| 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 (48,920 Views) | |
| Tenno | Nov 5 2017, 01:48 AM Post #646 |
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Newborn
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Cylindrachetidae, or sand-gropers, a kind of larviform orthopteran found in Australia's sand dunes. Spoiler: click to toggle
Edited by Tenno, Nov 5 2017, 01:48 AM.
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| TheMeowingJeholopterus | Nov 5 2017, 07:07 AM Post #647 |
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Zygote
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Ptolamaiida, an order of wolf sized carnivorous relatives of Aardvarks. They only include 4 species: Ptolemaia lyonsi(Named after the Ptolemaic Dynasty which ruled over Egypt for a Period of time), Cleopatrodon ayeshae (Named after Cleopatra, last active ruler of The Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt), Kelba quadeemae (Literally meaning "Old Dog" in Arabic) and Qarunavus meyeri (genus name is a combination of Qarun, the Arabic term for Lake Moeris, and -avus, Latin for "ancestor".) |
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| Mao | Nov 5 2017, 11:59 AM Post #648 |
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Homo Erection
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Rails If you wanted to mention very adaptable animals, then these groups of birds are the ones who never really get mentioned. they are a highly diverse group, with some that evolved to live in the water, some that evolved to wade, and some even evolved to live in high altitudes. ![]() Not only that, but they're extremely adaptable. they can be found all across the globe, in many different environments, from a tropical wetland, to the tundras. Not only that, but Rails evolved flightlessness 31 times separately! I just think these birds are not that well known or understood to people, and I would like to see some kind of Spec project use them as their megafauna or something. |
| As of my gender, I have every gender imaginable, some even inconceivable to your minds. I have every gender in the gender spectrum, as well as ones you cannot envision. | |
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| Chuditch | Nov 9 2017, 02:49 AM Post #649 |
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Dasyurid
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I have been looking into New Guinea to expand my area of expertise, and man, I'm not regretting it. So many interesting animals, many with close relatives from Australia. Today, I found out that there aren't 3 species of pademelon (the ones from Australia and Tasmania), but 7. That means there are 4 other species of ultimate cuteness have been hiding right under my nose. Damn New Guinea, you have so many surprises. Anyway, thought I'll do a post on pademelons for all those who don't know what they are, and those who haven't heard of the New Guinean endemics. Pademelons Pademelons are the tiny forest wallabies. They are among the smallest of the macropods. The word Pademelon is a corruption of badimaliyan, the native name for the wallabies in the Sydney region. Besides their smaller size, pademelons can be distinguished from wallabies by their shorter, thicker, and sparsely haired tails. They are all of the genus Thylogale. Tasmanian endemic (well now it is) ![]() Tasmanian Pademelon (Thylogale billardierii) While now confined to Tasmania and neighbouring islands, this species once lived on the mainland but fell victim to the fur trade. Australian endemic ![]() Red-necked Pademelon (Thylogale thetis) This species inhabits forest in New South Wales and southern Queensland along the coastal strip. Found in Australia and New Guinea ![]() Red-legged Pademelon (Thylogale stigmatica) The only species found in both Australia and New Guinea, it occurs in 4 isolated populations which are actually distinct subspecies; stigmatica around the Atherton region of Queensland, coxenii on the Cape York Peninsula, orimo in the southern lowlands of New Guinea and wilcoxi in northern New South Wales and southern Queensland. New Guinean Endemics Brown's Pademelon (Thylogale browni) This species mainly occurs across north-east New Guinea in tropical and subtropical dry forest as well as some open areas. ![]() Dusky Pademelon (Thylogale brunii) This New Guinean species is found on Aru and Kai islands and the Trans Fly savanna and grasslands ecoregion. It is found in similar habitats to the previous species. ![]() Calaby's Pademelon (Thylogale calabyi) This species is found in 3 restricted, isolated populations in Papua New Guinea. It lives in similar habitats to the last two species. Mountain Pademelon (Thylogale lanatus) This little-known species is restricted to extreme north-east Papua New Guinea. It is present in upper montane tropical forest and subalpine grasslands. |
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My wildlife YouTube channel Projects
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| Terraraptor411 | Nov 9 2017, 01:44 PM Post #650 |
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Troodontid
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Time for an obscure but metal as fudge plant, and an ANGIOSPERM at that. Meet the Manchineel, the worlds most dangerous tree. Be warned the picture is huge Spoiler: click to toggle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchineel#cite_note-:1-4 The manchineel is incredibly toxic to nearly all birds and mammals. Just the vapors from the sap on this tree can cause internal damage and death over time. Its sap can cause blisters within seconds, and eating its fruit is lethal. Here's the important parts from Wikipedia. "All parts of the tree contain strong toxins, some unidentified. Standing beneath the tree during rain will cause blistering of the skin from mere contact with this liquid (even a small drop of rain with the milky substance in it will cause the skin to blister). The sap has also been known to damage the paint on cars. When ingested, the fruit is reportedly "pleasantly sweet" at first, with a subsequent "strange peppery feeling ..., gradually progressing to a burning, tearing sensation and tightness of the throat". Symptoms continue to worsen until the patient can "barely swallow solid food because of the excruciating pain and the feeling of a huge obstructing pharyngeal lump." And yet somehow, the Mexican spiny tailed iguana eats it regularly and sometimes lives in its branches. Edited by Terraraptor411, Nov 9 2017, 06:55 PM.
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Current Projects: Alien Earth Ultimate Pangea Potential Future Projects Future of the North Star: TBD My DA Page: https://terraraptor.deviantart.com/ | |
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| Talenkauen | Nov 9 2017, 06:02 PM Post #651 |
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Perpetually paranoid iguanodont
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...... It's an angiosperm, though.... |
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PLEASE NOTE: If I come off as harsh or demanding whilst talking to you, please tell me. I apologize in advance..... UPCOMING PROJECTS: Projects here
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| Terraraptor411 | Nov 9 2017, 06:55 PM Post #652 |
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Troodontid
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...Man I feel stupid XD. Why is it I keep making taxonomic mistakes on this forum. Oh well, I'll fix that as soon as I finish this post. The Lanturn shark is a group of sharks known for their small size and abundance in the deepest parts of the oceans. They range all over the world, and are extremely small, never reaching over 35 inches. The smallest can fit in you hand. To add to their uniqueness, they have light-producing photophores on their body, making them bioluminescent. ![]() https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etmopteridae But I'm not here to discuss these sharks. I'm talking about their parasites Most Barnacles sit on hard surfaces like rocks. Some will attach to large animals, like whales. But Anelasma Barnacles don't follow this trend, nor do they filter feed. They are parasites, and their targets are several species of Lanturn sharks. They lack a hard shell, and feed using root-like structures called peduncles that puncture the shark and sap nutrients from it. For some reason, their found in pairs too. ![]() http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2014/06/10/the-barnacle-that-eats-glowing-sharks/ |
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Current Projects: Alien Earth Ultimate Pangea Potential Future Projects Future of the North Star: TBD My DA Page: https://terraraptor.deviantart.com/ | |
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| Tartarus | Nov 16 2017, 08:08 PM Post #653 |
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Prime Specimen
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The kalligrammatids were a group of lacewings known to have lived from the Middle Jurassic to Early Cretaceous, with fossils having been found in western Europe, the British Isles, central and eastern Asia, and Brazil. China has yielded the greatest number of fossils of this group. The interesting thing about these lacewings is that they were convergent with butterflies, bearing a fairly close resemblance to them despite being unrelated. Many even had eye spots on their wings like many butterflies have. Kalligrammatids were likely diurnal animals that fed on pollen and plant juices, which made them rather unusual for lacewings, which are mostly predatory. The largest lacewing ever known to have existed was the Early Cretaceous Brazilian kalligrammatid Makarinia adamsi, which had a wingspan of 14-16 cm. The extinction of the kalligrammatids may have been due to the rise and rapid diversification of flowering plants, that led to a reduction of the kalligrammatids' host plants. Kalligrammatid fossils Depiction of kalligrammatid when alive
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| Yiqi15 | Nov 16 2017, 09:13 PM Post #654 |
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Prime Specimen
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Chororapithecus (species name C. abyssinicus) was a species of hominin closely related to gorillas native to the Tortonian of Miocene 8 to 10 million years ago, though its possible its teeth evolved separately from modern-day gorillas for a herbivorous diet. First recovered from nine teeth fossils from Ethiopia in 2007, Chororapithecus attracted notable attention for its role in settling when humans separated from chimpanzees. Prior to research on the species, it was thought that humans separated from chimpanzees 5 million years ago. However, with Chororapithecus, evidence then suggested it happened earlier then that (Chororapithecus was not the Gorilla–human last common ancestor - that goes to Nakalipithecus nakayamai of the dryopithecines). While research into the social behaviour of Chororapithecus is sparse, it can be presumed that they lived similarly to gorillas, in family groups made of one silverback, multiple adult females and their offspring. ![]() (Drawing copyright Kawekaweau at Deviantart) |
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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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| IIGSY | Nov 16 2017, 10:13 PM Post #655 |
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A huntsman spider that wastes time on the internet because it has nothing better to do
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Beat you to it, my dude |
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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 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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| Rodlox | Nov 17 2017, 12:00 AM Post #656 |
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Superhuman
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its okay to have more than one post about a critter and-or group of critters. |
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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 17 2017, 12:08 PM Post #657 |
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neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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Yeah, this isn't a race to be the first to post an organism. |
| ~ The Age of Forests ~ | |
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| Flisch | Nov 17 2017, 01:19 PM Post #658 |
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Superhuman
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From the makers of "But it's not obscure enough.": "We already had that one." Coming to a thread near you. |
| We have a discord. If you want to join, simply message me, Icthyander or Sphenodon. | |
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| HangingThief | Nov 17 2017, 03:12 PM Post #659 |
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ghoulish
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Well the thread shouldn’t be flooded with repeats either. If that index DT was making gets finished and posted at the beginning of the thread it should solve that problem. |
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Hey. | |
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| Tartarus | Nov 17 2017, 06:39 PM Post #660 |
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Prime Specimen
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Oops, I'd forgotten about that. To be fair, this thread has now gotten so big by now its easy to lose track of exactly which obscure taxa have already been featured and which haven't. |
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