Weird Money EditionPrevious Thread >>4983981WHAT IS SPECULATIVE EVOLUTION?Speculative evolution is the exploration and imagining of how life might evolve in the future or could have evolved in alternate pasts. It's a multimedia sci-fi genre that harnesses scientific principles to create detailed and plausible hypothetical creatures, ecosystems, and evolutionary histories.RESOURCES:https://speculativeevolution.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Tutorial>One-stop shop for relevant background information for starting a projecthttp://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/>Fantastic blog covering all sorts of spec evo topics in-depthhttps://specevo.jcink.net/>The Speculative Evolution forums, full of resources and ongoing projectsRECOMMENDED PROJECTS:https://pastebin.com/zhBbaNTB>Link to a PDF of Wayne Barlowe’s “Expedition”, a seminal work of speculative evolution full of incredible paintings and illustrationshttps://youtu.be/Rbi8Jgx1CNE [Embed] [Embed]>”The Future is Wild”, a CGI documentary following the evolution of life on Earth in the far futurehttps://pastebin.com/esdFrSEZ>Dougal Dixon, arguably the father of speculative evolution. These are links to PDF’s of his books “After Man”, “The New Dinosaurs”, and “Man After Man”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egzZv8tqT_k&list=PL6xPxnYMQpquNuaEffJzjGjMsr6VktCYl&ab_channel=Biblaridion [Embed] [Embed]https://sites.google.com/site/worldofserina/https://sunriseonilion.wordpress.com/http://www.cmkosemen.com/snaiad_web/snduterus.htmlhttps://www.deviantart.com/sanrou/gallery/56844005/nauhttp://www.planetfuraha.nl/https://multituberculateearth.wordpress.com/https://sites.google.com/view/lokiworldofrats/homehttps://specevo.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=4578&st=15https://www.deviantart.com/bicyclefroghttps://hardeshur.blogspot.com/p/main-page.htmlhttps://rylmadolisland.blogspot.com/p/main-page.html?zx=bba41f9d602b6b9ahttps://lemuriaspeculative.wordpress.com
RECOMMENDED READING LIST ON EVOLUTION:> The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins> The Extended Phenotype - Richard Dawkins> The Revolutionary Phenotype - J.F. Gariepy> Evolution and the Theory of Games - John Maynard Smith> Animal Signals - John Maynard Smith> The Red Queen - Matt Ridley> Mendel's Principles of Heredity - Bateson & Mendel> Population Genetics: A Concise Guide - John H. Guillespie> The Largest Avian Radiation: The Evolution of Perching Birds, or the Order Passeriformes by Jon FjeldsĂĄ, Les Christidis, and Per G. P. Ericson>The Cambrian Explosion: The Construction of Animal Biodiversity by Douglas Erwin>Carboniferous Giants and Mass Extinction: The Late Paleozoic Ice Age World by George McGhee Jr.>Triassic Life on Land: The Great Transition by Hans-Dieter Sues>On the Prowl: In Search of Big Cat Origins by Mark Hallett and John Harris
I like seed worlds and speculative ecologies. Imagining how species interact and form novel ecosystems is fun.
>>5040573why are people incapable of fixing the OP?
>>5040573Ay, thanks for putting an image of my project
what about a bird but with bat wings?
>>5041366It kinda happened already.
>>5041366The problem is that bird wing fingers are locked tightly together, the opposite of a bat wing.>>5041368This, but apparently they weren't good fliers/gliders
>>5041155it's a tradition at this point
>>5041464They're not as efficient though. One feather too less and they're flightless, while bats can operate with 20% of their wing membranes gone.Further, bird wings are mostly dead tissue, while bat wings are living tissue all the way and can flex and bend, adding more agility
>>5041464They didn't evolve in that direction. Scansoriopterygids are well outside of Avialae and represent a totally independent evolution of flight in dinosaurs. And they're a lineage that was probably outcompeted by birds given that there's no evidence of them outside of the Jurassic
>>5041464no, bird wings are really inefficient, theyre only good at soaring, not so much with tight turns, also bird are kinda badly "designed" at flying, because you have legs, which do nothing to aid with flying, only landing.and think about the amount things that a species to go through to achieve feathers, its like intelligence, theres a much easier path that have existed and worked, pterosaurs were extremely successful, lizards and squirrels have developed skin flaps, by all accounts feathers are a fluke that really shouldnt exist
>>5042244I don't think anyone has scanned it. It's not on Zlibrary either and it seems to only be available in hardcopy. I haven't found any digital copies for sale.
>>5040573bumpu
>>5042231Pterosaurs were even worse at tight turns and such than birds, there's a reason birds outcompeted pterosaurs at every small niche
>>5043396Not true, there were small pterosaurs in the Late Cretaceous like Piksi. There simply are not enough sites with high degree of preservation.Pterosaur wings were pretty efficient, more so than bird wings but perhaps not as much as bat wings
>>5043396yes, but pterosaurs got fucking hueg, 10 meters across and as heavy as 500 lbs, the heaviest bird was 7 meters across at 270lbs, and wasnt some bitchass scavenger, it was a predator through and through because it didnt waste its time on legs, it put all its effort into wingsthe only reason why birds are successful is because pterosaurs arent around, and even then, the moment they suffer a setback, bats are waiting to take over the diurnal timeslot
>>5043588there were some small ones remaining but given that pterosaurs went extinct while multiple separate bird lineages made it through, that's a fairly good indicator that the smaller niches were dominated by birds birds absolutely had several advantages in several niches over pterosaurs, as evidenced by them managing to establish themselves while pterosaurs were already widespread, same thing with bats having advantages in several niches over birds>>5043591Bats can't soar, so any aerial niche that requires it is pretty safe for birds, now that does leave them possibly vulnerable to getting pterosaur'd but bats have been around for a while and haven't really managed to intrude on the passerines in any way
>>5043628>multiple separate bird lineages made it throughnot multiple, only three and barely
>>5043628bruh, soaring is literally just holding your arms out, its not rocket scienceand again, moving into a niche while its occupants are still there is extremely difficult, and bats have only existed for 50 million years and have taken over the entire nocturnal timeslot, birds have been around for 140 million and all they got is owls
>>5043689three is multiple, the fact three made it through and 0 pterosaurs is not just purely through luck, birds were represented significantly better in niches that would let them survive the K-Pg event >>5043690And bats can't do it, their specific form of flight and their wing structure simply can't give them controlled soaring unless it is completely restructured, and none of the niches bats occupy really give them evolutionary pressure to evolving it, since it would likely come at a cost of their maneuverability which leads to momentary fitness decrease And I already mentioned that bats are better at several niches, just a couple in particular that they're unsuited to taking from birdsthere's also nightingales, nightjars both of which have large distribution
>>5043628>that's a fairly good indicator that the smaller niches were dominated by birdsno it isn'tthe three lineages of birds that survived were all ground nesting semi-terrestrial animals, the more arboreal enantiornithes which were the dominant clade of birds at the time that you'd be arguing out competed pterosaurs all died out as well.
>>5043725>>5043690>>5043628>>5043628Fruit bats are known to soar
>>5040574I highly recommend this book: https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324061748Out of everything I've read on evolution, I'd say that no book does a better job of conveying fundamental principles of evolution in a very intuitive way. Not only that, but it goes on to bridge the gap between evolutionary theory, mathematical/physical aspects of lifeform morphology, animal behaviour and human species-typical behaviour. It's an amazing introductory read, but even for those already involved in the evolutionary sciences it has the potential to provide new insights on material that most would consider rudimentary. This is the 9th edition but the document formatting is kind of shitty: https://oceanofpdf.com/authors/robert-boyd/pdf-epub-how-humans-evolved-download/This is the 8th edition and contains the original textbook formatting: https://dokumen.pub/how-humans-evolved-8nbsped-9780393603453-9780393630114.html
>>5043917is pic saying that as animals get bigger their strength does not scale accordingly because their internals does not keep up, because i dont understand what its ratio to fixed area volume matters unless thats what it means and this is jargon
New Kaimere Videohttps://youtu.be/kfrVXc9j0f4
>>5045485more like gaymere amirite
>>5045485Why is the Serradens video no longer up? I watched the Sauropod video and it made me want to watch the Carcharodontosaur video, and it doesn't seem to be there.Anyways, here are some other new-ish videos from other projects.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=475Cun9fqaEhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYZnTBLix4Mhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8FZcdfWvDY
My parents offered me the "After Man" book by Dougal Dixon for my 13th birthday. I was madly in love with this book at the time and I still have it !
>>5045635picrel
>>5045485>my favorite tranny self-insert D&D campaign journal uploaded another video guys!!!!Not spec evo, kill yourself, lmao.
Random thought I had recently. Aren't there some horses that live right next to the ocean, like the sable island horses? Horses are notoriously chunky and can get hurt from laying down too long, like a lot of marine mammals. I wonder if they could eventually adapt to be semiaquatic or fully aquatic eventually? What do you think?
>>5045733Problem is that only have one digit, so the transition from a columnar leg to a paddle would be hard.
>>5045915could go with a penguin or ichtyosaur arrangement, maybe (penguin: widening the bone and adding structure using soft materials, icthyosaur: duplicating bone)
>>5043690>and all they got is owlsand all bats got are bats. what's your point?
>>5043690>and all they got is owlswait was this a serious post? there's at least dozens of nocturnal bird lineages. nightjars and potoos, night parrots, kiwi, etc
Snaiads be like
>>5047173don't remind me koseman is so disgusting
>>5047173>>5047438Now teasing the chinese with a creature they will never be able to each or turn into pills for erectile dysfunction
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSGdsqLgRYk
>>5049559rolling(I'm working on assumption that post ending in 0 = 10, and dubs = 11)
New Kaimere videohttps://youtu.be/A99eaBdmjfg
>>5050582Sick, my favorite trans-affirming dnd campaign lore channel uploaded! but why did you post it in the spec evo thread?
>>5050582did this fag do Livyatan or is he a mega faggot?
I was watching the DS9 episode where Quark goes visit his mother on the Ferengi homeplanet, ferenginar, and it rains all the time there, just constant rain.Did anyone ever made a spec evo project about life in a planet with non-stop rain?What adaptations would evolve in a planet like that?
>>5051444amphibious animals and probably those can can breath both in and above water and those can have adapted to be waterproof and the ability to not be affected by extreme humidity and temperature swings. So crocs and a lot of amphibians. Imagine carboniferous period of earth.
>>5049559They deserve it
>>5051444complete non-stop rain would require some rather specific atmospheric circumstances, could definitely be interesting to theorize what it would be like but I have the feeling that dealing with those necessary conditions might be harder than dealing with constant rain
>>5051444>>5051512Earth did undergo a non-stop rain in the late Triassic. Killed off most reptiles and allowed dinosaurs and pterosaurs to flourish
>>5040573Plummobaatar diathagoia, a new submission for Multituberculate Earth: https://multituberculateearth.wordpress.com/2024/07/30/example-site-messel-pit/
Any opinions on Runaway to the Stars? I've read some of it online but the author is, once AGAIN, a fucking tranny who has to force trans species and whatnot into the story with some of the ugliest designs I've ever seen, particularly the spacers.
>>5052430>Runaway to the StarsWas not aware of that, looks cool but the main species seems like Christian Cline's main race
>>5052430The aliens are cool but man the way he draws humans is tumblr af, not in a good way either.
New Spec Bio Log videohttps://youtu.be/1TvjJf3Ux60
>>5053577Love when people work on plants
>>5040573found this surprise gem/kino webseries https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCBgJ8LHu8s
>>5054982I've been following them for a while. This particular concept is kinda impossible, however, since cephalopods cannot adopt to freshwater
>>5049559>DUUUD WHAT IF HUMANITY DID THE SAME THING AS QU DID TO THEMSELVES BECAUSE AFTER BILLIONS OF YEARS HUMANITY IS STILL FUCK YEAHEmbarrassing tribalist cope image.
>>5047173>ahh yess, let me equate the spec evo sea cucumber creatures with uh trans legbutt and uhh adult swim cartoon image, that totally makes senseleast brainrotten /an/tard, holy fuck its embarrassing that you even made that post
>>5055260>since cephalopods cannot adopt to freshwaterjust because it'd take more steps for them doesn't mean it's impossible. Plenty of other mollusks live in fresh water.
>>5055270retard lmao
>>5055337problem I suppose is the matter of competitionif you can find a large body of fresh water which only cephalopods have access to, they could start adapting, but trying to introduce in freshwater habitats would likely see them just outcompeted before they could make the proper adaptations freshwater mollusks generally start out far smaller than cephalopods are
>>5050657both Livyatan and the normal sperm whales are in in Kaimere, though Livyatan isn't doing as wellhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YMNvticRlIhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Om5gwg-Q0I
Does Kaimere really count as a spec-evo project?It never gave off a true speculative fiction aspect to me, more that the author wanted a set of cool animals to exist then gives a few ad-hoc explanations for how the existsit's more like a fantasy setting with a bit more explanation than usual for it's bestiary than anything truly speculative
>>5055410it def still counts, given how life develops on the planet, & "magic" being a lifeform
>>5055446I guess, though even if if is, it's definitely on the lighter side, compared to something like say Alien Biospheres which works from a starting point onwards and then sees where it ends uptoo much magic to explain away issues in Kaimere even if it doesn't quite work like traditional magic, and again it is focused around reaching a certain point in time
>>5055410he's admitted several times that he views it just as a setting for his dnd campaign and fantasy novels.
I have this vague notion bouncing around my head of lifeforms that are made out of plasma, constructed from patterns in the oscillations and fields in a plasma, rather than chemistry. They could have evolved in stars, but I'm imagining them as appearing in the early universe, when all of space was filled with plasma. If they evolved to sapience they could construct arcs to survive in during the period between recombination, when the temperature of the universe lowered to the point all the plasma went away, and the birth of the first stars, which they could then move into. This early period of the universe only lasted 370,000 years, which normally wouldn't be long enough to evolve sapience, but this is high-energy plasma we're talking about, with particles moving and interacting very quickly. I could imagine the fundamental processes underpinning their life happening so quickly, that they undergo a full generation in a matter of seconds, which would allow enough generations to pass in 370k years for them to reach sapience.
>>5056082incredibly implausible, obviously, but highly kino. I've had somewhat similar musings about emergent generalized intelligence appearing in the conductive rock structures of a planet powered by the lightning storms of its atmosphere, as by technicality something like that could exist, but it would be insanely unlikely and we would hardly be able to notice anyway unless it somehow obtained a method of interfering with the outside world at a sufficient rate.
