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The Species Factory; Empty your mind
Topic Started: Nov 6 2014, 06:54 PM (33,391 Views)
Nyarlathotep
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The Creeping Chaos
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There are original ways to do posthumans as well, many possibilities if you will. How much you wish to derive them depends on how humanoid you want them to be.
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Lowry
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So I've been brainstorming late-project creatures for Karkinos (that crab world) and I wanted to play with a bunch of concepts that I've always had a soft-spot for, so here's some of them written down just as a taster of what is to come:

- Crabphibians that have elaborate trachea that protrude externally out of the body and form a noise-creating organ similar in shape to an Ocarina, the creature can simply breathe out of it or tighten an internal pair of 'lips' to play the Ocarina organ.

- The first semi-internalized skeletons in Crabphibians with an internal skeleton comprised of a new structural compound unique to the group, they develop a rudimentary spine and begin to segment and reduce their exoskeleton. Horizontal jaws derived from the various mandibles and atrophied claws.

- An endothermic crab-descendant that has derived its first set of limbs into a pseudo-proboscis used to drink from fruit and corpses, stomach acid is injected into food before being slurped back up.

- A different line of endothermic crab-descendant that has developed its first set of limbs into wings, creating the wonderful desire of all novice speccers, hexapedal dragons.

- Another line of endothermic crab-descendants that remain purely in the treetops swinging from their forelimbs while the others are used as manipulatory appendages. Possibly eventual sophonts?

Obviously tying these together in an evolutionary history is gonna be the challenge and any suggestions on how to develop some starkly different organisms from the same stock would be appreciated. I thought about increasing the number of isolated landmasses increasing global biodiversity before slowly crashing continental ecosystems together to create the current global coverage.
Projects Currently Being Worked Upon:

Karkinos: Where faith meets myth on a world of the strangely familiar.
Under New Suns: The forums own colonisation race! Steep yourself in my lore....

Projects in suspension (for when inspiration hits):

- Galapagaia
- Rich Man's Ark (nice little bit of community spec :P)
- Ichor

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HangingThief
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flashman63
Sep 18 2017, 01:55 AM
Veins: On some sort of dying world where it rains once in a century, the planet is dominated by salt pans, with the only non- hypersaline water existing in aquifers deep below the ground. These means that the majority of the planet's biodiversity exists in caversn and on the shores of the aquifers, highly divergent ecosystems (descended from what once lived on the planets surface when it was green) harbor a treasure trove of biodiversity.

On the surface, life is incredibly hardy, subsisting either on salty water or what little moisture exists. There does, however, exist one conduit for more water: Veins.

Veins are fleshy tubes that start at the bottom of an aquifer, burrowing through stone and sand until they reach the surface. Here, they act essentially as pumps, taking up water from the underground lakes, and giving them to any creatures that ask - literally. Creatures know that they simply have to tap on the lid of the Vein, and it'll belch up a quantity of water.

It's not without a catch, however: Veins need food, just like anything else. Make no mistake, they have a number of sources for food: at the lake bottoms, they filter feed, and catch "fish" with their tentacles. As they burrow through the stone, they subsist upon limited chemosynthesis. And once they break the surface, they take advantage of the hot blazing sun to conduct photosynthesis. But, about ten percent of the time when a creature comes to it thirsty, the Vein will instead of belching up water belch up acid, grab it with its tentacles, and throw it down its maw. It will fall all the way down to its base where it will be digested.

It's certainly a rough deal for the surface creatures, but they don't have much of a choice. Those individuals which attack the Vein usually end up dying from thirst a short time thereafter, making it a poor reproductive strategy. Indeed, some creatures have taken up a better relationship with the Veins, such as one species of termite which drops food into the Vein, and is not eaten by the Vein which knows them by their pheromones.

Veins are one of the most important species on the planet, providing both water for the surface and a key source of calories from the sun for the creatures of the aquifers who would otherwise be dependent purely upon chemosynthesis, and those creaatures which climb through the caverns all the way up to the surface.

Each individual is thousands of years old, and they reproduce by firing off spores from the surface. A polyp will take, photosynthesizing and generating acid to slowly dig down towards the aquifers.

Assuming this is a far-future earth, I think the Veins are some sort of a colonial mollusc.
Forcing its prey to gamble every time they need a drink sort of seems like a bad strategy. What most of the time it just used its water- belching head to attract prey to the area and build up their population, using separate appendages to hunt and resorting to belching acid from the same mouth things drink from only when it can't catch anything and grows desperately hungry?
Hey.


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peashyjah
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Bydo
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Nyarlathotep
Sep 27 2017, 04:42 AM
There are original ways to do posthumans as well, many possibilities if you will. How much you wish to derive them depends on how humanoid you want them to be.
It doesn't depend on how humanoid i want them to be. They're my own original creations for a recent project i will be continuing on later.
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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Yiqi15
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A species of australopithecine which has a large gular similar to that of siamangs which allow it to mimic the calls of large predators, such as big cats (e.g. deinofelis and lions). It uses this for various reasons, mostly to scare off other predators by mimicking the calls of the apex predators which few will tangle with. A morbid use among some populations is mimic the calls of females to lure baby felines in before eating them.
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

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Tenno
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Pelagic chitons that wrap their shells in their mantle (gumboot chitons do this nowadays) and also their shells have become greatly reduced and rod-like, forming a primitive notochord. They use their aragonite lenses to see and a dart made from modified teeth to kill prey, much like a snail's love dart or a cone snail's harpoon minus the attachment.
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Rebirth
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For my shark-dominated world idea:

- A lineage of terrestrial sharks. Enameloid scales derived from denticles, including quill-like structures in some species, and a "lung" derived from an extra liver. Up to eight digits on each hand. By 170 MYH it's basically at Late Carboniferous-Early Permian level of diversity, with no herbivores.

- Giant blue whale-sized filter-feeding sharks.

- Pack-hunting intelligent sharks, similar to the sharkopaths from TFIW.

- Freshwater sharks.

- Cave-dwelling sharks.

- Degenerate parasitic sharks similar to heart eels.

- Hydrothermal vent sharks.

- Sharks with lungfish-type adaptations.
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Lowry
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Rebirth
Nov 18 2017, 05:05 PM
a "lung" derived from an extra liver.
Yes because the liver is definitely an organ suitable for gas exchange. In all seriousness what makes you think an organ as as highly specialised as a liver would be good for oxygen intake? You do know that sharks have gills and how lungs actually evolved correct? A gland that attaches to the duodenum simply isn't close enough to any orifice and too specialised towards substance production to work. Do you have a work around for this as I'd love to hear it.

EDIT: In hindsight this could come across as passive aggressive and although it is in that tone and I sort of apologise for that, it is all purely constructive. Tough love builds the better speccer.

Edited by Lowry, Nov 18 2017, 06:13 PM.
Projects Currently Being Worked Upon:

Karkinos: Where faith meets myth on a world of the strangely familiar.
Under New Suns: The forums own colonisation race! Steep yourself in my lore....

Projects in suspension (for when inspiration hits):

- Galapagaia
- Rich Man's Ark (nice little bit of community spec :P)
- Ichor

Projects for a latter day:




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Rebirth
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Lowry
Nov 18 2017, 06:11 PM
Rebirth
Nov 18 2017, 05:05 PM
a "lung" derived from an extra liver.
Yes because the liver is definitely an organ suitable for gas exchange. In all seriousness what makes you think an organ as as highly specialised as a liver would be good for oxygen intake? You do know that sharks have gills and how lungs actually evolved correct? A gland that attaches to the duodenum simply isn't close enough to any orifice and too specialised towards substance production to work. Do you have a work around for this as I'd love to hear it.

EDIT: In hindsight this could come across as passive aggressive and although it is in that tone and I sort of apologise for that, it is all purely constructive. Tough love builds the better speccer.

Didn't Carlos' sandsharks use part of their liver for breathing?
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Dragonthunders
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I guess he did a little wrong, is really unlikely that a liver will be used for breathing, what makes a shark float is the amount of oil and lipids it gets, it is not involved the same functions that would a lung or a swim bladder use. As far as I've seen, structures such as lungs or swim bladder in actual fishes were probably derived from some part of the digestive system.

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Rebirth
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Dragonthunders
Nov 18 2017, 07:18 PM
I guess he did a little wrong, is really unlikely that a liver will be used for breathing, what makes a shark float is the amount of oil and lipids it gets, it is not involved the same functions that would a lung or a swim bladder use. As far as I've seen, structures such as lungs or swim bladder in actual fishes were probably derived from some part of the digestive system.

Maybe a duplicate stomach then? Or some kind of labyrinth organ analogue, though it'd have to remain wet (having scales would help hold in water).

Another idea, their claw sheaths could be enameloid as well, like their denticles. Making it more of a tooth than a tetrapod claw.
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Lowry
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Here's where i redeem myself for my tough love

Quote:
 
Maybe a duplicate stomach then? Or some kind of labyrinth organ analogue, though it'd have to remain wet (having scales would help hold in water).

Respiratory organs are one of those things you can do truly weird stuff with, or at least, you have the opportunity to do weird things with. Or you can just do the good old trick tetrapods did to get on land with swim bladder derived lungs

Quote:
 
Another idea, their claw sheaths could be enameloid as well, like their denticles. Making it more of a tooth than a tetrapod claw.

Well, it'd still be claw, but interesting idea nonetheless
Projects Currently Being Worked Upon:

Karkinos: Where faith meets myth on a world of the strangely familiar.
Under New Suns: The forums own colonisation race! Steep yourself in my lore....

Projects in suspension (for when inspiration hits):

- Galapagaia
- Rich Man's Ark (nice little bit of community spec :P)
- Ichor

Projects for a latter day:




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peashyjah
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Lowry
Nov 19 2017, 04:26 AM
Here's where i redeem myself for my tough love

Quote:
 
Maybe a duplicate stomach then? Or some kind of labyrinth organ analogue, though it'd have to remain wet (having scales would help hold in water).

Respiratory organs are one of those things you can do truly weird stuff with, or at least, you have the opportunity to do weird things with. Or you can just do the good old trick tetrapods did to get on land with swim bladder derived lungs

Quote:
 
Another idea, their claw sheaths could be enameloid as well, like their denticles. Making it more of a tooth than a tetrapod claw.

Well, it'd still be claw, but interesting idea nonetheless
But the lungs of the earliest tetrapods are highly derived from their lobe-finned ancestors.
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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Lowry
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peashyjah
Nov 19 2017, 09:32 AM
Lowry
Nov 19 2017, 04:26 AM
Here's where i redeem myself for my tough love

Quote:
 
Maybe a duplicate stomach then? Or some kind of labyrinth organ analogue, though it'd have to remain wet (having scales would help hold in water).

Respiratory organs are one of those things you can do truly weird stuff with, or at least, you have the opportunity to do weird things with. Or you can just do the good old trick tetrapods did to get on land with swim bladder derived lungs

Quote:
 
Another idea, their claw sheaths could be enameloid as well, like their denticles. Making it more of a tooth than a tetrapod claw.

Well, it'd still be claw, but interesting idea nonetheless
But the lungs of the earliest tetrapods are highly derived from their lobe-finned ancestors.
It's still what they used to get onto land, I was generalising to that entire evolutionary path.
Projects Currently Being Worked Upon:

Karkinos: Where faith meets myth on a world of the strangely familiar.
Under New Suns: The forums own colonisation race! Steep yourself in my lore....

Projects in suspension (for when inspiration hits):

- Galapagaia
- Rich Man's Ark (nice little bit of community spec :P)
- Ichor

Projects for a latter day:




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Yiqi15
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Some concepts for my After The Holocene project:
- Giant ground sloth-like japanese macaque descendants found in northwestern Asia.
- Fully aquatic descendants of chimpanzees with large patagiums connect to their arms allowing them to swim in a similar manner to sea turtles.
- A species of insectivorous porcupine which catches prey with its quills, coated with a sugar-rich chemical.
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
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