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| Shark sophont | |
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| Topic Started: Jul 1 2010, 10:57 AM (1,253 Views) | |
| Carlos | Jul 1 2010, 10:57 AM Post #1 |
Adveho in me Lucifero
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Lately, I've been gushing about how smart sharks are. Therefore, why not a shark civilasation? |
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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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| Venatosaurus | Jul 1 2010, 02:00 PM Post #16 |
HAUS OF SPEC
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I could imagine a huge re-radiation of sharks, almost near the level of their diversity in the Paleozoic ! Freshwater eel-like forms, colorful reef dwellers with strange fins, and horny protrusions. There would be forms with deformed heads, others would glow, some would form packs like 'wolves of the seas', some would develop such odd dentions one would questions as to how they feed (maybe symbiotic remoras could fetch them food, and then regurgitate it in their hosts mouths !), and some would develop antennae-like struts from their fins, these would be the future to something grand. At first these bottom/reef dwellers would crawl on them, some developing acute sensation being able to detect the minutest vibrations, using the struts themselves to catch prey (another lineage would take their horny protrusions and make them mobile hooks), one group would work cooperatively to catch food, this would be where intelligence arises. The sapients themselves would have bulbous heads, short fins with long insect-like cartilage struts, with long eel-like bodies that can curl up into ball shapes, when a threat is near. Idk my take on this idea |
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| Carlos | Jul 1 2010, 03:09 PM Post #17 |
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Adveho in me Lucifero
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Sounds great. Indeed I long for the day sharks outlive the pesky ray finned fish. |
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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 | Jul 3 2010, 12:09 PM Post #18 |
Father Pellegrini
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If there's ever going to be an underwater sophont, I'd imagine it would evolve from cephalopods. |
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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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| lamna | Jul 3 2010, 12:33 PM Post #19 |
 
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I really doubt sharks can become civilized. Coming onto land is going to be damned difficult. Unlike bony fish they have no swim bladder, relaying on their huge oily liver and constant motion to stay afloat. No swim bladder, no lungs. |
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Living Fossils Fósseis Vibos: Reserva Natural 34 MYH, 4 tonne dinosaur. [flash=500,450] Video Magic! [/flash] | |
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| Toad of Spades | Jul 3 2010, 12:43 PM Post #20 |
Clorothod
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They could evolve another means of obtaining oxygen out of water, like how mudskippers use gill pouches out of water. After all, lungs didn't evolve from swim bladders, they share a common ancestral organ. As for living out of water, maybe they could live in swamps. They could move around slightly out of water and yet still be supported by it. |
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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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| lamna | Jul 3 2010, 01:12 PM Post #21 |
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Shark's don't have gill covers, so pouches are going to be difficult. They just don't seem like a good base for a land animal. |
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Living Fossils Fósseis Vibos: Reserva Natural 34 MYH, 4 tonne dinosaur. [flash=500,450] Video Magic! [/flash] | |
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| Venatosaurus | Jul 3 2010, 01:57 PM Post #22 |
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HAUS OF SPEC
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...no one said they have to come onto land to form a civilization  They could train certain species of fish and mollusks as pets, with some later being bred as 'tools' , even tools could even come from specially grown coral, this is also where housing cooed come in, or even empty shells of giant mollusks (if such animals evolve). he'll maybe the could enter an industrial age using geothermal vents as energy sources ! A lot can be done underwater
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| Margaret Pye | Jul 12 2010, 09:07 AM Post #23 |
Adult
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Yes, why would they need to come onto land or control fire? A Stone Age underwater civilisation - hunters, herders, maybe farmers if these happen to be omnivorous sharks - would work perfectly well, and could easily develop if you somehow got a highly social shark with manipulators. Their technology probably couldn't advance far underwater, but there have been very complex societies with very limited technology - the Incas spring to mind. The big question is whether they'd need to become air-breathing or partly air-breathing (not synonomous with coming onto land - many past and present bony fish are facultative or even obligate air-breathers with no other terrestrial adaptations) in order to support a fast enough metabolism for high intelligence. Would they? Given that endothermic sharks already exist, probably not. Would it help to change their heart design? I can't remember how shark hearts work. |
| My speculative dinosaur project. With lots of fluff, parental care and mammalian-level intelligence, and the odd sophont. | |
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| Ook | Jul 12 2010, 09:31 AM Post #24 |
not a Transhuman
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they will propably need upgraded gills,because shars cant stop swimming,if they stay at one place,they will suffocate |
   
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| Holben | Jul 12 2010, 10:07 AM Post #25 |
Rumbo a la Victoria
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Bexi- Nurse sharks? |
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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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| colddigger | Jul 12 2010, 11:09 AM Post #26 |
Joke's over! Love, Parasky
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If a shark heart works the same as a fish heart then they would probably be very lazy minded in our eyes, a two chambered heart and if I remember right (not sure if I do though) the oxygenated and unoxygenated blood easily become mixed... But I don't remember if sharks have the same hearts as fish so Google strikes me as a fine choice of action. ----- Apparently they do indeed have two chambers. |
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Oh Fine. Oh hi you! Why don't you go check out the finery that is SGP?? v Don't click v Spoiler: click to toggle | |
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| lamna | Jul 12 2010, 11:19 AM Post #27 |
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Omnivores won't work, as I doubt sharks would be able to get enough nutrition from seaweed or seagrass to survive. I suggest you all try to watch Inside Natures Giants a program where they dissect a large wild animal. When they did a Great White Shark you could see that the liver almost entirely filled up the body cavity and the digestive tract was little more than a tube, it does not loop round like a land animals does. I can see a small dogfish type shark farming molluscs though, defending a territory and moving them round to get the best flow of water. |
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Living Fossils Fósseis Vibos: Reserva Natural 34 MYH, 4 tonne dinosaur. [flash=500,450] Video Magic! [/flash] | |
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| Toad of Spades | Jul 12 2010, 11:47 AM Post #28 |
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Clorothod
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Maybe if they were swamp dwellers they could be omnivores easier. Fruit is relatively easy to digest and if they were swamp dwellers they would have access to them as well as plenty of meat. |
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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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7:37 PM Jul 13