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| "Terrarised" alien worlds.; what happens when various alien worlds are introduced with Earth life. | |
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| Topic Started: Apr 3 2010, 09:05 AM (1,587 Views) | |
| Forbiddenparadise64 | Apr 3 2010, 09:05 AM Post #1 |
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ok i had an idea similar to Canis Lupus's future of the kinds idea, with multiple projects. i have decided to do several different planets populated by Earth organisms. I know this has been done before, and im still not sure whether this should be placed in the habitable zone, but i have already come up with ideas for it. Here we go: ARTHROPODA: This, as the name suggests, is a world dominated by introduced arthropods. There are also cnidarians, sponges, nematoid worms, tardigrades and flatworms too. It holds most of the arthropods of Earth, except those dependant on other phylums (ie parasites). Arthropoda's environment is different to Earth's. at the time humans introduce the animals after the plants, it has a gravity of 79%, but has an atmospheric density of 1090 millibars (compared to Earth's 1013) and an (current) atmosphere consisting of 72% nitrogen, 26% oxygen (although eventually it will get considerably higher), <2% argon and 0.1% carbon dioxide (which allows plants to grow more prolifically). I will cover the later time periods of 60, 120 and 250 million years after the first colonists are introduced. I hope this is plausible enough for you. HEAVY METAL: No this isnt a fantasy world tributed to my favourite genre of music, but a world consisting of heavy elements such as iron, copper, aluminium ore and other metals. It is 1.94 times Earth's mass and has a diameter of 10,982 kilometres, with an average global temperature of 18 degrees celsius. The atmosphere has 17% oxygen and a pressure of 1800 millibars. The main groups are mollusks, woodlice, cockroaches, termites, ants, earwigs and a single tetrapod: the common house gecko. This might not be the most plausible of my projects, but im going to do it anyway. NITROGUS: This is one of my most bizarre projects- a world populated almost entirely by bacteria and certain (probably GM) protozoa which respirate using nitrogen. Yes, nitrogen isn't as efficient as oxygen respiration, but it can be done. I dont expect any large multicellular organisms myself. This world has about 94% of Earth's mass and a density of 1020 millibars. Im gonna think up another 7 worlds later in my own spare time, but good luck commenting and suggesting ideas. |
Prepare for the Future Walking with the future: Allozoic (pts 4-6)http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/topic/3252142/14/#new
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| Forbiddenparadise64 | Apr 17 2010, 04:13 PM Post #31 |
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Ok, I've waited for this. Now I'm going to do part 2 of the tardigradus project. The first part was set 70 million years AP (after populated); the second part is set 150 million AP. A lot has now happened. At 75 million AP, tardigradus was hit by a huge ice age (1 degree colder than Earth's last ice age), and oxygen levels dropped to 20%. Over 60% of life was killed off. The hardest group hit were the abnormalids, where only two genuses survived. One, paramortuus, never recovered properly and struggled on for another 15 million years before finally becoming extinct. But the other, archipater, transited into an entirely new group the magnopterids. They greatest difference was that the front pair of flippers was enlarged, andthe body much mroe streamlined. These features made them much faster and more manouverable. They took many of their old niches back, but were now on odds with the chordogades, which had exploded in diversity to take many now abandoned niches. Cnitardids increased in diversity after the event, with few species dieing out. Gigantogrades lost a good amount of diversity, but sprung back to former levels and beyond soon. The triopides developed a new group descended from that gliding species, the tardiopterids, which evolved fully functional wings to migrate from ice, find food and find new mates more easily. The species that could'nt migrate from the ice either adapted to the conditions or perished. And soon their world of now real competition was coming to an end. Some of the gigantigrades and crustacigrades were developing fully terrestrial linaeges. Biodiversity rapildly rose with this turn of events, creating increasinly competitive and varied organisms inherited the land. Eventually in the oceans the magnopterids lost out to the chordigades, who after developing a proper endoskeleton conquered the oceans and adapted into huge creatures, much bigger than any abnormalid ever got. Some have even started to live in the swampy coastlands as crocodilian like predators beneath the surface. By now oxygen levels had recovered and even exceeded previous records. Welcome now to part 2. First real info will come next post. |
Prepare for the Future Walking with the future: Allozoic (pts 4-6)http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/topic/3252142/14/#new
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| Forbiddenparadise64 | Apr 23 2010, 05:10 PM Post #32 |
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I have decided to delay the tardigrade project due to low popularity, I may be new, but i didn't expect it would be that unpopular. So I am going to delay it for a long time and reinvent it later. Now, the main project is arthropoda. I modified it a bit, so here is the overall comparison over two time periods on arthropoda, MOP (moment of population) and 70 million AP (after population): Mass: 0.67 (compared to Earth) Gravity 0.74 Atmospheric density: 1200 millbars Oxygen content: 26% in MOP, 42% at 70 million AP temperature: 16 degrees C in MOP, 22 C in 70 million AP I added a few other groups along side the arthropods, cnidarians, corals, sponges, nematoids and true flatworms already there for a bit of realism. These include Earthworms, acorn worms, tardigrades, acaelomorph flatworms (which according to genetic evidence are the most diverged bilatarians, more so than deteurostomes and protostomes) and a single species of sea urchin. But still no chordates, mollusks, etc. So basically Arthropods take up most available niches, particularly on land, where super charged oxygen levels, lower gravity, and lack of predators and competion allows the natives to diversify. On land, the main herbivores are beetles, bugs, celluose digesting cockroach descendants, butterflies and moths, bees and wasps, millipedes, herbivourous spiders and terrestrial crabs. The main carnivores include dragonflies, robber flies, some colonial wasps, spiders, scorpions, assassin bugs, centipedes and even some derived descendants of amplipygids. In the oceans, giant crustaceans, jellyfish, free swimming flatworms, and enlargened tardigrades occupy the majority of niches, but not all. In low gravity, and high carbon dioxide, trees more than 240 metres tall are capable of existing and thriving in some areas of arthropoda, descended from conifers. Parasitic slime molds (a bit like but quite different to the future is wilds) also take advantage of the giant arthropod fauna. Could any of you guys get someone who is an expert on paleontology, biology, physics or arthropods to guess any theoretical size limits for these various creatures. BTW, this time i will be providing species names! stay tuned. |
Prepare for the Future Walking with the future: Allozoic (pts 4-6)http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/topic/3252142/14/#new
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| Forbiddenparadise64 | Apr 27 2010, 03:03 PM Post #33 |
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Ok, I'm gonna do a few starting species. I can't think of latin names for them, so anyone reading this will have tothink of one. Red Terror: a huge species of dragonfly living in forest swamps. With a wingspan of up to 2.5 metres, it is the apex aerial predator and typically hunts prey such as the giant beetles and cockroaches on the forest floor. It is not tough enough to take down the terracrabs or the largest of the beetles, and the world's giant butterflies and moths produce toxic chemicals to stop them being eaten. It can even fall prey itself to aquatic Snappers (descendants of the mantis shrimp) and some species of spider and amplypigid. It dwarves the second largest species, the bladewing by over double (the blade wing has a wingspan of 1.1 metres, but can become lunch for the red terror). The dragonfly's nymphs are huge freshwater predators that can grow more than 1.5 metres long and are highly aggresive. They breed during arthropoda's "Summer" season. netcatcher: a large spider descended from nyphilis orb weavers. With a legspan of over 70 cm it is the largest of the orb weavers. out of time, ill give more species next time. |
Prepare for the Future Walking with the future: Allozoic (pts 4-6)http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/topic/3252142/14/#new
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7:39 PM Jul 13