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Rats
Topic Started: May 31 2010, 07:23 AM (881 Views)
Ook
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not a Transhuman
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rattus rattus settled in pacific ocean 110 islands,Pynesian rat about 90 islands.Rattus novergicus settlet about 230 islands around the world.In next few millions years,there will be thousands of new rat species.

Today,there is about 50 rat species
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Canis Lupis
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

Yeah, so...what do you want us to do?
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Ook
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yust about rats potentional...there could be semiaquatic rat and later full aquatic rat-new marine mammal
there could be thanks to very low competiton on islands herbivorous and carnivorous rats,rats which live in colonies,or rats which have symbiosis with some other organism
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Canis Lupis
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

Yes, there is that potential there. I always think of feline-like predators when I think of predatory rat descendents.
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Ook
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not a Transhuman
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predatory rats is possible,but i dont think that they can evolve at places like europe,or america,because there is strong competition.Just on isolated places
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Spinosaurus Rex
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They're rats. Tenacious and extremely opportunistic. I see them becoming more of a super-omnivore. Rats didn't get to where they are by being specialized or particularly efficient at any one thing. They got where they are by being jacks-of-all-trades, never being pushed back by nature (Despite having a... I believe the number was 95%, annual mortality rate.)
The Dreaded AOL Dial-Up has left me afraid to spend more than 5 minutes posting at risk of losing it all. Arghhh.

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Ook
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yeah thats true,just unspecialized omnivores like opossums or racoons
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Spinosaurus Rex
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I also recall Brown rats being very good swimmers. A possible Musk Rat-like ancestor in more watery areas, perhaps?

Are Musk Rats... rats?
The Dreaded AOL Dial-Up has left me afraid to spend more than 5 minutes posting at risk of losing it all. Arghhh.

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Ook
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noo, but rats can evolve into form like this
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The Dodo
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I like the idea os marine rats, probably from brown rats since black rats aren't as good swimmers. Maybe black rats could evolve into full tree-dwellers, they are pretty good at climbing.
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Ook
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they can fill many niches on islands,imagine island not too small,where from ground mammals lives only rats,after few milions years,there could be many interesting forms
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Holben
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Rumbo a la Victoria

Rats are very good at being adaptable... they don't necessarily have to specialise.

They can swim for three days without tiring.
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."
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MitchBeard
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They don't have to, but it will inevitably happen.
Jack of all trades is the master of none.
And as soon as you get one subset of the population starts specialising their diet towards X, it will encourage the rest of the population to start specialising away from X.
There will no doubt still be the jack of all trades rats, but they will specialise out also.
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Holben
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Rumbo a la Victoria

Fair enough, but pressure due to humanity goes only in one direction.
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."
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MitchBeard
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proud gondwanan
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No. Even in urban areas and cities, if you left rats long enough they would speciate.
Most pacific islands are too sparsely populated for it to make a difference anyway.
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