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| Ao-oni: The world of abominations; A new breed of post-human | |||||||
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| Topic Started: Nov 14 2014, 09:49 AM (4,675 Views) | |||||||
| Nyarlathotep | Nov 14 2014, 09:49 AM Post #1 | ||||||
The Creeping Chaos
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Ao-oni: The World of Abominations A world is on fire. The war with the tyrants had lasted over 30 years now, the neighbouring system had only put up limited resistance, and yet the tyrants had punished them by destroying their intelligence. This system was bound to share a similar fate unless it acted against the enemy soon. The way they would do this would be to launch a first strike at the invasion force, making sure they would be crippled. Thousands of nuclear weapons were launched at the tyrant armada, destroying thousands of ships, each containing tens or even hundreds of thousands of soldiers, and thus devastating the first invasion wave effectively. Then the second came. Sick of their ancestor’s brutality, the tyrant scientists demanded a far more humiliating fate for these poor humans then those in the first system had ever had. They wanted to make the humans suffer before disposing of them. After the torture, they genetically modified a new race of humans, totally different to their ancestor. The original species is known as oni (xenonianthropus primus) and it is almost unrecognisable from its ancestor. Spoiler: click to toggle What were once the limbs have been completely atrophied, leaving only the former hands, which have fused with the tiny body. The 8 fingers now function as legs for this creature, being quite similar to the old ones, only with more supportive power and with gecko like hairs to assist in climbing. The thumbs would be used for grabbing, digging or signalling, or just plain scratching. The animal’s organs would be developed to some extent as well. The lungs of the animal would be adapted to survive in the limited oxygen supply, which at this point in time is just over 15% after the invasion. The standard mammalian lung layout was replaced by archosaurian air sacs, as well as giving it a conveyer belt structure in its heart, allowing it to constantly pump blood and oxygen through its system, meaning it can be fast and effective. Another archosaurian feature to be added was a modified excretion system which would allow it to produce Uric acid instead of urea, meaning it could retain water better. The spine would contain extensions from it that help link what look like two separate hands together, as well as help defend it from predators such as the insects, centipedes, velvet worms, carnivorous slugs and dwindling populations of rabid dogs that roam, as well as their own kind. Their stomach is strong and powerful, allowing an omnivorous diet which allows them to digest almost anything available. Overall, the animal’s body is similar or slightly wider than a normal human hand, though significantly longer to include the space for the tail and neck. The tail is divided into 3 parts. Below it is an enlargened placenta, allowing them to give birth to several offspring at a time, useful at a time when the population is dwindling. This combined with their small size, means they are fast breeders. It still possesses mammary glands from its ancestors, though they are reduced and are only really an option when the mother is well fed, meaning young tend to be more autonomous than many placental mammals on Earth. The tail is forked with a flap of skin between them. This helps a number of things, such as signalling for mates, monitoring wind and air currents, and even swimming. The neck is quite long for its size, having about 12 vertebrae within it. The least warped part of the body is the head, and even that is nauseating for a human. The lower jaw has been split in two, similar to that of a snake. This means that as well as chewing its food like a normal mammal, it can open its mouth far wider than any mammal ever could and swallow large items whole, depending on the purpose. It possesses a long tongue which works as a more effective manipulator than the thumbs it has, and is often used in grooming as well as feeding. The upper jaw is elongated to a significant extent too, with a large bulbous nose, allowing for a strong sense of smell as well as effective breathing. Below this nose is a set of effective facial hair which functions like whiskers to help detect food. Finally, another unusual feature from the genetic modification is the presence of a ‘third eye’ on its forehead, which functions somewhat similarly to that of a tuatara, except unlike the other regular eyes it is used to see in both infrared and ultraviolet, as it has an adjustable mechanism which allows it to see in wavelengths the other eyes are incapable of seeing. Several areas of the body are covered in hair, such as the top of the head, a light coating on its back and a protective layer around the genetalia too. This curious little creature soon finds itself the only vertebrate of this world, and as recovery programs begin to pump more oxygen into the atmosphere, the world is becoming more habitable, both for them and the other animals the invertebrates. What happens from this point onwards is a tale full of even more mystery than how it was originally. But how this world originated is just as relevant as the creature given to colonise this virgin landscape. What it would look like from space How it compares in dimensions with Earth Bigger version of Pic Spinning gif Worlda figures: seed 582119131 and iteration 12503 The planet itself has some significantly different conditions to those of Earth. When normal humans roamed this world had been known as Epsilon Major B, as it was the second planet from its somewhat young sun. It has two satellites which together roughly add up to 1% of the world’s mass, and thus have a tidal effect not too different from that of Earth, if slightly smaller. The world is significantly less dense than Earth, consisting of more light materials such as water, and with a much smaller iron core. In fact iron in general, along with various heavy metals are very rare on this planet, meaning its mass is considerably lower than one would expect. In fact, it only has 91% of the Earth’s mass, with 80% of its gravity. This would mean a man weighing 100kg on Earth would only weigh 80kg, here meaning men and other organisms could grow larger and taller than they could elsewhere, though the atmosphere is about 3% denser than on Earth. This means that the physical limits for fauna and flora is significantly less intimidating. For example, terrestrial organisms can safely grow 25% more massive than they could on Earth without effect, and flying organisms 29% more. However, the planet is also very large, with a diameter of 17,329km, and with a surface area about 88% greater than that of Earth, with a fairly even ratio between land and ocean. The surface area is a staggering 958,000,023 km2, with 53% ( or 507,647,125km2) of that being water. This means that in terms of surface area, Ao-oni has over 40% more water and over 3 times as much land as the Earth does. The atmosphere to begin with is quite damaged, to a similar extent that the world was just after the Permian mass extinction, though there are plenty of plants surviving which will allow this ecosystem to recover in time, and help this crippled world give life to something spectacular, and completely unlike anything that would or could exist on Earth. After 400 million years, the climate is around 18oc globally, similar to the climate of Earth’s Miocene. Oxygen levels have also risen and dropped over the years, and are now at roughly 25%- a healthy amount in all honesty, allowing fauna to develop across a diverse path indeed. The few normal humans that survived the crisis did so by going into time travel assisted suspended animation, using technology stolen from the tyrant’s prototypes. The tech was meant to occur at a point when the condition stabilised, but this was unpredictable and so the human space colonies ended up 400 million years after the event. The Epsilon Major B they came down to was no longer the world they knew, but it was a world dominated by a whole new caste of beings, one almost unrecognisable from their ancestors. a glimpse of the ocean fauna The world of Ao-oni, a world of abominations. Edited by Nyarlathotep, Jul 28 2016, 11:51 AM.
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| Crookedjaw | Nov 14 2014, 09:54 AM Post #2 | ||||||
Unleash your inner Sam.
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I've seldom seen something more accurate. Good job. |
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| Adman | Nov 14 2014, 11:53 AM Post #3 | ||||||
Totally not lamna
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The world of abominations is interesting.. One thing though, why is this in alternative evolution? |
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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. The Ditch- Nothing is what if seems.. | |||||||
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| Nyarlathotep | Nov 14 2014, 12:23 PM Post #4 | ||||||
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The Creeping Chaos
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Yeah can anyone move this if that's ok? | ||||||
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| Zorcuspine | Nov 15 2014, 11:52 AM Post #5 | ||||||
Enjoying our azure blue world
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Done |
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| Nyarlathotep | Nov 15 2014, 10:01 PM Post #6 | ||||||
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The Creeping Chaos
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Table of Contents: Geography:
Flora:
Edited by Nyarlathotep, Dec 4 2015, 07:37 PM.
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| Nyarlathotep | Nov 16 2014, 05:24 PM Post #7 | ||||||
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The Creeping Chaos
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Geography: Spoiler: click to toggle Bigger Pic The World of Ao-Oni is an interesting one to say the least. The shape of the planet is almost totally different to that of Earth. Not only is it significantly bigger than Earth, with a diameter of about 17,329km, but it is significantly less dense and with more water in its composition, meaning its mass is only 91% of that of Earth, while its gravity is 80%. This means that despite the planets significantly larger size, a person weighing 100kg on Earth would weigh just 80 on Ao-Oni. This opens up many possibilities for the fauna, though nevertheless for now we will focus on the world’s actual geography. The continents of Ao-Oni are much less split from one another than those of Earth. Many of these lands are linked together by either large or very small bridges of land, formed by the movements of various continents. The land and oceanic plates are far more variable in altitude than those of Earth. Several points in the ocean thus reach considerably deeper than anything you will see on Earth. The deepest point of all, The Abyss, stretches more than 60km below sea level. At these depths, only bacteria can survive, and they form their own independent ecosystem from the rest of life. It is even rumoured that indigenous bacteria may dwell in these oceans. On the other hand, mountains can also be higher than those on Earth, given the lower gravity and more polarised terrain giving them and advantage. The greatest of all the mountains, the Uru Heights, have several which reach more than 15km in height. The highest of them all, Uru Maxima reaches a staggering 32.2km in height. The slightly denser atmosphere means that this land remains habitable though up to 16km in height for terrestrial animals. Some flying animals can reach higher still, though again, only specialised bacteria and algae rule the top of this giant of a peak. As well as these extremes, the temperature can vary quite considerably as well. Overall, Ao-Oni is warmer than the modern Earth, and has a global temperature of 18⁰C, similar to the Miocene Earth. Nevertheless, the climate can range ruthlessly depending on where you are. Both poles have land occupying them, and therefore some decently sized ice caps are in place, though neither comes close to the Antarctic one in size, despite being a larger planet overall, meaning that more space is available elsewhere. At the poles, winters can sometimes be as harsh as -50⁰C and thus alienate many lifeforms. On the other extreme, the deserts at certain points can get very hot. The Sea of Sand, the largest desert in the world, is regularly well above the 40s in temperature, and has been known to reach more than 60⁰C at certain years. The driest desert is the neighbouring black desert, which is separated by Sand by a series of plains and open woodlands known as ‘The Rift’, where it has been known to go without rain for more than 100 years at a time. Almost nothing grows in this region, though bacteria lay below the surface and form their own ecosystem. While in yet another extreme, the sunken swamp can have more than 300 inches of rain a year regularly, causing an extremely wet and slippery environment, making it difficult for organisms to dwell here. The rest of the planet of course is usually somewhere in between these extremes, and so vast portions of land are habitable to life-over triple the amount Earth has to offer in fact, and therefore a remarkably high amount of diversity is capable of coexisting without undermining one another. The continents shall be explored in detail in order to explain this better. Terra Incognetia (sic): The land of Terra Incognetia was named by accident by explorers Duncan Scott and Kim Yung Sook based on an ancient Greek fictional continent. It is one of the most isolated off all the continents, only connected by small land bridges, which are often themselves quite flooded and marshy, meaning few animals have been able to come through the Straights of Durka, and htose that have are often semi-aquatic creatures with little impact. The more southern land bridges such as Contextoterra(Latin for ‘land that weaves together’) are able to hold more fauna, but again this is limited, and it takes place in cooler lands where less diversity is able to make it across, particularly from the Southern Steppe and Shivering Forests. Other than this, it is its own biological experiment, formed of fauna that has either gone extinct or highly specialised elsewhere, or ones that are completely novel and unique to this land. You could argue that this is an island continent, were it not for the fact that this is far larger than any island. Thus the ecosystem here on its own is able to support a colossal amount of diversity seen nowhere else. The terrain ranges from cold frozen marshes near the gate, through to coniferous and temperate woodlands, up to scrubs, enormous grasslands and savannahs, open woodlands and even a tropical rainforest that rivals the Amazon. There are surprisingly no true deserts on this continent, and so compared to other regions, this one is a lush paradise full of an incredible diversity of organisms.. Mu: Another almost island like object on the world of Ao-Oni is the continent of Mu. Mu is another large body that has only recently come into contact with the rest of the planet. It is nowhere near as large as Terra Incognita by any means, but is nevertheless a huge piece of land. Mu is far more uniform than the other continents, and is almost entirely rainforest, with some patches of open woodland throughout. This makes it one of the biggest rainforests around, and it allows a thriving amount of biodiversity to dwell there. The fauna here again have unique members, though it has not been as isolated in the past as Terra Incognitia, and therefore does have a number of forms that would be found elsewhere, only adapted to the rainforests. However, that does not mean it doesn’t have its share of endemic animals, which it certainly does. Once again, while animal size is much more limited in this habitat, diversity is most definitely not.. Triberia: The fThe far northern lands are a harsh world to call home, with storm battered coasts, windy forests, freezing winters tundra and ice cap, and even the driest desert on the planet. This vast expanse of land is extremely variable contains a number of different habitats, though most of them are quite harsh compared to the tropical lands further south. Triberia contains a number of elaborate habitats, with a large majority of this being coniferous forests, tundra and desert with some grassland, deciduous forests and subtropical forests in other areas. Mountains are also a major part of the habitat in these areas, and allow the formation of interesting alpine ecosystems that contrast with the rest of the continent and allow many different animals to evolve there. This allows for a number of habitats, and due to its connection to the neighbouring continent ofHyberboria, the fauna are relatively similar here. The harsh and variable climate in this region means that the local creatures have to be very adaptable to changing conditions, which may seem harsh on them, but will surely benefit their genetic survival in the long term. The terrain is marked with many lakes of varying sizes, some of which could easily class as inland seas under a different definition, and so water, despite its coldness is usually quite abundant outside of the Black Desert. The land is also home to some limited cave systems such as those near the Cracked Coast, and thus an interesting mixture of beach dwelling and cave dwelling fauna lives in that region.. Hyperboria: The vast northern continent of Hyperboria covers a huge track of land beyond anything we have ever seen before. The landmass o the most expansive in regard to the fact it stretches so far from coast to coast. The vast interior becomes progressively drier as the climate changes, resulting in a desert larger than the Sahara, known as the Sea of Sand for the massive quantities of sand which occur in this region. Wind can sometimes take this sand and blow it around the entire continent, resulting in enormous sandstorms like nothing you see on Earth, which can cover significant proportions of the continent that would not normally be covered. The habitats here range from polar ice cap to tropical rainforest and everything in between. The fact this one continent is larger than many super-continents on historical Earth is a remarkable show of how much bigger Ao-Oni is than earth. The disadvantage this has for the awakened explorers is that it takes far more time for them to explore the various different regions and catalogue events, as well as it taking more time for animals to migrate over greater distances. On the other hand, it offers far more living space and resources for groups. Even though their diversity may be limited by these vast stretches of land, it will allow far greater populations to thrive in these territories, and the humans may potentially be able to find vast new lands for survival, though their technology has become far more dated and their population is quite low, so this may not help them. Regarding the climate of Hyperboria, despite a dry and harsh interior, including the largest desert and second largest grassland, the exterior is quite wet and contains several rainforests, both temperate and tropical, along with large stretches of conifers within its north and the jungles of the Slug’s Head Peninsula. Hyperboria dominates the northern hemisphere with a vengeance, and the fauna that live there are nothing short of spectacular.. Valinor: By far the largest continent of all, Valinor is the record breaker of Ao-Oni, both in size and variability. Valinor is the largest continent by a significant margin, and it contains some of the most fertile ground on the planet. A vast forested land contains most of the continent, though it also contains the largest grassland/savannah, the amptly named Sea of Grass, as well as the Southern Ice cap. The largest mountains around, the Urun heights are also present in the further north, providing a large mountainous habitat, as well as providing some significant scrublands and other arid territories to its east. The Watching Plateau is the result of a more ancient continental collision that was the result of a fusing of continental plates, producing a plateau almost as large as the Himalayas, but with much less mountains in it. Valinor’s forests are also unparalleled in size, and contain vast populations of fauna, from the meek to the mighty and everything in between. It contains several subcontinents such as mumbia and the Land of Milk and Honey, which themselves contain different flora and fauna to other regions. The various inland seas also offer a unique range of fauna and flora that are not found anywhere else in the world, locked away from the outer sea and each other to form unique ecosystems similar to the Great Lakes of Africa on a larger scale. This continent has so many habitats it would take many years to document them all.. Martinia: Not so much a continent as a subcontinent, Martinia is instead the largest genuine island on the planet. Shortly north of the planet’s equator, it is quite a tropical place, with much rainforest, bamboo, eucalyptus descendants, and open woodlands, with even some small patches of grassland to be found here and there. The island itself consists of 1.62 million square kilometres of land, larger than Borneo and New Guinea combined, and therefore big enough to be classed as a subcontinent. With the exception of some smaller islands that existed before hand, most of it arose from the sea only about 46 million years ago, and thus has a range of organisms that arrived via flight or rafting, which have developed across paths almost unrecognisable to creatures we would know or even the other animals of the region. the tropical currents that go around it keep it warm and wet, but not wet enough to form swamps or large bogs, making it a very fertile zone indeed.. And that my friends is the lands and continents of Ao-Oni. Next up shall be the different floral groups. Edited by Nyarlathotep, Nov 27 2015, 11:59 AM.
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| Nyarlathotep | Nov 25 2014, 06:17 PM Post #8 | ||||||
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The Creeping Chaos
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Animals: Evolution is a mighty process indeed. Over millions of years it can distort organisms beyond recognition, to the point where even basic features of their anatomy can change. On Earth this was shown in many different groups. Within the period of ~225 million years or less, the entire mammal group had developed, ranging in a huge number of forms from tiny scurriers, to huge behemoths browsing on trees to flying and swimming creatures of all shapes and sizes. Further back in time, the original amniotes, living about 320-330 million years before the present, long before any division between synapsid, anapsid or diapsid, scuttled around the forests from giant arthropods and feeding off smaller insects, would not be suspected to give rise to such huge diversity. But again and again, life has shown remarkable adaptability and still to change. On Ao-oni, the difference is even more prolific. The original oni was a massively modified creature from its original human ancestor, with its anatomy utterly changed from what we would consider normal. However, despite the insanely derived anatomy, it was still an amniotic creature with hairs, mammary glands, whiskers and live birth with a placenta. It was engineered to be highly adaptable but of quite low intelligence, similar to a shrew or basal primate, meaning it could survive in almost any habitat and eat almost anything. The world it lived on was larger, more spacious and freer in constraint than on Earth, with no other vertebrates or giant arthropods to compete with. After a staggering 400 million years of evolution, this vast virgin land has been colonised to the full, and descendants of this poor creature utterly dominate in almost every habitat. Their derivity is immense, to an extent where almost any animal on land, and a good portion in the ocean depend on these incredible creatures for survival. The fact these descendents feed and depend on one another would seem strange at first, but as metioned earlier, one must consider the considerably smaller differences in time and genetics between various predator prey relationships on Earth. Another interesting factor is the fact that from its fingers, the oni in its original form had 10 limbs- 8 ‘legs’ and 2 ‘arms’, far more than any tetrapod could naturally have without major defect. As a result, they have much more opportunity to lose, modify or even in some cases gain limbs as the mutability is vastly increased in this regard. In this way you can have creatures ranging from 2 limbs to as many as 14, or even none at all. It also helps give the fauna here a more insect-like appearance in many cases, and some even have developed armour and such against their relatives. Just like with Earth, many fauna have come and gone, and so far there have been 4 major mass extinctions, the last of which was the Mumbian Traps, occurring 98 million years before the present and killing off more than 60% of life. But life has recovered to a great extent, and despite its immense size, this world is vastly inhabited by all sorts of different creatures. The forms present are pretty immense as well. Some creatures have become neotonous and retained features such as breasts, thick fur coatings, the merging of the jaws and even arms, while others have gone across totally different paths from their ancestors, having a total lack of competition from other creatures. The sheer size of Ao-Oni, at 150% more volume than Earth and 88% more surface area, allows a vast amount of living space, particularly on land where a huge variety of habitats give the animal’s residence, allowing more opportunity than on Earth. With over triple the land area, this means that there is less competition between different groups and thus more can coexist without wiping each other out. It also means disasters are less global in effect, meaing the ecosystem is overall more stable than what you’d expect. However, despite the increased size, the mass of the planet is 91% of that of Earth, with just 80% of its gravity. As a result, the atmosphere when terraformed had to be made denser, to the point it is actually slightly denser than on Earth, which helps even the tension for fauna, and allow easier space craft in the early days. The humans arriving from their 400 million year old slumber find the descendants of their kin so hideously deformed and heavily evolved that they cannot recognise any humanness in most, though religious authorities among the population are reluctant to allow the consumption of these creatures. The cladistics of this unusual world are a result of a truly vast length of time to develop, combined with a large land to colonise, leading to derivity in every form possible. From cave dwellers feeding off insects, to cuttlefish like swimmers devouring crustaceans, to colossal browsers feeding on trees, even creatures that resemble trees themselves. A world without the biological or physical limitations of Earth is one totally ruled by the Onis, the apex of human evolution. Cladogram: Spoiler: click to toggle Bigger Pic More is on the way... Enjoy these beauties in the meantime! Edited by Nyarlathotep, Jan 15 2016, 04:34 PM.
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| Nyarlathotep | Nov 28 2014, 04:59 PM Post #9 | ||||||
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The Creeping Chaos
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Terra Incognitia Spoiler: click to toggle Moravian Plains: Terra Incognetia as a land is very separated from the rest of the planet, connected only by multiple strips of land, which are themselves quite thin in design and cover only limited swathes of territory. The southern ones are particularly cold and harsh and thus only hardier species can reach across between the lands. The creatures further north are mostly or entirely endemic depending on the region you go. In this region, multiple groups rare or non-existent elsewhere are dominant, while groups representative of one form in another land are absent or very different. Terra Incognetia is a vast land more than double the size of Africa with a huge range of habitat and ecosystem. Surprisingly, there is little to no desert environment due to the fact that aligned currents around the continent make it quite warm and wet, meaning the north of the continent is covered in a rainforest larger than the Amazon and with equally incredible diversity. The southern forests are temperate and coniferous and have more syncretism with the rest of the planet, including some very strange recent immigrants. The coasts are warm, lush and full of thriving coral reefs full of arthropods and gastropods of all sorts and forms. The deep interior however, holds the second largest savannah on the planet; The Moravian Plains in its east. This vast land contains both plain grassland and a similar habitat with sparse trees and shrubs, similar to the Savannah’s of Earth, though on a larger scale. It is here we shall explore various unusual fauna that inhabit this land, and are different from anything on Earth or elsewhere on this world. The Moravian plains have hordes of very unusual creatures roaming them. A large herd of strange elongated herbivores graze, accompanied by much lower armoured creatures which seem to act almost in symbiosis with one another. The most common grazers are the fermentotheres (fermentotherium moravius), which belong to a widespread group known as the exapods, named for having 6 feet. Their ancestors are distantly related to other clades like the centaurs and scathebeasts elsewhere, though their thumbs have also developed into a pair of legs, making them effectively hexapedal in design. They come in many forms all around the planet, though the majority are found in Terra Incognetia, and they fill in many niches that ungulates fill on Earth. They are found in almost every habitat here, though on the main continents they tend to fill rare or specialised positions within the ecosystem, though the larger planet size means competition is less intense overall. Fermentotheres form vast herds that can number in the hundreds of thousands, forming a vast and bountiful supply of food for the various predators and scavengers of the region. An adult male measures about 2.2m tall, around 4m in length and weighs up to 600kg, while the females are half that size. Genders also differ in colouring, with the males’ fur being a light shade of brown similar to gold, with a red crest on the head, while the females are a more grassy brown with no crests. They have two spikes on the end of their tail that are used for both signalling and defence, as well as a powerful kick they can use. They are not the only creatures that they live alongside though, as they live alongside the much larger and more intimidating silver rocktripe (chelydermis argentatus), one of the more common rocktripes to roam the plains. They are heavily armoured creatures like their relatives, and feed on different regions of the grass to the fermentotheres, thus not competing. Their anatomy is much more similar to that of the original form, though it is also very different in having compacted into an almost armadillo like way, with thick silver armour plates and red fur covering its body. It retains the 10 limbs and 8 legs of its distant ancestor, with the thumbs having become pincer like as a means of cutting thicker vegetation. It also has a long whip like tail used to intimidate other animals. They are significantly larger than the fermentotheres, measuring about 5m long overall and weighing almost 2 tonnes when fully grown. The teeth in their lower jaws are faced toward one another, giving the appearance of a single jaw like their ancestor, unlike other groups which have evolved two layers of teeth to compensate. The feet have one digit and resemble the hooves of horses, allowing a trotting sound as they scuttle through the grass in search of a meal. They are not totally herbivorous though and will snatch up an insect or small saurodont if they get the chance. Their relationship with the fermentotheres is mutual in regard, as they offer protection for the lankier creatures while the latter lead migrations. They are not completely safe from other animals though, as they can still face harassment from some of the flying creatures here, particularly draconians which rule the skies of this world. One particularly dangerous one is the Moravian grass-dragon (agrodracon terriblis), a beast resembling many of Earth’s birds of prey. The draconian’s build is nothing short of bizarre for a resident of Earth. Their front limbs, their thumbs have developed 4 quadrilateral opposed fingers which act as talons to grab or maim objects. The 2nd and 4th pair of legs are used for walking on land and are again similar to those of the rockripes and saurodonts in design. The 1st and 3rd pairs however, have greatly extended and sharpened, covered by a thick layer of integument and complex nerve membranes, not that different from the wings of pterosaurs, which they use for flight in a similar way to Earth’s dragonflies, giving them their name. This species is part of the megadraconian clade, which houses many of the more large and unusual species. The grass-dragon measures about 1.6m long, has a 3.7m front and 2.7m back wingspan and weighs in the region of 35kg. The head is very elongated like that of a bird or pterosaur, though one can easily notice the heterodont design still in place after all this time. The incisors are large and used like a beak-tip on their heads, great to grip onto flesh of prey. The canines are smaller, though still larger than the other teeth and work for stabbing and for competition amongst their own kind, while the rest are for shearing flesh, the classic mammalian dentistry. On the ground they are effectively quadrapedal in design, walking on their unidigit legs. The wings are folded upwards to not get in the way of their motion, as they do not have the size advantage their smaller relatives the avidraconians have. A grass-dragon will regularly pick and attack the young of these herbivores, snatching them from above or in some cases, attacking fully grown adults in a swarm to overwhelm them. Often though, they will scavenge from the terrestrial predators that roam here. The herd march towards a watering whole. Various animals gather around the pool as well. To their left lie a small group of mud-lickers (dolichoglossus leptotachys) who have travelled together to drink from the river. They are a member of a very interesting clade, extremely derived from the other oni groups, and many of them unique to Terra Incognitia, though those elsewhere occupy a very different form. Though the fingers of the original human were genetically manipulated into the limbs of the original oni, the potential genes for the old limbs remained, and in this clade, they awakened and began to determine their evolution. Rather than specialise their fingers and develop fingers-on-fingers if you will, they redeveloped the old limb structures, using limbs to move about in a more standard tetrapod manner. Of course, they only have two limbs and are therefore very different to forms elsewhere, which usually have many sets of limbs. They have very short but thick necks as well, almost indistinguishable from the body and head. As a result, their heads are very large and can contain a lot of food to eat. Without any arms of any kind, they have instead resorted to using their tongues as their main manipulator, using it like a tentacle to gather food, communicate, grab objects and even form elaborate symbols to determine their emotions. The clade they belong to are also unusual in that they have almost no body hair at all, having turned most of their skin into scales. The only hairy areas of their bodies left are the whiskers and those inside their external ears, which somewhat resemble those of horses. Their huge heads and lack of limbs requires that they have a long tail to help them balance, which often leads to them appearing almost tripedal as they try to reach for food. The lower jaws are still well separated from one another. The canines are virtually absent, leaving only the incisors and molars remaining, with each jaw having 2 rows which merge seamlessly similar to the individual lower jaw of a normal tetrapod on Earth. In this group the third eye originally engineered is still vaguely present, but no more so than in a tuatara. This species is an adaptable omnivore with a bias towards vegetation, using its tongue to grab food, its incisors to cut and its molars to chew it down and eat it. it still possesses lips from its ancestors to help protect its teeth, giving it a classic mammalian appearance to it. Various relatives, including herbivorous forms exist in other parts of the continent as well. However, they also have predatory cousins, the rippers, which will be explained in detail soon enough. By far the most aggressive of the herbivores are the tooth-horns (ceradontus macros), enormous introcephaloids belonging to the group known as ‘kaiju (Japanese for strange beast). They have an incredibly different arrangement from other animals due to their upside down-heads. Literally. The two lower jaws have become the upper jaws and vice versa due to a bizarre ancient mutation. The eyes on the bottom of the creature proved beneficial when looking for plants, and while their vision was more limited, they developed their hearing and smell against predators. This particular species uses enormous teeth as horn like structures for display and defence. These animals have 6 legs and pincer like arms, and are therefore huge. An adult tooth-horn will measure about 12m in length and weigh about 13 tonnes, with the horns reaching up to a metre in length, making highly effective anti-predator weapons. Juveniles are semi-aquatic like hippos and occupy a different niche to their adult forms which are terrestrial low-browsers. Their skin is grey, thick and leathery with scattered hairs all around. On it are tiny parasites, known as lesser pricks (haemophagus minor), which are some of the smaller post-humans, yet the most horrific to behold. A lesser prick is only about 3-4cm long, with the females being larger, and has a very fascinating anatomy toward it. the lower jaws have refused together to allow a more effective bite, possessing four very large canines used to penetrate skin, with the animal’s lips having a thick suction power which allows it to grip onto the item effectively. The limbs are simplistic and are also designed for maximum gripping ability, which is especially effective when dealing with large animals such as the tooth-horns. Their saliva is similar to that of a vampire bat, making sure that blood does not clot while they are feeding. They have surprisingly powerful jumping abilities, allowing them to move between hosts with a good level of efficiency, though inevitably some will be trampled on or taken by predators. Predators such as the prick-biter (herpelestes spp), thrive on these tiny creatures. They are members of a different draconian clade that has developed a body size more similar to that of birds. Not all species of course are small in size, but many of them are. Prick-biters have a length of 20cm and a 30+23cm wingspan, being quite small. They have mutually beneficial relationships with the large herbivores, picking off parasites from them to make their lives easier, as well as gaining a food source in the process. They feed off not only the pricks but more regular insect-prey as well, thus not being too specialised towards other vertebrate prey. Their thin snouts and brown integument allows them to both camouflage with their huge hosts, and effectively pick off the parasites. The tooth-horns are not their only benefactors of course. A low shaking sound covers the ground as the lake shows another animal come towards the drinking hole. These are a small herd of gigantic animals known as enormocentaurs (dynamotherium occidentalis) some of the biggest animals on the plains by far. While slightly outsized by their relatives further south, the enormocentaurs are a huge animal. While centaurs are a rare breed in Terra Incognetia, the clades that do exist here are very bizarre compared to their relatives elsewhere, with these ones having become giants. The body is quite compack with pillar like legs which it balances on, with the front pair longer than the back. Behind its sloping back and thick mane of hair lies a tail making up about a third of the animal’s overall length, somewhat resembling a brachiosaur. Above the animals torso, is a secondary torso with two highly muscular arms with four digits, in a radial shape, ideal for tearing down trees and moving large objects. The most bizarre feature of all is the head, which has a spine coming out of it somewhat resembling the dinosaur parasaurolophus superficially, though attached to it is a blue crest that is used for signalling and sexual display, contrasting greatly with its overall orange body and black fur. The animal still has notable heterodonty, with a large pair of canines in the upper jaw that are often used in fighting with other individuals. The lower jaws are even stranger, having large lip extensions that resemble a proboscis on each jaw, somewhat like an elephant’s trunk. They help direct branches and shrubs towards the giant’s mouth, making them effective eating machines. An adult male enormocentaur measures about 22m in length, measures just over 6m at the middle shoulder, can reach about 8m tall overall and can weigh up to 27 tonnes. Females lack the brightly coloured crest on the head, and have smaller dimension around 15-20 tonnes. The females and calves will travel in small herds around the plains and forests, while the bulls are solitary in nature. Predators for these animals are almost non-existent. Almost… While the mud-lickers may be relatively harmless to many animals, their relatives are another story entirely. Most of Terra Incognetia’s most fearsome predators are the rippers, a clade of ruthless beasts with sharp teeth and terrible jaws. The most common on the plains are the shriekhounds (deinophoneus lupis), pack hunting monsters which roam the plains in search of effective prey. they are sociable animals, somewhat resembling Earth’s raptors of the past. Unlike them, they have no forelimbs or feathers, and instead rely on huge heads and serrated teeth. Their tongues are rough and bumpy, allowing not only a good grip on prey but an ability to maim as well. They also have a venomous bite, which increases the speed in which they can make a kill. Their third eye is particularly pronounced and allows them to monitor the conditions around them with stunning efficiency, helping detect various things their normal eyes couldn't, and thus helping them hunt like dogs. The feet are scarily maniraptoran in appearance, with the four fingers being walked on while the fifth is separate from the others and is opposable, resembling the sickle claw of the raptors of old. Shriekhounds vary considerably in size- the alpha females are the largest, measuring about 4.5m long and weighing about 300kg or more, with recessive females being slightly smaller. The males are sleeker and more agile, measuring 3.5m in length and weighing just over 120kg, and their agility allows them to do a lot hunting. They get their name from their vicious shrieking noises that they make as they hunt, using a high pitched noise to intimidate prey into positions and then cornering them. They seize their chance and begin to ambush the herd, picking around the sides seeing for a way to get to the young. The call of the fermentortheres causes them to fall into place with the rocktripes, forming a defense circle around the young of both species. The hounds look for a gap in the herd eerily while the herbivores panic, with the rocktripes flashing their whip like tails in intimidation at the predators. Of course, individual shriekhounds wouldn’t dare attack an adult of these armoured giants, though their offspring are another story entirely. A baby rocktripe, with its armour not fully formed yet has wondered out of the herd, looking for another place to hide. The mother calls for it, but is unable to leave the herd due to the greater need of them. The hounds begin to close in when something else moves out of the trees, while the mother begins to take her chance and charge. Out of the bordering forests and scrubs comes a far more intimidating beast than the shriekhounds, one that easily dwarfs them in almost every aspect; the tyrant-ripper (xiphoglossius titaniforms). This beast is much more robust than its relatives, having an enormous head packed with razor sharp teeth. The teeth at the front are shaped like railroad spikes and are perfect for gripping and crushing with power, while the back teeth are good for shearing flesh from the victim quickly. The lack of forelimbs allows the head to be even larger than it would otherwise be, and its powerful build gives it a superficial resemblance to the tyrannosaurs and carcharadontosaurs of Earth. an adult tyrant-ripper will measure about 16m in length and can weigh up to 10 tonnes, easily dwarfing all competition on Terra Incognetia, and this combined with its devastating bite allow it to take on almost any prey it wants. Fortunately, this animal is not interested in feeding, as its stomach is full and is merely thirsty, though it nevertheless terrifies the smaller relatives. Its skin is scaly and bumpy, covered in scutes. They are somewhat like those of a pangolin, though much smaller and finer, resembling lizard scales. They are typically an emerald green colour like those of lizards as well, though at times the males will possess a redder colour during the mating season, as they pump their scales with blood cells to give it a more red colour. Like their relatives, the only points of hair they have on their body are inside their ears, as even the whiskers have now atrophied. Its third eye has also atrophied, and it relies primarily on its sense of smell to find prey, though it also has good vision and decent hearing. The head of the animal makes almost one eighth of its body length, and the jaws contain some devastating power. In fact it may have the most powerful overall bite of any terrestrial animal- scientists have estimated a maximum biting power between 42000N and 6800N- easily enough to smash bones of large fauna. The tongue of the animal is no mean feat either-it is heavily serrated and works like a spear to inflict deep wounds in its prey at times when its jaws would not properly work, such as against the enormocentaurs. It is also effective to lap up water into its mouth, as it has one of the longest tongues on the planet, bar the marine fauna. Due to its sheer size, it is not a particularly fast mover, though it doesn’t need to be, as it tends to attack the tooth-horns and juvenile enormocentaurs primarily. It also takes carrion as well at times when it is less able to hunt. In between its scales lie many parasites, including the occasional greater prick (haemophagus major) which makes its residence here. They are larger than their relative, measuring about 5.5cm in length, and have much more impressive hairs on their back, and longer legs to travel greater distances more quickly. They may resemble rodents from a distance when on the ground, though their diet is entirely the blood of other animals, particularly mega fauna like this. Like the giant herbivores, the tyrant-ripper will employ the help of prick-biters to clean it and keep its skin in good condition, so that it does not gain infections. Overall, this ecosystem is a very frightening one to behold, with creatures that are surprisingly familiar, but very alien at the same time. Yet this one is only the tip of our metaphorical iceberg, and the fauna that exist elsewhere have even more of a claim to strangeness. See you then! Spoiler: click to toggle
Edited by Nyarlathotep, Dec 17 2014, 08:26 AM.
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| Nyarlathotep | Dec 7 2014, 08:49 PM Post #10 | ||||||
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The Creeping Chaos
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I hope you liked the previous one. But I hope you like this one even more! Dragon’s Head Peninsula Introduction: To the far North of Terra Incognetia, the land is crooked and changeable in its position. It resembles some of the stranger regions of Earth. Here, the grasslands, deserts and woodlands give their way to tropical forests, and eventually rainforests. The furthest north of all the mainland regions on the continent is the Dragon’s head peninsula, a mainly forested region with some areas of open woodland and a large system of caverns, canyons and other unusual rock formations-the product of continental drift long passed. The climate is not as wet as in other jungles around the planet, or even as warm, though it is a very lush environment full of fertile plants and a wide range of fauna that are unique to these forests-both as vertebrates and as invertebrates. Gigantic trees descended from the hardy conifers that were introduced once spread over vast distances, with the lower gravity and higher oxygen and carbon dioxide levels allowing them to grow huge while their relatives have declined on the other continents due to competition with the descendants of kudzus, dandelions and empress trees which dominate the canopies. In the lower layers, branched bamboo, cycads, ferns and palms make up lesser layers right down to the ground floor. Some of the conifers, particularly the Atlas trees (epiarbros magnificens) in these forests easily dwarf Earth’s redwoods, capable of reaching up to 170m tall, with a subtle curve in their shape, and can have volumes of more than 3600m³, a condition allowed by a combination of lower gravity (80% of that of Earth) and higher levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide. These vast layers of plant life allow many different organism to hold sway here. What were once much generalised types of plant and animal have adapted into many different specialised forms, caused by the onset of climatic change, extinction events, and a huge array of ecological niches to occupy. The insects here come in a range of shapes and sizes that even on Earth would be surprising, but even more so are the vertebrates here, which have adapted incredibly to their new habitat, and in remarkable diversity. Faunal Descriptions: On the forest floor, far below the covers of the trees, swarms of tiny ants move leaves to and from their nests, trying desperately to avoid the local predators here, of which there are many indeed. They are known as mower ants (myrmecognathos ssp). These are descendants of the leaf cutter ants that were once introduced. They are not that different from their ancestors, though they have adapted to include other features that will allow them to repel the predators of the region. Their abdomens include strong poison glands to store additional formic acid, meaning that any predator that tries to eat them will be left with a bitter taste or even a dangerous poisoning. They are also more organised and intelligent than their ancestors, able to use some form of communal intelligence to solve problems their ancestors never could, such as how to move across water safely, or to coherently defend themselves from predators, even using kamikaze attacks against particularly ruthless predators, exploding their abdomens for the greater good of the hive. Mower ants themselves are exclusively herbivorous unlike some of their relatives, and therefore do not actively go out hunting other insects or small post-humans. Their hardiness and intelligence though makes them very difficult for predators to attack. Various small creatures live in the undergrowth, on the hunt for small insects and gastropods. These come in forms that would seem quite unusual on Earth. As other even more unusual creatures rustle in the trees high above, little animals scuttle between the leaves. What look like shark fins pierce the leaf litter from below, as a lonely yellow beetle runs for its life. The fins corner the small creature and a shape comes out, snatching it up and devouring it rapidly. The creature that comes out looks on one hand very typical, but on the other hand unique and interesting. Litter-sharks (carcharospondylus occidentalis) are some of the most common of the saurodonts in the rainforests, resembling furry lizards with shark like fins. The fins are extensions of the spin, but are also reinforced with keratin in the same way a rhino’s horn is. The armour of their relatives is still present, but is limited and covered in thick fur. The body and tail are long and covered in course hair, similar to a shrew, while the eight legs are sprawled out like those of a lizard or insect, meaning they move by quickly scuttling across leaf litter. The arms are quite rudimentary in these species and are used mainly as feelers, useful for detecting vibrations from insects or larger animals. They are also used in mating rituals for dancing purposes, and for fighting between males. The snout is quite long and hooked, allowing effective grabbing of insects. The tri-jawed design is ideal for them to swallow their prey whole, as it allows much larger items to be fit in the mouth at once, so they eat in a way resembling a snake. Litter-sharks are relatively small creatures, measuring no more than 24cm in overall length and weighing up to 70g. They have various predators of their own though in these forests. One very unusual looking post human, even for its kind, the kaiju makes it way through the forest. It almost resembles some kind of pig like ungulate or anteater, but it is a completely different beast. A deepthroat (bathorynchus formacius) wanders through the undergrowth in search of insects. While not by any means dangerous to the region’s herbivores, it nevertheless is a terrifying sight to saurodonts and insects alike. The upside down head of kaiju has made their occupation of niches very spread out in area, but one area they excel in is hunting prey smaller themselves, using their excellent eyesight to pursue their prey. The head is immensely enlongaged, with the jaws having fused together. The lips of the animal have extended beyond the jaws to resemble some kind of trunk it uses to forage in litter for its prey. The animals head is one of the longest in proportion to its body of any animal, though a lot of this is the animal’s throat between the mouth and the main part of the skull. The eyes are almost stalk-like in appearance, and will close tightly if ever swarmed by ants or besieged by aggressive saurodonts. It also protects them when they rub against the forest floor as it looks for low-down prey on the ground. On their arms are large claws that they use to tear open nests or bark, or push branches out of their way. The 6 legs have a single horse-like hoof, and the compact body and short tail make it somewhat resemble a pig in its design, were it not for the additional legs and horrifying head design. The body is similar in size to that of a sheep, as the lower gravity and higher oxygen levels allow larger insects and insectivores, meaning it can get more of a living out of these creatures. The wet weather is a nuisance to these animals, and they will often seek shelter under the larger leaves of certain plants in this region. Although it eats insects and small animals mostly, it won’t hesitate to scoff up a horsetail or flower if it needs the intake. A unique ability it has is the ability to absorb the formic acid into bumps on its skin, meaning that anything that attacks it will be poisoned with acid. They thus have black and white fur to warn predators not to eat them Above them in the trees, a wide range of fascinating creatures live. Many saurodonts make their living in these trees, feeding off small insects. But by far the most dominant of all the arboreal fauna here are the arachnimimids- incredible spider like creatures which appear borderline lovecraftian compared to anything seen elsewhere. Many different species exist all over the planet, taking all sorts of arboreal niches, and even some terrestrial ones. The fact they have 8 legs makes them much better climbers than any tetrapod you see on Earth, and their flexibility in the tree tops allows them to be slick and manoeuvrable. One particularly common species in the Dragon’s head peninsula is the hanging spideroni (arbrarachnis stauropoda), an omnivorous beast which could be interpreted to resemble the sloths of the Amazon. These animals are far more active than any modern sloth, and their acrobatics are quite impressive when need be. They hang under tree branches when trying to find their food, whether it be fruit, leaves, insects or snails, and will pick with their small forelimbs to stuff it into their strange mouths. The upper jaw has mostly atrophied in this group, leading to the jaws resembling those of insects. Strangely enough, they still possess external ears, making them appear more eery compared to what a normal spider like creature would be. They are quite intelligent and sociable animals, and usually live in groups which travel through the forests while avoiding browsing animals and their carnivorous relatives. Hanging spideronis are pretty average in size, with a snout to vent length of about 85cm, a leg-span of almost 1.5m and a weight of around 18kg on average, though they are easily capable of getting larger than this in the right conditions. Indeed various relatives of theirs do so regularly. One of the most numerous medium-large herbivores in the rainforests are the bluecones (hymenocephalus caerulia), a strangely dimorphic exapod which holds a similar ecological niche to deer and okapi of Earth. They have moderately long legs for moving through thickets but not too long as to make it clumsy. The lower gravity means that animals can be lankier than their equivalents on Earth, which is quite ideal for animals to become fairly tall. While fairly similar to its relative on the plains, it is quite different in build, with a more robust body and shorter head, but longer neck to reach for taller branches. An adult male bluecone will stand about 2.5m tall and weigh almost 700kg when fully grown, though females are only a third of this size, and have less long necks. The larger males tend to be a lighter bleached yellow colour compared to the bark-brown colour of females, with both genders having dappled fur with white spots, somewhat like young tapirs to help camouflage, with the young having much more prominent coats. Another major difference is the males have a large blue crest on the top of their heads, used for sexual display in place of the spectacular horns or coloured hairs that other post-humans will possess. Even for their kind, they are particularly heterodontous, and possess very enlargened canines which are used to take apart larger plants, or strip bark. They also serve well to defend the creatures from ruthless predators which exist in these forests, even ones like the rippers. One predator they are not as prepared for though lives here too. While the arachnimimids occupy a lot of primate and sloth like niches, there are also a clade which are more predatory in design. Most of them will take on other arachnimimids or saurodonts, but one in particular specialises itself to hunt large animals. The savager (sarcophilus priscus) is a far more terrifying example of a predator. It has managed to pursue the incredible feats of such killers as the Haast’s Eagle or wolverine, taking on prey much larger than itself and being quite successful in doing so. They are highly arboreal animals, but are also more terrestrial than their relatives. More robust than the spideroni, an adult savager reaches more than a metre from snout to vent, with a 1.5m leg span and weighs over 30kg when fully grown. Their foot claws are larger than the claws on a tiger, and inflict deep wounds. Similarly, their horizontal jaws inflict a powerful grip like an ant’s and can easily cut through flesh and blood, though their main purpose is similar to that of a lion, which is to strangle the prey by cutting off the windpipe. When the prey is too large for an individual, it will resort to hunting in small groups, even if the animals are quite solitary in nature under normal circumstances. The black fur and red eyes make them appear very intimidating but also hard to detect from above. The problem these creatures have in their jumping habitat is that it is dangerous and if they misaim their jumps, they can land up killed from their own self-imposed falls. They can also be shaken off if they are not careful, so their claws are used to dig into the furry flesh the same way that pricks will do in their hosts. When not hunting giant prey items, they will spend much of their time hunting saurodonts of various forms, working somewhat similar to cats of various forms, meaning they are not entirely limited to one particular item of food. As well as various types of trees making up the upper layers, descendants of dandelions, tomatoes, oranges, kudzus and the like make up lesser types of flora in this region of the forest. Being the furthest north of all the continent, the climate is the warmest and wettest as a result, meaning the climate is quite similar to that of Earth’s interior Amazon, full of wetlands and swamps. Surrounding the lakes are various flowers which wait for pollinating insects such as bees and butterflies, though they are not the only animals that perform that task. Another creature living in this remarkable forest, which bears an uncanny resemblance to multiple creature on earth is the emerald flutterbeast (anthoglossus chlorotrichos), an unusual form of avidraconian, which has adapted to live entirely off the nectar of the various types of flowers that dwell in the forests, with a long proboscis that allows it to reach inside the flowers and feast on the nectar while also picking up pollen for the plants to use to reproduce over large distances and prevent inbreeding. The long tail extensions are somewhat like the tail feathers of birds, which allow them to be manoeuvrable in air. The four wings fly in contrast with one another, allowing a very effective hovering similar to that of dragonflies, which helps them conserve energy in the individual wings and allow them to not require as much energy as humming birds of the same size. The jaws have practically fused together, with a long tongue being used to get the nectar inside. The whiskers are used specifically for the purpose of gathering pollen to assist the plants in reproducing, making it go a step further than the birds in that it actively helps the plants in their reproductive efforts, having developed to resemble sticky feathers. In the waters below, a number of interesting forms of post-human have developed that are simply unlike anything you would see on Earth. These include aquatic relatives of the creatures in the rest of the forest, but also immigrants from the open ocean which have adopted their own unique forms. One of the lifeforms that thrives in these waters is an ambush predator. It is a distant relative of the litter-shark, probably separated genetically by about 50 million years. It resembles some kind of strange cross between a river dolphin and a caiman, swimming around in rivers and waiting for animals to come nearby the surface. This swamp-sifter (hipposuchiforms palustris) spends much of its time swimming through the murky waters feeding on crustaceans, using its thumb-derived feelers to detect vibrations in the water and thus go after its prey. The crustaceans it feeds upon can get quite large due to lack of competition and lower gravity, just as they could in the Silurian. Certain forms of shrimp for example can reach over a metre in length and provide a hearty meal for a sifter. It also lives alongside several forms of freshwater squid, though these tend to be too fast for sifters except for the juveniles. An adult swamp-shifter measures about 3.5m in length and weighs in the region of 220kg. This allows it to not just feed on shrimp and small squid, but also to take on land prey. it will wait on the banks of rivers waiting for its prey, till they arrive. And here some come. A small herd of bipedal herbivores moves closer. These appear distant relatives of the lickers and rippers, though they are significantly more basal. They still retain body hair and a two pronged tail, and the ‘feet’ resemble a human hand more, being partially opposable. The triskelids are a more basal clade than the others, with a unique feature being that they use their tails as effective tripods while standing still, allowing some of them to become quite tall when they need to be. The third eyes on many are still very present and have heat detecting abilities, which means that they are less likely to be ambushed by creatures such as the savagers. This particular species is one of the most common, being the big-mirds (struthiotherium diplocaudus), due to their strange resemblance to ratites in build and lifestyle. The long necks of their distant ancestors have proven beneficial in allowing them to be much more flexible than the necks of regular mammals and thus open them to a wider range of ecological niches than they would otherwise be able to have. In this case, it allows them to browse and groom more effectively and directly. The original oni had a dozen vertebrae compared to the 7 of a human, and this animal has about 17, which is fairly standard. An adult big-mird can stand about 3.5m tall and weigh in the region of 400kg. the fur is a silky grey colour in the males, while the females is brown, tinted with algae. The tail is used to balance while reaching to the further heights. It is thus a standard sized creature, dwarved by its relatives in the Jaw dual-peninsula. They are common omnivores, often participating in browsing, while the grazing animals elsewhere are quite rare. They also have various smaller relatives they share their habitat with, though they are less common and occupy different niches. A juvenile, only about 1.5m tall comes near the water to try and drink from the water, but it finds itself being snatched by the neck by a hungry sifter, who begins dragging it under the water. The other mirds still possess their canines, and so try and bite at the creature to make it let go, but it is a hungry determined creature. They do begin to mob the beast to try and repel it from their kin. But another predator has watched in the shadows and is ready to exploit the situation in its own way. While the rippers dominate a lot of predator niches in Terra Incognetia, there are some quite notable exceptions. The rippersnapper (serpentognathus terriblis) is a predatory exapod, which is quite unusual considering the prominence of rippers in other parts of the continent. Rippersnappers occupy a somewhat convergent position with the scathebeasts and predator centaurs of the other continents, and indeed they have their own relatives on other continents, possibly arriving there or here via island hopping. Rippersnappers are ambush predators predators that hunt like dogs in the rainforest. Being cursorial in a rainforest is somewhat difficult, so it relies on ambush to hunt its prey. they live in packs with an organised hierarchy like wolves, with underground dens being used to keep their pups. The genders are of a similar size, with adults measuring almost 3m in length and weighing about 150kg. while they are not that large as individuals, their numbers allow them to take on animals much bigger than themselves. Their jaws are filled with sharp teeth and are quite like those of snakes, even going as far as possessing fangs filled with venom in the juveniles. The adults have less need of this, as their razor sharp teeth already do a considerable amount of damage in their own right. The pack encircle the herd, who have now driven the sifter off their baby, but one of their elderly members is left vulnerable. The leader of the rippersnappers moves in and bites at its ankle. They mob around the creature, waiting for a time for it to ultimately collapse as the rest of the herd run away. The animal finally falls from exhaustion, dying almost instantly and so it does not fortunately suffer the pain of being eaten alive. Blood is tainted on the snapper’s vaguely red fur, giving them an even more red colour overall. Away from the chaos occurring not far from the river banks, tiny creatures make their living off the insects that fall onto the surface. A strange animal skids across the water surface, resembling no vertebrate before it, yet bearing an uncanny resemblance to an arthropod on Earth. a pygmy skater (nanepihydrus palustris) moves across the water in search of tiny flies and underwater beetles that it can consume. This animal is one of the smallest tetrapods, or even chordates ever known. They represent an intermediate form in the evolution of the onis. They are related to the centaurs, exapods and scathebeasts in their format, particularly the former and latter. Their legs were caught in the middle of fusing together to form a quadrapedal design, so that while they have 4 legs, they have 8 feet. In this ecological niche, it has proved ideal as it allows them to move gracefully across the water and sift for tiny creatures. They give birth to swimming offspring which live off small plankton and algae living in the rivers and ponds, but the adult form is a surface dwelling predator. This is not saying much though considering how tiny this particular species is-even smaller than the pricks. An adult pygmy skater measures no more than 12mm from snout to tail, some of the smallest sizes possible for a chordate, and is small even among its relatives. It lives of creatures similar to greenfly, and therefore is not required to grow large to find its prey. To further amplify its ability to stay on the water surface, it also employs the use of fine hairs on its ‘feet’ and legs to move about quickly without sinking. Its jaws allow it to easily grab small insects that have landed on the surface, or to snatch algae near it, making it an effective omnivore in nature, despite its somewhat fearsome appearance. Near the waters edge, a long giant wanders into the river, stumbling by accident into the nearby area, disturbing even the hungry sifters. While the mud-lickers a relatively small animals living on the grasslands, some of their relatives are anything but. The niches of browsers on the grasslands are filled by the enormocentaurs, and in the Jaw region by larger mirds, but in the Dragon’s Head peninsula, they are taken by the scaly tongue-titan (brachioglossius maximus), a huge creature resembling some kind of strange theropod, though a gentle herbivore. It is an enormous animal that is capable of dwarfing even the tyrant-ripper in sheer dimension. It is very robust, with the largest females reaching 15m in length and weighing up to 12 tonnes, though the vast majority of specimens are smaller than this. The specimen shown is indeed one of the largest individuals, and so she towers over every other creature in sight. The scales covering her body rattle as she moves ungainly through the water in search of her food. When rearing up properly, she reaches just over 6.5m tall, though this is not the limit of her movement-as her immense tongue reaches out and grabs leaves more than a metre above what she could normally reach, bringing her to about the same height as the largest enormocentaur, perhaps even slightly higher. The tongue functions similarly to the trunk of an elephant, and gives her great manoeuvrability. Her bright green scales make her stand out quite well from the other animals around her. A young male browses nearby, being somewhat smaller and unlike her possessing what look like tusks out if his jaw. Males are around 12m in length and weigh about 7-8 tonnes overall. The tusks can reach almost a metre in length, and are used for sexual display as well as intense- intraspecies fighting. Males are often a blue colour, as there are no predators to effectively hunt them and force them to camouflage-at least as adults. While the rippers are not as common in these forests, they are not completely absent-they merely come in different forms. While the tongue-titans are very alien in these wet swampy environments with constant rain, and the sifters are limited by their size, the other denizen of these waters is not. As well as the large numbers of crustaceans and gastropods, there are various freshwater cephalopods descended from cuttlefish known as chordateuthans, which have evolved the ability to reproduce in fresh water, and their diversity has exploded in the last 150 million years. They come in a wide range of forms, ranging from stickleback like creatures to the gigantic ensatateuthis, which is almost comparable to Earth’s giant squid in proportions. With their diversity, they are also a wide source of food for animals here. One such animal is the glazed kalimauler (teuthivenator melliforms), nicknamed for having a honey like colour to its small, fish like scales. This is unique among the rippers in that it specialises in hunting aquatic prey. it has webbed feet for effective wading, a thick flexible tail for swimming in deep waters, and dorsal extensions which promote a more streamlined form. Its jaws are similar to those of a salmon, and are ideal for gripping the chordateuthans and giant shrimp in the rivers without them slipping. The 20cm front teeth also help inflict deep wounds. A kalimauler adult femalewill measure about 9m in length, and due to its thick bones, weigh almost 4 tonnes, with males slightly smaller at 7-8m and 2.5 tonnes. They are strictly solitary animals, and will act quite aggressively towards their own kind except during the mating season. The males will grow a horn on their forehead, which in this season will pump blood red and be used for sexual display. They will also emit loud sounds from a red pouch on their throat, similar to frigate birds, meaning their loud sounds can be heard throughout the rainforests, sounding similar to what a frog makes, only on a far larger scale. These incredible creatures make the profoundly unusual nature of this ecosystem even more pronounced, and they are an iconic item of the creatures living in this tropical paradise. Spoiler: click to toggle Bigger Pic Next up will be the ecosystems of the Jaws. Edited by Nyarlathotep, Dec 8 2014, 09:32 AM.
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| Nyarlathotep | Dec 31 2014, 04:56 AM Post #11 | ||||||
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The Creeping Chaos
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Skull pictures The Jaws: One of the largest dual peninsulas imaginable, the Jaws are not as wet and tropical as the Dragon’s Head to the North, but they are still very warm, and have open space, allowing for more spaced out animals to make a living here. The flora in these regions is also not as highly derived for wet life, but sticks to more traditional forms, though conifers, gingkoes and ferns remain dominant over the flowering plants here. The fauna here are thus not as adapted to cold climates, and swamps, though they deal with a decent amount of rainfall. The environment here is not too different from the Mesozoic era, with various different flora roaming around, but with a long stretch of coastline also available, allowing various creatures to be shown in both this land and on the land too. Though much more restrictive than the grasslands, the environment nevertheless allows more ungulate like fauna to thrive rather than survive here. But although the hexapods and occasional centaur are significantly present, there are a large diversity of triskelids that thrive in these forests too. An exploration of the many different creatures in these forests is ultimately necessary to know what this bizarre land is like. Coast-Dragon Holphin Mermen Tiger Terrateuth Nailbrancher Nestsnatcher Common Horror-Mird Grand Tarantulak Grogs and Boot-Lickers Sunbeast Forest Enormacentaurs Green Rocktripe Moc Acroskelidus black beauty And so the ecosystem of the Jaws has been explored in detail. More shall be added in in future dates, and artwork will also be on the way soon. So I hope you enjoy this one and stay tuned! Edited by Nyarlathotep, Jan 15 2016, 04:39 PM.
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| Nyarlathotep | Jan 16 2015, 07:20 PM Post #12 | ||||||
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The Creeping Chaos
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The Great Marsh Skull Pic Spoiler: click to toggle The next area of the vast continent of Terra Incognetia that we can explore is the Great Marsh, an enormous area of wet climate not too different to the marshy areas of Europe on Earth, though on an even bigger scale. They contain many lakes, rivers, estuaries and other wet places, meaning the fauna here is adapted for life where flooding is a frequent occurrence, as is strong rainfall. The climate overall however is more moderate than further north-here there are dry summers but also spring, autumn and even snowy winters, so the fauna here are more adapted to unstable climates than those elsewhere on the continent. Thus a wide range of organisms have evolved to thrive in this habitat despite its hostility and develop into an ecosystem of remarkable tenacity. A. In the drier regions of the great marsh, a number of different flora exist, particularly trees adapted to regular flooding, convergent to the mangroves of Earth, alongside unusual descendants of dandelions that have adapted their seeds to be travelled through water instead of by insect. Alongside them, various small insects exist in this undergrowth. Both of these make plenty of available space for humans of many different forms. One particularly prevalent animal in these dry areas, feeding off the various insects here are the ever present saurodonts, which fill all sorts of insectivore niches across the planet. Alongside them lie a larger herbivore, similar in size to a hare. These creatures known as spur-footers (smilopodus communis), and like hares, they are found across the temperate regions of the planet, and in large numbers. Their ears are fairly large, though not as large as the lagomorphs, and their appearance is much more alien to a human. They are in fact intracephaloids, with the eyes and nostrils located at the bottom of the skull rather than the top, and so their ears are used to help them detect predators and other members of their kind as they graze upon ferns and grasses. Their thumb-derived forelimbs are atrophied and are mainly used merely in mating and grooming; similar to the arms of tyrannosaurus. The back legs have claw derived spurs which are used both as defence from predators and to dig into the ground while running, allowing them an additional kick. The animals have strange canine derived tusks that they use to uproot their food from under the mud, or get under snow in winter. Their fur is a light red colour somewhat similar to rhubarb, which while colourful does not stand out too much from the surrounding habitat, allowing them to camouflage fairly well. Their habit of making burrows in the trees also helps protect them from the constant risk of predators and floods, though they can adapt themselves to almost any habitat. Their young are also quite independent and do not need as much care as other animals. In fact, the parents will often abandon them at birth for them to fend for themselves, as they no longer need to wean off the long-gone mammary glands. B. Another creature living in the area though in the trees is a more unusual species of saurodont, adapted to a life chasing insects. It resembles its original ancestor in many remarkable ways, although it has specialised towards a life of insects, and has done so in quite a familiar way. The bark-poker (longidactylus major) thrives in many different habitats. Its 8 legs effectively grab onto the bark in which it makes its home, as well as help it scuttle across ground when elsewhere. It has flaps of skin between its legs, which help it glide from place to place between trees at times of flooding. The neck is not as long as the original form, but longer than many of its relatives, while the head is quite thin to reach out for its prey. Its old thumbs have deviated the most in its design, having at least 5 joints in it to make it flexible, and a claw designed to hook out insect grubs. In this way it is similar to the aye-aye. This trick is especially useful in winter when insects are hibernating inside the trees. Their fur is camouflaged very well with the bark of trees and the leaflitter as well, making them effective at hiding from any more dangerous fauna here. An adult bark-poker of either gender measures about 50cm long including the tail, has a leg span of about 30cm and weighs about 270 grams. Their webbings also allow them to be surprisingly good swimmers, another sign of adaptability in an ever changing habitat. Their nests are kept high in the trees to not be in danger from flooding as well. A small colony of them will live together to watch over each other’s offspring while others go out and hunt, thus ensuring the survival of all the members in that habitat. C. Chasing the spur-foots throughout their habitat is a predatory species of exapod-the viperwolf (canivenator austrialis). This is quite a generalist carnivore (although it is capable of digesting limited plant matter at times) adapted to a wide range of prey and can survive in a number of habitats, including marshes. The feet are quite padded allowing it to effectively move through marshy terrain and chase its prey, and it is not afraid of contact with water, with its fur providing significant insulation. In fact if it weren’t for the 6 legs, lack of external ears and its unusual teeth, it wouldn’t be too hard to mistake for a wolf. The fur varies in colours from a dark brown to a light grey depending on subspecies, with the ones in this region possessing a browner colour, with white fur around their cheeks like a racoon. At the bone level though, the head somewhat resembles that of a snake or older synapsid, possessing long canines and incisors which all point forward in a stabbing motion, allowing effective gripping, while the molars are much smaller and do their job at shearing flesh off the bones. It also shares the tri-jawed structure of its ancestors, and thus can detach its jaws to swallow large items whole. In lifestyle, they vary depending on lifestyle, with several subspecies existing in packs. This particular subspecies (C. a. telmatus) however, is a solitary animal which only comes into contact with others in the mating season. It also has some minor adaptions to swamp life such as webbings between the toes, silkier fur and larger, higher nostrils to help breath more efficiently in this habitat. The spurfooters tend to be a preferred item of prey in this region, though they will go after the juveniles of larger herbivores as well. In terms of size, an adult viper-wolf stands about 90cm at the shoulders, around 3m long including the tail and weighs in the region of 170kg or so in both genders. They are highly protective parents and will defend their young from even larger predators with their lives. D. In the marshes, a number of different fauna roam in these depths, with some being relatively familiar in appearance, particularly the arthropods, whereas others are in another league entirely. A flock of strange animals come from the sky in search of their preferred food. Unlike the main terrestrial herbivores here, they tend to feed on the floating algae dwelling in the water and they have an ingenious way of moving around. These sailbeasts (cygnotherium ssp) are large omnivorous draconians adapted toward a semi-aquatic lifestyle in the swamps and other fresh water habitats. They vary in size significantly depending on the species. This one (c. magnificens) is the largest of them all, with wingspans of up to 5m-almost double the size of its relatives, and weighs in the region of 40kg or so. It has a long flexible neck which is very useful to fish for its algae. The head is quite short for its kind, and has a protruding lower lip. The animal’s lips are very large and allow it to keep in algae that it consumes, even covering its beak like incisors. The ears are similar to those of a hippopotamus and are good for hearing out other animals in the vicinity. The ‘arms’ of the animal are quite atrophied compared to other forms, and are used primarily for mating, grooming and holding offspring in its arms in the case of the females-whose arms and fingers are much larger. The 4 legs are highly webbed and allow effective paddling through the water at times when they need to swim quickly. Most remarkable of all however are their wings. They are a bright orange colour, and have a very large surface area, which allows them to resist the air current more so than most other birds. The drafts around can help drive the animal across areas and work as a sail in water, helping them conserve energy. They can adjust the position of their wings to change direction while swimming. But despite their appearance, they are not at all fragile, and they can use their wings to migrate long distances over rivers and lakes, particularly in times of drought or starvation. They work particularly well in anoxic water, where there are very few crustaceans but large quantities of algae for them to feed off. While they mostly ignore other plants, they will store their young in reeds at a time when they become too big to hold in the mothers arms. Here they will stay and learn to feed while the mother is absent. E. Alongside these strange fliers, an assortment of smaller relatives also make their living, belonging to the clade of avidraconians, which tend to be smaller and more like passerines than their megadraconian relatives. The white-throated jacksparrow (strephorhynchus communis) is a frequently occurring avidraconian in this habitat. It makes its nests in the trees and the reeds around these environments, and lives in communal groups to try and protect itself from the predators of the region, including some of its larger relatives. The jacksparrow order (ornithorhyncia) is one of the most prominent groups of smaller draconians not just in Terra Incognetia, but all of Ao-Oni, including this environment. Living in temperate regions, particularly humid habitats, it feels right at home within these marshes coated with trees. While not as warm as the Everglades, it has a climate more like that of Western Europe, particularly France or the British Isles-ideal room for smaller species resembling birds, feeding on various small insects. Many of its relatives will feed on insects, nuts or fruit, though this one is quite a generalist, feeding on any of those items. It is unusual in that it has a white throat somewhat similar to that of robins- used for sexual display. What is more unusual though is the fact that their incisors are somewhat twisted around each other-or at least give that impression off. The canines are only existent in the lower jaw, and are barely visible when its mouth is closed-only visible when it is eating or panting. The wings are somewhat similar to those of butterflies, with a larger primary pair and a secondary pair approximately 2 thirds of the length. An adult female reaches about 12cm long, has 16cm and 11cm primary and secondary wingspans and weighs in the region of 70g, with an overall dark brown fur coat. Males are somewhat smaller, at 60g and with a 14-10 wingspan, but have a black coat with a bare white throat pouch used in the mating season. Their legs each have only 2 toes and the legs face toward each other-being used to grab and hold onto branches in a similar way to birds legs. The arms have 4 digits and are used to fix together nests and grab larger prey such as slugs or beetles for them to catch. Their communal lifestyles help alert them to larger predators, and this keeps them safe from many in these forests. F. In between greenery, what appear to be moving waves appear in between the different wetlands. They are sticky and covered in a strange sweet substance. A butterfly, bee or small avidraconian may see them, thinking them some appetising plant and land on them. It is too late, as they are stuck. The tentacle will lower down into a large beak, which will gently strip off the insects and prey as they are powerless to move. This may sound like some kind of eldritch abomination, but it is no chordate. It is a local terrateuth known as the waver (grameopos ssp) which uses an ingenious way of capturing its prey. Its beak is unusually large amongst its kind, and it uses it as an effective grinder, crushing any insects or small animals caught on its delicate tentacles. The eyes are fairly large and give it good peripheral vision when moving. It stays partially or fully submerged as it hunts, and raises its 6 legs when it needs to move across distances. The tentacles can rival or even exceed the length of the rest of the animals body, which itself is about 75cm in length, with a 6cm beak similar to that of a parrot. It has evolved in remarkable convergence with the ancient novoforms of the distant world anthropoterras, being tentacled amphibian like creatures in design. They are relatively solitary creatures like their relatives, and so come together only during the mating season. When they swim as larvae, they resemble their cuttlefish ancestors greatly, only with much bigger beaks and small eyes, proportionally. As they grow, their swimming organs split and the basis for their limbs form, allowing them to walk and move onto land. They are designed to camouflage in the water and murk, and so they are typically a murky brown colour, though males will have silver stripes used for display. Additionally, their primary tentacles will gain fleshy extensions during the mating season where the former suckers were, though this makes them easy to notice for predators. Their lack of a tongue and relatively inflexible spine (compared to a mammal at least) means their movement comes mainly from their limbs, meaning that niches like this are ones they are better suited toward, though other species can be quite good swimmers and even runners. They greatly resemble carnivorous plants in their hunting strategy, only taken to a whole new level. G. In the cooler temperate regions, ectothermic species tend to be a lot rarer than up north, but they are nevertheless very present in this environment. They also come in multiple forms that would seem very unusual to us. Among the saurodonts-as well as shrew like forms, there have also developed a number of more sluggish forms that have developed and thrived in more tropical habitats. The aquatic swamp-sifters are examples of such creatures, as are the centitheres. The species present is one of the latter, though it has become a completely new clade. The anopods. This species is the soil-serpent (serpentolestes terrificus)-one of the most unrecognisably human groups of all. The anopods as a group are likely no more than 30 million years old-an offshoot of the multilegged centitheres, but have gone the opposite route. They have abandoned their legs of old and become serpent like hunters, the likes of which have not been seen on Ao-Oni. The upper jaws have completely atrophied, though they retain the horizontal jaws of their ancestors, though they still have external ears and friction reducing fur, giving their identity as former mammals away beside the serpent anatomy. This species gets its name from being a burrowing species going after worms and insects, as well as being semi-aquatic like a star-nosed mole. The whiskers have old have formed into a sensory organ that allows it to go after its prey. Due to its cold-bloodedness it tends to hibernate in the winters in this region, though the winters are relatively mild in this territory. They are very useful swimmers for their size, with a paddle like tail useful for both burrowing and swimming. They have hardened skin on their head, which is shaped like a drill-effective for burrowing. Its tongue is long and sticky like that of a chameleon, and it tends to be its main hunting mechanism, while its teeth are relatively small in comparison. Some of its relatives in other habitats are of course significantly more deadly than it, and incorporate such features as traps like those of an ant-lion or vicious ambush predating to capture their prey. A soil-serpent of either gender measures about 60cm long when fully grown, with newborns reaching less than 4cm in contrast. In water, they feed on aquatic insects, shrimp and terrateuth larvae, and even members of their own kind. Most anopods are predators, with the odd omnivore among their ranks as well. H. One of the frequent residents of the swamps, feeding off various small arthropods and gastropods is the pickers (epicheirus magnidactylus), a common species of draconian adapted to wading. They hold similar roles in the ecosystem to storks and other piscivorous birds. Their faces are quite long and full of sharp teeth, similar to those of certain pterosaurs. Yet it is not this which is their main killing weapon. Their arms are fairly large and equipped with 3 long fingers, each holding a claw. They will use these to stab a small shrimp or something similar, and then instead of eating it will use it as bait for a larger organism, particularly a chordateuth or young terrateuth larvae, and will then toss it out of the water for its long mouth to catch and devour. The legs are long and quite thin, with highly webbed feet with 4 toes, though they surround both sides of the foot, allowing maximum covering as they continue their lifestyle. The wings are tucked into the body when not flying, and the tail is quite short except for the membrane between the forks, similar in function to tail feathers in birds. Their ears are fairly large and quite high, allowing acute hearing while feeding. They can wait for hours on end while in search of their prey, though they are also quite active while they move around and fly, often in flocks. They will also attack smaller creatures such as anopods and saurodonts for food when hungry, picking them out from between the reeds. They are some of the most intelligent of their kind, with cognitive abilities similar to those of crows. Quite pragmatic, they know how to find enough food to survive and be sustainable in their ecosystem, without endangering their prey in cultivation. They are medium sized megadraconians, measuring about 60cm tall, 55cm long and with primary and secondary wingspans of 90 and 70cm respectively in the females. Males are somewhat smaller, with wingspans of 80 and 60cm and a length of 45cm, but have a brighter yellow colouring with a red crest under the chin, whereas females are a duller yellow/brown colour. I. Alongside these many smaller aquatic animals lie much larger wading creatures. These are not the wading forms of draconian coming to feed on shrimps and insects, but a giant herbivore feeding on the various reeds that dwell in these forests. It is the aptly named ‘mother-ducker’ (anatops giganteus) that towers over the other mega fauna in this region. It is a semi-aquatic exapod adapted well to life in wading, feeding off the reeds and weeds in places where the mermen cannot reach, such as this temperate zone. Their heads are very duck-like with very long, wide and flat jaws somewhat like a duck or platypus, excelling for collecting reeds. Where the horns would be located on many of their relatives, only stumps remain, connected to the rest of the head by skin and muscle tissue. The incisors and canines are completely atrophied, and the molars with the exception of the wisdom teeth are small and used for grinding. The wisdom teeth have grown to form upward facing tusks somewhat like a warthog’s; used for fighting members of their own kind. Their long tails are useful for balance and in cases where they are forced to move underwater. Like hippos they cannot swim-only walk underwater when they have to. The ears and eyes are high on the head like a hippo as well, and the neck is like a horse’s being sturdy and allowing it to poke over the rest of the muscular body. The mother-ducker as an adult stands about 6m long including the tail, measures 1.6m at the shoulder, and weighs about 1400kg, while females are only half that size. Like water buffalo, their fur is quite thin and glossy, making it effective and streamlined in water. Old bulls are often covered in scars from fights between their own kind, and with predators, and so their lifespans tend to be quite limited despite their size. It is rare for a mother-ducker to live past the age of 35. J. Hiding in the reeds lies a quite intimidating animal. This is the largest predator in the marshes-the telmatoraptor (telmatoraptor horridus). While far smaller than many of its relatives, its tongue is among the most developed, capable of reaching over a metre ahead of the creature, and inflicting deep wounds into prey. It is lighter in build than either the tyrant or the black beauty, but has big enough jaws to launch a devastating attack. It resembles a wading abelisaur of the age of dinosaurs, though still possessing vaguely mammalian characteristics such as external ears, heterodonty, hand-derived feet and various internal features. The scales are made up of hardened fur as well. The neck is longer than in many other species, and the head relatively small and short, though still capable of a very powerful bite. Its legs are long and are a pink colour compared to the pale green of the rest of the body, allowing to wade in water effectively and to paddle strongly while swimming. Despite being in water, it can still run fairly fast, at speeds of over 50km/h. the thumb of the animal is still opposable and is equipped with an unusually large claw for grasping onto prey, or for slashing at areas the herbivores are unable to protect. Baby mother duckers and some of the sailbeasts tend to be creatures frequently on the menus of these unusual creatures. An adult telmatoraptor female stands about 5m in length, 1.5m tall and weighs in the region of 300kg-similar to a tiger. Males are slightly smaller and have forked prongs on the back of their heads, similar to antelope from a distance. These are used in inter-male fighting and larger ‘horns’ earn more mates, like with rhinos. They are vicious enough on their own, but what makes them especially deadly is the fact they will hunt in groups to get at their prey-especially the giant mother-duckers. They are also highly protective parents, with the offspring being kept in marshes to keep them safe from viperwolves and more vicious draconians. And they have reason to fear. K. Many different species of predatory draconian exist all around Ao-Oni. Literally hundreds in fact-and they are not limited by size and power as birds are. The temperate forests of Earth can be home to such creatures as eagle owls and actual eagles, while these terra incognetian ones are home to the octogryphon (gruileo prima)- one of the most spectacular in this environment. While dwarfed by its polar relative (gruileo notoformus), it nevertheless can easily predate animals in this habitat. It is quite a generalist eater, and will feed on many different animals within the ecosystem. In the reeds, it will often go after aquatic prey or the young of other animals. For this it has long legs and powerful wings, along with a fairly long neck and head. The neck contains 14 vertebrae and is thus very flexible for its size. The head is about 45cm long and bears a strong resemblance to the mythical gryphon, including the long beak-like incisors and sharp canines, along with wolf like ears. The wings are of course tucked above the body to make sure they don’t get in the way of its walking. The legs are quite muscular and powerful, but only have single digits, resembling the legs of a Pegasus more than a gryphon. The arms however have vicious talons that can hold a prey item in place as its head rips it apart. The tail of course is very short due to living in the air and it does not resemble the more dragon like giants in other parts of the world. The wings work in harmony with on another to allow wing beats to be effortless during long gliding sessions over its habitat, in search of food. It feeds mainly on meat, but will also eat fruit and berries often, even seeds sometimes-meaning it is more like a flying bear in niche. Adult males stand 2m tall, measure 2.5m long and have primary and secondary wingspans of 6.5 and 5m respectively, with a fairly impressive yet surprising weight of 70kg due to their hollow bones. They have an oak brown fur with white stripes running down its back and similarly coloured tufts of hair on their ears. Females are slightly smaller, with 6-4.5m wingspans, 1.8m tall and weighing 55kg at maximum, with a darker fur more similar to mud. They are solitary animals like their mythological name sakes, the octogryphons are quite generalistic and thus occupy fairly large territories, but not too large as to undermine the size of their populations. L. While some aquatic animals in this habitat are mainly waders or partial swimmers, others have taken it to a greater extreme. Whereas the xenothallassiotheres and allocetids are the dominant marine organisms, they are not the only fully aquatic ones to have developed, as the mermen have shown. Just as there are sea snakes and the like on Earth, here are the hespermimus (hesperimimus xenoforms), a strange extension of the triskelids adapted to aquatic life. Whereas some relatives on other continents have adapted to aquatic life quite well, these have taken the step and abandoned the land completely. They have developed a hesperornid like form, though unlike them give birth to live young and so are not limited by having to come on land to lay these eggs. They have no fur on their bodies anymore and thus are multi-coloured in their appearance, with their tails having become hardened and working similarly to a dorsal fin in purpose. The nostrils are high on the head, allowing them to live underwater for long periods of time, and their diet consists primarily of shrimps and crustaceans. They have long flexible necks similar to those of plesiosaurs which they use with a similar purpose. The head is small and almost snake like, though long like their avian mimics that once roamed Earth (which is now unrecognisable under the dominance of non-human fauna). They are fairly small animals, with the largest females reaching no more than 80cm in length and weighing about 6kg, while males are less than half that size. They do though have black and white coloured necks to attract mates. The rest of their bodies though are a dull brown colour, occasionally tainted by algae like with manatees. Small, parasite cleaning chordateuths may also cling to them to help clean them in a symbiotic relationship. They travel in groups or pods to escape larger predators which may hunt them from above the water, and they exist throughout the world’s beaches, with this species being a recent newcomer (the origins of the clade are believed to have been from southern Triberia in response to increased predation). All in all, these creatures thrive in this habitat, and frequently breed around the shores near the surface in large numbers, where predators feed on them in large numbers. Ok, so that’s the animals of this habitat. Next up shall be the straights region and the fauna of the coniferous forests and taiga. See you then! Edited by Nyarlathotep, Nov 20 2015, 09:09 PM.
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| Crookedjaw | Jan 16 2015, 08:14 PM Post #13 | ||||||
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Unleash your inner Sam.
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Lewis, this is amazing 
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| Nyarlathotep | Jan 29 2015, 08:57 AM Post #14 | ||||||
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The Creeping Chaos
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the actual animals in picture Thank you! Here's another pic showing what they actually look like. More is coming up soon. | ||||||
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| Archeoraptor | Jan 29 2015, 09:10 AM Post #15 | ||||||
"A living paradox"
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How you did the map? | ||||||
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Astarte an alt eocene world,now on long hiatus but you never know Fanauraa; The rebirth of Aotearoa future evo set in new zealand after a mass extinction coming soon......a world that was seeded with earth´s weridest and who knows what is coming next........... " I have to know what the world will be looking throw a future beyond us I have to know what could have been if fate acted in another way I have to know what lies on the unknown universe I have to know that the laws of thee universe can be broken throw The Spec I gain strength to the inner peace the is not good of evil only nature and change,the evolution of all livings beings" " Spoiler: click to toggle | |||||||
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