Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
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.

While unregistered users are able to browse the forum on a basic level, registering an account provides additional forum access not visible to guests as well as the ability to join in discussions and contribute yourself! Registration is free and instantaneous.

Join our community today!

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
The Species Factory; Empty your mind
Topic Started: Nov 6 2014, 06:54 PM (33,393 Views)
Carlos
Member Avatar
Adveho in me Lucifero
 *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
Little
May 1 2017, 07:50 PM
Hmm, that could make an interesting COM. Make a tetrapod with no hands; "look ma, no hands!"


I mean, there's already a precedent among mammals, he Steller's Sea Cow, so why not?

Bob
May 1 2017, 10:37 PM
I've got few species I'm planning to put into my magicless fantasy/ alt universe world, named the beastiary.

Herda

The Herda are a mammalian race descended from a group of herbivorous animals resembling Swine. This race is my attempt to create a herbivorous species that captures what most real herbivorous mega-fauna are - brutish paranoid idiots that lift bro. As a race, the Herda are generally quite socialist (if not communist, as the Herda form herds in which the rest of the herd is just as important as the Herda themselves) and also tend to be aggressive to other species (since the other races often descend from predatory species).

Dartic

The Dartic are the youngest race to attain sapience, and have been long the slave-race of the Vaws (as they’re the only race who could be easily taken by such a small race as the Vaw). Reptilian creatures, a human might mistake them for a strange dinosaur, however, their head and body shape (snake-like) and the shape of their long and nimble legs/ankles shows that they’re closer to lizards. Only recently liberated this race has quickly found itself the go-to source of cheap labor, and Dartic-founded communities are primitive and without much of the technology found in other communities.

Human

As with every other fantasy world I do have a bipedal-walking-talking-ape-thing my world, but I’ve done my best not to make them like traditional “special snowflake” races. For one thing, humans in this world aren’t the new race that came up and began to colonize everything - in my world the humans have been around for a fairly long time and are the second oldest race within my world. Secondly, rather than being the jack of all trades race humans within my world have a specific advantage, that being that humans are amazingly enduring for a species (based on the real world fact that humans are very endurant). Not only that but these humans aren't quite human since they live in a vastly different world, they're pretty human like and evolved many similar things as humans, but are more primate-looking with thick hair and shorter, bigger-nosed faces.


Perisca

This race is the reptilian race of mine, but rather than make this race either the ancient draconian-style species or the snake-like dexterous race I’ve chosen to emphasis the calculating and observant nature of reptiles (well, this is from my experience with my lizard, who I often see spend long stretches of time observing and calculating before acting when he hunts), and the Perisca known to be the some of the better intellects due to great observance. Being reptilian they don’t often form large communities of Perisca (as, being reptiles, they’re less inclined towards complex social groups despite having well-developed social brains compared to other reptiles) but have spread to communities of other races as planners or strategists.

Vaw

The Vaw are the most physically unique of all the species within my world, if they’re one of the most “normal”compared to our world and could easily pass without notice. This is because they’re birds, normal birds, slightly larger than normal with stronger legs, five dexterous toes, and brightly colored feathers but birds all the same and most people from our world wouldn't notice their odity. This race has been around for a relatively short period of time but have quickly integrated themselves into the world as they’re mimicry and social nature has given them a reputation (well-earned) as silver-tongued con men.

Relication

The Relication are the oldest race within this world, descended from an old lineage of Synapsids (I'm currently thinking Dinocephalia) which had managed to survive this race has evolved cognotive abilities far greater than the other species (mostly related to greater memories and senses as well as simply having larger brains), and is capable of reasoning above that of the other species, making them sought after as philosophers or practicers of "magic" (chemistry, it's really just that). However, fear over their superior wisdom has lead the other races to mark them as an enemy/cause for various disasters and so their population is staggeringly low even considering they evolved on the isolated continent of australia.

Note that I took this from a /r/worldbuilding post I made so I didn't go into to much of the accurate science.


Interesting
Lemuria:
http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/topic/5724950/

Terra Alternativa:
http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/forum/460637/

My Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/Carliro

Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Nembrotha
Member Avatar
Adolescent
 *  *  *  *  *
- Tiger-like therocephalians. This might go in Asedriam, because I plan to have a continent (Mu) that is dominated by Permian/Triassic animals.

- Hyraxes convergent with ungulates, which aren't just found in Africa. They might be domesticated by something.

- This one's from an older project: flying noasaurs. They have bat-like wings, but with only two digits (aside from the "thumb") and a styliform, so more like the wings of Yi qi. They were actually the original concept for wyverns. Maybe I'll have them as the wyverns? Or maybe something else, since wyverns are quadrupedal...

- Another oldie: an omnivorous cynodont with large venomous spurs on its hind legs. It lives on a small series of islands off the coast of Antarctica.

- Omnivorous Armadillo-like animals which are not actually xenarthrans, but descended from early placentals. They live in Asia, and can be found all over the place. Related forms would be more like chevrotains.

- For Asedriam, Protoceratids which are domesticated by the Raoks. They could be used as both transportation and meat.
Truthfully, a lot of animals in Asedriam are actually prehistoric animals, mostly from the Cenozoic, but there are some Mesozoic and even Paleozoic animals. My next post will probably be about some of the fauna.
Journey to the Makrinocene, a world in the twilight hours of the Cenozoic! (Slightly Inactive, will eventually pick up)
Come to Terra Fantasia, a bizarre world where nothing is as it seems! (Ongoing)

Spoiler: click to toggle
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Yiqi15
Member Avatar
Prime Specimen
 *  *  *  *  *  *  *
- A small type of ape that has evolved to look and smell like a corpse in order to attract flies and other insects, which it eats

- Parasitic seahorse descendants preying on large aquatic animals, clinging on via modified tails and feeding on their blood. (May use as second COM entry).

- A small domesticated descendant of the Komodo dragon, used for hunting and clothing.
Edited by Yiqi15, May 14 2017, 07:26 AM.
Current/Completed Projects
- After the Holocene: Your run-of-the-mill future evolution project.
- A History of the Odessa Rhinoceros: What happens when you ship 28 southern white rhinoceri to Texas and try and farm them? Quite a lot, actually.

Future Projects
- XenoSphere: The greatest zoo in the galaxy.
- The Curious Case of the Woolly Giraffe: A case study of an eocene relic.
- Untittled Asylum Studios-Based Project: The truth behind all the CGI schlock
- Riggslandia V.II: A World 150 million years in the making

Potential Projects
- Klowns: The biology and culture of a creepy-yet-fascinating being

My Zoochat and Fadom Accounts
- Zoochat
- Fandom
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Beetleboy
Member Avatar
neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
 *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
Gurpup:
Descendant of gurnads (sea robins). They live on beaches, in estuaries, and mangrove forests (or equivalents?), with some species being found in humid tropical rainforests. They are semi-aquatic fish which use flexible, jointed spines that resemble insect legs, adapted from their pectoral fins, to pull themselves along in a bizarre and, to some, disturbingly arachnoid manner. They range in size, the larger ones being found in mangroves/mangrove equivalents, having to drag themselves along, whereas the smallest, creeping through the rotting leaves of the jungle floor, are quite agile and fast-moving. They have to return to the water to spawn, but other than that, some of the rainforest forms are fully terrestrial – some are also adept climbers, rearing their young in bromeliads high in the canopy.
When the breeding season comes, the male gurnups will gather at a water source (stream, pond, sea, etc), and begin to call, semi-submerged. They make deep, loud croaking noises not unlike a frog or toad - in fact, their name, 'gurnup', is onomatopoeic and comes from the sound that a common species makes. However, many rainforest species, where the diversity of gurnups is high, and there can be many species in a small area, they make more diverse and bizarre calls, from trills to rumbles, buzzing to screaming. This is their way of attracting females, who will choose males with the loudest calls. Monkey gurpups (name might be changed), which live in rainforest canopies, rearing their young in bromeliads, have the most complex and beautiful calls, which are full, complicated songs.




Just an idea I made up on the spot. Yup, terrestrial singing spider-fish.
~ The Age of Forests ~
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Nembrotha
Member Avatar
Adolescent
 *  *  *  *  *
- A mammalian alien living on a Mars-sized moon which is a Sap-Eater: it has sharp claws to dig into the bark of tree-like organisms, sort of like an Aye-Aye, and then it uses a tongue-like organ to drink out the sap.

- A large (25-metre tall) herbivorous alien that is the analogue to a giraffe. Due to living on a low gravity world (same moon as the Sap-Eater), it can reach its sauropod-esque height. It feeds on the leaves of equally tall trees.

- A group of aliens that can't really be described as an animal or plant, but are actually neotenic "plants" derived from the seeds. Early in their history, the seeds became mobile by developing leg-like organs, and then eventually they evolved to where they live as the seed for their whole life, and reproducing via genital-like roots. This one is a bit more far fetched.

- Now for a Terrestial animal (in a way): herbivorous marine reptiles, descended from an Early Triassic animal related to sauropterygians. They would be fully aquatic and take the niches of sirenians. Basically fully marine relatives of Atopodentatus. They lasted until the end of the Cretaceous. Say, I might make a project out of this...
Journey to the Makrinocene, a world in the twilight hours of the Cenozoic! (Slightly Inactive, will eventually pick up)
Come to Terra Fantasia, a bizarre world where nothing is as it seems! (Ongoing)

Spoiler: click to toggle
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Noah's Raven
Member Avatar
Fill niches, get money.
 *  *  *
A flightless corvid about three feet tall that stalks the undergrowth of a tropical forest 30 million years in the future. It has an extensive network of air sacs in its body cavity, but they are sealed off from the lungs and filled with hydrogen. While this isn't enough to lift it off the ground, the animal uses them to reduce its weight, allowing it to almost eliminate the sound of its footfalls while hunting. It also has a nasty tendency to explode when hit by lightning.

I call it...the Hindenbird.
Edited by Noah's Raven, Aug 30 2017, 09:52 AM.
"In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man EATS EVERYONE." --Dromaeosaurus

VALLES INCOMPERTUS: A Natural History of Earth's Last Uncharted Land
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Setaceous Cetacean
Member Avatar
Insert Funny Creative Title Here
 *  *  *  *  *
Hindenbird sounds awesome. I was thinking of terrestrial alien creature on a high gravity world. It would use hydrogen to reduce its weight, but this would not fully lift it off the ground. It's so light that it can grow to absolutely gargantuan proportions, easily dwarfing the sauropods, and it walks on boneless tentacles that pick up food and carry it the mouth. Basically it's like a tethered zeppelin that walks around. If anything on land attacks it, the creature can make great bounding leaps across the land. I might actually incorporate this into my own project.
If you like balloons, the color red, or mixotrophic plants derived from photosynthetic vertebrate-analogues, then check out my xenobiology project Solais

Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Rebirth
Member Avatar
Adolescent
 *  *  *  *  *
Yiqi15
May 14 2017, 07:24 AM
- A small type of ape that has evolved to look and smell like a corpse in order to attract flies and other insects, which it eats

- Parasitic seahorse descendants preying on large aquatic animals, clinging on via modified tails and feeding on their blood. (May use as second COM entry).

- A small domesticated descendant of the Komodo dragon, used for hunting and clothing.
I would like to see a profile/detailed description of the domesticated Komodo dragon.

- A genetically modified photosynthetic salamander that is seeded on a terraformed planet as the only lifeform (eukaryotic at least).
My Projects
Spoiler: click to toggle
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Dapper Man
Member Avatar
* I am fed up with dis wuurld *
 *  *  *  *  *  *  *
- A group of flying, potentially pterosaur-like, felids from Novopangaea, ~200 million years from now. Going to sketch one up, but can't get the right shape.
Speculative Evolution:

Manitou; The Needle in the Haystack.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
IIGSY
Member Avatar
A huntsman spider that wastes time on the internet because it has nothing better to do
 *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
Dapper Man
Sep 1 2017, 03:20 AM
- A group of flying, potentially pterosaur-like, felids from Novopangaea, ~200 million years from now. Going to sketch one up, but can't get the right shape.
Someone has been reading terra metropolis
Projects
Punga: A terraformed world with no vertebrates
Last one crawling: The last arthropod

ARTH-6810: A world without vertebrates (It's ded, but you can still read I guess)

Potential ideas-
Swamp world: A world covered in lakes, with the largest being caspian sized.
Nematozoic: After a mass extinction of ultimate proportions, a single species of nematode is the only surviving animal.
Tri-devonian: A devonian like ecosystem with holocene species on three different continents.

Quotes


Phylogeny of the arthropods and some related groups


In honor of the greatest clade of all time


More pictures


Other cool things


All African countries can fit into Brazil
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Corecin
Member Avatar
Have you ever been bitch slapped for lack of listening? lack of doing what your told? cuz i'm not far from slapping you
 *  *  *  *  *  *  *
Insect Illuminati Get Shrekt
Sep 1 2017, 11:41 AM
Dapper Man
Sep 1 2017, 03:20 AM
- A group of flying, potentially pterosaur-like, felids from Novopangaea, ~200 million years from now. Going to sketch one up, but can't get the right shape.
Someone has been reading terra metropolis
To be fair, the description of highly derived, flying, pterosaur like felids sounds completely different from a gliding, genetically engineered cat.
Posted Image
Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Nembrotha
Member Avatar
Adolescent
 *  *  *  *  *
Here's a few creatures for a coming soon Alternate Universe project. Consider it a sneak peak...

- Marine reef-building angiosperms.

- Secondarily marine amphibians.

- Predatory artiodactyls which basically look like cats with hooves.

- Fully marine insects, which use their wings like fins to fly through the water.

- Flying caenagnathids, which are practically a second lineage of birds.

- Flightless, tree-dwelling paleognaths.
Journey to the Makrinocene, a world in the twilight hours of the Cenozoic! (Slightly Inactive, will eventually pick up)
Come to Terra Fantasia, a bizarre world where nothing is as it seems! (Ongoing)

Spoiler: click to toggle
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
IIGSY
Member Avatar
A huntsman spider that wastes time on the internet because it has nothing better to do
 *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
Leaellynasaura72
Sep 1 2017, 01:35 PM
- Marine reef-building angiosperms.

- Secondarily marine amphibians.

- Fully marine insects, which use their wings like fins to fly through the water.
All aboard the hype train
Projects
Punga: A terraformed world with no vertebrates
Last one crawling: The last arthropod

ARTH-6810: A world without vertebrates (It's ded, but you can still read I guess)

Potential ideas-
Swamp world: A world covered in lakes, with the largest being caspian sized.
Nematozoic: After a mass extinction of ultimate proportions, a single species of nematode is the only surviving animal.
Tri-devonian: A devonian like ecosystem with holocene species on three different continents.

Quotes


Phylogeny of the arthropods and some related groups


In honor of the greatest clade of all time


More pictures


Other cool things


All African countries can fit into Brazil
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Beetleboy
Member Avatar
neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
 *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
A few months ago I tried out a little thought experiment, imagining if a variety of Earthly animals were transported to an endless cave system in an alternative universe, and left to evolve. I've never thought to post the concepts I came up with, but I kind of like them, even if they are rather underdeveloped, so here they are:

A omnivorous raccoon descendant which hunts by touch. It crawls through the endless darkness, feeling with its long, pale fingers across the masses of guano and fungi. It's extremely sensitive skin and palm-bristles allow it to locate its prey, then it quickly kills it before it can fight back. They are solitary, but when they come together to mate, they show a more social, tender side to their nature. Partners will stay together for several hours, caressing each other with their fingers and grooming each other, before finally separating.
To look at, these animals are repulsive in appearance. They are covered in a fine coating of pure white bristles, but their face is wrinkled and bare. Its eyes don't seem to exist anymore, covered in a pale webbing of skin. Their long arms end in their hands, the most grotesque of all, being completely hairless apart from 10 sensory bristles, and white, with long, twitching fingers.

With the roving, spider-like hands sliding across your home, tap-tapping, suddenly looking like your surroundings doesn't work anymore. In the darkness, you could be perfectly camouflaged or bright purple, and it wouldn't make a difference to a predator like this. You have to feel like your surroundings . . .
Some mice have developed an interesting form of camouflage in order to survive the ever-searching hands of the pale, blind raccoons. They allow various species of fungi to grow on their back, burying their mycelium into their matted fur and rough, carunculated skin. Stalks, branching and white, and cups, bristly and moist, cover their backs, all varieties of fungi which unwittingly save their hosts from detection. As the fingers come stroking and tapping, they will find only another clump of cave fungus, and continue on, thinking nothing of it . . .

The various bats that dwell in these caves have had millions of years to refine their echolocation to an extraordinary level. Over time, females have begun to favour males with certain textures. As such, sexual selection has bred a variety of bats, the males of which sport bizarre folds of skin, carrunculations, fleshy spines, erectable soft tissue, and flamboyant noses and ears. Of course the females would be completely blind down here whether they had eyes or not (and they don't), so they get a feel for their potential mate using echolocation and touch. They will approach each other, coming so close that their pale, eyeless faces are almost touching, and the female will explore every fold, every lump, every odd body ornament and texture, using both continuous clicking and actual contact. It's sort of like birds-of-paradise, but instead of being physically pleasing to the female, it is all about the texture.
~ The Age of Forests ~
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
IIGSY
Member Avatar
A huntsman spider that wastes time on the internet because it has nothing better to do
 *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
Beetleboy
Sep 3 2017, 12:32 PM
A few months ago I tried out a little thought experiment, imagining if a variety of Earthly animals were transported to an endless cave system in an alternative universe, and left to evolve. I've never thought to post the concepts I came up with, but I kind of like them, even if they are rather underdeveloped, so here they are:

A omnivorous raccoon descendant which hunts by touch. It crawls through the endless darkness, feeling with its long, pale fingers across the masses of guano and fungi. It's extremely sensitive skin and palm-bristles allow it to locate its prey, then it quickly kills it before it can fight back. They are solitary, but when they come together to mate, they show a more social, tender side to their nature. Partners will stay together for several hours, caressing each other with their fingers and grooming each other, before finally separating.
To look at, these animals are repulsive in appearance. They are covered in a fine coating of pure white bristles, but their face is wrinkled and bare. Its eyes don't seem to exist anymore, covered in a pale webbing of skin. Their long arms end in their hands, the most grotesque of all, being completely hairless apart from 10 sensory bristles, and white, with long, twitching fingers.

With the roving, spider-like hands sliding across your home, tap-tapping, suddenly looking like your surroundings doesn't work anymore. In the darkness, you could be perfectly camouflaged or bright purple, and it wouldn't make a difference to a predator like this. You have to feel like your surroundings . . .
Some mice have developed an interesting form of camouflage in order to survive the ever-searching hands of the pale, blind raccoons. They allow various species of fungi to grow on their back, burying their mycelium into their matted fur and rough, carunculated skin. Stalks, branching and white, and cups, bristly and moist, cover their backs, all varieties of fungi which unwittingly save their hosts from detection. As the fingers come stroking and tapping, they will find only another clump of cave fungus, and continue on, thinking nothing of it . . .

The various bats that dwell in these caves have had millions of years to refine their echolocation to an extraordinary level. Over time, females have begun to favour males with certain textures. As such, sexual selection has bred a variety of bats, the males of which sport bizarre folds of skin, carrunculations, fleshy spines, erectable soft tissue, and flamboyant noses and ears. Of course the females would be completely blind down here whether they had eyes or not (and they don't), so they get a feel for their potential mate using echolocation and touch. They will approach each other, coming so close that their pale, eyeless faces are almost touching, and the female will explore every fold, every lump, every odd body ornament and texture, using both continuous clicking and actual contact. It's sort of like birds-of-paradise, but instead of being physically pleasing to the female, it is all about the texture.
Ooh, caves. Like caves. Caves are good. Everything is so quite, yet so creepy. And that makes it wonderful.

Posted Image


Anyway, those raccoons more like even more demented aye ayes. That's why I like them. But, I have a few questions about said system.

1. What biota is introduced?

2. Is there water in the caves?

3. How would mammals survive? To the extent of my knowledge, no mammals live permanently in caves because life is to sparse to sustain their high metabolisms. I could be wrong about this though.
Edited by IIGSY, Sep 3 2017, 01:31 PM.
Projects
Punga: A terraformed world with no vertebrates
Last one crawling: The last arthropod

ARTH-6810: A world without vertebrates (It's ded, but you can still read I guess)

Potential ideas-
Swamp world: A world covered in lakes, with the largest being caspian sized.
Nematozoic: After a mass extinction of ultimate proportions, a single species of nematode is the only surviving animal.
Tri-devonian: A devonian like ecosystem with holocene species on three different continents.

Quotes


Phylogeny of the arthropods and some related groups


In honor of the greatest clade of all time


More pictures


Other cool things


All African countries can fit into Brazil
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
Go to Next Page
« Previous Topic · General Spec · Next Topic »
Add Reply