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The Species Factory; Empty your mind
Topic Started: Nov 6 2014, 06:54 PM (33,390 Views)
peashyjah
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Yiqi15
Nov 19 2017, 11:19 AM
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.
All of these sound extremely awesome
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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Rebirth
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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
Sharks don't have a swim bladder.
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Lowry
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ARH-WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
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Rebirth
Nov 19 2017, 04:47 PM
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
Sharks don't have a swim bladder.
Once again, describing a longer process in a general sense, yes they don't have swim bladders, but they could very easily evolve them in the same manner fish did, or for that matter anything else that acts as an extension of the stomach or esophagus and/or anything that operates in a similar way to a howa swim bladder operates. Is this where you got the liver-lung idea from, because sharks use oils in their livers as b buoyancy aids? As yes they both fulfil the same role, but both do so in very different ways using very different organs that connect to very different places.
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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My terrestrial sharks will evolve their lungs from a convergent swim bladder then. And also have a labyrinth organ. They will also be rather primitive with no flying species, so some isolated islands will be dominated entirely by invertebrates.
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Uncanny Gemstar
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Did placoderms have fin rays or fleshy fins like a cartilaginous fins? Also, what are fin rays made out of/derived from?
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Rebirth
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Some invertebrates for the shark world:

- Sessile polychaete worms which act as reefbuilders.

- Burrowing bristleworm descendants which live under sand and soil on beaches and river banks, attacking prey from below.

- Giant raptorial pseudoscorpions.

- Giant shark-eating crabs.
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GreatAuk
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A group of Flightless Predatory Swans With serrated beaks and claw like wing spurs.
Let us dance together.
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GreatAuk
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I Forgot to mention, I call them "Swaptors"
Let us dance together.
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Corecin
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Have you ever been bitch slapped for lack of listening? lack of doing what your told? cuz i'm not far from slapping you
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There is an "edit" feature.
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GreatAuk
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Coldcin
Dec 1 2017, 01:46 PM
There is an "edit" feature.
Oh, didn't see that, thanks.
also, your avatar the crystal fox, isn't it?
Edited by GreatAuk, Dec 1 2017, 02:18 PM.
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Corecin
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Have you ever been bitch slapped for lack of listening? lack of doing what your told? cuz i'm not far from slapping you
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GreatAuk
Dec 1 2017, 02:17 PM
also, your avatar the crystal fox, isn't it?
It's the vulptex from the newest Star Wars movie, yes. Also just for future reference, double posting is usually frowned upon.
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GreatAuk
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I have another one.
A future flying species of lizard that has one or two finger elongated to form a membrane, one of these fingers points backwards.
The arms still have three fingers left over allowing the animal to climb.
When the lizard takes flight it moves it arms up and down, causing the membrane with the elongated fingers to beat.
This allows the lizard to be capable of powered flight, but also still have use of it's hands.
So there we go. Is this plausible?
Let us dance together.
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Ratrat1234
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The Penguin Manatee




Evolution

On a world, quite similar to ours, a strange bird's decedents wander and wallow in the sea. The "Penguin Manatee" or avemaris is one of the decedents of Dromornithidae, which evolved in a much wetter Australia, due to a longer Eocene thermal maximum (which lasted till the end of the Miocene). During this wet warm period, around 25 mya a group of "hippo-like" Dromornithidae grazed in the salt marshes, steams, lakes, swamps, and mangrove forests. These birds would wade in the waters of these areas eating small animals, but vastly focused on consuming the flora rather then the fauna. These grazers would become more and more aquatic till the only reasons to come to land became mating, safety, and sleep. By 15 mya the first "penguin manatee" would witness the world. The genus of "penguin manatees," avemaris, would only exist within and around Australia till nearly the present.

The next five million years would be an age of diversification and expansion from the shores and waterways of Australia to the rest of the world. The reason the birds of avemaris spread around so well was the switch from the classical bird stance and coat to that of a penguin, upright and down feathers. This new "steam-lined and penguin" look the penguin manatee took on allowed for better ability to traverse the ocean though thicker stronger legs, due to the new stance, for more propulsion, a more powerful head and neck to assist in feeding, defense, and changing direction, reduction of the fore limb to reduce drag, and a better oiled and tight coat for less drag in the water.

Once the members of avemaris became cosmopolitan, grazing on sea grass beds from the shores of Antarctica to Greenland, they would lose an enormous amount of range they gained around five mya. As the Miocene came to a close, so did the hot house earth, decimating the tropical forests that dominated this world. The cooling would reshape the flora and fauna to one more similar of humanity's earth. The range of these creatures would be restricted to the areas that retained their tropical environment. The penguin manatee's diversity dropped drastically, from seventeen known species to three. Derived from one of these creatures is the largest Penguin manatee, avemaris robustus.


Habitat and Range

Avemaris Robustus's habitat consists of anywhere with viable flora to feed it's near unholy appetite. From tropical sea grass beds to polar kelp forests and inland watersheds; anywhere with a shore near by and sufficient food will sustain these birds. Their populations consist of pacific dwelling groups, but some have spread into the Atlantic recently. They have only colonized the the Falklands and the lower parts of the Argentinian coast, but their populations in these areas are only growing.

Behavior and Diet

These birds, being found nearly planet wide, have a range of different behaviors and diets due to their huge range. All populations live in an area with sufficient flora to sustain them and with good resting and mating locations. These birds, although they're massive and incredibly resilient, they are a bit clumsy on land. Avemaris robustus adults can defend themselves even with their terrestrial handicaps from nearly all terrestrial predators, but all sub-adult birds are in grave danger when alone on land. For that reason these birds live colonies of around twenty mating pairs for better defense and social interaction. The colony is spearheaded by an alpha couple that command the beach and whose chicks have priority until the couple is ousted by another. Their group dynamics are actually very similar to macaques, with social stratification, higher bloodlines, group politics, and a strangely high intelligence. Their raised intelligence, compared to the rest of their genus and close relatives, these birds' diets consist of far more fauna, especially nutrient rich invertebrates, fostering brain growth. Even with their more predatory diet than its relatives, avemaris robustus's diet is still 85% flora, rendering them herbivorous. During the birds feeding they tend to move in groups of around three to ten members, the numbers are primarily for defense, but also for "conversing" and play when their isn't anything deleterious in the area. Even though avemaris robustus travel in groups for protection, they normally pick grazing and foraging areas with far less predators, such as shallower waters.

When young are born to a couple, which either occurs year round or, if in a cooler region, at the beginning of spring, they are kept at the nest, watched over by at least on parent vigilantly and causally by the remainder of the colony. The chicks are feed regurgitated food for the first four months of their life when they need their parent, due to the fact that the chicks cannot swim till they are four months old. Once they are able to swim they begin to swim with the adults until the females are ousted by mental maturity, around fifteen years, not sexual maturity, around ten years. The males will become a part of the colony, searching out lone females to bring into the fold, they will probably remain with this mate till death, but adultery, fighting, and other "domestic" issues can cause these birds to get a "divorce." Either both birds remain in the colony, taking up new mates, the female gaining a man once he comes of age, or one being exiled for basically being the "bad guy" in the relationship, females will join a new colony almost constantly, males have a harder time.

The birds will live, on average, for around forty years (they max out at their sixties), as they age they tend to gain more respect in the colony just for surviving that long and accumulating all the knowledge that stems from there. These older couples tend to be placed at the top, being larger and far wiser, garnering the support of the rest of the colony. At this age the birds tend to be around eight feet from tail to beak, being a foot taller then most of the younger birds, they already garner great respect among the community.

When these birds do encounter a predator that wants to consume them they tend to body slam, kick, and bite the creature in defense, and with a group of these birds, certain death for smaller and inexperienced predators is common. Only the largest of sharks and cetaceans can easily hunt this bird, but avemaris robustus range doesn't tend to overlap with these predators for a reason.





This birb was inspired from reading the premise of cascus, I like the idea of an extended hot house earth. Although the point of divergence came before Dromornithids evolved making it not the hardest of sci-fi, I decided to pretty much hand-wave it, this isn't too serious, its just a fat bird. Originally i wanted it to be derived from gastornis, but I decided against it, due to seeing a lot of "gastornis stuff" recently.

College and life has kept me away from this site, even though I was barely doing jack when I was "active," I'm finally finding time to spec, so you might see more of me or I'll just be swallowed by obscurity again, who knows.


Edit: fixed stuff
Edited by Ratrat1234, Dec 8 2017, 08:00 AM.
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Yiqi15
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A clade of plants from around 82 to 169 million years hence which rather then storing pollen in its flowers, stores it in its own wood. All groups have developed unique ways of spreading it. Some have developed symbiotic relationships with insects to spread it as with flowering plants. At least one species has evolved to be spread by a species of bird which uses it when hunting. Others spread through animals which engage in xylophagy. Others are released during seasons when wildfiress are common. Still others simply just use structures similar (but not quite) flowers.
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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LλmbdaExplosion
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Vieja Argentea the oscar cichlid
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Jewel,Oscars and Peacock bass cichlids taking over the seas,evolving a xiphactinus niche,since they are hardy and adaptable.How about lizard like mudskippers that live in swamps like ichthyostegas and whale-like form evolved from terestrial holocene artiodactyl ancestors.
When life give you lemons.............Don't make lemonade!Make life to take the lemons back!Get mad and than.........Yell,demand and burn down their homes.




Prepare for unforeseen consequences,Mr. Freeman!
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