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The Species Factory; Empty your mind
Topic Started: Nov 6 2014, 06:54 PM (33,418 Views)
Ànraich
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L'évolution Spéculative est moi

El Dorito
Dec 19 2015, 12:20 AM
Quote:
 
Not even that. During the Eocene there was no Western Interior Seaway, and there was no frozen poles in that epoch.


I think the main reason for that is because of mountain building from the late Cretaceous onwards. The western interior seaway was already almost completely gone even before the Cretaceous ended. The other reason is because of an effect of plate tectonics. When supercontinents break up, the new crust is hotter and floats higher in the mantle. This displaces water from the oceans onto low lying areas. Because this mostly happened in the Jurassic, the high heat flow lingered into the Cretaceous, but was mostly gone by the time the Cenozoic began. This is why the land won't be as flooded as it was in the Cretaceous.
Also, and this never gets mentioned enough, ice caps do not form on water. They form on land and move out into water. If there's no land (or not enough land) at the poles then ice caps can't form as the ice drifts away into warmer waters before they can grow to enormous sizes.
We should all aspire to die surrounded by our dearest friends. Just like Julius Caesar.

"The Lord Universe said: 'The same fate I have given to all things from stones to stars, that one day they shall become naught but memories aloft upon the winds of time. From dust all was born, and to dust all shall return.' He then looked upon His greatest creation, life, and pitied them, for unlike stars and stones they would soon learn of this fate and despair in the futility of their own existence. And so the Lord Universe decided to give life two gifts to save them from this despair. The first of these gifts was the soul, that life might more readily accept their fate, and the second was fear, that they might in time learn to avoid it altogether." - Excerpt from a Chanagwan creation myth, Legends and Folklore of the Planet Ghar, collected and published by Yieju Bai'an, explorer from the Celestial Commonwealth of Qonming

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JohnWarrenDailey
Adolescent
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A 21st-century Earth where, for the past 65 million years, there had not been a single species of the following:

Ginkgophyta (ginkgoes)

Bryophyta (mosses)

Marchantiophyta (liverworts)

Anthotocerotophyta (hornworts)

Pteridophyta (ferns, horsetails, clubmosses, quillworts and spikemosses)

Cycadophyta (cycads)

Stromatopoda (mantis shrimps)

Pycnogodia (sea spiders)

Nautiloidea (nautilus)

Brachiopoda (shells that open up and down, not left to right like the bivalves)

Porifera (sponges)

Anthozoa (corals, sea anemones)

Crinoidea (sea lilies)

Onychophora (velvet worms)

Rhynchocephalia

Amphibia
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Whiteshore
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Adult
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Terrestrial Penguins in either pre-Glaciation Antarctica or pre-sinking Kergulen/Zealandia
Go to Crurotheria:A world of Killer Rodents,Notosuchid Elephants,and Sirenian Hippos:
http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/topic/5035229/1/
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GlarnBoudin
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Ooh, how about flight-capable descendents of extremely basal penguins?
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Sayornis
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Speaking of penguins, another idea I had a while ago was burrowing penguins (some already nest in burrows, so it's not too much of a leap). Their webbed feet would be repurposed as spades, and they would also have flattened beaks and facial shields (like a coot has) to aid in pushing dirt aside.

And I know this has been done before a couple times, but how about armored birds? I imagine the ancestor would be flightless and have simplified hairlike feathers similar to those of a kiwi. From there, the feather quills could flatten out and the barbules could be lost (or somehow fuse together completely?), producing a hard scale-like structure like those of pangolins.

Another idea I've had, inspired by the wonderful Cinereous Mourner-- birds whose eggs employ Batesian mimicry. There would be some toxic, aposematically-colored, and reasonably egg-shaped species (e.g. snails, mushrooms) living in the area, and the eggs would develop similar colors and patterns.
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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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Sceynyos-yos
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Parasky
Jan 29 2016, 10:04 PM
]Also, and this never gets mentioned enough, ice caps do not form on water. They form on land and move out into water. If there's no land (or not enough land) at the poles then ice caps can't form as the ice drifts away into warmer waters before they can grow to enormous sizes.
Interesting, do you know where I can read more about this? Would water on the poles just be a collection of ice blocks, constantly drifting away and then forming anew?
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Steampunk FireFinch
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Even
Jan 14 2016, 11:32 PM
Leoarachne I think would be a more proper name linguistically

And why pass the pun and not make the SpiderPig of The Simpsons' fame? Some sort of brusque omnivorous relative of the SpiderCow
Why must I forget about the Spider Pig!?!?!?!

D:

D:

D8

D8>

Good point about the Murder spider.


Spider Pig: Mainly Omnivorous Spider that has fangs and 2 psuedo fangs that the males use for fighting each other in territorial disoutes, they're mainly solitary. Ony coming together during breeding season. They mainly eat other animals like grasshoppers, crickets, other spiders, mice and other creatures they can tackle.

Sugar Strider: A small arachnid that feeds mainly on nectar, Beltian Bodies, Pollen, fruit, sweet stuff, sweet foods that humans throw away or forget about (Yogurt, Cakes, Ice Cream, etc...). When they jump they open 2 small flaps on their abdomen to acheive places where other spiders cannot. Even though they are mainly vegetarian, they do not turn up the opportunity for more free protein such as insect larvae or carrion.

Floofcrocs: Omnivorous heterodontic crocodylomorphs from North and South America, it's floofy and warm-blooded and can run bipedally. It eats anything and it's some what social, they can tolerate each others presence, but they really don't do much with each other outside of breeding season. The South American group is totally unrelated to the North American groups, the South American ones descend from Warm-Blooded Terrestrial relatives od Caimans and the North American ones descend from relatives of the American Alligator. They merely look like one another because of convergent evolution.

Eosuchus: A warm-blooded crocodylopmorph that survives the famous 6th Holocene Extinction. It can tolerate other members of its species, it's a generalist and its descendants survived the 6th Mass Extinction. Cool.

Alternative to the Floofcrocs, Procynoteiids: It's a warm-blooded tegu with floof and can wak erect on its limbs. What can I say?

Cursorial Turkeys: Well this one is weird... It looks like a long legged skinny and an even more colorful turkey. And it can run fast and it has a shorter, but more colorful tail.

Murderburb: Ambush predator seriemas.
Edited by Steampunk FireFinch, Feb 9 2016, 03:50 PM.
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Ànraich
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L'évolution Spéculative est moi

Sceynyos-yis
Feb 8 2016, 12:23 PM
Parasky
Jan 29 2016, 10:04 PM
]Also, and this never gets mentioned enough, ice caps do not form on water. They form on land and move out into water. If there's no land (or not enough land) at the poles then ice caps can't form as the ice drifts away into warmer waters before they can grow to enormous sizes.
Interesting, do you know where I can read more about this? Would water on the poles just be a collection of ice blocks, constantly drifting away and then forming anew?
Read up on glaciers, ice sheets, and ice-sheet dynamics on wikipedia.
We should all aspire to die surrounded by our dearest friends. Just like Julius Caesar.

"The Lord Universe said: 'The same fate I have given to all things from stones to stars, that one day they shall become naught but memories aloft upon the winds of time. From dust all was born, and to dust all shall return.' He then looked upon His greatest creation, life, and pitied them, for unlike stars and stones they would soon learn of this fate and despair in the futility of their own existence. And so the Lord Universe decided to give life two gifts to save them from this despair. The first of these gifts was the soul, that life might more readily accept their fate, and the second was fear, that they might in time learn to avoid it altogether." - Excerpt from a Chanagwan creation myth, Legends and Folklore of the Planet Ghar, collected and published by Yieju Bai'an, explorer from the Celestial Commonwealth of Qonming

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GlarnBoudin
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Ooh, I have a few ideas!

Sneks: A group of aistopod descendants with dry, leathery skin that keeps them from drying out, although they do need to return to the water to lay eggs.

Porka: A primitive whale related to Dorudon with jaws like those of an entelodont.

A group of small permanently bipedal poposaur descendants that look very similar to old depictions of small dinosaurs.
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LittleLazyLass
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Proud quilt in a bag

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A group of small permanently bipedal poposaur descendants that look very similar to old depictions of small dinosaurs.
Didn't this exist on HE anyway?
Quote:
 
Porka
Is that a pun on "Pork" and "Orca"?
totally not British, b-baka!
Posted Image You like me (Unlike)
I don't even really like this song that much but the title is pretty relatable sometimes, I guess.
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What, you want me to tell you what these mean?
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Drakeking10
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What about a large bat that can use its echolocation as a sonic weapon?
Theoritically anything is possible, one just needs to think hard enough. But what is theoretically possible may not be possible in practice.

Religion, rationality, and civilization are all lies, they are simply manifestations of basic instincts.
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Steampunk FireFinch
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Sayornis
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Could you please spoilerate those images? They're stretching out my screen.

LittleIslander
Mar 31 2015, 07:34 PM
Going and checking on the old wiki, I came across an article I'd forgotten about, for a "project" which was never lively to begin with long since fallen apart: Plankton Fish. However, despite the quality of most stuff from that "project" these actually stand out to me as a very interesting concept.

Quote:
 
Plankton fish (Micropisces) are a subphylum of very small chordates existing 200 million years into the future. They evolved from ray-finned fish (Actinopterygii).Their skeletal structure has been reduced to a primitive dorsal nerve akin to the notochord of Cambrian cephalochordates such as Pikaia.

Plankton fish fill the ecological niche of plankton. Their lack of a skeletal structure is due to their reduced size. Their jaws are operated by sphincter-like muscles. They live in all sorts of habitats, from the open ocean, to the deep sea, to coral reefs, and even lake and ponds.

There are two classes of plankton fish: common plankton fish (Anophthalmiformes) and giant plankton fish (Ophthalmiformes). Anophtalmiforms contain the smallest species, barely measuring 0.05 millimeters in length - smaller than some single-celled organisms. Members of this class lack functional eyes and swim with a tiny whip-like tail that is similar to the flagella seen in some microbes. The genus Longipterus is known for its unusually long 'flagella-tail'.

Ophthalmiforms are larger plankton fish, the largest species reaching 2 centimeters in length, and possess rudimentary eyes. This class is divided into 3 orders: Ophiuromorpha, known for their whip-like tails and often mistaken for anophthalmiforms, Xenomorpha, which have strange broad-shaped bodies used to glide through the water, and Parodontomorpha, which possess tooth-like hooks around their mouths, used to attach to other sea creatures and scrape off skin cells.

In total, 2,637 species are known, the bulk of which belong to the ophthalmiform class.


I don't know who wrote it, but I love the concept? Anyone else find it cool? Is it plausible?

This is an old post on an even older concept, but I think it's worthy of commentary. I like the idea a lot, but I'm not sure how plausible it is for vertebrates to shrink to literally microscopic size, even if they lose their skeletons. They'd probably have to lose or simplify a lot of organs, too. For comparison, the smallest known fish are 7.9mm-- so the larger plankton fish are entirely plausible, but it's the tiny ones I'm less sure about.

There's also the question of what happened to the numerous other planktonic species, if they've all been replaced by fish as the text seems to imply.
Edited by Sayornis, Feb 10 2016, 10:36 AM.
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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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CaledonianWarrior96
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This animal is in my Future Planet project but I'm not sure how plausible it will be so I'll place it here for now.

Basically it's called the Panda Bird and lives in the tropical rainforests of East Africa (as a subcontinent). Basically it's a species of parrot that became flightless due to a lack of large herbivores (kind of like a Kakapo I guess) but gradually grew into a giant more erect bird. The body became more rotund with a large round stomach. The legs have become more stockier and pillar like to support the bird's weight, but still have a zygodactyl design (though the toes are shorter and wider). They have a long neck with a small head that has a large beak used to break into tough fruits and nuts. I originally planned for them to have a single large claw on each arm but I've since scrapped this idea as parrots re-evolving claws on their wings is unlikely, so now they just have large wings used for display but not flight; because they are so heavy now. They are also colourful animals and have wide multi-coloured tail feathers.

This animal lives between 36 - 49 million ACE (somewhere in that time).
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CaledonianWarrior96
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Drakeking10
Feb 10 2016, 08:04 AM
What about a large bat that can use its echolocation as a sonic weapon?
You know in the Godzilla 1998 animated series there was giant monster that was exactly like that which attacked Nigeria
Come check out and subscribe to my projects on the following subforums;

Future Planet (V.2): the Future Evolution of Life on Earth (Evolutionary Continuum)
The Meuse Legacy: An Alternative Outcome of the Mosasaur (Alternative Evolution)
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- Official Project
- Foundation
The Beryoni Galaxy: The Biologically Rich and Politically Complex State of our Galaxy (Habitational Zone)

- Beryoni Critique Thread (formerly: Aliens of Beryoni)
The Ecology of Skull Island: An Open Project for the Home of King Kong (Alternative Universe)
The Ecology of Wakanda: An Open Project for the Home of Marvel's Black Panther (Alternative Universe)

(Click bold titles to go to page. To subscribe click on a project, scroll to the bottom of the page and click "track topic" on the bottom right corner)


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