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| Atlantis: The Next Union; The weird things of a distant Earth | |
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| Topic Started: Feb 24 2016, 06:47 AM (3,916 Views) | |
| El Dorito | Feb 24 2016, 06:47 AM Post #1 |
chlorinated opthalmic trigonometric shape of conspiracy and dank memes
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For the last 400 million years or so the land has been the domain of the tetrapods, those four legged beasts that range from frogs to dinosaurs, snakes to humans, birds to lizards; you name it, and there's a pretty high chance that it's a tetrapod. But suppose that in the future tetrapods suffered a major event, one that knocks out most of their diversity, something so apocalyptic that even these true survivors are unable to recover completely. Some 104 million years in the future, an enormous outpouring of lava, a flood basalt event, occures in South America, on the eastern edge of what is today the Amazon Basin. This event lasted only about 6 million years, but over that time it created the most extensive large igneous province on earth, even larger than the Siberian traps eruptions 350 million years earlier. This caused the great die off of all life forms, including insects and a bunch of really hardy animals. When it ended there were perhaps only 100 species of tetrapods in existence at all, most of them reptiles and amphibians that were better able to deal with the general lack of food. Fast forward 100 million years or so, and the world looks almost unrecognisable. The continents have all merged to some extent, and the Pacific Ocean is almost completely gone. Life is rich and varied again, but unlike in previous mass extinctions, the tetrapods did not fully recover, and now share the earth with a huge variety of other things. Large marine tetrapods akin to whales are a thing of the past, the only tetrapods that go in water now are things that are akin to otters and small crocodiles, and none are more than 5 metres long. In place of marine tetrapods, other things have taken over. Sharks and bony fish both survived, and have taken up part of the role, but in addition there are a bunch of more exotic organisms. Cephalopods also rose to the challenge, and became the Onychoctopodidae and Carcharoteuthidans, which are probably as close to the mythological kraken as is physically possible. Some crabs also became large benthic predators. But these things all exist today, or are similar to things today. They aren't exactly 'neo-vertebrates' either. But these predators aren't the only denizens of the Global Ocean, and some of their contemporaries are unexpected from a modern point of view. One such thing is the Gamaren. From a distance it looks very similar to a shark, but get closer and it turns out to be another thing entirely. In fact the Gamaren, and any of its 150 relatives, are not actually vertebrates at all, they are echinoderms, sea cucumbers to be exact. Like familiar sea cucumbers, gamarens have a relatively simple body, basically a living tube. They also lack a proper internal skeleton, with most of their muscles being anchored to their tough skin. But that's where the similarities end. Unlike any other echinoderms, gamaren have both a complex brain and eyes, and in fact they actually have more eyes than true vertebrates do, with up to 3 on each side of their head, although their visual receptors actually extend along their flank, meaning they can detect light from almost anywhere on their body, though only their real eyes can detect images and motion. In order to be effective hunters, gamaren have evolved a fluked caudal fin, but in contrast to every other marine creature, they actually have paired caudal fins. This might be expected to be a hinderance, but it actually appears to increase the manoeuvrability. One other important difference to other echinoderms is the preface of 'jaws'. While different to the jaws if vertebrates, the jaws of gamaren function in a similar way. The structure is connected to the front of a block of cartilage surrounding the brain, and open up and down. While perhaps not exactly a true jaw, as it's main function is to make the mouth and head more rigid to increase streamlining, the shape is very similar. Within the jaw structure are very sharp toothlike projections made of silica, essentially glass teeth. Despite having the power to dismember prey, more often the prey is simply swallowed whole.
MAP OF THE WORLD:
Edited by El Dorito, Mar 25 2016, 08:24 AM.
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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 | Feb 24 2016, 05:15 PM Post #2 |
An Awesome Reptile
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Are you talking about an altered version of 200 Million ACE from TFIW? |
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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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| El Dorito | Feb 24 2016, 06:26 PM Post #3 |
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chlorinated opthalmic trigonometric shape of conspiracy and dank memes
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Not intentionally, but after reading it back it does sound pretty similar. The supercontinent is pretty much the same though, as that was possibly one of the only things that was realistic in the show. |
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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 | Feb 24 2016, 06:31 PM Post #4 |
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An Awesome Reptile
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I think I saw an illustration of the Gamaren on your Deviant Art account. It's a pretty cool concept |
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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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| El Dorito | Feb 24 2016, 06:34 PM Post #5 |
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chlorinated opthalmic trigonometric shape of conspiracy and dank memes
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Not all of them look exactly like that, some have more fins - unlike in vertebrates the fins are just stabilisation devises, meaning that different species can have different numbers of fins. They all have at least one pair though. |
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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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| El Dorito | Feb 24 2016, 06:37 PM Post #6 |
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chlorinated opthalmic trigonometric shape of conspiracy and dank memes
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Woah 44 to 70+ views in 10 minutes, this is going better than I expected. |
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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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| El Dorito | Feb 24 2016, 07:06 PM Post #7 |
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chlorinated opthalmic trigonometric shape of conspiracy and dank memes
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Sorry for triple post, but I forgot to put a link to the picture I drew on the subject. http://el-d0rito.deviantart.com/art/Pseudo-vertebrate-591924636 Feel free to discuss this, it's not a project, although some of it might go into 1 million years AD when I can think of more ideas. |
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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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| Tartarus | Feb 24 2016, 08:01 PM Post #8 |
Prime Specimen
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The concept of shark-like sea cucumbers is a really interesting one. I'm intrigued in hearing more about your future world of "neo-invertebrates". |
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| El Dorito | Feb 24 2016, 11:17 PM Post #9 |
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chlorinated opthalmic trigonometric shape of conspiracy and dank memes
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This was actually originally an idea of an alien shark-like thing, but I thought it would be more unique to have it be something that lives on earth in the future, and one that coexists with things that are recognisable, like sharks, squids, fish etc. This also isn't technically a project, so it's less of me just typing stuff and more of a discussion. I would actually like to see some criticism as that leads to a proper brainstorm. |
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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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| El Dorito | Feb 25 2016, 08:45 PM Post #10 |
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The world of 200+ million years in the future. Picture/map: (coming soon because they take ages to draw right and I don't have a computer yet) If you have ever watched The Future is Wild, you will know basically what the world looks like at this time. Various sources call it either Novopangaea or Pangaea II, but as those names are trademarked*, we shall call it Atlantis, a fitting name when the global ocean surrounding it is derived from the modern Atlantic Ocean. Despite the name 'Pangaea' inferring that all the land on Earth is fused together, this statement isn't entirely true. There are many tens of thousands of Islands in the global ocean, ranging from atolls barely above sea level to volcanic colossuses kilometres high. The biggest of these islands is Olympus island, fueled by the very same hotspot responsible for the mass extinction 100 million years earlier. Much like Hawaii today, the great size and isolation of Olympus island results in a very unique fauna and flora. The geology and biology ofOlympus island will be discussed in detail at a later date. Returning to the mainland, the climate goes through some extremes. The southern coastline of Atlantis is barricaded by mountains, some of which are even taller than mt Everest, and despite lying in what is generally called the 'tropics' the great elevation means that glaciers and snow are able to exist extensively. To the north is a huge desert where is rains only rarely, though sone water does exist as glacial runoff from the mountains. Few creatures live here, but there is still surprising diversity. Much of the northern half of Atlantis is relatively cold and dry savannah and grassland, though some areas are more forested due to rivers flowing from the south reaching the north coast. Lying between what were formerly North America and the amalgamated complex of Australia, Antarctica and the pacific coast of Asia, is perhaps the most inhospitable enviroent in earths history. The last parts of the Pacific Ocean that have yet to be subducted have been cut off from the sea, and have dried out to form a vast salty desert similar to the one that existed in the Mediterranean basin in the late Miocene, but on an altogether different scale. The area covered by this salt desert would cover the entire continent of Europe, and at an astonishing 4.5 km below sea level it is also probably the lowest elevation dry land in the earths history. The extremely low elevation causes other effects too. The atmosphere at the bottom of the basin is over twice as dense as it is at sea level, and contains so much CO2 that it would be impossible to breath in for more than a few hours. The extreme heat, over 60 C in places, would render survival even less likely. In the northern part of the basin, where the plate subducted under what is today Alaska, there is in fact a sea, although it is technically a very large salty lake. But this sea contains almost no life whatsoever, even microbes struggle here. That is because the surface layers are at a relatively constant 70 C, and in addition, is so concentrated with salts that the water is corrosive to most things. Like normal sea water, the most common salt is Sodium Chloride, but because of a number of factors, most importantly the continuing volcanism to the north, the water is saturated with a lot of alkaline substances. In layman's terms, it's basically a big lake of boiling drain cleaner. That combined with the searing temperatures means this place is about as close to hell as you can get. With all this inhospitability, it might be better to check out the western coast instead... The western point of Atlantis is almost always wet and rainy, and supports the majority of life that exists on land at this time. This area too, will be explained in detail at a later date. /so that concludes the basic summary of the world these things live in. Feel free to comment on anything. (Ocean sized lakes of boiling drain cleaner, I mean like, well GG...) *are they? Edited by El Dorito, Feb 25 2016, 08:51 PM.
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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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| Tartarus | Feb 26 2016, 12:50 AM Post #11 |
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Prime Specimen
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I don't think those names are trademarked. |
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| El Dorito | Feb 26 2016, 01:07 AM Post #12 |
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chlorinated opthalmic trigonometric shape of conspiracy and dank memes
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Meh Atlantis sounds better anyways. |
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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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| El Dorito | Feb 26 2016, 10:49 PM Post #13 |
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chlorinated opthalmic trigonometric shape of conspiracy and dank memes
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I've decided that I'm going to basically make this the sequel to 1 Million years AD, so if anything I add later looks similar to stuff on that project, there isn't a coincidence. |
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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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| El Dorito | Feb 27 2016, 11:24 PM Post #14 |
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chlorinated opthalmic trigonometric shape of conspiracy and dank memes
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Olympus Island, part 1: Geology Picture/map:http://el-d0rito.deviantart.com/art/Olympus-Island-593538545?ga_submit_new=10%253A1456635538 200+ million years in the future, the earth looks almost totally unrecognisable. Much like the world of 200 million years ago, the worlds continents are all locked together, united into one supercontinent, Atlantis. This process is by no means complete, indeed it won't be fully formed for another 60 million years or so. However it would be incorrect to say that all land is contained within the supercontinent, there are countless thousands of islands dotted throughout the ocean. Most of these are small and in many cases lack any form of vegetation, but some are volcanic oases in the oceanic desert. The biggest island of all is Olympus Island, an active volcanic island over 50 km in diameter. Olympus island, named after is superficial resemblance to the great Martian volcano Olympus Mons, is the top third of a vast submarine volcano that rises 9 km from the ocean floor to its windswept summit. It's diameter when measured at its base is over 180 km, making it comparable to, (perhaps even slightly bigger than) Mauna Loa in Hawaii. Unlike Hawaii, Olympus island is not composed of multiple volcanoes. On land, Olympus island is dominated by its large caldera, which forms a deep depression at its summit about 7 km in diameter and close to 600 metres deep. The majority of eruptions happen within the caldera, and the volcano is frequently active for months at a time, with lava erupting out of fissures and vents on the caldera floor. The northeast side of the volcano is relatively unstable, and over time this seaward sliding has resulted in a number of abrupt escarpments facing towards the northeast. These lines of weakness also channel magma, so that most flank eruptions happen in these areas. Accordingly, much of this area is largely devoid of trees, and provides a strong contrast to the heavily forested remainder. The west and northwest are less prone to eruptions, and the erosion and collapse of these areas have resulted in huge cliffs hundreds of metres tall forming here. Because Olympus island and it's hotspot are so far from any other land, and that the closest point on Atlantis is part of a mighty mountain range, very little of anything from the mainland is able to reach the island at all, and all animals present are either able to fly (or evolved from something that could) or swam to the island. Thus, the ecosystem is highly endemic, and over 95% of life on the island is found nowhere else. It is this rich biodiversity that will be explored in part 2. Please leave a comment on your opinion. Otherwise I'm not motivated and it basically looks like I'm talking to myself... Edited by El Dorito, Feb 28 2016, 05:12 AM.
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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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| Nyarlathotep | Feb 28 2016, 05:32 AM Post #15 |
The Creeping Chaos
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This definitely sounds interesting, from what I can see. This island sounds very isolated and therefore different to what's going to be in Atlantis the supercontinent. Either way this looks good, so do continue :). |
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