r/SpeculativeEvolution

By 55 million years time, the grassland predators such as big cat would disappear in a few thousand years after the dominion of humankind. So apes such as this Magnopithicus would fill in the role as predator. Though, this creature is an opportunistic hunter, meaning it steals kills from other predators in the grassland. It may occasionally hunt smaller animals to alleviate their hunger. This creature is as big as a grizzly, that when it rears up, making it a fright creature to deter predators to give up their kill.

When humans first arrived into the Monster World, expeditions mainly took place in the ocean before research settlementss could be established across the coast lines of the large continent. This eventually led to the discovery and classification of three creatures within the same genus: The Shellbeats.

Gigafyllo is the name given to a genus of giant squid of the family Architeuthidae, with three species discovered at the moment.

The genus was first named in 2027 and means "Giant Cover", making reference to the most important feature, and the one that distinguishes them the most from the regular colossal squids of Earth, its the presence of a shell that protects the visceral hump. Along with this Shell, they also possess frills on their sides, which act as intimidation structures that raise and shake when the animal is agitated.

As mentioned before, three species have been discovered. The Common Shellbeat, The Coral Shellbeat and The Emperor Shellbeat.

The Common Shellbeat (Gigafyllo Mochily), or directly Shellbeat, is the middle child of the three. A shallow water predator, its found exclusively on the shallow seas East of the continent, where it uses its long tentacles to pull prey into itself, before using its beak to devour them. It has shown to be skitish towards larger creatures, including boats, which may hint that this predator may not be on the top of the foodchain.

The shell of the common shellbeat is spiraled, resembling that of some gastropods, but to a much larger scale.

Unlike its large cousin, the Coral Shellbeat (Gigafyllo Korallion) has actually shown interest towards the large vessels filled with strange bipedal creatures that explore its home. The smallest species discovered, the Coral Shellbeat, also called the Dwarf Shellbeat, is found on the shallow tropical waters of the Southwest sea, where this nimble predator hunts small fish and sometimes birds.

The dwarf shellbeat has been seen utilizing long rocks and floating branches to lift rocks in search of hiding prey which combined with its curiosity towards explorers and equipment, has proved to be a problem for scuba divers since their lances keep being stolen by one of this predators wanting a stick to get a meal.

The dwarf shellbeat has blueish shell that resembles a clam when seen from the front.

And finally, the largest of the three species, within the deep oceans of the outskirts, swims an apex predator. The Emperor Shellbeat (Gigafyllo Kokkitoras) is the least researched of the three species, with its diet and habitat making it particulary difficult to study.

To put it lightly, the Emperor Shellbeat is extremely territorial against other large animals, which resulted in an incident where a large male sank a small research vessel.

From what is known, the Emperor Shellbeat is a large deep-sea predator which hunts medium to large prey and that, unlike the other Shellbeat species, uses its spiked shell as weaponry, ramming into larger targets to stun them, before wrapping its tentacles around it and sinking it to the bottom of the ocean (Yes, this was discovered by the research vessel. No, we dont know what happened afterwards.)

Approximately 30.8 million years P.E., the equatorial oceans of Molaria host a highly specialized lineage of Ranzaniaswhose greatest exponent is the Garden fish (Ambulocrupos armonicus), an organism of up to 5 meters in length that inhabits the superficial part of the epipelagic zone. The most notable anatomical feature of this species lies in its skin, as it continuously secretes a thick layer of mucus composed of hydrophobic glycoproteins with chitin nanospheres in suspension. This compound acts as a non-Newtonian fluid that maintains a low viscosity during routine locomotion to reduce hydrodynamic resistance, but experiences an instantaneous phase transition toward strain hardening upon the attack of a predator, operating as a fluid ballistic armor that dissipates the energy of the attack.
The complexity of this taxon extends to a symbiotic relationship involving a consortium of phototrophic macroalgae and the Wasp Mola (Thanatiforodonta nefeloma). The macroalgae colonize the upper zone of the host's mucus, providing it with carbohydrates and complementary nutrients that mitigate the metabolic limitations of its zooplankton-based diet, in exchange for greater exposure to light at the surface and protection against herbivores. For its part, the Wasp Mola is a small obligate mutualist between 10 and 15 cm in length that actively regulates this cutaneous microecosystem in groups of 5 to 10 individuals per Garden fish, consuming excess algal biomass and eliminating pathogenic ectoparasites. Its vivid and aposematic coloration warns of its high toxicity, as it possesses an elongated fang in its beak capable of injecting a potent neurotoxin that immediately paralyzes the muscle tissue of any fish, whose potency is sufficient to sedate the arm of an adult man for up to 2 hours. The success and persistence of this symbiosis depend on a behavior of selective breeding and transmission of the fish's own flora induced during the first months of life of the offspring. In this stage of close association, the Wasp Mola specimens extract fragments from the healthiest groups of algae of the adult host and place them onto the skin of the juveniles, ensuring the propagation of the algae through a mechanism of biological artificial selection that optimizes the fitness of future generations.

I am trying to make heads for animals that can basically create themselves using a spore like generation, I wanted to make heads that have details that would be helpful for a creature to have and not just a like a shark head. Each head has different traits and usefulness. I tried imaging these "animals" if they needed certain characteristics for a environment and figured out what could be useful (ex: a hot desert like environment - small animal with big ears used as shade). Sorry if this does not count as speculative evolution.

"Question"

I’m trying to make a semi-plausible version of fairies, so I created a variant of the potter wasp that lost its stinger in order to transport mud more efficiently for building its hives/nests. However, it developed a mutualistic relationship with an extremely toxic bioluminescent fungus that gives it the ability to drive away predators with its toxins in exchange for spreading its spores while flying (the so-called fairy dust).

Now the problem is that I want to give it basic fairy-like abilities, such as a playful attitude and the ability to slightly understand human behavior and language. Nothing too complicated — maybe something similar to the abilities crows and dogs have for understanding and solving problems. I’m open to any ideas.

had to repost cuz I forgot to add the brown flipper thingies the back side for the sea bees😭

sea bees are a family of organisms that are aquatic and live in reefs. the image above is a species of sea bees. They live in hives of 100-1000 sea bees. They use hydrocyathans as their hives. They tend to be about the size of a bumblebee, but the queens are usually about 2-2.5x bigger. They are part of the cnithropoda phylum (which are basically a mix of cnidarians and arthropods. All u need to know is that they have jellyfish-like bodies on the inside and chitin exoskeletons on the outside). They have a large singular eye at the front of their “face” with the blue around it actually being their soft interior body exposed. Their diets mostly consist of algae and plants. They live for around 1-2 years. They have surprisingly high intelligence and can be seen communicating with each other, and are very loyal to their hives but aggressive towards other animals. But if you find one from birth and raise it, it’ll be very loyal to you. Likewise if you help one in danger or in a tough situation. Here’s a picture of a hydrocyatha. They’re based on archaeocyatha. Basically they’re just sponges. I’ll probably do a more in depth post on them later!

most of this info applies to all sea bees, except for the size, behavior, and life span

Ok so, abit of story time:

in primary school I drew up a few comics about if dinosaurs had escaped their extinction by living on the moon instead. It was fun for a while but then I made the big leap to secondary school I forgot about all of those comics. Untill a few weeks ago

I had stumbled upon a project by CM Koseman and Simon Roy http://www.cmkosemen.com/dinosauroids.html

It was about "what if the dinosaurs never went extinct?", it mostly focused on the early tribal stages of development which is cool ofc, but they briefly dabbled in the future if the dinosaurs with this moon landing images you see here drawn by Simon Roy. It awakened a deep dormant thing deep inside me and I really really need to draw my dinosaurs again... I even got permission from CM Koseman via email To use the space suit designs you see here in my drawings (with credit ofc).

GAHH SPACE DINOSAURS ARE SO COOL! I JUST WATCHED FOR ALL MANKIND SO ITS JUST SO COOL!!!

Skinsects are probably my biggest projects I worked on. I spent more than 5 years of entomology research to make them both very fantastic but somewhat realistic and plausible. They are monsters I created for my world of Oominor, where all creatures are introduced by migrated from different version of Earths.

Monomysia, or wyvern sea cucumbers or sea dragons/wyverns, is an incredibly successful order of aquatic echinoderm descended from sea cucumbers. They possess a single muscle, derived from their ambulacral system, which compacted together into a tail muscle that can bend, stretch, and retract only with hydraulic fluids. The hydraulics near their tube feets are modified to make them prehensile, so reaching for food in a small space or grabbing specific materials are easier. a pair of light sensitive eyes derived from an extension of their photoreceptive system allows them to detect light and "see", but derivative clades enhances or reduce their sensory system for different adaptations, especially their pair of primitive eyes.

If one ventures into the vast grasslands of the monster world, it may be able to spot large white spines sticking out of the tall grass.

The culprit? The common Peckidna.

The common Peckidna, Megalotrogon or simply Peckidna is a large monothreme of the family Tachyglossidae native to the grasslands and forests of the monster world.

They are slow, heavily armored, insectivores that wander through the large grass in search of ant mounts, using its large claws to open the large structures and feast upon the insects with its long tongue.

One may notice the slight blue coloration of the Peckidna's back, this color is the result of a type of bioluminiscent fungus that thrives and expands along the large animal's spines. Another recognizable characteristic are the six larger spines along the back of the Peckidna. These are for defense purposes, making the Peckidna look larger and intimidating predators.

Usually among the Peckidna, small flocks of Anteater Birds (Myrminkofágos pouli) rest perched on the its large back spines. These little birds act as an alarm system for the Peckidna, and in exchange, the Peckidna does the heavy lifting for the birds when opening the reinforced ant mounds.

I've been working on my very first full-scale (ish) spec evo project for a long time now, probably just around 6 months. I've been working on it in the shadows of this subreddit, asking for advice and looking at other peoples' work for inspiration. And I've gotta say- you all are a creative bunch. Im very limited in my online resources, so yall are going to have to settle with some low-quality pictures of my traditional art for now. Im going to do my best to keep the world or universe itself relatively mysterious in order to not stray too far from the spec-evo part of the universe.

Im a huge fan of sci-fi, specifically jurassic Park (mostly the book) and Alien. So, I probably took some inspiration from both of those. I recently finished my first story part of the universe/main planet this project focuses on. I took on a different writing style for this one, filled with redacted text on a log-by-log style.

I'll stop beating around the bush now and just ask for feedback from y'all. I've got TONS more art and ideas for writing, and id like to know the best direction for it all. I rushed the writing a little bit because it was for a school project that just grew into something much more. I'll also answer questions, though most of everything about this universe is still a WIP. I also want to not explain everything at one time in order to make future changes to lore or some other things like that.

Thanks for your help, even if you didnt know you were helping. Just keep up what you have been doing with your ideas!

Constructive criticism is encouraged and appreciated!

(Image is one of the animals featured in the story, though briefly)

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[Extraneous logs removed]

Crew Log - #28

The captain just changed our course only a couple minutes ago, now we’re planning to make a stop at an unmapped star system on our way to Iumenta for a gravity assist. I recommended we go straight there, but a gravity assist will cut our ride short. Thankfully. If I have to sit here and listen to Harlan talk about fake or theoretic animals more than I need to, I might throw myself out of the airlock.

One thing I noticed though, is that there are no meteorology probes or satellites anywhere in this star system, nor any information about the conditions we might experience. Usually this wouldn’t be an issue out here in our farming sector, but an unmapped star system in such a high-traffic area is... irregular. Either way, I’ve been overruled. The nutjob Harlan- the xenobiologist or whatever he calls himself, just wants to get to Iumenta as fast as possible for his “studies”. The rest of the four others are passengers like myself plus our captain. Captain Kuznetsov. More like a glorified newspaper boy than anything, but who am I to judge? I just need to get to Iumenta so I can get off this sorry excuse for a farming vessel and hitch a commercial ride to the nearest Alt-E (Alternate Earth) to finish my meteorology degree.

Crew Log - #29

We had to make our unexpected landing approximately 60 minutes ago; the hour is 1500 East Celestial Sector Time. Last known coordinates are as follows: ████, ██████, ██°███, █ ████, ██ ██████.

Of course, why would we listen to the meteorologist? We got Captain newspaper boy and the guy who talks about fake animals deciding the fate of our vessel- which has already had it bad enough. Complications arose with our attempt to utilize a gravity assist apparently- and now we’re here. Captain said we blew out one of the engines trying to escape the planet’s sphere of influence, so we can’t lift off. Fantastic. Fortunately, the atmosphere seems breathable- even though it feels like I’m drinking more water than I am breathing air. Environment seems very rich in biomass, and oxygen levels are through the roof. I feel... lighter too. Most likely less gravity. The temperature fluctuations are very indicative of an unstable climate, though I’ll need to grab some of my instruments from my luggage to confirm my suspicions. At least Harlan seems excited about the plants, so I’ll probably go see what his deal is.

Crew Log - #30

Day one here is going well. My instruments confirm the climate’s instability, which means we should be expecting drastic temperature shifts and probably some serious storms. Just the cherry on top of our cake, right? Nobody knows what to do. Our Captain’s a farmer and we’re all just passengers. Nobody here knows what is going on or how to get our ship back into the air. Harlan seems to be doing fine, and I actually sat down to listen to him. Well, half-listen anyway. He was talking something about evolution of the plants or something, said they looked like ██████ and ███ ████ from Earth. I wasn’t really fully listening until the sounds of constant, humid dripping was suddenly interrupted by a rustling in the bush. Out popped the first case of fauna on this planet that we had encountered, and it was nothing like I had ever seen before. It was roughly the size of a cyber ball that we played with as kids, though it walked with a strange, almost mechanical feel to it. It wasn’t fleshy like us or the livestock on Iumenta. It was like it was covered in sheets of rock that ground together in a quiet scraping rhythm. It had lots of legs, a broad body, and two large arms tipped with broad, two-fingered, tweezer-like appendages. Harlan recognized it immediately- said it was a ███. I’m just gonna trust him at this point. Though he did mention that they were supposed to have gone extinct back before the war, before all the Alt-Es were fully established. For some reason, his mind was constantly stuck on evolution. I walked away after the little animal rapidly dug underground with its large arms to escape Harlan’s curiosity. Kuznetsov said we should spend the first night in the ship, then start to explore in the morning. I’m not gonna argue, and neither is anyone else.

P.S. Harlan sketched down the little animal on a notepad, the image I will upload below.

[DATA EXPUNGED]

Crew Log - #31

Last night was relatively uneventful. None of us could sleep very well though. The constant sounds of water moving and strange clicks or chatters were so unfamiliar to all of us. It seemed as if the very air we were breathing was alive.

However, as time progressed, even I was able to get some sleep. But I woke, startled awake by Kuznetsov who had this sense of urgency on his face. I couldn’t figure out the problem until the hull of our grounded vessel groaned loudly, like it was hurling. The entire thing began to shift and groan even more, and I could barely stand up straight after the captain went back into the quarters to help the others. Even as I held the wall leading up to the exit, I was thrown against it and a searing pain escaped from the side of my head. Harlan was next to me at this point, but I was pulling ahead.

I don’t remember what happened after this or how I got out. All I remember is looking back at our vessel to see it getting engulfed by the Earth itself. The mud rose around the landing gear and had consumed the entire right wing by the time the rest of them got out, with Kuznetsov tailing behind them. We all watched in disbelief as the vessel eventually came to a halt halfway buried beneath the mud. The main entrance was completely obscured, but the cabin remained protruding from the ground like a hill of steel.

Everything was silent, except for the drip.

I looked down at the source, and the red pool at my feet continued to grow. It was coming from me. My head. I remember reaching up and feeling a warm liquid running down the side of my face, coating my ear in a viscous, red substance. I pull my hand back, and it’s got the same red spread across its palm, and that’s the last picture I see before the world starts to spin.

Crew Log - #32

I woke up in the dirt, though not the dirt I was left in before. I attempted to move, but my legs wouldn’t listen. Nothing would. I began to panic, but Kate was there. She had a medical tool in her hand, moving with small mechanical arms and needles. She explained to me a bunch of long words and told me to get some more rest. So I did.

Kate is the only medical student on board with us, and I’m definitely glad she was there. We had spoken only briefly before we had to land, but she seemed smart. Smarter than me at least. When the muscle relaxants finally wore off and I could move again, I reached up to feel the side of my head, but I was only met with the coarse fiber of the bandage. Pretty sure Kate had given me some sort of numbing agent, because I felt great. However, the solemn of our group told me they didn’t feel the same.

One of us was missing. Rich.

But I could’ve sworn that Rich had gotten off the ship. Because he had. The only one willing to talk was Harlan. He explained that an animal like the one we had seen the other day, a ███ had… attacked. This one was larger. Much larger. Harlan explained the animal with a lot of detail- its vibrant green and blue coloration, how its mouth seemed to have its own hands, the way it moved like the construction machines we have back home, and how it dragged Rich away into a tree before dismembering him. I guess I had a really worried or shocked face because then Harlan switched topics to something about behaviors and adaptations. Maybe the antibiotics hadn’t worn off fully or something- because he was speaking total gibberish. Talking about ███ and ███████. Things I’ve never even heard of, but he seems like he knows more than we do about these animals.

All I know is that I don’t want to have to be conscious if this happens again.

Crew Log - #33

The remainder of today after my last log was walking. The tension was high among our group, and soon it became too much after the numbing agent wore off. This whole situation is Kuznetsov’s fault- and I wasn’t about to just stand there and blindly follow him anymore. Without him Rich wouldn’t be gone, and we would still be in our ship on our merry way to Iumenta. Pretty sure I got in his face first, or maybe he did. Either way, I swung on him. I could feel the clatter of his teeth beneath the throbbing of my knuckles as he fell to the ground with more of a splash than a thud. Kate got between the two of us, and Harlan stiff-armed me away. I could still feel myself fuming, so I walked away. Off into the bushes, away from the group. I walked until I couldn’t hear Kate’s reassurances anymore.

My mind was racing, trying to pin the blame on Kuznetsov. The ship. The last sliver of hope drowned in the depths of this godforsaken planet. The side of my head. Rich. My freshly painted knuckles, which hung at my side. However, it wasn’t long until my thoughts were abruptly interrupted. My foot struck something on the floor. Something heavy and hard. I trace the silhouette until I freeze. Every hair on my body stands straight up and my stomach sinks. The same feeling in the ship. I stand there, soundless and motionless for what seems like hours before the group starts to call my name. The mound of armor doesn’t move before I do. I step slightly to the side, getting a better view of the animal. My foot glides over the green foliage on the ground, then strikes the armor with a sickening crunch.

I wait for it.

And wait.

But nothing. I’m not getting dragged into a tree and dismembered. Matter of fact, the piece that I had struck flaked off like rusted metal and stuck to my boot. Immediately, I felt a surge of relief.

It was dead.

I called out to Harlan, and he promptly moved through the foliage towards me. Together, or mostly just Harlan, he determined this was a different offshoot of ███. The only others that we had seen had been no bigger than the couch we had on board the ship. This one was much larger. And I mean much, much larger. As in- the size of some small private vessels.

Then Harlan made an unsettling discovery. This wasn’t a carcass- this was a ██.

Just the armor.

Crew Log - #34

Nothing has been the same since earlier today. I walk at the back of the group and Kuznetsov walks at the front. Everyone has been on edge since the skin we found. If it can even be called skin. Biological rock probably fits the description better. Harlan took a sample and stuck it in a glass vial. Don’t know what the heck he’s gonna use that for- but I wasn’t the mood to start anything else. My head was throbbing too much.

We walk through game trails as we travel. Some look like we could drive cars through them; others barely fit me between the dense flora on either side. The more we walk, the more alive everything feels. Harlan has to have catalogued over 16 species at this point. Most are small, no bigger than a chair. Few were larger, but those that were didn’t seem interested in us. Harlan theorizes the vast majority of these species are either devoted herbivores or eat things that are already dead.

One particular species especially caught my eye. The one we saw looked a lot like the rock skin we found earlier, but it is much smaller. Harlan assured me they were different species, but I think I’m right about this one for the first time. Might be a child. We saw it at the base of a huge boulder in a flooded, marsh-like field. Its back was towards us, and it was scooping some plants into its mouth. It has the same general body plan; a wide body, 8 thick, powerful legs, and two tweezers. Harlan said they were something that started with a “P”, but I can’t remember, and they look like Kate’s tweezers. This one’s tweezers are different though. One is smaller and looks like it is used more for eating stuff. Sometimes it even walks on this tweezer. The other tweezer is much bigger. It rivals the size of the ███ itself. Due to this, it lays this huge tweezer on top of its own wide body. What this tweezer could possibly be used for is beyond me.

I think I’m starting to see what Harlan has been talking about.

Crew Log - #35

The mood was high. We emerged from dense ██████ to see the all-familiar metallic domes rising above the tree line. Easily recognizable farming █████; they’re all over Iumenta. We started to celebrate. We could get there, gather materials, and send out a distress call for any passing vessels.

That’s when we saw them.

I looked across the clearing- just in front of the tree line. It looked like a bunch of logs laying around- until one stood up.

On two legs.

This ███ was long, not wide. It had a large, segmented tail and its 8 pairs of knife-like tweezers are tucked under its body in between its head and legs. It was almost in the shape of a dinosaur from our archives of old.

Then another stood up.

Then another.

Soon, they were all on their feet, prowling towards us. This was when Harlan saw them. I saw the excitement on his face completely vanish, replaced by a horrified pale stare. Then all of us saw them. There were 5 of us and 6 of them, and each of them stood just below my shoulder while standing parallel to the ground. Harlan was studying them as they crept closer, quickly and quietly determining we were being hunted. With no other options, we retreated back into the brush. My heart was pounding out of my chest. As we struggled to move deeper, I could hear the long strides of the ███ around us. They made a short squelch in the soft ground as they walked, accompanied by an occasional jitter or click.

I could hear them but not see them.

Then it struck. Harlan.

The ███ jumped from the dense foliage, tackling Harlan to the ground. I stood only feet from him as he screamed. Screams I’ve never heard escape from anyone’s lips as long as I’ve been alive. Pure fear. Helplessness. They didn’t last long. The tweezers picked Harlan apart like he had described to me only earlier that day. His scream turned into a gurgle, then a whimper, then silence.

Crew Log - #36

I couldn’t control myself. The fear too great, the guilt too unbearable. I left them. Kate. Kuznetsov. The other passengers. I ran towards the farming █████. If there was any hope, I’d have to get there.

Only after I had left the foliage once more did I realize Kuznetsov and another passenger had followed me. As I looked back at them, I could see Kate breach the tree line and get ready to run but was tackled by two of the █████. I had to look away- I couldn’t put another face to a scream.

I didn’t- I couldn’t have done anything else. With no way to defend myself, I just had to run. My lungs began to burn. My sweat destroyed the bandage fastening across my face, and I felt the poisonous, humid air slice through my open wound to pierce directly into my skull. But I wouldn’t stop. Couldn’t.

It didn’t take long to get to the front doors of the farming █████. I was the first in, followed by Kuznetsov. I turned and saw the last passenger running up the stair towards us with a █████ right behind him.

He wouldn’t make it. He’s gonna let it in.

Without a second thought, I slammed the door. His gurgling screams muffled from the thick steel. Kuznetsov turned to me to say something, a horrified look on his face. I just ran.

Eventually, I found the main ████████ room. Kuznetsov seemingly understood what I was trying to do and we both slumped down behind the control panel. Usually, old tech like this would have some sort of behind-the-scenes emergency power supply. Kuznetsov found it and twisted two colored wires together- burning himself in the process. I don’t know if more humidity or sweat was on my forehead, but I hooked up the log recorder to the main ████████.

The sound of glass shattering and metal groaning filled the entire █████ as I wrote out our distress signal. Or rather- our warning. I gave Kuznetsov a somber look, then handed him the log recorder so he could write down his own words. With the press of a button and the whirring of some systems, I had to trust that it had worked.

The thump of feet hit the steel floor, and I was staring into big, endless eyes.

Nature really is fascinating, isn’t it?

[ATTACHED DISTRESS SIGNAL BELOW]

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It has been nearly 7 years since I first created the Manticores for my Oominor project. Originating from giant baboon ancestors, these enormous, lion-like predators rank as some of the most dangerous creatures in Oominor and are the third-largest mammalian carnivores globally. Their intelligence adds to their menace: Manticores are highly strategic, capable of problem-solving and coordinated actions. They also have sharp, quill-like spikes on their tails used for defense and fighting.

I know that the larger species would probably get absolutely destroyed by square cube law. I mean a 3 mile long animal with 100ft long teeth is fucking impossible in everyway. Though I've heard online that the smaller species were closer to blue whale size, which could be plausible. We have multiple examples of large marine animals having diverse bodyplans, so I feel like something that looks adjacent to the smallest leviathans could evolve on another planet.

The world of Neeta is a planet of intense gravity and freezing temperatures. The natives are known as Xalerions. To exist in this intense gravity world the Xalerions have devoloped a dense muscle structure and extendable limbs to push themselves up if they fall. There fur is highly heat absorbent to protect against the cold.

The Xalerions are diet is of meat from local wild life, but due to the scarcity of such creatures their main food source are stone and other minerals. Their stomachs are incredibly powerful and use the various reactions from breaking down minerals to gain energy.

Their a very tribal species and general live in small communities. But while friendly they are known to engage in combat when problems come to there door. However while not as mobile as an average human on their homeworld, on planets with lower gravity they're incredibly powerful as all that strength required to endure the gravity is no longer needed and they become fast and powerful.

Lateen Ventoúza

Greek term for suction cup, in reference to the use of it’s sails to adhere to surfaces.

Cell Diameter 0.4-1.1 µm
Full Diameter 0.8-3.5 µm
Height 0.5-1.5 µm

Arose 793 million years P.C.

Initially evolving to act as decomposers of marine snow, Ventouza is outcompeted just 15 million years later by Telam Warda, with it’s superior capture and sensory methods. This pressures Ventouza to take advantage of it’s open air dispersal adaptations as a member of the Lateen lineage.

Recall that thanks to the Radiation tolerance adaptations recieved by Ventouza’s ancestors (namely the kuayl family of deep ocean hydrothermal environments), the Lateen species was able to invent the unoccupied niche of predatory aeroplankton.
Due to the absence of sophisticated capture methods, Lateen is unable to take full advantage of this opportunity to the extent where it could hunt autotrophic aeroplankton such as members of the Orphyton clade.

This makes Ventouza excellent for intertidal and reef habitats where open air exposure due to tidal forces are a daily obstacle.

Taking on a sessile lifestyle, Ventouza can make use of it’s generalist adaptability. Initially utilizing three of it’s spines to dig into substrate surfaces, Ventouza adapts to also use it’s “petals” as a suction-cup surface to adhere to the matground of the shallows and reefs.
While bottom of petals suction to the matground of the bacterially rich substrate, the top is a highly permeable membrane for the purpose of prey capture.

Petal interior is inflated with CDE, acting as analogous structure to digestive vacuole of many other heterotrophs of a more familiar form. Freed nutrients after digestion is transported into cellular body. Evolves wide instead of long petals to lessen transport from petal to cell body, along with abundant Lycopene to lessen damage by ROS from digestion process. Pigment doubles as UV protection. spawns from center.

Releases offspring from central point of cellular body to avoid capture and digestion of own offspring.

Lifecycle proceeds as follows:

1. Daughter cell offspring buds off from central cell body.
2. Drifts as Planktonic organism in order to achive sufficient enough distance, and avoid direct competition with parent cell.
3. Begins absorbing Silicic Acid ((H2xSiOx+2)n) which is abundant in the intertidal waters thanks to errosion and sulfuric acid secreted by the Ydra clade.
4. Begins Nectonic phase of life cycle, even achieving open air transport thanks to it’s Lateen ancestry to increase dispersal range even further.
5. Organism is predisposed to undergo dormancy after prolonged periods without prey capture, especially when exposed to open air, where “bumping into” prey species would be a rare occurance at this point in Demeter’s history.
6. Ventoúza will utilize suction action of pressure triggered membrane sails in order to latch onto flat stone or matground surface.
7. Incorporates Biomineralization on underside in order to fix permanently to rocky substrate, in manner similar to modern day coral species.
8. Upon finishing permanent fixation to surface, Ventoúza would begin the sessile portion of it’s decomposer lifestyle.

initial diversification post

last post

Ancestral Organism

The Crested Olicorn( Monodon Olicornis) is a giant rodent that lives deep in mountainous regions among rocky terrain and steep surfaces.

Its head decorated by a unique single tusk, caused by fused upper incisors, that make it resemble a horn. Its lower lip has become elongated and reiforced by rubbery pads which it uses like a trunk to grasp the low hard vegetation that grows in the hihg altitudes of its habitat. Its 3 toed feet have grasping rubbery fingers and pads, that allow the animal to grip the rocky and steep surfaces and traverse them with ease.

It is a rare and majestic creature that has captured the imagination of the people of the regions it inhabits, attributing to it magical and healing powers.

This is a creature part of my worldbuilding project, Oblivia, on instagram if you want to check out more creatures.

Balaenolangosta leonii (Leon's whale lobster), named after Leon the lobster, is possibly the largest crustacean in my future earth, with a maximum length of 20 meters and weighing about 40 tons, it has convergently evolved with modern day baleen whales but they have some unique adaptations that make them very interesting animals.

Starting with the way they feed, they catch plankton and schools of small fish with the thousands of long bristles present in their maxillipeds and first two pairs of legs, kinda like modern bamboo shrimp and porcelain crabs, but instead of waiting for the food to come to them, they employ ram feeding, swimming through the clouds of zooplankton at high speeds, when the bristles are full they pass them through their mouths to eat all the food they've caught, when not in use the mouthparts fold and all gets covered by the second pair of legs to reduce drag (you can see how the folded mouthparts look in the juveline at the top left of the drawing).

Speaking about that juvenile in the top left you can see that it is molting, but this molting is special and very different to any known arthropods, modern crustaceans often die of exhaustion when trying to molt when they get too big, but the whale lobsters came up with a solution, instead of molting their entire exoskeletons in one go they slowly and gradually break off piece by piece and the membranes in the joints flake off, this means that molting doesn't require any physical effort from the lobster and they don't go through a soft and vulnerable stage because when an old piece of exoskeleton breaks off the new piece is already hardened. in the rare case of a stubborn piece that doesn't want to come off they breach out of the water to remove it.

You can see how their bodies have adapted to a life in the open ocean, their bodies are streamlined and they have developed a sort of dorsal fin in their third abdominal segment, the 3rd, 4th and 5th pairs of legs have flattened and now are used as flippers, most of their pleopods or swimmerets are now vestigial stumps because they swim with an up and down motion aided by the very large uropods, and the last pair of pleopods are used as stabilizers and rudders.

As with modern lobsters you can tell their sex by looking at their pleopods, if all but the last pair are just small stumps then you're looking at a male, but if you see that the first two pairs look normal and fully functional then it is a female, they use them to hold their eggs after laying them, the eggs are large and they only lay about six of them, the embryos can take almost a whole year to develop and when they hatch the babies are cared for by their mothers until they reach half of their adult size.

Maybe this isn't as plausible as other spec evo crustaceans but i had a lot of fun making this drawing and i hope you guys enjoy it as well!!

Deroth is a planet 1.3 times the size of earth with roughly 1.2 times the gravity, and a thicker atmosphere. It has a ring, and two very small moons. The plants on this planet possess an orange hue, with burgundy red stems. In the desert, the stems are covered in thorny branches that usually bloom on the sides of mountains. However sometimes, they bloom right side up, and the spikes are easily avoidable.

Aureuscollaris uses strong forelimbs as sort of "hands" to grip onto the tall and jagged rocks of tall mountains, in order to scale them. Usually, they scale these mountains in order to find food in the dry, unforgiving deserts.

Urocygarosaurus is a genus of kritosaurin saurolophine dinosaur that lived in the Prepaleoedenian-Paleoedenian at around 65-56 MYA. Indirectly descended from Ahshislesaurus,a North American dinosaur of the same genus of kritosaurin saurolophines,They are endemic to Eastern Brazilia and New Honduras. Weighing in about 4 metric tons,and being as tall as an African Bush Elephant,these giant ornithopods travel with up to 900 individuals. When mating season is over,they usually fill a browsing niche. Whenever they sense a predator,like a tyrannosaur going to their lake,they remain calm unless the predator is trying to eat them. Both males and females have blue air sacs either for mating or warning signs.