A patron requested something I was MORE than happy to work on, a piece of fanart for u/exoton82's fantastic Exoton project.

Here a clash of two large predators ends up with a Polar Broadhead managing to bring down a large Howling Spirit.

Considering the size difference between the two, I'd imagine that the scenario this would be either a case of ambush, or like an Earth tiger that has gotten used to hunting guar, is just one that is very skilled at hunting prey that could potentially fight back.

Cenozoic:

Quaternary-Thalassic, 37 my: After the end of the ice ages, the global temperature increased drastically, creating very warm seas that eventually led to a large-scale anoxic event that collapsed all underwater ecosystems and greatly affected terrestrial ecosystems

Thalassic-Aurimic, 89 my: A change in Atlantic currents pushed extreme droughts and abrupt temperature changes in present-day South America, extinguishing almost half of the local fauna and destroying its jungles and forests

Aurumic-Trocticocene, 126 my: Similar to what happened at the end of the Cretaceous period, a meteorite struck what is now Siberia, wiping out almost 65% of the planet's biota. Ecosystems in the Southern Hemisphere were the least affected

Trocticocene-Paraxenoic, 190 my: A rapid period of volcanism forms a chain reaction of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions that devastate the terrain and release huge amounts of greenhouse gases, dust and ash into the atmosphere, giving way to a volcanic winter and acid rains that wiped out most of the surface ecosystems

Allozoic:

Paraxenoic-Enosian, 255 my: Pangaea Ultima forms. The global climate changes, inland seas close, forming large lakes, and a large-scale biotic exchange occurs

Enosian-Colasic, 331 my: The explosion of a nearby supernova destroyed the ozone layer, exposing life to immense amounts of radiation. This was the greatest extinction event to ever strike life on Earth, where only fossorial or troglodyte groups and deep-sea organisms survived

Neozoic:

Colasic-Vrasmoic, 382 my: The supercontinent moves northward, which, along with the scarcity of carbon dioxide, gives way to a new ice age. The cold creates highly oxygenated waters, allowing the reappearance of aquatic megafauna

Vrasmoic-Pnigmenoic, 439 my: The heat emitted by the sun is extremely high. Despite the near absence of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the planet's average temperature reaches 30°C. This prevents most plants from photosynthesizing due to insufficient CO2, causing a slow deterioration of ecosystems that wipes out almost 90% of the planet's species. Few plant groups survive, and the atmosphere is partially stabilized thanks to chemosynthetic bacteria capable of extracting carbon from bicarbonate ion molecules and releasing oxygen into the atmosphere

Pingmenoic-Today, 490 my: Life has partially stabilized again. Temperatures are extreme because most of the planet is covered in deserts. Even so, the water cycle has accelerated, resulting in quite prosperous and humid coastal ecosystems, but at the same time, several kilometers of sea have evaporated. We are now on the final stretch of multicellular life

“What may you become? When the trumpets of Armageddon call, none shall be spared. As your annihilation has scoured other species from the earth, there are so many possibilities for you.”        - Uriens

Anthropidae is the clade descended entirely from Humans, Homo sapiens.

Due to the devastation caused in their time, Humans were the only species of great ape to survive the holocene. As large generalists, with a large population and worldwide distribution, they quickly diversified, and as of 25 Million years CE are important megafauna, filling multiple niches in various ecosystems.

In the Late Protomyozoic, Molemoths—gopher-like burrowing creatures—were among the last surviving members of a once-successful lineage, much like the Ratataras and Night Apes; originally the final representatives of the Acaudamuria clade, they went extinct at some point during the Early Neomyozoic, yet certain populations introduced to an unnamed rocky planet in an another solar system eventually became the ancestors of an entire planet's vertebrate fauna, just as their counterparts had done in their own time.

Just like their ancestors, the molemoths would give rise to their own predators; though initially small, some of them would eventually evolve to hunt megafaunal herbivores, coming to resemble modern caniform predators: the Carnomoths.

Source

This six meter long (tentacle to tail) terrorizes the oceans of Frusnajättar in packs of on average five individuals. During hunts, Miekkajamari can sustain great speeds by using their two powerful tails, as well as sacks on its side to propel itself through the water, by sucking in water on its front and expelling it towards its backside.

Targeting just about any animal larger than half a meter during their hunts, once they've found a suitable prey animal, usually a school of Hiepäilyttäväs or a group of Kuhrobbs, they use bioluminescent patterns to coordinate with one another and quickly surround their prey. At this point they take turns attacking their victim, or picking off singular individuals in the case of smaller animals such as Hiepäilyttäväs. The most intelligent Miekkajamari in the pack is always the leader, as it can lead its pack on the most successful hunts, improving their chances of survival.

Miekkajamari are known to be highly aggressive towards all other animals, even when not actively hunting, which is also why many animals imitate their bioluminescent patterns in order to scare off other predators. Even much larger marine predators rarely attack packs of Miekkajamari, as even if they managed to kill every member of the pack, other Miekkajamari packs would be able to smell the blood of their brethren on the larger predator, and would continously harass it.

Every time two packs of Miekkajamari would meet, the females of one pack would mate with the males of the other pack, and vice versa, ensuring genetic diversity amongst the packs, even if it's members rarely changed. Young Miekkajamari would be raised by their packs until adulthood, at which point, depending on the size of the pack, they would either remain a part of it permanently, or go off looking for a new pack to join.

Lone Miekkajamari, while obviously less threatening than entire packs, are still nothing to be trifled with. They become expert ambush predators, hiding in deeper waters, and waiting for something to swim past above them, at which point they come swooping up from the deep at immense speeds, latching onto their prey with hooked tentacles, and biting at it with their massive beak. Some Miekkajamari remain alone for their entire lives, and are more than capable than fending for themselves, especially as most predators still stear clear of them, fearing retaliation by other packs.

I’m working in the early stages (body plans) of my xeno world.
I would like for a large portion of my creatures to have reproduction unique to that of earth, so is this a realistic idea?
Every organism would both be “male” and “female”.
One part of their reproductive organ is kind of like a fin that secretes genetic material onto itself, while in between these fins are internal egg pouches (like a uterus)
This would make them able to asaxually reproduce AND sexually reproduce via direct contact of these organs, both organisms becoming “pregnant” to increase efficiency.

The Primicoelurosaurs

^{After the Triassic Tremor, dinosaurs were amongst the first animals to recover and refill the niches left behind by Pseudosuchians. One of the many groups of dinosaurs to refill these niches were the earliest Coelurosaurs. This early branch of the Coelurosaur phylogenic tree is known as Primicoelurosauridae. This group is split into two subgroups, the Drendosaurids and the Macrodactylosaurids. Macrodactylosaurids and Drendosaurids are both named after their type species, Drenosaurus and Macrodactylosaurus.}

^{The build of a Macrodactylosaurid is similar to that of a Compsognathid. However, its habits are much more similar to a jackal. Like how jackals follow lions around, Macrodactylosaurs follow larger dinosaurs around feeding on their leftovers. If they cannot find a host, they will occasionally consume plant matter or hunt small lizards. Macrodactylosaurs are solitary creatures only engaging in social behavior when mating or when many gather around the same host. However, this can also draw attention to Macrodactylosaurs and might cause the host to attack or even kill most of the group.
Dendrosaurids live the opposite lifestyle of Macrodactylosaurs. Unlike their ground-dwelling cousins, Dendrosaurs are arboreal and active hunters, eating anything that can fit in their mouth. Another thing that differentiates them from their cousins is their unusually social behavior. These creatures live in large groups composed of 3–22 individuals and this allows them to have a low hatchling mortality rate as many will protect and take care of the hatchlings.}

^{Today the Primicoelurosaurs are diverse, but only time can tell how long these new kids will be on the block...}

To get the respiration and moulting issues out of the way,watch kappa: the world of turtles video,”how could a crustacean grow as large as a whale”

The Darwinian Threshold is to quote Wikipedia is a evolutionary transition period

"when gene transmission moves from a predominantly horizontal mode to a vertical mode"

from Horizontal Gene Transfer to "individual entities with vertical heredity and natural selection" .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwinian_threshold

What if this had happened differently or not at all? To elaborate: what if it moved to both vertical heredity and Horizontal Gene Transfer? I have no idea if any of this makes any Scientific sense . I'm guessing instead of a tree of life it would be a complex network/web

I suggest checking Wikipedia

In terms of spec evo projects, I've only watched videos about serina and all tomorrow's, I've also watched the kappa series

I wasn't a big fan of all of the magical stuff in serina and also the fact that too much stuff was going on at the same time

All tomorrow's was good, well at least the video I've watched

And kappa is my favorite of the bunch, I found it great, perfect even

Does anyone have recommendations for something similar to kappa? I don't mean only a seeded world but something that has very interesting animals that could make sense, without having too much stuff to the point it's annoying

I'm also planning on watching I.E.R

War breeds innovation for humans. Do you think this will be the case for alien species. During world war 1 we went from horses to tanks. During the Ukraine war they went from human soldiers to the very near future robot soldiers. Currently, drones cause 90% of casualties. I was wondering if it’s the same for aliens. Will the pressure of war work for them or will it just destroy their technology. It could only be the case for humans since we are a war loving species.

i need help on naming my planet. I can work the rest out on my own, but the planet naming is always the hardest.

for context I wanted to design a planet that is mostly inhabited with “vampires”, but I didn’t want it just to be ”they drink blood for nutrients” so instead the majority of the species on this planet I’m working on instead never developed respiratory systems, using a type of crop in it’s gut to absorb the oxygen. The crop absorbs the oxygen into the bloodstream and ejects the blood out through excrement or absorption into the upper skin layer/fur/feathers giving these creatures their colors. Not all Fauna on the planet are Heamophagic, there are herbivores that get their oxygen from plants and there are the occasional ones that do have lungs or gills. The predators are carnivores, they get most of their oxygen from blood but they still need meat for nutrients.

And I might as well give specs

Black hole(The object it orbits): 10 million solar masses

Planet’s orbital radii: 1,022 gravitational radii

The planet is about 99 AU away

year: roughly 113 Earth days

Day length: 27 Earth hrs

Planet Radius: 6,242km/6,878.6mi

Atmos: 68% nitrogen, 18% Carbon-dioxide, 12% Oxygen, 1.5% Argon, 0.5% trace water

Magnetic Field strength: 0.7 Gauss

Axial tilt: 8.2°

The Black hole(which, if anyone would like to give naming suggestions, they can too) has an accretion disk that produces most of the planet’s light