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Recreating Lost Beasts
Topic Started: Dec 7 2016, 07:21 AM (919 Views)
Beetleboy
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neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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The ecology, appearance, and behaviour of extinct species has always been a major interest of mine, so I have been working on this little project - trying to piece together the evidence and make the most accurate view of Ice Age animals as possible. My primary tool in doing so is an unusual and sadly neglected goldmine of information: cave art. It was made by people who had seen, interacted, hunted these animals - if modern day tribes and such are anything to go by, they would have known a great deal about these creatures. Now, cave art can be simple and not give us much information - but there are cases were patterns can be seen on the animals, giving us an insight into their appearance in life. It doesn't make a great deal of sense for one of these ancient people to draw an animal which is spotty and give it stripes just for the hell of it. This really does excite me: there is a wealth of information in this art, yet many people ignore it. I'm going to try and use it to help me create an accurate image of what these creatures looked like in reality. For me, this is an exciting and interesting thought excersise, and seems to bring you closer to these extinct beasts. You'd be surprised how much we can tell from cave art.

I will also use information from new studies etc to try and create an accurate picture of an animal's ecology, appearance, relationship with humans, etc.

The result will be a kind of speculative but hopefully rather accurate field guide. This could be useful as a guideline for alt evo projects, writing projects set during the Ice Age, etc.

The first species that I am working on has turned out to be a rather difficult one, the cave bear. Non the less, I'm still researching and writing, so expect an update at some point.

The Beasts:
Cave Bears
Edited by Beetleboy, Dec 7 2016, 09:09 AM.
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Scrublord
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Father Pellegrini
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In which case my point still stands; the spots were probably added during the "retouching".
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Icthyander
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Scrublord
Dec 7 2016, 08:19 PM
In which case my point still stands; the spots were probably added during the "retouching".
I agree that its most likely a depiction of a hyena, but I thought Beetleboy did a good job acknowledging the uncertainty of the spots.
However, I disagreed with your blanket statement that a bear couldn't be spotted. Another caniform example: plenty of seals are spotted, and, though they are much more different in regards to lifestyle, they are more closely related to bears than dogs. Clealy, spots or some associated genes might have appeared early on in feliforms. However, spots did appear in pinnipeds, and, though it was artificial selection, spots also clearly have the potential to appear in grey wolves.

EDIT: The spotted neck otter also has spots on its throat.
Edited by Icthyander, Dec 7 2016, 08:35 PM.
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Scrublord
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I'm aware of seals, that's why I specified terrestrial caniforms. However, seals probably aren't the best model for fur color in land-dwelling carnivores. Their markings evolved for camouflage in the sea, which is why their markings look similar to those of dolphins and big fish such as sharks. So that doesnt tell us much about land carnivores.

It's much more parsimonious to compare the markings of caniforms and feliforms that occupy similar niches, like hyenas and canids. Notice how, even though they're both social cursorial predators, the fur markings of canids don't look like those of hyenas.
Edited by Scrublord, Dec 7 2016, 11:00 PM.
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In the end, the best advice I could give you would be to do your project in a way that feels natural to you, rather than trying to imitate some geek with a laptop in Colorado.
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Beetleboy
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neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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Guys, I apologise for my mistake, someone on DevianArt has kindly pointed out that due to the longer neck the spotted bear is actually a hyena. My bad, I just used false information instead of using my brain.
Anyway, I'll reply to you all later, I'm on my iPad right now and it's a pain to type on.
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trex841
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I'll be honest, I thought the head shape looked more like a bear too.
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Beetleboy
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neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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trex841
Dec 8 2016, 10:17 AM
I'll be honest, I thought the head shape looked more like a bear too.
Yeah, that's what I thought, but I looked at a Wikipedia article, and apparently they think that it was originally meant to be a bear but it was converted into a hyena. Perhaps some kind of symbolic meaning?

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And besides, artistic embellishment can happen.

It can, but I don't see any real reason why ancient people would have added false features in most cases.
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Scrublord
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Who says the painting was even meant to represent a real animal? Perhaps a half-bear half-hyena creature was a mythical figure for these people.
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The Big One



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In the end, the best advice I could give you would be to do your project in a way that feels natural to you, rather than trying to imitate some geek with a laptop in Colorado.
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Beetleboy
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neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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Scrublord
Dec 8 2016, 06:27 PM
Who says the painting was even meant to represent a real animal? Perhaps a half-bear half-hyena creature was a mythical figure for these people.
That was kind of the point I was trying to make in my previous post, but I didn't explain it very well only saying 'symbolic meaning'.
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