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| Oligocene World, aka Slinker World | |
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| Topic Started: Jun 8 2008, 04:07 AM (1,212 Views) | |
| truteal | Jun 8 2008, 04:07 AM Post #1 |
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forum bigfoot
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Neogene drying doesn't occur, and hence the development of plains and of wind-pollinated floras dominated by grasses never really get going; in other words the subtropical and temperate woodlands of the Oligocene remain covering the better parts of the continents. Apart from cool polar tundra, terrestrial environments are essentially wall-to-wall woodland and forest, making Earth like a big version of Endor (the forest moon from Return of the Jedi, of course). Other than that, everything else pre-Oligocene is broadly the same as really happened. Devoid of the opportunity to evolve mid-sized ecotone and open-habitat forms, hoofed mammals mostly remain as small, browsing slinkers for the rest of Cenozoic history [rather similar to the chevrotain pictured above: image from here]. But the forests are filled with thousands and thousands of them. Proboscideans, notoungulates, rhinos, horses, suiforms, deer and bovids all diversify at small body size and stay that way. They are preyed on by big forest-dwelling eagles and sebecosuchian crocodilians. Carnivorans remain at small body size too, but all lineages remain scansorial and only a few species evolve to prey on the slinkers. Mostly the carnivorans prey on birds, bats and scansorial primates. The subtropical and temperate woodlands of North America and Eurasia are filled with plethodontid salamanders, with absurd niche packing occurring across the board. Consequently there are lots of arboreal, scansorial, aquatic and fossorial plethodontids of all shapes and sizes, and multiple reversions from and to biphasic life history and direct development. Rivers and lakes are inhabited by small, mid-sized and giant predatory plethodontids, the biggest of which (err..... 5 m long!) ambush slinkers when they come down to drink or go for a swim. Some slinkers inhabit the coasts of tropical Asia, and it's these that have given rise to whales, so the cetacean fauna is the same as the real Earth one. And there are lots of meiolaniids, caecilians and pangolins... got it from this blogpost http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2007/02/speculative_zoology_wedel_thro.php discuss ideas and possible creatures |
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My sporadically updated Youtube page Do you get it? I hardly ever come here so I'm like something a cryptozoologist would study | |
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| Livyatan | Jun 8 2008, 06:21 AM Post #2 |
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I had actually considered taking this up and I believe set up a blog, but it never really got anywhere. I don't have the link handy, I might have even deleted the blog. |
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The grand Livyatan on deviantArt: link | |
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| Saxophlutist | Jun 8 2008, 11:29 AM Post #3 |
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Adult
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I imagine that animals that follow the worm-like body plan would be fairly successful here (Snakes, caecillians, ferrets) with the dense forests every where. |
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| Livyatan | Jun 9 2008, 05:52 PM Post #4 |
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Well, apparently I did delete my blog, but there is still a short conversation between myself and Tim Morris on philosphica-dixonia. http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/philosphica-dixonia/message/1218 |
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The grand Livyatan on deviantArt: link | |
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| ATEK Azul | Sep 20 2008, 01:50 PM Post #5 |
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Transhuman
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i relly like this idea in fact i made a world that was a fusion of this topic and this http://spec-evolution.sytes.net/topic/338513/1/. it is quite interesting in my opinion. |
| I am dyslexic, please ignore the typo's! | |
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| Adman | Nov 28 2010, 07:40 PM Post #6 |
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Totally not lamna
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I would say that giant killer birds and mesonycids , as well as haast eagle like eagles and sebewould predators become predators, and I would also say that coryodonts and those other paleogene mammals would stay as herbivores. |
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Projects and concepts that I have stewing around Extended Pleistocene- An alternate future where man died out, and the megafauna would continue to thrive (may or may not include a bit about certain future sapients) Inverted World- An alternate timeline where an asteroid hit during the Barremian, causing an extinction event before the Maastrichtian. Dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and notosuchians make it to the present, along with a host of other animals. Badania- Alien planet that has life at a devonian stage of development, except it exists in the present day. Ido- Alien world where hoppers (derived flightless ballonts) and mouthpart-legged beasts are prevalent. Leto- Life on a moon orbiting a gas giant with an erratic orbit; experiences extremes of hot and cold. The Park- ??? Deeper Impact- a world where the K-Pg extinction wipes out crocodilians, mammals, and birds; squamates, choristoderes, and turtles inherit the earth. World of Equal Opportunity- alternate history where denisovans come across Beringia and interact with native fauna. Much of the Pleistocene fauna survives, and the modern humans that end up crossing into North America do not overhunt the existing animals. 10,000 years later, civilizations exist that are on par with European and Asian societies. The Ditch- Nothing is what if seems.. | |
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1:50 PM Jul 11