Holocene and Beyond

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Holocene and Beyond; it is here
Topic Started: Jan 10 2017, 02:41 PM (4,936 Views)
Beetleboy	Jan 10 2017, 02:41 PM Post #1
neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three Posts: 3,700 Group: Members Member #1,776 Joined: Oct 2, 2015 Gender: Male Area of expertise: Future Evolution Nationality: British Favorite Quote: In the absence of proper data, speculate wildly. Also known as: Jacob, JurassicJacob, Beetle	~ Holocene and Beyond ~ It has begun For 3.8 billion years, there's been life on our planet. A world floating in the cosmos, a blue and brown dot in the vast universe. Elsewhere in our galaxy, tiny organisms were evolving on planets. On some worlds, life had only just appeared, on others it had been busy evolving and populating their landscape for millions of years already. On countless worlds life was going extinct. Birth, death, life, on a cosmic scale, beyond our or any other being's perception – at least for now. And at this point in time, the miracle of life appeared on another world. Earth. This moment, which would lead to the incredible journey of evolution, although it would change this one world, was of no great consequence to the universe as a whole. Life came and went all the time, and on the grand scale of intergalactic life, Earth was a miniscule, insignificant speck of life. But for this rocky, blue planet, life would change everything. As the first vertebrates swam through the primordial seas, 525 million years ago, elsewhere in the universe alien organisms were crafting tools and developing sapience. For Earth, it would be a long time until it would see high levels of intelligence. The closest it would get until humans, elephants, corvids, and cetaceans came along would be certain dinosaurs, but the ones that showed most promise were wiped out in the K-Pg event. Theropods lived on, however, in birds, which would later show signs of semi-sapience. There was a long way to go until then, however. When we reach the Holocene, everything on Earth changed in ways that would affect the future profoundly. From apes using stones to crack nuts, to the usage of fire and refined tool making, eventually those primates using sticks to fish for termites would build civilizations and colonise the surface of the planet. Homo sapiens would become the unexpected conquerer of Earth, wiping out species as it goes, and destroying habitats for its own purposes. * Cities, like a shining metal forest, grew and spread across the world, pushing back natural habitats like forests and grassland. Almost too late, humans realised the damage they were doing to the world, polluting it, destroying habitats, killing off species, and contributing towards global warming. It was too late to completely halt the climatic change they had caused, but Homo sapiens could change its ways. Reneweable fuels became the norm, slowly but surely. With the population so huge, there was never large amounts of wild spaces, and many animals went extinct in the wild, but lived on in zoos or in frozen genetic material. The world entered a state of space exploration and genetic modification. Pets, which had for a short period become uncommon due to the lack of space, were now 'trending' again, as populations dropped to a more sustainable level. Genetically modification became common worldwide, GM'd species being used for a variety of reasons – some were pets, some were adapted to take care of invasive species, a few were even made purely for the purpose of teaching students. Further into the future, genetic modification became so common-place that the rich could ask for specially-designed, unique animals, and GMing became a sort of art form. Many of our pets were too frail and dependant on us to survive in the wild . . . but with the overwhelming number of GM'd species, many would survive in the future. In the end, humanity killed itself, in a war to end all wars, wiping out their own species. Those who survived where killed off by the bio-engineered viruses, even the Martian people, the virus spreading to them from people fleeing from Earth on evacuee ships. The bombed mega-cities were empty. The once life-filled domes on Mars were empty. The houses and parks were empty . . . But Earth was not. * Humanity would change the face of the Earth in a way that would be felt for millions of years. It was our pets and companions, the genetically modified organisms, and the urban animals, that would take over where the cities once stood. While some areas still had a large amount of wild animals living in natural places, much of the Earth's land was covered in cities and 'parks' (large wild areas in the city, used for keeping endangered species in, semi-wild). After the extinction of Homo sapiens, the parks and the cities disappeared, forests and plains reclaiming the land. Urban animals and park species were free to conquer the new wild space, before less adaptable pets and GM'd species got there first. But eventually, get there they did, and the world was changed radically, in sometimes surprisingly and bizarre ways. Many pets couldn't survive without humans, and died off, but there were some which survived. Amongst the genetically modified animals, some used their bizarre traits to help them survive, while less adaptable and frail species died off. * In Chapter I we will look at life during human's reign, from their pets to urban animals. We will look at the surprising habitats humanity will create, from floating 'reef' cities to Martian domes. In Chapter II, we shall explore the legacy that humanity left behind in animal form, from pouched dogs to giant goldfish, bioluminescent mice to raptorfowl, and stranger organisms still . . . * Welcome to the Holocene and Beyond . . . Contents
	~ The Age of Forests ~

Replies:
Beetleboy	Jan 12 2017, 11:53 AM Post #31
neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three Posts: 3,700 Group: Members Member #1,776 Joined: Oct 2, 2015 Gender: Male Area of expertise: Future Evolution Nationality: British Favorite Quote: In the absence of proper data, speculate wildly. Also known as: Jacob, JurassicJacob, Beetle	Zorcuspine Jan 12 2017, 11:42 AM What animals have gone extinct by this point? Judging by Pleistocene Park it seems a lot of megafauna made it through, unless they are clones made from frozen genetic material or something along those lines. In the wild, several species of rhino, gorrilas, a few endangered porpoises, and Amur leopards. Many animals live on in zoos and in frozen genetic material. The extinction wasn't so very severe, and a lot of the megafauna made it through thanks to early designs of the so-called Parks - basically nature reserves, but enclosed on all sides by cities or a super-city. A Park could range from a few square miles, designed to keep endangered amphibians in, or the size of a wildlife reserve - particularly large ones being located in Africa. The Parks are like enclosed, controlled ecosystems, like a cross between a zoo and a nature reserve. How open to the public a Park is varies with each one and the species living within. The definition of a true Park is that it is enclosed on all sides by city, anything else - like Pleistocene Park - doesn't count. This means that flying and small animals can make it out of the Park fences and into the city, which is pretty much inevitable if it's all around you. This leads to a massive influx of new urban birds and small animals, adapting to take advantage of city life. So basically, there's still a lot of megafauna around. Even gorillas, rhinos, etc, which actually did go extinct, can still be found in Parks.
	~ The Age of Forests ~


Beetleboy	Jan 12 2017, 11:54 AM Post #32
neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three Posts: 3,700 Group: Members Member #1,776 Joined: Oct 2, 2015 Gender: Male Area of expertise: Future Evolution Nationality: British Favorite Quote: In the absence of proper data, speculate wildly. Also known as: Jacob, JurassicJacob, Beetle	Chapter I Bioluminescence: Fluorescent Fauna Part 1: Glowdents Some of the first genetically modified pets to take off with the public were the bioluminescent creatures. They were an instant success: they were simple, not so weird that some GM sceptics might think them bizarre and off-putting, and also entertaining. You could give bioluminescence to any creature and it would still just look like a dog, or a parrot, or a cat – just with glowing features. This was important to integrate GM pets into society, but as time went on and the so-called 'Pet Craze' began, people began demanding more and more unusual animals to be produced. It was then that 'GMing' really took, as creating pets became a booming business across the world. Genetically modified animals with bioluminescent features was nothing new, but with the early designs, such as the famous glowing mice, they only glowed under blue light. These designs were not very attractive to the public. What's the use of a glowing mouse after all, if it can only glow under blue light? Anyway, they were never made for the public, but for scientists to experiment on in their labs. But it set the stage for glowing pets, which would become widespread just before the early 22nd Century. The first bioluminescent pet to be released was a kind of improved version of the previous glowing mice. They were sold under the name of 'firemice', but they quickly gained a nickname: 'glowdents', which became the most widely-spread term for them. The first designs used genes from deep sea fish, creating the failed 'hatchetfish' mouse design. It isn't the light-emitting organs that produces the light, it is the bacteria within. Cultivating this deep sea bacteria, normally found in anglerfish and the like, in a mouse, was never going to be easy. The next design was to become the modern-day glowdent. The location of their bioluminescent patches varied, but they were always produced by the mouse itself, rather than symbiotic bacteria. The creators of the glowdents used genes from fireflies (Lampyridae) to create the light-emitting organs the glowdents bear, usually either on their head, snout, or tail. Inside each of these glowing organs are tiny sacks, in which the reaction occurs which produces the light. First, the enzyme luciferase is produced (also known by the slightly less catchy name of Photinus-luciferin 4-monooxygenase [ATP-hydrolyzing]). The luciferase acts on the compound known as luciferin. In the presence of adenosine triphosphate, magnesium ions, and importantly, oxygen, greenish-yellow light is produced. This is the chemical structure of firefly luciferin, found in glowdents. Glowdents can flash their light-producing organs, and when glowing, the bioluminescent patches appear as pale puffy areas of skin. If damaged, it can prevent it from glowing, but such a severe wound is rare in the pampered, happy life of a pet. Even when mice fight each other, injuries are rare and blood is rarely drawn, so puncturing of the light-emitting organs is extremely rare.
	~ The Age of Forests ~


CaledonianWarrior96	Jan 12 2017, 12:04 PM Post #33
An Awesome Reptile Posts: 2,383 Group: Members Member #1,642 Joined: Feb 22, 2015 Gender: Male Area of expertise: Future Evolution Nationality: Scottish (Not british) Favorite Quote: "Life's too short to take it seriously" - Me Also known as: SlothWarrior	That must be annoying if you're trying to sleep at night and can't because your pet is lighting up the room. On a serious note that is cool and inevitable. We can already make glowing rodents using genes extracted from jellyfish so eventually people will want glowing pets (might take a while but I can see it happening)
	Come check out and subscribe to my projects on the following subforums; Future Planet (V.2): the Future Evolution of Life on Earth (Evolutionary Continuum) The Meuse Legacy: An Alternative Outcome of the Mosasaur (Alternative Evolution) Terra Cascus: The Last Refuge of the Dinosaurs (Alternative Evolution) - Official Project - Foundation The Beryoni Galaxy: The Biologically Rich and Politically Complex State of our Galaxy (Habitational Zone) - Beryoni Critique Thread (formerly: Aliens of Beryoni) The Ecology of Skull Island: An Open Project for the Home of King Kong (Alternative Universe) The Ecology of Wakanda: An Open Project for the Home of Marvel's Black Panther (Alternative Universe) (Click bold titles to go to page. To subscribe click on a project, scroll to the bottom of the page and click "track topic" on the bottom right corner) And now, for something completely different


Beetleboy	Jan 12 2017, 12:08 PM Post #34
neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three Posts: 3,700 Group: Members Member #1,776 Joined: Oct 2, 2015 Gender: Male Area of expertise: Future Evolution Nationality: British Favorite Quote: In the absence of proper data, speculate wildly. Also known as: Jacob, JurassicJacob, Beetle	CaledonianWarrior96 Jan 12 2017, 12:04 PM That must be annoying if you're trying to sleep at night and can't because your pet is lighting up the room. On a serious note that is cool and inevitable. We can already make glowing rodents using genes extracted from jellyfish so eventually people will want glowing pets (might take a while but I can see it happening) Lol yeah. Although it might be a cool pet for a child, because it would make a fun, living nightlight. Yeah, I did mention the jellyfish rodents in the post - thing is, they only glow under certain light. Under normal light, they look completely normal. I can't imagine this pleasing the pet-craving public of the future, hence these glowdents with firefly genes, so that they can glow under normal light.
	~ The Age of Forests ~


Beetleboy	Jan 12 2017, 01:00 PM Post #35
neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three Posts: 3,700 Group: Members Member #1,776 Joined: Oct 2, 2015 Gender: Male Area of expertise: Future Evolution Nationality: British Favorite Quote: In the absence of proper data, speculate wildly. Also known as: Jacob, JurassicJacob, Beetle	Chapter I Bioluminesence: Fluorescent Fauna Part 2: Phosphorescent Fowl, Glowing Goldfish, and Dazzling Dart Frogs The popularity of the glowdents set the stage for genetically-modified organism designers (which would later, as GMing became more common, be known as GMODs) to create more bioluminescent pets. Some of the first that they created, after the glowdents, were fish, such as goldfish, and later carp, such as the starlight koi. A tank full of glowfish makes for a beautiful light show – they were famously used in a festival at Hong Kong, when several large tank was filled with hundreds of glowfish. The next pets to emerge where bioluminescent frogs, particularly dart frogs. Although mammals are a far more popular pet, with the possibility of strange and beautiful GM'd reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates, they experienced a boom in popularity. Beautiful rainbow lizards, shimmering nacre tortoises, and 'safe-spiders' were among the most popular creatures. But more on them in another post. One of the few really popular amphibian pets were the moonlight frogs. These poison dart frogs – already a popular pet in the 2000s, for their bright colours – have glowing patches on their body, only adding to their beauty. Even the insides of their mouth can glow brightly – quite why the GMODs gave them this feature isn't very clear. Some suggest that it was a mistake on their designer's part. It takes a lot of skill to place certain features in certain areas, honing the organism design, and there are sometimes mistakes, especially with GMing become so common. Whatever the case, the fact that the insides of their mouth and their tongue glows should be kept in mind – after humans go extinct, it will play a major part in ensuring the success of escaped moonlight frogs in tropical areas. During the early 22nd Century, people in many nations – Britain and many states of America, for example – were encouraged to grow their own foodstuffs on vertical farms on the outsides of their homes, and on rooftop gardens. A widespread homegrown product movement was a very small step towards decreasing areas needed for farming – but it would later become a lot more widespread, and become the norm. Many people turned to the humble chicken, as they could be kept with ease on roof gardens, and supplied eggs (and feathers and meat, if you were willing to get a license to kill them). But people of the future have a love for the ornamental and the unusual, so the glowcombs were born. These chickens could not only be used for egg prodution, but also to light up (literally) a drab roof garden with their unusual bioluminescent wattle and comb. Similar creatures had been made in the 21st century, which had glowing legs and beak when shown under ultraviolet light.
	~ The Age of Forests ~


Sphenodon	Jan 12 2017, 03:19 PM Post #36
Calcareous Posts: 850 Group: Global Mods Member #2,002 Joined: Oct 23, 2016 Gender: Male Nationality: USA! Favorite Quote: "Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too."	This seems like it has some interesting potential! A couple of questions for you: -Have any previously geographically-restricted groups seen any notable increase in distribution as a result of human activities? I could see marsupials (particularly small macropods, didelphids, and sugar glider-derivatives) in particular benefiting quite a bit - they're already somewhat popular pets in certain areas (the possums and opossums across multiple continents, macropods mostly in North America). Tied into this: -Alternatively, have any previously-endangered species/groups become drastically more common than they once were as a result of conservation, public interest, and genetic engineering? Might be a bad example, but let's take the platypus - public interest could theoretically make a GM'd form of it a popular niche pet if conservation (perhaps combined with genetic engineering - has that played a notable part in conservation in this world?) allowed for them to get off the endangered/restricted species list. A bit like with Terra Metropolis' house hippos (not endangered, really, but similar idea). -You mentioned people having to get a license to process their own poultry in the above entry. Is this something restricted to the larger cities? Edited by Sphenodon, Jan 12 2017, 03:20 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!


Uncanny Gemstar	Jan 12 2017, 03:33 PM Post #37
Godfather of SE Posts: 831 Group: Members Member #2,021 Joined: Nov 28, 2016 Gender: Male Area of expertise: Xenobiology Nationality: American Favorite Quote: Friedrich Nietzsche — 'He who fights monster should beware, lest he become a monster himself' Gender: Cute Snail	Looks great so far, a question, Are there any GMs of carnivores like snakes, tegu, cats, etc being switched to an herbivorous diet to allow for less expensive food, as you said people growing their own gardens has become common? Also, are there any dwarfized versions of exotic animals kept as pets? Like miniature Tigers, tiny dolphins or seals for aquariums, tiny elephants, Dwarf crocodiles, mini ostriches and emu, or the like?
	Recent Projects The Lance That Pierced the Stars -The world of chordates throughout its history. A planet populated only by lancelets, algae, and zooplankton. Dogworld - A planet of Good Boys, man's gift to their dearest friends. Old Projects The Twisted Mirror -my first project, in which some unknown event sometime before the carboniferous drastically changed the course of earth's evolution, and a new clade arose that replaced the tetrapods. And then evolution went nuts. Sphera Vitae -my second project. A universe of giant hollow spheres populated with life from Earth. Each is seperate and unique from one another, and some downright inhospitable, though life evolves and finds a way like nowhere else. Haemos Island - A tiny volcanic rock in the middle of the South Pacific. An island that is no paradise.


GlarnBoudin	Jan 12 2017, 03:55 PM Post #38
Disgusting Skin Fetishist Posts: 1,902 Group: Members Member #1,641 Joined: Feb 15, 2015 Gender: Male Area of expertise: Alternate Evolution Nationality: United States Favorite Quote: "My armour is like tenfold shields, my teeth are swords, my claws spears, the shock of my tail a thunderbolt, my wings a hurricane, and my breath death!" Gender: What is a gender? A miserable pile of secrets!	^This. People would pay good money for a teddy bear-sized toy grizzly, and dwarf elephants wouldn't be that hard to manufacture. Edited by GlarnBoudin, Jan 12 2017, 03:55 PM.
	Quotes Spoiler: click to toggle OctoSharkTaSaurus: WELP. HELL-O-PHANTS IT IS. Kamineigh: I was six and I had started having fantasies about this old crone dying. Sometimes by my own hand. YOU'RE DOING SOMETHING HORRIBLY WRONG IF A SIX-YEAR OLD WANTS TO KILL YOU WITH THE SAME HANDS HE JUST USED TO MAKE A BLOCK TOWER. Parasky: No, he's right, they have a medical grade walrus at most hospitals for that sort of thing. Mr Mysterio, regarding yours truly: I'm learning things about you that I'm not sure I wanted to know. HangingThief: An otologist is only as good as his walrus Stealth_Rock: We have a discord for double penetration? Ichthyander: If your eyelids are massive enough to significantly affect the path of light in space, it is time to go sleep. Mr Mysterio: Glarn-Glarn, don't... don't fuck the cave baboons. Kamineigh: They lacked wings. Instead, they went around in modified pilot's gear and beat the shit out of people using maces. Parasky: No! We will not calm down! This is a serious argument over whether or not some long dead animal is in any way similar to a group of modern animals that they are descended from! THIS. IS. SEWIOUS. Lamna: Obvious typo, I'm never going to be popular in Belgium. Trex841: Interesting point. Valid counterpoint. Self-obsessed psychotic rant. Parasky: No ties. Begin genetically modifying crows until we have organisms that roughly resemble those in the competition, and then have them fight to the death to see who wins this competition. Alternatively, Cephalian and SabrWolf could fight to the death. But at the end of the day something will be fighting to the death ~~for my amusement~~ to determine the winner. Yellowdrakex: Is it alright to have an irrational fear of gliding snakes? They're snakes. FROM ABOVE. Kamineigh: See, you wouldn't be in this mess if you began a bloody revolution every time your leaders showed to unsatisfactory. Zihuatanejo: Somewhere in heaven, a very groggy, very confused angel has just woken up and is trying to figure out why a boisterous Australian man is poking it with a stick. Komodo: I'm sorry but in what alternative universe would thousands of zebras be sent back in time by some sort of illegal time travel group to change history and preparing them by making gigantic working animatronic allosaurs? Seriously, why? Parasky: Maybe y'all should move to America, where you can flex your freedom muscles. Sir Spookums: It's a game about children catching super powered monsters, stuffing them in tiny balls, and battling other strangers' monsters. What about that makes sense in regards to anything, mister Kam? Des Orages: Yi qi. Just when you think you've seen it all, nature screws us over once more. Kaminiegh: This is clearly an inaccurate statement. I'd never challenge the authority of an admin... Unless Paraksytron stubbed his toe and fell over. THEN I, STARSCREIGHM, WILL BECOME THE NEW LEADER OF OF THE DE-SPECU-CONS! Dragon: Is normal a good word to use for describing any of us? Velociraptor: I once dreamed I was trying to steal a flamingo. The flamingo was oddly calm about the whole situation. Kaminiegh: THAT'S IT, I'M KINKSHAMING. Flashman63: In its 4,600 year history, men from all eras, places and classes have been entering into the Library: from the ancient bearded sages of Sumeria and Chaldea, to the sober-minded Academics and Zoologists of the Victorian era, to the great warlord Cletus, an inbred hillbilly who just happened to be carrying his AR-15 around his County's Strip-Mall library. OctoSharktasaurus: Well, uh, it's a pseudo-tripedal, terrestrial subcontinental Madagascan Beaked Whale... Is that not obvious? It literally says it blatantly. Holben: Did you not add lamb's blood to your fruit juice and the crushed bones of an englishman to your salsa? It's not authentic if you don't. Kaminiegh: Shut up, Hybrid, stop ruining my chances of time-travelling and getting some Neanderthal tail! Mr Mysterio: Except maybe Canada. If ever there was a country that was hiding secret reserves of powerful alien technology, it's probably mine. HangingThief: If you answered mainly "yes," you are most likely a salamander. Unfortunately it is becoming harder and harder to tell these days. Monster: In vaguely related news, I've developed a fear of my sewing machine. WHAT ARE YOU STRANGE NEEDLEBEAST Mynxi: He sowed the seed, I merely pissed on it and saw what grew. Beetleboy: The moral of the story: never trust a catfish. Parasky: Speaking of original, note to self: write erotic classical Chinese literature fan fiction Bromance of the Three Kingdoms under pseudonym Tuck Chingle. Little: Starting playing DND, took all of an hour of gameplay until a yuri love-triangle was initiated. And no, it was not my fault. 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Rebirth: I can't be the only one curious about what would happen if you spayed and neutered a male antechinus before it reached sexual maturity. Ebervalius: Laws? What kind of spooky cuckery is that? Parasky: Ah see, but that's just the thing, you thought that I thought that you thought that I had said you hadn't read it, when really I had said that you had said that you thought that I thought that you hadn't read it. So really it's Flisch's fault. Co-creator/corporate minion for the Pop Culture Monster Apocalypse! My Projects Spoiler: click to toggle The Therocene: An Age Familiar and Strange Retrozoic Park: Where the Past Comes to Life (Idea thread is here!) Coming Soon Spoiler: click to toggle Evolutionary Continuum: Jurassic Safari: An adventure 65 million years in the making continues. The Future is Altered: When man plays God, he plays to win. 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CaledonianWarrior96	Jan 12 2017, 04:03 PM Post #39
An Awesome Reptile Posts: 2,383 Group: Members Member #1,642 Joined: Feb 22, 2015 Gender: Male Area of expertise: Future Evolution Nationality: Scottish (Not british) Favorite Quote: "Life's too short to take it seriously" - Me Also known as: SlothWarrior	GlarnBoudin Jan 12 2017, 03:55 PM ...dwarf elephants wouldn't be that hard to manufacture. I just got an image of sheep-sized woolly elephants. That would be amazing to see
	Come check out and subscribe to my projects on the following subforums; Future Planet (V.2): the Future Evolution of Life on Earth (Evolutionary Continuum) The Meuse Legacy: An Alternative Outcome of the Mosasaur (Alternative Evolution) Terra Cascus: The Last Refuge of the Dinosaurs (Alternative Evolution) - Official Project - Foundation The Beryoni Galaxy: The Biologically Rich and Politically Complex State of our Galaxy (Habitational Zone) - Beryoni Critique Thread (formerly: Aliens of Beryoni) The Ecology of Skull Island: An Open Project for the Home of King Kong (Alternative Universe) The Ecology of Wakanda: An Open Project for the Home of Marvel's Black Panther (Alternative Universe) (Click bold titles to go to page. To subscribe click on a project, scroll to the bottom of the page and click "track topic" on the bottom right corner) And now, for something completely different


Tartarus	Jan 12 2017, 06:45 PM Post #40
Prime Specimen Posts: 1,774 Group: Members Member #705 Joined: Feb 1, 2012 Gender: Male Nationality: Australian	CaledonianWarrior96 Jan 12 2017, 12:04 PM That must be annoying if you're trying to sleep at night and can't because your pet is lighting up the room. Well that problem is easily solved. Just have the glowdent in a cage in another room where no one is sleeping, such as the living room perhaps. Beetleboy Whatever the case, the fact that the insides of their mouth and their tongue glows should be kept in mind – after humans go extinct, it will play a major part in ensuring the success of escaped moonlight frogs in tropical areas. I look forward to seeing what this could mean. My current guess is some sort of angler fish glowing lure type of hunting, but this is just a guess for now.



Corecin	Jan 12 2017, 07:13 PM Post #41
Prime Specimen Posts: 1,567 Group: Members Member #1,893 Joined: Mar 21, 2016 Area of expertise: Future Evolution Nationality: American :/ Favorite Quote: “Life’s too short to spend it being mean to people.” Also known as: Literally just any spin on Corecin Gender: Nonbinary	I like how you're leading up to something with the frogs, it really builds the hype for what we'll see later. I actually had some similiar ideas for bioluminescent animals attracting insects, though it's a bit of an obvious idea, it doesn't mean that it can't be interesting, and I know you'll make them so.



Beetleboy	Jan 13 2017, 03:49 AM Post #42
neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three Posts: 3,700 Group: Members Member #1,776 Joined: Oct 2, 2015 Gender: Male Area of expertise: Future Evolution Nationality: British Favorite Quote: In the absence of proper data, speculate wildly. Also known as: Jacob, JurassicJacob, Beetle	Thanks for all your comments and questions guys, I'll reply to them all tonight or late afternoon, as I'm gonna be out for most of the day.
	~ The Age of Forests ~


Beetleboy	Jan 13 2017, 09:50 AM Post #43
neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three Posts: 3,700 Group: Members Member #1,776 Joined: Oct 2, 2015 Gender: Male Area of expertise: Future Evolution Nationality: British Favorite Quote: In the absence of proper data, speculate wildly. Also known as: Jacob, JurassicJacob, Beetle	Quote: This seems like it has some interesting potential! Thank you! Quote: Have any previously geographically-restricted groups seen any notable increase in distribution as a result of human activities? Yes, several species. A few ones that I have thought about in particular are the ring-necked parakeets, a non-native species which can be found in London. In the future it's basically used its adaptation to urban envioroments to get around England, using cities and towns as pathways. By this time, a lot of the land is already covered in some kind of city or urban area, so they do this fairly quickly until they can be found pretty much across England. There are also some grey parrots and cockatoos in Britain now, having formed an urban population in the warmer areas of cities. They often nest and forage with flocks of feral pigeons, acting as a sentry against predators such as falcons. Other than that, there's the London pelicans, escaped pet skunks in much of Europe and Britain, and a few other ideas. Quote: I could see marsupials (particularly small macropods, didelphids, and sugar glider-derivatives) in particular benefiting quite a bit - they're already somewhat popular pets in certain areas (the possums and opossums across multiple continents, macropods mostly in North America). Tied into this: Sugar gliders will indeed be making an appearance in this, as they become a fully-domesticated species which escape in many areas, particularly the US, and make thriving urban populations. Quote: Alternatively, have any previously-endangered species/groups become drastically more common than they once were as a result of conservation, public interest, and genetic engineering? Might be a bad example, but let's take the platypus - public interest could theoretically make a GM'd form of it a popular niche pet if conservation (perhaps combined with genetic engineering - has that played a notable part in conservation in this world?) allowed for them to get off the endangered/restricted species list. A bit like with Terra Metropolis' house hippos (not endangered, really, but similar idea). Yes, there are several such species, such as the GM'd domestic panda. More on that later, but basically they stay small and cute, and have a more varied diet, and reproduce faster and easier. I'll publish more information on neotonic pets soon. Quote: -You mentioned people having to get a license to process their own poultry in the above entry. Is this something restricted to the larger cities? No, it is isn't. Most densely populated countries have a law about poultry licenses. I think it kinda make sense, you can't really have a load of people all up and down the country keeping and killing chickens in their back garden. The license ensures that they are killing them humanely. Quote: Looks great so far, Thank you. Quote: Are there any GMs of carnivores like snakes, tegu, cats, etc being switched to an herbivorous diet to allow for less expensive food, as you said people growing their own gardens has become common? Yes, most cats and dogs have been GM'd to process vegetation. With house-rabbits, the opposite is true, more on them later. Quote: Also, are there any dwarfized versions of exotic animals kept as pets? Like miniature Tigers, tiny dolphins or seals for aquariums, tiny elephants, Dwarf crocodiles, mini ostriches and emu, or the like? There'll be some things like that as we get to a time period when genetic modification basically goes crazy, in the 23rd Century. The 24th Century sees World War III, which kills off all humans. To answer one of the things you mentioned there - not miniature tigers exactly, but normal domestic cats genetically modified to have stripes and look like a tiny tiger. Quote: ^This. People would pay good money for a teddy bear-sized toy grizzly, and dwarf elephants wouldn't be that hard to manufacture. Yeah, there's definitely gonna be pygmy, GM'd elephants/mammoths towards the end of Chapter I . . . Quote: I look forward to seeing what this could mean. My current guess is some sort of angler fish glowing lure type of hunting, but this is just a guess for now. I won't tell you the answer then yet. Quote: I like how you're leading up to something with the frogs, it really builds the hype for what we'll see later. I actually had some similiar ideas for bioluminescent animals attracting insects, though it's a bit of an obvious idea, it doesn't mean that it can't be interesting, and I know you'll make them so. Thanks. Many of the creatures I've mentioned so far are going to do something after humans go extinct. I just haven't made it quite so obvious with those I have with the moonlight frogs.
	~ The Age of Forests ~


Beetleboy	Jan 13 2017, 01:15 PM Post #44
neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three Posts: 3,700 Group: Members Member #1,776 Joined: Oct 2, 2015 Gender: Male Area of expertise: Future Evolution Nationality: British Favorite Quote: In the absence of proper data, speculate wildly. Also known as: Jacob, JurassicJacob, Beetle	Chapter I Reptile Pets Animals that are more responsive and loving like mammals, which can be cuddled and are soft and furry, have certainly always been the more popular of pets. During the middle 20th Century, pets such as reptiles and amphibians – requiring a lot of work without the love in return that a cat or a dog might show – really went out of fashion. However, with the increasing amount of genetic modification appearing in the pet business, the possibility of new, unusual, and beautiful GM'd squamates brought about the increase of new kinds of pets. This also brought cold-blooded creatures back into the love of the nation as pets. The rainbow skink was an instant success, being one of the first GM'd reptiles to be released as a pet. The majority of its genome was of the blue-tongued skink, which was a popular pet in the early 21st Century, but it had added sections which gave it added herbivorous tendencies, so that they could be fed a mixture of fruit, veg, and insects, and they were also given smaller size, so that they wouldn't normally outgrow a cage. Their most notable feature was the shimmering iridiscence on their scales, which was borrowed from the rainbow boa, a species of iridiscent snake (see image below). This was the key to integrating GM pets into society: making normal-looking animals easy to keep and more beautiful or strange. In the early stages, most GM pets didn't look so weird, just with one physical feature which set them apart and made them interesting or appealing. In the rainbow skink's case, as with many other animals, it was made to look more beautiful and colourful. Another very popular but initially very expensive species of GM'd reptile was the pearl tortoise. Although the company who originally created it - going by the name of MadPets4U - were quite unclear about exactly how the animal was made, one thing is known that it was the life's work of the company founder, who spent years and years trying to make his vision come to life. The pearl tortoise was very difficult to make, but after 10 years of hard work and producing other projects - including the imps and the rophants – his ambition was achieved. MadPets4U was certainly getting a name for itself for ah, innovative and unusual creatures, which some scientists didn't approve of, but he set the trend for creating really weird creatures. Anyway, the pearl tortoise certainly went along with the usual way of things – although to most people it certainly didn't seem as strange as his other projects, rophants, imps, etc. The pearl tortoise was, mostly, just a tortoise: its unique feature that made it so valuable and unusual was its shell. Mostly this shell was pretty normal, but covering the top surface was a layer of a shimmering substance taken from oysters: mother of pearl, also known as nacre. Above: an image of nacre on Pinctada margaritifera, one of the species that was claimed to be used for the pearl tortoise. When the young pearl tortoise is inside the egg, the nacre starts to form around its shell, nanoparticles that are arranged into fibers polycrystaline in form, which when packed together form the beginnings of a nacre platelet. When the young tortoise hatches, the shell covering will not yet be fully formed, and so it has to be left in peace and undisturbed while the delicate formation of the nacre takes place. After a few weeks, the crystaline growth is complete, leaving a smooth, shining surface, which looks best when polished. A tortoise covered in mother of pearl – expensive to buy, but easy to care for and spectacular to look at. They were an instant success with rich clients, and as other companies began producing similar creatures, and they became more wide-spread, price went down and pearl tortoises became a well-known and common pet. In warmer climes and during the summer, these tortoises could be kept in pens on roof gardens, as surprisingly, the shining shell seems to discourage attack from birds of prey, similarly to how CDs tied onto a string can keep birds off crops. The light reflecting off of the shimmering, smooth surface of the shell hits the bird's eyes and irritate them, causing them to fly away from the annoying potential prey item. It seems that completely by accident, these pet, ornamental tortoises have developed a defence mechanism . . .
	~ The Age of Forests ~


Corecin	Jan 13 2017, 04:19 PM Post #45
Prime Specimen Posts: 1,567 Group: Members Member #1,893 Joined: Mar 21, 2016 Area of expertise: Future Evolution Nationality: American :/ Favorite Quote: “Life’s too short to spend it being mean to people.” Also known as: Literally just any spin on Corecin Gender: Nonbinary	What happens when a GM pet breeds with its unmodified counterpart?



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