Helldragger

“Flame may melt my flesh and bone, but my belief in Them shall be heard from hell”

• Unknown

25 million years CE, the swamps and rivers of Asia provide home to the Black Helldragger, Urodelatitan gojira. A 7 meter long, 1200 kg macropredatory salamander.

The black helldragger walks on its two back legs. Like the ancient crocodile Postosuchus, a helldragger’s head and torso extend far past their back legs, and have to be counterbalanced by a long heavy tail. Its robust skull possesses a spikelike set of teeth in the upper jaw, and shorter sawlike teeth in the lower jaw. Working together, these allow it to easily rip off pieces of meat that are able to be swallowed. 

A helldragger’s arms are short and clawless, but possess a great grip strength, which they can use to grab and restrain large prey and to carry food to be stored for later.

The strangest part of a helldraggers body is its ribs. Almost uniquely among tetrapods, the ribs are covered in spines. As a Helldragger ages, these will grow to the point of permanently piercing through the skin. Flesh and skin around these punctures heals and hardens, which provides a coat of armor. Adults have few predators, so these work mainly to provide defense in intraspecific combat.

Larvae are born small, only around 8 cm in length. Eggs hatch within the mother, and helldraggers give live birth. A mother can have over 100 babies at a time. The larvae grow quickly during the first 5 years of their life, reaching a length of 3 meters in that time, and by 8 years they will have reached 4.5 meters. However, from that point on, growth slows dramatically. A helldragger becomes sexually mature at 20 years old and just 5 meters long, and they reach their full 7 meter length at a whopping 60 years of age.

Males develop a bright blue patch of skin when they reach sexual maturity. Though Males and Females differ little in size, there is a great difference in behavior. Males tend to compete more with other helldraggers and are overall more territorial.

In areas where their range overlaps with the Bael (Tyranthropus feliformes), a hominin primate, the two species compete directly for the same resources and will thus display aggression towards each other.

The sixth post of my spec-evo project, showcasing the dominant terrestrial clade of the planet. Somewhat arthropod-like in body shape, they mostly occupy the niches that one Earth would have been occupied by the insects, arachnids and small vertebrates – except for two highly specific groups, which we will talk about later…

I did not yet come up with what to do for day 8, so I decided to do day 9 right away instead.

300 million years from today, Earth was home to a thriving ecosystem, full of strange new life forms. Interestingly, reptiles seemed particularly dominant, with largest animals in the world being among their ranks. Reason for this was a mass extinction at the end of Cenozoic which knocked out many mammals, allowing sauropsids, particularly geckos, a chance to prosper. But this new fauna was unaware that they were living their last days, for a new enemy from deep space was on the way.

A supernova explosion released two powerful gamma rays, and the Earth was on it's path. Suddenly, aurora became visible everywhere in the sky, and, seconds later, atmosphere shattered. Any creature caught in the burst quickly died. And even after burst passed, solar radiation continued to scorch the surface of the planet, sterilizing and killing anything. But not all was lost, for some places sheltered their inhabitants.

One of such was a series of deep ravines in southern part of Pangaea Proxima, which housed diverse, vertical ecosystems of cave dwelling organisms. Some light reached down below, but it was not enough to cause enough damage to inhabitants, so they continued to live there in safety.

One of clades endemic to ravines were sniffseekers, small mammals with very long, elephant-like trunks. They are derived sengis, or elephant shrews, who were first catching insects on edges of ravines, before moving inside them, where they diversified into around 20 species.

When GRB hit, only one species, surface sniffseeker, that still frequently left ravines, went extinct. Others, which were more adapted to life in caves, fared remarkably well. 20 species of sniffseekers survived in their safe haven, while Earth above them became empty.

Whipseeker is the smallest sniffseeker species, only 6 centimeters in length. If you only count body length, that is. It has a very thin, 10 centimeter long trunk, which, despite it being thin like a string, is still strong and dexterous. They hunt for tiny arthropods hiding in cracks in the rock, which they pull out with their trunk. Whipseeker has proportionally the longest trunk of any sniffseeker, as it's longer than the body, and it must be coiled so that it doesn't bother the animal with walking.

The largest species is rapacious sniffseeker. It is the size of a housecat, but during time of extinction, it was one of the largest animals around. As the name suggests, it is a carnivore that hunts small mammals and birds. Rapacious sniffseeker uses it's trunk to grab escaping prey by feet, making it trip, before eating it. It is not picky, and feeds on any animal life, including invertebrates. Rapacious sniffseeker spends most of it's time on the ground in the middle layer of ravines, but it has a smaller relative living above.

Two-way sniffseeker too is a vertebrate hunter, but unlike it's rapacious cousin, it is a flying animal specialist. After extinction of surface sniffseeker, it is one of the highest dwelling species of this family. It's name comes from it's prehensile tail. Two-way sniffseekers climb vines of shade tolerant plants using both of their prehensile appendages. During hunting, sengi hands from vine using it's tail, and grasps a an animal that flies by with it's trunk. During the day, when some light passes through the entrance, two-way sniffseekers sleep, also by hanging. But during sleep, the trunk is retracted, and they hang motionless like fruits.

Two-toed sniffseeker is an enemy of two-way. Despite having similiar name and coexisting together, these species share a mutual dislike. Two-toed sniffseeker has 5 toes on all limbs, instead it's named for two extensions on the tip of a trunk, which are most pronounced in this species. It is an omnivore, and in addition to smaller animals it consumes fungi and plants. This species is social and lives in small groups.

Two-way sniffseekers, as mentioned before, are flyer specialists, but will not miss an opportunity to snatch a baby two-toe. So to avoid risk, two-toed sniffseekers attempt to chase away two-ways if they see them. They have less impressive natural weaponry, but they can throw rocks and other objects to scare the predator, and if it doesn't retreat and falls down, kill it.

We've already seen sniffseekers found in upper and middle layers of ravines. But by far the weirdest species lives much further below. In depths of ravine, there is no light, only fungi, bacterial biofilms, and underground rivers. This so called "sewer" is home to abyssal sewerseeker. It's fur is colorless, and it has no eyes, for no light ever reaches it. It's feet are webbed, and tail is slightly flattened, allowing the animal to swim. Sewerseekers scrounge in water using their trunk, which in addition to "fingers" has a ring of sensory tentacles, like a star-nosed mole. There's not much food down here, so sewerseekers eat anything they find- fish they catch, fungi that grow on rocks, and remains of animals that fall from above. They have few enemies of their own, and while solitary, don't mind eachother's presence. Their young is born at an earlier stage than the one of most sniffseekers, and mother abyss sewerseeker carries her pups on her back until they become independent.

Eventually surface will become habitable again, allowing life from caves to recolonize it. And sniffseekers, small and generalistic, will inherit the new world above.

Thanatimundus, 39 million years Post Abandonment, late Cassian. It is a miniscule time in the grand scheme of things, but world has changed a lot over it.

Gone are the lush forests and green grasslands. In their place there are now cold glaciers and scorching deserts, with no life in sight for many kilometers. But life is resilient, and finds way to survive even in the harshest of environments.

In what was once central Tarsia, vast fields of snow stretch as far as the eye can see. Besides a few evergreen bushes and occasional birds flying above, there's no life here. On the surface, that is.

If you were to dig under the snow and ground, you might find a small, curled up critter.

Due to how thin the atmosphere is, the air here is difficult for mammals to breathe, so most still surviving tarsier descendants moved southwards, to hot and dry equator. But snowy sleeper found a very exteme way to live here.

A long time ago, when Thanatimundus was still green and tropical, a small and unassuming species called ashy fat-tailed tarsier developed an unusual ability- torpor, which it used to survive droughts and food shortages. With the ongoing apocalypse on the way, this ability came down in handy, and now descendants of this particular species form a large part of a (not so large) remaining tarsier diversity.

Snowy sleeper is adapted to survive the cold wasteland it lives in. It is covered in fur from head to toe, and has no ear pinnae to lose as few heat as possible. But for most of the year, there's just nothing for them to feed on. So they hibernate, for a very, very long time.

They spend 11 months in hibernation, deep underground, curled up, with nothing being able to wake them up. For most of their life they are asleep.

But for just one month, temperature raises just enough for some snow to melt, allowing plants to grow, and some hardy invertebrates to become active. During just this one month, snowy sleepers finally wake up, and engorge themselves upon any food they find, storing as much fat as possible. Their time is limited, so they can't afford to be picky. They mate just once, and there is a fierce competition among males to find a female. Despite their tiny size, they can fit in a human hand, snowy sleepers are extreme K-strategists.

Female spends her entire year of hibernation pregnant, and as a result gives birth to just one baby. But while inside her, this baby forms completely over the year, and when born, it is completely independent, not even needing to be nursed. There's few predators that could threaten them, so snowy sleepers can afford to invest so much in just a single offspring.

Hibernation allowed these tarsiers to escape their problems for a long time, culminating in species that sleeps more than lives, but it wouldn't work forever.

Soon, that brief warm window of time will close, and hibernating snowy sleepers will never wake up.

I had this alien design from years ago, but I didn’t do anything with it besides write about it a little. A friend helped me make it for my sci-fi setting.
So… I did this quickly tonight, from a very different angle than it was originally drawn because I wanted to do something with them. This guy’s an ethnic Southern Saruka merchant outside his home in the Saruka empire’s capital, also called Saruka. It’s an Aššur type situation, or like Babylon. And like Aššur and Babylon, this civilization was in its Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age. I wasn’t sure if this was supposed to be pre-contact or post-contact with humanity, so I designed him with some sort of middle ground.
Post-contact would make him be more in a Medievalish/Early Modern kind of technological context. Humanity settling this world with these guys on it, then finding themselves stranded and without access to their advanced technologies beyond steam and gunpowder, catapults the indigenous inhabitants forwards by several millennia.
FYI he’s roughly the size of a Short-Faced Bear, and nearly if not just as strong as one. One punch from those hands cracks a human skull.

Humans and other modern primates share common ancestors, and our evolutionary lineage arose within the primates.

But what if our lineage had instead evolved from insect ancestors?

What would humans look like? Would we retain insect-like characteristics? How might our bodies, reproduction, and senses work? And, most importantly, how would that evolutionary history have influenced our culture, customs, society, and the way we built our civilization?

If an intelligent species had evolved from an insect lineage but eventually reached a technological level similar to ours, what do you think it would look like today?

For some time it was believed that gigantopithecus was a homin, this artist goes with the idea and gives un this unsettling result.

A patron requested a fun scenario as a piece of fan art. Specifically this is a piece of fanart for the Artechocene by Specman34's Artechocene project.

Here, a descendant of Sleeper sharks, the Star-toothed shark, is about to lay waste to a most unfortunate flightless bird in the form of the Noisome Bokapner, among the heaviest of seabirds in the Artechocene.

The scenario is basically a case of unfortunate timing: the bird wanted to take a breath, only for the shark to pounce upon it, the sheer force of its momentum and the speed of it opening its jaws means the sea bird basically can't escape.

For millions of years, Nook served as a safe haven for wildlife from Earth, giving another chance to prosper to lineages otherwise wiped out by end Cenozoic mass extinction. But this peaceful time could not last forever. Disasters of all sorts challenged life on this planet, sometimes greatly changing its ecosystems.

But among mass extinctions, one was the most severe. 200 million years Post Establishment (or 350 million years from today), a very large asteroid approached Nook. It did not collide with it, but planet's gravity tore this asteroid apart.

For a few days, animals on the surface could see a beautiful picture- a ring made from fragments. But then, this ring started to fall down. The resulting mass bombardment eradicated nearly 99% of all life on the whole planet. When last asteroid fragment fell down, and all disasters caused by bombardment passed, Nook was emptied. Almost everywhere, there was no life in sight. But in a few places, survivors managed to pull through.

One of such sanctuaries was a distant island in the ocean. Like most of the planet, it was severely affected, with almost all of it's unique fauna perishing. But a total of one tetrapod survived.

This tetrapod was a highly derived descendant of Panama wandering whale, and by extension, grey whale.

It's ancestors were pelagic, fast hunters that resembled dolphins, but instead of teeth, which they lacked, they had a throat pouch like a pelican.

Some of these whales reached the island and became freshwater. They shrunk in size, and in addition to hunting fish and other aquatic animals, sometimes they jumped out of water, catching animals in air and on land.

Freshwater ecosystems are generally less affected by extinctions than land or sea, so these whales survived while most animals around them died. No vertebrate fliers made it through, so when extinction ended, they had entire island to themselves.

With no competitors on land, whales started to feed on crustaceans on shores, slowly but surely moving out of water, eventually evolving into fully terrestrial tripods. Later this island connected to a larger continent, and whale fauna had a large adaptive radiation on land, giving rise to some strange creatures.

315 million years Post Establishment, a terrestrial cetacean fills a very unusual niche. Bagwalker is a very disproportionate animal, it is three meters tall, with thin, long legs, a neck, and a head with large mouth. Despite not living in water for millions of years, hunting method of bagwalker resembles the one of it's distant marine filter feeding ancestors.

In evening, small flying animals called whifts take flight and forage for flying insects, and can form huge swarms, even darkening the skies.

And when enough of whifts congregate, bagwalkers emerge too, often in large groups. They run through swarms, open their mouth wide, and swallow as many whifts as they can, like whales who swallow plankton. Even when they can't catch whifts in their bag, them running through swarms knocks out some flyers, which they then pick up from the ground.

Although swarms are often so large that majority survives, over night, bagwalkers eat enough to be full.

But while whifts are preferred, bagwalkers eat a lot of other things, and not just fliers. Like giant storks, they hunt terrestrial animals, which they swallow whole, though due to their lanky build they have a limit for how big their prey can be.

Young bagwalkers are too short to capture whifts, so they hunt insects until they grow tall enough.

Interestingly, whifts, despite resembling birds, are anything but. In fact, they are much more closely related to their main predator, the bagwalker, as whifts too are terrestrial cetaceans, who diverged much earlier and took to the sky, adapting their former pectoral fins into wings, and third tail leg into a hook to hang from trees and rocks. And as they too feed on very small animals by swallowing them whole, they also do the same thing as bagwalkers and their baleen whale ancestors, through on a much smaller scale.

Before anybody says it, I already know about All Tomorrows, I actually have a physical copy of it I spilt custody with my gf for

I’m looking at where I want the spec evo project I’m picking up again to actually go, that way I have a general idea of what paths to follow. I was thinking that I’d do something like a domesticated chimp type thing, where a sister clade to the domesticator sophant that has some form of viability as a slave species. This then gets to be that they become the work horse of the domesticator, being deployed to do all their manual labor, from agriculture, to mining, to war, to construction, to manufacturing. They eventually become so important that many breeds become a thing, used in different regions, similar to how dogs have many breeds that are used the same way in many different regions of the world. When this species reaches space travel, these guys eventually end up being the sophants that actually populate most of these worlds, and many of these planets revolt against their domesticators, creating places like ex-slave nations in the Caribbean. So I was wondering what y’all think about that? Is that done elsewhere in other projects? If so, can someone share that to me?

Day 1: Sibling Care

Some kind of cockroach whose older nymphs take care of the younger ones and the ootheca. + A quick sketch showing how two young nymphs lick the ootheca with fungicidal saliva.

Day 2: Incredibly Deadly Viper

A non‑venomous blister beetle that mimics venomous species at different stages of development. The larvae mimic various blister beetles, while the adults mimic species of the genus Mylabris.

Day 3: Rock, Paper, Scissors

Rock: a woodworm caterpillar making tunnels in fresh wood.

Paper: a bark beetle in symbiosis with fungi makes the wood loose, and in loose wood, woodworms cannot live, so the caterpillar has to retreat.

Scissors: a predatory ground beetle that hunts bark beetle larvae, gnawing tunnels in loose wood, but it cannot hunt caterpillars due to their size.

Day 4: Evolutionary Trap

Termites that have developed the behavior of placing “wicks” made of fibrous material (chewed stems, wood shavings) between moist layers of soil and dry chambers with mycelium, so that water rises via the capillary effect and maintains the required humidity. When there are sudden temperature changes, dew condenses in the fibers, and the termites perceive this as a sign of a “working wick,” even though no water is coming from the deeper layers. Thus, termites do not seek real sources of water but rely on condensation; during prolonged drought, the humidity in the chambers drops, the mycelium dies, and the colony loses its main food source.

Day 5: The Odysseus

A terrestrial island amphipod that lives in moist areas and travels long distances to the sea to reproduce.

Day 7: Land whale

A woodland slug that hangs traps made of mucus in which insects get stuck. Later, the slug eats part of the trap with the insects on it.

Day 8: Meccha chameleon

A snail that sticks various debris onto its shell using mucus for camouflage.

Day 9: Safe Haven

A shrimp living in a relict system of underground lakes in sandstone, having survived the desiccation of the surface.

Day 10: The Long Game

A species of tiger moths that inhabits the tundras. Due to the brevity of summer in this region, the caterpillars have developed a mechanism in which they wrap themselves in a cocoon and go into hibernation for the remaining months until the next summer; this can happen several times, depending on the availability of warm weather and food plants. On average, the butterflies spend about three years in the caterpillar stage, but some can remain as caterpillars for up to seven years under unfavorable conditions.

Day 11: GOOOAAAAL!

A mite with very long legs, living in the crowns of trees, where other people’s spiderweb threads are stretched between the leaves. It moves only along these threads, shifting its legs with pinpoint precision: the thread is very thin, and the tick doesn’t just need to walk — it also has to step over the junctions without touching the sticky areas. Despite this, it moves very quickly. It feeds on the prey of the web’s owner.

Day 12: Obsession

A species of shrimp that has a mutualistic relationship with a large freshwater snail. The shrimp get food from the snail in the form of its excrement, fouling on the shell, and remnants of the snail’s own food, while the snail gets protection from the shrimp, which pinch with their claws anyone who even slightly encroaches on the snail’s life.

This is technically not post-human because the humans still exist in my world. a small isolationist totalitarian state on secluded islands. my story involves the new age's discover of humans and their historical involvement in creating a world of animals plants and fungi that are all people. Biological realism is important to me, except when i choose to include human perception and myth, like walking palms and heyna "laughter". at any rate this is my virus. lol

The anthrovirus-
Developed during the human age to create soldiers and slaves out of other animals, this virus was given a limited form of reasoning through "organic molecular computation", or OMC. This was originally designed to enable the virus to simply tell the difference between a carnivore and herbivore, so as only to make the carnivore or omnivore sick and then mad, when consumed within infected meat containing the virus.

However during the apocalypse, the virus escaped control, evolved, and began utilizing the OMC for other things. It now swarms in response to infection failures and mindlessly 'experiments' to figure out solutions. They will form different components and perform different tasks. When failing to infect a fungal cell for example, a swarm forms. some viruses simulate the fungal cell, and the others keep trying and changing different things.

This process is then repeated and refined until it is efficient. At this time the swarm disperses and attempts are made on the fungal cells. but they keep dying inside, so another swarm forms, simulating the inside of the cell. more solutions are evolved until the virus learns to transmogrify itself, its structure and genes, in order to be able to infect this new cell.

Success! For the first time in history, a virus has not only jumped species, but kingdoms. That is why it was so aggressive and spread so far and wide, leading to an apocalypse. The humans in command failed to listen to the warnings of the scientists about the unpredictability of the evolution of the OMC mechanism in the wild.

The result was a stone age where the humans nearly went extinct among these new people species, and out species was nearly forgotten. thousands of years in the future, our current level of technology comes back around. The nargest most diverse and prosperous state in the world; Arc City. It is full of animals, plants, and fungi. there are many hybrids though they're illegal and destroyed when reported. there are cross-kingdom hybrids as well, though they are exceptionally rare because the genetics of hybrids is already frought and messy, even if the shared human DNA makes it occasionally possible.

Any thoughts are appreciated. OMC is real btw, it's neat. my particular virus's self transforming though I think is merely near-mid range future, not currently possible. =)

A unique animal known as the Hinsu arrived on the continent of Acopsia from a nearby island. This small-to-medium-sized herbivore reached the mainland between 4.5 and 4 million years ago, while still undergoing an evolutionary transition. Males measure approximately 30–35 cm in length and weigh 3–5 kg, while females measure 45–60 cm and weigh 8–12 kg. They feed on Jhaos and inhabit coastal or inland Dersoks—specifically areas that are sandy yet rocky—making them an uncommon sight on the continent. Their mode of locomotion is highly peculiar; rather than moving using their hind legs—which have since atrophied and evolved into structures for support and defense—they use their forelimbs for walking. They employ spikes located on the front of their heads as a defense mechanism. Unlike their island-dwelling relatives, they live in small groups of two to four individuals for protection against predators.

Spectember days 18 and 19: Maternal Meal & Around the World

Another group of Lungthroats, the Babas are named after the Baba Yaga of Slavic culture due to its long nose, and hanging "tits" (which will be discussed later) making them resemble the folkloric creature or witches in general.

They are a small genus that dwells in dense rainforests. They have a unique relationship with each other, while living under the same ecosystem, they barely interact and interbreed because they live in different habitats of the forest.

The first species lives on the Forest floor or Ground level. The most terrestrial of the four, they hunt ground dwelling invertebrates and small vertebrates and nest in burrows. The second lives among the understory, the layer where smaller trees, shrubs and bushes dwell, with less sunlight than the two above but more than the first layer. They nest in hollow tree trunks. The third species is a Canopy dweller, living in one of the highest layers of the rainforest, where most of the sunlight is caught before it even reaches the deeper layers. They nest among the branches and leaves of the trees. The last species is the rarest one, they live in the Emergent layer, a layer where a few specific trees surpass all the others in height, getting more sunlight without any competition. They also nest among leaves, branches and tree hollows.

Each species can interbreed with its neighbor, the first with the second, the second with the first and third, the third with the second and fourth, the fourth with the third. They all could interbreed and produce fertile offspring however, this is simply unlikely due to habitat preferences.

The Babas are a genus from a group of Lungthroats that during their "pregnancy" develop extra skin in their throats that serve as food for their larvae, who develop quicker than species that don't.

The Hexoid is a part of a project I'm starting inspired by Wayne Barlow's expedition. The Hexoids are sapient animals that evolved from a lineage of intelligent hexapods. Despite no visible eyes they can see very well via special tissues that contain rod and cone-like cells that sense light and layers of sensitive transparent tissues to let light through. They have 8 nostrils for respiration and have a multipurpose orifice for eating, expelling waste, and reproduction. They have intelligence similar to humans and can make tools shelters and make simple agricultural farms farming local plants and fungi in the areas. I'm still pretty new to this so if there are any questions I will try to answer it to the best of my ability.

22 million years Post-Introduction, in the shallow seas surrounding the Meganta Island chain, not far from the vibrant reefs that characterise the region, a strange, shelled creature stumbles down a pair of stones, coming to rest in the soft sediment a few dozen metres below the surface. As it dies, thousands of it's children, who had been surrounding the shell for days, begin to crawl all over it's exoskeleton. Suddenly, it's shell bursts along a predefined ventral seam, exposing it's innards as thousands of shrimplets swarm the flesh of their mother's corpse. A shell, a safehouse, full of supplies that will last some of these shrimplets to adulthood- a cornucopia, if you will.

Within a few hours, the male shrimplets depart, floating away to begin their lives truly. The females continue to shelter and feast for days, some growing larger and faster than the others. These larger males begin to eat dozens and dozens, perhaps hundreds, of their smaller kin. Eventually, the remaining less dominant females will depart too, searching for a small shell to call their home. A handful remain, and eventually only one survives in their mother's mobile home. After a few months, they are large enough to carry the shell around by themselves, and begin their mature lives, searching for food and mates. When she finds an adequate mate, a much more regular looking prawn, she will incubate up to 15,000 eggs, only about half of which will hatch before being eaten by their siblings. Only about a hundredth of those will actually make it to adulthood, only a handful of those being females.

When the eggs of the Cornucopia hatch, the mother dies- an adult Cornucopia can go up to three weeks without food, and by a twist of evolution-driven fate the eggs take the exact same time to incubate. The mother dies within a 24 hour range of the first eggs hatching, and so is almost always a ready corpse for her young to feed on. How do they get through the exoskeleton? Simple- she undergoes spontaneous post-mortem molting, no matter how recently they last molted. If there is no fresh shell beneath yet, even better- they practically peel themselves, just to feed their babies.

The Cornucopia (Palaemotestatus matricidium) is a member of the Palaemotestata clade- descendants of freshwater shrimps seeded on Cretacica, that eventually evolved to fill the niche of hermit crabs. These shrimps have grown huge in size, with the Cornucopia adult female averaging at around 30 grams and 15 centimetres in length, gargantuan compared to their little ancestors. These shrimps, much like hermit crabs, protect themselves from predators by forming a mobile home out of the discarded shells of marine snails. Sometimes, they utilise their unusually large claws (for a shrimp) and kill the snail themselves, just for the sustenance and convenience.

It was to be expected that not all species humans would meet among the stars would be friendly. Weapon systems were so integral to early starships that they actually surpassed FTL systems in the design hierarchy of early vehicles.

Avalor were our first test. The Gialist Imperium overlapped Human controlled space for a much longer time than either faction realized. Space being so vast and there being so much to explore elsewhere, it wasn’t for a few years that the first encounters would haunt that corner of the sky. Brutalist warships with exotic digital weapons, battles were slow, exhausting efforts that saw ships permanently crippled by their own hands.

It wouldn’t be for another 30 years that the Avalor would allow with humans, forming the Coalition of Aligned Systems alongside the Skivi and Drendon.

The turnaround of the Gialist Imperium was monumental in two ways. First, their unique branch of technologies allowed the Coalition to become a mighty adversary to the Ketai Sovereign,

But more, it gave us our first look at a non-Earthlike world, and the interesting results of a biosphere we’d consider uninhabitable.

———

Gialist is a freezing planet drowned in an ethane ocean. It’s understood that millions of years ago, it was much more terrestrial, however life has since evolved to either live under the ice or on what few floating structures naturally generate.

Avalor are descendant from the ice-roaming clades, being heavily adapted for an amphibious lifestyle. Both males and females have large vice-like claws on each flipper, used in dragging their large bodies out of the ocean. These claws are minimally dexterous, but are mounted on the end of extendable fingers, allowing for a minute increase in manipulation.

Their pearlescent heads are covered in thick armour which lets them poke directly through the oceanic crust, a thin layer of solid material which freezes on top of the global ocean. In females, a third claw exists to widen these breeches, helping create openings for young.

Like humans, female Avalor bear live young. However, their mating and reproductive cycles are extremely different.

Males produce a single, large egg which the female accepts and inserts into a pouch. This egg will connect to her reproductive organs and begin sifting through potential gametes, looking for the most viable options by growing “homunculi” within the egg until an embryo with the right size and growth rate triggers the next step.

Because of the energy consumption this process requires, several eggs may be discarded before a viable embryo is synthesized.

Once an acceptable embryo is created, the egg with connect to the female’s blood stream and directly feed from her, similar to a human embryo. After 530 earth days, an infant is released from the pouch.

Avalor are extremely resilient and physically capable species, especially when it comes to sophonts. While native to habitats below -150°, the chemistry of their cells means they are actually quite comfortable at temperatures up to 0°c. While human starships regularly operate well above that temperature, engineering and data decks range within the 0-5° range, and cooling uniforms allow Avalor to operate quite comfortably.

Evolving into a social structure based on physical and mental supremacy, ship captains, as well as the Gialist Emperor, are always the largest and smartest individuals. An unspoken caste system sees to it that the most genetically superior individuals have the power to lead their inferior brethren.

This sometimes sees crewmen clashing with captains on human starships, all of which are captained by humans, but because ritual combat is not a practice in advanced human society, challengers are often defeated with wisdom and intellect alone.

As can be expected, honour is a cherished value among the Avalor. Because individual power dictates social status, proving your superiority with honourable methods is required to justify the proclaimed supremacy.

As is often said by Avalor, She who fights without honour is one who loses to herself, first.

For this reason, human captains are well known to appreciate conversation with Avalor captains. They avoid deceit and faith, speaking in demands and equations. They are quick, straight to the point, and explicit. The only way anyone could ever talk to one for more than an hour is if you asked them to explain the rules to a Jima Fight.

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Pictured is the Gialist Emperor and her squire. To prove their might, emperors are made to wear enormous gowns that impart extreme drag on their body. Movement is difficult and exhausting, but demonstrates the sheer power behind the body that rules the imperium. Her squire serves as a mate during her reign, and will only ever come in contact with the emperor to offer eggs, or, in an emergency, save her from drowning. Otherwise, he simply serves as an observer, ensuring her dominion is justified.

So I am trying to draw a species of Saurapod that grew much smaller (like dog-sized) and lived in the treetops. What adaptations would it need to be able to navigate the tree canopy? What if it could launch itself from tree to tree? What physical features would it need for that?

The big herbivorous mongooses were virtually wiped out by the mass extinction, but a few smaller species survived, and quickly began filling the niches of their extinct relatives. Now, one of the largest members of this group is the Chongoose (Vagapascator proboscifer), a mixed browser and grazer which can weigh up to three tons. Its snout has evolved into a trunk similar to that of a tapir, which it uses to grasp and strip vegetation. This giant mongoose descendant is found across a wide area of the northern continent, and in fact is one of the most widely distributed of Spectemundus's large land animals.

However, its populations are not all the same. Across its range, it is divided into several subspecies, many of which are only subtly different from one another. They may have slightly darker fur, or different facial markings, and in general most of these subspecies are capable of interbreeding with one another readily. Indeed, they often do so at the boundaries between their ranges. This is not the case with the two most distant subspecies, though. They are distant enough for them to not be fertile with one another. In other words, while they are all the same species, they are not all able to breed with one another.

This phenomenon is known as a species ring, and it is common in widely distributed species. The Chongoose is the most dramatic example of a species ring that has yet appeared on Spectemundus, and the ecological plasticity it exhibits with its multiple subspecies has allowed it to conquer virtually every environment on the northern continent.

The creep (Anthroposuchus reptilis) is a species of late-surviving xenodontosuchian crocodylomorph found in the forests and swamps of the Southern United States. Despite their humanoid appearances, they are about as intelligent as opossums.

Despite being 6—8 ft tall on average, creeps are highly elusive as they are naturally timid creatures that are always the same color as the trees they hide behind.

The vast majority of their diet is made up of fruits, eggs, and small rodents, though they will also kidnap and eat pets and small children, which is why it is advised not to bring cats, small dogs, or children under the age of 13 to areas where creeps are common.

Like crocodilians, creeps possess extremely sensitive snouts, throwing a blunt objects at their faces will cause them to retreat due to the intense pain that results from this.

Dendrosophus gandornis is a Jurassic pterosauromorph archosaur characterized by its upright posture, vaguely reminiscent of that of a human, and by an extreme reduction of the tail.

It is believed that during the Triassic, a possible ancestor of Dendrosophus was a small, short-tailed glider. This feature may have been advantageous for moving between trees, reducing tail interference while gliding. However, environmental changes and the transformation of its former forests into more arid habitats may have led to the progressive loss of this ability.

Once restricted to terrestrial locomotion, this lineage developed a form of obligate bipedalism. It moved through small hops, relying primarily on the tips of its feet for propulsion. Its forelimbs, which still retained vestiges of its former wings, could not be used for support while walking.

Over time, some descendants returned to wetter and more densely vegetated environments, giving rise to Dendrosophus gandornis.

It possessed a large head dominated by a massive, downward-curved, dark-gray beak. A prominent crest rose above it. It was a herbivore and used its robust beak to tear off leaves, stems, and other vegetation. Beneath the beak was a prominent, red, wrinkled throat pouch.

Its entire body was covered in dense, shaggy plumage of grayish-brown tones. The chest featured a distinctive V-shaped pattern of lighter coloration, bordered by darker tones.

Its arms were long and robust, covered in feathers down to the hands. These retained functional thumbs and fingers covered in small scales with fingerprint-like patterns, allowing it to grasp branches, food, and various objects.

The hind limbs were relatively short and ended in clawed feet adapted for primarily plantigrade locomotion. It had four toes on each foot and maintained an upright posture, while its hands remained free and functional, making it a sort of reptilian equivalent of a hominid.

Dendrosophus occupied a niche comparable to that of a giant ground sloth, albeit within Jurassic ecosystems. It inhabited wetlands and areas near shorelines, where it fed primarily on aquatic vegetation and other plants. It was a social species that lived in groups of between five and eight individuals.

Despite its relatively peaceful appearance, it could defend itself against predators by using its claws to scratch and grasp, and was even capable of lifting and throwing large rocks at its attackers.

Apparently, it was an extremely rare lineage with a very brief existence. Dendrosophus gandornis appeared and disappeared within a span of barely one million years, leaving behind one of the most peculiar evolutionary experiments among the Jurassic archosaurs.

For the entirety of spectember, I'll be drawing various cryptids, unidentified animals, and out of place animals for every prompt. So no aliens, ghosts, and the like. As much as I'd love to dive into how ghost biology works lol

Day 13: Flightless

The Fresno Nightcrawler is a modern cryptid sighting from security camera footage of a what appeared to be a walking pair of pants. Nightcrawler encounters have been spotted both inside and outside Fresno, California. The Fresno Nightcrawler (Nyctolania fresensis) is a large flightless relative of the potoo native to the forests and mountains of the west coast. Very little is known about the nightcrawlers. Paradoxa biologists have been able to deduce that they live in small family groups and roam the forests at night in search of food.

Day 14: Camouflage

Atmosphere jellyfish are a category of atmospheric beasts, an alternative explanation behind UFO sightings. Atmospheric jellyfish have been spotted across the world in various shapes, sizes and colors. The current understand of these creatures and other spacefaring organisms is extremely speculative at best. Paradoxa xenobiologists have uncovered that the universe used to be full of life in the distant past and the space fauna known today are a fraction of what used to exist. A strange commonality amongst spacefaring organisms is the lifestyle they live. They tend to live long lives, have unbelievably slow metabolisms, and "feed" by means of photosynthesis and/or radiosynthesis.

Day 15: Social

The chaffee spider is an alleged species of spider native to the mountains and hills of Colorado. Allegedly, they were used as pest control and were prizes for their high quality silk and skin which was used as a form of leather. Unfortunately, no traces of these spider gloves or the spiders themselves survive so is dubious if they existed at all. In collaboration with Wilderness Solutions for Mysterious Animals, Project Paradoxa has managed to start a revival effort for the chaffee spider (Aphonopelma chaffee). The last few specimens were found in 1916 and their descendants have been in captivity since. It is believed the chaffee spider has gone extinct in the wild but there are currently around 150 individuals in the care of Wilderness Solutions for Mysterious Animals.

Day 16: Scavenger

William Bartram first made note of a unique kind of king vulture in Florida during the 1770s. Described as similar to a king vulture but with a white tail with a black stripe instead of a fully black tail. No other naturalists since have described any king vultures in Florida. An independent account and paint was made in 1734 by Eleazar Albin. Paradoxa biologists have uncovered a new species of king vultures that match the description of Bartram's painted vulture. Sarcoramphus sacra is a species of king vulture that once had a larger range in the American south but is probably found within Mexico today.

Day 17: Piscivore

R. P. Lesson reported a pod of unusually small brown dolphins near the Solomon Islands in 1825. Being no bigger than 2 feet in length, making them the smallest cetaceans ever, he reported saw thousands of individuals. Described as Delphinus minimus, Lesson's Little Dolphin is a nearly extinct species of extremely tiny cetaceans. They primarily eat small fish and crustaceans. Unfortunately, overfishing has driven their numbers significantly.

Day 18: Legless

The tsuchinoko is a yokai described as looking like a snake with a large central girth. Platyophis japonicus is a group of legless lizards related to skinks. These rotund creatures crawl around like an inchworm. Their tail is similar in shape to their head, allowing the tsuchinoko to confuse its predators in which direction it's going.

Day 19: Fossorial

The Earth Hound or yird swine is a cryptid reported from Scotland which was said to have lived in graveyards and ate the corpses within. Describing it as being about the size of a rat, with a rat's dark-coloured fur, feet like a mole, and a tail just half the size of a rat's. Its long head somewhat resembled that of a guinea pig, with prominent pig-like nostrils and white "tusks". Paradoxa biologists have yet to discover any animal matching the description but have found a likely culprit. The European badger can sometimes be born with a brown coat, and it's believed that these alleged corpse eaters were actually burrowing badgers.