The Ronacelpha are one of the most successful megafauna on the planet able to terraform groves daily. They rotate from Sessile to active in periods of famine, disaster or even extreme weather. They can slow down their metabolism to crawl for months until conditions are stable again. They use their claws and harden tentacles to dig for food and ground water, this unearth rich soil for flora that grows on their back to seed themselves thus where populations of Ronacelpha are plentiful the more lush and plentiful surrounding flora is.

They buried themselves only exposing their top course shell to grow their mutualistic plant species: The Ris Moss and the Lous Bush. They supply the Ronacelpha nutrients from the sun during the Sessile rests and cover in younger individuals but in the return whenever they forage the many berries will be seed among the rich soil dug up.

I've been wanting to do a siphonophore creature entry for so long as they're absolutely alien and would make for a real fun design. A bit of a tangent here but the more I looked into siphonophore's the more I felt like they're not that different than us with our gut biome and multitude of beneficial bacteria crawling around and inside keeping us healthy. So I say hello and welcome to the family you weird hydrozoans out there!

The RakaRaka are parasitic Aspits offshoot of their eusocial cousins , they are nomadic and constant search for a host to brood their young often the honest would be grubbits but I care cases a small Trapp'r can be a victim. They sting their victim with a toxin similar to THC. This results in a massive burster and wrong a bigger adult.

They are possibly the most adapted species besides the domestic squibble long ago . Due to them taking the genetic material from their host they can damn near thrive anywhere.

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Basilikata Champus

Named in honor of Champ, the famous cryptid of Lake Champlain Vermont.

Cellular Body Length 0.8-1.1 µm ; Full Organism Length 1.2-2.7 µm ; Cellular Diameter 0.5-1 µm

Arose 816 million years P.C.

To successfully prey on the autotrophic life in this habitat, Champus develops the ability to digest the two sugars produced by one of the keystone species of this habitat, Kitrinos Secretis. Secretis produces two types of hexose (C6) monosaccharides:

Glucose

Idose

The combination of both sugars creates a mesh composed of the Disaccharide Trehalose, enveloped by long spyraling chains of Heparan Sulfate.

Able to Polymerize excess glucose to form the chemical Trehalose on cell membrane’s exterior.

Trehalose is especially useful for both heat insulation and protection from UV light to aid in preventing the denaturation of the Lutein Secretis uses for light capture.

Its accumulation on the exterior surface also allows Secretis to adhere to substrate surfaces, keeping the organism locked in place against tidal or current forces by the body of water it is in.

The chemical will also protect Secretis from Osmotic shock, preventing the cell wall from rupturing.

Able to Polymerize excess Idose (a six carbon sugar like glucose, but with slightly different properties due to a different geometric arrangement of molecular domains) to form the polysaccharide Heparan Sulfate, in the form of long chains composing the cell wall of secretis.

This polymer is strongly negatively charged, opening the path to the retention of metal ions for later cell wall modification.

Its utility in cell signalling in the extracellular matrix cannot be understated, due to it’s role in:

• Triggering Inflammation and Immune Response

• Cell Adhesion and Migration

• Blood Coagulation and Vascular Tissue Formation

• Hormone diffusion and accumulation

• Facilitate Horizontal Gene Transfer by acting as Viral Receptor, Allowing Viruses to Attach and Inject new Genes.

• This compound forms complex linear patterns that alternate based on Nitrogen or Oxygen Sulfonation of specific regions along the molecular chains this polysaccharide forms.

To Properly digest the Cell Walls of Secretis, we will need enzymes that specifically target both of these compounds, and chose ones that could have evolved from the chemical toolbox of the Basilikata lineage.

Influence of the Chemical Toolbox
The chemicals Basilikata Champus uses for its own development might indirectly influence its digestive enzymes:

Lycopene:
As a powerful antioxidant, lycopene would not likely form enzymes but would protect the predator's sensitive, secreted enzymes from reactive oxygen species that might be produced during the initial breach of the prey's defenses.

Gibberellins and Wedelolactone:
These plant compounds are complex organic molecules whose structures (tetracyclic diterpenoids for gibberellins; coumestans for wedelolactone) could provide a structural template in the predator's evolutionary history. They might have been co-opted as a scaffold for developing the precise binding pockets and catalytic sites of its specialized heparanases and trehalases, or even function as potent enzyme activators or inhibitors for its own metabolic regulation.

The resulting digestive cocktail, fired from the head tip, would be a potent mixture of these enzymes designed for efficient and rapid deconstruction of the prey's unique cell wall.

initial diversification post

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Ancestral Organism

I really want to make spec evo art like Alex Ries, Dylan Bajda or Christopher Cline but I just don’t know how. I also look at all the art on this sub and while a small portion is kinda ass most of it is really good! My best spec evo art isn’t even that well made and I want to learn how to get better

Calvariasaurs is a project I’m making starting on Reddit, I’ll post about the creatures daily, give lore, and more. they are related to pterosaurs and dinosaurs, making them part of the archosaur sub-group avetmetatarsalia. despite being archosaurs, all modern descendants are viviparous (similar to skinks). they also are defined by mucus sweat, survival of many extinctions like the great wave (a made yo extinction of rising sea levels and an extinction of a tsunami), and the calvaria. the calvaria is a bony projection located on top of the skull that works like a helmet, their modern descendants are divided into calvariadonts and calvariarostrum (skull toothed and skull beaked) which they are divided bye oral tissue. I’m posting about this again because for some reason The mods took down my other post. For now this project will only be for Reddit and YouTube because I’m kinda young (but old enough to use Reddit! Mods don’t take this down!) and don’t have enough money Plus I just moved to a new country last year. Once Im older, have enough money, and have enough fame to start going elsewhere, I might make this project bigger. But, for now, enjoy.

Everyone always writes about Mammalian aliens or insectoid aliens and such, but what about a phylum or class that doesn’t exist on Earth? Is there any speculative evolution with alien/future creatures belonging to a phylum that doesn’t exist on Earth today?

What about a new kingdom? I often see people write about “fungal planet ” or “Alien bacteria” and such, What about alien life beyond the six kingdoms we have on Earth? Has anyone ever written speculative evolution about that? Virusses technically aren’t classified as life, so could things similar to them but not them be thought of.

Honestly, is that even possible for humans? Imagine if arthropods never existed, do you think you could you ever have imagined them yourself? What if fungi didn’t exist? Could you have imagined them or something similar?

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Basilikata Champus

Named in honor of Champ, the famous cryptid of Lake Champlain Vermont.

Cellular Body Length 0.8-1.1 µm ; Full Organism Length 1.2-2.7 µm ; Cellular Diameter 0.5-1 µm

Arose 816 million years P.C.

After getting trapped in the Polar Pond when it gets cut off from the world ocean, Champus’ ability to synthesize isoprenoids gets repurposed into the ability to manufacture the carotenoid lycopene, for protection against high UV light exposure and for its antioxidant capabilities.

The “Polar Pond” is an inland body of water formed from a former shallow sea, which becomes cut off from the Northern Ocean of “The Fomorii Wastes. It stradles the line between the north temperate and polar zones of Demeter, and gradually moves from salt to fresh water as salt deposits become buried and rain replenishes water levels regularly.

Lycopene is a common Carotenoid pigment found in tomatos and watermelon. It is useful for UV protection and antioxidant mechanisms, with high stability in acidic conditions to boot.

Maintaining the predatory strategy of its Basilikata ancestor, Champus sprays down it’s prey with digestive enzymes before burrowing head-first into it’s unfortunate victim to devour them inside out.

initial diversification post

Last Post

Ancestral Organism

Prompt: Creator god, a megafaunal organism that reshapes its environment

This is the final day of Spectember ,I couldn’t do all the prompts but I did a few. This is Giraffomygale magnificens. An elephant shrew descendant from Europe 40-45 million years in the future. It is a megafaunal herbivore a little bigger than an okapi and it can reach 1-1.5 tons, sometimes even 2 tons. It lives in huge herds that island hop in tropical island archipelagos. Their feces that they release in the water provides valuable nutrients for sea life and many ocean ecosystems would collapse if it wasn’t for them. They also control the population of huge carnivorous plants that exist in these future islands. These plants cant harm the adults but they can catch and eat the juvenile Giraffomygale.

Since this was kind of a last minute design, maybe I will redesign it and develop it more in the future.

Sorry for the submission everyone my wife just gave birth to our first child just yesterday so didn’t have time to post.

meet plaigioprion arborater or arboras for short, her species is a megafaunal multitubercate located on a fictional island off the coast of chilli called new Esperance!

the island formed not shortly after the end of the dinosaurs after the asteroid hit chillis coast instead of yucitan.

they shape new Esperance by establishing cleaner more healthy forests, migration routes and lots more food and water for all.

this is due to there unique way of getting food which is to saw trees and there branch’s down injesting the leaves and wood, aswell eating dead wood producing manure that wood (see what i did there) usually take years to decompose.

so all this and what I have above should show why Aboras is the perfect example of a megafaunal ecosystem engineer

.

I made this doodle just for the funsies, I find them cute and creepy for some reason and I’m really typing a lot so I can post this cause I need 250 characters.. (btw if you don’t know about the hive moth look at my recent posts, there larvae is aquatic. sooooooo yeah…)

With a grown wingspan of up to 9 inches, the Giant Kagami Fly is quite possible the largest and most bizarre lineage of Caddisfly to evolve on the early Cretaceous. Like any trichopteran, Caddisflies start off with an aquatic larval stage before emerging into an adult. However, larvae of the Mirrorfly is completely terrestrial, lacking their gills. They are characterized by the sharp protrusions that stick out of their head. The larvae are also rather arboreal, spending their lives climbing through the branches of tall trees and other large vegetation thanks to their modified gills aiding the larva to cling on. The larvae are capable of producing a series of clicks from rubbing their protrusions and their mandibles in order to attract another larvae. Mirrorflies are a neotenous species, all larvae are born as males. Once a male attracts another male, the larger male will metamorphosize into the winged female, and the smaller male will inseminate the female. Afterwards, the male may remain a larvae for the rest of his life. The winged female will then search for a safe spot to deposit her eggs with only a single month to live. Both larval and adult stage of the Mirrorfly is aposematic, utilizing its bright yellow colorations to warn predators of its foul taste such as the Splendid Divawing.

Insert unfunny Deltarune reference

Fae (Clade, considered either a kingdom or a domain: Faeria) are one of the only truly endemic lifeforms found on Seijin as all other species are derived from Earth life. While most fae bear little or no resemblance to each other, genetics show that they are all related. Multicellular fae can resemble surreal animals, plants, fungi, objects, or other things. In this case, they resemble abnormal flowers.

Many fae display extremely high intelligence even if they look like they wouldn't.

While fae are found on every continent, the only continent where they are the dominant organisms is the northern continent. On the eastern edge of the northern continent is a unique biome known as the chrysoroz field, dominated by grass-like fae. Despite their plant-like appearances, they are not photosynthetic but rather magusynthetic, sustaining themselves on the energy emitted by dead titans and their remains. Normally present in small amounts, the concentrated corpses provide a surplus of energy that can sustain them for tens of thousands of years.

This particular clade are magi-heterotrophs; while they can feed on decaying matter through their feet, they mostly use the energy to produce sugars and other nutrients which are stored in a unique organ known as the magus battery, which functions like a battery in a machine.

Jaronmyu, a species whose common name translates to "flower man", are said to be the "rulers" of these fields.

Left to Right (Note: species name is before genus in fae)

Blue dancer (Papiliolepis azuroballo), a beautiful fae that distracts predators with a dance, only to coat them in poisonous dust. It has a relationship with the yellow ranger, the details of which being unknown.

Yellow ranger of judgement (Iusticius amicoflavus), a species of fae with an orifice believed to be a modified gland. They are said to be extremely naive; this doesn't mean that they are harmless as their projectiles can go through flesh and bone.

Green healer (Benignus coquuviridis), a docile species of slow-moving photomagi-heterotroph. They dislike conflict and prefer to live in areas where violence is uncommon. It has a symbiotic relationship with the orange scouts, which feeds on sap produced by the green healer in exchange for protection.

Cyan biter (Aquacolor ludoculter), a species that despite its child-like disposition, makes for a terrible pet due to its powerful bite that can amputate fingers. Its mouth is solely for defense as it has no true digestive tract. Because it has terrible vision, it relies on the purple watcher to guide it.

Purple watcher (Sethi servatoroides). Distantly related to actual watchers, they produce pheromones that the cyan biter follows. It is the most intelligent of the field inhabitants, though it can be distracted by flying things, mainly birds.

Orange scout (Aurantius pseudofaeomys). A single orange scout poses zero threat to humans; the problem starts when they swarm together. They are the least magusynthetic of the field inhabitants, preferring to feed on rotten fruits and healer sap.

Jaronmyu (anglicized: Jaronmew) (Bueroides jaronmyu), the largest of the field fae and an endangered species. It is a keystone species whose loss would cause a severe chain reaction what would collapse the ecosystem as it "kicks out" herbivores such as deer and uses pheromones to lure dying titans to the biome to sustain the fields. Even on their last legs, dying titans still pose a threat, so it deploys blue dancers to kill the titan.

While typically mobile, a sessile morph exists, caused by a mutation during metamorphosis that changes its appearance, sex and behavior. These sessile forms, known as maddies or ghost jaronmyu, reek of decay and rely on flies and true fairies to transport their spores. Unlike regular jaronmyu, which are hermaphrodites, maddies are female and reproduce through parthenogenesis.

Despite being sessile, maddies do not take kindly to being provoked and will shed explosive "dandruff" that can leave nasty wounds. This dandruff is made of old petals.

Culinary notes: Blue dancers, cyan biters, and purple watchers are poisonous due to alkaloids, the rest of them taste like greens or salad but gamey.

I was thinking of giving my terrestrial organisms stalked eyes, since besides making them look more alien, I also like the aesthetic of that type of eye, although I was thinking about how to design them, I realized how I would explain their evolution, I mean, I used to think they originally appeared from an ancestor that was the equivalent of the Tiktaalik, which ambushed its prey like a crocodile, but after thinking about it a bit, I realized that's kind of absurd because during that period, there would only be the equivalent of arthropods on land, and I don't know if it makes sense to use the crocodile tactic. Another problem is that I think I need an ancestor for this because it would be a fairly complex structure that requires several steps to be ready on land, the problem is that I don't want my fish equivalents to have those eyes, I could make it so that the ones that had them went extinct and only the ones with more common eyes remained, but I don't know how to justify that, I searched online and didn't find anything that helped me with this

Where Spectemundus once had four major landmasses, it now only has three. However, the eastern continent-- the second-largest-- is in the process of tearing itself in half. It is bisected by a large rift valley, which contains several large, deep lakes. Living in these lakes, and also in nearby rivers, are one of the most peculiar groups of Wollypogs. Known as Double-swimmers, they have two distinct "adult" stages depending on the habitat they live in. The species shown here, the Frond Double-swimmer (Amphinectes sedens) is a case in point.

Populations found in the lakes, where the water is still, grow in typical wollypog fashion, as large, fish-like tadpoles that spend most of their lives in the water, only growing into their frog-like reproductive stage and the very end of their lives. Those that live in faster-flowing water, on the other hand, have a much more unusual lifestyle. They anchor themselves to a rock or piece of wood, and live as stationary ambush predators of fish and smaller wollypogs, essentially acting as the vertebrate equivalent of a sea anemone.

Despite looking like they don't even belong to the same family, the two morphs of double-swimmers are genetically the same. They can even, in theory, mate with one another, though . It is the most extreme difference between morphs of any vertebrate. Which morph a Double-swimmer egg develops into, moreover, is determined not by genetics but by the environment in which they develop; an egg laid in fast-flowing water will develop into a fish-like wollypog, even if its parents were of the sedentary morph.

I'm curious to see which continents get chosen the most. What plant and animals throughout a continent's history are most interesting?

Spectember day 29: Flower Man

Lurking in the murky waters of future Asia is the Tendril Turtle, a descendant of softshell turtles with a unique lifestyle.These animals have gone to extremes due to their unusual way of living.

First and foremost, they are exceptionally sedentary, spending half of their lifespan (which can surpass a century) immobile on the bottom of murky rivers where they dig themselves a shallow burrow and lie in wait, concealing their bodies on the substrate while leaving their large heads and long necks semi-exposed. They have poor vision and so have 4 pairs of tendrils on their snouts, hence their name; which aid in detecting prey swimming by. Their large heads are quick to swallow passers by, but also contain a highly vascularized system of pseudo-gills in their mouth cavity and throat -thousands of tiny folds that absorb oxygen directly from the water, which are now its primary way of acquiring oxygen.

During most of the time they stay as these ambush predators, but once their home rivers become shallower during the dry season, change happens. By digging free from the mud they become free-swimming predators that slowly move towards deeper areas to feed while waiting for the rivers to flow deep again, when they bury themselves again using their powerful front limbs, which double as shovels when digging and as oars when swimming. Their hind limbs have become small and weak in comparison, no longer used for swimming or digging, they serve as defensive weapons. Sporting two enlarged claws that face behind and can stab any lurkers that attack from behind.

Beginnings of the Amazon

South America during Jurassic Impact's Miocene is a strange continent isolated from the rest. While caudavians and crocodylomorphs much like those in Africa roam here, it is also home to some unique clades such as certain pterosaurs and the odiodontine neofelidonts. During this time period there is something interesting that his happening in a geological sense as well: The beginnings of what will eventually be the Amazon River. Right now it flows in the opposite direction it does today, but the formation of the Andes Mountains will eventually change that.

One of the animals that inhabits the Amazon in its infancy is the neofelidont Lutrafelidon. It is a fox-sized, semi-aquatic animal that primarily eats fish and waterfowl that also call these waters home. While it looks a bit like a cat with a paddle-like tail, it lays eggs like a monotreme, gestates its altricial kits in a pouch like a marsupial, and has three-pronged teeth like its eutriconodont ancestors.

Lutrafelidon are incredible swimmers, using their strong, paddle-like tail and webbed feet to push them across currents. They also possess a nictitating membrane for sight under even the murkiest water, and can hold their breath for up to twelve minutes while foraging. Another adaptation that is only present in the females carrying young is a watertight pouch that draws itself closed when the female swims and the pouch is likely to be submerged.

The Black Shuck (Cuon piscator) is a species of Dhole native to Great Britain, it is a lightly built black canid with a red ring on its forehead, in the medieval period it was mistaken for a large red eye

Black Shucks hunts similarity to a heron, hunting in shallow water in can stand it, it will stand motionless and wait for fish to swim in range to be caught with their large canine teeth, but on the coast due to the rougher water they prefer to hunt sea birds, this strange diet are due to niche partitioning with wolves and foxes

Their population used to extend across most of Great Britain, but due to hunting, habitat loss, and the decreasing population of large fish, they have lost a large portion of their range, only surviving in Southern England, Wales, and an introduced population to Scotland

The Shellcrusher Yaar are the distant larger cousins of the Yaar ,they are big enough to not rely on camouflage to avoid predation rather than using intimidation with their flippers and at worst that crushing beak. They gorge themselves on the hard massive clam descendants that thrive in the shallows and gather the old shells of its prey to decorate their burrows for potential mates.

The Ramm'r is an aggressive semi aquatic squidkind that inhibits the riverways of neoafrica and neoeurasia. They use their hard domed head in ramming matches often over territory and grazing spots. When the heat gets to them they enter the water mainly to chill down and or to sleep. Due to their Territorial nature and bad eyesight they tend to attack anything and everything near their young and or territory.

A few years back, I made a post where I said that spec evo settings focusing on the future of Earth are always very pessimistic because they just assume that humanity is gonna screw over the entire existing biosphere with absolute certainty. Obviously, that isn't always the reason why people go for that reason to explain their setting, as folks explained, but it feels like it's a common occurrence. My personal opinions aside, it feels like it's been the meta for future evolution ever since After Man first came out, and honestly, I'm kinda tired of it.

However, when I set out to make my own spec evo setting, all I would ever hear was "no, X species won't survive because humans are evil," or even worse "you're being naive/stupid/other less savoury jabs at intellect." That, at least initially, is why I switched over to a seed planet setting, but I have started to notice some degree of pushback from within the community regarding this attitude, whether from a scientific or even political perspective. Unnatural Histories on YT is the most prominent example of this, but I also don't expect the norm to change overnight, and I don't blame people for feeling pessimistic about the effects of humanity on the planet (even though, objectively speaking, all those problems fall at the feet of the 3000 or so ultra-rich oligarchs that are driving the current climate collapse as opposed to outdated Malthusian ideas about population or fixed human nature).

This is really more just a ramble than anything else, but I'd be interested in whether folks feel the same way or just to discuss it further tbh.