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Aerial Ecosystems; another terraforming project
Topic Started: Jan 1 2011, 11:02 PM (2,271 Views)
Cephylus
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Torando of Terror
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This is a new idea for a project. Like some other terraforming projects, this project also includes Earth animals transplanted in an alien environment, kind of like Tlaquanaru. Alien zoo escapedes.....

So, in this scenario, I'm ignoring all the obvious questions and problems, such as how in the hell Earth animals would be able to live in an alien planet, how could an alien planet could be so Earth-like, why humans didn't just colonize the empty planet, etc. As all projects with the similar concept does. I'm focusing on how Earth life would adapt and evolve in an alien environment.

But the different thing from other terraforming projects is that I'm transplanting Earth animals in an alien planet without any landmasses. Just an endless stretch of sea and sky. So this results in a fully aerial and aquatic ecosystem, maybe a combination of the two.

The problem is, forming a fully aerial ecosystem is tricky. Even on Earth, aerial life was the latest to evolve except for some arthropods, and only recently vertebrates began to truly take to the sky. But even then, most flying animals were heavily linked to terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Why? There are two major problems. The first, and the most obvious one, is the difficulty in staying aloft in the sky for a long period of time. There is also the staggering problem of gravity. Flying in general requires more energy than swimming. Also food source is much scarcer than in the oceans. Small organisms such as plankton, while being abundant in the seas, is very scarce, except for some flying arthropods. It's practically impossible on Earth.

There is a solution for the problems mentioned above. First of all, this is an alien planet. While the conditions on this planet is exactly same as Earth in almost every aspects, the atmosphere is denser, the gravity is weaker and the oxygen levels are higher (will give some exact numbers at the bottom), meaning that flight will be relatively easier in this planet, which results in some truly magnificient flyers. Even then only the most aerial of Earth creatures are transplanted in this planet, including a few flighted insects (some giant, since oxygen levels are higher), bats, birds and pterosaurs. The planet was not completely empty before Earth life got transplanted in it; the skies were inhabited by floating algae and other small flying organisms, which allowed an abundance of aerial arthropods, which allows larger life forms to support themselves in the skies, preying on the small flying organisms (namely, sky plankton) or each other.

The sea is also not to be ignored. While there is a vast stretch of air, there is a vast stretch of water beneath the skies, and the sea, like Earth, teems with life. I haven't figured out the exact details of oceanic life, except that its inhabitants would be largely similar to that of Earth except that they evolved into different forms, such as echinoderms, cephalopods, bony fish, cartilinagous fish, along with a few sea sauropsids (perhaps mammals?) which are obviously scarcer.

Planet Info
Diameter: 12700km
Gravity: 0.89G
Oxygen Levels: 36%

So what do you all think about my crazy ideas?
Edited by Cephylus, Jan 2 2011, 12:06 AM.
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Kamidio
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The Game Master of the SSU:NC
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It needs plesiosaurs, marine crocodiles, and SKYWHALES DAMNIT.
SSU:NC - Finding a new home.
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urufumarukai
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Good concept, what exactly do you taking too the alien zoo thingy?
Henry you dick!
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"Am I boring? Depends, do you like watching documentaries about 19th and 18th century warfare, having complicated feelings about bismark and crying over the film of winston churchill putting flowers on FDR's grave. If so then I'm so fucking boring. "
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Cephylus
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Torando of Terror
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INDEED, SKYWHALES DAMMIT!!

Thanks. And well, basically the transplanted animals are the ones that are either aquatic or aerial, no fully terrestrial creatures. In the skies, I'm thinking of pterosaurs, bats, birds and gigantic arthropods mostly.

Pterosaurs will be the trickiest since many preferred to stay on land, despite their efficiency at flying, and obviously the larger pterosaurs like large azhdarchids especially. The pterosaurs that will be transplanted are nyctosaurs (some may even go aquatic and adopt a dolphin-like form), mainly, along with a few basal azhdarchid-related pterosaurs like tapejarids, thalassodromids, chaoyangopterids, which will later evolve into apex predators of the skies, along with a few weirdo ctenochasmatoids with some filter feeding forms which feeds on aerial plankton.

Birds are also to be transplanted, although they aren't as cosmopolitan as one might expect due to the competition with pterosaurs, bats and arthropods. Mainly fast-flying predators, small insectivores with diverse seabird-like forms. Mostly smallish animals, but some reach the wingspans of the long-gone pteranodontids.

Bats were successful in the competition, as they were better at hunting aeiral plankton than birds. Now some bats reach massive sizes, the larger bats reaching wingspans of 1~7 meters, although bats in general adopted a different way of flying for efficiency. But the most common are the smaller aerial insectivores.

Sea fauna, I'm still thinking on them. Perhaps plesiosaurs and marine crocodiles should be included like Fakey said? I don't know yet. Maybe I should include marine tetrapods, like mammals (monotremes seem a good candidate, maybe some otter-like critters?), squamates (varanids, definately), birds (penguins) and some derived pterosaurs, likely nyctosaurs. But I'm trying to keep out the ones that look to Earth-y.
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Ook
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not a Transhuman
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try to add something different..plesiosaurs and crocodiles are quite boring


what about Thalattosaurs,Younginiformes,Pleurosaurus,Hupehsuchia,Omphalosaurus,Mesosaurs,Temnospondyli?
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Adman
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Totally not lamna
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This needs seawhales and SKYWHALES, DAMMIT!!!!
And maybe trematosaurs.
And flying fish.
Edited by Adman, Jan 2 2011, 09:29 AM.
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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