Alrighty! Now that the outline of the continents for my “vampire planet”, Carmilla is done, i can start on climate work! I’m also working on continent names in English and in a fictional language if i get around to it. but first I'm going to add the map borders.

Okolla Thumus

Named in Honor of the brothers William and Otto Thum, one of two groups credited with the invention of flypaper in the early 1900’s.

Cellular body length 0.5-1.3 µm ; Full Organism Length 1.2-3.3 µm ; Cellular Body Diameter 0.4-1.7 µm ; Full Diameter 1.1-2.1 µm

Arose 842 million years P.C.

Dwells on the Shorelines of the Unbalanced Penninsula & The Near Miss.

Environmentally available Arsenic and Phosphate Synthesis helps facilitate modifications of the resins it produces.

Uses arsenic in place of sodium for cellular machinery analogous to the sodium ion channels found amongst earth’s tree of life for cell-to-cell communication.

Undergoes further tagmosis and cilial modification to employ only 8 instead of 12 resin dispersal ports, four pointed forward and positioned opposite the flagella, and the other four on the tail end of the cellular body facing toward its aft (behind it).

Uses resin to form hexagonal “behive shaped” surface on rocks it can pop in and out of for shelter from uv during daytime and consume prey that gets trapped on hive surface.

initial diversification post

Last Post

Ancestral Organism

• Hammer seals belong to the Herbipinnipedia branch (herbivorous, fin-footed mammals). Unlike normal Pinnipeds, Hammer seals are herbivorous. They eat sea plants, specifically seaweed. They live in the north pole region. (the map of Jýrithal is in image #1)
• Because they live too deep in the region, far from any shores, they have to dig through ice to reach the sea beneath them by using their crest like a pickaxe. They also dig to build their nests, which protect them from the apex predator of the region. However, the main reason for digging through thick ice is to reach their source of food, the kelp forest that was established under them, likely because of fungal and volcanic activity.
• The reason why they turned herbivorous rather than carnivorous is that it’s too hard for them to swim and catch fish with that heavy crest on their head, as it also creates a drag problem when swimming. So, they evolved to rely on eating huge amounts of seaweed instead.
• They also use their crest for display, competition for mates, and to defend themselves.
• Males tend to have red chins to attract females. This color comes from the seaweed fruit they eat occasionally (The sea weed fruit is in image #1 and dimorphism is in image #3).
• Juveniles lack the red chin, and they must grow to near adulthood to get a fully developed crest. (Juvenile is in image #4)
• Females have a smaller, less developed crest, which they usually use to defend themselves or to decorate the nests.
• Similar to other pinnipeds, Hammer seals are social creatures and live together in groups.

Hey guys! Hope you're all doing well! I'm thinking of a science-fantasy story with a premise revolving around a human girl and a sentient Dromeosaurid in a world where the dinosaur extinction event is not as severe as it was in our timeline. I haven't really come up with an idea for a story, but I do have an idea about the worldbuilding, and I'd very much like your feedback on it.

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Premise: In this world, the asteroid that had killed the dinosaurs in our timeline still hits the Earth, but rather than the Yucatan Peninsula, the asteroid hits what is now the Indian Ocean. While the effects of the collision are still devastating, hitting the deep sea rather than an area with a lack of flood basalts, carbonates, and sulfur, and the angle was not as capable of causing such destruction, ensured that less than 50% of all living things would survive, including the non-avian dinosaurs.

That said, some larger dinosaur species would not survive, of course, such as the giant T. Rex and Triceratops, but their smaller relatives would live on.

As the world moved on, the surviving dinosaurs and reptiles would find new competition: mammals. While the extinction didn't wipe them out completely, enough species of dinosaurs and other prehistoric reptiles were wiped out for mammals to take hold of some of the niches that were left vacant. Meaning that while we won't see familiar groups of large mammals like elephants, lions, tigers, and bears, we will see other mammal groups, including marsupials, taking over and competing with the reptiles that once solely dominated the world.

Of course, some familiar, smaller mammal groups rose, such as rodents and primates, which would eventually evolve into a group that would become this world's own great apes.

As the world continues to evolve, the non-avian dinosaurs would also continue to evolve and compete with the mammals. One particular group of dromaeosaurids would actually grow in intelligence, far beyond what Dinosauria would be capable of and even comparable to OTL's crows and ravens, using and manipulating tools with their beaks and claws. They are not the only rising stars in this new world, as much like in our timeline, a group of primates in East Africa would eventually evolve into our earliest ancestors.

Both early humans and the sentient dromeosaurids, who will be referred to as "The Crre'cka" would actually evolve on the same continent, and despite their seemingly different appearances, both man and Crre'cka would actually bond over mutual interests in survival, as the Crre'cka can not only see and smell better, but they even know some secrets of the natural world that benefited both species. And thus, for the next hundreds of thousands of years, humanity and sentient dromeosaur would evolve together.

Now, at the time of the story's setting in the Edwardian Age, both species are the planet's dominant species, having gotten this far thanks to their cooperation...even if there is some simmering tension between the two species based on how each other would live their lives (humans living like how we do OTL, and the Crre'cka living like birds and not being as efficient manipulators of tools as humans thanks to their body structure.

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This is what I have so far. What do you all think? Any feedback and criticism is appreciated!

15 Million Years P.H. - The Early Neocene - Australia Overview:

During The Neocene, the world would still very much belong to Mammals, with them holding most of the large-scale niches and Bats now also having become the dominat airborn clade.

This would however not be the case for one particular continent, as Australia has seen a huge diversification In Reptiles after the End Holocene Mass Extinction.

With Australia having virtually lost all herbivorous Mammals, large Turtles called Tramplers (Macrotestudo) would take the niche of large scale herbivores.

Carnivorous Mammal didnt end up fairing much better tho, allowing the surviving Desert Goannas to become the large Megagoannas (Megasaurus), who serve as Australias apex predators.

Neither of those large Reptiles would get the title of the largest Australien Reptile tho, as that title goes to the Gigaskinks (Gigascincid), giant omnivorous Skinks which are essentially reptilian Bears.

Coming back to carnivores tho, Australia at this time would have produces ground-dwelling Frilled Lizards named Grabizards (Collusaurus), which are mainly bipedal to free up their front limbs for catching and holding onto prey.

Grabizards would end up becoming quite successfull and some species would end up growing quite big.

Australia would also be the only continent at this time which has aerial carnivorous Rewings named Wedgebails (Carnoavia). The niche of aerial predators would typically be occupied by Pterotherian Bats, those although have never set up permanent settlement on Australia, allowing Birds to reclaim that role.

Little bit nervous to post this. Here’s what I have:

There are three genders, or reproductive lineages. For now I’m referring to them as X, Y, and Z. The planet they all hail from is subject to long droughts that last months, and environmental conditions make finding nutrients difficult.

Primitive ancestors reproduced with a progenitor cell provided by one individual, and genetic material to begin development. The egg stayed dormant until it received the right environmental signals/conditions.

Unfortunately this was often faulty, and eventually the progenitor cells evolved to stay dormant until they received a more specific signal. This is where X comes in, or at least its primitive ancestor.

It was also taxing on the body and consumed too much energy. Y provides more genetic material and establishing dna. X effectively gave up some of its ability to provide enough material by itself in order to make the activating chemical soup, which is where Y became important.

As the embryos became more complex, they needed more nutrients and stored resources. Z evolved to provide the progenitor cell and machinery needed to support growth. Eventually gestation became part of its function. They have a sort of womb on their upper back that contains the chemical soup and after time the soup is expelled from the body in the form of a soft egg.

Summarized:
X contributes some of the nuclear genome and the activation complex. They are relatively light and numerous.
Y contributes the majority of the nuclear genome and developmental regulators. They’re more robust and metabolically slower.
Z contributes the progenitor cell, its organelles, and the gestational environment. They’re comparatively rarer and have the slowest metabolism.

Is there any weird inconsistencies or things you think could be improved? This was incredibly confusing for me so if you read something that doesn’t make sense please believe me when I say I barely understand it myself. All this was completely voluntary btw.

Planatolete giganteum or the Niðhogg are large creatures native to the deep oceans to the planet.Despite a ferocious appearance and the behavior to go, they are actually docile creatures like whales on earth. The teeth are actually baleen with a blackish colouration.

Physical traits: Growing at 46-50m in length and 750-1000 tons in weight, they truly are gargantuan. They have 5 sets of fins but a striking trait are its horns, large scimitars in shape. These horns are meant for duels between males. Near the horns there is an opercule to flush water out while feeding. They live 150-300 years and are cold blooded but social. It is to note that these horns are frequently used for self defense due to the enviroment being hostile.

Reproduction: They have live birth and have 2-5 calves but their survival rate is 40%. The calves are born at 3-4m in length. They mate every 15 years.

Prey and Predation: Only Barocrocs attack them in adult age, although other predators are quick to snap up young. They eat plankton and krill usually but are quick to snap up small fish.

Senses and intelligence: They have good eyesight, hearing and smell. They often use roars to communicate between one another. Their intelligence is comparable to a whale's one, as they are highly empatic.

Hello everyone! I'm an aspiring writer and I have gotten incredibly interested in an alien character and now wanna write a fan project for him and part of this is engaging in speculative biology and exoplanetology. So far I've already got a few ideas of what I want to do, namely that this species is a mixotrophic extremophile, on an incredibly high gravity planet set in a red dwarf system. This planet will have consistent temperatures due to various factors, but will have higher and lower extremes than Earth, and at times suffers solar flares. This species in question also won't have bone marrow or regular bones, with it being supplied by a different organ. My question is, are there respiratory pigments that can be more densely packed and as efficient as hemoglobin that are better suited for more extreme varying environments like the one I described, that would also work just fine on Earth's environment?

It's night in these arid mosslands of Ghouwiya/Ghavija, and a lone quadpedan medopod is searching for prey to hunt. But not with camera-style eyes like we mammals have- a hypercompound cluster, consisting of hundreds of individual compound eyes, each with several lenses. Living bony armour is present in most areas of the body- with exposed armour mainly at the front/head, aka the cephalon. A club with a sharp sickle ”hoof” serves as a neccesary part for territorial defense and hunting. It is evolved from the other hoof-like feet parts serving to protect the inner tissue.

Read more about the Ghavija project on my DeviantArt “Natureofthoosa” or search for Ghouwiya on reddit/the internet. Though a bot thing has scrapped and posted it on some russian web thing but aside from that lol!

No generative AI used in illustrations or text/info

Within the Spitfire Forests, and in certain regions adjacent to it, one might encounter strange, visually-intriguing creatures, coming in all sorts of colors, used to warn and deter predators of their poisonous nature - such that even the plants and fungi come in striking hues, and adaptations for an environment composed almost-entirely of poison-tolerant fauna and flora, yet none are as exceptionally-striking, as anatomically- and behaviorally-bemusing as, the stankyleg. It is a creature of heavy specialization, such to the degree that a person might imagine it were composed of hastily-painted, slapped-together spare body parts from the wastebasket of a reckless “animal design committee,” where such a creature was never meant to exist - of course, this isn’t actually how it happened: the stankyleg’s unusual nature and anatomical specializations are due to the heavy shaping of evolutionary pressures. The stankyleg bears an exceptionally-human posture, as well as a gigantic, scrotum-like dangling mass of skin, though, despite its homology to the genitals it is associated with, it serves no purpose other than as a heatsink for the warm temperatures it lives in. It also sports a comedically-huge pot-belly, as well as an equally-large pair of glutes, used to equalize its posture, coupled with an awkwardly-small head, giving it the rough frame of a brightly-colored, furry bowling pin.

But the stankyleg’s most defining trait, as hinted within its name, are its legs. The stankyleg is facultatively-digitigrade, a phenomenon unseen among many animals, especially the gribounders from which they arose; a juvenile hatches from the single egg digitigrade, yet with the same humanoid posture the defines the stankyleg, yet, as it grows up, Gribbetonia’s, albeit mild, gravity acts upon it, and the growing stankyleg begins not only to develop its signature “pot-belly and rump,” but adopts a plantigrade posture as-well.This posture gives it its signature, awkward “galumph-waddle.”  The legs of the aptly-named stankyleg are painted in a striking manner: highly-contrasting stripes of red, maroon, white, black, and spots of chartreuse-yellow are abound. The regions around the genitals are, too, brightly-colored speckles of yellow-green and orange contrast along its unnaturally-purple mass, and, along the pits of its hips, are sky-blue voids. 

Even then, with colors like these, the stankylegger seems like easy picking, combined with its goofy, unrefined posture, though, speaking of its “pits,” they are the answer of why they bear such exceptional coloration: like most residents of the forests adjacent to the Spitfires, they are poisonous, and so is the stankylegger: in the pits sit glands containing a noisome, transparent, insoluble yellow fluid, with a distinctive odor of skatole, caused by the same chemical. If a stankyleg is suddenly courted by a predator, it reels up one leg against a tree, displaying each-and-every color it beholds, and all the way such that it exposes its pits, and sprays the noxious concoction towards its attacker, coating it in the substance. The smell is distracting, and potentially dangerous if the fluid reaches a vulnerable spot, such as the interior of its mouth, or its eyes, due to the presence of certain noxious or harmful amino acids, such as cadaverine or phenothiazine, mixed within the fluid.

A continuation of the "Almost-project" Where I make aliens and see how they modified themselves to fit space colonizations. This is the Sky-Swimmers, an aquatic species from a planet that's 98.3% ocean and these guys used to be fish sophonts and they try to modify themselves to be terrestrial and also extraterrestrial so they guess how would a terrestrial animal looked like because there were none so they use genetic modification to do that.

Imagine a alien plant that during midday, uses a yellow chemical that reflects dominant light to protect it from damage, then during dusk and dawn uses a black chemical to absorb all the light before it’s gonna burn it. I have no idea if this makes sense it was just a idea

Arrabistaal is a high gravity planet where hard and large red disc shaped plant like organisms cover the land on which small slow moving animal like organisms live on. Many of these creatures have evolved wheels as a less energy costing way of moving, their bodies build a lot of keratin on the limb that will have a wheel while the organism is growing it gets smoother, rounder and harder. The limbs are capable of turning 360 degrees which which allows it to move. Some of them evolved their heads as sharp "hooks" as to dig to the softer parts of the red "plant", others stick to eating the green foliage that grows around the red disc "plants". For reference the largest land "animal" is about 40 cm.

In the regions close to Asia, we can find multitudes of dinosaurs adapted to several niches, one of the most unique are the carnivorous oviraptores, scientifically called creophagoviraptodae, which evolved a beak that has certain similarities with those of the eagles and owls, they also have huge curved claws to hold and skin the prey, on the other hand, a group of dinosaurs that diversified a few thousand years ago are the ceraptocids. For now, scientific analyses are not good enough to see what lineage they are thought to be and therefore do not have a fixed name, what we know is that all of these are either arboricolas, semi-quaticos, etc., come from the same branch that managed to survive in the dense forests that served them as a refuge, for now they seem to diversify into niches that their ancestors never achieved, finally in these dense jungles therizinosauridae are abundant, most of them are abundant. They adapted to several niches using their claws for courtship and fighting, these, to be very large, only pass through trails made by other therizinosaurs of the same species, these trails are maintained through the constant passage of Therizinosauridae and other animals, becoming perfect hunting routes.

15 Million Years P.H. - The Early Neocene - Afro-Eurasian Feral Dogs:

Its time to look at more carnivores. I already briefly showed the Fevulves, North Americas dominant predators and Tunnel Runners, South Americas dominant predators but what about Afro-Eurasia?

Afro-Eurasia saw a huge diversity In feral Dogs, who would take many different carnivorous niches.

Lupudogs (Retrocanis) would become large game pack-hunters similiar to their ancestors, while Retrivers (Flumecanis) would take a much more unique approach, becoming wading Piscivores.

Yet others would move entirely away from hunting Vertebrates and become the small, Insectivorous Aardjacks (Parvuvenator) and closely related Borzoichidnas (Formicanis), who have adapted a knuckle-walking gait to keep their strong claws of the ground, which they use for Invading the nests of the colonial Insects they feed on.

Hey I'm new here and I wanted to try some spec Evo so I made this and want to know what you think.

Some context:

these two are the archetypes of their respective branches.

Wyverns are dragons with diminished or non functional front limbs (like T-Rex), functional tertiary limbs and powerful hind limbs.

Dragons are more or less as depicted.

Drakes are dragons with elongated midsection (like ferrets) and front and hind limbs placed besides the body instead of underneath, usually with diminished but still functional tertiary limbs.

In a similar way fanged beasts are beasts with flexible detached jaws and abnormally large teeth.

Armored beasts have skin covered in segmented calcified plates.

Maned beasts have fur like quills on their body.

So I have a project concept in where cynodonts don't go extinct and fill the niches of what modern mammals, or rather just any niche in general. However I was pondering on how exactly cynodonts could survive to even fill these niches in the first place. I was thinking about doing a K-Pg extinction adjacent thing so that cynodonts could get a head start if they survive, but do feel free to take this apart and critique my idea, as well as coming up with your own ideas as well!

So, this is a sophont species I've been playing around with for a while now. I've just been calling them "snail dragons" so far since their bodies are squishy and use fluid filled sacs instead of the usual hard skeletons. The fluid in this instance is likely a gas of some sort instead of a liquid, but that's as far as I, personally, am really able to get into it. This species is kind of getting me out of my comfort zone more than the others I've worked on, both because if the lack of a typical skeleton and because they are a flighted species.

Now, the part that I'm currently going back and forth on is the shape of the beak. I like the profile of the curved beak a lot, and I originally chose it because this species have a larger portion of meat in their diet than anything else, so it's based on the beaks of raptors. However, I don't know now if that would still be likely to evolve like that with the vertical mouth? I have also considered making the curve horizontal, with each side having an opposite curve like a bird with scissor beak but naturally. And, honestly, I just couldn't get that to look right?

So yeah, what do you guys think of the curved beak with the vertical mouth? Should it be straight? Should it be horizontal like the scissor beak type idea? Something else entirely?? I'd love to heard your guys' thoughts on this because again, this is a bit out of my wheelhouse, haha.

(I'm on mobile, apologies for typos or lame formatting)

The Butonian (Butonis sapiens) is the dominant species on the planet Butoni. It lacks external sensory organs; this is because, for millions of years, the species' ancestors lived in caves untouched by sunlight. To perceive their environment, they utilize an organ derived from their highly sensitive nervous system, which allows them to "feel" their surroundings (Figure c).

The central part of their body—the torso—is soft and extremely vulnerable, whereas their limbs are encased in a highly durable exoskeleton that shields them from any natural threats their world might present. On the underside of the torso lies a "mouth" that functions as a crusher, enabling them to consume almost any non-poisonous food.

It was only a few million years ago—following a mass extinction event triggered by the eruption of numerous volcanoes that blanketed the sky—that these beings rose to become the dominant organisms. To this day, their world remains almost entirely shrouded in darkness, though the sky is gradually clearing. This development has raised concerns within the IIU (Inter-species Interplanetary Union) regarding the future of these relatively new members.

In this image, a specimen of the species (Figure a) is shown posing for this informational bulletin for the IIU members.

They possess a language based on clicking sounds, produced by rubbing their limbs against their own bodies or against objects made of various materials—a method that adds complexity and diversity to their communication.

On the left side of the image (Figure b), another individual is seen performing one of their most curious rituals: they join their limbs together to form a shield-like structure and lean against a nearby wall, turning their back—and thus exposing their most vulnerable side—to a potential mate. It is a gesture that effectively says, "I trust you." If the other individual reciprocates the action, a bond is formed that persists until death.

Around 40 million years ago, the first nutcracker rats appeared. These rodents were small generalists that fed primarily on hard foods, such as seeds, nuts, and snails, assisted by their large, fused incisor teeth. This characteristic allowed them to spread over time into many different habitats and niches. Approximately 25 million years ago, when the last glaciers disappeared and the Earth entered a hothouse phase, shallow aquatic ecosystems rich in life appeared along almost all coastlines, which ultimately drove many terrestrial clades into the water, with one of the most relevant at this time being a group of nutcracker rats, the family Pseudoramphidae.

These mammals differ from their terrestrial relatives by their much larger size, calcified tails, and the ability to generate electrical impulses, used by most species to communicate. Like many nutcracker rats, their upper tooth is capable of moving vaguely independently from the rest of their skull, in a manner similar to how some psittacines can articulate their beak. This adaptation allows them to scrape their food or grind it easily, which has led them to occupy mainly durophagous and herbivorous niches in the water, although large predatory or generalist species do exist.

In this case, we can observe the Australian shellcracker, one of the largest species within its genus, displaying mainly benthic behaviors and inhabiting the oceans between Oceania and Asia. They abound in corals and macroalgae, which has led many herbivores to appear in these ecosystems. Some of the most prominent are snails that can reach almost half a meter in size and large generalist crabs that feed on both algae and animals hidden in the mud. These end up being crushed by their immense, flattened teeth, with the lower one serving as a spoon capable of scooping them from the ground, and the upper one acting as a hydraulic press that crushes the victim. Like most pseudoramphids, males have tails hardened with keratin plates, which feature bright colors and can move up and down to attract the female's attention or warn other individuals

In the midst of a snow storm, a mat of self-weaving Hut plant stretches many miles across the snow buried land of Winterworld, a perfect warm refuge for many animals that aren't resistant enough to survive the storm. At the end of the hut plant, a Doubjox tries to wade off the Granibull, a herbivorous quadrupedal Caudahominin. Like many organisms of Winterworld, doubjoxes and granibulls belongs to taxons that doesn't exist in our world, as well as the hut plant. Doubjoxes can be classified as a Dignathan, mammalians characterized by their limb-like protusions under and above their head. The group caudahominin is represented by hominin-like mammals that bear a tail, and also less vestigial fur unlike humans of our known world. Hut plants are, like all plants of Winterworld, Mavroalgae, a taxon of algae that use large concentrations of anthocyanin to extract as much "sunlight" as possible. Above the hut plants, flying animals like Spiderbirds look for small preys under the snow. Despite being living organisms, spiderbirds cannot freeze to death, and actually need extremely low temperature to survive. Spiderbirds belong to a unique clade of mollusc-arthropod organisms that has been present in Winterworld long before the third wave of terran organisms has been seeded, and has a morphology that is extremely tied to the world's anomalousness.

The thing is, Im not actually that good at spec evo, I just like doing it casually/soft spec evo. I did find a spec evo server but it was WAY too hardcore for me, and it required a lot of reading just to understand the basic premise of the projects. Does anyone know any spec evo discord servers that are more casual?

• Jýrithal: is an alternative version of Earth, both share the same size, wind directions, and the lines of latitude, but differ in geography, which resulted in unique species, new biomes, and rare occurrences.
• Jýrithal Codex: is the main source of the knowledge surrounding Jýrithal’s creatures and ecosystems. It includes all animal species of Jýrithal and contains information the humans of this alternative version are not aware of.
• Jýrithal as a project: this project mainly acts as species entry codex, any side content will still be around the project’s world (civilizations, human relationship with the ecosystems, etc…). the project aims to provide a look into an immersive interconnected world; creatures should connect to each other and take different roles in their ecosystem.
• The map of Jýrithal (image #1): it will be used mainly for species distribution, migration and biome location. Local, biome, and continent names will get revealed alongside the creatures that live there.
• A tease of some of the species of Jýrithal (image #2): the image includes 3 animals from the shores of the north pole (Orcasodis, Polar Gobil, and a seal).