same level. There is also approximately 30% oxygen content in the air from the extra plants in Antarctica, allowing arthropods to become 150% bigger (15 inches big approx), and bigger chordate limit. You can call the habitats by these names. Antarctic savannah tundra. South American savannah/rain forest. North American grassland plains/forest/Central American rain forest/taiga/swamp. Californian forest. West African rain forest/savannah. East African rain forest. Madagascar rain forest. Australian rain forest/savannah. European forest/grassland plains/Mediterranean desert. Asian desert/forest/rain forest/taiga. To name an animal, putting in the begging (name)/(ancestor)/(scientific name, if any)/(habitat) would be nice. I'll put a survivor list, then creatures I created soon. I'll also attach an early draft of it I made, but you need Pages (Mac OS X only) or possibly OpenOffice to open it.
Edited by Pando, Mar 13 2010, 09:27 PM.
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Animals_2.pages (166.85 KB)| Replies: | |
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| Pando | Feb 26 2010, 01:17 AM Post #16 |
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Obey or I'll send you to the moon
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The hedgeatherium is tiger shaped, but it has the colors and quills of a hedgehog. The whaloseal swims with its front legs as they do not have back legs, seals today don't have back legs either. They give birth in the water, and have blowholes like a whale. |
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| Pando | Feb 26 2010, 03:52 AM Post #17 |
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Obey or I'll send you to the moon
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I have made the hedgeatherium and the rhinohog from year 25 MYF. You can either see it on DeviantArt or downloading it from here. Rhinohog:  Hedgetherium:  Now for the downloads:
Edited by Pando, Mar 7 2010, 11:57 PM.
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| Pando | Feb 26 2010, 03:25 PM Post #18 |
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Obey or I'll send you to the moon
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I have added a kochlidtheria to DeviantArt. Here is the link: You can also download another picture of it here:
Edited by Pando, Mar 7 2010, 11:58 PM.
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| Canis Lupis | Feb 26 2010, 04:22 PM Post #19 |
Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.
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My project was your inspiration! I freaking love you! Hope you ain't a guy! :smooch: I guess I should have seen that coming when I saw your bipedal snails. A direct variation on my saltokochlids. Glad I actually inspired someone. |
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| Pando | Feb 26 2010, 07:38 PM Post #20 |
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Obey or I'll send you to the moon
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You welcome!, and BTW, I AM a guy. also, I saw a snail today and I can totally see the sides of the foot becoming legs. And where did you learn the Latin for Saltokochlid? I want to know Latin for my creatures. |
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| Canis Lupis | Feb 26 2010, 08:40 PM Post #21 |
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.
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Okay. Retract that :smooch: part.  Just kidding.Actually, my friend Metalraptor coined the name. He got it from the Greek word "salto" meaning "leaping" and from the Greek word "kochlid" meaning "snail". There are two translators I often use (plus, taking Latin for my required language helps). For Latin: http://www.translation-guide.com/free_online_translators.php?from=English&to=Latin For Greek: http://www.translatum.gr/ And use this for the Greek alphabet that the above link translates into: http://www.usm.maine.edu/planet/greek2.gif Yes, the foot can definantly evolve into two legs. Interestingly, Metalraptor and I derived the two legs from a pseudoskeleton rather than the foot. 100 million years from now, we had snails evolving a skeleton so they could grow larger. Eventually, to counteract some of the larger avian predators, the snails evolved faster modes of locomotion, first beginning as two scutes then eventually evolving into fully functional limbs. When the birds and mammals died out, the protokochlids (saltokochlid ancestors) were poised to take over the world. As they evolved into dominance, the protokochlids evolved many traits that lead to independently evolving the classic chordate traits. But that's my project. This is the thread for your project. I'll try to go through the first page to see if you have any errors, though from the extinct list I'm not seeing any. Very detailed BTW. Quick question: why are horseshoe crabs extinct? They've survived since the Mesozoic in a relatively unchanged form. Has human activity damaged the marine environment so much that it disturbs the horseshoe crab so much that it goes extinct? |
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| Pando | Feb 26 2010, 08:57 PM Post #22 |
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Obey or I'll send you to the moon
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The ocean Ph balance was lowered, making it more acidic. That severely damaged the ocean ecosystems, leading to a mass extinction that was greater than on land, which then also brought the extinction of some seabirds that would of otherwise made it. Bivalves are extinct or almost extinct, as they are very susceptible to acids (I think). I have another creature for the oceans of 100 MYF. It is a pack hunting shark (they are already intelligent) that communicates through an electrical gland near their front fins. They hunt the whale-squids, and are 30 feet long. I can see sharks taking over dolphin niches too, and maybe instead of having a grabbing tongue they could develop a long snout. Also, with the warming of the world the crocotters have been replaced by real crocodilians, so they now have a worldwide coastal range. With the coasts all being swamps, they are doing very well. The larger reptiles that take niches from things like deer and faster predators don't have sprawling legs anymore. I think that lizards could be the fast herbivores, and crocodiles the fast carnivores. |
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| Pando | Feb 26 2010, 09:10 PM Post #23 |
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Obey or I'll send you to the moon
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Another addition: Horseshoe crabs have only 4 living species, and according to Wikipedia they are already going extinct. Some more changes to 100 MYF: African monkeys ARE extinct, being replaced by the geckos. So are tree kangaroos, being replaced by the sloth bats. Another species for 25 MYF: Crowtherium/Crow/northeastern North American forest: A 7 foot tall omnivorous flightless crow. It's usually docile, but when it wants some protein, beware! Also, could kangaroos develop diprotont-like shapes, being bipedal and kangaroo-like when they leave the pouch, but then the front legs grow and they become quadruped? Edited by Pando, Feb 26 2010, 11:36 PM.
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| Canis Lupis | Feb 26 2010, 09:20 PM Post #24 |
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.
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Makes sense. I think a similar thing happened in the Permian. Yep, I'm pretty sure bivalves are highly effected by an increased acidity. The shark idea, while seeming to borrow from TFIW's sharkopath, does seem likely. That is if they use bioluminescense. If they communicate by projecting a weak electrical field, that's an interesting take. And good idea eliminating croc otters. Crocs, especially in a warmer world, would just be too successful to pheasably get rid of. EDIT: I'm pretty sure kangaroos could become quadropeds. But personally, and this may be a bit conservative on my part, I think that wombats would take diprotodon-type niches before macropods do. Wombats are already good survivors and would survive rather well in a mass desertification of Australia. If that's what is happening way down under. Edited by Canis Lupis, Feb 26 2010, 09:31 PM.
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| Pando | Feb 26 2010, 09:25 PM Post #25 |
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Obey or I'll send you to the moon
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Actually, now that I think about it, when I posted that 25% of the ocean went extinct would have to be retracted, and be put at a number closer to 75%. Numerous classes are greatly reduced, with corals being totally extinct. This would put the extinction at nearly the Permian-Triassic or Cretaceous-Triassic level. For 100 MYF: I think that in the future jellyfish could develop a brain-like structure, being so successful. |
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| Canis Lupis | Feb 26 2010, 09:34 PM Post #26 |
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.
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Yeah, that's what I was about to suggest for the oceans. Not the jellyfish idea, but the extinction percent. What are the evolutionary pressures for the jellyfish to evolve a brain-like structure? Things just don't evolve to evolve. Jellyfish have been rather successful in the current body form. Not saying that if your current form is successful that it will never change. But things just don't change for the sake of changing. |
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| Pando | Feb 26 2010, 09:35 PM Post #27 |
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Obey or I'll send you to the moon
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But there are 2 things. 1 is that kangaroos are already big, and 2 is that there are only 3 species of wombats, and 1 is critically endangered, 1 is vulnerable, and 1 is least concern. In the future they have a pretty big chance of going extinct, after all we will be on the Earth for the next 5 million years in this project. |
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| Canis Lupis | Feb 26 2010, 09:43 PM Post #28 |
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.
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Yes, that is true. But keep in mind that wombats are becoming quite popular in Australia as pets. That could perhaps be enough to save them from extinction. Plus, it takes wombats around fourteen days to completely digest food compared to the day it takes humans. An adaptation that makes it extremely well suited for an arid ecosystem. |
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| Pando | Feb 26 2010, 09:45 PM Post #29 |
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Obey or I'll send you to the moon
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Ok, I'll wipe the wombats from the extinct list EDIT: But if they are starting to be popular as pets, they would just be moved off world with the migration of the humans off Earth, unless some escaped Also, what about the English wallabies? What future do they have, but I think they'll be successful as England is similar to Australia in weather Edited by Pando, Feb 26 2010, 09:50 PM.
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| Canis Lupis | Feb 26 2010, 09:54 PM Post #30 |
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.
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Just presenting the other side of the argument. You can keep the wombats on the exxtinction list if you want. But it does seem a bit more plausible with them back on. That's one point of debate my project got into. English wallabies. Hmm. Let me think. Well, if they spread across into Europe, they could have a big future. And in England as well. I could potentially see the European macropods taking over large amounts of herbivore niches left vacant when civilization began to tame the wild forests. |
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