u/piebald_bison37

According to this article, there appears to be a footprint attributed to Elk (Cervus canadensis) dating back 87,000 years. This is also supported by a post on Mark Gelbart's blog and by this study. This information leaves me a bit confused, as a 2017 study states that they arrived in North America about 15,000 years ago. However, none of the links I cited (especially the last one) dated the elk fossils directly, instead, they dated the sediments and fossils found alongside them. The latter study mentions the presence of elk in Ohio around 12,000 years ago. It also cites sites where indirect dating was performed, showing that a fossil at Paw Paw Cave dates back 20,000 years, although the fossil itself was not specifically dated. This is similar to the study regarding the 87,000-year-old footprint in eastern Virginia.

As shown in this post, snapping turtles lived in Nevada, possibly because of the more humid climate. Do you think it should be reintroduced because it's a native species that went geologically extinct relatively recently, or is it too risky due to this species' history of destruction in its native habitats?

>>Remains of snapping turtles (Chelydra serpentina) are in the late Pleistocene vertebrate fauna near Glendale, Clark County, Nevada. The fossils are younger than the radiocarbon date for charcoal (> 33,000 Y.B.P.) found 40 cm below the fossil turtles. The nearest living populations of Chelydra are in streams along the eastern base of the continental divide, at least 650 km away. The dispersal (about 850 km) into southern Nevada probably occurred in the late Pleistocene (early Wisconsin Glacial Epoch). Possible routes and timing of the dispersal are discussed.

The colder, wetter climate would have supported a wider range of them, right?

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This article by Paul Langenwalter found a muskrat fossil in Orange County, dated to 40,000 years ago. The geographical and geological distance was almost nonexistent. Do you think Muskrat would fit well in the game or not?

A grande garça-azul é um NPC meio vazio; claro, seu único propósito é puramente para ambientar a cena, mas mesmo assim, parece muito sem graça. Eu gostaria de melhorar esse aspecto da garça:

1. A garça permanece praticamente imóvel o tempo todo, não se move ou faz algo interessante; bem, eu gostaria que ela pudesse se mover na água rasa.

2. Ela poderia pousar em árvores ou em pedras:

Além de poder andar na água rasa, seria interessante se ela pudesse pousar em árvores ou em pedras e ficar ali descansando.

3. Pescar deveria realmente acontecer:

A cena da garça pescando é uma animação definida; eu gostaria que isso realmente acontecesse, como a garça movendo a cabeça em direção à água ou se movendo lentamente tentando pegar o peixe, então, se a pesca falhar, ela tentaria pescar novamente, e se falhar de novo, voaria para outro lugar.

4. Se fosse um pouco mais comum:

A garça é muito rara, e a maioria dos jogadores nem vai vê-la direito porque ela aparece em áreas com atividade regular dos jogadores; outros locais incluem a foz do Arroio Ballona no oceano, além, claro, de mais partes do Arroio Ballona (como aquele encontro entre o Arroio Ballona e o Arroio Centinela).

Agora sobre o Íbis:

Íbis-de-face-branca:

A proposta seria semelhante à da garça-azul, que seria para decoração, mas teria mecânicas e locais de aparição diferentes:

Dizem que os íbis são muito sociais, aparecendo em colônias de 10 indivíduos na região dos juncos e nas áreas de escoamento. Eles passariam um bom tempo com os bicos enterrados na lama para pegar presas lá, e só apareciam ali depois de fazer isso, descansando nos juncos ou na área de escoamento; além disso, o jogador poderia ajudar o Íbis: se o jogador tiver um herbívoro e andar na água rasa, seu movimento espantaria várias pequenas criaturas que o Íbis adora comer, sinalizando que algumas presas estavam escapando, a água ficaria agitada, se os íbis estiverem dentro de um raio de 6 metros de você, eles se aproximariam e pegariam a presa. Se for um carnívoro, a tolerância seria muito baixa, dentro de um raio de 9 metros de você, eles já fugiriam. Seria muito bonito vê-los voando para descansar em uma formação de "V" no final da tarde, e eu também gostaria de ver a garça e o urubu descansando à noite, a garça tem seus momentos de exceção, como quando ocorre a corrida dos grunhões, mas isso é um tema para outra sugestão minha.

(P.S: The tulle marsh needed to be expanded and made quite large.)

Indigenous Muskrats, Ondatra zibethicus, in Coastal Southern California

This article by Paul Langenwalter documented a fossil found at Costeau Pit, in Orange County. A study dating back 40,000 years, although based on a 1986 article (which is quite old), shows that muskrats inhabited many parts of California, far more than just the crest of Northeastern California (Great Basin) and the Colorado River.

The historical range of beaver (Castor canadensis) in coastal California: an updated review of the evidence

The article about the beaver is more recent, from 2013. Lanman et al. proved that beavers were not native only to the Central Valley, Sierra Nevada, San Francisco Bay and the north, they lived in virtually all of California, excluding the deserts.

Well, as the devs have already said, only animals from unique niches will be added as playable. Initially, I thought it was very difficult for Harington's Pony to become playable because of its similarity to western horse in gameplay, but they will be added. Now the question remains as to how different the animals need to be for them to be added as playable characters, given that the developers haven't specified the necessary divergence for adding a playable animal.

> "The La Brea Tar Pits are a highly fossiliferous late Pleistocene locality, with over 230 vertebrate species, and the potential to help clarify the ecology of Pleistocene megafauna prior to their extinction. Here, we analyze dental microwear textures, dental mesowear, and stable carbon isotopes to assess the dietary behavior of the three most abundant ungulates at La Brea. We examined Bison antiquus, Camelops hesternus, and Equus occidentalis teeth from pits spanning the latest Pleistocene, focusing on pit 77 (~ 35 Ka, glacial period), and pits 61/67 (~ 11.5 Ka, interglacial period). Dental microwear attributes demonstrate that B. antiquus and E. occidentalis consumed foods with similar textural properties to those preferred by mixed feeding and browsing bovids, as well as significantly different food textures than the diet of modern bison and horses. Camelops hesternus has attributes most similar to modern browsing bovids and giraffes, revealing that all taxa studied likely consumed at least some woody browse. Complexity values (Asfc) in B. antiquus and E. occidentalis are significantly greater at pit 77 than at pits 61/67 and modern populations, suggesting a dietary decrease in woody vegetation and shrubs from the glacial to interglacial period. Dental mesowear values further indicate that B. antiquus and C. hesternus consumed woody vegetation, whereas E. occidentalis grazed. The different dietary interpretation for E. occidentalis may reflect a discrepancy between its average diet inferred from mesowear and its most recent diet inferred from microwear. Lastly, stable carbon isotopes reveal diets composed mostly of C3 vegetation, with B. antiquus incorporating significantly more C4 vegetation than either of the other dominant herbivores during the accumulation of both assemblages. Collectively, these data suggest that the dietary ecology of the dominant La Brea herbivores was more nuanced than previously thought, shifting coincident with changing climates, and not necessarily predictable from morphology or any one proxy method."

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> "The Quaternary period, marked by alternating glacial and interglacial phases, has profoundly shaped global biogeographic patterns. Among the ecosystems affected by this climatic instability are the Neotropical semiarid regions, such as the Caatinga, which have undergone profound changes in their distribution through time. However, tempo and mode of changes in distribution of the Caatinga avifauna during Quaternary remain poorly understood. In this study, we analyzed the spatial dynamics of the Caatinga avifauna over the Late Quaternary (last 130 kyr) to assess the influence of climatic oscillations on their distributions. We employed ecological niche modeling based on occurrence data for 14 bird species associated with distinct Caatinga vegetation types and evaluated whether these vegetation types exhibited distinct paleoclimatic responses. Our results revealed a synchronous pattern of range contraction across all species during colder Quaternary phases, reaching their minimum extent during the Heinrich Stadial (17.0–14.7 ka), followed by expansions during warmer periods, such as the Last Interglacial, the Bølling–Allerød (14.7–12.9 ka), and the Holocene. We found no relationship between range dynamics and vegetation types occupied by these birds. Overall, our findings reinforce the emerging view of range contraction of open-area habitats during colder Quaternary phases in northeastern Brazil."

Authors: Carina Cristina De Oliveira Santos Costa & Henrique Batalha-Filho