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Varhjem: The Lost World; My very first project, remasterized!
Topic Started: Dec 7 2010, 06:53 PM (1,275 Views)
TheCoon
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Happy merry Jesusmas inhabitants of the Spec Forums!
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This was my very first project. I found it while cleaning my computer, and started to tweek some things just for the fun of it. After analizing how wrong I was (Because this is a project I did when I was a n00b), I think i finnally changed it to a project that worths posting. Here's the background so you know what I'm talking about. It's a classic "What if dinosaurs never got extinct" project:

Paleocene:
The Paleocene did cooled down in this world, but the temperature wasn’t as exageratedly less warm because there was no meteorite that would support that effect. However, the cooling did killed a bunch of creatures that, with or without the meteorite, would still perish. From this creatures, we can mention the following:
*Ankylosaurs.
*Ceratopsians.
*Large Ornithopods
*Pachycephalosaurs.
*Plesiosaurs.
*Sauropods.
*Tyranosaurs and other gigantic theropods. (Except Therizinosaurids)

This leaves the following creatures alive:
*Birds and Proto-Birds
*Crocodilians
*Primitive Mammals
*Small Ornithopods (In South America and Africa only.)
*Azhdarchid Pterosaurs
*Mosasaurs (Declining)
*Dromaeosaurs and other small theropods.

This small extinction allowed mammals in the north to develop and fill the lost niches. This leaves the world more “Sauric” in the south, and more similar to ours in the north.

Eocene:
The Thermal Maximum that starts in the Eocene epoch warmed up the Earth almost 6° C. This increase in the temperature, along other climate conditions, transformed the earth into a planet covered mostly by either tropical forests or deserts. This impulsed the extinction and proliferation of some species.
In the Northern Hemisphere, specially in North America and Asia, both bulky and slender herviborous mammals have successfully replaced the dinosaurs that once lived there as the general browzers of the place. Some carnivorous mammal species exist too, but they are hindered by the ever-growing species of diversified dromaeosaurs and crocodilians. Some azhdarchids exist here but they are in the verge of extinction.
In the Southern Hemisphere, mammals weren’t as successfull as in the north. Ornithopods recovered, and the small species became bigger and bigger, as they filled the once lost hervivorous dinosaur niche. They are not as big as their ancestors, but some species can get as big as a rhinoceros. Crocodilians and Dromaeosaurs are also proliferating on this side of the planet, leaving mammals hindered in small hervivorous and carnivorous species, even if they rule the forest canopy. In the more desertic areas, Azdharchids also exist. Now flightless and more giraffe-like, this creatures are also taking the advantage of this hotter climate.
In the oceans, Mosasaurs are almost gone, being replaced by sharks.

Some creatures present in this epoch are:
*Modern-like Birds.
*Artiodactyl and Perissodactyl-like mammals.
*Bat-like mammals.
*Rodent-like mammals.
*Feline and Canine-like mammals (Quite small and not very diverse).
*Crocodilians
*Large Neo-Ornithopods.
*Perissodactyl-like Pterosaurs.
*Mosasaurs (On the edge of extinction).
*Monkey-like Dromaeosaurs.
*Raptor-like Dromaeosaurs.
*Therizinosaurs

Oligocene:
The first ice caps appear in both poles of the Earth. This is because of a temperature decrease of almost 8°C in Earth’s Global Temperature, being one of the biggest temperature depresions ever recorded. This will be a great advantage for mammals, which can adapt quite easily to cold. Dinosaurs, on the other hand, will have a hard time trying to adapt this new enviroment. Specially Non-avian dinosaurs.
In the Northern Hemisphere, Mammals became diverse, now filling all large hervivore niches, and also starting to fill some large carnivore niches as well. Mammal shapes come from Rhinoceros-like to Hyena-like (This forms in particular replaced Feline and Canine-like mammals, sending them to extinction). Dromaeosaurs still exist. Some of them even got quite a a large size for the time. However, they were also forced to move south, were there was less coldness.
In the South Hemisphere, Ornithopod dinosaurs harshly declined. Again, only small to medium-sized Ornithopod species survived (Some of them even developed carrion-feeding to survive). Azdharchids surprisingly survived this time with minor damage, and towards the end of this epoch they replaced some of the ornithopods in their niches. Dromaeosaurs are more common on this side of the planet, and the first signs of primate-like life appears in South America.
In the oceans, Mosasaurs dissapeared, and some cephalopod species are starting to take filter-feeding niches. Mammals have also arrived to this parts of the world, but only as otter and seal-like forms.

Some of the creatures from this epoch are:
*Modern-like Birds (Penguin-like forms also appear for the first time).
*Hervivorous Ungulated mammals.
*Carnivorous Ungulated mammals.
*Again, Bat-like mammals and Rodent-like Mammals.
*Crocodilians
*Small Hervivorous Ornithopods.
*Small Carrion-feeding Ornithopods.
*All types of Ungulated-like Pterosaurs (From giraffe-like to deer-like).
*Monkey-like Dromaeosaurs.
*Raptor-like Dromaeosaurs.
*Therizinosaurs.

Miocene:
The miocene can be seen as an epoch of improvement in the species. Most of the species in the Miocene were more specialized versions of the Oligocene ones to their enviroment. A series of Ice Ages interrupted every certain time this epoch, and the Middle Miocene Disruption reduced specially the number of crocodilians and some Neo-Ornithopods. But, besides this series of events, the miocene and the later Epochs look very similar between them.
On a special note, it seems that two sentient species were on development by this epoch: one, an intelligent race of dromeosaurids in South America. The other, some sort of intelligent hyena-like creature in Eurasia.

Pliocene and Pleistocene:
The modern times. The last epoch (Plesitocene) will be explored deeply in the following posts, as it is modern times.

This is all the background there is. Expect more and keep coming for more updates on this little project of mine. This is so exiting :D
Greetings young life form! Procyon Lotor at your service.

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dialforthedevil
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Could we hear more about the primate dromaesaurs?
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Jasonguppy
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I want ot hear about them too
I do art sometimes.

"if you want green eat a salad"

Projects:
Amammalia: A strange place where mammals didn't make it and the land is, once again, dominated by archosaurs.

Oceanus: An endless sea dotted with islands, reefs, and black holes. Literally endless, literal black holes.

❤️❤️~I'm not a boy~❤️❤️
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TheCoon
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Happy merry Jesusmas inhabitants of the Spec Forums!
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Well, there is three major Primatoid Dinosaur groups, just like in real life with the real primates. However, the groups differ alot from the real-life primates. The first one (The primitive ones) would occupy the niches of cats or racoons rather than those of lemurids. They are also more widespread than the lemurids, and more diverse. The second one (The monkey-like) might look like monkey's at first (niche-wise) but in fact most of them are arboreal predators, mainly feeding on fish or eggs. The more advanced, however, do have an omnivorous diet. This brings us to the last one, which are the Intelligent Dinosaurs and relatives. Like apes, this creatures all have complex minds that could be concidered, at some degree, intelligent. It is also interested to note that, while most of the body plan remained the same from their ancestors, the face flattened and the hands modified a lot so that they could manipulate tools. Yes, you heard me! My intelligent dinosaurs have flat faces! Well, not that flat... but conciderably flater than their ancestors. In some ways, they resamble the mythological harpies. Hence their name, the Harpies, or Harpoids if you want to mention the whole group.

I'll bring something more detailed than this. I promisse! Just give me some time to finish my exams and we're done.
Greetings young life form! Procyon Lotor at your service.

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Cephylus
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Oh, exams... :( I hate them. We just got finished with final term exams in Korea.
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dialforthedevil
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In England they are spread out through the year :(

Anyway i like the name Harpoids :D Are there gliding forms?
Please come visit A Scientfic Fantasy http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/topic/3433014/1/

ALSO!!! JOIN THE NEW RPG SITE!!! FOR ALL MEMBERS!!! IM GOING TO RUN MA GLOBAL SIMULATORS THERE!!! http://s4.zetaboards.com/jasonguppy/index/

Join the Campaign to save minotaurs from extinction!!! (include this in your signature to show your support!)
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Jasonguppy
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I'm already off. Aaah, the benefit of american private grammar school...

I love the idea of swinging "raptors". Jurassic Park Four: Search for Varhjem(Villain: Harpoids)

Question: Is it pronounced Varhjem(Var-jem) with a hard J or Varhjem(Var-hem) with a silent J or something totally different?
I do art sometimes.

"if you want green eat a salad"

Projects:
Amammalia: A strange place where mammals didn't make it and the land is, once again, dominated by archosaurs.

Oceanus: An endless sea dotted with islands, reefs, and black holes. Literally endless, literal black holes.

❤️❤️~I'm not a boy~❤️❤️
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TheCoon
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Happy merry Jesusmas inhabitants of the Spec Forums!
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Varhjem is a Norwegian word I think. If I remember well, it meens "Almost Home", refering to the many similarities between this world and the real earth. But I don't know hoe to pronounce it (Ironic isn't it?).
Some gliding species might exist, but I still need to plan them. Maybe for the Racoon-like ones I can give them specialized plumage in their limbs, so that they can reach far distances with one jump only.

Stupid Exams ¬_¬
Greetings young life form! Procyon Lotor at your service.

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bloom_boi
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Those terrestrial pterosaurs sound interesting. I suppose they look like skinny sauropods with big heads?
"You shall perish, whatever you do! If you are taken with arms in your hands, death! If you beg for mercy, death! Whichever way you turn, right, left, back, forward, up, down, death! You are not merely outside the law, you are outside humanity. Neither age nor sex shall save you and yours. You shall die, but first you shall taste the agony of your wife, your sister, your sons and daughters, even those in the cradle! Before your eyes the wounded man shall be taken out of the ambulance and hacked with bayonets or knocked down with the butt end of a rifle. He shall be dragged living by his broken leg or bleeding arm and flung like a suffering, groaning bundle of refuse into the gutter. Death! Death! Death!"



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TheCoon
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The bigger and more primeval ones. Others look more like bird-headed deer. And I'm still working on the Terror Pterosaurs, but I figured out that they are going to be similar to the giraffe-sauropod ones.
Greetings young life form! Procyon Lotor at your service.

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Jasonguppy
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Or like the friggin' FLIGHTLESS AZHDARCIDS THAT ARE CONTROLLING THE SPEC WORLD?
I do art sometimes.

"if you want green eat a salad"

Projects:
Amammalia: A strange place where mammals didn't make it and the land is, once again, dominated by archosaurs.

Oceanus: An endless sea dotted with islands, reefs, and black holes. Literally endless, literal black holes.

❤️❤️~I'm not a boy~❤️❤️
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Cephylus
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Probably. You mean the ones made by Johnfaa?
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Jasonguppy
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Yeah, and every one else..,.
I do art sometimes.

"if you want green eat a salad"

Projects:
Amammalia: A strange place where mammals didn't make it and the land is, once again, dominated by archosaurs.

Oceanus: An endless sea dotted with islands, reefs, and black holes. Literally endless, literal black holes.

❤️❤️~I'm not a boy~❤️❤️
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Cephylus
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Is this still alive O Great Coon?
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