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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 (65,413 Views)
Ivan_The_Inedible
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There are some who call me... Spencer.
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Rodlox
Jun 30 2016, 05:31 PM
so, if you're going to be just telling us what Arvalis' pokemon are & their relationships, what's the draw? we could go to dA and read Arvalis' posts on his work.
No, though I will be having those pieces as a base, there will be much more than just the works. As I said, there will be a lot more world building.
Edited by Ivan_The_Inedible, Jun 30 2016, 08:15 PM.
Quotes are a thing
Who will know?

My Projects
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Sayornis
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Neotenous
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GlarnBoudin
Jun 30 2016, 10:44 AM

Also, I just realized something: A project where the continents are arranged in a similar fashion to old world maps would be quite interesting.
This map, for example:
Posted Image
Would be quite interesting to base a project around.
That enormous hypothesized southern continent, Terra Australis Incognita, would have a lot of potential-- on this map it's even connected to South America. As would the various phantom islands found on archaic maps.
The Library is open. (Now under new management!)
Dr Nitwhite
Aug 19 2016, 07:42 PM
As I said before, the Library is like spec crack.
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flashman63
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The Herr From Terre
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GlarnBoudin
Jun 30 2016, 10:44 AM
No, I was referring to a guy called DragonLordRynn. His Pokemon-verse was basically the theory that Pokemon were normal animals that had been exposed to a possibly extraterrestrial virus.

Also, I just realized something: A project where the continents are arranged in a similar fashion to old world maps would be quite interesting.
This map, for example:
Posted Image
Would be quite interesting to base a project around.

EDIT: Decreased width of image, to avoid screen stretching - Holben
Dude, hit me up any time. It was these sorts of maps that got me into alternate history and, by extension, speculative evolution.
Travel back through time and space, to the edge of man's beggining... discover a time when man, woman and lizard roamed free, and untamed!

It is an epoch of mammoths, a time of raptors!

A tale of love in the age of tyrannosaurs!

An epic from the silver screen, brought right to your door!

Travel back to
A Million Years BC

-----------------------------------------------------

Proceedings of the Miskatonic University Department of Zoology

Cosmic Horror is but a dissertation away

-----------------------------------------------------

Some dickhead's deviantART
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Dr Nitwhite
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Its remarkable how inspiration works

I was upstate at grandmither's house this past weekend and sweeping the various plants with my net. Peering into its contents, I find what I thought at the time was a ladybug larvae (it was probably a weird leafhopper, but I'm still not sure what it was. Bright green, small, with an elongated abdomen such that it was certainly not an aphid). I later retreat to the house to (unsuccessfully) find out what the thing was. It was there I checked SE to see how the COM "forever young" was coming along. Then it hit me- I would make another entry, but this time it would be a neotenic ladybug! (never happened though...). But how would such a creature come to be? Well, I had a rather large animal in mind, the size of a palm at the largest. So there would have to be room for it, and probably laid back predators. Sorry Mr. mantis, your niche is being taken over after a sixth extinction (the current one). But at the same time, I had this vision of a child holding one, though these kids were not human. They where monkey people (Ukuari at first, but they are Snow Macaque decedents now). I got on a whole tirade on their 10 million year hence world, and then I thought, Hey, one sophont is boring. Its two or none! So there are Hoatzin descendants in South America now. I envisioned some cultural differences, perhaps some post-colonial tensions, and that's as far as I've gotten. Probably will never become a full on project here unless I become more inspired, or something else. Just thought I'd write it down and leave this thought, If you've got writers block, get a bug net.
Speculative Evolution Projects-

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Final SE Lifelist standings

BREAKING NEWS
We interrupt your regular programming to bring you this cutting edge report.
ATTENDANCE DROPS DRASTICALLY ON SE SERVER
This past Monday on Discord, famous server Speculative Evolution took a hit in the attendance office when it's offline member list suddenly reappeared. Mods scrambled to rectify the situation, but unfortunately there was little anyone could do. Server member Ivan was asked what he thought of the situation. "So long as Flisch, lord of machines and scion of Urborg lives, all will be well". SE, (in)famous for it's eccentric userbase, has recently been spiraling downward, and now we have hard conformation of the decline. Moderator "High Lord" Icthyander states "There is nothing to be concerned about, Discord is merely changing its UI again", but members are beginning to suspect the honesty of their staff.
Stay tuned, we'll be back with more at 11.
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Dr Nitwhite
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Double post, but unrelated somewhat. Just going to lay all my cards on the table here and give a brief rundown of possible in-the works project. Also, Busterfeild Biological should be out around august, for those of you interested. I'm very busy right now (as some of you may have noticed).

Code name: Static-

I believe Mr. Faa posted something to a similar effect here, envisioning a world without erosion. I can't remember the specifics of it or where I saw it, but I think this would be different enough. This Alternate Universe takes things to the next extreme, the environment is like that in a video game. You can breathe the air, but the buildings are static. Immobile. It can not be reacted with. Basically, life, water, and air is all that can move. The setting would be a replica of NYC or Tokyo (which can not be left) with choice animals inhabiting the immobile buildings. I got the idea by running past a car and getting a sudden vision of a black snake resting on it in wait of prey in perfect camouflage.

Code name: Scandinavia-

Original concept. Turning Scandinavian and pagan folklore into a project.

Macaque/ hoatzin world

See above

Codename: Europa-

I have had this in my head for a while, and is definitely the best thought out item on this list. Follows an evolutionary history of Europan life, and was originally supposed to be the second half of The Great Song, which it may end up. I'll post some preliminary drawings here soon.

Speculative Evolution Projects-

Other Relevant Work-

Final SE Lifelist standings

BREAKING NEWS
We interrupt your regular programming to bring you this cutting edge report.
ATTENDANCE DROPS DRASTICALLY ON SE SERVER
This past Monday on Discord, famous server Speculative Evolution took a hit in the attendance office when it's offline member list suddenly reappeared. Mods scrambled to rectify the situation, but unfortunately there was little anyone could do. Server member Ivan was asked what he thought of the situation. "So long as Flisch, lord of machines and scion of Urborg lives, all will be well". SE, (in)famous for it's eccentric userbase, has recently been spiraling downward, and now we have hard conformation of the decline. Moderator "High Lord" Icthyander states "There is nothing to be concerned about, Discord is merely changing its UI again", but members are beginning to suspect the honesty of their staff.
Stay tuned, we'll be back with more at 11.
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Dapper Man
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* I am fed up with dis wuurld *
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Okay, so I might revive a project involving the Early Cretaceous, where the Aptian Extinction never happened, so the world would be dominated by... different fauna when the K-T hits. It will most likely be done in a manner similar to Spec, I.E essay writing. Also, I've got a few creatures thought of (I.E Bear niched and Chalicothere mimicking (Two seperate groups) Psittacosaur descendants
Speculative Evolution:

Manitou; The Needle in the Haystack.
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Tenno
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Had this idea of a Srivijaya kingdom that did quite well for itself, also the Majapahit probably did not exist in this alternate history. So no conquering and collapse of the Srivijayaz and also leaving most of the archipelago ripe for the taking (well besides resistance from Dayak-like tribes). They'd go on to trade with North Australia and perhaps even set the seeds for the establishment of settlments by the aboriginals there. Instead of having the Dutch and Portuguese try and establish colonies in Southeast Asia, a superpower Ottoman Empire will come into conflict with the Srivijaya instead.


Not sure if I should include magic in this world. It would probably be something subtle and nebulous, more Tolkien than WoW. The big thing is that there's precious little to go on about the pre-colonial history of Malaysia and Singapore, AFAIK a lot of the mythology was passed down verbally and pretty much forgotten once Islam was widely adopted.
Edited by Tenno, Jul 20 2016, 06:00 AM.
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Torvonychus
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nani the fuck
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Tenno
Jul 20 2016, 05:59 AM
Not sure if I should include magic in this world. It would probably be something subtle and nebulous, more Tolkien than WoW. The big thing is that there's precious little to go on about the pre-colonial history of Malaysia and Singapore, AFAIK a lot of the mythology was passed down verbally and pretty much forgotten once Islam was widely adopted.
That is, you see, because there is barely anything about Singapore before colonization.

First we have Sang Nila Utama and his founding of Singapore, which basically goes by Sang Nila goes on a boat, gets into a big storm, throws crown off boat, storm ends, lands on Singapore (then Temasek), sees a lion, calls it Singapura meaning 'lion city'.

Then theres the thing about swordfish plaguing the water and killing fishermen, so some kid makes a plan to kill them via trapping them in bamboo walls that surround the island when they beach themselves to spear people. Then the kid gets killed because the Sultan is a jelous dick and his blood flows down a hill and paints it red, hence Bukit Merah 'red hill'.

Theres also the thing about the warrior Badang, who ate some demon puke and become the strongest man alive, and beat the number 1 warrior of the Indian Empire by throwing a giant stone across a river...then several hundred years later some stupid brits blow it up.

Oh, and theres also Radin Mas, whose dad was a prince of java who married a commoner, and the king of Java didn't approve so he sent men to kill them, but Radin Mas was saved. Then he flees to Singapore with her, and marries a new woman but she hates her, and when her stepmother forces her to marry a guy she doesn't like and is refused she tries to kill her dad but Radin Mas sacrifices herself to save her dad.

And theres also the whole Kusu island thing, the Pulau Ubin thing, and a lot more...

So, that's Singaporean mythology for you. Which I can confidently cite as a proud Singaporean.

Dys, Darwin's Inferno: http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/topic/5949354/1/



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Tenno
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Torvonychus
Jul 20 2016, 07:44 AM
Tenno
Jul 20 2016, 05:59 AM
Not sure if I should include magic in this world. It would probably be something subtle and nebulous, more Tolkien than WoW. The big thing is that there's precious little to go on about the pre-colonial history of Malaysia and Singapore, AFAIK a lot of the mythology was passed down verbally and pretty much forgotten once Islam was widely adopted.
That is, you see, because there is barely anything about Singapore before colonization.

First we have Sang Nila Utama and his founding of Singapore, which basically goes by Sang Nila goes on a boat, gets into a big storm, throws crown off boat, storm ends, lands on Singapore (then Temasek), sees a lion, calls it Singapura meaning 'lion city'.

Then theres the thing about swordfish plaguing the water and killing fishermen, so some kid makes a plan to kill them via trapping them in bamboo walls that surround the island when they beach themselves to spear people. Then the kid gets killed because the Sultan is a jelous dick and his blood flows down a hill and paints it red, hence Bukit Merah 'red hill'.

Theres also the thing about the warrior Badang, who ate some demon puke and become the strongest man alive, and beat the number 1 warrior of the Indian Empire by throwing a giant stone across a river...then several hundred years later some stupid brits blow it up.

Oh, and theres also Radin Mas, whose dad was a prince of java who married a commoner, and the king of Java didn't approve so he sent men to kill them, but Radin Mas was saved. Then he flees to Singapore with her, and marries a new woman but she hates her, and when her stepmother forces her to marry a guy she doesn't like and is refused she tries to kill her dad but Radin Mas sacrifices herself to save her dad.

And theres also the whole Kusu island thing, the Pulau Ubin thing, and a lot more...

So, that's Singaporean mythology for you. Which I can confidently cite as a proud Singaporean.
Holy shit, a fellow Singaporean here of all places!

I did consider incorporating something based off the Badang narrative in somewhere, like some dude gets powers off a slightly shady spirit entity and goes on a wonderful punch-shit-in-the-face brawl. Also, the legend also provides an origin for the Singapore Stone (but frustratingly doesn't give much clue as to what it was actually used for... why all the text if it's just a random stone?)

Oh and there's also the Dragon Tooth Gate which was similarly blown up by the Brits to widen the harbor...

The excavations at Fort Canning show that at least there was a trading post in pre-colonial Singapore, and I think the Malay Annals claimed there was a large walled fortress there (IIRC it was the last holdout of Sang Nila Utama's descendants against the Majapahit). Honestly speaking I just want a fantasy setting in somewhere besides a vanilla European world with castles and dragons and fields of wheat, why not just use the myths of my home country?
Edited by Tenno, Jul 20 2016, 09:12 PM.
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Myxini
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Vermiform

GlarnBoudin
Jun 30 2016, 10:44 AM
Also, I just realized something: A project where the continents are arranged in a similar fashion to old world maps would be quite interesting.
This kind of reminds me of a project I tried to get going in March of this year; an alternative universe where the planet of interest and the world in general worked on laws and beliefs of older cultures. It ended up not working for multiple reasons, primarily a lack of time on my end, but also I had issues figuring out how the world's version of chemistry would work with less than 10 'elements' (classical elements) present.

I'd be interested in giving it another go, but only if I could somehow figure out what rules I'm specifically going by, and how to make it scientific enough for this forum without losing the pseudoscience of the premise.
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Dr Nitwhite
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I'm not really sure if I should mention this world here as it really isn't speculative evolution per say, but I will be delving into several particulars of biology at some point. I've been letting this stew in my head a while, most of the inspiration comes from my frequent trips to the Catskills (one of which I have just returned from). Relative has a nice old farm property going back to nature somewhat, as there really haven't been any livestock there in a while.

Premise-

Somewhere in the last few years, there has been a strange happening. All over the northern hemisphere, people have been burrowing from out under the ground fully formed. They also all happen to be an inch tall. This is theorized to be a long (perhaps centuries long) cycle, as well as the origins of several fairy myths. Another biological liberty these people take is their very existence, scaled down humans shouldn't be a possibility. Yet here they are, all over the place. World governments are still debating as to what to do with them, but in the interim these fairies or pixies or elves or hobgobs or cicada people or littleuns or faefolk or whatsits (the most popular name probably being sprites) have set up shop in every conceivable "microregion" they could. Streams, woodlots, skyscrapers, malls, and gardens can hold nations at a time, squabbling, warring, and trading as any "bigfolk" society would. Though they only last about a season, they are just as intelligent as the humans they share their world with. Despite this, there are some who regard sprites as less-than-human, eradicating them from their properties (To the abject disgust of many). Most, however, live in truce or friendship with the sprites and employ them in housework and insect eradication in exchange for food, shelter, and luxury items such as fine cloth (for fancy garments), coffee straws (for instruments), and small pins (for spears). Here are a few brief outlines of typical sprite societies.

Wild Folk-

A good deal sprites can be found in societies like these, which are very varied (they have no real contact with homogenizing humans) and found in wild places. A common belief among societies such as these is that wearing the skin of an insect will grant you the abilities of said (to what them are) beasts. This also gives the advantage of scaring opponents in battle. These folk are often neutral toward humans, though exceptions can be made either way.

House Folk-

House sprites live, work, and play in the houses of humans, where they share a mutual symbiosis. Tribes that live in houses often trade with bigfolk, usually chore-work for goods. If you are kind to the nation in your house and don't demand much work, expect the same from it. Overworking or otherwise being cruel to the sprites often result in malicious and in some cases lethal pranks (reserved for tyrants and murderers usually).

Still, as always, a WIP.
Speculative Evolution Projects-

Other Relevant Work-

Final SE Lifelist standings

BREAKING NEWS
We interrupt your regular programming to bring you this cutting edge report.
ATTENDANCE DROPS DRASTICALLY ON SE SERVER
This past Monday on Discord, famous server Speculative Evolution took a hit in the attendance office when it's offline member list suddenly reappeared. Mods scrambled to rectify the situation, but unfortunately there was little anyone could do. Server member Ivan was asked what he thought of the situation. "So long as Flisch, lord of machines and scion of Urborg lives, all will be well". SE, (in)famous for it's eccentric userbase, has recently been spiraling downward, and now we have hard conformation of the decline. Moderator "High Lord" Icthyander states "There is nothing to be concerned about, Discord is merely changing its UI again", but members are beginning to suspect the honesty of their staff.
Stay tuned, we'll be back with more at 11.
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Myxini
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I had an idea recently of a habitable planet that is in its awkward teenage phase of life; multicellular organisms are present, but phyla numbers are low and organisms are primarily either small or colonial in nature. One particular phyla would be reminiscent of our planet's Cnidaria/Pyrosomes, in that they are predominantly colonial superorganisms. The polyps can detach and reattach as needed, essentially turning the superorganisms into an organic LEGO set, with parts changing quantity and location as the environment demands.

The idea then led on to me speculating that, with these organisms, the genetic hindrances that result in hybridization in earth organisms could be less extant with this phyla: their form of reproduction and attachment to other zooids could be very similar to the extent that these organisms could mix and match with one another, forming new colonies. Depending on how one chooses to identify these creatures (either by individual zooids or as the superorganism collective), these 'mongrels' could then go on to face natural selection, resulting in predispositions towards certain mixes and hybrids.

I just thought that this could make for an interesting xenobiology premise, and more likely than not the planet would end up being called Chimaera. I honestly don't know enough about the genetic and ecological limitations of hybridization to know how plausible this would be though, so any help would be appreciated.
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trex841
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I had an idea or a very small project, almost a one shot deal, about some islands off the coast of South America created by a hot spot comparatively recently in earth's history. The most unique thing about the islands is a species of sloth that, thanks to a lack of predators, spends most of its time on the ground and near water.
F.I.N.D.R Field Incident Logs
A comprehensive list of all organisms, artifacts, and alternative worlds encountered by the foundation team.

At the present time, concepts within are inconsistent and ever shifting.

(And this is just the spec related stuff)
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Dapper Man
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* I am fed up with dis wuurld *
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Dapper Man
Jul 20 2016, 03:25 AM
Okay, so I might revive a project involving the Early Cretaceous, where the Aptian Extinction never happened, so the world wouldsu be dominated by... different fauna when the K-T hits. It will most likely be done in a manner similar to Spec, I.E essay writing. Also, I've got a few creatures thought of (I.E Bear niched and Chalicothere mimicking (Two seperate groups) Psittacosaur descendants
In case I bother to post this here, here would be the survivors (Might change it so that the Aptian Extinction was lessened.)

Dinosaurs:
- Oviraptorosauria.
- Psittacosauridae.
- Rebbachisauridae.
- Smaller Spinosauridae.
- Nodosauridae.
- Enantiornithes.
- Some Basal Neoceratopsians.
- Small, basal Ornithopods.
- Basal Titanosaurs.
- Dromaeosauridae.
- Troodontidae.
- Microraptoria.

Mammals:
- A few Eutherians.
- Monotremes.
- Multituberculata
- Eurtriconodonta
- Gondwanatheria.

Pterosaurs:
- Tapejaridae.
- Azhdarchidae.
- Ornithocheiridae.
- Pteranodontoidea.
- Dsungaripteridae.

Pliosaurs/Plesiosaurs:
- Pliosauridae.
- Smaller Elasmosauridae.
- Leptocleididae.
Edited by Dapper Man, Aug 2 2016, 04:15 PM.
Speculative Evolution:

Manitou; The Needle in the Haystack.
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Sayornis
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An alternate-universe idea that came to me while doing sweeping up seed hulls under my bird feeder: a garbage dump dimension, somewhat like this or this, to which various types of waste are somehow sent in enormous quantities (maybe sapients with interdimensional technology/magic use it as a dumping ground, maybe the stuff just teleports in on its own). So there could be a continent-sized mass of banana peels, a gargantuan version of the Pacific Garbage Patch, mountains of useless old computer parts... or everything in one truly gigantic and disgusting heap. The garbage would carry with it bacteria and perhaps macroscopic scavenging creatures (plus seeds that could sprout if local conditions are right), leading to a unique biota of garbage creatures.

Might also work, on a less gigantic scale, as a sublocation within The Library-- there's a Necropolis, so why not some dumps?

Edited by Sayornis, Aug 4 2016, 09:49 PM.
The Library is open. (Now under new management!)
Dr Nitwhite
Aug 19 2016, 07:42 PM
As I said before, the Library is like spec crack.
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