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Kumari Kandam- A Land that Time Forgot; A story from Alternate History dot com.
Topic Started: May 21 2012, 12:27 PM (692 Views)
flashman63
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The Herr From Terre
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OK first and foremost, huge thanks to DValdron, who did all of the geographical POD and was a huge help when constructing this continent.
This will be my first TL, so be gentle please!
And, without further ado, i introduce to you Kumari Kandam!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumari_Kandam
Now, before we get to some of the goodies i have planned in this TL, we must first get through- how the heck do you get an entire continent into the Indian ocean.

Well, you really can't. Its just to momentous a task. I briefly toyed with the idea of Australia drifting into the Indian ocean, but it would be to hard to get that geography and geology to work out, to many butterflies, Etc Etc. So, we're going small scale.

So, how are we going to get it?

Firstly, we need to take a look at the indian ocean

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...metry_srtm.png


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_fragment

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mascarene_Plateau

The Mascarene Plateau, or the heart of it, is fairly interesting. The northern part is a continental fragment, a remnant of ancient Gondwana. As nearly as I can determine, the fragment appears to have broken away from India as it moved northwards.

Which basically tells us that the Mascarenes were part of India at least until 65 million years ago.

And what's India doing?

Quote:
(After the) Indian Plate split from Madagascar. It began moving north, at about 20 centimetres (7.9 in) per year,[7] and is believed to have begun colliding with Asia's (plate) between 55 and 50 million years ago,[9] in the Eocene epoch of the Cenozoic, although this is contested, with some authors suggesting it was much later at around 35 million years ago
We're talking plate collision. The actual merging of the continents seems to have taken later, possibly as late as around 10 million years ago.

From geological evidence, I'd suggest that the Mascarene fragment probably broke away around 35 million years ago, possibly as a factor of the the stress of other parts of the Indian plate interacting with the Asian plate. There's evidence of Mascarene activity around this time, the beginning of hotspot formation.

Quote:
The southern part of the Mascarene plateau, also known as Southern Mascarene plateau (SMP), was formed by the Réunion volcanic hotspot along with the Chagos-Laccadive Ridge.[2] The banks and shoals of the southern part of the Mascarene plateau were once volcanic islands, much like Mauritius and Réunion, which have now sunk or eroded to below sea level or, in the case of the Cargados Carajos, to low coral islands. The Saya de Malha Bank formed 35 million years ago, and the Nazareth Bank and the Cargados Carajos shoals formed later
So let's say that the Mascarene Plateau went off on its own 35 million years ago, and sometime after that, between 35 and 10 million years ago, India became part of Asia.

And let's say that for one reason or another, increased volcanic activity, more hotspots made the Mascarene larger, the size of France, with most of it above sea level. In addition, as the geological conditions have canged, we may get another piece of land next to the Mascarene- Madagascar. Not quite sure on this one, but this will give me more space to work with.


Given the boomarang shape, I'd expect a variety of rainfall regimes responding to the topography, and possibly even an area of desert. But my expectation is that 70% is archaic tropical rainforests.
Now its time for the part we have all been waiting for (I assume):FAUNA.

India's isolation preceded the KT event. Could dinosaurs have survived? Fat chance. if they could've they would've.


Tropical Jungle animals - so pseudo-tapirs maybe, or pseudo-pigs, beavers, muskrats, weasels.

One intriguing possibility might be Tarsiers. These creepy little bastards are prosimians, so its a long shot, because they are squarely in the primate line. And primates are 'old world' critters. Asian and African creatures. Probably, primates originate from Africa, possibly as long as 90 million years ago.

But Africa and India split roughly 130 million years ago, so that's tough. India and Madagascar split 90 million years ago.

So possibly we might imagine a scenario where early primates leapfrog from africa to madagascar to india through rafting events.

Implausible? Nope. Primates are natural born rafters. The Lemurs rafted to Madagascar. The New world monkeys rafted to South America, and then seem to have rafted to North America before the continents joined. And African primates may have rafted into Europe. It's those little hands, and tree dwelling lifestyles.

So assume a second rafting event. India becomes infested with primitive pro-simian primates which become the Tarsier forms. The Tarsier forms island hop back to Asia when the plates start to collide and form intermediate islands.

India might have had a huge adaptive radiation of Tarsiers, equivalent to the radiations of the New World Monkeys or the Lemurs of Madagascar, including potentially apelike megaforms. Of course we also have the possibility of other ape species rafting to the island...

Look up a picture of a Tarsier, and imagine an entire new diverse primate lineage and multitude of species of those things. India would be Goblin country.

Of course, when India joins up with Asia fully, superior primate apes and monkeys wipe out the Tarsier-forms, and that's that.

But the Mascarene plateau would have a full complement of its own, preserved to modern times.

One thing you might get a lot of is reptiles. We know that India actually had a crocodile explosion during its isolation, including super-sized gavials and proto-gavials up to 60 feet long.

Also, it appears that India's fossil records show super-sized turtles, and snakes.

So possibly pre-contact India was a giant reptile house. A stable tropical landscape in which reptiles were able to occupy most dominant niches and become the megafauna.


And once again, the Mascarene Plateau would preserve India's new Age of Reptiles at its height.

But, we have 65 million years of time! Thats alot of time for development. So, we're not quite sure why, but a new branch develops. They have a more mammalian/ bird-like gait. The sokonopais, named for the egyptian god with the crocodile head.
Travel back through time and space, to the edge of man's beggining... discover a time when man, woman and lizard roamed free, and untamed!

It is an epoch of mammoths, a time of raptors!

A tale of love in the age of tyrannosaurs!

An epic from the silver screen, brought right to your door!

Travel back to
A Million Years BC

-----------------------------------------------------

Proceedings of the Miskatonic University Department of Zoology

Cosmic Horror is but a dissertation away

-----------------------------------------------------

Some dickhead's deviantART
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Kamidio
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The Game Master of the SSU:NC
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This goes in Alternate Evolution. This is not fiction, so it belongs there.

Also, wouldn't they be Sobekopais?

I ain't heard o' no Sokon.
Edited by Kamidio, May 21 2012, 01:02 PM.
SSU:NC - Finding a new home.
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flashman63
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The Herr From Terre
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It's an alternative name.

This will be exploring evolution, but also human civilization. Should it still go their?
Travel back through time and space, to the edge of man's beggining... discover a time when man, woman and lizard roamed free, and untamed!

It is an epoch of mammoths, a time of raptors!

A tale of love in the age of tyrannosaurs!

An epic from the silver screen, brought right to your door!

Travel back to
A Million Years BC

-----------------------------------------------------

Proceedings of the Miskatonic University Department of Zoology

Cosmic Horror is but a dissertation away

-----------------------------------------------------

Some dickhead's deviantART
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Kamidio
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The Game Master of the SSU:NC
 *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
Yes. It should.
SSU:NC - Finding a new home.
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Quotes
WAA
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