| Speculative biology is simultaneously a science and form of art in which one speculates on the possibilities of life and evolution. What could the world look like if dinosaurs had never gone extinct? What could alien lifeforms look like? What kinds of plants and animals might exist in the far future? These questions and more are tackled by speculative biologists, and the Speculative Evolution welcomes all relevant ideas, inquiries, and world-building projects alike. With a member base comprising users from across the world, our community is the largest and longest-running place of gathering for speculative biologists on the web. While unregistered users are able to browse the forum on a basic level, registering an account provides additional forum access not visible to guests as well as the ability to join in discussions and contribute yourself! Registration is free and instantaneous. Join our community today! |
| Future evolution of baboons | |
|---|---|
| Topic Started: Apr 16 2010, 09:35 AM (3,003 Views) | |
| irbaboon | Apr 16 2010, 09:35 AM Post #1 |
|
Adolescent
|
If any primate were to out last mankind, I would tend to think it would be one of the baboon species. How would you see them evolving in the future if other primates were extinct and most of their main predators were as well? |
 |
 
|
| Replies: | |
|---|---|
| Ook | Apr 26 2010, 08:06 AM Post #31 |
not a Transhuman
|
if that baboon dont have got that saber like teeth, will be realistic |
   
| |
|
|
|
| Pando | Apr 26 2010, 10:01 AM Post #32 |
Obey or I'll send you to the moon
|
They already have elongated canines. Not unrealistic. Just, they shouldn't be as big as that picture. |
|
|
|
| irbaboon | Apr 26 2010, 06:15 PM Post #33 |
|
Adolescent
|
Would a predatory carnivorous baboon keep it's grasping hands and digits? Or would it evolve something more like paws? |
|
|
|
| irbaboon | Apr 26 2010, 06:18 PM Post #34 |
|
Adolescent
|
Where did that pic come from? |
|
|
|
| Toad of Spades | Apr 26 2010, 08:31 PM Post #35 |
Clorothod
|
Same place as this. Its from a game. These could work well as highly advanced archosaur-like descendants of lizards. 
Edited by Toad of Spades, Apr 26 2010, 08:32 PM.
|
|
Sorry Link, I don't give credit. Come back when you're a little...MMMMMM...Richer. Bread is an animal and humans are %90 aluminum. | |
|
|
|
| Pando | Apr 26 2010, 09:25 PM Post #36 |
|
Obey or I'll send you to the moon
|
In my Postozoic most have paws, but the ones in the African rain forest still have thumbs and thumb-like big toes. |
|
|
|
| Margaret Pye | Apr 27 2010, 04:21 AM Post #37 |
Adult
|
Depends on what they were doing with their hands. A long-distance-running baboon might reduce its hands for better running, maybe, and start to look more canine. Whereas I'd expect an ambush-hunting baboon to retain powerful hands and feet for grasping and wrestling its prey - maybe even evolve the fingernails back into claws as weapons? Flexibility and grasping ability are big advantages for ambush predators; it's only cursorial forms that tend to become less flexible. Modern baboons are quite reliant on sleeping in trees as a defence against predators, but that mightn't be necessary if they grew larger and more powerful (or they could dig burrows instead?) What's wrong with the enormous-fanged baboon? The proportions strike me as similar to some real-world sabertoothed cats. |
| My speculative dinosaur project. With lots of fluff, parental care and mammalian-level intelligence, and the odd sophont. | |
|
|
|
| MitchBeard | Apr 27 2010, 09:43 AM Post #38 |
proud gondwanan
|
I don't think there is that much of a problem with saber-toothed baboons. Especially if the sexual selection helps prop up the ridiculously showy canines. Could lead to some spectacular sexual dimorphism too. The huge saber-toothed males specialising in taking down big game while the smaller, more conservatively toothed females take on a more generalistic lioness or even jaguaresque niche. |
|
|
|
| Ook | Apr 27 2010, 09:49 AM Post #39 |
|
not a Transhuman
|
different niches in one species?...this can be at isolated island but not in africa
Edited by Ook, Apr 27 2010, 09:54 AM.
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| Pando | Apr 27 2010, 09:56 AM Post #40 |
|
Obey or I'll send you to the moon
|
Hey, it happens in reptiles. But not with genders, with age. The babies hold a different niche than the adults. |
|
|
|
| MitchBeard | Apr 27 2010, 10:20 AM Post #41 |
|
proud gondwanan
|
I don't think its that unrealistic. What about when all the male chimpanzees bugger off together to hunt monkeys while all the females are left at home nibbling their fruit and such? Its all dependant on circumstance really. There would be a particular set of circumstances/extinctions/environmental shifts that would allow such an adaptation to evolve. ie very few competing carnivores and the large herbivores have a very unpredictable boom-and-bust population cycles while there is a pretty constant population of smaller herbivores around constantly. |
|
|
|
| Ook | Apr 27 2010, 11:06 AM Post #42 |
|
not a Transhuman
|
bow about that saber toothed baboons male hunts with female,but their do different roles during that hunt?with that they can kill bigger animals |
|
| |
|
|
|
| Holben | Apr 27 2010, 11:52 AM Post #43 |
Rumbo a la Victoria
|
I'm thinking baboons will become more bearish than wolfish. Canines will always be pronounced, but they'd have to keep them protected like sabres so they wouldn't break. Probably three inch canines in a two-metre long animal. |
|
Time flows like a river. Which is to say, downhill. We can tell this because everything is going downhill rapidly. It would seem prudent to be somewhere else when we reach the sea. "It is the old wound my king. It has never healed." | |
|
|
|
| Black_Panther | Apr 27 2010, 09:05 PM Post #44 |
Adolescent
|
I was thinking today (and because i want to add this to a project), how difficult would be for baboons to develop sapience? Not 'weee-we-are-humans-2.0' but more of becoming intelligent like chimpanzees? |
|
http://spidervenom022.deviantart.com Go in there for some odd stuff that could make you puke, and ask for some free sketches. 
| |
|
|
|
| Margaret Pye | Apr 29 2010, 04:18 AM Post #45 |
|
Adult
|
And in the more sexually dimorphic raptors (accipiters, the more megapredatory falcons...) males and females take different prey. I think it'd be fascinating to see wildly dimorphic baboons, maybe with cooperation or maybe with the sexes living seperately and only coming together for mating. Certainly it'd take much less evolution to turn a baboon into a beary or catty thing than into a wolfy thing, but they're generalised enough that cursorial forms could develop. |
| My speculative dinosaur project. With lots of fluff, parental care and mammalian-level intelligence, and the odd sophont. | |
|
|
|
| 1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous) | |
| Go to Next Page | |
| « Previous Topic · Evolutionary Continuum · Next Topic » |
7:39 PM Jul 13