r/SpeculativeEvolution

The first part of my speculative evolution inspired by .io games and other similar games (most of which involving grids).

(this post is about diep.io)

This post is detailing the anatomy of the tank, specifically the basic tank (rostrum fundamentalis)

External:
despite not having eyes, the tanks have the ability to see their surroundings via their psychic abilities (more on that later). the body contains all of the creature's organs, while the barrel functions more like a beak, and is made of bone.

Exoskeleton:
Tanks use many small exoskeleton plates rather than one large piece, this makes shedding much easier since they can shed off smaller pieces of their exoskeleton rather than all of if it at once like earth arthropods. this allows for larger bodies and more effective defence.

Organs:
the blood of tanks uses copper instead of iron, making it blue instead of red. most organs presented are more or less the same as ours. stomach digests food, heart pumps blood, etc. the mind bladder is where psychic energy is stored, and the brain uses it to float, produce bullets and pick up objects.

ask me anything like if you'd like to see more about the biology.

I'm going to make a post about the Grid itself later on.

Maybe it's the unending heat wave up here in Canada influencing me, but I continue to expand on the cold biomes of the Farplains for Sol'Kesh, adding another beast into the Tundrus. This centipede is very much inspired by the remorhaz, which I first came across in DND 3.5 Monster Manual and always loved the idea of some huge heated centipede running across the ice. One thing that never really made sense to me with the remorhaz was how it could sustain heating itself so much in an often resource poor environment. So the thrime here keeps warm in a much less fantastical way...trapped air pockets, not too dissimilar to a puffy winter jacket, but within its shell.

Around the north pole of Louie-A, seasonal shifts are constant, and always changes drastically from a hellscape of a winter to a temporary warmth. Due to the planet's axial tilt being 45 degree, the winter season around the north pole involves the freezing of carbon dioxide and nitrogen into snow. When the warm season comes, the axial tilt would cause the region to recieve a temporary 24 hour daylight, subliming the snow back into gas, and causing a greenhouse acceleration, causing the snowy landscape to turn into flurries that can support fauna and flora, before slowly returning back to the hellishly cold climate once the 24 hour is near ending. In these hours, floras frantically reproduce, and faunas spring back up from their burrow.

For their part, the highly specialized Ornithosuids serves as a primary example of animals surviving around the north pole, with the Northern scupper living the closest to the zone. Characterized by their fur, these highly derived "osteoderms" are thinned out into keratinous fibers, which traps heat and keeps the animal warm, but involves migratory behaviors to fully develop these coats. When they're first born, unlike mammals, they do not develop their fur in the embryonic stage. Instead, keratinous scales spread across the composite calves' dermal sections in the juvenile stage, slowly thinning out over time as the calf grows, while the calf itself travel across swarms of their brethren and feed off of any vegetation around them not unlike locusts. Eventually reaching the surrounding north pole, the calves already fully matured, alongside their fully straightened keratin scales, forming their coat. Already, the other adult individuals of the swarm had distributed themselves across the area, living herbivorous solitary lives.

Found mostly around the edge of the northern surroundings, Staglions are large formidable predators, with the key feature of their Xiphobrachidae subfamily are their unique feline body plan, with highly flexible bodies and incredible agility, they can even be classified as feline analogue of Louie-A. Unlike other Psuedotherians, mammal analogues distributed across Louie-A, staglions doesn’t give birth to composite larvae, rather laying clutches of soft eggs with non-composite maggot-like cubs called monopairs, usually laid in freshly maimed preys and let the monopairs feed on the carcass. After a few days into feeding, it is then that the monopairs will chain together into composite juveniles and mature after 4 years, with the rest that didn’t find a couple in time dying later on. Primarily using their raptorial limb to hunt and dig burrows, the muscular feet pads are stretched out into serrated claws, a common trait found in all xiphobrachids.

In this picture, a traveling Northern scupper gets spotted by a Weasel staglion, and ends up getting chased for the first time in his life. Though the scupper wins and the staglion having to find another large prey next morning.

Tengo un proyecto de animacion y quiero hacer una temática de evolución especulativa, pero realmente tengo un dilema y un conflicto a la hora de diseñar a los personajes, solo parece que tengo 2 opciones a la hora de crear una especie:

1- Humanoide a un punto que parece furry o un recolor de un humano

2- Dinosaurios

Algún consejo o un estilo que recomienden para encontrar el equilibrio perfecto?

La historia de los personajes y sus interacciones es importante y por eso se me dificulta a la hora de crear civilizaciones, ya que tampoco quiero crear una sola vida inteligente pero tampoco que haya evolucionado de manera convergente.

Gracias por leer y aqui unos bocetos y garabatos que tengo ( en algunos dibujos los animales tienen un diseño de caricatura pero es para simplificar la animación)

Hi everyone,

I'm building a speculative biology project structured as an archive of data entries, field studies, and sketches from a ground expedition on Velis Tor (in the year of 2257).

I've challenged myself to create and document at least 30 alien creatures using a strict, grounded design language, and this is the Pale Cylae (catalogue number B1), the first one ever made.

I wanted a grounded reality where nature is weirder than we expect, we even logged a six-limbed bird in the upcoming book that completely refuses to fly and just hikes across the grasslands.

l'd appreciate any constructive criticism on the anatomical plausibility, layout, or the lore! I've dropped a breakdown of their field biology and project status in a comment below.

(Ps. Please don't ask how many times had to redraw those pterosaur wings... completely lost count.)

As the "new world" was stumbled upon by the exiled Alician mages, a plethora of new species were found, from diminutive birds, to megafaunal mammals and collosus that rival the massive Wandering Galeons. One of these species called Ah' ogor, by the natives, is the focus of today.

Called Ironhide newcary, a play on the Two-faced pecary, of the mage's homeland these swine-like creatures live in the canyons and valleys that pepper the new continent. Thier social structure although poorly know consists of mix sex herds, curiously only males are know to leave the canyons they call home, normally these males are scarred, disoriented and alone, suggesting that they were drove off the herd. These exiled males are sometimes tamed by the native people of the continent and used as mounts, if the creature didn't accept the taming, it is killed and its hide used for shield and armor making.

Sparce sights of thier herds suggest that young individuals are born with a silvery shine, and acquire a dull patina with age.

Some mages attempted to tame one of these "iron infused brutes" but sucesseful tales are far and few between.

[This creatures are part of the Carmesim project, I was in a bit of a hiatus, but now im getting back to my world.]

In the northern pine forests of the Chahałheeł Mountains, you may find a disturbing sight such as that of the Wendigo. Standing at an impressive 11 feet tall when you count the antlers, Males are absolutely huge. Their antlers usually add about an extra 2 feet of height so at the head, they stand around 9 feet. Females average at about 7”6 feet although both genders can grow larger. On top of height, sexual dimorphism is also apparent in the spines, eye size and of course, antlers. Or lack there of in females. These antlers evolved for intimidation and courtship, not for interspecific combat. When dispatching prey, Wendigo will stalk their prey through the woods, and then at the right time, pick them up with their large arms and bite through their flesh. Their powerful bite force can even break bone. Wendigo, at day will scale mountainsides to reach their dens, usually nestled in high altitudes. These dens are dotted with bones and spare meat they store in case of famine. Wendigo are what’s known as hypercarnivores meaning they need to consume more meat a day than the usual predator. For the Wendigo, this is to keep their warmth, strength and body function as even though the look emaciated, Wendigo are surprisingly strong. They also keep very high internal temperature. This is due to the fact they don’t possess fur and sometimes, even have to drape animal hide over themselves making them constantly mistaken as huge, upright deer. Especially with males. Wendigo also, like their cousins such as skinwalkers can mimic animal cries, often using them to attract prey. During mating season, Wendigo will find a mate. Undergo sexual intercourse and then the male will leave the female. The female is forced to raise their young. They give live birth to around 2-3 individuals a year. Mothers will teach their children to hunt and climb mountains, using their hoofed feet. Any Wendigo spotted in groups is almost certainly mother and children group. Wendigo are terrifying animals that are known in the cold forest as apex predators. For the most part…

(Keep in mind I am now renaming this to the pseudo wendigo so I don’t offend anyone)

Species: "Gastrocyste monoculus"

Meaning: "One-eyed Stomach Bladder"

​Common: "Spootnik"

​Weight: "~600g"

​Length: "~27cm"

Spootniks, are curious medium sized liquivores. Spootniks are one in the hundreds of species belonging to the Gastrocyste genus of the floating slug-like invertebrates of the Spheromorpha family.

Spheromorpha are know to have many different forms of floatation methods such as control shift of digestive gasses, rapid air intake or as can change pressure accordingly to heat exchange.

Spootniks live in humid rocky crevices and deep ravines, they tend to crawl about on their bellies with the help of four flexible stalks observing their dim environment with a single split compound eye. When in need to move or to catch a wind draft their make their bodies warmer and release small amounts of methane to rapidly expand their belly bladder in order to become balloon-like while two extended weighted appendages on either side work as stabilizing points. They feed especially on a certain type of rock-breaking zoophyte organism by using their needle-like proboscis to sap the rich fluids from within.

Spootniks and most of the Spheromorpha are R-selective species, with only a few dozen reaching maturity over a short period.

In the world of Ascalon, its lush green landscape is crisscrossed with rivers, lakes and an inland sea
Many of its inhabitants owe their lives to the running waters of this world, and many more lose their lives because of it
Among the many beings that call this place home, none have a firmer claim to dominance over the waterways of Ascalon than the River Troll.
Stalking along the riverbed, these great beasts use their long front limbs to quite literally creep & crawl their way along underwater, happy to stir up sediments to hide their passage (tho a keen eye could use this knowledge as a means to identify their presence). They lay in wait for hours at a time, relying on their plant like hair and stony complexion to conceal their presence until hapless prey wanders within their reach, before launching an attack with both arms spread wide ready to wrestle their prey into the water to be drowned, tho particularly clever (and dangerous) individuals have been known to take shelter under bridges so they may seek easy shelter from the sun and have access to a reliable source of food. Trolls who lair near villages can be bribed for passage, but you must never fully trust a Troll, because they can and will eat anything they want, be it the food you promise you’ll bring it next time, or you…

I’ve been a longtime fan of fantasy and science fiction, so I wanted to set out and have the fist creature I designed for my spec fantasy setting to be a River Troll, heavily inspired by the Troll seen in The Spiderwick Chronicles, a book series I couldn’t stop reading over and over again

I hope everyone enjoys this piece, and I strongly recommend you check out the rest of MadRabbitArts on Twitter and BlueSky, he is a dear friend of mine and I cannot commend or thank him enough for his help in bringing this project to life!

I am developing a project in which silicon serves as an alternative to carbon. I’m not an expert in chemistry, but considering I’m 13, the project looks plausible. I’ll post photos of the diagrams here, though you probably won’t understand much, since I’m Russian. This is my best project—one I’ve been working on for about two years. The creatures in the photo aren't all the species I’ve come up with—just the main representatives of the fauna. If anyone likes the idea, I’ll post all my chapters later.

Я разрабатываю проект, в котором кремний выступает альтернативой углероду. Я не эксперт в химии, но, учитывая, что мне 13 лет, проект выглядит вполне правдоподобно. Я выложу здесь фотографии схем, хотя вы, вероятно, мало что поймете, так как я русский. Это мой лучший проект — я работаю над ним уже около двух лет. Существа на фото - не все виды, которые я придумал, а лишь основные прелставители фауны. Если кому то понравится эта идея, позже размещу все свои главы

Biology is explained in images

These fellas will probably be the half-way point from Humans to the other strictly aquatic humanoid species in Syvoniya (my worldbuilding project). Though the technological timeframe for the project is set in the late colonial era, I'm chalking the formation of these guys and all other humanoids to be the product of a long forgotten advanced civilization, hence the tag.

Apologies for rushed sketch

If you know a thing or two about biology and want to correct me on why you cant just put a swim bladder in a human chest feel free to give me feedback

Nestled amongst the Chahałheeł mountains is the stunning Lake Wasadlo. A large, crystal blue water body similar to Lake Louise in Banff, Alberta. Lake Wasadlo is also fairly deep and can contain surprisingly large animals. Animals such as the Ogopogo. Ogopogo are long, snake like mosasaurs which survived the K-T extinction event and evolved into long, “sea serpents”. How did mosasaurs get to a random lake in western North America? Well, while Laramidia and Appalachia started to merge together again, mosasaurs were stranded in the western interior seaway as it slowly merged together after they had just survived one of the largest extinction events on earth. The small mosasaurs swam through rivers and into lakes they could comfortably live in. One of the most appealing was Lake Wasadlo, a huge lake that could easily fit many individuals. Some mosasaur populations got larger, evolved and eventually some became the modern day Ogopogo. Ogopogo are mainly piscivorous, but will eat other animals from time to time when exceptionally hungry. Although the most Ogopogo are found in lake Wasadlo, it can overcrowd and some juveniles are still small enough to swim through connecting rivers and reach other large enough lakes. As far as sexual dimorphism goes, females are larger and longer than males, although males sport striking lacrimal crests and a dewlap. Ogopogo move like sea snakes, waving through their water although they can use their tail fluke to reach higher speeds, catching up to prey. Ogopogo do not possess gills and must surface to breathe. They actually spend quite some time on the water surface, showing off their iconic upright squiggle swimming pattern. The Ogopogo are quite interesting animals that quite surprising when you look at their ancestors

Original Post/Description:

Titanofagos (Titan Cloud Eater) is a colossal, airborne species of extant radiodont endemic to the stratopause of Earth’s Intertropical Convergence Zone. Measuring upwards of five hundred meters in length, these aerial suspension feeders are the largest organisms ever known to exist. While much of their life cycle and behaviour has yet to be studied - due to both the risk involved and their elusive nature - it is hypothesized that, given how similar they are to their Cambrian ancestors, these vast organisms saw very little morphological evolution over their 538 million year history, simply transitioning to a knew biosphere in response to mass extinction events, and growing to colossal sizes in a tendency similar to deep sea gigantism. It is currently believed that Titanofagos achieves flight through a hybrid system of jet propulsion (akin to cephalopods) and gas suspension, utilizing a powerful ventral rudder and a multitude of cilia-like hairs to steer through the atmosphere. Since their discovery in 2004, many now believe that what people have mistaken for UAP’s or advanced aircraft are in reality these massive arthropods.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DZ\_6Nv9yTRL/

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.

A giant hebrivorous placoderm that possesses derived jaw plates that have formed a grinding surface on the inside of its mouth, capable of chewing the leaves of these seagrass trees, in a behaviour similar to that of mammalian browsers. (Image 3). A massive gut (that gives it this front heavy shape) is capable of processing immense amounts of food, as the creatrure can gather food and chew as it swims.

Its front body is covered in armored plates that not only offer protection, but also have a strange sharp shape, similar to that of the hull of a ship. This allows the giant fish to tear through the thick vegetation of its home and open new spaces where smaller species can thrive. It is the ecosystem engineer of these deep underwater forests (Image 2).

This big guy is a part of my worldbuilding project on instagram Oblivia, The Forgotten Seed if you want to check more speculative evolution creature designs.

Stumpy lives on a dangerous and wild planet governed by the laws of nature, filled with dangerous and intelligent monsters. (l will post more information about the planet.).

Stumpy is a female of a species of small, insect-like creatures, They are not usually Scavengers, but rather feed on strange crustacean-like creatures, using their enormous front jaws to break them open and extract the tender flesh, which they then eat, in addition to a wide variety of other foods.

But in Stumpy's case, she suffereda serious injury to her young that resulted in a broken jaw and mild mental damage, and she managed to survive to adulthood by eating carrion and leftover food from more dangerous predators, Also, due to her old injuries and serious accidents, she is extremely cautious at all times, which has led her to prefer staying in narrow or dark places, in addition to her extreme sensitivity to loud noises.

Stumpy usually follows a specific predator all the time, wherever it goes, because it provides a lot of food scraps and doesn't attack if it sees it, often ignoring it. (This is another OC of mine that | will post about Soon.)

[These are my current thoughts about the character. I will add more when I publish more about her. Tell me your opinion about the creature?]

The Yuulti (Loquicorax Conspirator) are a species of sophont birds that inhabit the world of Neryan, alongside several species of humans. One of the most important resources for Yuulti is tree resin. They use it to make tools, create decorations and personal adornments and as glue for various materials. Tree resin is collected alongside natural rubber and sweet tree sap with similar methods (Some Yuulti flocks might prioritise one or the other). Besides resins, branches and bark fibers are also used to manufacture tools.

Orchards of resin trees are highly valued and protected territory. Yuulti form large flocks with an internal hierarchy that places ownership on orchards containing resin trees, rubber trees, nuts, particular fruits and so on. Sometimes Yuulti hire humans to do some work for them as well. As for interactions with humans. Most Yuulti flocks regularly interact with humans and have gained several new materials since then, most notably bronze tool. As they don't have mining or any form of metallurgy of their own, such tools, especially blades and armor are of great importance. The introduction of bronze tools also changed the way of resin collection.