Why wasn't the new world filled with some unthinkable alien like creatures given it's separation from the old worldBison are just bovines, a lot of snakes, monkeys and jaguar felines. Don't get me wrong it's definitely different, it's just that I expected more.
>>16291095animals can cross the ocean, in small boats that spontaously form out of drifting wood, animals jump in and get carried by the current. Then the same happens to females of the species and they meet in the new world
>>16291165Isn't there room on the drifting wood for both?
>>16291095Well they all evolved from the same general stock, right? And although the evolution happened over an exceptionally long time, it's not like the selection pressures were THAT different from each other. It's not like the new world was a xenon atmosphere with 3x the gravity and uranium ore the only source of calories.
North American animals are generally more closely related to European animals than they are to South American Animals. Counter intuitive I know, but ai read it has something to do with the diversification of animal species back when Gondwana was seperated from Laurasia.
>>16291193Why would that be unintuitive? the Viking and the native Americans got to America through Greenland, No? Any old world life had to take that path and arrive to North America first.
>>16291095>Why wasn't the new world filled with some unthinkable alien like creatures given it's separation from the old worldbecause during the 200 million years that took the Atlantic rifting to finally separate all continents apart, most major animal groups evolved and radiated throughout.Also, this:>>16291165
>>16291193>i read it has something to do with the diversification of animal species back when Gondwana was seperated from Laurasia.the last continents to separate were N America and Europe, and S. America and N. America were separated for a good while before rejoining, that's why.See the gif here:>>16291900
>>16291095Same common ancestor
>>16291095creatures are shaped by their environmentsame biotope, same pressure, same animals
>>16291193Even presently North America and Asia are connected when sea level drops.
>>16291095>separationwhat separation? beringia was passable for camelids, mammoths, bisons, wolves, deer ... monkeys got into america across the atlantic, possibly after a stop on the mid-atlantic ridge islands that vanished since then. there even was an exchange with fucking australia/sahul through the antarctic shore. and I did not even mention that africa and south america were joined once.
>>16291095>Why wasn't the new world filled with some unthinkable alien like creatures given it's separation from the old worldRussia and North America were once connected by something called the 'Bering Land Bridge', as well as home to a single, massive, connected biome called the Mammoth Steppe - like a cold functionally endless savanna that wrapped around the north pole. Both of these factors allowed the free movement of dozens of animal species back and forth between the two continents such as elephants, cattle, wolves, lions, horses, camels, and even eventually humans. >Don't get me wrong it's definitely different, it's just that I expected more.With that in mind South America *was* isolated for quite some time, and *did* use to have some truly unique animals. There's a period 3 million years ago called the 'Great American Interchange' where sea levels lowered enough to allow the Panama to rise out from the ocean and finally connect the two continents together as they are now. Before this exchange S. America had evolved some truly unique animals like the toxodonts (a convergent evolution animal resembling a hippo/rhino), anteaters, sloths, and those massive armadillos ?glyptodon?, as well as a refugium for monotremes, marsupials, and giant carnivorous birds. That more or less ended after the Interchange, but even after it S. America's isolation still created some 'weirdos' with the new stock available: sabretooth cats, the four-tusked gomphothere (one of my favorite elephants), and all those llamas. I have absolutely no fucking idea how monkeys got to South America.
>>16291095>>16294288This. If you wanted truly weird animals see Australia, the landmass has been isolated from a lot of things until humanity came along, and even then it retained a lot of its animals until colonial era ships and settlers came along
>>16294288>New world monkeysNew world monkeys and old world monkeys share a common ancestor and are two separate groups. The common ancestor existed about 40 Mya, and split into two as one group managed to colonize the new world (atlantic ocean wasn't as big then and there were probably island chains that made it easier to use driftwood and whatnot) and give rise to all new world monkey species while the remainder stayed in africa and gave rise to old world monkeys, great apes and humans
>>16291095You don't look at the weird things, multicolored moths and mammalian water behemonts
>>16291095it was, they just died out during the Great American Interchange because north American fauna was similar to Eurasian fauna same would happen if Australia connected to Asia or something, the native whacky fauna will start dying out because normal == common == successful
>>16295533
>>16294288>toxodonts (a convergent evolution animal resembling a hippo/rhino)Here's some drawings of the creatures in question, for reference. I find the Toxodont, and the Diprotodon in Australia, both extremely interesting animals because it's another example of convergent evolution; a completely unrelated creature evolving into a vague-generic-off-brand 'Pachydermata'-esque creature in order to fulfill that same niche within their respective environment. It's really neat to see them all hit on the same universal characteristics: large body, large nose, flat feet, big square head, big lips, large gripping/clipping incisors, and in the case of the Toxodont that same scaley, hairless, leathery hide, and even the development of a couple small horns. It's compelling to think about how some biological designs can be so viable that they just keep getting repeated no matter the time or distance.
>>16295631Peccaries and Pigs, Vizcachas and Rabbits, Pronghorns and Antelopes, Armadillos ad Pangolins, Porcupines, Echidnas and Hedgehogs, Flying Squirrels and Sugar Gliders, South American foxes and True Foxes, etc are a much better example of convergent evolution than what you posted
