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The Species Factory; Empty your mind
Topic Started: Nov 6 2014, 06:54 PM (33,402 Views)
Adman
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flashman63
Aug 24 2016, 09:49 PM
re: Flowering antarctic plants;

One of the major problems pointed out, in addition to all the normal hardships of arctic living, is permafrost, which makes setting down roots very difficult. Way I see it, there are two potential solutions to this problem; One, they're extremely long-lived and slow growing with a lot of energy devoted to expanding the roots. Over time, they grind away at the ice. Another, more interesting one, would be if a plant could potentially utilize some kind of chemical heating to periodically defrost the ground adjacent to its roots. Maybe it could naturally produce some kind of acidic citrus-like chemical, though I imagine that would take a lot of energy. A more interesting idea I thought of was some kind of cold-resistant bombardier beetle type. In addition to using the chemical to warm itself, it'll "donate" some to the plant, allowing it to survive the winter, and grow fruits to be eaten by the *Bombardier Beetle,.
I'm pretty sure a lot of flowering plants already exist well above the arctic circle, and survive the winters by either being perennial species or going dormant when temperatures plummet.

Edit- just saw that this was referring to antarctic flowering plants. My point still stands though.

I don't think flowering plants could exist on Antarctica in its current state. Way too inhospitable.
Edited by Adman, Sep 1 2016, 09:35 AM.
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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LittleLazyLass
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Proud quilt in a bag

Quote:
 
-Ornithopod and ornithomimid-mimicking descendants of Elaphrosaurus and Chilesaurus.
The classification of Chilesaurus is still up in the air; it's not impossible it's a coelurosaur, sauropodomorph, or even ornithichian.
Quote:
 
Hey, if they could become semi-aquatic fish-eaters, they could cut instead of bash.
That idea has not garnered much acceptance so far; there's little real evidence that species was semi-aquatic or piscivorous.
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Carlos
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Also there wouldn't be much pressure for something simply out to defend itself to develop a structure dedicated to cutting.
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peashyjah
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Dapper Man
Aug 27 2016, 05:24 PM
Looking at the similarities between rat skulls:
Posted Image
And Borhyaena skulls:
Posted Image
I noticed that they where mildly similar, so that, if such carnivorous rats were to evolve, maybe they could be like Sparassodonts?
I think that predatory descendants of the rats that lived in the future would possibly ended being just like the Creodonts or maybe the Carnivorans.
Discontinued projects:
The New Ostracoderms (i might continue with this project again someday)
The Americas (where in 58 million years from now in the future North and South America has both become isolated island continents)



All Expansions (my attempt at expanding the universe of All Tomorrows by Nemo Ramjet aka C.M. Kosemen, started June 6, 2018)
Anthropozoic (my attempt at expanding the universe of Man After Man and also a re-imagining of it, coming 2019 or 2020)
New Cenozoica (my attempt at expanding the universe of The New Dinosaurs and also a re-imagining of it, also coming 2019 or 2020)
All Alternatives or All Changes (a re-telling of All Tomorrows but with some minor and major "changes", coming June 10, 2018)
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GlarnBoudin
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JohnFaa
Aug 31 2016, 12:56 PM
Also there wouldn't be much pressure for something simply out to defend itself to develop a structure dedicated to cutting.
Easy: a flattened structure with bright colors to impress mates in an area with few predators develops into an axe-like blade when a new predator suddenly appears.
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Dragonthunders
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Eh... no, not easy...
Such pressures seems that are too forced to happen, and probably will not end up in what you think.
If a new predator appears in an environment where not exist much predation, these Ankylosaurus will try to develop defenses to prevent devoured, not to obey the rule of cool, or probably be extinct.

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flashman63
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Aug 31 2016, 11:07 AM
flashman63
Aug 24 2016, 09:49 PM
re: Flowering antarctic plants;

One of the major problems pointed out, in addition to all the normal hardships of arctic living, is permafrost, which makes setting down roots very difficult. Way I see it, there are two potential solutions to this problem; One, they're extremely long-lived and slow growing with a lot of energy devoted to expanding the roots. Over time, they grind away at the ice. Another, more interesting one, would be if a plant could potentially utilize some kind of chemical heating to periodically defrost the ground adjacent to its roots. Maybe it could naturally produce some kind of acidic citrus-like chemical, though I imagine that would take a lot of energy. A more interesting idea I thought of was some kind of cold-resistant bombardier beetle type. In addition to using the chemical to warm itself, it'll "donate" some to the plant, allowing it to survive the winter, and grow fruits to be eaten by the *Bombardier Beetle,.
I'm pretty sure a lot of flowering plants already exist well above the arctic circle, and survive the winters by either being perennial species or going dormant when temperatures plummet.

Edit- just saw that this was referring to antarctic flowering plants. My point still stands though.

I don't think flowering plants could exist on Antarctica in its current state. Way too inhospitable.
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peashyjah
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I have an idea for an whale-like acanthodian species that gives birth to live young and they are also one of the native species of an upcoming project and also an planet i just came up with.
Discontinued projects:
The New Ostracoderms (i might continue with this project again someday)
The Americas (where in 58 million years from now in the future North and South America has both become isolated island continents)



All Expansions (my attempt at expanding the universe of All Tomorrows by Nemo Ramjet aka C.M. Kosemen, started June 6, 2018)
Anthropozoic (my attempt at expanding the universe of Man After Man and also a re-imagining of it, coming 2019 or 2020)
New Cenozoica (my attempt at expanding the universe of The New Dinosaurs and also a re-imagining of it, also coming 2019 or 2020)
All Alternatives or All Changes (a re-telling of All Tomorrows but with some minor and major "changes", coming June 10, 2018)
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Dapper Man
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Revising my Sparassodont/Rodent things, turns out that, the Grasshopper Mouse is already carnivorous, feeding on things like Insects, Worms, Scorpions and Snakes. According to the Wikipedia article, it even feasts on its own kind (Using the quote: "It [Grasshopper Mouse] is a carnivorous rodent, dining on insects, worms, scorpions, snakes and even other mice. It also stalks its prey in the manner of a cat.", and stalks its prey like a cat, sneaking up quietly, and defends its territory by "howling" like a small wolf.) So I wager, a carnivorous rodent could be descended from those.
Edited by Dapper Man, Sep 4 2016, 04:00 AM.
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Manitou; The Needle in the Haystack.
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Nyarlathotep
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I've seen footage of grasshopper mice killing a giant centipede which was itself feasting on another desert mouse. The grasshopper mouse ate them both. Shows you how viscous they are. I'd have thought a predatory rodent would be similar to Thylacoleo for obvious reasons, but the Sparrasodont idea is cool too.
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Velociraptor
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Reptile
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A small piscivorous megaraptoran with proportionately large arms used for grabbing fish at the river's edge.
Posted Image

Unnamed No K-Pg project: coming whenever, maybe never. I got ideas tho.
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Coelophysoidea
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Less a species and more a clade but I've been mapping out a broad overview of a hyper-diverse Coelophysoidea from a world with no T/J extinction. The biggest and most diverse clade consists mainly of waders and swimmers which specialize in aquatic prey. Many are miniaturized (the smallest being only about 100-120 grams) and often very flamboyantly decorated with all sorts of display structures. Some isolated island species end up super-sized by comparison, approaching 100kg. Some wading species ditch the aquatic adapations entirely and survive in grassland analogue environments. Desert species specialize in fossorial prey, using a flexible neck and an exaggerated subnarial gap to extract prey from burrows. Waterways worldwide are home to duck-like species with reduced legs and abberrant dentition that allows them to filter microorganisms from the water. Others float on the surface and dive after prey underwater rather like a cormorant.

I’ll post a simplified cladogram for this project's coelophysoids some time soon to give a general idea of their phylogeny.
Edited by Coelophysoidea, Sep 4 2016, 12:29 PM.
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peashyjah
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Bydo
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What if the Grasshopper Mice were to evolved into marine piscivorous otter-like rodents?
Discontinued projects:
The New Ostracoderms (i might continue with this project again someday)
The Americas (where in 58 million years from now in the future North and South America has both become isolated island continents)



All Expansions (my attempt at expanding the universe of All Tomorrows by Nemo Ramjet aka C.M. Kosemen, started June 6, 2018)
Anthropozoic (my attempt at expanding the universe of Man After Man and also a re-imagining of it, coming 2019 or 2020)
New Cenozoica (my attempt at expanding the universe of The New Dinosaurs and also a re-imagining of it, also coming 2019 or 2020)
All Alternatives or All Changes (a re-telling of All Tomorrows but with some minor and major "changes", coming June 10, 2018)
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GlarnBoudin
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Forbidden3
Sep 4 2016, 07:53 AM
I've seen footage of grasshopper mice killing a giant centipede which was itself feasting on another desert mouse. The grasshopper mouse ate them both. Shows you how viscous they are. I'd have thought a predatory rodent would be similar to Thylacoleo for obvious reasons, but the Sparrasodont idea is cool too.
Yeah, grasshopper mice are fucking psychotic, man.

Anyway, as for the axe-ankylosaur idea, I just thought of another way it could evolve.

Basically, a fairly typical ankylosaur starts knocking down trees to get at the tasty leaves normally out of its reach, similarly to what elephants do today. Over the generations, the population's tail clubs start to flatten in order to more efficiently bring down trees, eventually becoming a horizontally flattened axe-like blade. The dinosaurs also use this bladed tail to pat down soil on top of their eggs, swim with an up-and-down motion, and mark their territory by leaving shallow cuts on the trunks of trees.
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Velociraptor
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The ankylosaur swimming with an up-and-down motion seems unlikely to me, given the way their spines don't really bend that way very well.
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Unnamed No K-Pg project: coming whenever, maybe never. I got ideas tho.
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