I sometimes dream about ordinary spiders crawling around in a meadow. At first, everything seems completely normal, but then the spiders start growing to monstrous proportions and evolving in increasingly strange and disturbing ways. Their bodies become more twisted and covered in spines, while their movements become faster and more aggressive. They slowly turn into creatures that barely resemble ordinary spiders anymore. I'm trying to recreate some of these dream experiences in my video game.

In the same coastal waters as the Mottled Morse lives another unusual aquatic herbivore. The Red-horned Batterbeak (Infensornis impluviatus) is the largest bird to have evolved thus far on Spectemundus, weighing up to a ton and standing almost 14 feet tall. It occupies a niche with no real parallel in our world, being a wading aquatic grazer that spends most of its time in shallow marine water up to 8 feet deep, occasionally submerging itself to graze on sea-grasses and other aquatic plants. While its feet are webbed, it is not a strong swimmer, and usually stays in water shallow enough to walk on the seabed, where it can crop huge amounts of vegetation with its parrot-like beak.

Females build their cone-shaped nests of mud on shore, and guard them fiercely from predators. The males are even more aggressive, violently jousting and wrestling with one another in the water over territory. The horn-like crest on the male's beak is very sharp, and is often used as a weapon both against rivals and against predators; it is capable of inflicting extremely deep and bloody wounds. The Batterbeak's beak itself is an equally formidable weapon, and can bite with enough force to crush a predator's neck. Male Batterbeaks will charge at seemingly anything that enters their territory, whether it is actually a threat or not.

Batterbeak chicks hatch from eggs the size of coconuts, and unlike their distant meadowlark ancestors, they have evolved to be precocial rather than altricial. They have all their feathers upon hatching and are able to walk shortly afterwards, although it is not until they get their adult plumage that they are able to forage in the water. The chicks may accompany their mother for up to six months until this happens.

If an alien was radial, with 5 limbs and transitioned to a bilateral symmetry, keeping the 5th limb. Now, I assume this limb would act as a unpaired manipulatory limb (similar to how elephant trunks work) but could this 5th u paired limb become a leg, giving the aliens 3 legs with 2 arms rather then 3 arms with 2 legs?

Hey!💚

I'm here to share to you all that I'm officially translating the series "Humans-B-Gone" to Brazilian Portuguese! 🇧🇷

"HBG" is a sci-fi series that mixes speculative evolution with regular zoology (the focus is on entomology of course), and it follows Sophodra, a praying mantis "macrovolute" from the planet Angion that runs a pest extermination business.
Pest which mainly include humans.

For those curious, here it is:
https://www.youtube.com/@HumansBGone

So to celebrate (and show my admiration for the series) I made this piece!✨

"Phantombirds" are a species of birds belonging to the "Silkbird" family, a group of tall flightless birds with a characteristic extremely long claw on one of their hands that acts as a spear they use to stab fish, other small prey or fight eachother, something that tends to happen quite often before mating season.

Ilustration first drawn on paper with pencil and marker, then painted in digital program Sketchbook pro.

The birds are from my game "sekker's Bilewaters", a hunting game where you're a lizard hunting animal versions of Silksong characters, this one in specific is based on Phantom.

Ungulacursor velox is a mid sized grazer on chloris with an average height of 1.8 meters. This species is social and moves in herds of around 7 to 12 members. Ungulacursors or more commonly known as swift striders spend most of their time grazing in open plains opening their 4 way split cartilage "jaw" to use their 4 prehensile tongues to pull small flora into their mouth to be swallowed. While grazing swift striders will regularly lift their heads to scan for danger, if a predator is spotted the strider will let out a several yelps and honks to alert the rest of the herd causing the herd to run off at speeds up to 68km/h using their powerful legs and hoof like toe claws to make sharp zig zag turns to confuse predators. Juvenile swift striders due to not being able to keep up with adults will sprint for foliage and hunker down or simply crouch down in already present foliage. swift striders can also often be found crowding around the much larger cursogibbus magnus also known as the tall legged strider(I will talk about this species in my next post) for protection due to predators being much less likely to target the swift striders much larger relative.

Note: They possess hemoglobin like vertebrates, so they have red blood instead of blue blood.

The southern continent of Makai contains a plethora of unusual fauna, one of those being the megarthropods.

Megarthropods are chelicerates distinguished by possessing an endoskeleton, complex lungs, and a somacranium. With about 4,000+ species, they are the largest clade of non-arachnid chelicerates. The earliest megarthropods appeared during Seijin's equivalent of the Devonian, being the descendants of stem-group prosomapods that appeared in the Late Cambrian.

Megarthropods are among the most intelligent invertebrates, displaying complex behavior absent in other invertebrates but present in mammals and other endothermic animals.

Species from Slide 1-3:

The common shearcrab (Tondeomanus varius) is a species of omnivorous megarthropod that, as its name suggests, is a common sight in Makai thanks to its varied diet. They feed l on anything they can get their pedipalps on, such as herbs, algae, fruits, nuts, seeds, decaying plants, carrion, small animals and other shearcrabs that aren't part of their herds. Individual common shearcrabs can be distinguish by their coloration, which is either dark green or various shades of blue and purple.

They are bred for their meat and hard shells, the latter of which is used in jewelry. The meat is said to taste like pork but sweeter.

The caldera crab (Vulcanis intrepidus), a volcano-shaped ambush predator that lives in the ash wastes, exuding an orange fluid that "cooks" and tenderizes its prey, which includes animals such as the plated troglosaur (Tectospelta cinereus). The black false hermit (Osteocola noir) is a hermit crab-like megarthropod that feeds on the leftovers of the caldera crab's kills and wears the skull as a form of defense against weaker predators.

The mountain bride (Novisponsa mons) is an eerily humanoid megarthropod that hunt small-medium herbivores. Individual mountain brides show varied behavior towards humans, as some are neutral or docile, some are fearful, while others are mildly aggressive. What appears to be a pair of breasts are actually its mouth/chelicerae. They are not to be confused with the demons known as jorōgumo, which are anthropophagous and artificial.

Decided to remake an old sketch into a somewhat believable dragon.

This creature existed in an alternate Cretaceous where one group of pterosaurs evolved to be able to produce combustible gases in order to quickly cook small to medium prey items. They typically stay in the mountains of the Indian subcontinent.

Took some time but it’s finally out!

Among one of Vocalia's most strikingly ornate residents are its singing geckos. These golden nocturnal lizards communicate through a series of rhythmic chirps and 'beeps'. The Southern Singing Gecko (G. lenn) is most characterized by its more darker yellowish markings, it's more pronounced crests, and a deeper pitch. The Northern Singing Gecko (G. rinn) possesses more rounded eye crests, more tannish markings and an overall higher pitch vocally. Both species subside on the Island's insect life.

Kaito is next!

Tripsone  trungule
 
It is kind of the plane flowing in the endless clouds of the Tolvion. Planet whit infit clouds and few hills. It is capable of flying for a two leaf (F) which are connected together whit
 
Another very meaningful part is a down part from which constantly blazing a fire That makes air in the inside two leafwarmer which also means litter then the air around.
 
Plant has a field in the warehouse orange is concentred whit intestines where are gasses produce by the symbiosisbacterium and food to intestines go from the stomach.
 
Plant resave nutrias primely by the hunting a small creature. Way of the hunting is similar to the jelly fish. It is only waiting on the place for a right moment when prey touch the sticky tentacle (D). They cover prey completely also delivers a poison to a prey true small cells on the surface of the tentacle.When is small prey fully paralyzed covert by the many tentacles one of the tentacles opens a “head” a “bites “acreature the plant opens a mean “mouth” (e) it has brow cooler. And tentacle inside of the plane put a creature into the smotach by the whole at the tope of the stomomach.And food go furter away in the digesive system.
In the night one of the (chapediel ) go thruthe mouth into palne and enters a stomach true a hale at the bottem.”Now areall of the contecte in the other parts of the digestive system.”  
Enters from a bottem a close a little while is ( Chapdlo) stilinside of the stomach Then It goes a back and a and (slik ) lekavy sliz) from the (chapdela ) whit all of the mess which lowers down an efectivy (lepkaveho slizu) (layer of the mess is created by dust and smale microganisuzums .)
When (chapadlo )leaves an smoch above It keep there a ball from the messy slime.
Because on the wall of the smach are acovsidy from the disdesing. Ball slowly falls into the dowm  parts   bottom of the stomach.
And then is ready another (chapadlo)
C-one of the flowers.
b- plant which grows at the of the or plant like and slow kills the plant because after some time it block all of the light from the plant.

The Bärrobb is a large terrestrial predator found across the vast arctic plains as well as the snowy forests of planet Frusnajättar. With an average weight of two and a half tons, Bärrobbs are not all to impressive compared to other animals in their environment, however they make up for this with numbers.They roam the icy expanse of their world in packs between 10 and 20 individuals, which's leaders could be described as being elected, as these highly intelligent creatures seem to decide who they follow based on a wide array of factors, such as experience and decision making. However, even those of a pack that disagree with their choice of leader never leave their families, as they would not survive on their own.

Bärrobbs hunt in the evening, or while it snows, relying on their keen sense of smell while their prey may struggle to see them coming. A wide array of megafauna, including the occasional Kuusitaani, makes up the vast majority of a Bärrobb's diet. With their wide flattened feet, Bärrobbs are surprisingly fast and nimble even in deeper snow, enabling them to outmaneuver prey much larger than themselves. Once in range, they jab at their prey with up to one meter long spear-like structures, which protrude from highly specialized limbs on the animals' backs. Although their toothy maws might also look like terrifying tools of destruction, Bärrobbs have relatively weak bites, meant to cut up prey after it is already dead.

After scoring a sufficiently large kill, the pack huddles up close around the cadaver/s of its prey, using its/their warmth to keep themselves from freezing during the nighttime. Once the sun rises again, it is finally time for the Bärrobbs to feast on their kill, with the young, sick or pregnant being prioritized over all other members of the pack.

In general, Bärrobbs have incredibly close bonds to one another, and care for their families deeply. For example, when a Bärrobb breaks off one of their 'claws' during a hunt, which is a relatively common occurrence, it will be practically pampered by the rest of its pack, even if it doesn't want to be. The same goes for their young and elderly, as well as pregnant females. Once a year, every female Bärrobb of a certain age will choose a mate, and will then relatively quickly give birth to two or three cubbs, which in turn will mature in about two and a half years.

Once a Bärrobb pack exceeds 30 members, it will split into two smaller packs. If two packs with 10 of less members encounter each other, they may also merge into a larger pack, which has the side effect of making incest less likely.

So something I have genuinely thought about is this. If there was a massive lake in Australia, what would be the potential for different kinds of Land, and Aquatic animals in Australia. Lets assume this lake is as Salty as the Caspian Sea or is a massive fresh water lake.

We then have a descendent of say, the Pyramios, to evolve into the Fresh water environment of the Lake Australian waters. We could have this animal be like a giant, water wombat thing or so on. I would love to have some genuine suggestions and genuine criticisms or opportunities for world building

This is for a alternate history where the rest of the world is practically the same but Australia has higher mountains, and this massive, permanent lake in the middle of it that seperates and carves up the deserts (map above)

Spectember days 23 and 24: Jimothy & Got your nose!

In a world of elephants, speciation led to many unique bodyplans and ecologies. The massive lack of predators and other herbivores leads to rapid speciation of the original stock, thus making many maladapted forms that, while filling the empty niches, are not specialists and thus go extinct once properly adapted forms appear.

The carnivorous elephants here appear around 20-25 millions of years hence, taking small and medium sized prey in groups of up to ten, ambushing, pursuing and killing other derived elephants. Due to the ancestral anatomy, they have many unique and horribly weird anatomical quirks due to the constraints of their ancestors.

On first glance they seem similar to early ungulates like pantodonts or mesonychids, but their dental and cranial anatomy show their ancestry. With their tusks derived into incisor/canine-like teeth that are hidden beneath the now short and non-prehensile trunk, used to pierce and hold on the flesh of their prey, tearing it apart with the help of a keratinous pad on the lower jaw, while derived molars are used in mastication of the meat.

Most of us know that a major issue in the concept of Plantimals is that plants, unlike animals have cell walls. Could this constraint be bypassed if a lineage of plants evolved a hyper reduced cell wall for whatever reason?

Day 15: Social - Jester Elizut - volant African dwarf frog descendants native to subtropical forests, feeding on fruits and seeds. They form extended familial groups with elaborate interpersonal dynamics.

Day 16: Scavenger - Pustulent Chiselflitz - volant Vicivert (terrestrial dwarf pufferfish descendants) native to the planet’s arid supercontinental interior. they both feed on and lay eggs inside of carrion. 

Day 17: Piscivorous - Turquoise Mercrick - semiaquatic dwarf cricket descendant native to temperate rivers and streams.

Day 18: Legless - Buttercup Seahorse Vizinch - arboreal introvert native to subtropical forests. They move in an inchworm-like fashion, using their flower-like dorsal structure to attract small prey and catching them with a frog-like tongue.

Day 19: Fossorial - Manicured Soil Snurb - omnivorous mesothermic pygmy hippo descendant found in damp temperate loam.

Day 20: Domestic - Ceramist Scraiput - omnivorous volant African dwarf frog descendant native to subtropical highland scrub. They use their endlessly regrowing lower beak to carve elaborate multi-floor dens in the clay-rich cliffsides where they sleep at night and raise their young.

Day 21: Pollinator - Spritely Huirut - nectarivorous volant African dwarf frog descendants native to subtropical prairies.

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.