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| The Novazoic Version II; It's back | |
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| Topic Started: Aug 6 2016, 12:44 PM (2,311 Views) | |
| Beetleboy | Aug 6 2016, 12:44 PM Post #1 |
neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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The Novazoic Version 2.0 Note: Original Novazoic Thread Some of you may remember my Novazoic project from last year, which was my very first project, and was gaining popularity before I lost interest. It's a shame, because I had worked really hard on the project, and quite a few people seemed to really like it. But I have quite short attention spans, but I have been working on making my attention span better since then. And, I'm glad to say, I've been working on the Novazoic again for a few months, and I think it's ready to be shown now. However, several things have been changed:
Timeline of Human Activities from 2040-3030 2040: the first human settlement on Mars. Most of their energy comes from solar power, as well as nuclear power transported from Earth. 2050: further colonisation of Mars – there are now 5 separate settlements on the planet, living in complex glass domes with small-scale farms for food such as cress, lettuce, etc. 2060: the very first asteroid miners are based on Mars, while separate small scale mines on the planet itself are taking off. Essential minerals can be used in everyday life and in building work, and mined ice from beneath the surface can be heated up to make water. 3000: Mars is becoming more and more habitable. The range of jobs is becoming greater there, with choices of miners, farmers, builders, etc. Larger farms are being built in large domes, and the community homes (known as lodges) of people are becoming more and more spacious. 3008: World War III. Earth is in uproar as a city is bombed, killing thousands, kicking off a cross-country war, which quickly built into something much greater as other countries took sides. 3010: Martians, who previously for the most part chose to take no sides, get caught up in the war. The Arsia Mons colony take sides and kill the President of America while he is at his personal home at the Valles Marineris colony, a place he considered safe. However, the bomb that killed him also took the lives of many Martians at the colony, thus starting a war between colonies on Mars. Soon, the Mars colony is caught up in the warfare on Earth. 3020: the war goes on, while scientists of all sides are got to work creating bigger and better weapons. Biological warfare is everywhere, with so-called 'virus bombs' being dropped in enemy countries and allowing artificial viruses and diseases to destroy the population. 3025: Mars is bombed, and colony by colony, humans go extinct there as genetically engineered viruses spread. 3030: as the war continues, people don't notice the asteroid which is about to smash into Earth. The combination of wars, dangerous viruses, and the asteroid wipes out humans for good, but the latter also affected life on Earth in general. Geography Australia has drifted southwards, so that the majority of its surface is rather cold. The northern areas of Australia are primarily temperate forest, with obvious seasonal changes, whereas the southern tip is much colder, covered in ice and snow for the most part of the year. Ice connects Antarctica to Australia, and several unusual life forms can be found dwelling beneath the ice. Australia and Antarctica are known collectively as Austrarctica. New Zealand is to the east of Australia, and is a remote Antarctic island connected by sea ice to Austrarctica during only part of the year. Africa and Asia are now fully connected and now form a new continent, known as Afrasia. It has moved north from the continents' original positions, so that areas of Asia are very cold and icy, with some temperate parts. The southern areas of Afrasia are mainly tropical, often covered in grassland or rainforest. Moving northwards up the continent, we see some desert and temperate areas. For this reason, Afrasia is known as the continent of extremes, with rainforests, tropical grassland, temperate forests and grassland, and even semi-polar areas in the north. Europe has moved north with the rest of Afrasia, so now Great Britain has a climate more combarable to the nothern areas of Norway. Just above Madagascar is the island of Kisiwa, made up of what was once Tanzania, Kenya, and Somalia. South America has split off from North America and drifted south slightly. The southerly tip of South America can often be very cold, sometimes covered in ice and snow. More northerly portions of the continent are desert, temperate forest, or rainforest, depending on which area. North America has not moved much, only very slightly to the north, and the climates and habitats there have not changed much. Note: sorry the geography's short, it isn't my strong point. Survivors (the list is not currently complete) Invertebrates Fish Amphibians Reptiles Birds Mammals Contents General: Species by Location Timeline Mammals: Koomba Boxer Wallaby Birds Burrunjor Reptiles Waterglider Pipsqueak Amphibians Whiskered Qilin Fish Ningyo Invertebrates Kauhoe-Kirikiti Flora and Fungi Flora of Austrarctica Edited by Beetleboy, Aug 19 2016, 12:52 PM.
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| Beetleboy | Aug 19 2016, 07:18 AM Post #46 |
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neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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Species by Location Austractica A cold landscape of tundra, temperate forests, and cold, dusty deserts. This is a place like no other, where kangaroos are the size of elephants and giant flightless birds prey upon them, where macropods have horns, scythes, and brood parasitism, and crocodiles could fit in your handbag. Koomba Boxer Wallaby Burrunjor Pipsqueak Flora of Austractica New Zealand This is a cold, unforgiving land of species descended from creatures from around the world. Here snails eat mice, birds are poisonous, and ducks live underground - a truly unique place. Kauhoe-Kirikiti Japan This place is home to some of the strangest creatures in the world. Shoals of glowing squid predated by even bigger squid swim through the seas, joined by strange sharks and giant marine salamanders. This is the only place on Earth were moles live in rivers, and squirrels are the size of large dogs. Ningyo Whiskered Qilin Kisiwa Gradually, the area of Africa which includes Tanzania, Rwanda, and Kenya has split off from the main continent, and now floats just above Madagascar. This is a strange land full of relics and living fossils from the time of the Holocene and Anaktisozoic, but also new, fascinating species such as lizards which spend their lives floating on water, and marine baboons. This is the last place on the Novazoic Earth where you can see animals descended from rhinos, hyenas, and other iconic African fauna of the Holocene. Waterglider Edited by Beetleboy, Aug 19 2016, 12:52 PM.
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| Beetleboy | Aug 19 2016, 10:57 AM Post #47 |
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neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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Timeline CURRENTLY BEING REDONE Edited by Beetleboy, Aug 20 2016, 05:38 AM.
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| Beetleboy | Aug 19 2016, 12:50 PM Post #48 |
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neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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Whiskered Qilin The Chinese alligator never survived the Holocene – they never even made it to the Orakalamaria Stage of the Anaktisozoic. This left China completely devoid of crocodilians. Just after the Orakalamaria Stage, during the Orapsarian Stage (9.12-12.1 million years hence), however, a new creature evolved to take the Chinese alligator's place: the qilin. These animals are giant, predatory salamanders, and they quickly diversified into a variety of semi-aquatic niches. There were serpentine river-dwellers which actively hunt down fish, and there are fat, sluggish ambush predators. During the Protostadio Stage of the Novazoic, a species of qilin swam down into the seas, and developed a resistance to salt, evolving into the Mid Novazoic's hyōsubes, which dwell in the Japanese seas. An ancient species of qilin, which has given the rest of the group their name, is the whiskered qilin. Its barbels resemble those which were said to be present on the mythical creature, the qilin, and so the name was given to these salamanders. The name stuck not just for this species, but for the whole group. Appearance: Like all qilins (except perhaps the hyōsubes, which are a rather advanced form of qilin), the whiskered species has a rather conservative salamander form: long, slender body, generally short limbs with toes that are either not webbed or webbed, and a long, powerful tail. They typically have long, slender heads, and this species is no exception. However, its most unusual feature are the long barbels that are positioned on its snout, just above its jawline on its maxilla. These are filled with sensors which can detect movement in the water, and also act as camouflage for the qilin, breaking up its outline. Whiskered qilins have flattened bodies, with the edges of their body, limbs, tail, and head covered in jagged flaps of skin, mimicking the dead leaves in the stagnant pools, swamps, and flooded forests that this species lives in. They are light brown in colour, with darker speckles, and grow up to 2 metres long. Behaviour: The whiskered qilin is an ambush predator which lies in wait for its prey, the various fish which live in swamps and pools. It will lie motionless, waiting for the right moment to strike, when its prey has wandered close and is within range. Then it will propel itself forward, opening its mouth wide, and engulf fish, all in a fraction of a second – blink, and you'll miss it. This species is mostly solitary, but where fishing is good, groups of whiskered qilins can be found, sometimes even lying on top of each other. Normally, however, the only time that they come together is during the breeding season, when they move to breeding pools. After mating, the females will return to their territory, and keep their eggs implanted in dimples on their back (the male squashes them in just after mating). Eventually, the babies will wriggle out and leave their mother, for she may be prone to eating one or two. The juveniles mostly feed on small aquatic invertebrates until they get to a larger size. Qilins can walk over land, but usually chose not too, instead spending all of their time underwater. |
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| Tartarus | Aug 19 2016, 07:05 PM Post #49 |
Prime Specimen
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Love the ningyo and the qilins, and am looking forward to seeing the creatures you have so far only mentioned such as the burrowing ducks, the river moles and the marine baboons. On Kisiwa you say this is the last place to see things like rhinos and hyenas, so I'm guessing some extinction event killed off these creatures on mainland Africa, and that this extinction was a later one than the 3030 extinction seeing as Kisiwa would have broken from Africa long after that. On your timeline I am a bit confused. The names Anaktisozoic, Paraxsenoszoic and Novazoic indicate these are eras (the suffix "zoic" is used for eras- e.g. Palaeozoic, Mesozoic, Cenozoic), but they are way shorter than any earlier era and really more on the timescale one expects for periods ("period" as in how, for example, the Cretaceous is a period of the Mesozoic era). That they are perhaps periods rather than eras is also indicated by how their subdivisions- Orakalamaria, Orapsarian, etc.- are referred to as "stages". Stages are subsets of epochs and thus also of periods (e.g. the Maastrichian is a stage of the Late Cretaceous). So what sort of geological time categories are these all meant to be? |
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| Beetleboy | Aug 20 2016, 05:37 AM Post #50 |
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neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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Thanks!
There is an other asteroid strike, which is not very severe, but does deplete life on Africa.
I've got to be completely honest, the timeline was rushed and badly thought-out. You're right on all of these things; I am going to have to think things through and redo the timeline. Sorry about that, really bad thing to make a mistake on really. |
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| Ursumeles | Aug 20 2016, 06:37 AM Post #51 |
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Newborn
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You have written in you're first post, that "baboons and maquaques we're the only to survive". I think you mean Primates instead, or? |
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Spoiler: click to toggle That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons even death may die. -H.P. Lovecraft | |
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| Beetleboy | Aug 20 2016, 07:10 AM Post #52 |
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neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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I meant they were the only primates to survive, it was a typo. |
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