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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 (65,359 Views)
kusanagi
Adolescent
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There are a few pages about the non-total absence of marine hexapods that explain there isn't just one constraint but a few, none of which are 100% but together create a barrier to insects. Perhaps a plankton crisis would bottleneck lots of crustaceans, and give insects a chance? But they would be nekton or benthos not plankton. I can imagine for example neotenous dragonfly nymphs becoming successful marine predators. Another possibility is ants, because there are aquatic ants in mangrove forests. Ants are successful on the land and are exploiting already saltwater habitats.
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opeFool
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Adolescent
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While working on the remake of my project, Chalchiuhtlicue, I decided that I would make the rotational period a few years long. Now, this means that days and nights are not influenced by the rotation of Chal, but rather its revolution around its parent star; each day is half of a year, as is a night.

This is a problem that every organism has to face on Chal. If any single organism cannot escape the freezing nights, they must either live their lives during the day or go dormant during the night with enough stores of energy to last through the night. The local autotrophs are divided into three groups because of this, with some going dormant and having roots much like carrots or beets which store energy through the nights, and others which rapidly grow and reproduce during the day, and their seeds lay on the ground waiting for sunlight to return. The third group lives its life in the day, but produce mobile seeds which swim through the oceans of the planet, eventually anchoring themselves onto rocks and then grow, producing seeds again which go around the world once more. These are fairly simple organisms, and merely live to produce mobile seeds and little else.

The "animals" are mostly heterotrophic (you'll see what I mean in a sec). The land animals don't get much larger than an elephant, due to the time that they have to grow. Creatures which live in water get quite a bit larger, as they can actually chase the sun efficiently. Flyers also get quite enormous, due to their ability to chase the sun and the denser atmosphere present on Chal. "Animals" have three sexes here, a male which fertilizes a female which then transfers the fertilized eggs to "incubators": sessile organisms which nurture these eggs and eventually breaks down to allow the creatures access to the outside world. These "incubators" actually form a large part of the flora on the planet, as they are mixotrophs and are capable of photosynthesizing using red pigments. These are known as "fleshy plants", while the other photosynthetic organisms are known as "green plants".

Xipetotec | Mbio Bila Mshindi | Diarios California
Quotes
"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt."
"There seems to me too much misery in the world. I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidae with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of caterpillars..."
"If you truly love Nature, you will find beauty everywhere."
"My opinions are formed from a perfect blend of science and morality and as such I am an unassailable bastion of absolute truth. All opinions are subjective but mine are objectively the least subjective."
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Torvonychus
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nani the fuck
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A world where the K-Pg asteroid hits Siberia rather than the Yucatan, resulting an extinction much more severe in the Old World while the New World fauna survive and thrive.

The result is a less successful boreoeutheria and many clades that became dominant in HE's Eurasia either going extinct or being relegated to minor roles. Meanwhile, in North America and the Gondwanan continents save Indomalagasia, fauna that would otherwise go extinct with the K-Pg or be greatly reduced survive and thrive.

From this we see a bizarre and anachronistic fauna develop, from herds of deer-like mesungulates wandering South America, massive gondwanatherians and sebecids in Australia, gigantic troodonts stalking thr plains of North America, an Afrotherian dominated Eurasia and an Africa ruled by derived notosuchians.

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



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flashman63
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The Herr From Terre
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If the Chixculub impactor landed in Siberia instead, it would throw up vastly more debris
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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Torvonychus
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nani the fuck
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flashman63
Aug 9 2017, 11:38 PM
If the Chixculub impactor landed in Siberia instead, it would throw up vastly more debris
Well, anywhere where the asteroid would bring up less debris in Eurasia then, I don't know much on the best and worst places for a meteor to hit.

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



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Nembrotha
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Adolescent
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This one may be kind of difficult, but I may be able to pull it off.

Here's the Backstory. 252 million years ago, the Permian extinction never happens. Thus, synapsids retain their dominant position into the Triassic period, and continue to diversify. Some animals from this period would be the first marine synapsids (therocephalians), tyrannosaur-like gorgonopsids, ankylosaur-like pareiasaurs, convergent ichthyosaurs, and the first flying vertebrates, a type of archosaur. Speaking of which, they still remain relatively small, as without the P-T extinction, their synapsid competitors never died off, preventing archosaurs from becoming the dominant tetrapods in the way we see in our world's Triassic. As such, crocodilians, pterosaurs and dinosaurs never evolve. Neither do true mammals.

Eventually, the Triassic-Jurassic extinction happens, the same as in our world. Things such as pareiasaurs and gorgonopsids die out, but cynodonts, therocephalians, dicynodonts and archosaurs now dominate the planet. Even massive, sauropod-like dicynodonts evolve in the later Jurassic and dominate until the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction. This kills off the ichthyosaurs, dicynodonts, most cynodonts, and most archosaurs. True Flowering plants never evolve, but a similar type of reproduction begins appearing in a type of fern in the mid-Jurassic, becoming the ancestor of the Parangiosperms.

Now, here's where the main project beings. This time period is not called the Cenozoic, but instead, the Allozoic. This is a world dominated by archosaurs, coming in forms including flying bird-like animals, ungulate-like herbivores, marine cetacean-like predators, crocodile-like monsters, and some dinosaur-convergent predators. They dominate everywhere except Australia and South America, where cynodonts still dominate. Therocephalians are extinct, but have left descendants in the form of flying and rodent-like animals.
Journey to the Makrinocene, a world in the twilight hours of the Cenozoic! (Slightly Inactive, will eventually pick up)
Come to Terra Fantasia, a bizarre world where nothing is as it seems! (Ongoing)

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Talenkauen
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Perpetually paranoid iguanodont
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Leaellynasaura72
Aug 10 2017, 05:53 AM
Now, here's where the main project beings. This time period is not called the Cenozoic, but instead, the Allozoic.

The Allozoic has already been used:

http://the-alllozoic-project.wikia.com/wiki/The_Alllozoic_Project_Wiki
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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Yiqi15
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Prime Specimen
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A forum RPG where players are in charge of a studio that makes wildlife documentaries.
Current/Completed Projects
- After the Holocene: Your run-of-the-mill future evolution project.
- A History of the Odessa Rhinoceros: What happens when you ship 28 southern white rhinoceri to Texas and try and farm them? Quite a lot, actually.

Future Projects
- XenoSphere: The greatest zoo in the galaxy.
- The Curious Case of the Woolly Giraffe: A case study of an eocene relic.
- Untittled Asylum Studios-Based Project: The truth behind all the CGI schlock
- Riggslandia V.II: A World 150 million years in the making

Potential Projects
- Klowns: The biology and culture of a creepy-yet-fascinating being

My Zoochat and Fadom Accounts
- Zoochat
- Fandom
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Nembrotha
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Adolescent
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Talenkauen Spec
Aug 10 2017, 07:25 AM
Leaellynasaura72
Aug 10 2017, 05:53 AM
Now, here's where the main project beings. This time period is not called the Cenozoic, but instead, the Allozoic.

The Allozoic has already been used:

http://the-alllozoic-project.wikia.com/wiki/The_Alllozoic_Project_Wiki
Oh... whoops. I've gotta think of another name, I guess...
Journey to the Makrinocene, a world in the twilight hours of the Cenozoic! (Slightly Inactive, will eventually pick up)
Come to Terra Fantasia, a bizarre world where nothing is as it seems! (Ongoing)

Spoiler: click to toggle
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Sceynyos-yos
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dheubewes wedor
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Yiqi15
Aug 10 2017, 08:37 AM
A forum RPG where players are in charge of a studio that makes wildlife documentaries.
That seems like an idea.
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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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Leaellynasaura72
Aug 10 2017, 05:53 AM
Therocephalians are extinct, but have left descendants in the form of flying and rodent-like animals.
Then they're not extinct
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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Rebirth
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Adolescent
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A project set in the future after a mass extinction where freshwater turtles and salamanders are the only surviving tetrapods.
My Projects
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Dragonthunders
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The ethereal archosaur in blue

Insect Illuminati Get Shrekt
Aug 10 2017, 01:14 PM
Leaellynasaura72
Aug 10 2017, 05:53 AM
Therocephalians are extinct, but have left descendants in the form of flying and rodent-like animals.
Then they're not extinct
That would depend if such descendants have diverged from these ancestral therocephalians and evolved into a new clade.
Projects

"Active" projects

The Future is Far
Welcome to the next chapters of the evolution of life on earth, travel the across the earth on a journey that goes beyond the limits, a billion years of future history in the making.

The SE giants project
Wonder what is the big of the big on speculative evolution? no problem, here is the answer

Coming one day
Age of Mankind
Humanity fate and its possible finals.

The Long Cosmic Journey
The history outside our world.

The alternative paths
The multiverse, the final frontier...

Holocene park: Welcome to the biggest adventure of the last 215 million years, where the age of mammals comes to life again!
Cambrian mars: An interesting experiment on an unprecedented scale, the life of a particular and important period in the history of our planet, the cambric life, has been transported to a terraformed and habitable mars in an alternative past.
Two different paths, two different worlds, but same life and same weirdness.




My deviantart


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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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Dragonthunders
Aug 10 2017, 04:49 PM
Insect Illuminati Get Shrekt
Aug 10 2017, 01:14 PM
Leaellynasaura72
Aug 10 2017, 05:53 AM
Therocephalians are extinct, but have left descendants in the form of flying and rodent-like animals.
Then they're not extinct
That would depend if such descendants have diverged from these ancestral therocephalians and evolved into a new clade.
What do you mean "new clade". If it's descended from therocephalians, it's a therocephalian. Just like how humans are completely unlike the ancestral metazoan, yet we are still metazoans.
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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Dragonthunders
Member Avatar
The ethereal archosaur in blue

Okay, I understand the point and it is correct, but I found that way of yours to answer on the issues and corrections of cladistics a little annoying, too nickpiking to be honest.
Edited by Dragonthunders, Aug 10 2017, 10:09 PM.
Projects

"Active" projects

The Future is Far
Welcome to the next chapters of the evolution of life on earth, travel the across the earth on a journey that goes beyond the limits, a billion years of future history in the making.

The SE giants project
Wonder what is the big of the big on speculative evolution? no problem, here is the answer

Coming one day
Age of Mankind
Humanity fate and its possible finals.

The Long Cosmic Journey
The history outside our world.

The alternative paths
The multiverse, the final frontier...

Holocene park: Welcome to the biggest adventure of the last 215 million years, where the age of mammals comes to life again!
Cambrian mars: An interesting experiment on an unprecedented scale, the life of a particular and important period in the history of our planet, the cambric life, has been transported to a terraformed and habitable mars in an alternative past.
Two different paths, two different worlds, but same life and same weirdness.




My deviantart


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