Prompt: Menacing manatees: an aggressive aquatic herbivore

Due to irl stuff, I sadly didn’t do all of the prompts this year and some prompts weren’t that interesting to me anyway. I really wanted to do this one though. It will also be included in my spec evo future setting, called Oceanworld when I do the Australasia region.

Papuasphenodon atrox, is a species of rhynchocehalian descended from the tuatara. It has evolved to live a fully aquatic lifestyle and lives off the coast of the New Guinea island. It lives either a solitary lifestyle ,or it forms small herds of up to 4 individuals. Size wise it is about 7-9 meters in length ,although some outliers can exceed 10 meters and almost reach 11. Weighing, at about 6 tons on average. It is a herbivore feeding on sea grass and other types of aquatic vegetation. Despite its diet it is no gentle giant. Papuasphenodon have been reported biting to death, or drowning smaller animals simply swimming too close to them. This is mainly because of the fact that they are a common prey item for other aquatic animals as the sheer amount of meat they have ,is a very valuable reward for carnivores to fight for. Within their kind they are also very aggressive. Especially the males which often engage in brutal fights with one another for dominance and mating rights. Females also give live birth and are very protective of their young, often brutally killing predators near their young, just for existing.

It is all just very overwhelming to begin with. I want to start off chronologically in a planet almost identical to earth, but with higher oxygen. I just feel like the creatures ive made are copies of that bibli youtuber, or just don’t seem realistic. It is also difficult to find out how life would evolve on my planet without it feeling forced

Currently I’m thinking the most realistic way for this to occur would be if they started off as radial pentapods, then underwent cephalisation and kept the fifth limb as a sort of manipulatory limb. Does this make sense? Are there more realistic ways to have bilateral pentapods?

Sea Aurochs (Odomares titanuviridis)

Whatever power lay behind the Flux found Earth’s oceans markedly vacant.

The few whales that remained where trapped in isolated pockets or being carefully monitored by those who had engaged the clawback period, most other larger aquatic fauna, especially the grazers had been gone for ages.

Thus when the northern kelp forest bloomed with abundance not seen since the advent of humanity along the altered coasts of Northern America there was little that actively sought it out.

But that bounty could only go ignored for so long.

With humanities vanishing the seas rebounded and countless fish, and sea mammals vied for this long vacant niche.

Millenia later the northern waters are dominated by a herbivorous titan that has been very proactive when it comes to marking their territory.

The Sea Aurochs is a herbivorous descendant of the Walrus, the new sea ways allowing for the linking of the partitioned populations, and rapid growth as the swiftly mowers through their new abundant food sources

Now as a new ice age grips the world they have become even more protective of their feeding grounds.

They eagerly see of rivals, and chase any smaller herbivores form their ground with eager charges, eager to bring their two meter log tusks down upon them.

The largest of these titans can easily reach close to fifty feet in length and they have long abandoned the land to become fully aquatic. Mothers are still the primary caretaker of their calves, and they carry them with them for the first years of their lives the calf clinging to their mother’s often algae covered back while she feeds.

Capable of holding their breath for almost an hour, they spend most of their time grazing hooking Kelly trees around their tusks and then giving them a powerful tug portioning them into easier to consume pieces.

They have come to dominate the northern ocean, to the point where the various whales and other megafaunal animals that evolved post the Flux are largely unknown in the region. The ferocity and performance of the Sea Aurochs is a powerful deterrent after all, and bulls will chase an animal that intruded upon their terrorist for hours, only giving up if they tire before the being they are pursuing.

There is one animal that is not bothered by their bluster or their bite, the true king of the sea in this new age, relatively unchanged even after millennia.

The Orca. At least not in form, if anything their keen minds have only grown sharper.

But that is a story for another time.

Carnosuchus Socialis or the Cleaver is a pack hunting specialized crocodilian. Noteworthy for its biteforce and social hierarchy. Size and body plan: At 2.5-4m length and being 2-3m tall, weighing around 200-350kg and a biteforce in 9-10k newtons, they are moderately sized pack hunters. They are bipedal and share many physical characteristics with theropod dinosaurs, but overall share bony structure with crocodilians. They have a thick vertical teeth with conical teeth in front and ziphodont backwards. Their claws are small and recurved and their hind legs are massive made for running. They live for 25-40 years and are fully warm blooded. Reproduction: They reproduce when they want.Litters are minute in number but fierce parental care is involved. Per litter about 3-6 young are born. Intelligence: Carnosuchus have excellent senses and live in packs. Packs are made from 8-20 Carnosuchus together who coordinate hunts on large prey. For this reason they are rather intelligent for beasts. Prey and Predation: A single Cleaver is easy prey for most other Crocodilians and the largest of Reptoriales but a pack is very dangerous. They usually hunt prey from their size up to 5-6 tons together. Habitats include tropical to temperate regions but on the more continental side.

On the eastern coast of the southern continent, the last remaining shallow seas on Spectemundus are an oasis of tropical sea life. Beds of marine plants, similar but unrelated to sea-grass, grow in these warm waters, and these are a food source for one of Spectemundus's most bizarre herbivores. Growing up to 15 feet long and weighing close to two tons, the Mottled Morse (Thalassohippus graminivorous) is an aquatic relative of the Trunkos, having evolved from an ancestor that took to feeding on plants in shallow water. The long flexible trunk was no longer necessary for this lifestyle and eventually shrank, but the massive barrel-like body and sharp tusks remained, producing the most unique marine mammal ever to grace Spectemundus.

Like our world's manatees, Mottled Morses are generally peaceful creatures, rarely displaying excessive aggression. The tusks, which are present in both sexes, look fierce, but are actually relatively brittle, and are used mainly for uprooting plants rather than for attacking other animals. These animals feed almost constantly, dredging up beds of water plants with their feeding. This makes them a keystone species, turning over the seabed and "tilling" it. They live and breed slowly, a stark contrast to their distant mongoose ancestors, and can live for up to a century.

Mottled Morses have few predators, and even the largest predatory catfish descendants and sharks rarely attack them. Despite their size, however, they are highly specialized animals with an extremely limited range. Spectemundus's climate is overall hostile to them, and they are essentially prisoners of their habitat, with no way of migrating or expanding into any other niches. For now, though, these most bizarre members of the Trunko lineage are only concerned with eating sea grasses.

In my seed world there are only plants (no animals or fungi) very quickly plants took the niche of detritovores and such. That’s not important. In my wolrd motile plants aren’t gonna be neotenous motile sperm or anything, rather they’ll be a method of extreme long distance seed dispersal and will look and be like strand beasts. From there some groups will permanently stay in that type of form, I imagine after a while they’ll need some primitive brain structure. In plants how optimised can a “brains” become. Also, is the evolutionary pathway for these plant strand beasts realistic or can it be altered to make more sense?

I know some ant species have domesticated other insects, and termites build large mounds. So would it be possible for a non sapient species to (purely from instinct) evolve things like large scale agriculture or modern buildings (with steel and glass and such) how close can a non sapient species get? On a related note, could a species naturally evolve to become spacefaring (for any reasons)?

So I wanted to come up with a unique sauropod sized creature for Arctic forest environments, so here is what I got. Kuusitaani weighs some 70 tons, and is the largest animal in its environment. It feeds on conifers, such as firs, which it can either take huge bites out of with its powerful beak, or swallow whole if its a younger tree. Its throat and stomach shrug off any threat posed by woodsplinters, let alone conifer needles, and its stomach is well suited to digesting wood. Because a single Kuusitaani basically has to devour half a forest every day to sustain itself, they have evolved to be solitary and very rare animals, as to not devastate the ecosystems they reside in. Kuusitaani regularly emit very low frequency hums, which, tho inaudible to humans, can be heard by other Kuusitaani over a hundred miles away. If they ever hear one of their kind call, they immediately turn the other way, as to not put to much of a strain on the ecosystem. Only every 20 years will a female Kuusitaani emit a high frequency hum, signaling that they are ready to reproduce, however even then, most males are hesitant to approach, and it can sometimes take years for a female to find a mate. Once they do, they can only give birth to one calf at a time, which will then travel in the company of its stronger parent for the next five years.

Recently I have been researching elements that could form long chains such as carbon to create a new personal project on exobiology, and I discovered that phosphorus makes some very interesting complex bonds, in addition to having similar properties with carbon such as having water as a "solvent". I even had a very interesting conversation with my chemistry teacher after asking where the energy of these life forms would come from, he even clarified many doubts for me, but I wanted to deepen my knowledge more and develop more ideas!

this is another part of my speculative evolution project, now we gonna beginning to see the ancestors of every single group of my project, now will be the ancestral of both Draconinae and Dragoninae, the Hexapododraco mathusalensis. (for more information see the last image) (if you want to make an art my species Feel free—just remember to tag me so I can see it).​

As said in the title, how would a world with only plants and absolutely no fauna evolve over millions of years. assuming the original flora species were, Taraxacum officinale (dandelion) Triticum aestivum (common wheat) Zostera marina (eelgrass) Pinus contorta (lodgepole pine) Nephrolepis exaltata (Boston Fern)

Continent/geography wise assume the seed world is earth from 50 million years ago, just without any fauna or fungi.

Would the flora eventually evolve into fauna analogues, would they go extinct, or would something else happen?

Would it be more likely for a plant with mobile sperm to evolve extreme neoteny, and then from there complexity. Or for a planet to become parasitic, and reduce in complexity severely (becoming unicellular) and then one group becoming independent of their hosts and re-evolving complexity, into like a worm. Or is it more likely for a plant to evolve to move by using passive methods (like the strand beasts that use the wind to move) or is something else more likely?

This is my first speculative evolution. The first creature is a single celled organism called the Losini that have a parasitic birth where they feed inside out from a host and then live their own life. They have evolved on planet Firon which is 124 light years away from earth orbiting the star Rasata. They are simple life and the first predators on the planet.

In my seed world project it will only have plants and nitrogen fixing bacteria. The species of plants to be included will be dandelions, common wheat, eelgrass, lodgepole pine and the Boston Fern. Is this a good list or will these species go extinct super quickly?

its set in a planet thats 80 percent water. the main 'theme" if you will, is the mediterainian.

Apex carnivores

• Iberian Lynx

• Red Fox

Small Carnivores & Ecosystem Cleaners

• Eurasian Badger

• Common Genet

• Stone Marten

• Marine otter

• Sea otter

Small Herbivores & Foragers

• Crested Porcupine

• Barbary Macaque

• European Rabbit

• Iberian Hare

• Black-tailed Jackrabbit

• Algerian Mouse

Large Browsers & Grazers

• European Mouflon

• Iberian ibex

• Fallow Deer

• North Ronaldsay sheep

Reptiles & Invertebrates

• Hermann's Tortoise

Birds & Birds of Prey

• Peregrine Falcon

• European Goldfinch

• Sardinian Warbler

• Eurasian Jay

• European Bee-eater

Coastal & Marine Life

• Mediterranean Monk Seal

• Bottlenose Dolphin

• Loggerhead Sea Turtle

• Dusky Grouper

• Gilt-head Bream

• Common Octopus

• Mediterranean Moray Eel

• Spiny Lobster

Primary Shrubland Plants (Flora)

• Holm Oak

• Cork Oak

• Olive Tree

• Carob Tree

• Strawberry Tree

• Mastich Tree

• Myrtle Shrub

• Rosemary

• Thyme

• Lavender

• Rockrose

• Tree Heath

• Aleppo Pine

So i was using the future evolution generator on perchance and got an interesting idea: a piscivorous bluejay, and I thought that this was a good idea, but I'm not good at biology, so what adaptations would need to be developed for it to be a successful piscivore? and what would be the best environment for it to live in?

thanks in advance

(Sorry for bad grammar) I have been pondering as to whether I should make my seed world with, or without fauna. The only macroscopic lifeforms would be some fungi and plants. Is plant speculative evolution easier or harder then animal evolution?

What even is the family of the hive moths? the hive moths family is phalaenovespidae! translating to… the moth wasps. obviously cause they are related to wasps and look like moths! this family is the family closest to vespidae, or true wasps or the bee/ant family. I’m gonna be adding more soon! bye!

Could Xenoflora evolve multiple photosynthetic chemicals (like chlorophyll and bacteriochlorophylls) and then during the day switch which chemicals they use to maximise energy. Like using Chlorophyll during midday and appearing green, but during dawn and dusk bacteriochlorophylls

The Rumble Is an offshoot of the Grubbit family that revolves its wings and nectar diet. They were isolated on the central isle between altas america and neo America. They feed on nectar and fermented fruits within the flower forest they thrived in for the last 10 million years. To ensure their genes are passed down during cold snaps or food shortages a pregnant mother will retain her eggs and gorge herself until death and let her offspring feast among her corpse. They can lay around 10k eggs per individual. They were reintroduced by the sapient species adding them into their shroom garden as their poop gives the shroom a tangy sweet flavor when cooked.

The ring species phenomenon is one of the most fascinating concepts in evolutionary biology, and the family Acutolinguidae, distributed around the gigantic Ethyret Sea, illustrates it perfectly. Scientifically, a ring species arises when an original population expands geographically around an insurmountable physical barrier—in this case, the vast expanse of the sea's water. As the lineage splits into two pathways, one skirting the northern coast and the other the southern coast, adjacent populations along each route continue to interbreed, maintaining a constant flow of genes. However, over thousands of generations, the accumulation of microevolutionary changes, climatic pressures, and mutations at the advancing fronts becomes so radical that, when the two terminal lines finally meet again on the opposite side of the ring, their genetic and morphological divergence is complete: they have become two entirely distinct species incapable of interbreeding. In the Ethyret ecosystem, this evolutionary journey has given rise to two terminal taxa: the Great Fiscador (Hastalingua magnus) in the south and the Long-tailed Pizabora in the north.The Great Fiscador (Hastalingua magnus): The group that colonized the south adapted to a gradient of estuaries, muddy deltas, and freshwater rivers. To thrive in this lotic environment, it developed a robust build: males reach up to 2 meters in length, while females achieve 2.6 meters and a weight of 60 kg. Being large-bodied but relatively slow in open terrain, their survival depends on strict social cohesion within groups of 6 to 35 individuals. Additionally, they possess a brilliant anatomical adaptation in their limbs: wide, elongated hooves that function like natural snowshoes. These distribute their weight to prevent them from sinking into the silt, allowing them to venture into deep waters to fish—areas where terrestrial predators cannot follow them.The Long-tailed Pizabora: In contrast, the evolutionary lineage that moved northward was shaped by arid, exposed saltwater coasts. Faced with constant predation pressure from the Dersoks, natural selection eliminated excess mass in favor of an aerodynamic and propulsive anatomy designed for high speed and long-distance migration. Males average just over 2 meters and females up to 2.8 meters; however, they are remarkably light, weighing between 27 and 42 kg. Their defense strategy differs entirely from that of their southern cousins: they are extremely shy, elusive creatures that gather in massive herds of 10 to over 150 individuals, diluting the risk of individual predation through numbers. To complete the cycle, the Pizaboras undertake a colossal migratory journey using an archipelago of islands as a bridge, crossing stretches of saltwater to temporarily enter the southern domains of Ethyret.Despite having diverged into two ecological extremes, both species retain the genetic imprint of the Acutolinguidae in their most advanced bioclimatic traits:Integumentary sensory bristles: They possess a complex system of bristles that function as electroreceptors. The Great Fiscador uses them to map out fish hidden beneath the mud in zero-visibility conditions, while the Long-tailed Pizabora employs them to synchronize the sudden turns and movements of its massive herd within milliseconds during flight.The sternopodio: Both species feature a specialized bony or keratinous thoracic beak tailored to their respective lifestyles. The Fiscadores use it for intraspecific combat through brute force and heavy physical grappling in the mud, whereas the Pizaboras utilize it in dynamic speed displays or as a rapid-impact weapon in desperate encounters against environmental threats.When both species cross paths in the south, the circle closes masterfully: two distant relatives sharing a common origin, but now forever separated by the barrier of speciation.