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| Batrakia; The world of the frogs. | |
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| Topic Started: Oct 29 2015, 04:11 PM (3,442 Views) | |
| DINOCARID | Oct 29 2015, 04:11 PM Post #1 |
Adolescent
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One hundred and fifty million years ago, an unknown force terraformed a rocky earth-sized planet with a large moon, orbiting a yellow dwarf at the same distance as we orbit our own star. It's iron-rich core was set to rotating, generating a geomagnetic field that protected the planet from solar wind, and plate tectonics were kick-started. The thin dusty atmosphere was pumped full of nitrogen and carbon dioxide, and the uniformly flat and dusty surface was flooded with blue oceans. Then came the life. Bacteria, archea, and other non-eukaryotic organisms were first to be introduced. Then fungus and algae were released, turning the coasts into a psychedelic patchwork of colorful microbial mats. Springtails, rotifers, nematodes, copepods, and arrow worms came next, grazing on masses of unicellular plants. Then vascular plants were unleashed, ending the age of microbe mats, churning the soil and piercing the layers of decaying fungus and algae. Any animal bigger than a pinhead came next, from cockroaches, to snails, to centipedes, to dragonflies, to bees. But one stood out, the rio grande leopard frog, the only vertebrate. The leopard frogs, being the only animal with a backbone for several light-years, found themselves in the position to diversify. And diversify they did, making batrakia the world of the frogs Batrakia is dominated by two large continents, manum and obcasia, and three oceans, the austral, eirdaltic, and arpatic oceans, with many islands and lakes scattered across them. When batrakia was first terraformed, it possessed only one continent and a small subcontinent, called cimexia, nearly on the opposite side of the planet. This single "parapangea" eventually split into obcasia and manum, the eirdaltic ocean forming between them. Obcasia fragmented to form persolia, which has started to sink since, and north and south wimox, as well as a relatively large chunk that slammed into manum, the tectonic crust buckling to form the arptiaw mountains, and the chunk becoming south manum. Cimexia drifted eastward until it hit obcasia, delivering it's strange cargo to the rest of the planet. Most recently, manum's northmost region has started to drift away, forming a rift valley between them. Spoiler: click to toggle Batrakia is largely tropical, only experiencing snow at the poles. It's axial tilt is less than earth's, resulting in mild seasons, and a less pronounced dry-wet cycle at the equator than earth. Being hot and wet, both obcasia and manum are dominated by tropical rainforest, dry tropical forest replacing that further north and south, giving way to vast tropical plains, temperate plains, and temperate forest, until finally, plant life gives way to ice and rock. In the southeast of obcasia there is a gigantic basin called the makavv swamp basin, comparable in size to the entirety of alaska, collecting rainwater from all over obcasia's forests, and forms the largest swamp on the planet. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the arptiaw mountains rival the himalayas in height and size, forcing water to condense over them, leaving little for the area northwest of them, giving rise to the infernal desert, a desolate expanse of gravel and boulders, with little in the way of actual sand and dunes that most people consider nearly synonymous with the word desert. Spoiler: click to toggle And so, batrakia became it's own world, with strange lifeforms all it's own. Welcome to a world where gigantic, beaked tadpoles zip through the open oceans, feathery grazing frogs dot the the plains of plantain, and clover-tree forests conceal ever stranger plants, and animals. Welcome to batrakia Introduced species (Excluding unicellular species) Spoiler: click to toggle Table of contents Spoiler: click to toggle Edited by DINOCARID, Dec 19 2015, 10:34 AM.
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Check out my deviantart here Projects The Fieldguide to Somnial Organisms The Tetrarch (coming soon) | |
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| ClassyAmoeba | Oct 29 2015, 09:00 PM Post #2 |
Infant
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The images do not seem to be working for me. Other than that, this is a good project. |
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| Hybrid | Oct 29 2015, 09:22 PM Post #3 |
May Specula Grant you Bountiful Spec!
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I hate to be that guy, but this sounds quite a bit like Orpheus 4, albeit with the lack of salamanders. The Ultrozoic also needs to be mentioned. Frogs are always welcome though. However the maps aren't working. |
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If I sound rude while critiquing, I apologize in hindsight! "To those like the misguided; look at the story of Man, and come to your senses! It is not the destination, but the trip that matters. What you do today influences tomorrow, not the other way around. Love Today, and seize All Tomorrows!" - Nemo Ramjet ﾉ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)ヽ 
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| DINOCARID | Oct 30 2015, 08:53 AM Post #4 |
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Adolescent
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I know they aren't, but i can't figure out why. any ideas? They were before, but when i came back they were gone. And i'm gonna keep this distanced from orpheus four and ultrozoic, so don't worry. I'll start by giving a few post long introduction to batrakia's biological history, then go into detail, one ecosystem at a time. |
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Check out my deviantart here Projects The Fieldguide to Somnial Organisms The Tetrarch (coming soon) | |
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| Velociraptor | Oct 30 2015, 09:02 AM Post #5 |
Reptile
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I don't know where you're hosting your images, but the URLs are massive and full of junk. Have you tried hosting them on imgur? That's what I do. |
 Unnamed No K-Pg project: coming whenever, maybe never. I got ideas tho. | |
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| DINOCARID | Oct 30 2015, 09:10 AM Post #6 |
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Adolescent
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I'm not hosting them anywhere, they're coming straight from my email, but i'll try to use an image hosting service. |
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Check out my deviantart here Projects The Fieldguide to Somnial Organisms The Tetrarch (coming soon) | |
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| DINOCARID | Oct 30 2015, 09:57 AM Post #7 |
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Adolescent
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OK, i did it, and it seems to be working. |
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Check out my deviantart here Projects The Fieldguide to Somnial Organisms The Tetrarch (coming soon) | |
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| Beetleboy | Oct 30 2015, 10:18 AM Post #8 |
neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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The images seem to be working fine now, at least for me. Great project by the way! I wish you luck. And is that the 'Beetleboy Islands' I spy - I am honoured. 
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| ~ The Age of Forests ~ | |
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| DINOCARID | Oct 30 2015, 10:44 AM Post #9 |
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Adolescent
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You're welcome. 
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Check out my deviantart here Projects The Fieldguide to Somnial Organisms The Tetrarch (coming soon) | |
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| Beetleboy | Oct 30 2015, 12:16 PM Post #10 |
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neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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I can't wait to see how life will evolve on this planet! |
| ~ The Age of Forests ~ | |
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| DINOCARID | Oct 30 2015, 12:33 PM Post #11 |
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Adolescent
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Initial colonization-five million years post-terraforming Life had come to batrakia. Non-eukaryotic organisms were first to be introduced, and with nothing in their way, their numbers exploded. Bacteria covered entire black smokers in rust-red slime, archea turned volcanic hotsprings into dazzling displays of turquoise, purple, and yellow. Bacteriophages waged war with their hosts, developing ways to bypass defenses, while the bacteria developed new ones. It remained this way for one hundred thousand years, until their rule was interrupted by the eukaryotes. Algae did enormously well, tinting the global ocean green with their sheer numbers, as did fungus, attacking bacterial masses and stealing their energy. This also marked the beginning of life on batrakia's landmasses, fungi forming symbiotic partnersips with mineral-metabolizing bacteria, and developing a less permeable ''guard layer'', to prevent desiccation. These terrestrial pioneers produced enough moist decaying matter that algae could sustain itself on land, displacing the fungi and bacteria, and further contributing to batrakia's first organic soil. With a terrestrial ecosystem in place, the next colonists arrived, and they wreaked havoc. Springtails and nematodes attacked fungus and algae alike, but contributed to the recycling of organic matter, allowing the entire ecosystem to advance more than it could have without them. Copepods and arrow worms spread throughout batrakia's water-bodies, eating algae, and each other. A million years after the arrival of the springtails, copepods, and other tiny animals, algae had evolved more complex multicellular colonies, little fingers of green lining rivers and lakes. But yet another introduction, this time advanced plants stopped the algae in it's tracks. They shaded the algae, replacing the little lime-green pegs with fuzzy colonies of star moss, and seeds germinated in the rich soil, raspberries spreading beneath the open canopy of fast-growing ailanthus trees. Forests spread across batrakia's single continent, unimpeded by any significant herbivore. But eventually, that herbivore came, in the form of ailanthus webworms, along with many other invertebrates. Apple snails attacked aquatic plants, and spider mites ravaged raspberry brambles, but there was relief, centipedes and dragonflies restricting their populations. Two million years later, the community was thriving, mossy primeval forests playing host to insects, taking advantage of the extremely oxygen-rich atmosphere and the ecological vacuum to grow to unheard of sizes, huge dragonflies chasing six-inch midges over warm lakes, and centipedes as long as your arm curling up in their dark burrows. But it still wasn't over, their was one player in the evolutionary game that hadn't arrived yet, Rana berlandieri, and when it did, it made batrakia the one place in the universe you could honestly call the world of the frogs. |
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Check out my deviantart here Projects The Fieldguide to Somnial Organisms The Tetrarch (coming soon) | |
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| Beetleboy | Oct 30 2015, 12:38 PM Post #12 |
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neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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Looks good. Please could you spoiler the images, they're stretching the page. |
| ~ The Age of Forests ~ | |
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| DINOCARID | Oct 30 2015, 12:51 PM Post #13 |
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Adolescent
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Hey guys, how do you make a link from the table of contents to a specific post? And yes i will spoiler the images. Edited by DINOCARID, Oct 30 2015, 12:52 PM.
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Check out my deviantart here Projects The Fieldguide to Somnial Organisms The Tetrarch (coming soon) | |
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| Beetleboy | Oct 30 2015, 01:03 PM Post #14 |
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neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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Well, first you go to edit your post, and go to the contents part. Then you click on URL, up on the toolbar, then paste the link into the little box that comes up. To get the address, just click on the little 'Post #11' in the right hand corner of the post, then copy the address of the 'viewing single post' page. Now it will say 'name of URL', and you can write in whatever you want your link to say. Then press OK, and hey presto! You've got a link in your posts. Hope that didn't sound too confusing. I'm not very good at describing things. |
| ~ The Age of Forests ~ | |
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| DINOCARID | Oct 30 2015, 02:10 PM Post #15 |
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Adolescent
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Thanks beetleboy! |
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Check out my deviantart here Projects The Fieldguide to Somnial Organisms The Tetrarch (coming soon) | |
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