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| Rainforest Earth; Warm, wet, and weird | |
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| Topic Started: Nov 25 2016, 08:47 AM (2,686 Views) | |
| Beetleboy | Nov 25 2016, 08:47 AM Post #1 |
neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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Rainforest Earth Warm, wet, and weird  Author's Note: I've always loved the idea of a hothouse Earth, and well before I joined the forum I would imagine the organisms inhabiting a world covered in rainforests and swamps. Finally, I've decided to incorporate this into a future evo project, which I hope will allow me to excercise myself in some non-mammalian spec, with focus on amphibians, birds, and invertebrates. I also hope to cover plant life and some fungi, too. It has been 150 million years since the end of the Holocene, and the horror of the great war that was to be the end of humanity. In the end, humans became too clever – too clever for their own good, and the bombs and the fighting and the diseases snuffed them out slowly, individual by individual. Humanity's final stand was not glorious, but a lone old man fighting for each breath, hidden amongst the rubble of an abandoned city, as the disease that humans had engineered to win the war, slowly took his life, and thus ended the last human on Earth. Homo sapiens dragged with them into the evolutionary graveyard countless other species, the victims of hunting, habitat loss, fragmentation, climate change, pollution . . . elephants, rhinos, great apes, countless deaths. Those that did make it through the Holocene were outcompeted or wiped out in the upcoming extinction events, like the cetaceans. But life goes on: extinction events are a violent reality of living on Earth, although the Holocene Extinction Event was the first one to be created by another species. Earth recovered, and life continued as if nothing had ever happened. But before we visit Rainforest Earth, we must first go back several million years before it occurs to fully understand it. At this point, around 110 million years from now, mammals aren't doing so well. Ripples of extinction events quickly drive down their numbers, but notably, rodent, shrew, and pig descendants are still going strong. Birds, meanwhile, have been refining their reproduction, and some gull descendants have developed a pouch on their underside, in which they can keep their egg warm, while not being bound to a nest. The next major event is an ice age that grips Earth in a freezing grip, but while the mammals and other animals struggle to adapt, the marsupial birds take off. Having a warm pouch in which to rear your egg and afterwards, your chick, is very useful in the cold conditions. Parents no longer have to sit on the nest to stop their young from freezing to death, they can now wander about freely, feeding as they normally would, while their baby is safe in the pouch. As the ice age continues, the mammals lumbering through the tundra are joined by large, flightless birds, 3 metres tall and like a very well insulated emu. Their chick is safe in a pouch, and it is becoming increasingly clear that the birds are diversifying. As we near the time period that we will look at in depth, the continental movement and the high amounts of geological activity have caused large amounts of volcanic eruptions across the world. This causes a minor extinction event that knocks back the mammals yet further, but also releases immense amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The result is a natural global warming, and bit by bit the Earth warms up . . . By 150 million years hence, the world is in the height of a greenhouse effect, sometimes known as the hothouse Earth. There are no polar ice caps, and the only place snow and ice can be found are at the very poles and on mountains. Rainforests cover much of the world except where it is too arid, and sea levels rise, flooding the land. This is a hot, damp world of extremes: jungle and desert living side-by-side, and covering the globe. If we were to visit this Rainforest Earth, it would seem primordial to us, like we'd travelled backwards in time, not forwards. This garden of Eden, a gem of natural beauty, would actually be pretty inhospitable to humans. The rainforests are dense and swelteringly hot and humid, biting insects plague the swamps, and invertebrates can be unusually large thanks to the large amounts of oxygen in the atmosphere. Life here is usually venomous, poisonous, or pretending to be something else. Rainforest Earth is a world of mimicry and deception, and it belongs to the invertebrates, the amphibians, the reptiles, and the birds. There are mammals here, but they are reduced to mostly small forms, most of which are either aquatic or arboreal. It is the other animals which rule this forest world. This seemingly beautiful paradise may be inhospitable to us, but it is also one of the most notable time periods that Earth has experienced for a long time. Earth is rarely as diverse as it is now – just imagine the Amazon Rainforest, the amount of creatures living there, then imagine that covering much of the globe. It is easy to see why there is around double the amount of species living on Rainforest Earth than there was during the Holocene. The oceans are tropical and filled with vibrant reefs, scattered with sandy, pristine islands inhabited by unique fauna and flora. The forests are huge and home to countless species, and the arid deserts are home to strange, spiny forests and hardy organisms surviving against the odds. The swamps are biodiverse and some of them are home to entirely new habitats unlike anything seen during the Holocene, and at the poles, temperate forests grow and spread towards the equator where they are overtaken by tropical forest. This is Rainforest Earth, tropical, wet, strange, and biodiverse. *geography and overviews of organisms will be in seperate updates rather than being with the project introduction here* Contents Geography Organism Overviews - Animals Weeping Bog-Forests Golden Lakes Whirlybirds Edited by Beetleboy, Nov 28 2016, 12:17 PM.
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| ~ The Age of Forests ~ | |
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| Sphenodon | Nov 28 2016, 02:46 PM Post #46 |
Calcareous
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From my research, testudines have hard-shelled eggs (made with aragonite, specifically - unique amongst amniotes). This was more along the lines of the whole whale-bird conundrum, but this brings me to the next point:
The species you're looking for is the pig-nosed (or Fly River) turtle, a very odd Australian/New Guinean species and the only extant carettochelyid. This also goes in line with another idea of mine (came up with it a few months ago for whale birds); rather than trying to make the eggs internalized, why not just have them embrace saltwater and somewhat lose their amniotic traits in favor of aquatic-adapted ones? For example, the eggs would retain shells, but they and the membranes would be water-soluble and the embryo would retain/rapidly develop aquatic features (retained gills, the cloacal gills, etc.) and regain a resistance/requirement for salinity. What do you think? |
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We have a Discord server! If you would like to join, simply message myself, Flisch, or Icthyander. Some of my ideas (nothing real yet, but soon): Refugium: A last chance for collapsing ecosystems and their inhabitants. Pansauria: A terraforming project featuring the evolution of exactly one animal - the marine iguana. Mars Renewed: An insight into the life of Mars thirty million years after its terraforming by humankind. Microcosm: An exceedingly small environment. Alcyon: A planet colonized by species remodeled into new niches by genetic engineering. Oddballs: Aberrant representatives of various biological groups compete and coexist. ..and probably some other stuff at some point (perhaps a no K-T project). Stay tuned! | |
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| Jasonguppy | Nov 28 2016, 02:52 PM Post #47 |
Cardinal
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I'm loving this project! I'm a sucker for good plant spec, and these plants are really nice! I like the birds a lot too- looking forward to the way this develops. Tropical projects are always nice, what with all the workable biodiversity. |
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I do art sometimes. "if you want green eat a salad" Projects: Amammalia: A strange place where mammals didn't make it and the land is, once again, dominated by archosaurs. Oceanus: An endless sea dotted with islands, reefs, and black holes. Literally endless, literal black holes. ❤️❤️~I'm not a boy~❤️❤️ | |
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| Beetleboy | Nov 28 2016, 02:57 PM Post #48 |
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neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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Thank you. Sphen, I will reply to you tomorrow, my parents are telling me to get to bed now. 
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| ~ The Age of Forests ~ | |
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| CaledonianWarrior96 | Nov 28 2016, 03:14 PM Post #49 |
An Awesome Reptile
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I'm not sure how feasible that is but it might be worth a mention on the Whale Bird discussion to see what it brings up. I think it's pretty well agreed that even if WBs were able to overcome the reproductive issue other organisms would take the niche long before them as this would take tens or hundreds of millions of years to evolve, but it's still worth a try. Here's the link to it here; I made this one and you have my permission to bring back from the dead (whether other members will like this though is another thing. I think if the creator of the topic brings it back it's alright, so another member having their permission should work as well) |
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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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| Sphenodon | Nov 28 2016, 03:23 PM Post #50 |
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Calcareous
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I might put it there (thanks for the permission), but this was more for just a situational evaluation than for a broad-spectrum "could this be the missing piece?" sort of deal. Whatever the case, Beetleboy apparently has to go to bed, so we'd best not derail his topic too much further. He'll be back at some point. |
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We have a Discord server! If you would like to join, simply message myself, Flisch, or Icthyander. Some of my ideas (nothing real yet, but soon): Refugium: A last chance for collapsing ecosystems and their inhabitants. Pansauria: A terraforming project featuring the evolution of exactly one animal - the marine iguana. Mars Renewed: An insight into the life of Mars thirty million years after its terraforming by humankind. Microcosm: An exceedingly small environment. Alcyon: A planet colonized by species remodeled into new niches by genetic engineering. Oddballs: Aberrant representatives of various biological groups compete and coexist. ..and probably some other stuff at some point (perhaps a no K-T project). Stay tuned! | |
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| Dr Nitwhite | Nov 28 2016, 03:25 PM Post #51 |
Luddite
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This is wonderful, and the amount of quality updates in such a short time is lovely. Keep up the good work! |
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Speculative Evolution Projects- Other Relevant Work- Final SE Lifelist standings BREAKING NEWS We interrupt your regular programming to bring you this cutting edge report. ATTENDANCE DROPS DRASTICALLY ON SE SERVER This past Monday on Discord, famous server Speculative Evolution took a hit in the attendance office when it's offline member list suddenly reappeared. Mods scrambled to rectify the situation, but unfortunately there was little anyone could do. Server member Ivan was asked what he thought of the situation. "So long as Flisch, lord of machines and scion of Urborg lives, all will be well". SE, (in)famous for it's eccentric userbase, has recently been spiraling downward, and now we have hard conformation of the decline. Moderator "High Lord" Icthyander states "There is nothing to be concerned about, Discord is merely changing its UI again", but members are beginning to suspect the honesty of their staff. Stay tuned, we'll be back with more at 11. | |
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| Rodlox | Nov 29 2016, 12:43 AM Post #52 |
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Superhuman
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thanks for answering my question; and extra thanks for explaining it in such detail. |
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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 29 2016, 08:05 AM Post #53 |
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neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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My point was that the shells of turtle eggs is leathery and soft, as opposed to hard and easily crackable like a bird's egg. If put under pressure, then they would simply bend rather than crack. This means that they are less likely to be destroyed in the pouch.
This is a good idea, you should use it for your own work. Are you planning on creating a project(s)? Unless someone can come up with a good explanation as to why it's implausible, I'm keeping the pouch. Life finds a way, and really weird things happen when evolution's around.
Thank you.
No problem, I was going to post that anyway. It was originally part of the first post on the weeping bog-forests, but I decided to seperate the 2 updates. |
| ~ The Age of Forests ~ | |
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