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Deciding the Island Fauna; We're /THIS/ close to starting this shibang.
Topic Started: Sep 30 2014, 05:35 PM (1,850 Views)
Troll Man
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READ THIS WHOLE THING AND COMMENT ON AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE.


Thank you all for helping with this thing so far! This will be the last pre-creation thread I promise, after this I will write the tutorials and what-not and then all of you can post threads and stuff.

So we've gone through the islands' details and such, but now is time to decide on the general vertebrate fauna of the place (due to their large diversity, the archipelago's invertebrates and plants will be answered on a need-to-know basis).

So I've listed the potential fauna from the ages that can make it to the Ansian Islands (yes, that's the name I gave it, if you have a better suggestion say it below). Flying and marine animals have mostly been omitted because they can get to the islands at any time (decide by your own judgement what species could potentially get to and survive on the islands).

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Mid Triassic (242MYA; India/Africa)
Silesauridae (and Nyasasaurus relatives of course)
Rhynchosauria
Poposauroidea
•Stagonolepididae
Temnospondyli
•Erpetosuchidae
Dicynodontia
•Nothosauria
•Protorosauria
•Procolophonoidea
•Phytosauridae
•Placodontia
Xenacanthida
•Mawsoniidae

Early Jurassic (199MYA; Africa)
Sauropodomorpha
•Coelophysidae
•Dilophosauridae
•Heterodontosauridae
•Rhynchocephalia
•Protosuchidae
Morganucodonta
Tritylodontidae
•Tritheledontidae
•Australochelyidae
•Lesothosauridae
Thyreophora

Early Eocene (55MYA; India)
•Archaeoceti
•Herpetotheriidae
Proboscidea
•Eosimiidae
•Rhacophoridae
Bombinatoridae
•Brontotheriidae
Dichobunidae
Gondwanatheria
•Tillodontia
•Psittaciformes*

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The ones marked in light blue designate my personal wish list.
The ones in red designate a choice which is permanent by my own decision and cannot be argued against.
But anyway, I need all of you right now to choose the islands' vertebrate species right now by doing what I just did (highlight the ones you wish for) except with your own choices.
Here's a blank template:

Spoiler: click to toggle


These choices will be less "permanent" to say and may be slightly altered later on to suit your needs but right now we need something to work with right now. Remember you can only choose a limited number; don't go nuts.
Let's say a maximum of 16-18 faunal groups for now shall we? (I'll be lenient with smaller animals of course). You may also mention marine (mosasaurs, pinnipeds, seabirds, etc.) and volant animals (groups within birds, pterosaurs and bats) that you wish to have on the islands or any from the relevant time periods/places that I have forgotten to list.
You may also only list a few that you really want.

One last thing, how should we present this project? Do you wish to present it from an omnipotent perspective (everything is known, no reason given, like After Man), an implied human-view (mankind is implied but not explicitly stated, with a few natural gaps in information, like Perdido) , completely human-view (mankind is confirmed; information is gathered as research and notes and experiences can be listed, like SpecWorld)? It'll be very important for this project how we will present it after all.

I think I'll end this thread by... tomorrow 5pm EST (roughly 22.5 hours from now)?
After this I'll write up the introduction and relevant information + a tutorial and then we can finally begin this shindig.
Isla del Mundo Perdido! Diyu! R'lyeh!

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Monster
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Obviously I think the extras I listed should be included : D also I'd be pleased with trematosaurs and anurognathids.
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Troll Man
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Myotragus
Oct 1 2014, 06:30 PM
Wait so Lesothosaurs didn't get in? I had a bunch planned for them.... what else is there even vaguely like ornithopods?
Heterodontosaurs are pretty close, especially if you don't just focus on their canniform teeth.
Isla del Mundo Perdido! Diyu! R'lyeh!

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LittleLazyLass
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It looks like must people just went for the groups that they know well, and excluded the lesser known ones (Note a lack of Protorosaurs, Erpetosuchids, Procolophonoids, Cynodonts, Lesothosauridae, and Gondwannatheres.). Which sucks, I was hoping to go the opposite way.
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Troll Man
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Not entirely true, Dichobunidae got pretty high up and Australochelyidae doesn't even have a wikipedia page yet it got into the top 10.

The cynodont thing can partly be blamed on me, I forgot to add some of them to the Mid Triassic section (significantly Traversodontidae).

Gondwanatherians and cynodonts aren't exactly unknown in the speccing community in my opinion, but I do think that lack of research may have been one of the things in this (you excluded poposauroids because you wanted small predators to get big, but poposauroids also included herbivorous pseudo-dinosaur species like shuvosauridae and lotosauridae (which from an unnamed clade together), especially with the Protorosaurs.

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LittleLazyLass
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My bad on poposaurs; I read poposaurids. And I go by Rauisuchidae and Prestosuchidae within Poposauridae classification. So I guess the other ones should've gotten my strong vote. Would that make a paraphyletic vote?
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Hybrid
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Too late. Now we can't have any poposauroids. Now I can't use my Yarasuchus descendant concept.

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And I go by Rauisuchidae and Prestosuchidae within Poposauridae classification.

I don't think any scientist proposed that. It's debated about which species of poposaurid and rauisuchid should belong in each 'family', or even if they should be considered different 'families'. Prestosuchids however are debated to be in rauisuchidae.

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Would that make a paraphyletic vote?

I don't think you can do that, and plus like I said it's too late.

Like what Troll man said, they could be added in later if it makes sense.
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LittleLazyLass
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Sorry about that.

One last thing: Which if any of the suggested species got in?
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Troll Man
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Similar to invertebrates and plants, they'll be accepted on a need-to-know basis.
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LittleLazyLass
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Troll Man
Oct 1 2014, 08:23 PM
Similar to invertebrates and plants, they'll be accepted on a need-to-know basis.
You mean create a concept with one then we'll figure out whether the creature would be on the island, or will you ask about the ancestor then put in a concept?
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Troll Man
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The second one seems closer to what I'm thinking. This development division of the project will be meant for asking questions (and such) when this gets started.
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Even
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Wait wait... We could add up some other groups later on if it's plausible, right?

Also, if you want ornithocheirids, make em like Piksi... It's getting smaller and more adapted for inland life...
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So once we finalize everything, are there going to be some base species that will be added to the island to kick the project off? Kinda like the future evo community project.
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.
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Martin
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Yeah, that would be nice.
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I agree.
As long as I get my Dicynodontia I'm happy with the choices. Although it would be nice to have Xenacanthids
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