Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
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!

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
Asprea; 250 million years in the future
Topic Started: May 11 2010, 11:31 AM (605 Views)
BaliTiger23
Member Avatar
Do Not Touch Anything For It May Explode And Kill You
 *  *  *  *  *
Asprea is Earth 250 million years from now, following Dr. Scotese's theory on Pangaea Ultima.

In the first 50 million years: Eurasia has shifted southeast. Africa has collided with Europe and Arabia, closing the Mediterranean Sea, causing a mountain range to rise, extending from Iberia across Southern Europe. Australia has beached itself on the doorstep of Southeast Asia; a new subduction zone has encircled Australia and extends westward across the Central Indian Ocean. Southern California and Baja California have collided with Alaska, creating a new mountain range between them.

In the next 100 years: The Atlantic Ocean narrowed as a result of subduction beneath the Americas. The Indian Ocean is smaller due to the northward subduction of oceanic crest into the Central Indian trench. North and South America are pushed back southeast. Southern Africa hits equator and is in the Northern hemisphere. Australia joins up with Antarctica, meeting the South Pole.

In the last 100 years: The Atlantic and Indian Oceans are closed, and the Pacific Ocean now encircles half the Earth. North America collided with Africa, though in a more southerly position then where it rifted almost 300 million years ago. South America is wrapped around the southern tip of Africa, with Patagonia in contact with Indonesia, enclosing a remnant of the Indo-Atlantic Ocean. Antarctica is once again a part of the South Pole.

-

Asprea is primarily desert and rainforest due to all the new mountain ranges, some of which (such as the one that rose as a result of Africa joining Europe) are higher then Mt Everest. The oxygen level is higher, and the land is still mammal dominated.

250 million years ago a mass extinction wiped out most large bodied mammals, including humans. For the sake of simplicity, I'm going to go along with something like Stephen King's Captain Trips super virus, and thus humans and most of their domesticated animals died off.

Some 10 million years after that, something happened with the planets water, and most of the worlds water-dwelling and water-dependent animals went extinct. The oceans were nearly empty, entire food chains were broken thus causing even more extinctions, most amphibians, fishes and aquatic reptiles, mammals, invertebrates and birds died out. Several species of flora also went extinct, further disrupting food chains.

In the end, few of the animals we know today survived.

-

So I've decided to restart my Asprea project, and this is what I have so far. There might be inconsistencies, and if so feel free to point them out, just be sure to keep the science talk in layman's terms as I'm just a simpleton that happens to have a hobby generally reserved for more intelligent people! ;)

I'm currently building a list of animals that survived the mass extinctions, and will hopefully have more to share soon. Hope you all enjoy the new (and hopefully improved) Asprea!
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
BaliTiger23
Member Avatar
Do Not Touch Anything For It May Explode And Kill You
 *  *  *  *  *
So I think I have a pretty good idea of what mammals went extinct and what survived, and I'm currently trying to figure out birds (of which, it has come to my attention, there are way too many kinds!) and then I'll move onto reptiles, and so on.

I could go more in-depth then this, but I want to get to the future evolutions, so a simple list will do for now.

Extinct: Monotremes, flying lemurs, elephant shrews, tree shrews, prosimians, apes, anteaters, pangolins, most canines, most bears, most raccoon relatives, most cats, okapis, whales, dolphins, seals, sea-lions, manatees, dugongs, elephants, horses and relatives, rhinoceroses, tapirs, most pigs, most camels and relatives, most deer, most cattle and relatives, a lot of marsupials, most monkeys, a lot of rodents, a lot of domestic animals, and humans.

And the survivors are mustelidae, viverridae, hyaenidae, insectivora, lagomorpha, and rodentia. As well as a select few from bovidae, cervidae, suidae, felidae, canidae, haplorhini, chiroptera, and marsupialia. A few more single species may have survived from some other families, but I'll do that by a case by case basis.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Pando
Member Avatar
Obey or I'll send you to the moon
 *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
I noticed that you seem to be referring to modern day creatures. It's 250 MYF, and the dominance won't be like today, unless mammals are VERY lucky.

Got an image for your place in Dynamic Browsing?
Edited by Pando, May 12 2010, 07:46 PM.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
MitchBeard
Member Avatar
proud gondwanan
 *  *  *  *  *
BaliTiger23
May 11 2010, 11:31 AM
Some 10 million years after that, something happened with the planets water, and most of the worlds water-dwelling and water-dependent animals went extinct. The oceans were nearly empty, entire food chains were broken thus causing even more extinctions, most amphibians, fishes and aquatic reptiles, mammals, invertebrates and birds died out. Several species of flora also went extinct, further disrupting food chains.
May I suggest instead that the shifting of the continents breaks the global conveyor current, perhaps a couple other important circulatory currents, which causes the oceans to stagnate and populations of anaerobic bacteria and archea to explode and choke the oceans? As has been proposed to have caused a mass extinction or two in earths history.

Just a thought.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
BaliTiger23
Member Avatar
Do Not Touch Anything For It May Explode And Kill You
 *  *  *  *  *
@ Pandorasaurus - Oh, I know, I'm just being a little obsessive, so I'm making all these lists despite the fact that the families and orders won't be the same. And in the future (as in in a few years of my own life) I might want to go back and do 50 and 150 MYF for Asprea and at that time my lists will be pretty awesome to have. And no, I don't have an image, but you bet your behind I'll be getting one done up!

@ MitchBeard - I actually found an article back in February of '09 that I had planned to use for this very purpose that you can read here. So all I really have to change is the time line of when the mass extinction occurs and I'm in the clear. I'd forgotten about that until you mentioned your idea though, so thanks for reminding me!
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
« Previous Topic · Evolutionary Continuum · Next Topic »
Add Reply