| Speculative biology is simultaneously a science and form of art in which one speculates on the possibilities of life and evolution. What could the world look like if dinosaurs had never gone extinct? What could alien lifeforms look like? What kinds of plants and animals might exist in the far future? These questions and more are tackled by speculative biologists, and the Speculative Evolution welcomes all relevant ideas, inquiries, and world-building projects alike. With a member base comprising users from across the world, our community is the largest and longest-running place of gathering for speculative biologists on the web. While unregistered users are able to browse the forum on a basic level, registering an account provides additional forum access not visible to guests as well as the ability to join in discussions and contribute yourself! Registration is free and instantaneous. Join our community today! |
| Obscure Taxa; For interesting or obscure organisms you'd like to share. | |
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| Topic Started: Dec 14 2016, 09:46 PM (48,962 Views) | |
| Dr Nitwhite | Dec 17 2016, 12:29 PM Post #16 |
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Luddite
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Dammit nature why you gotta spoil laniakea updates like that!? Back on track, might this thread be better placed in "general discussion" or spec? I spent about 5 minutes trying to find this thread. What do we all think? But hey, I promised I'd post here, so why not now? Woodswallows are a subfamily of passerine birds found in oceana, primarily Australia and some outlying islands. They are one of the few passerines that "soar", and hunt insects in flight. wikipedia page The crab-plover is a monotypic family found on shorelines in the Indian ocean. They have a controversial taxanomic placement, nest in burrow colonies, and have somewhat webbed feet. wikipedia aricle
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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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| Sphenodon | Dec 17 2016, 12:34 PM Post #17 |
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Calcareous
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I agree that this would be better as a General Discussion/Spec thread; it certainly seems like more of that than a Forum Game. |
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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 | Dec 17 2016, 12:53 PM Post #18 |
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Luddite
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Would DINOCARID mind terribly if it was moved? Figure it'd be common courtesy to ask first. |
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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 | Dec 17 2016, 02:11 PM Post #19 |
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Superhuman
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Predatory aardvarks. lovely! And then we have the Dicemida, a group which, last I looked, had its own phylum, and are only found in the livers of octopi and cuttlefishes - so we're not entirely sure how they get from one host to another. About ten cells thick, they eat "metabolic waste products" as one book termed it, and different species avoid competition by having different types of cilia on that disk that's the closest thing to a head they have (and use it for holding on to the liver wall) They used to be parasites, but now are classed as symbiotes because octopi and cuttlefishes are actually healthier when they have lots of Dicyemida in them. ![]() . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dicyemida#/media/File:Dicyema_macrocephalum.png Edited by Rodlox, Dec 17 2016, 02:12 PM.
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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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| HangingThief | Dec 17 2016, 03:09 PM Post #20 |
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ghoulish
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This thing,Toxopneustes, probably wins the title of "world's freakiest sea urchin." Spoiler: click to toggle Those circular things all over its body are enlarged pedicillariae- little pincer- like structures found all over the bodies of many echinoderms. In sea urchins, each one is a set of three claws. In this case, there's a web of soft soft tissue between the claws that turn each pedicillariae into a suction cup that can be folded open or closed at will. Spoiler: click to toggle The claws are also venomous, and being 'stung' by a Toxopneustes is extremely painful- especially since the suction cup pedicillariae will attach to human skin and break off to continue injecting venom. Spoiler: click to toggle They also have a habit of using them to cover themselves with rocks and other debri, for unknown reasons. Spoiler: click to toggle
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Hey. | |
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| Sphenodon | Dec 18 2016, 08:07 PM Post #21 |
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Calcareous
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Let's spice things up a bit with the first non-animal entry to the list: the genus Isoetes, known commonly as the quillworts. This genus is comprised of roughly 192 currently recognized species, some with cosmopolitan distribution and some highly localized. Quillworts are a type of lycopod; they are only distantly related to other extant species, being the only extant genus in the entire Isoëtales order. Their nearest extant relatives are the Selaginellales, the other extant group (itself also comprised of a single genus, Selaginella) in the class Isoetopsida. Quillworts are ancestrally aquatic or semi-aquatic plants; most species are known to grow in or on the banks of slow-moving rivers and ponds, but a small sampling of species are known to inhabit vernal pools and, as such, spend significant amounts of time growing on dry ground. Quillworts are named as such due to their leaves, which are hollow and, therefore, quill-like. These leaves grow in rosettes outwards from a single central corm, which in most species is singularly attached to their root system; one species, Isoetes tegetiformans (commonly known as mat-forming quillwort), a critically endangered endemic of four vernal pools in the U.S. state of Georgia, instead grows multiple clusters of leaves off its rhizome to form dense mats of vegetation. Quillworts vary from being evergreen to winter-deciduous to dry-deciduous. Quillworts, aside from their interesting physical structure, are otherwise notable in one other aspect. They possess several extremely odd traits otherwise non-present in extant lycopods; for instance, they develop wood and bark (albeit only tiny amounts) and exhibit secondary growth - both of which are traits otherwise found primarily in tree-forming plants. As such, some suspect them to be heavily derived descendants of the Lepidodendrales, the oft-depicted "clubmoss trees" of the Carboniferous, most famously known by their type genus, Lepidodendron. This theory remains as-of-yet unconfirmed, but is intriguing nonetheless. ![]() A colony of black-spored quillworts (Isoetes melanospora), another critically endangered Georgia endemic. Like its mat-forming relative, it grows exclusively in vernal pools located above granite outcrops. Edited by Sphenodon, Dec 18 2016, 11:35 PM.
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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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| HangingThief | Dec 18 2016, 09:46 PM Post #22 |
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ghoulish
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Cool! I always think of lepidodendrales when I see club mosses on the forest floor, but I had no idea quillworts were actually more closely related to them. I also didn't realize that those grass- like plants that grow in kettle ponds were a type of quillwort until recently... |
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| Sayornis | Dec 19 2016, 04:12 PM Post #23 |
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Neotenous
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Salinella salve is (supposedly) a microscopic animal. Its body is a tube consisting of only one layer of cells, all bearing cilia, with longer cilia at the openings. It was discovered by German biologist Johannes Frenzel in 1892 in the salt-pans of Argentina. And it has never been seen since. Many scientists think it never existed and the discoverer's observations were entirely erroneous. In other words, it's more or less a microscopic cryptid. |
The Library is open. (Now under new management!)
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| DINOCARID | Dec 19 2016, 06:15 PM Post #24 |
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Adolescent
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Spheno, I do believe we are a pair of long lost twins, for I had also written up a post on lycopodiophytes which included isoetales, and yet I decided, "Nay, for the populace of these fine and fertile internet-lands would surely be educated in the humble present and majestic past of these most enchanting of primitive plants." Oops. Also, that part about them possibly being descended from lepidodendrales is new to me, and very exciting. Pleuromia was a genus even closer related to modern isoetales, and even though it wasn't as big as lepidodendron, I still like it a lot for some reason Lastly, yes, please relocate this thread. |
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Check out my deviantart here Projects The Fieldguide to Somnial Organisms The Tetrarch (coming soon) | |
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| Carlos | Dec 19 2016, 06:32 PM Post #25 |
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Adveho in me Lucifero
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See: the multiple things I made art commissions of. But besides those, here's some others: Kogaionids Multituberculates in general are one of the my favourite animal groups ever, period. But I really do enjoy these island endemics: not only were they basically Hateg Island's only mammals, they also took advantage of the lack of competition, becoming insectivorous and even getting iron-tinged teeth like modern shrews: Hell, this ultimately helped them survive the KT event and briefly become one of the dominant mammal groups in Europe for a few million years! There's also reportedly carnivorous multies in the Paleocene of North America; I don't know if the paper they were in got published. Eogruiidae Flightless, ostrich-mimic cranes that lived from the Eocene to Pliocene in Eurasia. ![]() |
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Lemuria: http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/topic/5724950/ Terra Alternativa: http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/forum/460637/ My Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Carliro ![]() | |
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| Sceynyos-yos | Dec 20 2016, 03:10 AM Post #26 |
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dheubewes wedor
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Vetulicola are perhaps the missing link between ancient tunicates and early fish. They have a peculiar bodyplan, with the lateral features on their front part often being interpreted as gill slits. Their taxonomy is still controversial and initially were classified as early crustaceans, but now it's almost certain that they're deuterostomes. |
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| Dromaeosaurus | Dec 22 2016, 07:30 AM Post #27 |
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Haemothermic orthostatic matrotrophic lexiphanic deuterostome
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Furcacaudiformes, a bizarre group of Thelodonti from Silurian and Devonian that are sometimes known as "the Paleozoic goldfish". They could have had the earliest traces of stomach and paired fin-flaps.![]() ![]() * * * The Thylacocephala (literally, "bag-head") are a group of crustaceans that appeared in the Cambrian and lasted all the way to the end of the Cretaceous. They had big compound eyes, a shell-like carapace that covered the whole body, and both raptorial and swimming limbs; however, the interpretation of their bodyparts is controversial (in particular, the eyes have been described as extensions of the gut or stalks that anchored them to the seafloor), since their fossils sadly look like this: This thing, Ainiktozoon from Silurian Scotland, was once believed to be an early chordate:
Edited by Dromaeosaurus, Dec 22 2016, 07:33 AM.
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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 SpecEvo Tutorials: Habitable Solar Systems (galaxies, stars and moons); Planets (geology, oceans and atmosphere); Ecology (energy, biomes and relationships); Alternative Biochemistry (basic elements, solvents, pigments); Biomechanics (body structure, skeletons, locomotion); Bioenergetics (photosynthesis, digestion, respiration); Perception (sense organs and nervous system); Reproduction (from genetics to childbirth); Offense and Defense (camouflage, poisons and weapons); Intelligence (EQ, consciousness and smartest animals); Civilizations (technology, domestication and culture); Exotic Life (living crystals, nuclear life, 2D biology); Evolution (genetics, selection and speed); Phylogeny (trees of life); Guide to Naming (how to name your creations) (and more!) My projects here: 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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| Vorsa | Dec 22 2016, 04:44 PM Post #28 |
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Mysterious tundra-dwelling humanoid
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You probably all know about this beauty: Kagu The kagu Rhynochetos jubatus is an unusual, terrestrial bird endemic to New Caledonia which may date back to the Palaeogene. ![]() It is unique among birds in that it has "nasal corns" covering its nostrils - a feature that no other bird has. It's also monotypic in Rhynochetidae, it's closest relative is the sunbittern of South America and it may be related to tropic birds too. Currently, the kagu is faced with extinction due to predation, hunting and habitat loss, although there are breeding programmes to help save them. ![]() And they dance! Don't tell me that's not cool. |
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My Deviantart: http://desorages.deviantart.com/ Birbs "you are about to try that on a species that clawed its way to the top of a 4 billion year deep corpse pile of evolution. one that has committed the genocide you are contemplating several times already. they are the pinnacle of intelligence-based survival techniques and outnumber you 7 billion to 1" - humans vs machine | |
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| Yiqi15 | Dec 22 2016, 04:49 PM Post #29 |
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Prime Specimen
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Yes we do. Mostly as the cousins of the Raugatas of Zealandia. |
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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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| Carlos | Dec 22 2016, 04:54 PM Post #30 |
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Adveho in me Lucifero
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Dryolestoids are so obscure I had to do this: http://kenbrasai.tumblr.com/post/154816003028/visual-references-for-dryolestoidea |
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Lemuria: http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/topic/5724950/ Terra Alternativa: http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/forum/460637/ My Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Carliro ![]() | |
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