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Speculative biology is simultaneously a science and form of art in which one speculates on the possibilities of life and evolution. What could the world look like if dinosaurs had never gone extinct? What could alien lifeforms look like? What kinds of plants and animals might exist in the far future? These questions and more are tackled by speculative biologists, and the Speculative Evolution welcomes all relevant ideas, inquiries, and world-building projects alike. With a member base comprising users from across the world, our community is the largest and longest-running place of gathering for speculative biologists on the web.

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The Species Factory; Empty your mind
Topic Started: Nov 6 2014, 06:54 PM (33,429 Views)
ALovePuppy
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Spaient primate
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I like ideas of the polar icecaps melting or decreasing and jaguars becoming more adept at swimming and hunting in the water. Jaguars are already excellent swimmers and openly enjoy water, they have also been documented preying on sea turtles, caiman and giant otters.
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Caimännir
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Lobe-finned fish
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ALovePuppy
 
they have also been documented preying on sea turtles, caiman
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Honestly though. I could take down a jaguar any day of the week.
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bloom_boi
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What The?
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Terrestrial skuas on a mostly ice free Antarctica that preys on seal colonies and other terrestrial birds?
"You shall perish, whatever you do! If you are taken with arms in your hands, death! If you beg for mercy, death! Whichever way you turn, right, left, back, forward, up, down, death! You are not merely outside the law, you are outside humanity. Neither age nor sex shall save you and yours. You shall die, but first you shall taste the agony of your wife, your sister, your sons and daughters, even those in the cradle! Before your eyes the wounded man shall be taken out of the ambulance and hacked with bayonets or knocked down with the butt end of a rifle. He shall be dragged living by his broken leg or bleeding arm and flung like a suffering, groaning bundle of refuse into the gutter. Death! Death! Death!"



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Ànraich
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L'évolution Spéculative est moi

A world in which both the bird and mammal population declines due to virulent disease and gliding frogs of the family Rhacophoridae evolve bat-like wings and true flight.
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

Tree That Owns Itself
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LittleLazyLass
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Proud quilt in a bag

Right, that's reminds of a real old idea of mine (ok last summer but still). Genetically modified colugos with proportions for true flight, gone feral, and somehow going rampant.
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.
Me
What, you want me to tell you what these mean?
Read First
Words Maybe
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Ànraich
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L'évolution Spéculative est moi

To add to my flying frog idea: they could possibly use their webbed rear feet as an analog to a birds tail feathers.
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

Tree That Owns Itself
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evo-dragon
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Infant
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two ideas i have:
a human race that evoved to live in caves
a future aquatic human
the six great races

meet them...
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Ànraich
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L'évolution Spéculative est moi

Here's a good one: deer that evolve into a giraffe like niche.

EDIT: Added a sketch of this creature. Looks okay for a five minute sketch.
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Attachments: photo__1_.jpg (86.02 KB)
Edited by Ànraich, Jan 21 2015, 10:48 PM.
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

Tree That Owns Itself
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Nyarlathotep
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The Creeping Chaos
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Nice. Size-wise, it's perfectly plausible for a deer as too as or even taller than a giraffe. While megaloceros and the moose are the largest known deer in history, artiodactyls can get much bigger than that. The average giraffe is 5.1-5.5m tall and 1100-1400kg, with the largest known specimen being 1920kg and 5.89m tall. The largest known Artiodactyls include the Syrian Camel which could weigh 2500-3700kg(!) and be over 4m tall, and of course the hippos outweigh them all. A deer of similar size to the Syrian camel would easily be able to reach or even surpass giraffe size with the right proportions, though I think the antlers would be smaller personally.

As for species contributions, how about some descendents of seabirds, parrots and fowl making their way to a revived keringulian plateau in a warmer tropical future.

Or in a more eccentric example, chickens genetically modified to be aquatic for the sake of being easily store able and forming a staple diet for mainly ocean living human communities. They have ovovivipary, penguin like feathers, hesperornid like hind limbs and gills as well as lungs.
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Ànraich
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L'évolution Spéculative est moi

I wasn't imagining it quite as tall as a giraffe, but tal neverthe less. I had an image in my head of a North America about 25-30 million years into the future in which forests are once again widespread after humans have disappeared. I saw a deer with a long neck grazing on grasses and leaves while being stalked by a large felinoid raccoon descendant that has a lifestyle similar to a lion.
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

Tree That Owns Itself
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flashman63
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The Herr From Terre
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Parasky
Jan 9 2015, 10:20 PM
Love this idea, what a great thread. Here's some of mine that I do intend to work on at some point but do not belong in any particular project. Feel free to do your own interpretation of any of them if any particular one inspires you, just make sure to credit me somehow if you post it on deviantart or whatever.


  • Eusocial crabs
  • Eusocial dandelions: Seed spreading queen (all reproductive organs) surrounded by leafy "workers" storing nutrients in tubers and "soldiers" acting as poisonous decoys and spreading nettle-like ground growths to deter herbivores, all castes interconnected via roots
  • Auroch-Deer: Large, powerful, aggressive deer living in vast herds on the future North American Great Plains
  • Felinoid raccoon descendents
  • Modern day descendants of meganeura on an alternate Earth that retained higher oxygen levels
  • Modern domesticated glyptodon
Crabs: Awesome idea! I would guess coconut crabs? They strike me as smart, relatively speaking.

Dandelions: Very original! I like it!

Auroch Deer: Cool, though I would put my bet on Texas Longhorns or escaped zoo elephants for the the nextt American Megafauna
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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flashman63
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The Herr From Terre
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Just Watcher
Jan 18 2015, 06:26 AM
Terrestrial skuas on a mostly ice free Antarctica that preys on seal colonies and other terrestrial birds?
One that glaciated then de-glaciated?

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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flashman63
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The Herr From Terre
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I don't know quite what I mean, but I want to write a "biology of Gods" with Gods as actual entities existing within Memetics
Edited by flashman63, Jan 23 2015, 10:40 PM.
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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colddigger
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Joke's over! Love, Parasky
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That is a wonderful idea, definitely one to ponder how to make more concrete for oneself.
Oh Fine.

Oh hi you! Why don't you go check out the finery that is SGP??

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flashman63
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colddigger
Jan 23 2015, 11:41 PM
That is a wonderful idea, definitely one to ponder how to make more concrete for oneself.
My thoughts exactly. Not sure if I want to go into them being able to actually influence the real world directly or not
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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