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| Tartarus; A fledgeling concept of an alien world. | |
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| Topic Started: Feb 24 2010, 09:19 PM (1,184 Views) | |
| Practically Uninformed | Feb 24 2010, 09:19 PM Post #1 |
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Hello, lady and gentleman speculative zoologists! The following concept is one I've been working on ever since I read of so-called "carbon" planets. Tartarus is located in the Persephone star system, located about 500 light years away from Earth. It is a planet about 2/3 the size of Earth, with a small moon, Cerberus, orbiting it at a 60-degree angle with the planet's own orbit. Tartarus is a planet whose material is not based on silicon-oxygen metals, but rather pure carbon; its rock and sand are composed of solid carbon, its oceans are more like tar than saltwater, and there is little oxygen in Tartarus's atmosphere. The organisms did not begin their existence in the planet's thick, sloppy seas. Instead, the upper atmosphere of Tartarus is as diverse as any ocean. Big, jellyfish-like floaters are the major producers, absorbing sunlight and producing glucose; feather-like, dart-like, or flatworm-like flyers eat these "plantimals" and one another. Land life, meanwhile, is a little different. All of these stem from a land-based common ancestor; an inchworm-like creature with 2 bodily segments, connected by a spine and each sporting 4 claws. This creature later evolved into 4 groups of Tartarus ground vertebrate: Cyclopedes: One-legged exotherms. Their "foot" evolved from the lower bodily segment of the Tartaran Inchworm. 7 of its spinal vertebrae are heavily adapted into a "leg". Caudikorians: 4-legged exotherms (several endotherm species). Their 4 frontal claws are now legs, allowing them to crawl around. The back portion has either degenerated into a grasping surface, a scorpion-like hook, or just disappeared altogether. Peddopterygians: 4-legged exotherms (many endotherm species). The 4 frontal claws provide support and movement. The upper bodily portion has become a head, the 4 claws becoming mandibles; in some, these are jaws. Impaformes: Bizarre 2-legged endotherms. Possibly developed from a sort of sideways-crawling Tartaran Inchworm, the entire spine has evolved into a pair of "arms" joined to a bump for a "head". Most are still bilaterally symmetrical; which "hand" contains the mouth, left of right, depends from species to species. May add more later, if all of this so far sounds at all plausible. |
| You may be a king or a lil' street sweeper, but sooner or later, you'll dance with the reaper! | |
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| Practically Uninformed | Feb 25 2010, 01:59 PM Post #16 |
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Actually, the latter is true. Unless I got to edit this aspect of Tartarus, oxygen is a trace gas here, only making up about 0.5% of the atmosphere. There is water, though; these creatures aren't that far from the Earthly norm. EDIT: So...should I bother continuing? I don't know what else to do other than maybe rattle on about Tartaran vertebrates. Edited by Practically Uninformed, Feb 25 2010, 05:25 PM.
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| You may be a king or a lil' street sweeper, but sooner or later, you'll dance with the reaper! | |
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| Empyreon | Feb 25 2010, 06:35 PM Post #17 |
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Are you plausible?
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Why not continue? You've got a little snafu in your chemistry, so you change planetary conditions to better match what you'd like to see. Nothing is set in stone. |
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Take a look at my exobiology subforum of the planet Nereus! COM Contributions food for thought
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| Practically Uninformed | Feb 25 2010, 08:38 PM Post #18 |
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Ok then. I guess I can go with that. All Tartaran land vertebrates are descended from a single common ancestor; an 8-legged inchworm-like creature (Tartariforme primordius, or the Tartaran Inchworm) with a string of eyes down its sides and a simple mouth at the front. The creature's respiratory system was descended from the siphon of its Rod ancestors, with an intake in the front and an out-take in the back. As such, Tartaran vertebrates may have 2 parts to their vocalizations (usually, a hiss followed by a guttural noise). The Tartaran inchworm later gave rise to the 4 great vertebrate kingdoms, in the middle of the Paleoxenic Era (corresponding with the beginning of the Permian period here on Earth.). |
| You may be a king or a lil' street sweeper, but sooner or later, you'll dance with the reaper! | |
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| Practically Uninformed | Feb 26 2010, 06:38 PM Post #19 |
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Cyclopedes are perhaps one of the oldest groups of modern Tartaran vertebrate, the earliest member of the class (Monobrachius skiapod) having come about 280 million years ago. Their entire lower half-claws, spine and all-have fused, shrunk, and jointed into an analogue to a "leg". The bulk of this limb is composed of 7 specialized vertebrae, complete with a ball-and-socket base and a lower-"arm", the "radia" and "ulna" formed by 2 near-seperated vertebrae. The head of Monobrachius was small, but most derived cyclopedes have larger heads, some (such as the Racing Stripe) taking up half of their entire length. The rear-claws in their frontal bodily portions have fused in some forms into a lower jaw, while the front-claws are generally used in either attack, display, or are vestigial. Consequently, due to their digestive systems ending at a sphincter in the back of the "wrist", cyclopedes have to either lie down or (in the case of tripedes) keep off of their back "leg" during digestion, adopting a resting stance almost immediately after catching and killing prey (these 2 actions are usually done at the same time). The Tartaran fossil record tells that during the Mesoxenic (240-70 million years ago) Era, the cyclopedes were the major dominant form of vertebrate life; however, at the advent of the mysterious E-O Mass Extinction(referring to the nebulous boundary between the Ellotosian and Oriorian periods), the peddopterygians and the caudikorians ended up limiting modern-day cyclopedes to roles as scavengers, para-insectivores, and the occasional small-animal or island predator. |
| You may be a king or a lil' street sweeper, but sooner or later, you'll dance with the reaper! | |
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| Practically Uninformed | Feb 27 2010, 04:30 PM Post #20 |
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I feel that I should upload some artwork of a group of Tartaran fauna. If I'm gonna have to stand up to the likes of Kryptona and Morpheus, I'm gonna need to stand out. |
| You may be a king or a lil' street sweeper, but sooner or later, you'll dance with the reaper! | |
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| Dorylus | Mar 8 2010, 03:21 AM Post #21 |
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Level 20 Formic Commander
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Try not to multi-post please. Mind you, it's not much worse than posting a mammoth-sized text within a single post with no pictures, as i do. Why did you name it Tartarus please? and how many fliers have you devised(powered fliers)? |
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| Practically Uninformed | Mar 11 2010, 07:29 PM Post #22 |
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Sorry. It's just that the multi-posting thing is sort of my special way to get on the front page. Selfish, I know. ![]() I called it "Tartarus" since, being a carbon planet, it's a pretty dark-colored place. The cliffs are black and varying shades of grey, the oceans are pitch-black and custardy, and I'm still unsure what the sky would be colored. It gave the impression to the first explorers that the planet was dead, thus the name for the Greek land of the dead. On the flyers, so far, I have jellythings, flatworms, featherbugs, and screamers (jet-propelled flat flyers); they all live above the cloud level, and never interact with the ground. However, there are a lot of low-level flyers and gliders (flatbirds, kites, particle-flies, and a cryptic type of carnivorous jellything) that regularly interact with Tartaran land life. Many species of Tartaran have specifically adapted to eating flyers, like insectivores on Earth. |
| You may be a king or a lil' street sweeper, but sooner or later, you'll dance with the reaper! | |
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| colddigger | Mar 11 2010, 09:56 PM Post #23 |
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Joke's over! Love, Parasky
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have the sky be blue-grey to black-grey, varying in different areas based on clouds, lighting, etc. that'd give a deadish impression don't you think? |
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Oh Fine. Oh hi you! Why don't you go check out the finery that is SGP?? v Don't click v Spoiler: click to toggle | |
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| Practically Uninformed | Mar 11 2010, 10:08 PM Post #24 |
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That it definitely does.
Edited by Practically Uninformed, Mar 11 2010, 10:09 PM.
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| You may be a king or a lil' street sweeper, but sooner or later, you'll dance with the reaper! | |
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| KayKay | Mar 11 2010, 11:36 PM Post #25 |
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Adult
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Maybe they could use another solvent in their bodies other than water (I know, bringing up an old subject, but just a suggestion). It could make life more... interesting? Or just more awkward to figure out depends on how you look at it.
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| Practically Uninformed | Mar 12 2010, 06:27 AM Post #26 |
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While that would make it interesting, there doesn't seem to be enough reason to do this. While oxygen is (supposed to be) a trace element in the atmosphere, water is not. |
| You may be a king or a lil' street sweeper, but sooner or later, you'll dance with the reaper! | |
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| Practically Uninformed | Mar 20 2010, 01:21 PM Post #27 |
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Some Magnocyclopedes (flyer-snatching island predators) for your enjoyment. http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/058/4/b/Exobiology_Project__Cyclopedes_by_rosutu.jpg Edited by Practically Uninformed, Mar 20 2010, 01:44 PM.
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| You may be a king or a lil' street sweeper, but sooner or later, you'll dance with the reaper! | |
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| Practically Uninformed | Mar 24 2010, 08:57 PM Post #28 |
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As per usual (at least now), follow the link for the pic. Caudikorians are some of the more diverse Tartaran vertebrate groups, filling many of the roles small animals take on Earth. Unlike the cyclopedes, these creatures walk around on modified frontal claws, leaving their posterior hanging in the air. The claws on the posterior end possess a myriad of uses, mostly depending on which group of caudikorian is in question. First developing around 300 million years ago, the caudikorians have radiated into 5 groups: Basal Caudikorians (represented by the fellow 3rd from the left) are what usually come to mind when one thinks "caudikorian". They superficially resemble scorpions (more so than the other caudikorians), with the back claws being used as mere killing tools or pincers, in some cases. They can get to be the size of a turkey (such as in the Pileated Overheader), though few ever get very small. Vermicaudist Caudikorians (represented by the creature 2nd from the left) are unique amongst Tartarus's species, in being one of the few to possess a superficially-Earthlike "tail", in this case a back spine completely devoid of claws. Most are tenacious, and somewhat resemble rats in that regard (if rats were able to gain nutrients from soil), though some have adapted the tail into an offensive weapon (like the Soundbreaker, a whip-tailed para-insectivore). Manicaudist Caudikorians (the farthest-left) are a more nebulous kind of caudikorian, particularly in their relationship with the Tartaran man, the Arm-swinger, and the Tartaridactyls. The manicaudist caudikorians are less diverse than most caudikorian clades, composed of only a few families. However, their ancestry is very mysterious, particularly since they seem to be only 40 million years old (in contrast to other, much older groups). Some even believe their development is directly tied to whatever strange force created the Skeletal Peaks, a series of spacious, calcium-based structures. Submanid caudikorians (second to the farthest-right) are an interesting class of caudikorian, particularly in their ancestry. Unlike most other caudikorians, submanids curl their tails between their legs and out towards their heads, effectively rendering their back claws into mandibles of sorts. These creatures, while somewhat limited in speciation, are more successful than their jawless relatives, and dominated the food chain at one point. This is referring to the famed Canisus abyssadente, a boar-like hunting predator of the Late Barlowian Period (Early Cenexenic, circa 45 million years ago). It is believed to have gone extinct after the Smiler peddopterygians out-competed them, though cryptozoological evidence would beg the contrary. Improboforme caudikorians (the farthest-right), meanwhile, are definitely agreed to be some of the weirdest animals on Tartarus. Paradoxically, their own back claws are implemented in walking, in sync with the front claws or all by themselves. These creatures are well known for their strange species, from the parasitic Needlefingers to the fruit-eating Bottomstander. Who really takes the cake, though, is the Brainball. Originally, this creature was actually believed to be a basal peddopterygian, due to the arrangement of fused “jaw” limbs. However, something forehead-slappingly obvious came up in a dissection; its float sac is located on its underbelly, making the jaw arrangement (a sharpened ridge, a pair of sawed mandibles and a jaw made of a pair of fused limbs) upside-down, thus independently derived. DNA evidence has confirmed this relationship. |
| You may be a king or a lil' street sweeper, but sooner or later, you'll dance with the reaper! | |
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9:25 AM Jul 11