u/EducationalRope2329

Tripods

The Sea toads of the genus Chaunax on Home Earth are bottom dwelling anglerfish, which use their pectoral fins to stand on the seafloor. On this Earth, in the 450 million years that have passed, some evolved to life at the surface, eventually evolving to life on land. Some chose to stay on land and diversify, while others found it advantageous to return to the ocean.

A. Shows the two forms of Tripods found 450 Million years in the future.

• The Olive Mariner on the left is a member of Tripteromorpha, which is a lineage of Tripod that chose to return to the ocean. All species have 3 fins placed near their front half, with a long snout. 
• On the right is a Bog Tripod, a member of the Tribranchomorpha, which has diversified in terrestrial environments. While they are commonly found worldwide, most species are rather small. This seems to be a result of their limb configuration, which is unable to support any significant mass in the torso area.

B. This displays an interaction between two Voorpix, an 8 meter long tripod, and a 3 meter long Coal Axehead near a forest of shellless stand barnacles. The Voorpix harassed the axehead, nipping at its fins and body with their jaws. This interaction was observed lasting for 15 minutes, until the Axehead managed to swim into an area of denser strand barnacles, upon which the voorpix left as they were unable to enter the denser barnacle patch.

C. The Construction of a limb of Tribranchomorpha and a fin of Tripteromorpha. Unlike tetrapod limbs, their limbs have no digits, with the lower half being made of fused fin rays. The fin is made from segmenting the lower limb bone.

D. A hunt observed of a mid-sized tripod by a Rust Heron. Rust herons typically do not hunt prey this large, as they cannot easily consume it, and the hunt was likely a result of the heron being confused.

The Phthalo Ocean is a very warm ocean. Reaching 42 degrees celsius in the summer, it is warmer than the warmest ocean or sea on Home Earth. However, it is low enough to avoid the constant tropical storms that ravage the even warmer Palanite Ocean to the East, and above the waves, the Phthalo Ocean is remarkably calm, with the surface being broken only by Airrays, Slimekites, and the occasional Kraken or Tripod.

Below the surface, however, the Phthalo Ocean is a flurry of life. Photosynthetic microscopic life flourishes in the heat, and the Phthalo Ocean is incredibly productive. It is also the home of this report’s subject, a curious species that is the descendant of a lineage that first appeared in the Jurassic, the Selachii, also known as the sharks.

The Kopisiformes, or Axehead Sharks, are a widely distributed clade easily recognizable by their head. It is large and vertically extended, armed with a long vertically oriented mouth capable of extending outwards to snap at prey.

The species featured in this report is the Umbral Axehead, Kopisa eos, which is named for its coloration, which features a long orange and blue stripe along its flank, and a ring of yellow and blue bioluminescent spots around what appears to be an eye near the tip of its head, which is actually a secondary photoreceptor organ used to see when the more sensitive main eyes are closed during an attack on prey. The colors are used for communication in schools. The orange and yellow are used near the surface, while the bright blue is used in deeper water, where their brightness sticks out more against the ambient blue of the water.

The head of the Umbral Axehead is armed with rows of triangular sharpened scales, which have a hardness and sharpness nearly matching those of the teeth. This serves two purposes. The main purpose is for communication with others of their own kind. In their schools, the position of individuals is highly organized, with more dominant individuals taking positions near the front. When a position is challenged, the contestants first size each other up. If that doesn’t work, the dominant individual will scrape the hardened head scales along the bodies of their challenger, which usually causes enough pain and damage to reprimand the challenger, while also avoiding a full on bite, which could result in potentially dangerous levels of trauma. Secondly, they also occasionally use the head to smash and stun prey, with the scales helping to cut up and disable prey.

Umbral Axeheads chase after smaller sharks, fish, and squid. Similar to Home Earth Tuna, Umbral Axeheads gather in schools of their own, which can have hundreds of individuals, and this allows them to coordinate hunts of large schools of prey, with each individual being able to eat their fill. Their large head serves as a sensory organ during these hunts, allowing them to maneuver in cohesion with others of their kind via electroreception.

The Umbral Axehead in the above figure is displayed alongside Lady Carina Fern, leader of Team 4, who stands at 172 cm in height. Umbral axeheads, which average 442 cm in length, are on the larger side for an Axehead Species. Among other species, the size can range from an average of only 72 cm long in the smallest species to up to an average of 510 cm in the largest species.

Expedition report.
Team 1: On The Maenad near the Zephyr Sea/Zephyr Plains
Team 2: On The Bacchus in the Periwinkle Ocean
Team 3: Contact lost, along with The Faun
Team 4: On The Nymph in the Phthalo Ocean
Team 5: On The Maenad near the Zephyr Sea/Zephyr Plains
Team 6: On The Bacchus in the Periwinkle Ocean

Balloon Trees

Plants are the primary producer of many terrestrial ecosystems, and as an increasing amount animals take to the air, so do they.

Balloon trees of the Genus Natantifolium are one of the most common producers in the atmospheric habitat, second only to aeroplankton. They float using hydrogen filled sacs on their body, which are filled with hydrogen producing bacteria. The lighter than air gas lifts the plant into the sky.

Balloon trees are found worldwide. The various species in the genus are all very similar, and can only be distinguished by their size. The smallest reach only 3 meters in height, while the very largest can reach up to 40 meters. Despite this, they are very lightweight, and even the largest only weigh less than 1 ton. 

One of the most recognizable aspects of balloon trees is their coloration. Their body is deep purple, almost black, in colouration. This seems to be an adaptation to their life in the high atmosphere. The coloration allows them to take advantage of the full spectrum of visible light produced by the sun, while they can shed the excess heat produced by ascending higher, which moves them into colder air, which allows the plant to cool down.

They also move up and down to avoid serious danger, usually from storms, which they can sense by texting changes in humidity and pressure. When encountering a storm, they will either retreat downwards, to reduce the risk of lightning strikes, or to move upwards, above the clouds, avoiding the storm altogether.

Balloon trees only go to the ground for two reasons. Firstly, if their sacs suffer damage that leaves them unable to inflate, the plant will drift to the ground, where it will be stranded until it can repair the sacs. Secondly, after mating, they will scatter their seeds near the base of trees.

The seeds also contain the hydrogen producing bacteria, which remains dormant until after the balloon tree matures.

 After landing, the newborn plant will crawl upwards the tree trunk, into the branches. From there, the balloon tree will parasitize the host tree, feeding off its nutrients. It will then grow, developing the hydrogen sacs. The Bacteria will then awaken, and begin lifting the balloon tree. After reaching near adulthood, they detach from the host and float into the air to join others of their own kind.

Embracing trees.

Embracing trees, Cyanodendron philadelphus, are very tall trees. In fact they are the tallest trees on this Earth, and even taller than any trees existing on Home Earth.

One thing that facilitates their extreme height is that they are actually colonial. The branches of Embracing trees are flexible, and will attach to the trunk and branches of neighboring embracing trees, As they grow, the trees will provide each other support.

However, there is another issue facing plants of extreme height.Very tall plants have the force of gravity itself will be working against the plant, and they are unable to transport nutrients and water from the soil to more than 120-130 meters. But Embracing trees grow up to 200 meters in height. They do this by absorbing moisture directly from the atmosphere rather than transporting it from the soil. The water is stored in the trunk, which allows nutrients to passively diffuse upwards into the leaves. As a result, embracing trees require a very specific ecosystem.

On the coast of what was once East and Southeast Asia, a huge range of plateaus and mountains sits facing towards the Palanite Ocean, which is the warmest ocean on the planet. Tropical storms rage constantly, but when they reach the coast, they lose power and size as clouds attempt to bypass the mountains. As a result, the sides of the mountains are always covered by fog and low altitude clouds. This creates the moisture filled air that the embracing trees require to survive at their extreme height.

And survive they can, as examinations of the rings of Embracing tree trunks show that they can live for over 2000 years, while the age of colonies has been estimated at up to 30000 years.

450 million years ahead of Home Earth, the continents are once again split apart. Global temperatures have soared to over 35 degrees celsius, and the atmosphere has become dense, supporting a vast array of life in the air.

The most commonly seen of these are airrays, of the clade aquilosauria. This large and diverse group descended from birds. Much more resembling a creature of the deep sea than one of the open skies, they glide through the air on broad wings. They are entirely eyeless, and navigate via sound. They spend nearly their whole life in the air, only landing to sleep.

Figure 1 shows a snapshot of the diversity shown by this group. A sketch of Expedition Team 2 leader Lady Vittoria Aquino has been included, to show the size of the airrays, as she stands at 181 cm.

• A- A species dubbed the “peacock mimic”, for its appearance, which has brilliant green and blue feathers, along with a tail fan adorned with a bright red eye. It is a medium sized species, reaching 1.3 meters long.
• B- A species dubbed the “Pale mourner” for the sounds it produces, which resemble the cries of a human baby. It is the largest observed species, reaching a length of 8 meters. It is so large that it requires a leap from an elevated area in order to take off from the ground.
• C- A large species, 2.8 meters long, dubbed the “twilight heron”, for its appearance, featuring a vibrantly colored beak and tail, with a coat of dark long feathers covered in white spots, making it resemble the night sky.
• D- A species dubbed the “whip airray” for the long tail that makes up a majority of its length. 4 meters long, 75% consists entirely of tail. It is brown and covered in orange spots.
• E- A small species dubbed the “green skimmer” for its colour and its distinctive feeding behavior, which involves it flying just above the surface of a water body, with the elongated lower jaw extended below the surface to snap at any small animals. It reaches 0.7 meters in length
• F- A very small species called the “twintail sprite”, named for having two tails. Bright red in colour, it is famous among explorers for its behavior, which involves finding a thermal, and ascending in spirals in large groups. It only reaches 0.2 meters in length.
• G- A species that gathers in massive swarms of tens of thousands and even hundreds of thousands of individuals. For this, it has been dubbed the “living cloudburst”. One swarm has even made a home on the main vessel of the expedition, The Bacchus. It is very small, reaching 0.1 meters in length.
• H- A very small species dubbed by the crew of The Bacchus and The Maenad as the “gazer”, for the eye-like coloration on its head. They make nests in dark places, and only emerge at night. They were first discovered when nests were found in the lower decks of the expedition vessels. It reaches 0.2 meters in length.
• I- A species called the “sunwing” by expedition crews for the orange coloration. They feed on shellfish, and make long migrations along coastlines. They reach 4 meters in length.
• J- A small sized species dubbed the “stellar voyager” for their coloration. They hunt other animals in the air and on the ground. They reach 0.7 meters in length.
• K- A medium sized species, 1.6 meters in length, dubbed the “rotten bonetail” for their scavenging behavior and the ridges along their tail. Their long feathers are hardened and can be used as spines.
• L- A medium sized species 1.1 meters in length, referred to only as the “Dawn” for its coloration. It only emerges at dawn or dusk, and it is rarely ever seen, with only 35 individuals having ever been encountered. They feed on seeds within the canopies of trees.

Figure 2 displays the typical morphology of their leg, which has a single long claw and a second grasping clawless toe. Unlike their bird ancestors, airrays lack any scales, and their feet are covered in small dense feathers.

Figure 3 shows the egg shape of a typical airray. Airrays will carry their eggs after giving birth by storing them in a pouch. This allows parents to continue flying a feeding while ensuring the safety of the egg.

Figure 4 shows the tail of a typical airray. The tail is prehensile, and is used to grab onto branches when they are resting. 

Figure 5 shows how airrays take off. When taking off from an elevated area or a perch, they will open their wings and leap off with their legs. On the ground, the use both their wings and legs to perform a quad launch.

Figure 6 shows the skeletal structure of the skull and beak. The base of the skull is nested deep within the body of the airray.

Figure 7 shows the beak structure of various wingrays. 

• A. Shows the beak of a twilight heron, which is adapted for spearing animals, mainly aquatic ones.
• B. Shows the beak of a stellar voyager, which is adapted for cutting into soft tissue.
• C. Shows the beak of a Dawn, which is adapted for crushing hard objects.
• D. Shows the beak of a green skimmer, which is adapted for skimming the surface of water.

Artist notes:
This is the start of a new series of artworks, which will follow a human expedition team into a version of earth 450 million years in the future. My major inspirations for this was Nigel Marven’s Sea Monsters and Chased by Dinosaurs, with humans interacting with prehistoric life. In this series, I instead intend to focus on life in the far future, where many lifeforms from today will take on forms near unrecognizable to their ancestors.

Pocket Universe F5M9561 - Faunal Observations

Ophanim Carver

A heavyweight Neopterosaur, averaging a mass of 240 kg, a wingspan of 15 meters, and a height of 7.8 meters.

Adults are colored in black, purple and blue, with a distinctive orange eye. The teeth in their bills have evolved into large, shearing plates, with can even cut through bone.

The Ophanim Carvers are named for their unique mating display, where they kill, eat and hollow out the skeleton of an Ophanim. The Carver will then place the skeleton around their neck.

The Skeleton remains on their neck for the entirety of the mating season, and they move and fly with it attached. The heavier the skeleton is, the more appealing the wearer is to potential mates, as it shows off their strength. They also use the skeletons of larger Ophanim as a funnel to amplify the sound their calls.

While their prey, the Ophanim, exist worldwide, Carvers are only found in tropical regions, usually near the coasts.

Pocket Universe F5M9561 - Faunal Observations

Sun King’s Heartbreaker

The Neopterosaur possessing the largest wingspan, although they are not the heaviest or tallest.

The Males, which reach a wingspan of 17 meters, a height of 4.1 meters, and a mass of 210 Kilograms, are around twice as large as the females, which only reach a wingspan of 9 meters, a height of 2.6 meters, and a mass of 100 kilograms.

Due to this extreme sexual dimorphism, the mating strategy of Heartbreakers is a single male presiding over a large group of females during the mating season. These groups often congregate on beaches, which provide ample space for the Neopterosaurs to roost. A single male can mate with up to 50 females during a single mating season.

When a male is challenged by another male, they compete by showing off the patterned undersides of their wings, and by slamming the sides and tops of their beaks together. In these displays, the competitors tend to avoid using the underside of their beak, which possesses a large, bladelike crest, which has another purpose entirely.

This crest, which is larger and more colorful in males, although it is possessed by both sexes, is used as an axe, with a Heartbreaker slamming downward with its head to smash the crest into hard shells or flesh, cutting or breaking apart their target, then feeding using the elongated tips of their beaks, which are thin to allow access into gaps in the armor of prey.

Their name, the Sun King’s Heartbreaker, is a reference to early palaeontologist The Very Reverend William Buckland, who is alleged to have devoured part of the mummified heart of French King Louis XIV, who styled himself as The Sun King.