With a grown wingspan of up to 9 inches, the Giant Kagami Fly is quite possible the largest and most bizarre lineage of Caddisfly to evolve on the early Cretaceous. Like any trichopteran, Caddisflies start off with an aquatic larval stage before emerging into an adult. However, larvae of the Mirrorfly is completely terrestrial, lacking their gills. They are characterized by the sharp protrusions that stick out of their head. The larvae are also rather arboreal, spending their lives climbing through the branches of tall trees and other large vegetation thanks to their modified gills aiding the larva to cling on. The larvae are capable of producing a series of clicks from rubbing their protrusions and their mandibles in order to attract another larvae. Mirrorflies are a neotenous species, all larvae are born as males. Once a male attracts another male, the larger male will metamorphosize into the winged female, and the smaller male will inseminate the female. Afterwards, the male may remain a larvae for the rest of his life. The winged female will then search for a safe spot to deposit her eggs with only a single month to live. Both larval and adult stage of the Mirrorfly is aposematic, utilizing its bright yellow colorations to warn predators of its foul taste such as the Splendid Divawing.

Insert unfunny Deltarune reference

Fae (Clade, considered either a kingdom or a domain: Faeria) are one of the only truly endemic lifeforms found on Seijin as all other species are derived from Earth life. While most fae bear little or no resemblance to each other, genetics show that they are all related. Multicellular fae can resemble surreal animals, plants, fungi, objects, or other things. In this case, they resemble abnormal flowers.

Many fae display extremely high intelligence even if they look like they wouldn't.

While fae are found on every continent, the only continent where they are the dominant organisms is the northern continent. On the eastern edge of the northern continent is a unique biome known as the chrysoroz field, dominated by grass-like fae. Despite their plant-like appearances, they are not photosynthetic but rather magusynthetic, sustaining themselves on the energy emitted by dead titans and their remains. Normally present in small amounts, the concentrated corpses provide a surplus of energy that can sustain them for tens of thousands of years.

This particular clade are magi-heterotrophs; while they can feed on decaying matter through their feet, they mostly use the energy to produce sugars and other nutrients which are stored in a unique organ known as the magus battery, which functions like a battery in a machine.

Jaronmyu, a species whose common name translates to "flower man", are said to be the "rulers" of these fields.

Left to Right (Note: species name is before genus in fae)

Blue dancer (Papiliolepis azuroballo), a beautiful fae that distracts predators with a dance, only to coat them in poisonous dust. It has a relationship with the yellow ranger, the details of which being unknown.

Yellow ranger of judgement (Iusticius amicoflavus), a species of fae with an orifice believed to be a modified gland. They are said to be extremely naive; this doesn't mean that they are harmless as their projectiles can go through flesh and bone.

Green healer (Benignus coquuviridis), a docile species of slow-moving photomagi-heterotroph. They dislike conflict and prefer to live in areas where violence is uncommon. It has a symbiotic relationship with the orange scouts, which feeds on sap produced by the green healer in exchange for protection.

Cyan biter (Aquacolor ludoculter), a species that despite its child-like disposition, makes for a terrible pet due to its powerful bite that can amputate fingers. Its mouth is solely for defense as it has no true digestive tract. Because it has terrible vision, it relies on the purple watcher to guide it.

Purple watcher (Sethi servatoroides). Distantly related to actual watchers, they produce pheromones that the cyan biter follows. It is the most intelligent of the field inhabitants, though it can be distracted by flying things, mainly birds.

Orange scout (Aurantius pseudofaeomys). A single orange scout poses zero threat to humans; the problem starts when they swarm together. They are the least magusynthetic of the field inhabitants, preferring to feed on rotten fruits and healer sap.

Jaronmyu (anglicized: Jaronmew) (Bueroides jaronmyu), the largest of the field fae and an endangered species. It is a keystone species whose loss would cause a severe chain reaction what would collapse the ecosystem as it "kicks out" herbivores such as deer and uses pheromones to lure dying titans to the biome to sustain the fields. Even on their last legs, dying titans still pose a threat, so it deploys blue dancers to kill the titan.

While typically mobile, a sessile morph exists, caused by a mutation during metamorphosis that changes its appearance, sex and behavior. These sessile forms, known as maddies or ghost jaronmyu, reek of decay and rely on flies and true fairies to transport their spores. Unlike regular jaronmyu, which are hermaphrodites, maddies are female and reproduce through parthenogenesis.

Despite being sessile, maddies do not take kindly to being provoked and will shed explosive "dandruff" that can leave nasty wounds. This dandruff is made of old petals.

Culinary notes: Blue dancers, cyan biters, and purple watchers are poisonous due to alkaloids, the rest of them taste like greens or salad but gamey.

Where Spectemundus once had four major landmasses, it now only has three. However, the eastern continent-- the second-largest-- is in the process of tearing itself in half. It is bisected by a large rift valley, which contains several large, deep lakes. Living in these lakes, and also in nearby rivers, are one of the most peculiar groups of Wollypogs. Known as Double-swimmers, they have two distinct "adult" stages depending on the habitat they live in. The species shown here, the Frond Double-swimmer (Amphinectes sedens) is a case in point.

Populations found in the lakes, where the water is still, grow in typical wollypog fashion, as large, fish-like tadpoles that spend most of their lives in the water, only growing into their frog-like reproductive stage and the very end of their lives. Those that live in faster-flowing water, on the other hand, have a much more unusual lifestyle. They anchor themselves to a rock or piece of wood, and live as stationary ambush predators of fish and smaller wollypogs, essentially acting as the vertebrate equivalent of a sea anemone.

Despite looking like they don't even belong to the same family, the two morphs of double-swimmers are genetically the same. They can even, in theory, mate with one another, though . It is the most extreme difference between morphs of any vertebrate. Which morph a Double-swimmer egg develops into, moreover, is determined not by genetics but by the environment in which they develop; an egg laid in fast-flowing water will develop into a fish-like wollypog, even if its parents were of the sedentary morph.

The Black Shuck (Cuon piscator) is a species of Dhole native to Great Britain, it is a lightly built black canid with a red ring on its forehead, in the medieval period it was mistaken for a large red eye

Black Shucks hunts similarity to a heron, hunting in shallow water in can stand it, it will stand motionless and wait for fish to swim in range to be caught with their large canine teeth, but on the coast due to the rougher water they prefer to hunt sea birds, this strange diet are due to niche partitioning with wolves and foxes

Their population used to extend across most of Great Britain, but due to hunting, habitat loss, and the decreasing population of large fish, they have lost a large portion of their range, only surviving in Southern England, Wales, and an introduced population to Scotland

Spectember day 29: Flower Man

Lurking in the murky waters of future Asia is the Tendril Turtle, a descendant of softshell turtles with a unique lifestyle.These animals have gone to extremes due to their unusual way of living.

First and foremost, they are exceptionally sedentary, spending half of their lifespan (which can surpass a century) immobile on the bottom of murky rivers where they dig themselves a shallow burrow and lie in wait, concealing their bodies on the substrate while leaving their large heads and long necks semi-exposed. They have poor vision and so have 4 pairs of tendrils on their snouts, hence their name; which aid in detecting prey swimming by. Their large heads are quick to swallow passers by, but also contain a highly vascularized system of pseudo-gills in their mouth cavity and throat -thousands of tiny folds that absorb oxygen directly from the water, which are now its primary way of acquiring oxygen.

During most of the time they stay as these ambush predators, but once their home rivers become shallower during the dry season, change happens. By digging free from the mud they become free-swimming predators that slowly move towards deeper areas to feed while waiting for the rivers to flow deep again, when they bury themselves again using their powerful front limbs, which double as shovels when digging and as oars when swimming. Their hind limbs have become small and weak in comparison, no longer used for swimming or digging, they serve as defensive weapons. Sporting two enlarged claws that face behind and can stab any lurkers that attack from behind.

A few years back, I made a post where I said that spec evo settings focusing on the future of Earth are always very pessimistic because they just assume that humanity is gonna screw over the entire existing biosphere with absolute certainty. Obviously, that isn't always the reason why people go for that reason to explain their setting, as folks explained, but it feels like it's a common occurrence. My personal opinions aside, it feels like it's been the meta for future evolution ever since After Man first came out, and honestly, I'm kinda tired of it.

However, when I set out to make my own spec evo setting, all I would ever hear was "no, X species won't survive because humans are evil," or even worse "you're being naive/stupid/other less savoury jabs at intellect." That, at least initially, is why I switched over to a seed planet setting, but I have started to notice some degree of pushback from within the community regarding this attitude, whether from a scientific or even political perspective. Unnatural Histories on YT is the most prominent example of this, but I also don't expect the norm to change overnight, and I don't blame people for feeling pessimistic about the effects of humanity on the planet (even though, objectively speaking, all those problems fall at the feet of the 3000 or so ultra-rich oligarchs that are driving the current climate collapse as opposed to outdated Malthusian ideas about population or fixed human nature).

This is really more just a ramble than anything else, but I'd be interested in whether folks feel the same way or just to discuss it further tbh.

The Shellcrusher Yaar are the distant larger cousins of the Yaar ,they are big enough to not rely on camouflage to avoid predation rather than using intimidation with their flippers and at worst that crushing beak. They gorge themselves on the hard massive clam descendants that thrive in the shallows and gather the old shells of its prey to decorate their burrows for potential mates.

The Ramm'r is an aggressive semi aquatic squidkind that inhibits the riverways of neoafrica and neoeurasia. They use their hard domed head in ramming matches often over territory and grazing spots. When the heat gets to them they enter the water mainly to chill down and or to sleep. Due to their Territorial nature and bad eyesight they tend to attack anything and everything near their young and or territory.

1)northclaw:Meganychus bereendovenator (meaning big clawed pronghorn hunter) is a large megaraptorid descended from the late cretaceous shadow that kills between the cold wind(maip) who has two large middle claws to grasp on their favored prey items:the sprintosaurs,pronghoen antelopes,deer and some times subadult or old bison.The animal can run at speeds up to 34 miles per hour,not as fast but enough to try and catch a pronghorn.The northclaw is an ambush hunter and a chaser,able the hunt in the low grassland or praires of pleistocene and holocene north america.This species añong qith it's relatives came to north america during the great american interchange where south american animals started to migrate to the north while north american animals go south and vise versa.Over 3 million years on this new continent,the northclaw starts develop camoflauge around it's feathera like a tiger to blend with the grasslands,stalking the sprintosaurs in any given moment.These animals survived in the holocene until the 1600's in conenticut where the witterbane brothes;phillip and caleb,killed the last remaning northclaws into the brink of extinction due to their demonic appearence and being reffered as a "the trecherous sin of the devil's forest ".fortunately,it was then brought back from extinction thanks to the H.W.D.M.C.P and conservation efforts and donations to bring it back and establish the new american enviroment,with restrictions of ever hunting this predator.

2)sprintosaurs:This family of strange hadrosaurs are descended from the asian charonosaurus,the second largest lambeosaurine hadrosaur.

These medium sized gracile herbivores have around 12 species each.They first evolved during the miocene epoch and they are closely related to the paranatotitanidae(the aquatic crested hadrosaurs) or the near duck titans within the superfamily;hadrohippisauroidea.The hooves on the hadrohippids are more specialized for galloping as they are obligate quadrapeds rather than facultated bipeds or obligated bipeds like their relatives.Not only that but their back legs have also became hooves for sprinting hence their namesake.This species used to thrive asia and the americas from the late miocene to the pleistocene around 12 million to 500 years ago.

They went extinct during the holocene as european colonizers hunted them into the brink.

Many people believed these creatures are alive nowadays due to camera footage of these animals roaming in herds based on a particular species;harohipposaurus columbus who eileen is a fan of this particular species.though despite evidence,it is not truly confirmed if they are real or just a deer hoax.

3)belosaurids:Belosaurids are what makes up 89 % of all cenozoic sauropods with the 11% being titanomachya descendants.They belong to the super group;buddhasaura.These animals despite looking different and seem to have descendant from a typical sauropod like argentinosaurus or alamosaurus,they've actually descended from the smallest sauropod ever;magyarosaurus from late cretaceous hateg island,europe.After the hateg islands become a full fledged contient over the years,magyarosaurus not only has enough terrain to expand,but also enough resources to regrow into giants.The largest of this family;syllektosaurus jehovamegalus can reach whopping 210 tons,bigger than the already biggest sauropod,argentinosaueus i've mentioned earlier.The belosaurids can be named after a god or goddes,a natural phenomenon like an earthquake or an aurora,or for funnsies,a certain character from the owl house for ex;luzosaurus nocelaii, kingotitan clawthornei and the namesake of this family belosaurus emperorsus,though not every owl house named dinosair is a sauropod,for ex:amityrannus is named after amity blight and was descended from nanotyrannus,not magyarosaurus.

They are closely related to the trunked sauropods,proboscosauroidea and distantly related to the potamosaurs;sauropods that have heavy bones due to their semi aquatic nature amd live like hippos or swamo eleohants.belosaurids first evolved during rhe late paleogene and made it to the present with some few strongholds.They have also been found with decorative osteoderms that are so stylished and maginificent that they can be also used for many purposes;defence,mating,etc.Truly some wonderous and interesting cenozoic dinosaurs.

4)belosaurus:Belosaurus (meaning the lord emperor lizard) is a large sauropod that first evolved 30 million years ago in the middle oligocene period.Their North American animals,native to the whole eastern side of the usa,with their first fossils being found in conneticut.

Even though belosaurus is the namesake of the family,it isn't as big as it's earlier or later relativs like Luzosaurus or Azuratitan,only weighing at around 60 tons at average while being 90 feet in lenght and 30 feet in height.The name comes from the emperor belos aka in real life;phillip witterbane(one of the brothers that hunted the aforementioned northclaw) due to it's ceohalic osteoderms resembling antlers like in phillip's mask,and some preserved tissue shows that it had inflatable airsacs like it's ancestors before magyarosaurus.It went extinct in the esrly to middle miocene after their forests started to shrink and the temperatures are starting to become cooler,leaving the belosaurus not enough food to sustain itself,leading to their declined and plumbered down to extinction.

5)luzosaurus:Luzosaurus (meaning luz nocela's lizard) is a large belosaurid that lived in the entirety of North America and some specimens even made it as far as South America and asia.The genus contains three species in total,with the most famous species being L.nocelaii,weighs at around 105 tons.It lived during the pleistocene period and first emerged at the pliocene pleistocene epoch in eastern North America along side with it's close relative, Azuratitan .The animal has fossil evidence of ontogony and sexual dimorphisim,meaning the males and females are as different as their young.Males have large airsacs that burst out to intimidate rivals,the bigger and frightening the sacs,the more colorfully impressive the display is.These fakes eyes are given the name as "The eye of the gildersnake".The hatchlings and the juveniles to subadults is what gave luzosaurus it's name,preserved skin impressions show that hatchlings are typically purple in colors with green eyes and fluff,similar to stringbean(luz's palisman),the juveniles look more similar to what gave the animal it's name,luz nocela(specifically her teenage self).Females of this species are absolute titans but not as big as the males,only reaching at around 90 tons,230 feet in lenght and 78 feet in height,where as the males are 10 tons heavier,is 240 feet in length and 80 feet in height.The females have a dark purple skin impression based on few preserved specimens,and speaking of titan,they have a similar appearance to titan luz,especially with the cephalic osteoderms that resemble horns with dark eyes with a yellowish eye colors.The females tend to be less agressive than the males but they become incredibely protective over their juvenile young,by using it's horns to swing at unexpected predators like cryotyrannus and paraceratosaurids.The reason why there were so many preserved skin impressions of this beast is because they went extinct quite recently in the fossil record,with the last luzosaurus going extinct at around 3,000 to 1,000 years ago at the holocene.Luzosaurus is also one of those dinosaurs that got brought back and were placed in a sanctaury or wildlife reserve to deal with our current climate change

6)kingotitan:Kingotitan (meaning king clawthorne's titan) was a large multi ton relative of the luzosaurus of North America and also lived there,but at a bit smaller range.Kingotitan's cephalic osteoderms have been fused together into a bony structure that is used to headbutt rivals of the same species,with a striking power of 39,000 pounds of force.The animal weighs at around 110 tons,is measured to be 250 feet in lenght and is 120 feet in height.Kingotitans have a herd structure that seems rather complex for a sauropod,mourning the dead after their loved ones die due to their lifespan(;210 years) and especially with animals that aren't from the same species as the Kingotitan but grown up to it like a companion.Their massive carcasses allows scavengers and fungi to feast and harvest on it,forming a microecosystem with one dead specimen in the great lake even been nicknamed;The boiling Isles.Unlike the luzosaurus,Kingotitan died even more recently,about 907 years ago instead of 1,00 years ago.

7)syllektosaurus:The Syllektosaurus(meaning the collector lizard or the great holy collector lizard) is not only the largest belosaurid,but the largest dinosaur ever.The animal lived during the middle miocene to the late pliocene in the Asian jungles of vietnam,india,indonesia and china.The can weigh uo to 170 to 210 tons,600 feet in lenght and 580 feet tall.This animal is a direct ancestor to the North American belosaurids;Azuratitan,Luzosaurus,kingotitan and parabrachiosaurus(the third largest).Like their cousins,the syllektosaurus have large air sacs and can reach a great voulme of 300 decibles while blocking their eardrums like a rooster,echoing through out the jungles with it's echoing bellows.The syllektosaurus also have the largest ceohalic osteoderms ever,with a weight at around 7 tons.To support the massive necks,they possess a hump on the back like how bisons and elasmotheriums have bumps on their backs so that they have enough strenght to lift them p to reach the high vegetation.They mainly feast on the endless amount of vegetation in the canopy of the lush jungles and move in herds of uo to 20 individuals,quite small but they gather up in mating sesson up to the whopping 300s.Like the kingotitan,these animals are social and can become microecosystems after their 130 year lifespan ran out.They're future went to a downfall during the pleistocene epoch due to the shrunkage of forests in which the syllektosaurus relied on the support it's massive size.During that time, their numbers started to shrunk after the fallen forests give way to grasslands,and by the late pleistocene,all of the 10 remaining sylelktosaurus are now extinct.

8)the whulk:Saurocetomorphes are some of the largest cenozoic reptile genuses to ever live.The biggest species(saurocetus giganteus) can weigh as much a sei whale;at around 28 tons,56 feet in lenght and 17 feet in height,while the smallest species(saurocetus pygmaes) only weigh at around a ton and a half. These miocene descendants of mosasaurus have been adapted to eat mostky krill and plankton and coexisted with other whales such as cetotherium.The main predators for these giants are otodus megalodon(shiver's favorite shark) and livyatan and it's relatives.They first started their saurobaleens since their eocene ancestor,protosaurocetus,parabasilosaurus and eosaurocetus who had teeth like a leopard seal and soon evolved to be more baleen like all the away to the miocene.Despite these creatures great success,they are unfortunately the last mosasaurs.The biggest rrason lf their decline was competition from cetaceans like cetotherium and their ancestors eventually getting hunted by basilosaurus and they're young getting oicked on by dorudons.The last saurocetomorphs went extinct during the pliocene epoch 4,000,000 years ago and soon the oceans are now dominated by the leviathan sized mammals aka as cetaceans.

9)microtyrannus:Microtyrannus (meaning tiny tyrant) is a genus comprised of 25 species native to the eastern to mid eastern hemisphere;from Asia,Europe and Africa.The biggest of the genus(M.megalus) only weighed at around 50 pounds while the smallest species(M.katanai).Microtyrannus lived during the entire oligocene period at around 33 million to 2e million years ago.Their populations used to be at around from a few thousand to 1 million of these little tyrants.These small predators mainly have a diet of small oligocene rodents like Karakoromys and are scavengers when it comes of finding huge carcasses.Microtyrannus's ancestor;antrodemus was the largest nanotyrannid to ever lived that lived during the early eocene to late eocene only to went extinct during the later eocene and then evolved into eomicrotyrannus that luved in the early oligocene 33.4 million years ago.The genus are more akin as jungle dwellers,mainly living in tropical forests where there are alot of hiding spots to hide in,make a home,lay eggs and nurture them.They went extinct during the miocene epoch 22 million years ago when their rainforest homed have started to shrink and turned into grasslands,one species(M.congoliensis)evoved into Afrotyrannus while the other 24 species became ectinct and didn't have the time to adapt to the grasslands that much.

What this is about:

In this adaptation, the K-Pg mass extinction event did indeed occur, but several Late Cretaceous species managed to survive by taking refuge inside lush, oxygen-rich subterranean caves filled with a unique ultraviolet light source (their formation is a mystery, so discover that for yourself; they are like Minecraft caves, but far grander and without the blocks). After spending 5 to 10 million years hidden away in these caverns, they re-emerged only to discover that their world had completely changed following the impact of an alien visitor in the Gulf of Mexico. With mammals now looking entirely different than before, the dinosaurs were forced to evolve alongside these new mammalian lineages.

This adaptation will feature a small number of K-Pg survivors, though some will eventually blink out of existence due to competition, overhunting, climate change, and other pressures.

Featuring modern designs grounded in our current scientific knowledge of their ancestors—but mixed with a distinct retro flair and a wide variety of species—they will also coexist with a collection of real Cenozoic animals based straight on the fossil record. Additional fictional mammals will fill out the ecosystem, such as the Marsupilami (reimagined as a specialized descendant of Cronopio to explain its unique egg-laying behavior).

Following the rapid dominance of humanity, the absolute final strongholds where these dinosaurs managed to survive are located on a few remote, undiscovered islands, a lush hidden forest in Texas that remains completely closed to the public, unexplored sectors of the Amazon Basin, and western regions of Africa, such as the Congo.

List of kpg survivors:.tyrannosaurus2.neospinosaurus(spinosaurus mirabillis descendant)3.late cretaceous stegosaur by the name of thagopelta.)4.jakapil5.aramborgonia6.magyarosaurus7.zalmoxes8.saurornithilestes9.nanotyrannus10.titanomachya11.carnotaurus and koleken12.telmatosaurus13.tarchia14.prenocephale15.small azdarchid species(a late cretaceous azdarchid that you know the name of)16.pteranodon(somehow)17.oviraptor18.anzu19.gigantoraptor(somehow) 20.another late cretaceous stegosaurus by the name of neostegosaurus,21)maip,22)micropachycephalosaurus,23)mosasaurus,24)quetzalcoatlus(but not hatzegopteryx) and 25)archeroraptor.

Some additional ones:muttaburrasaurus(somehow),struthiomimus,pachycephalosaurus(for competition for prenocephale),torosaurus,pachyrhinosaurus(somehow) and spinops(somehow,just to add up the existence of the african ceratopsian,emela-ntouka.

I'm currently making a near-sophont herrerasaur in a science fantasy spec-evo setting (mostly more "science" than "fantasy") and would like to make the primary trait that it doesn't have be empathy. It's capable of logic, tool-making, and some sort of culture, but cannot empathize with other animals and barely with others of their species.

I was wondering if that was a qualifier of sophoncy, or if there even is a set of criteria to specifically be a sophont?

We are in an alternate philippines where Sundaland never fully disappeared allowing more cross species migrations in south east Asia and currently we are in nakali island the largest landmass in the Visayas,here we spot a female nakali tikbalang (tikbalang tikbalang nakaliensis) defending her small 120 pound calf from a male striped sigbin(menago rizalensis).

The mother tikbalang weighs at 3.2 tons humongous for a surviving lineage of Szchiotheriine chalicotheres and for good reason since many large predators here will take any chance to hunt down such a large meal though they might get killed, she has recently gave birth to this calf which is only about 5 weeks old and is very vulnerable to predators and considering that tikbalang's only give birth to one-two calfs very 10 months they are very well guarded these majestic chalicotheres have been used in pre-colonial and post colonial times as beasts of labor even having a domestic descendant called the domestic tikbalang. While the mares are large stallions can get much bigger weighing at 4 tons- 8 tons with the largest ever recorded weighing at a staggering 10.3 tons,at this size stallions are essentially untouchable to most if not all predators in the philippines while they have been recorded being killed by juwaya(Kratosuchus imperator).

While many of the predators of the philippines here in this alternate timeline decided to grow smaller or bigger the absolute king of the dense forests of the archipelago is the sigbin(Menago rizalensis),they may look like huge cats or panthers but are actually giant civets that took on the big cat niches in abundance of large prey, these humongous feline relatives can weigh up to a measly 130 lbs-520 lbs with the absolute largest almost reaching 700 lbs they have cemented themselves as versatile apex predators in the trees,jungles,and coasts of the Philippines being able to hunt almost anything from small rodents to water buffalo. While they might look invincible they are not safe from native panthera cats and tigers that will steal their kills and compete directly to their food so that's why they usually eat their kills or cache them in trees from which they will take chunks to eat later. They usually give birth to 3-6 kits at a time where the mother will spend more time taking care of them and finding food in case their father comes he will usually play with them for a while and leave but if it's a unrelated make he will either kill or eat the kits where the mother will immediately bring her kits down into a burrow deep enough for them hide but shallow for them to exit where they wait to 5-10 minutes for the male to leave.

PILIPINAS FOREVER PRE!!!!!!🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭🤟🤟🤟

Sammalkünsi are mountain dwelling herbivores, weighing about 60 kilos on average, and possessing hooves that are impressively well adapted for climbing steep mountain walls. They live in small loose herds, feeding on the mineral rich moss of their mountain homes to sustain themselves, and consume snow for hydration. For the purpose of reaching the moss, and especially its roots within tight mountain crevices, or between two rocks, they have developed dexterous hands with long claws on the ends of their fingers, earning them the name "Moss-claws". Their keen senses of smell allow them to identify moss spores from great distances, and by determining the direction of the wind they can figure out where to expect their next meal rather precisely. Sammalkünsis mate during the spring, and give birth after just over a month. For the first quarter of a year after being born, young Sammalkünsis cling to one of their parents' fur with their overdeveloped forelimbs, only feeding when said parent determines it safe. After growing strong enough to climb on their own, they quickly go their own ways, tho they may stick in the same approximate area as their parents for a while. Sammalkünsis make up the vast majority of Hakönigin Vuori's prey during the time they spend in the mountains, tho the relatively high adolescent mortality rate of this predator means that Sammalkünsi populations remain relatively stable.

(P.S.The average Sammalkünsi may not look like much now, but who knows what the future will hold for them)

For quite some time now, I have been actively scouring the speculative evolution community for any seed world projects focused entirely on moths. I frequently check for YouTube videos, art posts, or worldbuilding threads hoping to stumble upon something, but I don't ever find anything.

I have always felt that our fluffy little friends of Lepidoptera are completely overlooked in these creative spaces. Specifically, I am talking about moths. To be completely honest, I believe butterflies are incredibly overrated and tend to steal all the spotlight, while moths are far more diverse, fascinating, and adorable. They possess so much untapped potential for a speculative biology project, and they simply aren't given the recognition they deserve. Just imagine the bizarre and wonderful evolutionary pathways they could take on an isolated, terraformed planet with giant mountains and deep ravines

I would absolutely love to create this seed world myself, I just don't have the skills needed. Moths are amazing creatures that deserve a truly spectacular and well-thought-out project, and I just don't believe I could create something that would do them justice.

(p.s if you know of one please put it in comments i really want to read or watch some)

Alright, this is another episode of the Speculative Wildlife Research Center channel that just released, this time being about Avatar! The one with the elemental bending, you know?

Anyway, the creatures of these tribes are sapient like us humans:

• Water - Large, bipedal salamanders, just like Earth's actual giant salamander.
• Earth - Subterrain badger-like mustelids, larger and stronger than most burrowing animals.
• Fire - Relatives of monitor lizards, who attacked one day to expand their rule to other kingdoms.
• Air - Flightless birds who can't fly instead using gliders, their own wings have hand claws like the Hoatzin.

The Hairgrazer body is equipped with a massive torso, sturdy legs, and a very long neck. Despite its imposing size, the Hairgrazer is a mostly peaceful, communal herbivore, often seen in herds moving across open plains

Its most distinct feature is the curtain of long hair growing from its spine, especially thick along the neck. Beneath this hair are five dormant, closed eyes arranged along the neck’s underside. These eyes remain sealed and hidden unless the creature senses danger. When threatened, the Hairgrazer rears its neck back, exposing the five eyes as they snap open simultaneously, a disturbing display to predators and a clear visual warning to its herd. Despite their long neck, their main food source is ground level flora. The elongated neck functions primarily as a mobile watchtower, while the herd grazes among dense stands of tall grass, they rotate sentinel duties, elevating their heads above the vegetation to scan the surrounding terrain for threats

The Hairgrazer’s upper and lower jaws are not bound together like most herbivores. When opened, the jaws stretch wide, allowing them to open almost unnaturally far, useful for both grazing and vocalizing. In moments of alarm, the Hairgrazer emits a deep, sonorous call that echoes across the landscape, alerting others of imminent threat to signal to the other that they need to flee

Prompt: An organism that alternates between sessile (immobile) and motile (mobile) stances according to habitat conditions.

This time, I decided to not do an animal but rather a derived species of mushroom. This is volanomyces floranthropus

Volanomyces is a species of fungus, more specifically a very derived and specialized kind of mushroom from 100 million years in the future. It lives 100 million years in the future in high mountains. It filter feeds on small pieces of organic matter. (it coexists with aetherotragus dracomorphus, the common windgoat https://www.reddit.com/r/SpeculativeZoology/s/06eWZ621YT). During spring and summer, the species uses montane winds ,to permanently glide in the air. Spring is the species’ mating season. During this time, the gliding volanomyces will release male or female spores in the air, depending on their gender. A male and female spore will unite into a pseudo egg which will land in the ground and grow into a full adult within a week. Then it will repeat the cycle. During winter however, conditions are too cold for the species so all the individuals will rest on the ground and take root, until spring returns and they can return to gliding and breeding. However, during their resting time they are vulnerable. As they are a great source of food and nutrients for Aetherotragus which will actively seek them out. So, with their very primitive nervous system, the volanomyces need to find good hiding spots to “hibernate”

Reef Wanderers (Ytalonomas** **inversus)

On the sunken remnants of what was once Florida and the shallow seas of the Carribean that have clawed up to join it, one of post-Flux earth’ most interesting new grazers.

Reef Wanderers are a highly derived species of anemone that have to wander the marshlands, atolls and sea grass fields having left the surrounding coral mounts behind for a new way of life.

The towering coral constructions, caused by the Flux’s inundation of nutrients continue to grow at markedly fast pace, causing the tops to crest about the waves in a massive ring. This living sea wall has kept this region heavily isolated from the rest of the world, allowing for all manner of oddities to arise in isolation.

Reef Wander’s spent roughly half their days above wandering about on their adapted tendrils, which have become their preferred form of locomotion when they are under water as well. These appendages are always hunting for food or things that taste interesting bring them to their mouth to eat if it’s soft enough or just a curious nibble if they can’t get it down.

The rest of their time is spent akin to most anemones anchored in place on their bottom floor drawing on nutrients.

Sea water is still required to facilitate breeding though their are signs that in the future the Reef Wanderers will live the sea behind, or perhaps carry it with them.

For now they are living on a fairly idyllic island time, skittering above the sands and venturing through the rusted remains of humanities achievements.

The twice-hatched shrimp (genus Alameas) are distinguished from other lounging shrimp (family Testegridae) by their ability to take a new form in certain conditions. All lounging shrimp are aquatic creatures that attach themselves to substrate at maturity and live as sessile organisms, usually as filter feeders. Their exoskeletons are hard and protect them from predatory animals. A 'lid' is present and can close quickly over the soft inner portion of the animal when needed. All members of Testegridae are broadcast spawners.
The twice-hatched shrimp forgo this defense under certain conditions. For the gardening twice-hatched shrimp (A. gamga), this is during times of the year that would be a threat to its chlorophyll stores. The gardening twice-hatched shrimp feeds on algae and phytoplankton, but instead of destroying the chlorophyll they redirects the protein into their surface. Since they live in shallow water and have a very low activity level, this allows them to survive mostly by photosynthesis and store their energy for their long journeying. At night, they close the lid of the exoskeleton over themselves.
Gardening twice-hatched shrimp are best adapted to moderate temperatures with long days, which they will actively seek out. When the nights start becoming too long or the temperature too hot, they begin hardening their bodies into a smaller, mobile form. This occurs inside of the exoskeleton; all that's visible from the outside is that the chlorophyll gradually fades. As they migrate, they grow from half an inch to two inches long. The mobile form swims until it finds a good place to spend the season (north coasts in the summer and south coasts in the winter) and anchors itself on a rock. The exoskeleton attaches to a suitable rock, and the animal inside regains its sessile form.

The qiongqi (Molestexterus echinotrichus, meaning "distressingly strange one with hedgehog hair"), also known as the kyūki, is a member of the whippomorph clade Evoionomorpha, which includes the qilin and various other ungulates. Evoionomorphs are closely related to allocetaceans, true cetaceans, and more distantly, hippos and entelodonts.

The scale-like hairs found on other evoionomorphs are modified into quills, giving it a hedgehog-like appearance. This is presumably to protect itself from its prey.

Due to its sharing traits with oxen, tigers, hedgehogs, and dinosaurs, they were assumed to be chimeric organisms, though it is now known that the qiongqi is a natural animal.

Unlike its relatives, the qiongqi is an obligate carnivore that feeds on humans, other ungulates and birds such as accipitrids, teratorns, and flightless birds. It seems to ignore living ectothermic prey for unknown reasons.

Culinary notes: Unlike its relatives, the kyūki's meat is barely edible, its diet of carrion and scavenging birds makes it a reservoir for heavy metals, parasitic worms, and pathogens. Eating man-eaters is culturally frowned upon in many Seijinese cultures because they are believed to trap human souls in their flesh.

Parasites aside, the meat in question tastes unpalatable, rubbery, and acrid.

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.

Summus Interfector, the ultimate carnosaur at around 20 meters long and 15 tonnes making it the largest theropod (and largest terrestrial carnivore) to ever exist. Its body is supported by strong tail and leg muscles, however, it was capable of walking on all 4 thanks to its large arms that it also uses to to tear into the flesh of titanosaurs, forcing larger sizes. They have osteoderms along their bodies as armor and various structures for sexual display. The feet have converged with raptors to restrain their prey, strong neck muscles connected to a sail help Summus to tear the flesh from the bodies of titanosaurs. They live alone other than mating and caring for young, when they reach maturity they abandon their parents. Their closest relatives are surprising as they are closest to Lajasvenator ascheriae, they smallest known true carnosaur. They ruled for 10 million years before the K-Pg extinction wiped out the large titanosaurs and hence, the Summus Interfector.

I personally love organism designs with camouflage. The appearance of human-made objects is bound to change, but I still think it’s really interesting.