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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 (6,502 Views)
El Dorito Dec 23 2015, 04:28 AM Post #1
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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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What if denizens of the United States call themselves 'Americans' so as to avoid being called USAliens?

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El Dorito Jan 1 2016, 08:37 PM Post #61
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That's not what I meant... I know the earth won't be that different by then.

What I meant was if anyone has any ideas for things that go on the other continents. I started with Australia because I live there, and I've still got a couple of ideas, but il be out of ideas soon, and I know that most of you live on other continents, and so would probably know more about the wildlife there.

As for the other timelines, I've only thought about two things so far, and both of them are marine (and one isn't technically mine either)
I REGRET NOTHING

What if denizens of the United States call themselves 'Americans' so as to avoid being called USAliens?

DeviantArt: EL-D0rito

My Projects:
Atlantis: The Next Union On hold until I regain interest.
Argus: The Cyber-Planet Will be rewritten and redone almost completely
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CaledonianWarrior96 Jan 1 2016, 09:01 PM Post #62
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El Dorito
Jan 1 2016, 08:37 PM
That's not what I meant... I know the earth won't be that different by then.

What I meant was if anyone has any ideas for things that go on the other continents. I started with Australia because I live there, and I've still got a couple of ideas, but il be out of ideas soon, and I know that most of you live on other continents, and so would probably know more about the wildlife there.

As for the other timelines, I've only thought about two things so far, and both of them are marine (and one isn't technically mine either)
Sorry about that, I thought you meant something else.

Well I live in Europe (Scotland more specifically) so I can tell you that the animals that are most likely to survive millions of years in the future are creatures like pigeons, deer, boar, foxes, badgers, crows and maybe the Pine Marten (I added that in my project, though so far it's only made it to the first chapter). I'd also suggest livestock like chickens, sheep and cattle but that's kind of an if since they are domesticated, but I would also add in some dog breeds and cats as they can easily go feral and resort back to a more wilder form.

I also made a group of grazing herbivores descended from Marmots (like in TFIW with Shagrats, but mine are bigger and more bovine-like) so something like that could happen.

That's all I can think of now for Europe
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Hybrid Jan 1 2016, 09:15 PM Post #63
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As for hybrid, I find it somewhat ironic that he was the one first pointing out most of the things I've done 'wrong' here so far...

How is that ironic? What are you implying about me?

I wasn't even one of the first pointing out the problems. CaledonianWarrior96, Myo, Harmonee and NotLegalTender were the ones that did it before me, and not much people came after.
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LittleLazyLass Jan 1 2016, 09:48 PM Post #64
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Hybrid
Jan 1 2016, 09:15 PM
Quote:
 
As for hybrid, I find it somewhat ironic that he was the one first pointing out most of the things I've done 'wrong' here so far...

How is that ironic? What are you implying about me?

I wasn't even one of the first pointing out the problems. CaledonianWarrior96, Myo, Harmonee and NotLegalTender were the ones that did it before me, and not much people came after.
Actually, I didn't really point out problems before you, my only post was re-affirming one of Dorito's points. Hell, I've not really critiqued anything in this thread, simply made some more or less neutral comments. But yeah, I agree with your post here in general.
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El Dorito Jan 2 2016, 01:32 AM Post #65
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Cats probably wouldn't change much aside from probably getting bigger, but they would definitely be present (maybe not as much as they are now because of population overgrowth and the subsequent crash when there's not enough food left, but yeah). Dogs not so much, as most dog breeds are probably more unsuited to living in the wild than we are. But the sheer amount of dogs around probably means they would do well.

Megafauna, if there is any left, would almost certainly be descended from things that are already big today. Cows, sheep?, some wild ungulates, elephants (this is a maybe), bears, kangaroos, crocodiles, snakes and monitor lizards all produce megafauna in this project for the 1 Million years hence part. Well these are things I've thought about right now, but there might be more if anyone has some more ideas.
Edited by El Dorito, Jan 2 2016, 01:33 AM.
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What if denizens of the United States call themselves 'Americans' so as to avoid being called USAliens?

DeviantArt: EL-D0rito

My Projects:
Atlantis: The Next Union On hold until I regain interest.
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El Dorito Jan 2 2016, 01:36 AM Post #66
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Hybrid
Jan 1 2016, 09:15 PM
Quote:
 
As for hybrid, I find it somewhat ironic that he was the one first pointing out most of the things I've done 'wrong' here so far...

How is that ironic? What are you implying about me?

I wasn't even one of the first pointing out the problems. CaledonianWarrior96, Myo, Harmonee and NotLegalTender were the ones that did it before me, and not much people came after.
Yes I know, I misread the comment and there were already more replies when I was going to delete it, so I forgot about it.

Nothing was inferred.
I REGRET NOTHING

What if denizens of the United States call themselves 'Americans' so as to avoid being called USAliens?

DeviantArt: EL-D0rito

My Projects:
Atlantis: The Next Union On hold until I regain interest.
Argus: The Cyber-Planet Will be rewritten and redone almost completely
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Bruno01 Jan 2 2016, 09:53 AM Post #67
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Here in Argentina we have llamas, guanacos, hares, condors, penguins in the coasts and an overpopulation of beavers on Tierra Del Fuego (An island in the south of South America), in the Patagonia.
Also we have in South America the Amazonas and the Andes, and some praires in the north of the Patagonia were we have foxes, rheas, yacares (wich is a species of alligators), snakes, some water birds and other animals that could be interesting for your project.
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revin Jan 2 2016, 11:30 AM Post #68
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CaledonianWarrior96
Jan 1 2016, 09:01 PM
I also made a group of grazing herbivores descended from Marmots (like in TFIW with Shagrats, but mine are bigger and more bovine-like) so something like that could happen.
Shagrats aren't considered to be too plausible. Wooly rodents haven't evolved in past ice ages and in any case they probably wouldn't need to grow one meter long in order to stay warm. Marmots might just migrate south as the ice age progresses.
I tend to get dis– Hey, look, an elephant!
Potentially an elephant


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LittleLazyLass Jan 2 2016, 11:32 AM Post #69
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revin
Jan 2 2016, 11:30 AM
CaledonianWarrior96
Jan 1 2016, 09:01 PM
I also made a group of grazing herbivores descended from Marmots (like in TFIW with Shagrats, but mine are bigger and more bovine-like) so something like that could happen.
Shagrats aren't considered to be too plausible. Wooly rodents haven't evolved in past ice ages and in any case they probably wouldn't need to grow one meter long in order to stay warm. Marmots might just migrate south as the ice age progresses.
I never had much of a problem with shagrats.
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revin Jan 2 2016, 11:37 AM Post #70
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I'm not saying they're entirely implausible, I'm just saying that one meter is a bit extreme for rodents and there are many other ways for rodents to cope with Arctic conditions, including not coping with them (i.e. moving south). Another issue is that feeding a one meter rodent with sparse vegetation is quite difficult, and having them in herds is worse. Odds are if they evolved they would be a migratory species which goes south of the tundra for the winter.
I tend to get dis– Hey, look, an elephant!
Potentially an elephant


Fire into Ice, a project about life on a rogue planet ejected from our own Solar System. Check it out!

My spec evo YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/speculativeevolution

With personal experience as a raven, I am a major proponent of conserving all corvid species at all costs. Save the endangered Mariana crow here.

Please don't click.
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CaledonianWarrior96 Jan 2 2016, 01:20 PM Post #71
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revin
Jan 2 2016, 11:37 AM
I'm not saying they're entirely implausible, I'm just saying that one meter is a bit extreme for rodents and there are many other ways for rodents to cope with Arctic conditions, including not coping with them (i.e. moving south). Another issue is that feeding a one meter rodent with sparse vegetation is quite difficult, and having them in herds is worse. Odds are if they evolved they would be a migratory species which goes south of the tundra for the winter.
Well my rodents do migrate south for winter towards the Mediterrenean (which is now then a bunch of hills) and are actually larger than the Shagrats, around 8 feet long or so. Though I have added a more specialised species that can survive further north in the winter
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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Terra Cascus: The Last Refuge of the Dinosaurs (Alternative Evolution)
- 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)
The Ecology of Wakanda: An Open Project for the Home of Marvel's Black Panther (Alternative Universe)

(Click bold titles to go to page. To subscribe click on a project, scroll to the bottom of the page and click "track topic" on the bottom right corner)

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revin Jan 2 2016, 01:45 PM Post #72
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8 feet is possible, but – Wait, you're Scottish! Why are you using imperial units? – 2.5 meters-ish with migration is possible, but in 5 million years it's unlikely. Is this timescale longer than 5 million years?
I tend to get dis– Hey, look, an elephant!
Potentially an elephant


Fire into Ice, a project about life on a rogue planet ejected from our own Solar System. Check it out!

My spec evo YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/speculativeevolution

With personal experience as a raven, I am a major proponent of conserving all corvid species at all costs. Save the endangered Mariana crow here.

Please don't click.
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LittleLazyLass Jan 2 2016, 02:46 PM Post #73
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revin
Jan 2 2016, 01:45 PM
8 feet is possible, but – Wait, you're Scottish! Why are you using imperial units? – 2.5 meters-ish with migration is possible, but in 5 million years it's unlikely. Is this timescale longer than 5 million years?
Certain nations being stubborn about metric has a rather large effect on other nations. Well, that and history. Can't say anything about Scotland specifically, though.
totally not British, b-baka!
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I don't even really like this song that much but the title is pretty relatable sometimes, I guess.
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revin Jan 2 2016, 03:11 PM Post #74
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It's not my fault that America uses the idiotic customary system, instead of the slightly less idiotic metric system (see my blog posts for why I think the metric system is also pretty dumb).
I tend to get dis– Hey, look, an elephant!
Potentially an elephant


Fire into Ice, a project about life on a rogue planet ejected from our own Solar System. Check it out!

My spec evo YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/speculativeevolution

With personal experience as a raven, I am a major proponent of conserving all corvid species at all costs. Save the endangered Mariana crow here.

Please don't click.
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CaledonianWarrior96 Jan 2 2016, 05:16 PM Post #75
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revin
Jan 2 2016, 01:45 PM
8 feet is possible, but – Wait, you're Scottish! Why are you using imperial units? – 2.5 meters-ish with migration is possible, but in 5 million years it's unlikely. Is this timescale longer than 5 million years?
1) Yes I'm scottish. In fact I hate being called british
2) I don't think it matters if I use feet or metres (I usually do put metres first though, I just used feet this time)
3) Yes this is longer than 5 million years, in fact it's between 3 to 4 time longer than 5 million
4) I probably should've said these are called Bovmots (Bovine-Marmots, which look similar to bovines like cattle or ox)
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)
The Meuse Legacy: An Alternative Outcome of the Mosasaur (Alternative Evolution)
Terra Cascus: The Last Refuge of the Dinosaurs (Alternative Evolution)
- 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)
The Ecology of Wakanda: An Open Project for the Home of Marvel's Black Panther (Alternative Universe)

(Click bold titles to go to page. To subscribe click on a project, scroll to the bottom of the page and click "track topic" on the bottom right corner)

And now, for something completely different
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