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The Species Factory; Empty your mind
Topic Started: Nov 6 2014, 06:54 PM (33,421 Views)
Beetleboy
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neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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I also have had lots of ideas for giant lagamorphs, but not at all like the rabbucks of After Man. Instead, more like the extinct Nuralagus. I have some of these giant rabbits, about the size of a medium-sized dog, in my Green and Prosperous World project (see my signature for the link).
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Trathen
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First post on the forum - I always thought rabbits might evolve into something like kangaroos, in terms of body structure. Springhares are ardy there...
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Beetleboy
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neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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Welcome to the forum Trathen!
Also, another idea (too many ideas): a giant, sauropod-esque pangolin. A really random idea, and since most (if not all) species are endangered, it seems unlikely that they will survive into the future. But I really like that image of a giant sauropod pangolin.
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Trathen
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What about eusocial trilobites?
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Hybrid
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May Specula Grant you Bountiful Spec!

Quote:
 
Also, another idea (too many ideas): a giant, sauropod-esque pangolin.

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If I sound rude while critiquing, I apologize in hindsight!
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Beetleboy
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neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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Forgot about that, but I did mean something much bigger.

Edit: even better, giant theropodal aardvarks.
Edited by Beetleboy, Dec 11 2015, 01:44 PM.
~ The Age of Forests ~
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Thylacine
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thylacine.exe has failed
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If Koalas adapted their diet to include more calorific plants, so they had more energy to keep moving more (instead of sleeping for 20 hours a day), I'd like to imagine a whole new order of Marsupial Primates, that act almost like Lemurs.
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Sayornis
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Neotenous
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Weird idea I've had in my head for a while, no idea if it's plausible: "secondarily flighted" birds. That is, flightless birds that have re-evolved flight-- or at least gliding-- possibly through a means other than feathered wings.

One idea I had in particular was a highly derived penguin with a fringe of feathers along its side like the flaps of a gliding lizard, and its webbed feet extended to provide additional gliding surfaces (in the manner of gliding frogs or Sharovipteryx).

Another I imagined just today is a flightless neotenous hoatzin with gliding surfaces (either feathers or membranes), sort of an avian flying squirrel.
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Dr Nitwhite
Aug 19 2016, 07:42 PM
As I said before, the Library is like spec crack.
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Hybrid
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If Koalas adapted their diet to include more calorific plants, so they had more energy to keep moving more (instead of sleeping for 20 hours a day)

Sloths do eat more calorific plants and yet they're still slow as well. If this does take place when South-East Asia connects with Australia, primates would just take the niche before koalas can.

That and koalas are pretty fussy eaters, refusing to eat other species of plants. They are really specialized animals, and I don't see them moving into much more active niches.

Quote:
 
Weird idea I've had in my head for a while, no idea if it's plausible: "secondarily flighted" birds. That is, flightless birds that have re-evolved flight-- or at least gliding-- possibly through a means other than feathered wings.

Didn't Troll Man already do that with the squamavians in the Ultrozoic?
If I sound rude while critiquing, I apologize in hindsight!
"To those like the misguided; look at the story of Man, and come to your senses! It is not the destination, but the trip that matters. What you do today influences tomorrow, not the other way around. Love Today, and seize All Tomorrows!" - Nemo Ramjet
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Troy Troodon
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North American Baboon analogies, related to primates down in Central and South America.
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Thylacine
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thylacine.exe has failed
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Dec 13 2015, 01:48 AM
Sloths do eat more calorific plants and yet they're still slow as well. If this does take place when South-East Asia connects with Australia, primates would just take the niche before koalas can.

That and koalas are pretty fussy eaters, refusing to eat other species of plants. They are really specialized animals, and I don't see them moving into much more active niches.

My post from the "Your Project Ideas" thread
 
I could try to make a member of Eucalyptus evolve a more prominent, fleshy operculum over the flowers as they grow, creating a "fruit-like" food that Koalas could consume. With this extra energy they start moving more from tree to tree, so they can obtain this fruit. Somehow the Eucalyptus makes it so the pollination process and the creation of seeds happens inside a longer lasting operculum below the flower, and as the flower falls off, the closed off operculum develops into a fully fledged "berry" that is a favorite food of these more active Koalas, they spread only the stomach acid resistant seeds more through their movement between trees and the ground. Ground predators make it harder for the Koala to move on the ground as Australia heads north, so they adapt longer limbs to swing through trees, or jump from branch to branch likes Lemurs. Couple of million years later you have a new type of "fruit" (not really a proper fruit) bearing tree and Marsupial Monkeys in a tropical rainforest Australia. But as soon as primates cross over of course, there is no way they can compete.

Or you know, instead of going through the trouble of that, I could just make Possums my Marsupial Monkey candidate. But let's not get all Dixon with this.
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Hybrid
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From what I understand, koalas only eat the leafs. Apparently they don't even eat leafs off a plate, from what I hear (correct me if that's inaccurate). Given the current state of Eucalyptus fruit, I don't think koalas would go after the fruit even if it was slightly more edible. They are specialists of a rather specific part of a plant.

They are marsupial sloths, and that says a lot of about how specialized they are.
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But let's not get all Dixon with this.

That's also the most plausible solution.
If I sound rude while critiquing, I apologize in hindsight!
"To those like the misguided; look at the story of Man, and come to your senses! It is not the destination, but the trip that matters. What you do today influences tomorrow, not the other way around. Love Today, and seize All Tomorrows!" - Nemo Ramjet
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khbkhb777
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Ay b0ss
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Here's an idea. Small, gracile, mountainous Psittacosaurids that can easily jump from rock to rock due to specially evolved, hoof like claws. They also have small sized to massive sized "antlers" that are highly evolved horns that their ancestors had: http://traheripteryx.deviantart.com/art/And-again-speculative-Palaeoart-466609910
Although they have an ordinary amount of avian scales that cover the body like their relatives (and most non avian Dinosaurs), large amounts of shaggy feathers grow inbetween these scales (similiar to how owls have massive amounts of feathers on the feet, growing inbetween the scales): http://www.canadiannaturephotographer.com/snowy_owls/_DSC0185_feet.jpg
This subfamily (I can't think of a good name) first evolved in the early to mid Aptian stage in what is now north western China, but the group quickly spread throughout much of western and northern Asia, southern Asian islands, and several islands in the far south east region of what was the European archipelago (all this took about 5-8 million years). By the mid Albian stage, a single north Asian species gave rise to a new subfamily of Psittacosaurid. This group diversified into large, highly cursorial forms found far up north. Some of the smaller species are only about the size of modern day klipspringers that hide in rocky outcrops and abandoned burrows, and live in small family groups, whereas the largest species are massive Megaloceras like titans that move in vast, constantly moving herds. The diverse tundra dwellers went extinct by Turonian stage due to drastic climate change. The original branch of mountain climbers were drastically impoverished in sheer diversity and population size due to climate change, although the south Asian, cloud forest and tropical rain forest populations weren't effected that much. This subfamily of Psittacosaurids (the mountain dwellers, aka the only surviving lineage after the Turonian) thrived throughout much of western and southern Asia throughout the rest of the Cretaceous until the K/Pg extinction event.
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Beetleboy
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neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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How about marine primates? And I don't mean your average mermaid thing, I mean something smaller and more compact, like a marine tamarin.
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El Dorito
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chlorinated opthalmic trigonometric shape of conspiracy and dank memes
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Parasky
Nov 20 2015, 03:41 AM
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Flying (gliding) anole descendants ftw!
FINALLY SOMEONE WHO UNDERSTANDS THE POTENTIAL OF LIZARDS PROPERLY!

Sorry about that, but when I went on the wiki a lot (yes I mentioned... that place...), I had the 'revolutionary' idea of having birds be outcompeted by an endothermic, winged, draconic varanid. But it was met with strong criticism by the projects former owner, who said that given the chance, any mammal would come to dominate the ecosystem regardless of competition. Yeah... No

Personally I think there will be a new age of reptiles in the not incredibly distant future. Whether some will fly is different, but I wouldn't be surprised.
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