Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
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!

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
Obscure Taxa; For interesting or obscure organisms you'd like to share.
Topic Started: Dec 14 2016, 09:46 PM (48,959 Views)
Carlos
Member Avatar
Adveho in me Lucifero
 *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
Keep in mind that technological developments are correlated to megafaunal extinctions. For instance, the extinction of many african megafaunal species is directly linked to the development of better arrowheads in the Pleistocene.

Maybe Chendytes managed to survive with native americans for the longest time until something akin to the Clovis revolution happened. Maybe better boats?
Edited by Carlos, Dec 24 2016, 03:23 PM.
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

Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Sphenodon
Member Avatar
Calcareous

Sudden idea: an alternative history project in which one tribe in that region domesticated the species (I recall reading that some evidence had been found that the native tribes of the region hunted them on occasion, so it's not super out-of-the-question) and formed a successful civilization as a result. They might start out spreading along the Californian coast before making inroads inland once other agricultural practices developed (and/or strains of domestic seaduck that were less reliant upon purely oceanic forms of sustenance). What do you think?

I'd post another obscure taxon, but I'm on my phone at the moment (until sometime tomorrow, we're seeing some family). I'll drop off some names, though:

-Adzebills: Enigmatic flightless rails endemic to pre-Maori New Zealand. May have been at least partially carnivorous.

-Claudiosaurus, a genus of marine Permian amniote (can't remember if synapsid or diapsid). Propelled by its tail and large, webbed hind feet.

-A species of orthopteran known informally as the Koola Monster (maybe? Read it in a book on arthropods several years ago, the exact name evades me) native to Australia with some related species found on surrounding islands. Flightless, fossorial, and entirely carnivorous; known rather poorly. Sorry for the lack of specifics, I only just remembered them.

-Paddlefish: Relatives of sturgeons, restricted to freshwater in modern times. Currently represented by a freshwater filter-feeder from North America and a hypercarnivorous Chinese species that's most likely now extinct.

Sorry for lack of specifics; if anybody would like to make any of these a full-fledged post, go right ahead.

Edit: Accidentally deleted it, it's back. Apologies.
Edited by Sphenodon, Dec 24 2016, 04:04 PM.

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!
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Carlos
Member Avatar
Adveho in me Lucifero
 *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
Sphenodon
Dec 24 2016, 03:50 PM
-Claudiosaurus, a genus of marine Permian amniote (can't remember if synapsid or diapsid). Propelled by its tail and large, webbed hind feet.

It's currently thought to be a diapsid, yes. Perhaps even a basal sauropterygian.
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

Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
lamna
Member Avatar


An interesting idea. A Californian civilization in general would be interesting, the central valley is perfect for agriculture, the only problem is that they didn't get maize before Europeans arrived.

Sea ducks might be tricky to domesticate, since they need mussels to live, though you can farm them too. From what I know eider "farming" is just giving them a nice safe place to nest and collecting the down.
Edited by lamna, Dec 24 2016, 04:18 PM.
Living Fossils

Fósseis Vibos: Reserva Natural


34 MYH, 4 tonne dinosaur.
T.Neo
 
Are nipples or genitals necessary, lamna?
[flash=500,450] Video Magic! [/flash]
Online Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
IIGSY
Member Avatar
A huntsman spider that wastes time on the internet because it has nothing better to do
 *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
There is a phylum composed of only one species, Limnognathia maerski. This oddity is related to rotifers and gnathostomulids. It is called micrognathozoa.

Posted Image

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limnognathia
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
Online Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
TAXESbutNano
Member Avatar
I'm going back to basics.
 *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
Rostroconchia, molluscs that lasted the entire paleozoic. I call them taco clams, because they look like clams in a taco, possibly with a bit of the foot dangling out the back. They have no hinge- instead, they have to break open the bases of their shells whenever they grow, much like moulting requires splitting open the cuticle first.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
HangingThief
Member Avatar
ghoulish
 *  *  *  *  *  *  *
Sphenodon
Dec 24 2016, 03:50 PM


-A species of orthopteran known informally as the Koola Monster (maybe? Read it in a book on arthropods several years ago, the exact name evades me) native to Australia with some related species found on surrounding islands. Flightless, fossorial, and entirely carnivorous; known rather poorly. Sorry for the lack of specifics, I only just remembered them.

The Cooloola Monster. Basically a fat jerusalem cricket.

Posted Image
Hey.


Online Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
DINOCARID
Member Avatar
Adolescent
 *  *  *  *  *
The cyprus dwarf hippo was a tiny relatively terrestrial hippo, about four feet long, that lived on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, after their ancestors colonized it during the early to mid pleistocene. It is really self-explanatory. Lower sea levels meant more of the island was dry, and also meant that Syria was about 18 miles away, a relatively easy swim. It had no natural predators. But then humans came to Cyprus, about 10,500 years ago. Needless to say, they all died. The hippos, not the people. Also a tiny hippo graveyard was discovered on the island, with many bones curiously crushed. This meant that more hippos may have returned there, possibly for shelter. Then they died. Bad shelter guys, sorry.
Spoiler: click to toggle
[/center]
Check out my deviantart here
Projects
The Fieldguide to Somnial Organisms
The Tetrarch (coming soon)


Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Talenkauen
Member Avatar
Perpetually paranoid iguanodont
 *  *  *  *  *  *
DINOCARID
Dec 24 2016, 09:49 PM
The cyprus dwarf hippo was a tiny relatively terrestrial hippo, about four feet long, that lived on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, after their ancestors colonized it during the early to mid pleistocene. It is really self-explanatory. Lower sea levels meant more of the island was dry, and also meant that Syria was about 18 miles away, a relatively easy swim. It had no natural predators. But then humans came to Cyprus, about 10,500 years ago. Needless to say, they all died. The hippos, not the people. Also a tiny hippo graveyard was discovered on the island, with many bones curiously crushed. This meant that more hippos may have returned there, possibly for shelter. Then they died. Bad shelter guys, sorry.
Spoiler: click to toggle
[/center]



That's kinda sad.........

This post makes me sad.... :(
Edited by Talenkauen, Dec 24 2016, 09:57 PM.
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
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
LittleLazyLass
Member Avatar
Proud quilt in a bag

Wait, wouldn't a graveyard of mangled hippo bones indicate human intervention, not failed shelter?
totally not British, b-baka!
Posted Image You like me (Unlike)
I don't even really like this song that much but the title is pretty relatable sometimes, I guess.
Me
What, you want me to tell you what these mean?
Read First
Words Maybe
Online Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Talenkauen
Member Avatar
Perpetually paranoid iguanodont
 *  *  *  *  *  *
Alright, I've got some taxa to show you guys... ;)



Talenkauen santacrucensis


Talenkauen (Aonikenk for "small head") is a primitive iguanodont from the mid cretaceous of Santa Cruz, Argentina. They're part of an iguanodont clade call Elasmaria, which includes Morrosaurus, Trinisaura, Macrogryphosaurus and others. They where 13ft (4 meters) long Dryosaurus-like herbivores, except with a longer neck and arms, and stockier legs. Its holotype was found to have thin plates lining its ribcage. These where originally thought to be bony armor, but it's now believe that they where designed to aid the animal's breathing.


Posted Image Posted Image


the holotype is actually from the Pari Aike Formation, which also holds Puertasaurus, one of the largest known titanosaurs (as well as megaraptors, turtles and crocodiles). Though paleoart of it very uncommon, it's usually depicted in paleoart as generic theropod-fodder alongside Carnotaurus, even though they lived 24.2 million years apart.

Posted Image

Image link: http://chrismasna.deviantart.com/art/Hello-I-am-the-Devil-336536001




West African Crocodile (Crocodylus suchus)


The West African Crocodile, also called the Desert Crocodile, resides in parts of western and northwestern Africa, from the lower Congo Basin, into the Sahara. They are closely related to, and very often confused with, Nile Crocodiles (Crocodylus niloticus). This is to be expected, as the anatomical differences between Nile and Desert Crocodiles is not outwardly obvious to most people, and Desert crocs were even considered Nile crocs for a time. It was only with recent genetic/skeletal analysis that they were found to be a truly distinct species. They're also normally smaller in size, and more docile towards humans than Nile crocs.


Posted Image

Image by Marco Schmidt on Wikimedia


This crocodile was actually considered sacred by the Egyptians. Being smaller and more docile than other contemporary crocodile species, they're often easier to catch and tame. There are ancient Egyptian records that describe them being fed and raised as pampered pets. They also have a close association with the Crocodile god Sobek. Sobek is an Egyptian deity associated with Pharaonic power, fertility, and military prowess, and is often depicted as a man with a crocodile's head. Desert Crocodiles where either hunted or worshiped for their association with him, but this depended on the dynasty. Numerous mummified desert crocodiles and eggs were found in Egyptian tombs as well. This was usually done either for religious reasons, or to honor them when they died.


Posted Image Posted Image




Polypodium hydriforme


Posted Image


Polypodium hydriforme is the only species in it's genus, family, and class. It's a freshwater parasite, that attacks the oocytes (immature egg cells) of acipenseriform fishes (Sturgeon and Paddlefish). This makes it one of the few known metazoan species that live inside the cells of other animals. P.hydriforme is traditionally classified as a primitive cnidarian. However, genetic analysis suggests it actually has closer ties to bilaterians.


Posted Image

A free living P. hydriforme stolon, taken by Ekaterina V. Raikova



Also:



Spoiler: click to toggle
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
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Troll Man
Member Avatar
pretend this says something funny

A bunch of sea (and one freshwater) creatures...

Remipedia


Appendicularia


Platyctenida


†Euthycarcinoidea


...and one slightly more normal group.

Galericinae


...and that's all the animal groups that I know something about that I'd consider "obscure"!
Isla del Mundo Perdido! Diyu! R'lyeh!

---

Also can into [天].

Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Jasonguppy
Member Avatar
Cardinal
 *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
This one might not be super obscure (especially since Planet Earth 2 featured them) but I've always been a fan of these birds:

Sandgrouse
Sandgrouse (Pteroclididae) are a group of old world ground birds, mainly found in Africa. They look kind of like pigeons combined with game birds, and live in arid flat places- deserts, scrublands, and grasslands, for the most part. They feed primarily on seeds and other plant foods like shoots and berries, though sometimes they will also take ants or other ground insects. There are 16 species of pteroclidids, the primarily Asian species being in the genus Syrrhaptes and the others being in the genus Pterocles. Sexual dimorphism is exhibited- males are usually larger and more strikingly colored.

Posted Image
A strikingly colored Double-Banded Sandgrouse

Sandgrouse live in arid climates and have to visit watering holes often in order to, well, not die of thirst. Hundreds of sandgrouse will converge on a single watering hole (providing protection from predators by having large numbers) and are able to drink enough water to last 24 hours in only a few seconds. One species of sandgrouse often fly 100 miles a day to get water! The coolest thing about sandgrouse is that adults have specialized feathers on their chests that can wick up water and store it- males will fill their breast feathers with water and then fly back to their nests, where chicks can drink water from the breast feathers of their father.

Posted Image
A male Namaqua Sandgrouse loading up on water for the long flight home
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~❤️❤️
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
IIGSY
Member Avatar
A huntsman spider that wastes time on the internet because it has nothing better to do
 *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
Troll Man
Dec 25 2016, 12:35 AM
A bunch of sea (and one freshwater) creatures...

Remipedia


Appendicularia


Platyctenida


†Euthycarcinoidea


...and one slightly more normal group.

Galericinae


...and that's all the animal groups that I know something about that I'd consider "obscure"!
Beautiful
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
Online Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Dromaeosaurus
Member Avatar
Haemothermic orthostatic matrotrophic lexiphanic deuterostome
 *  *  *  *  *  *
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!

Posted Image
Edited by Dromaeosaurus, Dec 25 2016, 10:29 AM.
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)
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
3 users reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
Members: Yiqi15, lamna
ZetaBoards - Free Forum Hosting
Join the millions that use us for their forum communities. Create your own forum today.
Learn More · Sign-up for Free
Go to Next Page
« Previous Topic · Science Central · Next Topic »
Add Reply