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Speculative biology is simultaneously a science and form of art in which one speculates on the possibilities of life and evolution. What could the world look like if dinosaurs had never gone extinct? What could alien lifeforms look like? What kinds of plants and animals might exist in the far future? These questions and more are tackled by speculative biologists, and the Speculative Evolution welcomes all relevant ideas, inquiries, and world-building projects alike. With a member base comprising users from across the world, our community is the largest and longest-running place of gathering for speculative biologists on the web.

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Your Project Ideas; A place to share your ideas for projects
Topic Started: Oct 14 2015, 09:27 AM (65,326 Views)
Beetleboy
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neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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I was looking at the species factory thread just now and realised how many project ideas I have, but I have no firm ideas on it. So I made this thread for myself and other people to share their project ideas, and for other people to help turn them into firm ideas.
So basically, if you have a sort of vague idea for a project or scenario, post it on this thread . . .
~ The Age of Forests ~
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Velociraptor
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A Cenozoic dominated by birds instead of mammals.

A no K-Pg project (and I know it's been done a million times already).
Posted Image

Unnamed No K-Pg project: coming whenever, maybe never. I got ideas tho.
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Beetleboy
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neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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Birds dominating instead of mammals in the Cenozoic is an interesting idea. You could look at how they might adapt during the ice age. I can really imagine bulky moa-like birds covered in thick downy fur to protect them from the cold, named 'mammoth birds' or something similar. Anyway, I like the idea.
No K-Pg event is something that everybody thinks about, and I don't see any reason why you shouldn't do it really. If you make new and innovative ideas, things haven't been thought about before, I think that you should go ahead with it.
~ The Age of Forests ~
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Martin
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The Grim VelociReaper
Oct 14 2015, 09:38 AM
A Cenozoic dominated by birds instead of mammals.

IIRC JohnFaa did something like that a couple of years back. T'was nice. The thread should still be there, hiding among the other alt evo threads.

Quote:
 
A no K-Pg project (and I know it's been done a million times already).

No
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Adman
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Totally not lamna
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A greater K-Pg project, where the inheritors of the earth are a sparse number of turtles, lizards, fish and lissamphibians.

Also in that same catagory, a greater K-Pg project where birds die out, and flying mammals fill the niches that birds occupy today.
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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Beetleboy
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neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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Great ideas, Adman . . . flying mammals instead of birds is interesting, I wonder what kind of mammals they would be?
~ The Age of Forests ~
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Rodlox
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Beetleboy Jacob
Oct 14 2015, 11:11 AM
Great ideas, Adman . . . flying mammals instead of birds is interesting, I wonder what kind of mammals they would be?
Volatacotherids(sp)
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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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Beetleboy
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neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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Cool. It would be very interesting to think about the different niches the mammals would end up taking . . . I like it.
~ The Age of Forests ~
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the boy
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mean and gay
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No Bonarelli Event.

Spinosauridae, certain crocodylomorphs, and Pliosauridae live on!
nice.
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Beetleboy
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neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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Hooray for spinosaurids!
~ The Age of Forests ~
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Ànraich
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L'évolution Spéculative est moi

A project similar to Sheather's Serina where a small number of Earth species are introduced to an arid Earth-like planet that has little in the way of native life. Cacti, tumbleweeds, fringed onion, anolis lizards, wind scorpions, dragonflies, maybe some goldfish and fiddler crabs.
We should all aspire to die surrounded by our dearest friends. Just like Julius Caesar.

"The Lord Universe said: 'The same fate I have given to all things from stones to stars, that one day they shall become naught but memories aloft upon the winds of time. From dust all was born, and to dust all shall return.' He then looked upon His greatest creation, life, and pitied them, for unlike stars and stones they would soon learn of this fate and despair in the futility of their own existence. And so the Lord Universe decided to give life two gifts to save them from this despair. The first of these gifts was the soul, that life might more readily accept their fate, and the second was fear, that they might in time learn to avoid it altogether." - Excerpt from a Chanagwan creation myth, Legends and Folklore of the Planet Ghar, collected and published by Yieju Bai'an, explorer from the Celestial Commonwealth of Qonming

Tree That Owns Itself
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Beetleboy
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neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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I like that idea, Paraspooky. I once had a similar idea, where the terraformed world would change massively each year - humid rainforests for half of the year, the other half arid and dry. The plants had to be adaptable and/or fast growing, and the fauna had to be able to either survive both seasons, or hibernate through one of them. I had some terrestrial fish which only came out during the humid, rainy seasons, and hibernated during the dry season, deep in the ground (I'm mad on terrestrial fish).
Eventually I settled on my terraformed planet being more Earth-like, and Mirabilis was born. It gives me greater freedom with my variety of creatures.
Anyway, I love your idea, and I'm glad to see that fiddler crabs would be in it. Seriously cool critters. And goldfish would be interesting, especially watching how they might evolve into many of the fish niches. Maybe giant, filter-feeding goldfish?!
I like it.
~ The Age of Forests ~
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Beetleboy
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neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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OK, I may as well show you my ideas as well . . .
Alright, here goes . . .

. a world dominated entirely by caecilian descendants. I know, implausible, but hey, I like caecilians.

. a terraformed world with a higher oxygen percentage than modern-day Earth, allowing for larger insects. Though I don't have any real ideas, I can kind of envision giant, fruit-eating beetles, neotonic mosquito larvae which grow to large sizes and eat fish (because hey, why not), and other weird invertebrates. Ah, speculative bliss . . .

. a terraformed world with no land (except possibly very, very small islands). Introduced animals would include fish and marine invertebrates. Also possibly cetaceans.

. a lesser K-Pg event, in which a handful of non-avian dinosaur, marine reptiles, and possibly pterosaur species survive, but mammals rule on. Basically a modern-day world, mostly with mammals but a couple of interesting dinosaurs (mostly occupying specialized niches).

. a terraformed world in which flying birds were never introduced, and bats were instead put there. Possibly flightless bird species might be placed on this world, but the main focus would be how bats diversify.

So I think you can tell I've given no real thought to these projects. But this whole thread is meant for ideas, not well thought-out, proper projects.
~ The Age of Forests ~
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Myxini
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Vermiform

A xenobiology project. Or an alternate universe project. I'd just like to try and get something going.

It would be nice to bring back something like Steampunk Venus or the buttmunchers if I had some way of developing them further.

I had an idea briefly today of a world of organisms that look like cartoon characters/plushie animals, but for biologically plausible reasons. For example, they have large eyes for night vision or eye spots that look like massive eyes, and their chubby appearance conceals radula-like mouthparts and other predatory appendages.

In response to Beetleboy's projects, the caecilian and bat projects pique my interest. With the latter one, would this be a project in which flying birds do not evolve, or a world where flying birds simply are never included? If the latter, then what other life forms would be there excluding bats?
Edited by Myxini, Oct 19 2015, 04:15 PM.
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| Nerites: the descent of life | Buttmunchers (retired) | Antaeus (retired) | Dante (group project; inactive) |
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dino-ken
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Many of these look like they could make for pretty interesting projects.

Quote:
 
a lesser K-Pg event, in which a handful of non-avian dinosaur, marine reptiles, and possibly pterosaur species survive, but mammals rule on. Basically a modern-day world, mostly with mammals but a couple of interesting dinosaurs (mostly occupying specialized niches).


The problem with a lesser K-Pg project like this one. Is that in order to have a project that only allows few types of non-avian dinosaurs (most likely a few small maniraptoriformes) to survive. And the Mammals to basically rule the Pleistocene and Holocene. Also means that you would lose the pterosaurs, the plesiosaurs & mosasaurs during the K-Pg extinction.
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