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| Aquatic feline?; Look what I found! | |
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| Topic Started: May 8 2010, 08:25 PM (3,627 Views) | |
| Practically Uninformed | May 8 2010, 08:25 PM Post #1 |
Informed enough to care
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Through the Speculative-Evolution Deviantart group, I uncovered this:River Cat (Leon del Lago) For those who won't bother with the artist's comments, it's a water-dwelling feline taking the role of a crocodile. I want to know, could this come to pass? |
| You may be a king or a lil' street sweeper, but sooner or later, you'll dance with the reaper! | |
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| Pando | May 8 2010, 08:28 PM Post #2 |
Obey or I'll send you to the moon
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There is already aquatic felines, the Fishing Cat.  Possible, but their snout needs to be longer and loose the saber teeth. And they'd have to compete with otters and pinnipeds. But thanks for the idea for the Postozoic! |
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| Practically Uninformed | May 8 2010, 08:31 PM Post #3 |
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Well, as explained in the heavily-detailed artist's comments, it seems to be taking the role of a crocodile in its environment (meat-eating more than fish-eating), and it even says so: "River cats have become even more well adapted to an aquatic life, and fill a niche similar to crocodilians in environments too cold for the reptiles to be active year round. In the south where their ranges overlap river cats have been known to actively seek out and attack crocs and gators and seem to particularly enjoy digging up and devouring their eggs." |
| You may be a king or a lil' street sweeper, but sooner or later, you'll dance with the reaper! | |
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| Toad of Spades | May 8 2010, 08:37 PM Post #4 |
Clorothod
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Of course they could. There are plenty of cats that spend some time in the water. Its not as an extreme of an adaptation but the fishing cat has partially webbed paws and a double layered fur coat. I'm sure that some kind of cat could evolve into such a lifestyle as the cat in the link. Ambulocetus evolved in a relatively short period of time from Pakicetus-like animals, so such a cat as that one could easily evolve. On a separate note, I really love that quadrapedal bird. Edited by Toad of Spades, May 8 2010, 08:38 PM.
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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. | |
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| Practically Uninformed | May 8 2010, 08:38 PM Post #5 |
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I still can't get over how well this guy has essentially schooled several of us (at least, me and Dougal Dixon). |
| You may be a king or a lil' street sweeper, but sooner or later, you'll dance with the reaper! | |
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| Black_Panther | May 8 2010, 08:44 PM Post #6 |
Adolescent
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Viergacht's art...cool as usual. Anyway, i remember hearing someone that Sumatran Tigers are dividing in two species, some of them are developing webbed feet, so... Anyway, i think that the fishing cat or the jaguar, as well as Sumatran Tigers and other species inhabiting areas like the Amazon or the Sundarbans, have some chances to become aquatic predators...specially if the nearest competition (crocodiles) disappear. |
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http://spidervenom022.deviantart.com Go in there for some odd stuff that could make you puke, and ask for some free sketches. 
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| Toad of Spades | May 8 2010, 08:45 PM Post #7 |
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Clorothod
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Maybe he could have it adapt further. Have the nostrils on the top of the snout like an actual crocodile, have the legs able to sprawl, and have it evolve a lower metabolism like how crocodiles kind of "downgraded" into ectothermy. |
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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. | |
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| Practically Uninformed | May 8 2010, 08:47 PM Post #8 |
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I don't think this creature will go so far. It's replacing crocodiles in places where they can't live as cold-blooded animals, therefore, it'll probably stay an ectotherm. |
| You may be a king or a lil' street sweeper, but sooner or later, you'll dance with the reaper! | |
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| Toad of Spades | May 8 2010, 08:51 PM Post #9 |
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Clorothod
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If whales are extinct in this world maybe it could go on a path similar to what cetaceans did. However the competition would be intense because there are plenty of animals that could evolve into that role. |
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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. | |
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| Practically Uninformed | May 8 2010, 08:54 PM Post #10 |
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Informed enough to care
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Therefore, it might not be for them to journey to sea. HOWEVER, I remember in the "Tetrapod Zoology" blog, there was a post about speculative zoology. In it, Mr. Naish also gave 2 of his own ideas. One of them was a world where the grasslands never spread, forcing artiodactyls to remain small and being fed on by river-dwelling predatory cetaceans... |
| You may be a king or a lil' street sweeper, but sooner or later, you'll dance with the reaper! | |
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| Black_Panther | May 8 2010, 09:34 PM Post #11 |
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Adolescent
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Do you have the link? |
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http://spidervenom022.deviantart.com Go in there for some odd stuff that could make you puke, and ask for some free sketches.
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| Carlos | May 9 2010, 05:15 AM Post #12 |
Adveho in me Lucifero
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We debated this before. Also, with otters around, I think aquatic cats hard to evolve. Crocodillian cats? Not when crocodillian otters are more likely to evolve |
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Lemuria: http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/topic/5724950/ Terra Alternativa: http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/forum/460637/ My Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Carliro  | |
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| Scrublord | May 9 2010, 07:20 AM Post #13 |
Father Pellegrini
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I have an aquatic cat in the Neozoic, and I'll post about it there a soon as I can get around to it. It lives in New Zealand, and it's not much bigger than an otter. It mostly eats small fish, shoreline carrion, and seabird eggs and chicks. |
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My Projects: The Neozoic Redux Valhalla--Take Three! The Big One Deviantart Account: http://elsqiubbonator.deviantart.com In the end, the best advice I could give you would be to do your project in a way that feels natural to you, rather than trying to imitate some geek with a laptop in Colorado. --Heteromorph | |
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| Practically Uninformed | May 9 2010, 09:11 AM Post #14 |
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Otters as crocodilian predators is possible, but it'd be quite the first for their group. Otters would have to grow to an enormous size to even be able to actively pursure large land-based prey, and excepting the Giant Otter of South America (and that creature seems to be dying off, unfortunately), otters can't grow that big. In addition, unlike crocodilians and cats, otters have an unusual dependency on their diet, and can die out due to depletion of their particular prey. In contrast, big cats have evolved several times amongst several families of cats and cat-like carnivorans. The "big cat" family of the Eastern Hemisphere is clearly an example of feline gigantism, but the "small cat" family of the Americas also has its share of giants (the cheetah and the cougar), and going further back, the large-scale relatives of cats, such as the saber-teeth and ancestral hyenas, ruled the landscape. While aquaticism is a must for any crocodile-type apex predator, size seems much more integral to that particular niche than it is for other apex-predator ecological roles. It'd be far more likely for a big predator to become partially aquatic than for a partially aquatic animal to become a big predator.
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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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| Carlos | May 9 2010, 09:42 AM Post #15 |
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Adveho in me Lucifero
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During the Pleistocene giant otters did occur in Mediterranean islands; while some species were fish eaters, others so seem to have developed a taste for terrestrial prey. |
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Lemuria: http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/topic/5724950/ Terra Alternativa: http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/forum/460637/ My Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Carliro | |
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