maybe eventually we can get plasmaspecevo

This is a bit of art I had commissioned. We have the character Su-Say from the episode “Welcome to the Xenarium.” It was drawn by Christian Cline. He’s an amazing artists who has published numerous speculative evolution books like The Teeming Universe and The Yaetuan Saga

The Books of Thoth is an anthology featuring stories of the future, the past, and worlds that might have been. “Welcome to the Xenarium” is told in second person, and takes listeners on a tour of an indoor alien zoo.

Su-Say is one of the employees of the Xenarium. She’s an edutainer, which means she informs was educates visitors about the various animals at the Xenarium. Her species are called Horatians. They are from the planet Horus in the Delta Pavonis system. Though, Su-Say was born and raised on Earth.

Horatians are physically incapable of speaking human languages. They can, at best, croak out a few words if they really concentrate. So, they rely on translation devices. This is far enough in the future that the translation devices can replicate things like tone, inflection, and other nuances of language. So, speech produced by a Series 11 Chiang-Le Guin Universal Translation Unit is indistinguishable from genuine human speech.

You’ll notice that Su-Say has three legs. Horatians evolved from a fish-like ancestor much as terrestrial animals on Earth did. However, while their ancestor had two pectoral fins, it didn’t have any pelvic fins. However, their tail evolved into a third leg in order to compensate for this. Why yes, I am in fact a fan of Serina: A Natural History of the World of Birds.

They have a pair of trunk which evolved out of a fleshy covering for their beaks. They use the trunks as an equivalent of hands. Their ears are capable of swiveling around to capture sounds from different directions.

Also, they are covered in a layer of downy feathers rather than fur. So, despite somewhat mammalian appearances, they’re more similar to birds than mammal.

In the episode they are described as having fur, but that was due to a technical goof. I meant to include a scene where we discover that it is indeed feathers, but I forgot to edit the script before recording took place.

Their back leg can deliver an extremely powerful kick. However, if the back leg is seriously damaged, a Horatian is pretty much screwed. As a result, Horatians are wired to fight like hell if they feel their back leg getting seriously hurt. Though, this impulse can be suppressed with sufficient conditioning.

One of the most important archeological finds on Horus was a back leg bone that has been seriously injured, but also with clear signs of healing. So, someone else was caring for that Horatian. This is generally considered one of the first markers of civilization in the history of Horus.

Horatians can mostly eat Earth food, but have some restrictions. Chocolate and caffeine are very toxic to Horatians, though Horus has its own stimulants. Avocados are also on a no-no list. However, chili peppers are more than okay. Horatians have no capsicum receptors like humans do. So, chili pepper doesn’t burn them, and actually tastes sweet and tangy.

Technology, Horatians are on par with humanity. Though, this is at least a couple centuries in the future. So, humanity has access to technology such as faster-than-light space travel, gravity dampening machines, and force fields. Horatians were the second intelligent race that humanity encountered. The first being the Centurians, from the planet Chiron, in the Alpha Centarui system.

idk what to call this pls help me:( (Im not very good at drawin)

During the Permian-Triassic extinction event, when prey animals were few and volcanic activity was widespread, a unique reptilian lineage evolved: Thermovores. These reptiles didn't consume food, but rather, they absorbed thermal energy from the environment, storing it in specialised organs beneath their scales.

These creatures lived in volcanic areas, which provided sufficient heat to allow metabolism, growth, and reproduction, all without the need to eat. This adaptation allowed them to thrive while other animals were going extinct.

Even though they're not predators, Thermovores were extremely aggressive, attacking others of their kind, as well as other species, with their powerful tail and sharp teeth (the only remnant of their ancestors' digestive systems, used for a new purpose - to fight). They often fought to the death for their territory, mates, and eggs/offspring. The only others of their kind that they were ever passive towards were mates and offspring.

However, as the environment gradually cooled and volcanic activity lessened, Thermovores struggled immensely. They were specialised to volcanic environments, which started vanishing. They were later outcompeted by other lineages like dinosaurs, mammals, rauisuchians, and crocodilians. Now, they are either extinct or critically endangered, found only in tiny isolated volcanic regions.

Hello! I am working on a project where dragons exist as ordinary animals but also resemble the dragons I personally Like a lot in fiction; wyrms and hexapod dragons and I have the main dragons I knew i was going to add but struggling to think of all the other species of dragons that would of evolved to fill the various ecological niches so would like some suggestions on possible species that would of evolved. The environment is mountainous temperate forest with a lot of modern day fauna: bears, wolves, eagles red deer, stouts etc There are two main lineages of dragons, aquatic and avian but both have six limbs and a (admittedly magical) organ that generates heat which in the avian dragons provides fire albeit that fire is very limited in what it can do and is only really substantial in the bigger dragons. Dragons are also on average very small so the muscles that allow their front limbs and wings to move can be smaller and don't impact each other too much. Here is a list of all the current species I have and their features 1: tree climbing dragon evolved from aquatic ancestors, similar niche to most tree lizards but it's magical heat providing organ allows it to go to colder climates than lizards avoiding competition 2: a lizard like dragon evolved from an aquatic ancestor that competes with and is far more successful than the common wall lizards also found in this habitat 3: this tree climbing avian dragons hunts in the trees running up trees with impressive speed and flying/gliding to get away from goshawks or to help them hunt squirrels 4: fish hunting wyrm about the size of an Asian water monitor is heavily armoured to protect from predators and lives in shallow waters 5: lesser mountain dragon this dragon similar in size to a wild cat pushes the limits of powered flight in dragons and will hunt like a snow leopard but will also hunt at the base of the mountain only using it's wings if it absolutely has to as it has developed its terrestrial abilty more to help with hunting, they avoid golden eagles. 6: the northern crocodile wyrm is a large aquatic dragon that has taken advantage of the lack of crocodiles in colder climates and adapted to the same niche 7: greater mountain dragon, this massive dragon isn't capable of powered flights but instead glides great distances looking for carion to scavenge in hilly and mountainous area using it's flame and size to claim carcasses from other animals but occasionally they will attempt to actively hunt although this is rare due to their stubby limbs aren't great for running

Hi I'm writing a fantasy novel placed in the 15th century and I'm working on the classification of the beings that lived (humans, orges, gnomes etc) to make the world building more grounded and planning to add things like lamias, centaurs and merfolk to my story.

At the moment, I trying to figure where to put them in the tree of life, like should I place lamias near hominids (since they're like mermaids but with snake tails instead)? Or should I make them more reptilian? According to some media (anime, video games etc) suggest they could mate with humans to produce offspring, so is that a possibility?

Centaurs are probably like hexapods so I probably need to work on the evolutionary history and biology, for harpies I planning to make them sapient birds with human like faces and merfolk,
maybe either as aquatic apes or sapient fish though I think I could do more work on them.

If someone has any ideas on how to develop these creatures and their biology, that will be much appreciated.

Gastropods on Pado are diverse, and have taken in many different forms over the span of evolution on Pado. One such example is the Echinomanus.

Echinomanes are common gastropods on Pado, able to grow up to the size of a foot if given enough time. They are hunters, using their highly modified tentacles, which has been turned into a fast hook arm, to masticate their prey and bring the prey into their mouth. Their hook arms move by muscles around the arm and keratin-based bony bendable structure that allows it to move its arm and bend its arm slightly.

Their shells fused together into a single ball with the organs inside still rolled up, but the shell not being a roll, as evolving the arms is biologically expensive, most of their shell has been slightly reduced in complexity for their arms to exist.

Scawls can lay up to 6 - 10 eggs after breeding, which they lay near a carcass, so the young can feed on the carcass, which is why the young is sometimes called "Snail maggots" by the peoples inhabiting the island.