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| Umbriel; A tiny world basks in the warm red glow of a dying sun. | |||||||||
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| Topic Started: Nov 26 2014, 06:12 PM (8,963 Views) | |||||||||
| Picrodus | Nov 26 2014, 06:12 PM Post #1 | ||||||||
:Ominous Wind:
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Three billion years in the future the sun has swelled up as a red giant to the orbit of Earth and nothing is left of the inner systems former glory. The once lush planet Earth now a burnt cinder orbiting only about 13 million miles from the sun. However there is still a shelter in the solar system where life has taken hold. However because of the red sun's massive and super heated form, this haven no longer exists in the inner system but the outer system. Towards the end of the age of humanity 3 billion years ago the humans set up ark ships that which were in fact glorified seed banks meant to seed the many future water worlds of the outer solar system in hopes that in the far future they would wake and colonize these worlds. These ships blasted off from Earth off towards many targets in the outer solar system where they would bury themselves in the primordial wasteland of the planet/moon that was their target and await the time when the shipboard sensors detected an atmosphere suitable for life to inhabit. Although feeble atmospheres did form on a few worlds of the outer solar system, only one ark stood the test of time and remained functioning throughout the eons. As can be expected from technology. Who expects 100% efficiency from machines especially ones that are now billions of years old. The ark that stood the test of time was one located on Umbriel, a moon of Uranus. Umbriel by this point had formed a feeble atmosphere with oxygen, and useful amounts of carbon dioxide due to large deposits in the ice and primordial outgassing, as well as a few other trace elements. Its loss of atmosphere was also almost negligible due to its orbit lying within the gargantuan magnetosphere of its parent. The Ark ships carried two components. One component, or the first stage, was to release seeds of trees, plants, and crops kept fresh by the ship when enough carbon dioxide was found to be present. After the plants were released they would work to create a sustained biosphere and with that a stable atmosphere and eventually produce enough oxygen for animals and humans to be released from the ark as stage two. Sadly, (or not depending on your view) there was never enough oxygen/atmospheric pressure for stage two to be initiated. Because of this life on Umbriel has not turned out the way the terrans expected. Here the plants took a very shocking turn in evolution. Now Umbriel is a world dominated by a new type of creature. Umbriel is a rather cold world with the climate being retained at about 50° fahrenheit at the most and -30° at the least. Because of this, of the plants released only the hardier mountain dwelling species survived. With the most successful being Conifers, it is no surprise that they gave rise to the new creatures. The Planimals. Umbriel rolls on its side through the universe due to it orbiting on the equatorial plain of a planet with a 97 degree axial tilt. Its poles alternating between 40 years of day and 40 years of night. The trees and plants, to escape either extreme, would follow the terminator by developing movement or risk death. The development of locomotion was the first step towards becoming Umbral animals. And many plants did die in the early stages of colonization. However this terminator was extremely forgiving, taking 40 years to switch from pole to pole. Plant seeding occured 500 million years ago when Umbriel was still warming. The current date is 3 billion years hence. The earliest divergent Conifers developed locomotion by dragging themselves along by their roots which remained underground. They were the first plants to do so though other groups later followed suit and broke the barrier into becoming more than plants, they were planimals. Similar locomotion can be seen in today's primitive monopedal fur trees. When the humans created these Arks they imagined that they would wake up to beautiful worlds prime for colonization ripe with crops to upstart civilization once again. Unfortunately a less than useful species took the dominant role...and on a world colder than they had expected.... Welcome to Umbriel the Conifer moon!
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 My Deviantart A work in progress. Other Liked Quote: "The "habitable zone" will expand along with the Sun. This will warm once-frozen planets and their moons, bringing a brief springtime after a 10-billion-year winter." | |||||||||
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| Picrodus | Apr 29 2016, 12:21 PM Post #61 |
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:Ominous Wind:
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Flones do indeed use their fur/needles in part to keep aloft. This mixed with the use of sub branches coming off of the main branch aids in helpful resistance when the Flone beats its branches. Combined with the help of low gravity, they do spend most of their flight time gliding. Also yeah, using their branches for gliding works as well in that it could very well help a young Flone who does not yet have the strength to fly learn how to do so by simply lifting its branches to the breeze. Allowing itself to be picked up and glide small distances. In this case, the headcone of the Flone does not really do much to help the Flone keep aloft. Although such things will play a part in a different lineage of flying species. And thanks Rodlox 
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My Deviantart A work in progress. Other Liked Quote: "The "habitable zone" will expand along with the Sun. This will warm once-frozen planets and their moons, bringing a brief springtime after a 10-billion-year winter." | |
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| Victorbrine | Apr 29 2016, 01:13 PM Post #62 |
Adult
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So Doldrums and Flones live in the same time... because I assume that the project extends on millions of years for the evolution of those planimals. Am I wrong? |
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“There's a tree," Starflight said, jumping to his feet. "In the forest." "No way," Glory said. "A tree in the forest?” "Ce corps qui s'appelait et qui s'appelle encore le saint empire romain n'était en aucune manière ni saint, ni romain, ni empire." -Voltaire "So if you wake up in the morning and it's a particularly beautiful day you'll know we made it." -Capa "One of those capsules hit a wing." Victor said. "Had to do an emergency landing." He pointed to a crumpled plane a couple dozen meters behind him and shrugged. "Not my most elegant landing." -me in Flisch's story "Spec Evo: Void Entry" (Act 3) "but by rule 34 of the multiverse, if it exists, there’s a world full of it." -Tet "I must ask you to leave now." -Everyone (not realy though) in Flisch's story "Spec Evo: Void Entry" Projects Status My Blog (SE Blog) Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyBzYPIsLp0uHoPtT6ZEyww | |
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| Picrodus | Apr 29 2016, 05:46 PM Post #63 |
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:Ominous Wind:
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Actually, this is all meant to be the same time period. I'm sorry if I didn't make this clear. The more primitive ones like the Fur Trees are just relic populations. The "Fleshing Things Out" posts are meant to show you how they evolved the traits they have now over billions of years of evolution. Because I know if I didn't write those, people wouldn't really understand how life on Umbriel works. |
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My Deviantart A work in progress. Other Liked Quote: "The "habitable zone" will expand along with the Sun. This will warm once-frozen planets and their moons, bringing a brief springtime after a 10-billion-year winter." | |
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| Adman | Apr 30 2016, 01:08 PM Post #64 |
Totally not lamna
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I must say, great job on the flones, they're really interesting. You mentioned fiercer predators on the ground and other predators in the air, will you be covering those in future updates? I'm curious to see what they are. |
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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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| Picrodus | Apr 30 2016, 09:11 PM Post #65 |
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:Ominous Wind:
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I'm sure I will cover them in future updates. Although I was referring to the Babaconia somewhat as one of the dangerous ground predators. There are undoubtedly more to come of both types.  Especially those aerials. Also, whenever someone has a question about the biology of Umbral trees (that I have not yet covered) let me know and I will do a "Fleshing Things Out" about it. Also, thanks. The Flones came out better than originally expected. |
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My Deviantart A work in progress. Other Liked Quote: "The "habitable zone" will expand along with the Sun. This will warm once-frozen planets and their moons, bringing a brief springtime after a 10-billion-year winter." | |
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| Victorbrine | May 1 2016, 02:24 PM Post #66 |
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Adult
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So we can conisder Fur Trees as... living fossils... like Horseshoe crabs on Earth. |
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“There's a tree," Starflight said, jumping to his feet. "In the forest." "No way," Glory said. "A tree in the forest?” "Ce corps qui s'appelait et qui s'appelle encore le saint empire romain n'était en aucune manière ni saint, ni romain, ni empire." -Voltaire "So if you wake up in the morning and it's a particularly beautiful day you'll know we made it." -Capa "One of those capsules hit a wing." Victor said. "Had to do an emergency landing." He pointed to a crumpled plane a couple dozen meters behind him and shrugged. "Not my most elegant landing." -me in Flisch's story "Spec Evo: Void Entry" (Act 3) "but by rule 34 of the multiverse, if it exists, there’s a world full of it." -Tet "I must ask you to leave now." -Everyone (not realy though) in Flisch's story "Spec Evo: Void Entry" Projects Status My Blog (SE Blog) Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyBzYPIsLp0uHoPtT6ZEyww | |
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| Picrodus | May 1 2016, 03:25 PM Post #67 |
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:Ominous Wind:
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Indeed. |
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My Deviantart A work in progress. Other Liked Quote: "The "habitable zone" will expand along with the Sun. This will warm once-frozen planets and their moons, bringing a brief springtime after a 10-billion-year winter." | |
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| Adman | May 1 2016, 03:37 PM Post #68 |
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Totally not lamna
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Have any eusocial planimals evolved on Umbriel? |
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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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| Picrodus | May 1 2016, 10:19 PM Post #69 |
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:Ominous Wind:
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Eusocials were not on my mind as of yet. But now that you mention it, something along those lines will probably come in the future. |
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My Deviantart A work in progress. Other Liked Quote: "The "habitable zone" will expand along with the Sun. This will warm once-frozen planets and their moons, bringing a brief springtime after a 10-billion-year winter." | |
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| Sceynyos-yos | May 2 2016, 08:00 AM Post #70 |
dheubewes wedor
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A lot of things seem not to be explained (or at least I haven't seen them, I only skimmed through the latter updates) such as: -40 years is not that little time. The early conifiers could just switch to faster life cycle, say maturing in 20-30 years and reproducing quickly after that, catching up with the shifting light zone. That seems a straightforward solution. How come they became mobile instead? -Transition to mobility - how did roots become mobile: how did muscles appear and how were they able to twist and bend without breaking? -How is the root system able to travel through the soil and move the tree, all the while balancing it? That's a lot of dirt to be displaced and the enormous surface area of the roots would create tons of drag. Consider swimming in sand. -How were the earlier species able to move without tripping and falling over while having only a simple nervous system at best? -Have you considered the inner structure of the roots? What part is occupied by muscle and what by transport tissue? -In order to move the whole weight of the tree the early muscles had to be very strong. How did the transition from no muscles to strong enough muscles happen? -After the more derived trees break off their roots, where do they get minerals from? The atmosphere has only gases such as carbon dioxide, but they need other inorganic stuff. -I couldn't make much of some of the depictions and quickly lost track of what derived from what (though this may be an artifact of my fast pacing through the project) A cladogram or some chart would help a lot. -Are the mobile planimals symmetric or asymmetric? Are there non autotrophs among the descendants? The basic premise sounds interesting, but things such as above break the suspention of disbelief for me a real lot. |
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| Picrodus | May 2 2016, 03:01 PM Post #71 |
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:Ominous Wind:
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Fair enough,
The Ark (the ship that seeded Umbriel) performs(ed) multiple services as the caretaker of the moon. Aside from containing the atmosphere, it also needed to basically mulch the regolith into usable soil in order to plant crops and useful wild plants. The movement of the trees across the globe precludes the completion of viable soil across the globe. It took many millennia to spread from the single point where the Ark is anchored to the ground. Because of this, for thousands of years there were large swathes of land unable of supporting life. So the trees adapted. They evolved the ability to move in order to pass over these areas of raw regolith in order to reach viable land. They could not wait in good soil as they would freeze on the dark side.
This post here should tell you what you need to know. All of the posts in the physiology section of the table of contents are labeled "Fleshing" Things Out; they explain the differences between current planimals and their Terran ancestors. As well as how these traits came to evolve in the first place.
All mobile trees are rather small in stature. For a tree that is. Reaching at most 20 vertical ft. in the largest species. Their roots are not very long compared to that of a normal tree, but are heavily muscled and provide a good anchor. I keep depicting the trees with five roots and it seems viable that they could locomote by moving one root at a time while the others anchor it in place. They are in no hurry, I have mentioned in previous posts that the fastest moving trees top out at speeds of up to .7 mph (0.23 kph) So digging their roots through the dirt may be somewhat difficult but they really expend most of their energy on this process with movement comignat less than a snails pace. Seems viable to me.
I know I covered this a bit above, but to elaborate. As long as they are on solid ground, they will be fine. Their roots are their sensory organs so if they come/came upon a lets say a rock or felled tree in their way. They could simply feel for a way around. At such slow speeds they would definitely notice the obstructing feature before it caused them any harm. But on porous ground like sand or mud, shale, etc. there is every possibility to trip and fall. However only the numbest of roots would be unable to notice dangerous areas before the tree was in any real danger.
The roots themselves have not yet received a post dedicated to their internal structure. Though it is very likely that they will consist simply of a semi lignificated inner structure in order to provide a bit of rigid support (though not enough to hold a tree's bulk up above ground) for the muscles to hold onto. So inner support/ transport, outer muscle. They would probably have some sort of tough outer covering to protect from cutting, and raw "skin." It is more like a tentacle than a digit, but it is in between in terms of rigidity and rough surface. I chose this because it is very likely that as a singular root feels around where to go next, it is able to give some leeway in terms of stretching and bending while still providing taught, reliable support to the greater structure that is the tree.
Obviously I already covered the origins of muscles, but here you do bring up an interesting question on muscle strength. Well, you can see that in the post I linked to that since the muscles are held together in a chain-link fashion, that all of the smaller muscles can work as one unit when they are told to contract; thus many different levels of force can be applied. From the most delicate to the most brutal. I am sure the strength of the individual muscles would be different from species to species and rightly so.
Those that break off of their roots do not break them completely, there is still enough structure left to heal into numb yet stout roots that can jab into soils when expressly needed. Although species in this category tend to sacrifice health for increased mobility. Those that are aquatic have an easier time of extracting these nutrients in the soft soil below. Predators get some of these essential inorganics from their prey as well.
I do tend to practice different art styles where pencil drawings that are colored in ms paint are the most common. I do leave some of their features looking intentionally vauge to leave some interpretation up to the reader. I will do a cladogram, it's just that I only have 11 species created as of this writing and I don't think it would be worth yet drawing a cladogram when there will be so many empty spaces.
All are asymmetric; I believe that this is fair as conifers do not practice symmetry.
Thank you for your questions. I hope that this helps. |
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My Deviantart A work in progress. Other Liked Quote: "The "habitable zone" will expand along with the Sun. This will warm once-frozen planets and their moons, bringing a brief springtime after a 10-billion-year winter." | |
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| Adman | May 2 2016, 05:07 PM Post #72 |
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Totally not lamna
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I do agree with Yis though, some clearer illustrations of Umbrielian lifeforms would be helpful for some people to visualize what they look like, because right now, some of the drawings look like they were made by primitive Umbrielian sophonts. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, though. |
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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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| Dapper Man | May 2 2016, 05:11 PM Post #73 |
* I am fed up with dis wuurld *
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Really like this project. I think at this point in time it could be pin-worthy
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Speculative Evolution: Manitou; The Needle in the Haystack. | |
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| Picrodus | May 2 2016, 06:19 PM Post #74 |
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:Ominous Wind:
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I do understand what you mean. Those that are completely digitally drawn like the Ramballtree and Yithicus could use a redraw with my normal style so that they are more defined and their dimensions easier to comprehend. All of the ones in the banner are done in my normal style for example. And I definitely prefer them. Whether everyone else does is something else entirely. Those are probably the ones you are referring to as cave drawings, the normal ones. To which I do not take offense don't worry. It is just my way of drawing in a "naturalistic" fashion. Though I guess I could work on three-dimensionality. And possibly refrain from any more completely digital drawings for quality control purposes. Sophonts will come. The world is not yet ready... In other words: What you said has been taken into consideration and I will see what I can do. Thanks Saessy I am glad you are enjoying the project. Any pinning will have to wait until after the thread is in accordance with the rules. |
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My Deviantart A work in progress. Other Liked Quote: "The "habitable zone" will expand along with the Sun. This will warm once-frozen planets and their moons, bringing a brief springtime after a 10-billion-year winter." | |
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| Rodlox | May 2 2016, 10:44 PM Post #75 |
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Superhuman
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if I may, could I try making a cladistics tree of Umbriellian organisms? just to see how it compares with your own thoughts. |
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.---------------------------------------------. Parts of the Cluster Worlds: "Marsupialless Australia" (what-if) & "Out on a Branch" (future evolution) & "The Earth under a still sun" (WIP) | |
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