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The Reset; Starting from almost Mammalian scratch.
Topic Started: Jan 27 2016, 09:18 PM (1,557 Views)
Dapper Man
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The Reset


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Once, there were giants, with long trunks on their noses and flappy ears, giants with long horns. Titans that towered over the savannah. The thing is, where did they go? For a few hundred years after the present day, 95% of mammals larger than a cat began to hit numbers beyond repair. This included those famous Elephants, Giraffes, Buffalo and Dogs. What was the final straw was the H-S Asteroid Event, which marked the end of the Holocene and the beginning of the Sileogene (As in “Restarting Era”), which saw the second age of mammals begin. It took about 65 million years for fauna to recover from the K-Pg Event at the end of the Cretaceous, and it took a little less for it to recover from the H-S Event. Fauna was severally damaged, with 20% of Invertebrate species going extinct, 60% of Fish families going extinct, 80% of Amphibian families going extinct, 70% of Reptilian families going extinct, 45% of Bird families going extinct, and, worst of all, 90% of Mammals going extinct. The year of the asteroid was hell: even Humans couldn’t survive, being too large to sustain their hunger. So, with the extinction of Suids, Deer, and Whales and other mammals, what would take their places? This is a surprising question that is going to be covered in The Reset.


Contents:

I: Recovery.
II: Diversification.
III: The World "Today".
1: Survivors and their Opposites.
2: Inhabitants of Brackish Water. (Part I, Part II, Part III)
3: The reconstructed Tree Top Canopy. (Part I, Part II, Part III)
4: Retaken Serengeti. (Part I, Part II, Part III)
5: Armoured Forests. (Part I, Part II, Part III)
6: Kelp and Algae Forests. (Part I, Part II, Part III)
(More to come)
Edited by Dapper Man, Feb 22 2016, 02:15 AM.
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Manitou; The Needle in the Haystack.
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Whiteshore
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Will there be Megalania-sized Varanids?
Go to Crurotheria:A world of Killer Rodents,Notosuchid Elephants,and Sirenian Hippos:
http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/topic/5035229/1/
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Dapper Man
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Hayaba
Jan 28 2016, 03:45 AM
Will there be Megalania-sized Varanids?
Yep. They will be some of the first top predators, along with a rather odd dog descendant.
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Diabolical Bear
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Any domestic cats survive? They are quite adaptable.
Edited by Diabolical Bear, Jan 28 2016, 07:34 PM.
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Dapper Man
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TheMysteriousMrDoug
Jan 28 2016, 07:34 PM
Any domestic cats survive? They are quite adaptable.
Possibly. However, they might be restricted to a few islands or some other isolated place.
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Beetleboy
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Why restricted?
~ The Age of Forests ~
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Dapper Man
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Axolotl Lord
Jan 29 2016, 10:51 AM
Why restricted?
Because some islands would've had fewer populations that the mainlands.
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Manitou; The Needle in the Haystack.
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Vorsa
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Interesting idea but it didn't take 65 million years for life to recover from the K-Pg, only a few million at most. After all, mammalian diversity exploded after only a few million years inro the Palaeocene.
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"you are about to try that on a species that clawed its way to the top of a 4 billion year deep corpse pile of evolution. one that has committed the genocide you are contemplating several times already. they are the pinnacle of intelligence-based survival techniques and outnumber you 7 billion to 1" - humans vs machine
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Dapper Man
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DesOrages
Jan 29 2016, 05:09 PM
Interesting idea but it didn't take 65 million years for life to recover from the K-Pg, only a few million at most. After all, mammalian diversity exploded after only a few million years inro the Palaeocene.
While there was a explosion of Mammalian fauna in the Palaeocene, this similarly sized extinction has had a similar explosion of Diversity. Chapter I- II will talk about life's recovery.
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Whiteshore
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Will there be giant flightless birds?
Go to Crurotheria:A world of Killer Rodents,Notosuchid Elephants,and Sirenian Hippos:
http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/topic/5035229/1/
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Dapper Man
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Hayaba
Jan 29 2016, 06:41 PM
Will there be giant flightless birds?
Maybe. They might be in Europe, as they will be out competed in the Americas by the Xenotherians.
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Dapper Man
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First chapters being posted today.
Speculative Evolution:

Manitou; The Needle in the Haystack.
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Dapper Man
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Well, here it is. The first chapter:

I: Recovery

Posted Image
Typical American fauna after the H-S asteroid event. The large Ceratomyid is the common Horngouti (Palaeoceratomys sp.), the Fox descendant is the Hunter Fox (Atroxocyon Aquatiformes), a early member of the Canicetea, small to large sized aquatic descendants of the Crab Eating Fox. The bird next to the Horngouti is the Moamou (Dinornithotinamou Varius), a part of the DInornithotinamou order (A Moa esque clade of Tinamou descendants), and the flying bird is the Corvowl (Carnoscops Acciptriformes), a macro predatory descendant of the Eastern Screecher Owl.

After the extinction of most Mammalian fauna, and with most birds and reptiles, life was severally damaged. In fact, the entire crocodilian order (Except for the Smooth-fronted Caiman) went extinct. However, many creatures had a play at this role. Same with the large macrofauna. In the Americas, the first large sized creatures were those descended from the Central American Agouti (Dasyprocta Punctata), and began to form the new order Xenotheroidea. These rodents would generally get to resemble some of the older mammalian megafaunas, such as Bovids, Cervids and Proboscideans. However, they weren’t able to get at the predatory niches, as large sized Monitor Lizards (As members of the newly established Tyrannovaranidae (Of the Prototyrannovaranus genus) bet them to it). These large Monitors measured around 1.5 metres long (Around half the size of the Komodo Dragon, Varanus Komodoensis), and 3 quarters the size of the Varanus Priscus, commonly called the Megalania. However, these large predators usually fed on primitive Xenotherians and the (At the time) common Titanotinamoides, large, Moa like descendants of the Tinamous, of the 21st century. These creatures comprised of the American fauna at the time. Europe was pretty much empty, with the Asteroid hitting the shallow waters of the Arctic Ocean. Asia only had one Mammalian survivor: the Jerboa. However, a lot of the Amphibians had died out, except for the highly common Hida Salamander, who took up not only their current niche, but also those of Crocodiles and many more. In Africa, the most common animal was the African Civet (Civetticus Civetta), who became basal forms of the Paratheria, a new group of small to large mammals ranging from Herbivores to Carnivores and anything in between. The only other mammal left in the Americas is the Crab Eating Fox, who began to radiate into the Canicetea, essentially the Neo-Whales. The only marsupials left where the Wombat and the Wallaby (Members of the Diprotodontia order of Marsupials), and began to fill in the niches of there wiped out relatives. Many groups of creatures thought to live for ever, such as Turtles, Snakes, Crows and Rabbits, went extinct relatively quickly, despite being so adaptable. These new animals of their respective clades began to fill in their niches in the Sileogene, or “Restarting Era”, due to many mammalian orders going extinct.
Edited by Dapper Man, Feb 13 2016, 02:50 PM.
Speculative Evolution:

Manitou; The Needle in the Haystack.
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Dapper Man
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Xenotheria Evolution

Ancestor: Central American Agouti (Dasyprocta Punctata)

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As many mammalian fauna died out at the end of the Holocene, the most common mammal of the American continents was the Central American Agouti, who managed to survive by two reasons: One, it was of the right size, and Two, it was a generalist, feeding on many plant and insect species. When the H-S asteroid hit, they were the, along with the Crab Eating Fox (Cerdocyon sp.), only mammal on the continent, and began to spread out in to the new clade Xenotheria, a completely new order of ungulate mimicking rodents. Today, they are spread throughout the American supercontinent, branching out into new families and genus's. They branch out into 10 families: The Ceratomyidae, Ungulamyidae, Ursomyidae, Aquamyidae, Volaticomyidae, Proboscomyidae, Xenotheridae, Pilosamyidae, Insectophagidae and the Microtheriidae, all found in American property.
Edited by Dapper Man, Jan 30 2016, 12:52 AM.
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Whiteshore
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Is it possible that the Smooth-faced Caiman evolved into retro-Notosuchians?
Go to Crurotheria:A world of Killer Rodents,Notosuchid Elephants,and Sirenian Hippos:
http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/topic/5035229/1/
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