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Obscure Taxa; For interesting or obscure organisms you'd like to share.
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Topic Started: Dec 14 2016, 09:46 PM (48,953 Views)
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Rodlox
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Jan 30 2017, 03:29 AM
Post #151
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- Insect Illuminati Get Shrekt
- Jan 29 2017, 03:17 PM
Arixenia esau is a strange, viviparous earwig, parasitic on bats. I guess earwigs aren't as conservative as I thought. to me, that still looks like an earwig.
granted, it borrowed body paint from a cricket, but still
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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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peashyjah
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Jan 30 2017, 06:05 PM
Post #152
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- Insect Illuminati Get Shrekt
- Jan 28 2017, 03:47 PM
Enteroxenos is a small parasite of sea cucumbers.  It looks like a nematode, but it's actually a snail. Yes, it's a snail. We know this, not only because of genetic testing, but also because of their veliger larvae. But early on, they metamorphose, loosing their shell, muscular foot, tentacles and all other recognizable features of snail anatomy. Most of their body is filled with reproductive organs, so they absorb nutrients through their skin. What kinds of pressures would push a snail to such extremes? What a strange mollusk it is.
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Discontinued projects: The New Ostracoderms (i might continue with this project again someday) The Americas (where in 58 million years from now in the future North and South America has both become isolated island continents)
All Expansions (my attempt at expanding the universe of All Tomorrows by Nemo Ramjet aka C.M. Kosemen, started June 6, 2018) Anthropozoic (my attempt at expanding the universe of Man After Man and also a re-imagining of it, coming 2019 or 2020) New Cenozoica (my attempt at expanding the universe of The New Dinosaurs and also a re-imagining of it, also coming 2019 or 2020) All Alternatives or All Changes (a re-telling of All Tomorrows but with some minor and major "changes", coming June 10, 2018)
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Yiqi15
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Jan 30 2017, 06:20 PM
Post #153
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- Insect Illuminati Get Shrekt
- Jan 29 2017, 03:17 PM
Arixenia esau is a strange, viviparous earwig, parasitic on bats.

Phantamanta's Belfry Earwig is Real and it's already Evolved!
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Current/Completed Projects - After the Holocene: Your run-of-the-mill future evolution project. - A History of the Odessa Rhinoceros: What happens when you ship 28 southern white rhinoceri to Texas and try and farm them? Quite a lot, actually.
Future Projects - XenoSphere: The greatest zoo in the galaxy. - The Curious Case of the Woolly Giraffe: A case study of an eocene relic. - Untittled Asylum Studios-Based Project: The truth behind all the CGI schlock - Riggslandia V.II: A World 150 million years in the making
Potential Projects - Klowns: The biology and culture of a creepy-yet-fascinating being
My Zoochat and Fadom Accounts - Zoochat - Fandom
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Beetleboy
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Feb 1 2017, 01:33 PM
Post #154
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neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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It's about time I contributed to this. Have some weird animals from my database of zoological oddities . . .

This is a painted bat, Kerivoula picta, which can be found in Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam. It's a species of vesper bat, and their bright colouration is actually camouflage. Their roosting sights are quite unusual: suspended weaver finch nests, sunbird nests, banana tree leaves, and under the eaves of huts. It's thought that their colouration might offer some kind of camouflage in the broken light under one of these roosting sights. The males are particularly brightly coloured. However, other than this, they're a pretty normal microbat.

This is the hairless bat, also known as the naked bulldog bat. Its scientific name is Cheiromeles torquatus, and it is almost completely hairless, except for short bristly hairs on its neck, throat sack, and front toes, which according to one book that I have, are used to comb giant parasitic earwigs off of its skin. They are migratory, colonial, and nocturnal. They prey on quite large insects compared to other bats in its range. Also, it isn't pretty. Well, I think it's beautiful, anyway:


This is a Lake Patzcuaro salamander. They are one of several lesser known axolotl look-alikes, and like its better known relative, it is neotonic. It can be found in a high altitude lake in Mexico, and it is fully aquatic. They feed mostly on invertebrates, sucking their prey up. They can be hybridised with axolotls, apparently, and it is critically endangered, mostly due to pollution and the introduction of invasive predatory fish.

This is the proboscis bat, one of my favourite animals. It can be found in South and Central America, and it is mostly a riparian species, nearly always found near water. It is a fairly typical microbat, except for its unusual proboscis, and its habit of sleeping in perfectly straight lines going up tree trunks.

This is Synalpheus regalis, a EUSOCIAL pistol shrimp found in the tropical West Atlantic. They live in sponges, using it as a food source and as a shelter. A single colony can have as many as 300 individuals in it, with only one reproductive female - a queen, if you like. Large colony members - soldiers, if you will - defend the sponge from intruders and potential dangers. They are considered the first known case of eusocial marine animals. And yes, I'll speccing on these shrimps at some point in the future. It would be awesome to see them become the ants of the sea.

Above you can see a beetle fly, also known as beetle-backed flies. If you want to google them, then I would recommend doing so by their scientific name, Celyphidae. There are about 90 species known. They have an enlarged scutellum, giving them an often shiny or metallic covering over their abdomen, like a beetle. The reason for this is unknown, to my knowledge, but my personal theory is that it helps them to be camouflaged as a poisonous or unpalatable creature such as an oil beetle. They can be found alongside rivers and streams, and other damp areas.
 This beautiful beast is the blanket octopus. Here's some more pics of it:



This, my friends, is one of my favourite creatures: the blanket octopus, Tremoctopus. The females have those amazing mebranes between their dorsal and dorsolateral tentacles, which is probably used to make herself look bigger when threatened. One species of Tremoctopus has the greatest degree of sexual dimorphism known in any non-microscopic animal. The females are 2 metres long, the males (which were first discovered in 2002), just 2.4 cm. The males have a specialized tentacle, known as a hectocotylus, which can dettach during mating to slither up the female's mantle until fertilization is neccasary.
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~ The Age of Forests ~
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LittleLazyLass
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Feb 1 2017, 01:49 PM
Post #155
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Proud quilt in a bag
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- Quote:
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It is a fairly typical microbat, except for its unusual proboscis, and its habit of sleeping in perfectly straight lines going up tree trunks. Huh, that's interesting. I suppose "Just a normal x, but have weird coloration and [weird behaviour]." is actually a justifiable difference for a species. Something I generally frown upon in spec, but might have Library potential...
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totally not British, b-baka!
You like me (Unlike) I don't even really like this song that much but the title is pretty relatable sometimes, I guess.
Me  Forum user Uncanny Gemstar drew what is supposed to be a me. Thanks! Spoiler: click to toggle As they walk in, they're greeted by a small, poorly kept pathway leading to a poorly constructed Japanese-style gate. Behind this, a small field made up of corn, rice, wheat, potatoes, among other plants is contrasted by large piles of books, as well as a few rather out of place looking laptops. Off in the corner, a small woman, with long, striped, and strikingly colorful socks, no shoes, unremarkable denim shorts, a large, fancy black coat, arm warmers, glasses, a tuque, and somewhat unkempt, mid-length blue-and-pink-streaked red hair, is rummaging through a trash bin, located behind a sign saying "employees only". She continues this for a while (walking behind a wall to change her outfit now and then), until one of her visitors coughs. Startled, she looks up, apologizes, and grabs a handful of textbooks and novels before daintily running off to join them. What, you want me to tell you what these mean? Predenterra The (Lost) Lost World The Standing World Read First Clarifications on my sex and genderSorry if I come off as rude, I don't put much thought into word choice sometimes. I'm also super prone to editing my posts, sometimes multiple times, in the minutes following posting. For the love of god, take my posts from my earlier days on the forum with a grain of salt. I was not particularly knowledgeable or mature back then. Some of them are so cringe-worthy I can't even bring myself to look at them. Words Maybe Great Words - Words To Spec By
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It would have to be something extremely alien, pushing the limits of our imagination. But those are always my favorite kinds of life. ~~The Words of The Xenologist
- Words To Live By
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Ignorance is never insulting if you're willing to learn, we're all ignorant about most things. ~~The Words of Lamna
- Words I Live By
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Yeah, and even if you don't agree with creationists on that concept, that doesn't mean they can't be decent people. I have friends who are creationist (possibly even young earth) that I get along with fine in general life. I don't think they're right of course, but that doesn't make them intellectual degenerates. ~~The Words of forbidden3
Member Quotes - jman123
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Ass-breathing fish-lizards? Sounds like a punk rock band
- Sheather
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"Holy fucking shit a toilet paper roll! Our favorite thing!"
- Urufumarukai
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Tyrannosaurus aquastronka
- Kamineigh
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Myo, if you don't stop reading the YouTube comments...
- Lamna
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Are you saying what I think you're saying?
Sheather bathes in cum?
- Cephylus
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And last night I dreamed I was blowing up a Kindergarten with a grenade launcher for no particular reason...
- revin
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Oh, and of course more people get killed by selfies than by sharks. Of course.
- Parasky
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SHEEEEAAAAATTTTTTHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!
- whachamacalit2
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The smell of rotting flesh really kills my appetite, surprising, but the visual appearance of corpses makes me hungry. Is that weird?
- Ebervalius
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I mean, let us say I'm a genderfluid blurflux demi-romantic woman who is sexually attracted to men, but only if they are Melanesian and have a voice like that of Nicholas Cage. Okay, so what?
- trex841
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When I first saw that picture, I thought you were dissecting a condom.
- Mr Mysterio
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All hail Robo-Stalin.
- Peashyjah
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Seems like everything in this project is now dead.
- Stealth Rock
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Seagulls are pretty much trees, right?
- Watcher
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We all must finish chapters of our lives to go on to the next. Sometime this means leaving behind versions of ourselves that don't want to die.
- Yiqi15
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For April fool's, we had to make an orgasm that resembled a human foot.
- Flisch
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im the black market
- CaledonianWarrior96
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He was a skater birb, she said tweet you later birb
- Most People at Some Point
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Quotes - Some dude called plucas1 from Youtube comments
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Funny, isn't it, that our world needs Clark Kent a lot more than Superman.
- Xenoblade Chronicles
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Even though he is our creator, that does not afford him the right to take our lives on a whim. But that is the thinking of a homs. He is a god. Such morals cannot apply to gods. So you think we should just shut up and die?! If that is the fate decided by a god. You are mistaken if you think we will simply accept such a fate and wait to die. We'll never stop fighting. Not till the end. To Zanza, the outcome is the same. Thus your logic is flawed.
- Hades - Kid Icarus Uprising
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When freaky aliens give you lemons, make freaky alien lemonade.
- Kid Icarus Uprising
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But Souls are delicious. They're like bacon - they taste good on anything. But if you eat them, you completely remove them from existence! They can't move on or... or be reincarnated! Huh. I never really gave it much thought. Besides, what do you mean by reincarnation anyway? You know, being reborn as someone or something else. Which means different body, different memories, different experiences, yes? So isn't being reborn as "something else" the same as being "removed from existence"? I... I... eating souls isn't right! That depends on your definition of "right". All living things survive by eating other living things. So what? You're a god. You should be above all that! Gods are above living things, which doesn't necessarily mean we care about them.
- Some Dude on BBC Two
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You are being shagged... by a flightless parrot.
Stuff
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IIGSY
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Feb 1 2017, 07:44 PM
Post #156
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A huntsman spider that wastes time on the internet because it has nothing better to do
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I like the beetle flies.
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Projects Punga: A terraformed world with no vertebrates Last one crawling: The last arthropod
ARTH-6810: A world without vertebrates (It's ded, but you can still read I guess)
Potential ideas- Swamp world: A world covered in lakes, with the largest being caspian sized. Nematozoic: After a mass extinction of ultimate proportions, a single species of nematode is the only surviving animal. Tri-devonian: A devonian like ecosystem with holocene species on three different continents.
Quotes "Arthropod respiratory systems aren't really "inefficient", they're just better suited to their body size. It would be quite inefficient for a tiny creature that can easily get all the oxygen it needs through passive diffusion to have a respiratory system that wastes energy on muscles that pump air into sacs. (Hence why lungless salamanders, uniquely miniscule and hyperabundant tetrapods, have ditched their lungs in favor of breathing with their skin and buccal mucous membranes.) But large, active insects already use muscles to pump air in and out of their spiracles, and I don't see why their tracheae couldn't develop pseudo- lungs if other conditions pressured them to grow larger."-HangingTheif
"Considering the lifespans of modern non- insect arthropods (decade-old old millipedes, 50 year old tarantulas, 100+ year old lobsters) I wouldn't be surprised if Arthropleura had a lifespan exceeding that of a large testudine"-HangingTheif
"Humans have a tribal mindset and it's not alien for tribes to war on each other. I mean, look at the atrocities chimpanzee tribes do to each other. Most of people's groupings and big conflicts in history are directly or obliquely manifestations of this tribal mindset."-Sceynyos-yis
"He's the leader of the bunch You know his Coconut Gun is finally back to fire in spurts. His Coconut Gun Can make you smile If he shoots ya it's firing in spurts. His Coconut Gun Is bigger, faster, stronger too! He's the gun member of the Coconut Crew! HUH!
C.G.! Coconut Gun! C.G.! Co-Coconut Gun! Shoot yourself with a Coconut Gun! HUH!"-Kamineigh
"RIP, rest in Peytoia."-Little
"In Summary: Piss on Lovecraft's racist grave by making lewds of Cthulhu and Nyarlathotep.
Then eat arby's and embrace the void."-Kamineigh
"Dougal Dixon rule 34."-Sayornis
Phylogeny of the arthropods and some related groups
In honor of the greatest clade of all time
More pictures
Other cool things
All African countries can fit into Brazil
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trex841
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Feb 1 2017, 07:54 PM
Post #157
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I have never heard of the Blanket Octopus. That is amazing.
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F.I.N.D.R Field Incident Logs A comprehensive list of all organisms, artifacts, and alternative worlds encountered by the foundation team.
At the present time, concepts within are inconsistent and ever shifting. Protectorates of the Proan Empire- The Sundered Realms - A fantasy realm where the world is divided into different sections. (Following names subject to change)
- The Gavell Kingdom
- The Everdark Forest
- The Lunar Tundra
- The Sand Sea
- The Asteroid Cloud
- The Rotting Shard
- The Orbital River
- The Outer Shadow
- Bottle Beasts - This Universes version of Pokemon.
Worlds Impacted by the Enlightened/Visceral War- The 'Verse Whale - The Homeworld of the two forces, a planet sized organism, and the unique life that has flourished on it.
- замороженный конец - An Ice Age world populated by tripodal organisms.
- [To Be Named] - A world of creatures with an arm for a head
- [To Be Named] - The Homeworld of a species where only the males are sapient.
- [To Be Named] - The home of a race of carnivorous, trap building beings.
- [To Be Named] - A planet of organisms that can link their minds, where two forms of intelligence have arisen.
Unaffiliated Universes- [To Be Named] - A parallel earth where the Synapsids took over after the Permian Extinction, among other resulting changes.
- نيو نيو امستردام - An abandoned Dyson Cylinder containing an Ecumenopolis now catering to our former pets and pests. (A concept developed entirely separate from DroidSyber's Arcology, I swear.)
- The Bleed - A vast universe where physics are more a suggestion than a rule.
Parakosmos Minor - Known Earth Pocket Universes, Natural or Artificial.- Island of Marsupials and Armadillos off the coast of South America
- A world inhabited by Woodpecker descendants (Again, not meant to be a clone of Serina, I in no way have that much detail ready for this.)
- Katiwala - Your typical Lost World...if i decide to go that route...
(And this is just the spec related stuff)
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Beetleboy
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Feb 2 2017, 02:48 PM
Post #158
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neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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- Also known as:
- Jacob, JurassicJacob, Beetle
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- Quote:
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Huh, that's interesting. I suppose "Just a normal x, but have weird coloration and [weird behaviour]." is actually a justifiable difference for a species. Something I generally frown upon in spec, but might have Library potential...
Why? I'm curious. There are many such species in the natural world, I see no reason why it can't be explored in spec.
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~ The Age of Forests ~
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LittleLazyLass
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Feb 2 2017, 03:10 PM
Post #159
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Proud quilt in a bag
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- Sorry, but why do you want to know aboot my nationality, eh? Uh... sorry, that was rude of me. Sorry.
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- "you know you're a nerd when you search Wookieepedia for porn"
- Also known as:
- You can call me Little; full list of old names found through profile.
- Gender:
- Trans Questioning (see link in sig; feminine pronouns)
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It just feels lazy saying "This, but with x minor difference".
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totally not British, b-baka!
You like me (Unlike) I don't even really like this song that much but the title is pretty relatable sometimes, I guess.
Me  Forum user Uncanny Gemstar drew what is supposed to be a me. Thanks! Spoiler: click to toggle As they walk in, they're greeted by a small, poorly kept pathway leading to a poorly constructed Japanese-style gate. Behind this, a small field made up of corn, rice, wheat, potatoes, among other plants is contrasted by large piles of books, as well as a few rather out of place looking laptops. Off in the corner, a small woman, with long, striped, and strikingly colorful socks, no shoes, unremarkable denim shorts, a large, fancy black coat, arm warmers, glasses, a tuque, and somewhat unkempt, mid-length blue-and-pink-streaked red hair, is rummaging through a trash bin, located behind a sign saying "employees only". She continues this for a while (walking behind a wall to change her outfit now and then), until one of her visitors coughs. Startled, she looks up, apologizes, and grabs a handful of textbooks and novels before daintily running off to join them. What, you want me to tell you what these mean? Predenterra The (Lost) Lost World The Standing World Read First Clarifications on my sex and genderSorry if I come off as rude, I don't put much thought into word choice sometimes. I'm also super prone to editing my posts, sometimes multiple times, in the minutes following posting. For the love of god, take my posts from my earlier days on the forum with a grain of salt. I was not particularly knowledgeable or mature back then. Some of them are so cringe-worthy I can't even bring myself to look at them. Words Maybe Great Words - Words To Spec By
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It would have to be something extremely alien, pushing the limits of our imagination. But those are always my favorite kinds of life. ~~The Words of The Xenologist
- Words To Live By
-
Ignorance is never insulting if you're willing to learn, we're all ignorant about most things. ~~The Words of Lamna
- Words I Live By
-
Yeah, and even if you don't agree with creationists on that concept, that doesn't mean they can't be decent people. I have friends who are creationist (possibly even young earth) that I get along with fine in general life. I don't think they're right of course, but that doesn't make them intellectual degenerates. ~~The Words of forbidden3
Member Quotes - jman123
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Ass-breathing fish-lizards? Sounds like a punk rock band
- Sheather
-
"Holy fucking shit a toilet paper roll! Our favorite thing!"
- Urufumarukai
-
Tyrannosaurus aquastronka
- Kamineigh
-
Myo, if you don't stop reading the YouTube comments...
- Lamna
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Are you saying what I think you're saying?
Sheather bathes in cum?
- Cephylus
-
And last night I dreamed I was blowing up a Kindergarten with a grenade launcher for no particular reason...
- revin
-
Oh, and of course more people get killed by selfies than by sharks. Of course.
- Parasky
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SHEEEEAAAAATTTTTTHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!
- whachamacalit2
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The smell of rotting flesh really kills my appetite, surprising, but the visual appearance of corpses makes me hungry. Is that weird?
- Ebervalius
-
I mean, let us say I'm a genderfluid blurflux demi-romantic woman who is sexually attracted to men, but only if they are Melanesian and have a voice like that of Nicholas Cage. Okay, so what?
- trex841
-
When I first saw that picture, I thought you were dissecting a condom.
- Mr Mysterio
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All hail Robo-Stalin.
- Peashyjah
-
Seems like everything in this project is now dead.
- Stealth Rock
-
Seagulls are pretty much trees, right?
- Watcher
-
We all must finish chapters of our lives to go on to the next. Sometime this means leaving behind versions of ourselves that don't want to die.
- Yiqi15
-
For April fool's, we had to make an orgasm that resembled a human foot.
- Flisch
-
im the black market
- CaledonianWarrior96
-
He was a skater birb, she said tweet you later birb
- Most People at Some Point
-
Quotes - Some dude called plucas1 from Youtube comments
-
Funny, isn't it, that our world needs Clark Kent a lot more than Superman.
- Xenoblade Chronicles
-
Even though he is our creator, that does not afford him the right to take our lives on a whim. But that is the thinking of a homs. He is a god. Such morals cannot apply to gods. So you think we should just shut up and die?! If that is the fate decided by a god. You are mistaken if you think we will simply accept such a fate and wait to die. We'll never stop fighting. Not till the end. To Zanza, the outcome is the same. Thus your logic is flawed.
- Hades - Kid Icarus Uprising
-
When freaky aliens give you lemons, make freaky alien lemonade.
- Kid Icarus Uprising
-
But Souls are delicious. They're like bacon - they taste good on anything. But if you eat them, you completely remove them from existence! They can't move on or... or be reincarnated! Huh. I never really gave it much thought. Besides, what do you mean by reincarnation anyway? You know, being reborn as someone or something else. Which means different body, different memories, different experiences, yes? So isn't being reborn as "something else" the same as being "removed from existence"? I... I... eating souls isn't right! That depends on your definition of "right". All living things survive by eating other living things. So what? You're a god. You should be above all that! Gods are above living things, which doesn't necessarily mean we care about them.
- Some Dude on BBC Two
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You are being shagged... by a flightless parrot.
Stuff
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Zorcuspine
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Feb 2 2017, 04:32 PM
Post #160
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Enjoying our azure blue world
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- Little
- Feb 2 2017, 03:10 PM
It just feels lazy saying "This, but with x minor difference". Also known as the reason my projects update slower than a sloth on antidepressants.
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peashyjah
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Feb 2 2017, 06:19 PM
Post #161
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I used to heard of the blanket octopus before.
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Discontinued projects: The New Ostracoderms (i might continue with this project again someday) The Americas (where in 58 million years from now in the future North and South America has both become isolated island continents)
All Expansions (my attempt at expanding the universe of All Tomorrows by Nemo Ramjet aka C.M. Kosemen, started June 6, 2018) Anthropozoic (my attempt at expanding the universe of Man After Man and also a re-imagining of it, coming 2019 or 2020) New Cenozoica (my attempt at expanding the universe of The New Dinosaurs and also a re-imagining of it, also coming 2019 or 2020) All Alternatives or All Changes (a re-telling of All Tomorrows but with some minor and major "changes", coming June 10, 2018)
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HangingThief
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Feb 2 2017, 06:53 PM
Post #162
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You forgot to mention one of the neatest bits of trivia about the blanket octopus: smaller individuals are immune to man o' war stings, sometimes tearing off man o' war tentacles and carry them around for defense or possibly to facilitate prey capture.
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Hey.
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kopout
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Feb 3 2017, 01:40 AM
Post #163
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- Insect Illuminati Get Shrekt
- Dec 25 2016, 02:50 PM
- Dromaeosaurus
- Dec 25 2016, 07:07 AM
Stretching the boundaries of what counts as a "taxon"... The 8th February 1951, the hospital of Baltimore took cervical cancer cells from Henrietta Lacks, an African-American woman who would die because of that cancer in October. Despite the death of their original host, the cancer cells survived well enough in the lab, because of a genetical mutation that allowed them to replicate indefinitely. They're hypertriploid, reaching 76-80 chromosomes per cells, and they have absorbed viral genes from the papillomavirus. They were successfully cloned in 1955. Six decades later, those cells are still growing and reproducing. Known as HeLa cells, they're shipped around the world to be used in all kinds of experiments - cancer research, resistence to toxins and viruses, sensitivity to drugs or cosmetics, and so on. If you still count them as parts of Henrietta Lack's body, Mrs. Lacks weighs around 20 tons at 96 years. Because of their inhuman genome, Leigh Van Valen, whom you might remember for the Red Queen Hypothesis, proposed to classify HeLa cells in the new species Helacyton gartleri, named after Stanley Gartler, who had worked on their clonation and issues with contamination of other cultures. An alternative proposal would classify them as Homo sapiens gartleri. So here you have it - the first (kinda) official posthuman! 
I am left absolutely dumbfounded. Someone should make a spec project about this. I almost used it in the At The End competition, for the irony of an endolithic microbe being not only the last vertebrate but the last animal period and one of the last Eukaryotas.
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Flisch approves!
Spoiler: click to toggle  This is a true story. A girl died in 1933. A man buried her in the ground when she was still alive. The murderer chanted,"Toma sota balcu" as he buried her. Now that you have read the chant, you will meet this little girl. In the middle of the night she will be on your ceiling. She will suffocate you like she was suffocated. If you post this in your profile, she will not bother you. Your kindness will be rewarded.
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Beetleboy
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Feb 3 2017, 03:43 AM
Post #164
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neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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- HangingThief
- Feb 2 2017, 06:53 PM
You forgot to mention one of the neatest bits of trivia about the blanket octopus: smaller individuals are immune to man o' war stings, sometimes tearing off man o' war tentacles and carry them around for defense or possibly to facilitate prey capture. Oh yeah I was gonna add that but was running out of time.
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~ The Age of Forests ~
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Dromaeosaurus
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Feb 3 2017, 06:00 AM
Post #165
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Haemothermic orthostatic matrotrophic lexiphanic deuterostome
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A few nice creatures from my university's course on animal reproductive strategies:

Here's Trichophrya, the marsupial protozoan - that's right, this ciliate reproduces by gemmation, but every gem develops an invagination that forms a ciliate pouch. Buds develop within this pouch for several hours, only leaving the parent's body once they have fully developed cilia and tentacles, at which point its given birth through a pore. (see here)

And this is Gyrodactytlus, a swimming flatworm that resorts to nested generations. This plathyhelminth generates asexually a female embryo, which produces another one without leaving hte parent's body, and the second embryo produces a third, and so on, until you have five generations nested inside each other, like a horrifying living matrioshka.

No discussioon of weird life cycles is complete without Turritopsis, the immortal jellyfish. You may know that jellyfish start their life as a ciliate larva (planula), which settles on the seafloor to grow into a polyp, which branches out and multiplies asexually like a plant, and finally fragments in a number of free-swimming medusae. That's pretty weird in its own right... but Turritopsis takes the prize because it reaches the medusa stage, it reproduces, it becomes old and frail... and then says "nah", and reverts back to polyp, starting all over again. There is no theoretical maximum lifespan for this jellyfish. It just goes on.

Mammals have placentas and reptiles don't, right? Unless you're Trachylepis ivensi, the placentate lizard. Apparently being live-bearing wasn't quite fancy enoughh for this skink, so it eliminated any trace of eggshell and developed a true placenta, all but indistinguishable from that of mammals, from a fusion of corion and allantois that invades the oviduct walls, the mother's capillaries running against the fetus' to directly exchange food. (see here)
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As a bonus, I want to point out that the division of embryos that results in identical twin, so common even among mammals, is technically a form of prenatal asexual reproduction - so if you're reading this and you have a twin, congratulations, you managed to reproduce by mitosis before even being born!

Armadillo embryos connected to a single placenta. Armadilloes always reproduce both sexually and asexually, as each pregnancy has the embryo splitting into 4-12 clones.
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My deviantART page - My other extra-project work - Natural History of Horus and its flora and fauna - A graphic history of life (also here) - AuxLang Project: a worldwide language - Behold THE MEGACLADOGRAM - World Without West: an alternate history
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Natural History of Horus (19th century naturalists... in space) Galactic Anthropology (intelligence takes many forms around the Milky Way) Settlers from the Deep (a tour in a blind and slimy future) Coming soon: A Matter of Time (a history of the future... all of it)
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