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| Project Nostalgia; and loe, TFIB is back in business | |
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| Topic Started: Mar 30 2010, 06:42 PM (3,336 Views) | |
| Canis Lupis | Mar 30 2010, 06:42 PM Post #1 |
Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.
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First off, I would like to say that I will continue to do the "The Future of the Kinds" multi-project. So that's not dead. Anyway, I was surfing through the official competitions forum yesterday when I came across the "Project of the Month: #1" topic. It was held in the first year I was on this forum and from the first year the forum was active. Anyway, when the contest ended, my "The Future is Bizarre" project (the first project I had ever actually done and that started by speculative "career") had only one vote and Saxophlutist's "Europa" project won with three votes. However, when I checked back yesterday, I discovered that my project had garnered five votes beating everyone else's project by at least two. Then along came Pandorasaurus. His "25 MYF" project was, according to him, inspired by my TFIB project. Needless to say, I am feeling slightly nostalgic. TFIB is a part of my "The Future of the Kinds" multi-project. But since it was the first project I ever had and I have a soft spot for it, I would like to take a deeper look at it. Expand on it, if you will. And make it better now that I know more about zoology, future evolution, ancient evolution, evolution in general, and speculative biology in general. So I shall take up the mantle once again and journey back a couple of years to when this idea was first conceived. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Over the years, I have become more of a fan of near-future evolution projects. Projects that take place anywhere from 1000 years from now to 50 million years from now. That said, I shall really only focus on what happens 10 million years into the TFIB universe. Unlike the first time I delved into the TFIB universe, I will take into account zoo animals and introduced animals. So when you see wallabies in Europe, don't be surprised. I've done some research, and apparently 15 million year ago, atmospheric CO2 concentrations were as high as they are today. So obviously, in a future in which the polar ice caps completely melt and humans are wiped out (or left the planet, but I honestly don't care so long as they are gone), I will be turning to 15 million years ago to see a real life example of how life adapted to a warmer Earth. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now for probably the most essential part to any future evo project: the extinction list, letting the reader know who's still around and who's gone. I will not post a survivor list. If a creature does not appear on the extinction list, it is in there. That said, the global warming extinction event affected mostly the chordates. About half of the world's coral species died out and one fourth of the world's sponge species died out, but that’s about it for the invertebrates. And of the chordates, only tetrapods are really affected. Anurans, those frogs and toads we see hopping around today, are hit hard by the human era and global warming. As we may all know, the widespread pollution in the modern ecosystem has caused sever genetic abnormalities in many species of anuran. With humanity persisting for another century, I‘ve got a feeling that these anurans will become extinct (with the exception of one or two relict species). As far as reptiles go, sea turtles appear to be the most vulnerable and they are the most likely reptilian group to die out. Now sure: some reptile species will die out, such as the Chinese alligator and the gavials. However, sea turtles are the only group in which ALL species will go extinct. As far as Reptilia goes that is. Birds are next on the list. Now the extinctions get more lucrative. For this class, Antarctic penguins are wiped out (though penguins around the world remain for the most part), as are cassowaries, kiwis, and some tinamous. The kakapo is one of the few parrot species that goes extinct. Other less noteworthy, but nonetheless important, avian extinctions include the trogons, lyrebirds, wattlebirds, birds of paradise, and bowerbirds, among a number of individual species extinctions. Last, but certainly the most devastated animal groups, are the mammals. As the ruling class in the Holocene, it seems fitting that they’d experience the most extinctions. As far as monotremes go, only the long-beaked echidna goes extinct, leaving the platypuses and the short-beaked echidna. When it comes to the marsupials, it would be easier to sum up who survives. These survivors include the macropods, quolls, wombats, opossums, numbats, and bandicoots. Placental mammals experience the loss of solenodons, the scandents (tree shrews), dermopterans (colugos), the great apes (including humans and gibbons), lemurs, various New World monkeys, big cats (save jaguars and leopards), toy dogs, various species of bear (excluding the black bear), cheetahs, walruses, all cetaceans (except for the delphinids), sirenians, proboscideans, rhinos, Asian tapirs, giraffids, hippos, the pikas. As well as some individual species extinctions, these are all the creatures that go extinct in the Holocene extinction event. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So what will arise out of the extinction, the death, and the decay? What groups are poised to take over this brave new world? That will come later. Shortly. Within a day or two. Just be patient: I’ll get to my first family here soon. As soon as I can figure out what family to do first. Anyway, enjoy it. I know I will as I ride the never-ending wave of nostalgia. |
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| Pando | Mar 30 2010, 10:41 PM Post #2 |
Obey or I'll send you to the moon
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Don't forget, during the paleogene and eocene the world were in rainforests, that died during the oligocene. So check those periods too. And are killer whales extinct? Because they might be the only non-rat or human species with a cosmopolitan range, so I don't see them dying, unless the extinction is bad enough that all the bivalves are extinct. And in one post Holben calculated that in the future once every country has reached U.S. level technology, they will stop emitting C02, and according to him it will stop around 2150 (I think). I would expect there to be giga-antelope and hyrax. And you could do a takeover in the carnivore niches occurring between carnivora and things like neo-entelodonts, terror secretary birds, among others. And glad to see this project up and running again  .
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| The Dodo | Mar 30 2010, 11:28 PM Post #3 |
Prime Specimen
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Looking at the marsupial list I'm not sure that numbats and quolls will survive, they seem to be getting pretty hard hit at the moment along with bandicoots. |
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| seascorpion | Mar 31 2010, 02:03 AM Post #4 |
Why Can't I Hold All These Mongols?
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its mainly because of introduced species , one of the big mistakes we made settling australia ... great project ,would like to see how it goes |
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| XxVENATOURxX | Mar 31 2010, 04:33 AM Post #5 |
I am the predator -o_O
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what are quolls. And why are bandicoots getting "hard to hit". |
 Mae hen wlad fyn ghadau yn anwyl I mi Gwlad beirdd a chantorion enwogion o fri Ei gwrol ryfelwyr gwlad garwyr tra mad Dros ryddid collasant ei gwaed Gwlad,Gwlad Pleidiol wyf i'm gwlad Tra mor yn fyr i'r byr hoff bau O byddedd i'r heniaeth barhau | |
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| Ddraig Goch | Mar 31 2010, 06:06 AM Post #6 |
Ar hyd y nos
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What will the main biomes be, then? |
| Save the Blibbering Humdinger from extinction! | |
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| Ook | Mar 31 2010, 09:05 AM Post #7 |
not a Transhuman
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i think that some species of quolls and bandicoots survive(numbat too,there are none introduced animal,that can fill his niche)...but they will look as today,mayby will be numbat bigger and bandicoots more badger like(quolls can evolve into something that like civets) Some america ideas-carnivores--giant serinemas,Neo big cats(new big cats,that evolve from smaller south american cats,and spread across the south and north america) bear like things,that evolved from civets(only south part of south america) descendants of black bear or something like this and hyaena like dogs...mayby carnivore javelinas,but i am sceptic about it small antelope niche can be filled by descendants of mara at south and latin america,and hares at north america.In america will be many forms of deers,that are descendants of white tailed deer.There can be bison like descendant of cattle.At mountains will be descendants of feral goats.There will be giant porcupines,three species of beavers(different size and different life style)there will be some species of flightless bird-descendants of rhea,some species of horses and donkeys-they will look same as today or pleistocene species.there will be two species(smaller forest and bigger plains) of giant pigs(size of rhino).There can be neoantelopes-descendants of proghrorn,that have got variety of species same as african antelopes...and there will be big descendants of tapirs,eqivalent of probosceans Edited by Ook, Mar 31 2010, 09:07 AM.
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| XxVENATOURxX | Mar 31 2010, 10:37 AM Post #8 |
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I am the predator -o_O
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O rite cool good explanation |
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Mae hen wlad fyn ghadau yn anwyl I mi Gwlad beirdd a chantorion enwogion o fri Ei gwrol ryfelwyr gwlad garwyr tra mad Dros ryddid collasant ei gwaed Gwlad,Gwlad Pleidiol wyf i'm gwlad Tra mor yn fyr i'r byr hoff bau O byddedd i'r heniaeth barhau | |
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| Ook | Mar 31 2010, 10:48 AM Post #9 |
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not a Transhuman
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i can write here some ideas for europe,but i draw some creatures for permian island...i think that in future without humans,nature of america will be similliar to today africa... http://serchio25.deviantart.com/art/pleistocene-rewilding-73555814 picture under that rewilding possibility is north america fauna,that lived at north america at age of 10 000 BC |
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| Pando | Mar 31 2010, 11:41 AM Post #10 |
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Obey or I'll send you to the moon
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The only problem I see with that is that there are elephants, rhinos, and california condors. But I guess that we can ignore them since Canis Lupus said that they go extinct. |
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| Ook | Mar 31 2010, 11:48 AM Post #11 |
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not a Transhuman
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lol i thint that American fauna will looked as todays african or yesterday america...there will be giant grazers,antelope like ungulates,new big cats..... |
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| Canis Lupis | Mar 31 2010, 07:00 PM Post #12 |
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.
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Whoa. Ten comments already. Let me try to answer those questions those have asked and offer my take on the species suggestions that have been given thus far. Quolls, bandicoots, and numbats surviving: after a quick consultation of the internet (when I compiled the list, I looked at an animal book published in 2000), all three appear to be endangered. However, I've got a feeling that, as quolls become more arboreal and nocturnal (as they appear to be doing in response to cats and foxes), theiir numbers will go back on the rebound and they'll become the Australian answer to civets. While bandicoots are highly threatened, with about twenty species, I doubt that they would all go extinct. Just a vast majority, leaving probably about 3-5 species of its original diversity 15 million years from now. Numbats, as you all claim and the research confirms, that they will most likely go extinct. In fact, they could potentially be replaced by a diversification of the echidnas. Orca extinction: Nope. Orcas are not extinct. They, along with marine dolphins and pilot whales, are in the family Delphinidae. So they'll survive. CO2 emmission end date: Very interesting and I'd like to see how Holben calculated that. However, I won't really have to worry about it, since the world started going to hell in a hand basket (pardon the expression) in the 2000's and humanity went extinct around 2120. Neo carnivores: Well, somewhere in the world (most likely on on island or in some desert, as pigs seem to thrive there), there will probably be some neo-entelodont. Most likely, it would be a descendent of today's domestic pigs, which have a widely varied diet. However, I don't expect a massive carnivore niche reversal in just 15 million years. With a bulk of the carnivorans still aroud, I don't think it is all too pheasible for them to flat outcompeted. Yet. If I extrapolate on this scenario further, there is a good chance carnivorans will be outcompeted. But not yet. Giant sirenemas: What are those? If you are talking about sirenians (manatees and dugongs), they are extinct. However, if you are talking about something different Bexi, I don't know what. Black bear descendents: That's something I'd like to bring up, so thanks for the intro. If you've taken a look at ursine behavior, you will know that pretty much any bear takes in meat and sometimes forages on plants, consuming each in varying amounts. For example, the polar bear feeds almost exclusively on meat and the panda feeds almost exclusively on plants. Black bears are more omnivorous and modern reports show that black bears are actually leaning more towards plants than meat. Metalraptor and I have speculated on this and have extrapolated this behavioral change into the future, depicting herbivorous black bears which may or may not supplement their diet with meat. Sort of a North and South American panda. Bexi's ideas about American wildlife: Most of those sound accurate and fit right along with what I was already planning. Good job. Biomes: These are highly varied, so it would be relatively confusing to tell you ALL the biomes in a single post. If I can find the time, I'll create a biome map. Anyway, I think I know what I'm going to start off with: tapir-like beavers. These creatures are mostly similar to the proboscidean ancestor, known as Moeritherium ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moeritherium ). I'll try to get the description up within one to two days. |
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| Pando | Mar 31 2010, 07:18 PM Post #13 |
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Obey or I'll send you to the moon
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Wow, I've never imagined a moeritherium beaver. Can't wait. And for the Seriema, they're the closest living relatives of the phorusrhacids. Here is the wikipedia article on them, apparently they're the South American counterparts of Secretary birds. They usually beat their prey on the ground, but if it's too big they rip them apart with their sickle-claws similar to what the Dromaeosaurids did. |
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| Canis Lupis | Mar 31 2010, 07:24 PM Post #14 |
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.
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Yeah. Just gotta figure out how plausible a miniature "trunk" thing is (not an elephant-like trunk, but a tapir-like trunk). As I was reading that wikipedia article, none of you can imagine how much my mind's wheels were turning. I'm gonna have fun with this. |
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| XxVENATOURxX | Apr 1 2010, 03:11 AM Post #15 |
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I am the predator -o_O
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what was the article about Canis. I bet those wheels were turning a lot |
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Mae hen wlad fyn ghadau yn anwyl I mi Gwlad beirdd a chantorion enwogion o fri Ei gwrol ryfelwyr gwlad garwyr tra mad Dros ryddid collasant ei gwaed Gwlad,Gwlad Pleidiol wyf i'm gwlad Tra mor yn fyr i'r byr hoff bau O byddedd i'r heniaeth barhau | |
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