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1 Million years AD; The strange unfamiliar world of the not so distant future
Topic Started: Dec 23 2015, 04:28 AM (6,493 Views)
El Dorito
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All pictures will be able to be found here:
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Most future evolution projects take place in the more distant future, over 5 million years away. But life can evolve and change over much shorter timescales. This especially applies after extinction events. Only a few hundred thousand years after the K-Pg extinction, Palaeocene mammals had already become larger than any known Mesozoic mammal.

Today, a similar, though as yet less severe extinction event is taking place. Already most of the megafauna that existed for the past several million years have gone extinct, leaving niches open. The only things keeping them open are human activities and time. But history and common sense tell us that at some point in the next thousand years our planetary civilisation will probably collapse, largely eliminating the main factor stopping life carrying on.

Fast forward 1 million years, and the 'wild' is again the normal state of the earth. The oceans have risen some 80 metres due to human induced climate change, for the same reason most of the worlds ice is gone too. Several super volcanoes have erupted, and the last remnants of the modern 'concrete jungle' have crumbled. Humans are rare, and are considerably different to 21st century people. They are no longer a significant force effecting the earth.

Some groups of animals are identical to those we are familiar with, some are similar but obviously different, and a few are unlike anything found in the modern era. This is the world in 1 million years AD.
Edited by El Dorito, Jan 5 2016, 08:55 PM.
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El Dorito
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Some of it is, but a lot of it is original. It's not a coincidence they are similar as much of Future Of The World was written by me, after Jagger rage quit... Anyway the things that are basically the same between them I have taken some time to redesign so the similarities are less direct. With the exception of maybe a couple of things at the start of the project, everything is actually pretty different to stuff in Future of the World. I've still to upload the pictures of several things, and I've still got about 5 or so ideas left that I haven't even started on.
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El Dorito
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Kaijusauria (part 1)

Picture: http://el-d0rito.deviantart.com/art/Oxodontidae-590392103?ga_submit_new=10%253A1455324679

The Kaijusauria are a large group of derived squamates that exist in some form from 15 to over 200 million years in the future, and eventually diverging as far from 'traditional reptilia' as mammals have in the present day.

One of the earliest large kaijusaurs, although not the ancestor to later species, first evolved from what was probably either a monitor lizard or a recent descendant, around 15 million years in the future, and was the namesake of the group, Kaijusaurus itself. This monstrous creature lived throughout Asia, Australia and parts of Africa. While almost entirely herbivorous, unusual for a varanoid, and compared to later kaijusaurs, Kaijusaurus was a pretty scary animal, and probably wasn't above reverting to its carnivorous ancestry when it needed to, and at some 3 metres tall when rearing up, and almost 9 metres long and 2 tons, it was the largest lizard to have ever existed.

Eventually, more advanced kaijusaurs evolved, and in some areas they even managed to get the upper hand over mammalian predators, such as in East Africa south of the equator, which by 20 million years in the future had become a continent in its own right, slowly consuming the Indian Ocean in its march east towards Australia. In these areas the reptiles have taken dominance as apex predators, and in these places the kaijusaurs started to diverge from their ancestral body plan.

Oxodontidae

These island kaijusaurs, properly known as Oxodontids or 'sharp teeth', eventually did something that no lizard has been able to do properly before, they became bipedal, which enabled them to exploit different niches than other predatory reptiles. Some became swift venom-spitting forest dwellers, while others became titans that live on the open plains. Still, some evolved to look like the nightmare cross of a shark and a *raptor, with triangular teeth and an extremely sensitive olfactory complex, enabling them to detect prey several miles away.

Oxodontids have a number of skeletal differences from other kaijusaurs, which at current are mostly conservative lizards. All genera have very reduced arms, only used during reproduction to hold the participants together during intercourse. This leaves the head as the main weapon. The vertebrae above the hips are extended to form a curiously Spinosaurus-like sail on the back. In life this isn't really a sail at all, but an anchor for powerful muscles in the legs, which helps to maintain balance when standing. Many species sport elaborate crests of bone on their heads, which can be lost and regrown in a similar manner to deer antlers, although the end result isore of a horn shape than anything else.

Oxodontids live a life of maximum efficiency (debatably). During drought or other hardship, they can hibernate to conserve energy, lowering their temperature to that of an ectothermic 'normal reptile', and can go months without food in this state. However, when on the hunt, the body temperature is rapidly increased to the point where the animal is functionally endothermic, enabling it to easily catch up with and hunt mammalian prey. When in this state the skin around the head changes colour, making the predator look as if it has war paint on, though this seems to an accidental feature.



* in this case I am referring to Jurassic park raptors, not birds of prey or accurate dromaeosaurs.
Edited by El Dorito, Feb 12 2016, 07:55 PM.
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CaledonianWarrior96
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I like the idea of bipedal monitor lizards, but how does bipedalism evolve in your Kaijusaurs, out of curiosity?
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El Dorito
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Well monitors can already stand on two legs (well at least some can). Il admit however that it felt weird having large reptiles exist but no bipedal reptiles. I actually have drawn a picture of some of the species described on the last post, but deviantart is really slow with typing when you have to do everything on an iPhone... I've also drawn a picture showing some of the diversity of the varied Skark family, which I will post after I have finished with the Kaijusauria. I was also going to draw a picture of Kaijusaurus itself, because it would be pretty freaky to see something that is basically a giant megalania (gigalania?), even if it's technically not a carnivore.
Edited by El Dorito, Feb 12 2016, 06:44 AM.
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CaledonianWarrior96
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Sorry but I don't think you really answered my question. I know some can stand on two legs but what happened to them that made them forego quadrupedal movement to bipedal?

Would be nice to see these images though
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El Dorito
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They stand up in the same way modern reptiles that are able to stand do so, by tripoding on their tail. When in 'endothermic hunting mode' they pull their legs under their body and run in the same way as bipedal archosaurs do, and as such can run more efficiently after really fast prey. Larger species are more built to kill big animals. Also to say, 'large' is about 5 metres long and 2 metres tall when standing. So they're not exactly 'titans' when compared to dinosaurs, but they are still pretty big. In a way the Kaijusauria as a whole are equivalent to both dinosaurs and whatever mammals evolved from.

I guess the name is a bit generic, but if dinosaurs were named now instead of in the 1860s, someone would make the same comment.
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CaledonianWarrior96
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Ok that help clears some things up
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El Dorito
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There's a picture now too, so you can see what they look like, they are all in 'endothermic mode' in the picture, as a note.
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CaledonianWarrior96
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I didn't realise they were THAT horizontal. What happened to their front limbs?
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El Dorito
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Well that's when they are in endothermic mode, as in when they are hunting or something. When they aren't in endothermic mode they can only stand up by tripoding.

Their front limbs became reduced because they don't really need them, it's kind of like with abelisaurs and their shirt limbs being essentially useless. If they had long arms as well they probably wouldn't have become bipedal in the first place, or would look/be too front heavy. It's also because they look a little more original that way.
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Skarks - family Selacidae

Picture:http://el-d0rito.deviantart.com/art/Selacidae-590928535?ga_submit_new=10%253A1455521447

The skarks are a collective name for a group of marine lizards on the genus Selax. First evolving
around 8 MyF from things similar to today's water monitors, somewhere in the equatorial shallow seas of South East Asia, they evolved rapidly into fully aquatic hunters comparable to the marine mammals, and similar to mosasaurs. Unlike mosasaurs, all skarks possess a dorsal fin, although it's not always prominent,

Throughout their 70+ million year history, the skarks have occupied many niches, from sluggish deep water squid hunters, to fast swimming oceanic fish hunters converging on ichthyosaurs and dolphins, to powerful macropredators that compete with sharks and marine mammals for the title of apex oceanic predator.

The largest species of skark, and also one of the first large species to evolve at all, is the Neptune Skark, Selax neptunicus. With a size rivalling that of the modern killer whale, and having teeth that wouldn't look out of place on a dinosaur, this sea monster is the ruler of the shallow seas. It is also the only species with visible teeth when it's mouth is closed.

Neptune skarks are found from Alaska through Asia and Australia down to New Zealand, but almost never further south. They are endothermic, but they lack the blubber reserves to survive for extended periods in cold water, and although Antarctica is no longer glaciated, it is still below 5 degrees for almost all of the year, meaning that the water isn't all that much more hospitable to marine life than it is now.. In fact over their entire history only one species of skark, Selax polaris, has been able to tolerate polar water, and by that time the poles could hardly be considered 'arctic' in climate anymore.

All skarks were initially found only in the Pacific and Indian oceans, with the first Atlantic explorations only beginning until approximately 25 MyF.
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El Dorito
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For anyone wondering, this is what the Oxodontids look like in tripod position:
http://el-d0rito.deviantart.com/art/Oxodontidae-tripod-positions-591161505?ga_submit_new=10%253A1455616735

I know some of you were probably thinking I was trying too hard to make lizards evolve into things that look like dinosaurs, so this might divert that idea a bit.
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El Dorito
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I'm surprised no one commented on the 'hair'.
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CaledonianWarrior96
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El Dorito
Feb 18 2016, 05:13 AM
I'm surprised no one commented on the 'hair'.
Is it hair? I don't know if hair or feathers could re-evolve in reptiles, but if it was something new that would be interesting
Come check out and subscribe to my projects on the following subforums;

Future Planet (V.2): the Future Evolution of Life on Earth (Evolutionary Continuum)
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- Official Project
- Foundation
The Beryoni Galaxy: The Biologically Rich and Politically Complex State of our Galaxy (Habitational Zone)

- Beryoni Critique Thread (formerly: Aliens of Beryoni)
The Ecology of Skull Island: An Open Project for the Home of King Kong (Alternative Universe)
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