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| Out on a Branch; The radiations of clades after the Ages of Man and Jellyfish | |
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| Topic Started: Aug 11 2016, 12:53 AM (2,594 Views) | |
| Rodlox | Aug 11 2016, 12:53 AM Post #1 |
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Superhuman
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The extinction of humankind marked the end of an era which had wiped out many species and a number of genera. Some groups teetered and tottered after that Great Winnowing, and and it was easier for groups to perish if they had held only a handful of member species during the Age of Man - the Aardvark, for example, and the Monotremes. Other groups had been pushed to the edge by humans, and they simply did not survive the Cnidariacene. Some, such as the Ratites, went out flamboyantly; others, such as the Cetaceans, did not. Thus far, my goal is to focus on the second era following the Winnowing, with visits to the first era here and there. Contents by Era: The Winnowing -See Below Cnidariacene -The Last Whale - The Last Whale - The Last Lingering Penguin - The Last Lingering Penguin -Blind Sharks & their Tangles - Blind Sharks and their Tangles -The Last Ratite & The Three Major Cats - Ratite and cats -The Last Crocodilians - Last Crocodilians -The jellyfish of the land: arid beaches - arid beaches -Sharks & the ocean bottoms - Sharks and the Ocean bottoms - Mesoamerican Island Bees - Island Bees - Australia's Seawoods - Seawoods - Hawaii's Top Predator - the Vladpsychosis food chain - Australia's interior - Kangaroos, Oasis Mice, Cats, and Quolls - in the Arctic: Tunnel Bees and their foes - Tunnel Bees ?era - North American Riverlungers - Riverlungers The Littoriocene (yes, the Littorial Age} -Gigagnathid birds - Gigagnathids -Velvet Worms - Velvet Worms -Conquests of the Sea - Sea Cats - what the Turtles became: the Turtlefluke and Flapshells - Turtleflukes - Antelopes 2 - Sahara Giants Habitats: - South American Dryforest - Dryforest - Fynbos, part 1 - Part One Interactions - Grappler vs Bear (amazon dryforest) What do I imagine would happen within thirty million years of the end of the Littoriocene? -small-scale mass extinctions, wiping out many of the genera which had made themselves comfortable in the heat of these two after-human eras. -Like the Tethys before it, the Atlantic would begin to close. -The return of tropical rainforests. -The Horn of Africa breaks off. (I want to say it runs aground into Australia, and they form a new land with India - whether or not India is still part of Asia: Gondwana's Revenge!)  - Africa and Europe unite. The Extinct List: {those with a (?) are unsure at the present time, for one reason or another, but leaning towards total extinction} *of the Birds: -Ratites -Parrots -Penguins - *of the Reptiles: -Tuatara -Sea Turtles - *of the Mammals: -Monotrema -Marsupial Moles -Microbiotheriidae -Koalas -Atlantogenata: ---Xenarthra -Perisodactyla -Pholidota -Pinnapeds -Primates -Pigs Author's Note: I believe the phrase is "kill your darlings." Well, I've just wiped out almost all my favorite animals; time to evolve some new ones. Edited by Rodlox, Nov 27 2016, 03:21 AM.
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.---------------------------------------------. Parts of the Cluster Worlds: "Marsupialless Australia" (what-if) & "Out on a Branch" (future evolution) & "The Earth under a still sun" (WIP) | |
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| Beetleboy | Nov 22 2016, 10:09 AM Post #31 |
neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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This project is really cool. It's updates may not be long or detailed or have artwork, but the ideas are really interesting, the writing style is great, and a variety of both animals and plants are talked about. Awesome work, this project deserves more attention. |
| ~ The Age of Forests ~ | |
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| Rodlox | Nov 22 2016, 10:28 AM Post #32 |
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Superhuman
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Thank you very much. the updates will probably average longer now - before, the updates were either limited to what I could type during a commercial or a page or two on a small-paged notepad. now I've switched back to regular or slightly larger-sized pages, so that may help. there's a little bit of artwork...but I've been having scanner troubles for a while (also why I haven't updated my dA collection in a while) I'm happy with however much attention the project gets. (again, thank you) |
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.---------------------------------------------. Parts of the Cluster Worlds: "Marsupialless Australia" (what-if) & "Out on a Branch" (future evolution) & "The Earth under a still sun" (WIP) | |
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| Rodlox | Nov 23 2016, 01:54 AM Post #33 |
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Superhuman
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very very belated: a fight in the Amazonian Dryforest: (this is pased on a set of art i made, illustrating each stage of the fight) In the Amazon Dryforest, a Shaggy Bear (evolved from the Andean Bear) chews part of the carcass of a Garbler (rodent demonstrating iterative evolution to resemble an agouti, though unrelated to them) it has brought down. Its a good meal. So good a meal that an adult Amazon Grappler intends to steal it from the bear. Ignoring the bear's growls and bared teeth. This bear is a subadult, lacking the sheer size of a full adult. Even so, that only makes it a better idea than taking on a fully grown bear or a bachellorette pack of Jaguars (often sisters but not always; much like the bachelor packs of Cheetahs in the Age of Man)...it doesn't mean its a particularly good idea. Still, this Grappler is hungry. And it doesn't get the message ("LEAVE") when the Shaggy Bear swings its forearm in a swipe at the Grappler. In fact, the Grappler charges at the bear, knocking it backwarrds. For the moment, it has the upper hand against the overly furry opponent. One thing any Grappler is good at - and this adult is particularly good at it - is tackling. The only problem is that this is an Amazonian Grappler; lacking the massive megafaunal prey of North America or Pategonia, Amazonian Grapplers are the runts of the Grappler family (but only compared with other Grapplers, mind you) {in captivity, Pategonian Grapplers and North American Grapplers can handily defeat a Shaggy Bear - but they aren't here to help} This Grappler tries to keep the Shaggy Bear pinned on its back. But even a subadult Shaggy has an advantage: dense fur covers a thick skin, making even a gut bite harder than a Grappler is accustomed to; the bear also keeps its head tucked down and pointing its snapping jaws at the Grappler, denying access to that vulnerable throat. The only thing that isn't bothering the Grappler are the bear's claws - hard upperside and dorsal pads originally evolved to protect from the hooves of tackled herbivorous prey, and they're serving this Grappler very well here against the bear claws. As a Mock Parrot circles overhead and below the lower branches of the Dryforest, the Grappler turns its head and shoves its way off the bear; understanding that it can't win from this angle. The bear makes swipes at the Grappler, but focuses on rolling itself back up so its belly isn't exposed any longer than it has been already. Half of it still pointing away from where it had been, the other half curved around to hiss fangs-bared at the bear, the Grappler is an S shape. For its part, the Shaggy Bear is lying on its belly with forelegs tucked under it, hindquarters and head elevated in preparation for another attack. But while the bear had been rolling over to its belly & while the grappler was backing off and turning, a Mock Parrot (evolved from a pitta- or pitta-like bird into a parrot-looking predatory bird) swooped in and stole the remains of the garbler. The prize gone, the Grappler quickly walks away - if it limps, the Shaggy will bring it down; if it runs, the Shaggy can outrun it. With hackles raised and while growling, the bear watches its enemy leave. And then the Shaggy Bear ambles off, in search of another rodent to tackle. |
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.---------------------------------------------. Parts of the Cluster Worlds: "Marsupialless Australia" (what-if) & "Out on a Branch" (future evolution) & "The Earth under a still sun" (WIP) | |
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| Rodlox | Nov 23 2016, 03:06 AM Post #34 |
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Superhuman
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hmm...Hawai'i is one of the ones in the lead...hmm........ what was that phrase? "A trip to stabby town"? That applies: Hawai'i's Top Predator! Under normal circumstances, the Death Stick is a pretty lethal predator in Cnidaracene Hawai'i on its own, feeding on chicks and other small animals, normally vertabrates. And it was early sightings of the Death Stick (evolved from snails imported to Hawaii during the Age of Man) that led to it being given the title of Hawaii's Top Predator...though, more recent research has led to the conclusion that, not only was it cheating, but it may not qualify at all. Hawaii is home to several species in three genera of Gigagnathid birds: one genus fully flightless, one genus with both flightless and nonflightless species, including the Greatest Waders - perhaps the largest wading birds since the Eocene. Greatest Waders make their nests of sand - regular and black sand - and collected sticks, and lay their eggs inside. Unlike most Gigagnathids, Greatest Waders lay more than an average of one egg per nesting season. Death Sticks had been observed slipping into the nests of Greatest Waders, finding a chick, and impaling it so blood leaks through the floor of the nest (ergo the name Elongatus vladii). At the time, it had been considered odd that the Death Stick kept getting eaten shortly if nor immediately thereafter by the parent or sibling of the murdered chick. The question was normally answered with "sample bias" - that successful predation simply hadn't been observed yet - and left at that...until recently. Death Sticks, it turns out, avoid Gigagnatids' nests (though not free-roaming chicks), unless the snail has become a host to a fungus so unique it has been assigned its own genus and there is debate over if it earns its own family or sub-family: Vladpsychosis sp. In the snail, it drives its host toward nests and chicks, and short-circuits the part of the snail brain that is in charge of feeding and preparing its food - only the stabbing survives. Thus, the Death Snail never eats the chicks of Greatest Waders because the snail couldn't even if it wanted to. The parent or sibling eats the killer snail, and the fungus passes through their digestive system (which still is specialized for eating jellyfish; roughly half of the fungal spores pass through, the rest of the fungus, not so much) and is pooped just outside the nest, where the poop fertilizes the spore's coming into contact-communion with the Vladpsychosis fungus living in the soil, which had earlier been feeding upon the blood let loose by the stabbing; this communion spurs the development of fruiting bodies dubbed truffles by researchers. The truffles are food for gleebeetles and nestpipers (getting some fungal spores on their mock antennae), both of which leave the occupants of the nest alone, and both of which are the normal prey of Death Stickswho stand a chance of getting infected with the next generation of Vladpsychosis. Not all Death Sticks contract the mind-chopping fungus, and it is unknown as to what stops it;perhaps it is as simple as the fact that if it causes too many Death Sticks to get eaten, the fungus will run out of carriers to complete the circle...or maybe its immunological or something else. |
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.---------------------------------------------. Parts of the Cluster Worlds: "Marsupialless Australia" (what-if) & "Out on a Branch" (future evolution) & "The Earth under a still sun" (WIP) | |
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| Rodlox | Nov 24 2016, 02:30 AM Post #35 |
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Superhuman
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going to be away from the computer for an unknown length of time, so here's a bit of a mass postings: Cnidaracene Australia - The Cnidaracene saw the return of that Australian phenomenon - the carnivorous kangaroo. Nothing else could keep up with the {also returned via iterative evolution} giant kangaroos, though unlike the long-extinct short-faced ones, these Cnidaracene ones did not lose their long-distance hopping as they grew to the mammoth sizes dictated by the distances between food patches. If not claimed by a carnivorous roo, a dead giant will trigger "a whalefall" - a population explosion of the Oasis Mice {a paraphyletic group of placentals and marsupials} from and at the nearest watersite, as they swarm all over it hungrily. Domestic cats - the feral kind - nearly didn't last in Australia post-Man, with their hypercarnivory fitting poorly with the vast distances between waters and food. Perhaps they might have done well to become capable of a human- and hyena-like (or camel-like) loping to cover long distances on little food, but that didn't happen. The last species of cats in Australia were ones who attempted to go after the insects that were everywhere, but they were outcompeted; by the mid-Cnidaracene, Australian cats were extinct. Quolls found a refuge in the northerntop forests that were New Guinea and in the various seawoods ecologies. |
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.---------------------------------------------. Parts of the Cluster Worlds: "Marsupialless Australia" (what-if) & "Out on a Branch" (future evolution) & "The Earth under a still sun" (WIP) | |
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| Rodlox | Nov 24 2016, 02:33 AM Post #36 |
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Superhuman
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WIP - period unknown - North America - Riverlungers are (sirents/amphiumas/?) which, when fully grown, include otters (and quicksilvers?) in their diets; when young, they are fed upon by otters. Most Riverlunger species never exceed 12 feet in length, though the Great Migrator and Greater Migrator have both been recorded regularly reacing 15 feet. |
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.---------------------------------------------. Parts of the Cluster Worlds: "Marsupialless Australia" (what-if) & "Out on a Branch" (future evolution) & "The Earth under a still sun" (WIP) | |
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| Rodlox | Nov 24 2016, 02:44 AM Post #37 |
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Superhuman
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Tunnel Bees and their foes - In the Cnidaracene, the permafrost may be gone; but the summers are no longer than they were, and neither are the days. The mosquitos vanished from the Arctic in the company of the mammals of the area. In their wake came a new pollinator - or rather an old pollinator to wear many hats. Ink's Tunnel Bee has two forms of workers: flightless, for the nights and winters; and flight-able, for the summer days. By the Littoriocene, many species of Tunnel Bees are raising their underground tunnels into both subterranean and raised mounds. Based upon northernmost species of Tunnel Bees at the close of the Littoriocene, the return of the snows and the ice will bring about an army ant-like Tunnel Bee which would inhibit the rise of Arctic small- and mid-bodied animals. Feeding upon the flying Tunnel Bees is the bulkiest volant member of the Gigagnathid family - also the only member able to eat anything other than jellyfish. The flightless Tunnel Bee workers are the province of {missing; unknown; more research needed. Embers has proposed the existance - as yet unconfirmed - of a flightless, woodsnipe-kiwi-niche Gigagnathid to eat those workers}. Flower pollination is handled by both flightless and flying Tunnel Bees, allowing flowering plants to speciate into species which bloom at different times of day and year. In North America, one predator of Tunnel Bees is a specialist: the Sludge Toad, so named for the very thick layer of mucus which coats its massive body: average weight in the mid and late Cnidaracene was 20-30 pounds. The mucus helped protect the toad from defensive attacks by Tunnel Bees whose colony was on the menu that day. However, the thicker the coat of mucus, the harder time a toad has in keeping warm, so there are valid reasons why their coats aren't thicker by now: they'd be extinct. Possible evolutionary ancestors are the bullfrog and wood frog. By the Littoriocene, Sludge Toads are facing competition from the insectivorous Broadfooted Turtles, as well as {missing}. Sludge Toads are members of the Walking Frog radiation throughout much of North America. |
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.---------------------------------------------. Parts of the Cluster Worlds: "Marsupialless Australia" (what-if) & "Out on a Branch" (future evolution) & "The Earth under a still sun" (WIP) | |
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| Rodlox | Nov 27 2016, 03:19 AM Post #38 |
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Superhuman
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Antelopes 2: the Sahara Giants I have mentioned the Wattlelopes, but I neglected to mention their cousins of the arid reaches of the African Continent. As the Sahara expanded, so too did the Sahel. Both took the Serengeti into themselves, forcing the savanna animals to adapt or to perish. The Atlas Mountains found themselves even more like islands in the sand seas; though as the Mediterranean slowly shrank as Africa and Europe continued to come ever closer (a process which was underway even in the Age of Man), the Atlas grew larger and expanded bit by bit towards the northern coast). It was to be the tiny gazelles which came to adopt the mantle of being the inheritors of the Indricotheres, those massive odd-toed mammals, the length of a tank and larger than the extinct elephants. Though no Sahara Giants have been observed live in the Cnidaracene, their fossils have been found throughout the Greater Sahara (well, "throughout" bearing in mind its a rare genus). Sahara Giants have been the cause of a great deal of acrimonious arguing among Lumpers and Splitters, as Sahara Giants appear to differ only in their feet: the degree to which their feet are splayed is dependant upon the hardness/looseness of the rocks and sand. The rest of the body differs among specimens only as much as might be expected within a small population. But when they were seen alive in the Littoriocene, so many questions were answered. It turns out that weaned Sahara Giants have a period of wanderlust, during which their feet settle into the width required by the terrain of their new territory. Two dozen species were accordingly sunk with this discovery, reduced to only debates over whether the Cnidaracene had three or seven species, and how many of those are the same as are extant in the Littoriocene. Another mystery was that some Sahara species of dung beetles have lost the ability to roll dung, or even to steal it from other beetles. It turns out that the culprit for that was a genus of rodent: Coproraptor sp., which guards the newly-fallen dung from Parcel Flies (specialists in long-distance flight) and when the beetles arrive to lay their eggs in the dung, the coproraptor rodents take clump after clump with them to their burrow, where the rodent's young are weaned by the time the beetle larvae hatch (some larvae always survive to adulthood, either by the rodents of that burrow not holding out til the next Sahara Giant passes through the area, or by being out of reach, or the young are kicked out of the burrow by the time the larvae matures) There were crocodiles in the lakes of Chad and other oasis spots of the Sahara during the Age of Man; these did not survive, nor did their water homes. |
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.---------------------------------------------. Parts of the Cluster Worlds: "Marsupialless Australia" (what-if) & "Out on a Branch" (future evolution) & "The Earth under a still sun" (WIP) | |
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| Rodlox | Nov 29 2016, 06:23 PM Post #39 |
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Superhuman
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updating the extinct/survival list: MONOTREMES - -Echidnas † -Platypus † MARSUPIALS - -Bandicoots † - Marsupial Moles † -Ring-Tailed & Greater Gliding Possums † - Gliding & Striped Possums - survived, restricted to New Guinea - Wombats - ?? - Koalas † - Possums & Cuscuses - survived - Rat Kangaroos - survived - Pygmy Possums † - Wallabies & Kangaroos - survived (unless the giant hoppers are Rat Kangaroos) - Numbat † - Thylacine † - Marsupial "Mice" & M. "Cats" & Tas. Devils - survived - "Shrew" Opossums † - Monito del Monte † - Pouched Opossums - survived - Bushy-Tailed Opossums - ? - Wooly & Black-Shouldered Opossums - ? - Pouchless Murine, or Mouse, Opossums - ? - Honey Possum - ? - Feather-Tailed Possum - ? PLACENTALS- Atlantogenata: --Sloths † --Anteaters † --Armadillos - ?undetermined --Aardvarks † --Elephants † --Segnis - survived -- Hyraxes - survived --Sirens † Primates - ? Glires - ?undetermined Insectivora - ?undetermined Bats - like cats, they didn't survive humans by the greatest of margins Even-Toed: --Camels † --Pigs † --Hippos † --Whales (see table of contents) --Giraffes † --Pronghorns † --Deer - survived --Cattle, Sheep, Antelope - survived Odd-Toed - † Pangolins † Carnivora: --Cats - survived --Bears - survived --hyenas † --dogs - ?undetermined --mustelids - survived --red pandas & skunks - survived |
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.---------------------------------------------. Parts of the Cluster Worlds: "Marsupialless Australia" (what-if) & "Out on a Branch" (future evolution) & "The Earth under a still sun" (WIP) | |
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| Rodlox | Dec 2 2016, 04:53 PM Post #40 |
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Superhuman
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Spent part of today thinking about the Cryocene and what might happen to the Giants therein... The lineage of the Giants survived the transition from the Littoriocene into the early Cryocene; true that the increasing amounts of plants meant there would come to be more competitors for food...but the vast bulk and sheer size of the Giants insulated them from all but the most aggressive herbivores. (just as elephants tended not to worry about duikers and zebras; gnus and hippos, on the other hand...) The weather was another matter entirely. As the Cryocene progressed, and the snows and ices moved equatorwards in both hemispheres, the Giants likewise moved their species towards the last sources of warmth left - the Afar Giant lasted slightly longer than most, in part thanks to the warm-water currents around the new continent that had been eastern- and northeastern-Africa. But even on the equator itself, the clade was ultimately doomed; because the equator was home to treeforests that refused to budge or be moved, and the Giants were predominantly too big to live there...and too cold-intolerant to live beyond the woods. Thus the last continental species of this clade was the Minute Giant (T.pygmaeus). In part, this was because of what had helped them for so long: the Giants were heat sinks, built to shed massive amounts of body heat and thus avoid danger in the time they had come to dominance in. Utterly lacking hair, they found themselves unable to re-evolve it in the Cryocene. Some, like the Afar Giant, had skin that tended to overlap into layers, but even that was drawn from the heat sinks. |
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| Rodlox | Dec 3 2016, 03:05 AM Post #41 |
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Superhuman
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the extinction list for reptiles...at the level of orders and superorders, there's only one group having been wiped out - the Tuataras. Class Reptilia Subclass Eureptilia Infraclass Diapsida Infraclass Neodiapsida Order Testudinata (turtles) Infraclass Lepidosauromorpha Superorder Lepidosauriformes Order Rhynchocephalia (tuatara) † Order Squamata (lizards & snakes) Division Archosauriformes Subdivision Archosauria Infradivision Crurotarsi Superorder Crocodylomorpha Order Crocodilia Order Saurischia (incl. Clade Aves) {see birds} |
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| Rodlox | Dec 8 2016, 02:33 AM Post #42 |
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Superhuman
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the extinction list for birds * Penguins - no (later; see the menu) * Spoonbills † * Pelicans † * Ibis † * Storks † * Crows & Ravens - no? * Owls - no * Eagles † * Falcons - ? * Condors † * Vultures † * Ratites - no (later, see menu) * Egrets - ? Edited by Rodlox, Dec 8 2016, 02:33 AM.
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| Rodlox | Dec 8 2016, 02:39 AM Post #43 |
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Superhuman
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fishes * Hagfish ? (too adaptable durable to bump off?) * Lamprey ? (ditto) * Lobe-Fins † * Sharks & Rays: -Ratfish & Chimeras † -Skates & Rays - no, except for ---Mantas † -Sharks - no, except for ---Dogfish † ---Wobbegongs ? ---Great Whites † ---Megamouths † ---Cookiecutters ? * Bony Fish: -Puffers & Sunfish † - Seahorses & Pipefish ? - Oarfish † - Tetras & Piranas ? -Ciclids - no? - Mudskippers † - Flying Fish † - Morays ?? - Eels ?? - Flashlight Fish † - Angler Fish † - Dragonfish † - Gulper Eels † - Gobys † - Groupers † - Icefish † - Catfish - no - Paddlefish ?? - Bichars ?? |
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| Rodlox | Dec 8 2016, 02:45 AM Post #44 |
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Superhuman
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{i'm not sure where my brain was at during writing this} In the early Age Of Man, the Shasta Ground Sloth spread the seeds of the Joshua Tree [Yucca brevifolia spp.]. Following the sloth's extinction, the trees lingered on. The trees found a new partner in the Cnidaracene -- the Gerboaman rodents {Jerboamimidae}, whose radiation fed many, from Pumas to Grapplers to Hungerbunnies. Gerboamen were perfect partners all through the Littoriocene and into the Cryocene. Aside from the edges of that had been the Mexican and northern Central American Highlands, Joshua Trees only remained in "the Yellowstone Hotspot" {despite its name, it was by this point alongside the Appalachian Foothills}. And when it reached that point, it would go exterpated when the Hotspot erupted...or extinct if the Hotspot only erupted after the southern lands froze over first. When this occurs, the survivor will have been defeated, and whether or not it has been living on borrowed time, its like will never again be seen. Edited by Rodlox, Dec 8 2016, 02:51 AM.
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| Rodlox | Dec 8 2016, 02:51 AM Post #45 |
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Superhuman
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In the Cryocene, there are parasites known as dualleaves, which reside between the host's body wall and skin. Their cladistic affinities were unknown: the DNA sequencer was busted - again. Possible proposed relations in the Age Of Man include ribbonworms, chaetognaths, leeches, and peripatids. But it wasn't until the discovery of a fossil bed of mummified wattlelopes and Sahara Giants that the question was answered: named Diphyte resolutus, it was a sessile (except in youth?) millipede which lived entirely between the folds of skin, which it pierced with mouthparts and the first pair(s) of legs. So it seems that the antelopes presence can still be felt, even in the furthest, deepest Cryocene: their parasite took on in all the new hosts, forged by hoofstock into a body that could endure in the warmth of bodies. |
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.---------------------------------------------. Parts of the Cluster Worlds: "Marsupialless Australia" (what-if) & "Out on a Branch" (future evolution) & "The Earth under a still sun" (WIP) | |
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