u/ElSquibbonator

Bit of a long story here. I got this agave plant three years ago, and during most of that time I kept it indoors. However, its lower leaves have been shriveling and falling off, and I learned that this is because these plants need even more sun than most succulents, and should be outdoors. I put it out on my porch this August, taking about a week for it to acclimate to the sun. Unfortunately that still didn't help. The first photo you see is what the plant looks like today, and the second one is what it looked like earlier this summer.

At the same time, I moved it into a smaller pot with grittier, better-draining soil, because the pot I had been keeping it in was too large, so water wasn't reaching the roots. I watered it yesterday after having not done so for almost a month. But despite all this, one of the two remaining leaves is still turning yellow and shriveling up. The central spear still seems to be healthy and so do the roots, but why does the plant keep losing its leaves? What can I do about this? Should I bring it indoors again for the winter (I live in North Carolina)?

It has been nearly 100 million years since the Tarasques-- gigantic, armored herbivores descended from the Solomon Islands tree skink-- roamed Spectemundus. These behemoths were wiped out by the mass extinction that took place 52 million years after the planet was seeded with life, and while some of their smaller relatives survived, it seemed as though they would never again attain such sizes. The birds and mammals came out of the mass extinction much more diverse than before, gradually marginalizing their reptilian rivals, and eventually the ice age put further dents in their numbers.

But now, 150 million years after life was seeded on Spectemundus, one can again see great armored skinks lumbering across the planet's grasslands. To be sure, the Great Green Skinkdozer (Ankyloscincus acanthurus) is much smaller than the biggest Tarasques, though at ten feet long and up to a ton in weight it is still a large animal. It is descended from the Ankylodrakes, relatives of the Tarasques that, by the slimmest of margins, survived the impact event. They remained small for nearly 80 million years afterwards, but after the ice age ended one species became large again, large enough to compete with large herbivorous mammals and birds.

Skinkdozers walk more upright than their ancestors did, although they are not endothermic. As such, they are confined to the tropical grasslands of the southern continent, where large reptiles in general are most numerous. The predators here, however, are still mostly large mongooses, and the Skinkdozer's armor has evolved to counter them. Its spiky club-like tail can swing with surprising speed and strength, and is capable of breaking the leg of a predator with a single swipe. Skinkdozers give birth to live young, but do not care for them; the babies are fully independent upon birth.

On Spectemundus, mongooses and skinks often come to a stalemate as they compete for ecological supremacy. Both groups have evolved their large herbivores and predators, and neither can be said to be truly dominant over the other. But one curious quirk of Spectemundus's ecology is the near-total absence of large nocturnal predatory mammals on the northern continent. And there is a very good reason for that.

The Nightfeeder (Latenophoneus tartakovskyi) is a member of the Runnerdrake family, and a close relative of the Panther Runnerdrake. It is the second-largest member of its group. Like its relative it is an ambush hunter, the pursuit method of most diurnal Runnerdrakes being impractical in darkness. Its prey consists mainly of herbivorous mammals its own size or smaller, including young Chongooses like the one shown here. Unlike most Runnerdrakes, however, it uses its claws as well as its teeth to kill its prey, inflicting deep slashing wounds on its victims that can cause them to bleed to death.

The Nightfeeder is the dominant nocturnal hunter in the northern continent, an unusual case of a reptile out-competing mammals on their own turf. It sometimes comes into conflict with the diurnal predatory mongooses that share its range, but when it does it can usually hold its own in a fight thanks to its sharp teeth and claws. Parenthood seems to be these lizards' only respite from aggression-- females give birth to two or three young, which accompany their mother for several months until they are able to hunt on their own. Once the juveniles become independent, their first priority is to seek a safe shelter; Nightfeeders are cannibalistic and will eat their young if they come across them later.

Up to now, catfish descendants have dominated the fish niches in Spectemundus's freshwater and brackish habitats. However, on the western continent, one group of cane toad descendants has evolved in an unusual direction, and are giving the fish some competition. Known as Wollypogs, they are for all intents and purposes highly derived tadpoles that spend the majority of their lives-- which may be decades-- in the water. Their bodies have evolved to be more efficient swimmers, with fish-like tail fins and, in some species, pectoral fins evolved from the thread-like forelimbs of the ancestral tadpole.

Unlike salamanders, frogs and toads have never evolved true neoteny, that is, the ability to reproduce in their larval stage. Wollypogs have therefore evolved a workaround. They breed only once in their lives, metamorphosing into large, rather awkward-looking frogs that can barely support their own weight on land. These giant frogs are the final stage of their life. They do not even eat. They mate, lay eggs, and die. Their only real role is as a reproductive stage. It is the tadpoles who do all of the eating and growing, and who fill their major ecological functions.

Wollypogs are a diverse group, with hundreds of species. Only a few are illustrated here. Some, such as the Green Wollypog (Ichthyanura vulgaris), are little more than enlarged versions of typical tadpoles, but others have more unusual adaptations. The Convict Mudeater (Magnachasma immanis) is a relatively rare example of a freshwater filter-feeder, growing up to three feet long. It is a bottom-feeder, scooping mouthfuls of mud off the bottom of rivers and lakes in its huge mouth, and sifting small invertebrates out of them. Likewise, the Red-headed Fishfrog (Petrosuger trachodon) has large lips with rough, file-like "teeth" it uses to scrape algae off of rocks.

The largest and most unusual Wollypog, however, is the Frogpike (Batrachesox placodermops), a six-foot-long carnivore with "teeth" that are actually blades of bone. It is a fast, active predator of fish and other Wollypogs, and it is so large that even in its reproductive stage it cannot leave the water. The reproductive stage mates and lays its eggs in the water before dying; it is wholly aquatic.

50 million years after its establishment on Spectemundus, the Indian grey mongoose's descendants have evolved into astonishing forms. While some of these still bear a resemblance to the ancestral animal, others do not. The semi-desert scrub and grasslands of the northern continent are home to the largest terrestrial herbivore on Spectemundus, the two-ton Yali (Titanictis phytophaganax). Evolved from a lineage of omnivorous, bear-like mongoose descendants, it has become a pure herbivore in the absence of competition from the giant flightless birds found on the southern continent. While their ability to digest vegetation is not as sophisticated as our world's hoofed mammals, they can hold their own as the only herbivorous mammals on Spectemundus.

Big as they are, Yalis do have a few predators, including other mongoose descendants. Their size is their main protection, but they will also camouflage themselves by rolling in the mud and dust of their environment, allowing them to blend into their background better than they would otherwise. This "body-painting" behavior is more common in young individuals who are more vulnerable to predators, as opposed to the gigantic adults who are largely invulnerable. The young-- usually twins-- are playful, often "play-fighting" with one another in the dust, which inevitably leaves them covered in yet more dust.

Yalis are not fussy eaters. They will use their massive claws to dig up edible tubers in the dry season, graze on grasses, and use their flexible lips and tongues to eat branches from low-growing tress. When the weather is hot, they will spend a great deal of time wallowing in shallow water, more like a large ungulate than a carnivoran. The babies are tiny compared to their mother, similar to those of a bear, and ride on their mother's back after about two months.

It has been 50 million years since life was seeded on Spectemundus, and 30 million years since an unexpected asteroid collision wiped out a good majority of the life that had evolved up to that time. At least a few descendants of all the animals originally established on the planet survived, but the decks have been shuffled considerably. The large flightless birds were wiped out, as were the giant predatory mongoose descendants, leaving the field open once again for newer-- and stranger-- creatures to evolve.

Here and there on forest periphery of Spectemundus's northern continent, one can see dead trees surrounded by massive piles of mud and clay. These are not ant or termite mounds, but the nests of Tenement Birds (Myrmecornis gregarius), a colonial meadowlark descendant. While not eusocial, they nest in large colonies, building hive-like nests that can be up to twenty feet tall and house up to a thousand birds. As an abundant resource, it is no surprise that they have species that have evolved to depend on them. One of the most bizarre of these is the Harpax (Ornitharctos macronyx), an enormous mongoose descendant that can stand up to eight feet tall on its hind legs and weigh nearly a ton.

This giant carnivore has a lifestyle similar to our world's sloth bear, feeding on large numbers of small, colonial prey. However, instead of insects, its target of choice are the abundant, colonial Tenement Birds. Its powerful claws can cave in the side of a Tenement Bird nest, and its flexible suction-like lips and sticky tongue allow it to swallow many at a time. The birds, of course, defend their nests fiercely, especially in the breeding season, but their sheer numbers mean that it is rare for the Harpax to attack a nest without eating at least a few of them. When Tenement Birds are uncommon or unavailable, these giant mongooses will feed on other small animals, or on fruit, but on the whole they are specialized for this unusual diet.

As the only freshwater fish introduced to Spectemundus, the channel catfish has radiated into a number of niches. However, many of its descendants have remained conservative. One of these is the Jolly Roger Catfish (Gulosilurus vorax), an aquatic carnivore found in the large lakes of Spectemundus's southern continent. It fills a niche broadly equivalent to a large crocodilian, ambushing victims both on land and in the water, and at up to thirteen feet long it can swallow prey of virtually any size. While the majority of its diet consists of other fish and amphibians, it will also attack aquatic mammals.

One animal the Jolly Roger Catfish frequently preys on is the Merkat (Paludictis batrachovorus) an otter-like descendant of the Indian mongoose. About three feet long, it is small as far as aquatic mammals on Earth go, but it is one of the first such mammals to evolve on Spectemundus. Unusually, it rarely feeds on fish. Instead it preys mainly on amphibians, specifically Spectemundus's many descendants of the cane toad. Many of these are much more aquatic than their ancestors, and some, like the Perchfrog (Platynectes macropodus) spend their entire lives in the water.

The Perchfrog, in turn, has an interesting connection to the Jolly Roger Catfish. While the male Jolly Roger Catfish guards the eggs and newly hatched babies, the young catfish still have to contend with a gauntlet of predators once they leave the nest. The Perchfrog is one of these. It is agile enough to chase down the small catfish, and its mouth is big enough to swallow them whole. It's one of evolution's greatest quirks that the same animal that preys on the Perchfrog's own predator as an adult is itself prey to them as a juvenile.

One of the most impressive and formidable invertebrates established on Spectemundus was the Amazonian giant centipede (Scolopendra gigantea). It was established on all four of Soectemundus’s major landmasses, and given the lack of vertebrate competition, these enormous centipedes quickly asserted themselves as the apex predators of the new world’s undergrowth. The largest species can grow as much as two feet long, and are capable of preying on vertebrates. However, not all giant centipede descendants are so vicious. Encouraged by the empty niches that presented themselves early on, one lineage of centipedes abandoned predation entirely and adopted an herbivorous lifestyle— the Phytopedes (family Phytoscolopendridae)

Unlike other centipedes, Phytopedes are not venomous. Their fangs and venom glands are either vestigial or completely absent. They do, however, retain powerful chewing mouths which are convergently similar to those of their distant relative, the millipedes. However, that does not mean they aren’t capable of defending themselves. The foot-long Red Dragon Phytopede (Pyrophagus infernalis) lacks venom like its relatives, but its flesh is toxic to eat due to the poisonous chemicals from the plants it eats, which it concentrates inside its own body. Like poison-dart frogs or monarch butterflies, its bright colors warn predators that it is inedible. Others, such as the Armadillo Phytopede (Arthropelta miyazakii) take refuge in armor. At eighteen inches long and weighing up to two pounds, it is a heavy and sluggish animal, but it is protected from predators by its thickly armored exoskeleton. Like all arthropods, however, they must shed their exoskeletons to grow, and during this time they are vulnerable, taking refuge in underground burrows until the new one hardens.

The majority of Phytopedes, such as the Blue Phytopede (Phytoscolopendra cyanea) have neither armor nor poison to protect themselves, and must rely on being agile enough to evade predators. In the Blue Phytopede’s case, its body is flat and broad, allowing it to slip between cracks in rocks where predators such as mongooses cannot reach. The strangest Phytopede, however is also the largest. Growing up to two feet long, the Con-rit (Polyeres hydroides) is unusual in that it is primarily aquatic, swimming underwater in lakes and slow-moving rivers to feed on water plants and algae.

Video credited to @mamakbagol on Instagram.

According to THR, there are provisions in the proposed Warner Bros. Paramount merger that might explain why we haven't seen any hint of the fourth season let. As explained above, DC is a "key property" that Warner Bros. can't do certain things with until the merger either closes or is called off.