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Your Project Ideas; A place to share your ideas for projects
Topic Started: Oct 14 2015, 09:27 AM (65,379 Views)
Uncanny Gemstar
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Godfather of SE
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I'm currently working on a project very similar to that with crocutavenator, but without such a great pun for the project name. Its only vertebrates are living fossils or relic species though, so not just tuataras. I'd imagine that one could go in many different directions with sphenodont spec though.
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IIGSY
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A huntsman spider that wastes time on the internet because it has nothing better to do
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Beetleboy
Apr 8 2017, 12:07 PM
Here's a little something that's been swirling around in my head for the past week.

I've been thinking about underused aspects of spec evo projects. As IIGS will tell you, around 3 times a week, invertebrates are great and are often underused in spec. Other obvious things are plants and fungi, rarely covered in any depth (if at all) in spec. And hey, that's fine, this is a hobby, we speculate on what interests us most. But the other day I was looking at some old photos and videos of my marine aquarium that I owned several years ago. It brought to mind the fact that corals, crabs, and fish have fascinated me for a long time, and that marine species such as this would be great to spec on. Of course, marine organisms are not uncommon in projects, but they are often limitted to large animals, for example whale analogues. What I'm interested in are those fascinating little stories hidden away in the coral reefs and sandy seabeds, stories of hermit crabs fighting over shells, fish turning from male to female, harlequin shrimps feasting upon starfish, pufferfish making intricate patterns to impress their mate . . . you get the picture. My point is, lots of projects feature sealife, and and many focus quite heavily on it - for example Jasonguppy's amazing Oceanus. However, what interests me (at least to speculate on) is the fascinating little aspects of marine habitats, the bizarre lifestories behind seemingly ordinary fish, strange behaviours, bizarre symbiotic relationships . . . I'm not sure how to explain this, but I guess I mean the little things are what interest me. I'm going to use Oceanus again as an example, and I don't mean this to bash it, it's one of the best projects on the forum in my opinion, and I could see it being pinned one day - but so far it's main focus has been life on and around islands. And islands are great! What I want is a project that shows the strange little creatures living within the ocean, on the coral reefs, swimming across open oceans, inhabiting deep abysses.
Man, I'm explaining this really badly. Basically, I guess I want a project about weird fish and invertebrates, corals and crabs and maybe the occaisonal island with some weird stuff going on on it. Essentially, an alternative universe filled with a worldwide ocean, perhaps scattered with islands (because I can't resist island life). I know it sounds like an Oceanus rip-off, but really what I'm imagining in my head has a very different feel to it. It would draw on my love for aquariums and marine life that I've had since I've been a little kid.
I have several ideas for this project already (the recent fish posts in the Obscure Taxa thread has been particularly inspriring), and as I frequently visit my local public aquarium, there'll probably be a steady flow of new ideas and inspiration. My main problem at the moment is a name for the world. I'm aiming for something tropical, and not sounding like it's from the Hawaiian language. I'm at a bit of a loss at the name to be honest, I've been scrolling through lists of relevant words in different languages, searching for inspiration, for a large portion of the afternoon, and nothing seems to fit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plankton

If you scroll down, you see a check list of planktonic organisms organized by size groups. I think this should provide some interesting species and clades to work with.

Oh, and here is some pictures that might hopefully provide some inspiration
Projects
Punga: A terraformed world with no vertebrates
Last one crawling: The last arthropod

ARTH-6810: A world without vertebrates (It's ded, but you can still read I guess)

Potential ideas-
Swamp world: A world covered in lakes, with the largest being caspian sized.
Nematozoic: After a mass extinction of ultimate proportions, a single species of nematode is the only surviving animal.
Tri-devonian: A devonian like ecosystem with holocene species on three different continents.

Quotes


Phylogeny of the arthropods and some related groups


In honor of the greatest clade of all time


More pictures


Other cool things


All African countries can fit into Brazil
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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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Thanks IIGS! Those images are great, certainly inspiring ideas for the project.
~ The Age of Forests ~
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Rodlox
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Beetleboy
Apr 9 2017, 10:29 AM

Quote:
 
Reefworld, perhaps? (there's no rule saying it must it must it must be an exotic name)

True, and I do like Reefworld. Simple, but sums up the project pretty well. Having said that, I'll continue to think about this for a little longer I think. However, looking back at my post it does make it look like the project would be limited to a coral reef. Well, that's not really what I meant - although reefs and other such shallow water areas would be a large focus, other habitats such as the open ocean, islands, and the deep sea would also be covered to an extent.
off the coast of where I live, there are both coral reefs, and sand reefs. (also, "reefworld" was an example to show it didn't need to be an exotic name)

sometimes its easier to study organisms in captivity than in the wild (like with sea horses, mantis shrimp, bioluminescence, etc)
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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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trex841
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Rodlox
Apr 9 2017, 02:46 PM
sometimes its easier to study organisms in captivity than in the wild (like with sea horses, mantis shrimp, bioluminescence, etc)
True, though sometimes it's a might harder. Think of the number of creatures that don't breed well in captivity. The way Beetleboy presents his idea, I'd imagine there would be a bit of both.
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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Beetleboy
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neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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I've decided to go with Reefworld as the project name (thanks Rodlox!). I started writing the intro with Reefworld as a temporary name, but by this point I've written too much using it to bother taking it out now. Anyway, I really like the name. It's simple, but works well explaining the basis of the project. I'm really enjoying exploring the variety of potential habitats in it, such as upside-down reefs, crinoid beds, amongst other things.

I'm not sure when to post it, but presumably in the next few days, if I'm not too busy.
~ 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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Sorry 'bout the double post, but I've just realised that I don't yet know the basis of Reefworld. I mean, the physics of this universe. I can't decide whether to have Reefworld as an ordinary planet with no real changes in the physics, or something more like an endless ocean universe. To be honest, either would work, but I'm leaning away from using the whole endless universe thing. However, if I make Reefworld an average planet, then that will mean that it will suddenly have poles, and the risk of the whole planet not being completely tropical. Which isn't neccessarily a bad thing, but not what I'm looking for. I want the whole world to be one big tropical ocean, littered with islands - no poles, no real climate changes. I'm at a bit of a loss at what to do now. Advice?
~ The Age of Forests ~
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Rodlox
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Beetleboy
Apr 12 2017, 11:20 AM
Sorry 'bout the double post, but I've just realised that I don't yet know the basis of Reefworld. I mean, the physics of this universe. I can't decide whether to have Reefworld as an ordinary planet with no real changes in the physics, or something more like an endless ocean universe. To be honest, either would work, but I'm leaning away from using the whole endless universe thing. However, if I make Reefworld an average planet, then that will mean that it will suddenly have poles, and the risk of the whole planet not being completely tropical. Which isn't neccessarily a bad thing, but not what I'm looking for. I want the whole world to be one big tropical ocean, littered with islands - no poles, no real climate changes. I'm at a bit of a loss at what to do now. Advice?
hmm...maybe an engineered planet, with aquaria of all sizes - Black Sea, Red Sea, Lake Huron, lake- and river-sized, and maybe a Pacific one. having aquaria sidesteps the problem of heat escaping from the poles and making them colder. (or put all/most of the hot springs under both of the poles...though that still has the surface waters cold - unless its shallow water)

just some thoughts.
.---------------------------------------------.
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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Talenkauen
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I've got something I've been working on since January. Some of you may remember it from the final post of my belated and botched April fool's joke, Salamand-Earth. That thread is dead and buried, and I ain't bring it back.


I call it: Project Littoralis


It centers around a series of artificial pocket dimensions, containing planet-sized O'Niell Cylinders (giant spinning terrariums, basically), as well as captured stars and planetoids for energy/resources. The pocket dimensions and cylinders were created by a race of enigmatic dimension-hoppers, as a means to test the possibilities of isolated and assisted evolution. Each cylinder is split into 8 sections, sections devoted to automated functions and resource processing, two for housing custom biospheres (each cylinder gets two biospheres of a similar theme), two poles housing auxiliary a.i components and rotation mechanics, one artificial sun connected to the poles, and an protective outer shell that holds it together, and collects solar energy from the captured stars.

The bioshere sections also contain plasma shielding to keep in the atmosphere and life-forms, as well as a means of artificial continental drift. As mentioned earlier, the life on each cylinder goes by a "theme", with each of the two biospheres within being a take on said theme. There are are worlds dominated certain mammal clades, by birds, by arthropods, by molluscs, by prehistoric reptiles (including non-avian dinosaurs), even creatures from a far off futures or strange alternate timelines. However, this project is focusing on one cylinder in particular: Littoralis. Littoralis's biospheres go by a theme of flora and fauna clades found in or near freshwater (though not all species seeded were freshwater, in order protect non-freshwater biomes from initial stagnation). The dominant terrestrial vertebrate clades on Littoralis A-B are descendants of amphibious vertebrates chosen specifically to become the dominant clade.

But that's where my current problem stems. I've gotten Littoralis-A's terrestrial vertebrate fauna down (mole salamander descendants), but I'm stumped on Littoralis-B. I've tried climbing gourami descendants, walking catfish descendants, even mudskippers and lungfish. I can't find a satisfactory founding vertebrate. I might try bichirs or caimans, but I feel that'd be too easy. I'm gonna try to get this project out by the end of the month, but it's getting frustrating finding a replacement that's satisfactory.
PLEASE NOTE: If I come off as harsh or demanding whilst talking to you, please tell me. I apologize in advance.....


UPCOMING PROJECTS:

Projects here
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Rodlox
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Talenkauen Spec
Apr 12 2017, 04:21 PM
I call it: Project Littoralis

The bioshere sections also contain plasma shielding to keep in the atmosphere and life-forms, as well as a means of artificial continental drift. As mentioned earlier, the life on each cylinder goes by a "theme", with each of the two biospheres within being a take on said theme. There are are worlds dominated certain mammal clades, by birds, by arthropods, by molluscs, by prehistoric reptiles (including non-avian dinosaurs), even creatures from a far off futures or strange alternate timelines. However, this project is focusing on one cylinder in particular: Littoralis. Littoralis's biospheres go by a theme of flora and fauna clades found in or near freshwater (though not all species seeded were freshwater, in order protect non-freshwater biomes from initial stagnation). The dominant terrestrial vertebrate clades on Littoralis A-B are descendants of amphibious vertebrates chosen specifically to become the dominant clade.

But that's where my current problem stems. I've gotten Littoralis-A's terrestrial vertebrate fauna down (mole salamander descendants), but I'm stumped on Littoralis-B. I've tried climbing gourami descendants, walking catfish descendants, even mudskippers and lungfish. I can't find a satisfactory founding vertebrate. I might try bichirs or caimans, but I feel that'd be too easy. I'm gonna try to get this project out by the end of the month, but it's getting frustrating finding a replacement that's satisfactory.
maybe start off with just telling us about A, and save B for later?

well, what are you aiming for, in terms of how B's founding species is going to be selected?
.---------------------------------------------.
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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trex841
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Since I added my project concepts back into my sig (Quotes finally hit the character limit), I think I'll repost some of project ideas. Apologies for any parts I already covered, and stuff is subject to change.

Spoiler: click to toggle


There are also some other ideas I wish to use, but I don't have a full project idea formed for them yet. Some of these might get assimilated into other projects.

Spoiler: click to toggle


An issue I'm facing is that I hope to include all my ideas into one narrative, so I want to make sure that every facet has a use to the story, and that elements are not too similar to each other unless I want to make a deliberate parallel.
[1] Come to write it out, that sounds a lot like the heaven/hell species.
Edited by trex841, Apr 15 2017, 11:20 AM.
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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Beetleboy
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neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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Rodlox
Apr 12 2017, 04:16 PM
Beetleboy
Apr 12 2017, 11:20 AM
Sorry 'bout the double post, but I've just realised that I don't yet know the basis of Reefworld. I mean, the physics of this universe. I can't decide whether to have Reefworld as an ordinary planet with no real changes in the physics, or something more like an endless ocean universe. To be honest, either would work, but I'm leaning away from using the whole endless universe thing. However, if I make Reefworld an average planet, then that will mean that it will suddenly have poles, and the risk of the whole planet not being completely tropical. Which isn't neccessarily a bad thing, but not what I'm looking for. I want the whole world to be one big tropical ocean, littered with islands - no poles, no real climate changes. I'm at a bit of a loss at what to do now. Advice?
hmm...maybe an engineered planet, with aquaria of all sizes - Black Sea, Red Sea, Lake Huron, lake- and river-sized, and maybe a Pacific one. having aquaria sidesteps the problem of heat escaping from the poles and making them colder. (or put all/most of the hot springs under both of the poles...though that still has the surface waters cold - unless its shallow water)

just some thoughts.
While that is a very interesting and unique idea, if I'm honest I don't think that it'll work or that I want to incorporate that into Reefworld. I'll think of something.
~ The Age of Forests ~
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Inceptis
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Insect Illuminati Get Shrekt
Apr 1 2017, 03:15 PM
A whole community of small animals that live on and near the surface of the ocean...

A massive marine filter feeder (possibly bigger than a blue whale) and it's own world of parasites, symbioites, and commensalists.

Limnognathia descendants

"Giant" arrow worms

Shell boring nemerteans

Quote:
 
Essentially, ... a worldwide ocean, perhaps scattered with islands (because I can't resist island life).


NOOOOO!!!!! How can I make these ideas original? I already had them, but there's so many invertebrate and ocean projects out there or being formed. Pretty much the only thing going for me is a massive, floating reef of coralline red algae.
This was getting fairly big.
Spoiler: click to toggle
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Beetleboy
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Eureka! I've got the sollution to my Reefworld problem. I've been thinking through this too much, it's alternative universes, I can do whatever the hell I want!
Expect the project to be up pretty soon, I'm working on it as we speak.
~ 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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I have completed the Reefworld, thanks for your help guys! You can see the project here: http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/topic/8089803/1/#new
~ The Age of Forests ~
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