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The Species Factory; Empty your mind
Topic Started: Nov 6 2014, 06:54 PM (33,427 Views)
Ànraich
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L'évolution Spéculative est moi

Sorry for the double post but I just had an idea for the mechanism behind asexual reproduction in complex organisms that uses horizontal gene transfer to avoid lack of genetic diversity. Perhaps if they used some kind of symbiotic virus-like thing to "infect" other organisms with their "offspring?" These virogametes would carry the DNA of the reproducing organism, let's call it Organism A, to a host, Organism B. The virogamete would infect B and begin taking over cellular functions, combining A's DNA, B's DNA, and the virogametes own unique DNA (I imagine it being like mitochondria and something that was incorporated into the structure of the lifeforms in a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship) to create the offspring of A, which would then emerge from B. I don't see the DNA from B having any real effect on the appearance or structure of the offspring, it would just be random bits and pieces: junk DNA to ensure there is some genetic diversity and that the organisms aren't just exactly copying their DNA. Some traits might find their way into the offspring, of course, and maybe on rare occasion even create some kind of limited hybrid, but that would be rare. This form of reproduction could be quite diverse in form too. Some species may create parasitic offspring that feed on B, others may simply convert some of B's tissues into false-organs for incubating A's offspring until they are ready to harmlessly emerge from their host. Some may even infect their own infected cells and convert the young of other species using them as a host into their own offspring in some kind of twisted form of vivipary. I'm not sure how plausible it really is but the concept seems sound to me, though I don't know if it would ever be efficient enough to out-compete sexual reproduction.
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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xaritscin
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using this thread for not making a new one. has someone discussed the viability of "slimes"(?), be it from colagen or agar or another substance.
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GuesssWho
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When I was a kid I read a book where there were animals created by saying things in a strongly magical area, and I immediately decided that the word 'cake' should be a cat with a snake's venom, neck and tail. That image has stayed with me a long time.
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LittleLazyLass
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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.

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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?

totally not British, b-baka!
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I don't even really like this song that much but the title is pretty relatable sometimes, I guess.
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Pagansky
Feb 13 2015, 11:11 PM
Not possible. A cloud is a collection of water vapor, it's just really tiny droplets. Can you swim around in fog or skate on ground mist? They're the same thing. Organisms can't skip across them because skipping across them isn't physically possible.
You know, I remember my science teacher a few weeks ago saying that smoke is actually technically a solid, ala sand. If this is true, could a smoke walker feasibly work?
totally not British, b-baka!
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I don't even really like this song that much but the title is pretty relatable sometimes, I guess.
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Datura
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Myo
May 13 2015, 03:18 PM
Pagansky
Feb 13 2015, 11:11 PM
Not possible. A cloud is a collection of water vapor, it's just really tiny droplets. Can you swim around in fog or skate on ground mist? They're the same thing. Organisms can't skip across them because skipping across them isn't physically possible.
You know, I remember my science teacher a few weeks ago saying that smoke is actually technically a solid, ala sand. If this is true, could a smoke walker feasibly work?
I don't think that would really work for any large animal, the closest you might be able to do is have an animal so airborne that it looks like it can walk over smoke.

Also, if smoke is "solid" by this definition, it would still be too loose for something to walk or jump on it.
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Blake Hannon
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Animals that reproduce via insect "pollination."
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LittleLazyLass
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NotLegalTender
May 13 2015, 10:10 PM
Myo
May 13 2015, 03:18 PM
Pagansky
Feb 13 2015, 11:11 PM
Not possible. A cloud is a collection of water vapor, it's just really tiny droplets. Can you swim around in fog or skate on ground mist? They're the same thing. Organisms can't skip across them because skipping across them isn't physically possible.
You know, I remember my science teacher a few weeks ago saying that smoke is actually technically a solid, ala sand. If this is true, could a smoke walker feasibly work?
I don't think that would really work for any large animal, the closest you might be able to do is have an animal so airborne that it looks like it can walk over smoke.

Also, if smoke is "solid" by this definition, it would still be too loose for something to walk or jump on it.
I was more thinking something water strider-esk. Or at least long those lines.
totally not British, b-baka!
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I don't even really like this song that much but the title is pretty relatable sometimes, I guess.
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Torvonychus
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1. Miniature parasitic hybodontid sharks. At 30cm long they are small enough to sneak up on larger animals, then bite into their flesh. Eventually their flesh fuse and the hybodontid lives the rest of its life trailing alongside sucking blood.

2. Wholly eusocial crocodiles. Descended from my Sociosuchids. *coughselfpromotioncough*

3. Enormous predatory ceratopsians evolved from basal forms like psittacosaurus and stuff like that.


Dys, Darwin's Inferno: http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/topic/5949354/1/



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actuallybigfoot
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Everybody is always so worked up about tetrapods with six legs, and everyone tries to explain it because EVERYONE wants to be the guy to come up with realistic dragons for xyz reasons. Well I've cracked the case.

A tetrapod which has four true legs in the front, and the rear legs are......... a heavily modified hemipenis.
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LittleLazyLass
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*nearly chokes on drink* ...I think you might have just ruined dragons for me O_o. Like, forever.
totally not British, b-baka!
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I don't even really like this song that much but the title is pretty relatable sometimes, I guess.
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Ànraich
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Myo
May 13 2015, 03:18 PM
Pagansky
Feb 13 2015, 11:11 PM
Not possible. A cloud is a collection of water vapor, it's just really tiny droplets. Can you swim around in fog or skate on ground mist? They're the same thing. Organisms can't skip across them because skipping across them isn't physically possible.
You know, I remember my science teacher a few weeks ago saying that smoke is actually technically a solid, ala sand. If this is true, could a smoke walker feasibly work?
Smoke is not a solid, it is a collection of particulate, a cloud of lots of tiny, light solids. Sand isn't a solid either, it's a term we use to refer to a collection of individual rock grains. Saying smoke and sand are a solid is like saying the Himalayas is a single mountain because they're all in the same place.
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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-A gorgonopsid the size of a short-faced bear, native a to a 'lost world' scenario. Built similarly to tigers, but with limbs more like that of a bear-dog, it brings down prey by ambushing and overpowering it.
-A family of gracile, land-dwelling, running spinosaurs. Usually ostrich-sized, they fill the niche of cheetahs in their home scenario.
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-A descendant of Opabinia, about a third of the size of its ancestor, that hunts krill and shrimp like a tiny version of orcas hunting seals.
-Another Opabinia descendant about the size of a baby's hand that buries itself in the silt and the sand, sticking only its mouth-trunk-thing out of the sand, mimicking a weed. When small fish come closer to take a bite, the creature snatches them up.
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- Dinosaurian baleen whale analogues descended from Spinosaurus.


- Large scavenger bats with gas bladders that help lighten them, lessening the need for thin bones, so that they can pack powerful jaws for ripping apart carcasses.


- Predatory turtles that produce and spray poison to kill prey, effectively becoming natural tanks.


- Plants that have a parasitic stage, where the seeds from a fruit latch into the intestines of an animal and stay there, sucking up nutrients, from both the digested food and the animal's blood. Seeds eventually take root in the bloodstream, killing the animal, so that the seed can grow into a new tree, using the corpse as a base.


- Symbiosis between a flowering plant and a vertebrate. Plant shares sugars with the animal, and the plant cleans the useful wastes(like CO2) from the animal's bloodstream.

The plant is protected from herbivores by the animal, while the animal is protected from predators by chemical weapons made by the plant.

The plant gains all of the reproductive advantages that come with being able to move, while the animal gains a means of showing off how healthy it is to potential mates, since the plant's health would be an indicator of the animal's health.

The plant provides shade to the animal, and actually makes it advantageous to stay outside in the sun, since the plant will produce more food for the two of them.

The plant's offspring have a higher chance of survival, since they'd be connected to the offspring of the animal that can run away when in trouble. The animal's offspring have a likewise increase in survival, since the plant can produce chemical weapons to protect the tiny creature.


- Aquatic descendant of Yi qi that dwells in rivers and lakes.


- The re-emergence of placoderm-like bony plates for jaws in a large terrestrial predator.


- Descendants of Bull Sharks that spend all of their lives in rivers and lakes.


- Hippopotamus analogues descended from tyrannosaurs.


- Living beds, fungi that are incredibly soft and used by many animals as bedding materials. Place their spores onto the animals that sleep on them, which spreads the spores to other locations.


- Walking Ecosystems, which are sauropods large enough that small birds hand around them. The birds' droppings feed fungi that live on the sauropod's legs, tail, back, and neck. The fungi feed other small birds, as well as tiny mammals. Predatory birds prey upon the mammals and birds that call the saurpod home.


- Tiny cute cetaceans the size of squirrels.


- Owl-like flying descendants of domestic house cats.


- Symbiotic Mosquitos that live on mammal blood, but their saliva possesses antibiotic properties, and they'll chase away other bugs that would do harm to their host.


- Bees and ants in a symbiotic relationship, where the hive and the nest work together to survive. Ants provide protection and territory, while bees help provide food and an early warning system.
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