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Flora/Fauna Suggestions; For all your suggesting needs!
Topic Started: Oct 4 2014, 02:29 PM (4,010 Views)
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You can suggest lineages that weren't mentioned on the flora/fauna topic here.

Remember, be realistic with what can be present on the island. Also watch out for things that might swim/fly away from the island.
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Crookedjaw
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I think we established kingfishers were present, due to them being on Amsterdam Island IIRC, as well as various species of seabirds.
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Datura
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Hm, maybe its time to research a bit more into birds. Maybe I can find groups other than parrots, finches, kingfishers, and various sea birds that might work on the archipelago. I don't know if stuff like falconiformes or vultures would work, since bludgeons have taken to those niches. But with the change in size of the archipelago, maybe it COULD work.

Edit 1: Some falconiformes specialize in specific prey, such as snakes. Although snakes do not exist on the archipelago, maybe we could have them on the archipelago as specialist forms.

Edit 2: Vastanavis might work as a species that gave rise to a group of parrots that made it before bludgeons. However, if they are to survive into the present on the archipelago, they would have to be in niches that the bludgeons could not take. (Also the only parrot fossil from Eocene India I have found)
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LittleLazyLass
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I think Passerines and Enantiornithes were supposed to be present.
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Datura
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Myotragus
Jan 19 2015, 08:44 PM
I think Passerines and Enantiornithes were supposed to be present.
Would Enantiornithes even be on the archipelago? Remember, the latest exchange was between India and the archipelago. I cannot find any fossils of them from India, and they died out in the Cretaceous.

Ratites might exist due to their weird dispersal, but, we might have to make up an ancestor for this if we cannot find a good species.
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LittleLazyLass
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They're birds. They can fly.
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Datura
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True, but, India was an island continent at one point. I don't know if these birds are going to fly far enough to India, though I suppose a few could have made it.
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Quote:
 
Would Enantiornithes even be on the archipelago?

Enantiornithes were able to cross oceans, which is a bad thing for us. They'll just fly away with little problem.

Quote:
 
Ratites might exist due to their weird dispersal, but, we might have to make up an ancestor for this if we cannot find a good species.

I think the kiwi-elephant bird clade could be present, or less likely ostrich-related paleognaths (as they apparently evolved in India).
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Quote:
 
Enantiornithes were able to cross oceans, which is a bad thing for us. They'll just fly away with little problem.


Not necessarily. It's not entirely implausible for some enantiornithes, after reaching the archipelago, to lose most or all of their flight ability. That way, they could be restricted to the archipelago. A bird with the stamina and flight ability of a galliforme is not going to be crossing oceans. Nor would a bird that would be flightless, for reasons that should be obvious.
Edited by Adman, Jan 19 2015, 09:58 PM.
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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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Hybrid
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It's not entirely implausible for some enantiornithes, after reaching the archipelago, to lose most or all of their flight ability.

The problem with that is that there would of been plenty of native predators well established by the time, so unlike most islands would of been a lot harder to evolve flightnesses.

That being said, if you can find a way for them to become flightless, I'm all welcome for their addition.
If I sound rude while critiquing, I apologize in hindsight!
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Caimännir
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I think they could coexist. Finches are pretty adaptable, and I'm sure they could adapt to live on the local flora/fauna; though maybe to avoid competition with the parrots they would be primarily insectivorous.
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Monster
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I thought we'd already said yes to finches (Fringillidae). Pigeons and rails would probably get there and be good as well. Maybe Turdidae.

With seabirds you must remember that they can disperse across large areas of ocean, follow boats, get blown to other areas more often, caught on lines, etc, generally get around a bit more easily than any other birds due to their lifestyles and breeding habits . They will be modern species that also occur on nearby islands, not archaic lines. So completely unique seagoing birds are probably a no; some discrete local subspecies or morph would probably work.

More parrot lines seems like overkill.

As for enantornithormes, I don't see why they can't be on the island and have flight. Just because a bird can fly doesn't mean it is going to be able or inclined to cross an ocean or an extreme distance.I'm not sure why Enantornithormes would be more likely to fly away than the more modern bird clades we already have. Many flighted birds do not actually fly that far, including many on islands who had ancestors which were at least somewhat migratory and at some point did fly that far.
See; Hawaii, Galapagos, Macaronesia. Lots of flighted birds which do not go back across the ocean.

Also remember that successful island colonisation events are very rare. If a group is present by virtue of ocean crossing, then it is most likely that it will be represented by descendents of one original species. For example, one type or pigeon, or finch, or rail. Just because something could possibly get to the island does not mean it will. Things that do reach the island do not necessarily survive and colonise. the odd vagrant or two getting lost or blown over are far more likely to die long before more join them to establish a population. Even some things that might manage a few generations may be wiped out and vanish without a trace by any number of factors. It is not impossible for there to be more than one colonisation event by related species, but it is highly unlikely and also these islands are already packed with potential ancestors. Species radiations are what make islands fun, people! Radiate!

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Vorsa
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Jan 19 2015, 07:50 PM
Aside from bludgeons, and well, dinosaurs, what other bird groups could make it to the archipelago and be fine? I was thinking finches, since they have island hopped before. Or do bludgeons have a near monopoly on birds on the archipelago?
I was thinking that, because of an interchange during the Eocene, primitive passerines and falconiformes could have made it and in more modern years seabirds would have arrived.
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Zorcuspine
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Could there be lungfish on the islands? I have some ideas for them
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Lungfish are mentioned in the Riverstalker entry, so yes, there are lungfish on the islands.
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LittleLazyLass
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Could we have Allocaudates? Would certainly fit in with the theme of, well, a Bygone World. Given there temporal range, I presume they'd come in either the Jurassic (if we take some liberty with ghost lineages) or Eocene Interchange.
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