Sacrifice? That sounds harsh...do you think it's best to put long-planned genus groups at the beginning of a week, or is this just a courtesy? What's your reasoning? I

I have corrected the submission with that altitude information in mind.
For future reference, where did you find that information on the wiki?

The fact you have to specify "lakes and ponds" shows just how handy it was to have watershed environments in the Beta Timeline.

This is in the Woodland, Scrubland, Salt, and Grassland (specifically Drake Plains) environment flavors, and there's a limit of three flavors per organism. Is this your wildcard submission?

"therefor restricted" That's a typo: you meant "therefore". I know I've said this before, but I like your watercolor-esque style.

Bizarrely, the description is correct. Clusterspades do not have a scientific name. How about "Clustus innominatam" (unnamed) or "Clustus sinenomine" (nameless)?

The description is small. It can be approved as it is, but I think it would be improved if you added a little more detail. Can any herbivores get through its defenses? What are its sunlight requirements? Does it grow densely, or sparsely? What does its nectar taste like?

A Shootstems descendant. A short-lived, cool-season ephemeral that lives along streams. Unlike most Shootstems, it actually does poorly in hot weather.

An arboreal Skinback descendant, so tenacious in catching prey and voracious it can eat to obesity where food is plentiful.

Here are sketches for some planned Drylicad descendants, planned for various Ovi habitats. I plan for them to be large shrubs or small trees. They mostly live in arid and semi-arid places, while the Mournking lives in the mountains. One, however, has a very widespread distribution, and it might be my wildcard for that time period. I tried multiple variations on their body plans of a notched trunk. I plan for some to have purplish, purplish brownish, or brown trunks.The Drylicad had "mostly lost photosynthesis in this bottom region [of the trunk]", and now, I plan for the ones on the upper right and lower right and possibly the one on the upper left to regain photosynthesis in those areas, to some degree. The one in the middle on the top already has complete art, though I can't find it at this time.

I think I'll make the prickly-notched one on the lower-right a descendant of the one on the upper right, since its notches and leaves are so unusual it wouldn't be plausible as a direct descendant.

They were mostly inspired by by cycads and bromeliads.

Since the descriptions for each of these are 99% complete, and my descriptions tend to be long, I've provided only very brief descriptions for each one so they don't dominate the thread. If desired, though, I could add the descriptions.

Heavy Metal Ovipine:

An Ovipine which ekes out an existence in areas with soils high in heavy metals.

Merlinhat (or Cryospire? Haven't decided on the name)

A very large nonvascular flora, which manages to get so large due to its environment having no competition for its niches. Lives high in the mountains. Has a glassy lattice and prickly growths.

Show your Works In Progress! (For the Beta Timeline)

I believe it would be beneficial to sort flora and fauna in the ecosystem pages for the Alpha timeline, as it is in the Beta timeline. It might even be useful to sort them roughly by color or type, where habitats have many species of various colors or types. I would be willing to sort the flora on Alpha. For this purpose, I don't think it's that important to sort them by size.

I noticed that some of the bigger habitats on Alpha have many, many flora. Before there was such a diversity of flora, it might have made sense for large fauna to be colored like the local soil, but when there's high flora density or when they're small fauna that don't move much from high-density areas (i.e., like lizards or bugs on trees) it makes more sense for them to be colored like the local flora. The fact some habitats have multiple dominant flora colors means that, short of color-changing, being nocturnal, or sticking exclusively to large clusters of particularly-colored flora, that some medium-sized to large fauna would really stick out if they're single-colored and adapted to just one flora type.

P.S. I just noticed Vivus Rocky doesn't have a soil color: it's just "rocks and soil". Other Vivus habitats are black. I believe Vivus Rocky, as a whole, should also have black soil. Are there any objections before I fix that?

The art looks nice. I like the thick, even black lines and the fur detail.

Is this just for Alpha timeline submissions? The Beta section doesn't have a work-in-progress list.


An intended flora for Raptor Volcanic and/or its surrounding regions, in the lowlands. I actually have a nearly-complete description, but I figure it would be improper to put that on a work-in-progress thread in between Weeks.


A Rainforest Buttpiper descendant for Dixon Tropical Scrub which is actually adapted for that environment's coloration and can withstand predation by argusraptors better.

I decided to mark this as completed.

I decided to make the altitude range for Drake Boreal more specific.
What's the altitude for Mae Volcanic? It doesn't make sense that Volcanic habitats or peaks in volcanic habitats would fit under the "1 km" altitude of most habitats. For it to be surrounded by high-altitude habitats, I would presume it's high-altitude.

Does anyone know where the altitude listings of habitats are? I still can't find it.

I was inspired to add my own alternate-timeline where I joined Sagan 4 in May 2010.


It's a Woollycoat descendant that keeps its young in a fluff-coated brood patch on its back, and has longer, sharper, talon-like toes.

I made it using a laptop trackpad and by setting GIMP to an approximation of the version of Microsoft Paint I could access at the time.

This approximation is actually not the best I would be capable of at the time. I had the option of mechanical pencil drawings with colored pencil coloring, and it looked pretty good, though the poses and musculature would probably look off. I think I mostly drew digital art using a mouse, too, though I knew I was capable of drawings of roughly this quality, or even with backgrounds, using just a laptop trackpad.

I was going to give a brief anecdote of a possible art feud with alternate-timeline Disgustedorite and Nergali/alternate-timeline Nergali got involved because I accidentally made something grotesque Nergali liked, but that's very beyond the scope of a fan art topic.

The sentences in the template should be capitalized.

"it's ancestor" and "it's originating" are typoes.

"swathes" is the British spelling. This isn't a problem, since I can't find any British and American variant conflicts in the description. It would be useful to remember to keep variants consistent in future submissions, though.

"beaches forming" should be "beaches, forming".

"together the surfaces" Do you mean "together on the surfaces"?

"in order to survive" suggests intention, which is discouraged when describing biological traits. "which helps them survive low tides" is better.

"free floating" should be "free-floating". Otherwise, it's less precise: it could be a free (cost-less) floating ball.

"the base following much" is hard to parse.

"pair very large" should be "pair of very large".

"free float and" should be "free-float" or simply "float".

The second paragraph's sentences should be merged together. They aren't long enough or distinctive enough to warrant separation. I also recommend merging the first three sentences and the fourth sentences together to make one paragraph, instead of the first three sentences standing slightly separately from the other sentence.

QUOTE (Clayren2:Electric Boogaloo @ Jul 28 2021, 02:45 PM)

A copyright claim requires proof that some manner of profit is being made from use of said property.

True, but knowing how tough Disney is about copyright infringement, it's probably best to avoid making too obvious a reference to Winnie the Pooh in the organism concept.

Obviously, it wouldn't be constant danger, especially considering the habitats exist for many millions of years. It's not out of the question plants (or in this case, flora) which live close to volcanoes would have adaptations for it, though.

Sources:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/artic...098847212002031
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.338...2018.00052/full
https://www.botany.one/2016/02/plants-and-p...r-popocatepetl/
One plain-English source: https://www.usgs.gov/center-news/volcano-wa...canic-pollution

Two of the animals in the article have fairly direct adaptations to living in volcanically-influenced environments:
https://www.bbcearth.com/news/the-animals-t...-volcanoes-home

What are the expected adaptations to living in volcanic habitats? How are they different from mountain habitats? Should each volcanic region be classified in order of the number or intensity of volcanic activity or lava flows? I'm making some flora for Raptor Volcanic, with specific volcanic adaptations in mind such as not suffocating under ash flows, enduring ash-choked skies, and finding a way for the population to survive wildfires, but I actually don't know what adaptations would be useful for Raptor Volcanic. I also haven't noticed any Volcanic habitat-dwelling fauna whose descriptions explicitly mention adaptations that help them escape volcanic eruptions, whether by detecting them, rapidly escaping or enduring ash falls.

I'll leave it blank, then. Can this be approved, despite the unclear data? Or shall it be held back until its lineage's details are figured out?

According to Wikipedia, the first volume of Winnie-the-Pooh will enter the public domain in the United States on 1 Jan 2022. However, Disney's version of it will last longer, and I believe they copyrighted the name "Winnie-the-Pooh". Since Winnie the Pooh is so profitable, and Disney is so prone to strike down on copyright infringement in general...you probably can't reference Winnie the Pooh too closely, such as by making its scientific name "Winnie poohus", or something like that. I suppose you could check on it again on January 1, 2022 and, if things go well, make some descendant of it reference Winnie the Pooh.

It's only a work-in-progress if it requires knowledge on respiration and support.
Should I assume a bland, Earthlike "Carbon Dioxide (Photosynthesis)" for respiration, and a vague "Cellulose Walls" for support?

Did the world of this setting also have a "primordial soup" stage, or is that too far from the scope of its worldbuilding and biology to be a concern?

I wonder how they would regard their own biology and "magic" without understanding it on the subatomic level...people used to assume a "breath of life" called pneuma traveled through the arteries and was necessary for life. It would be a fun joke if these initially assumed their bodies worked by real-life electrochemical properties until magions were properly studied.

I like the colorful artwork and the pose.
If Fermi sinks beneath the sea next Week, or if it has a huge mass extinction, then I suppose I could add some of my many old Fermi thornback and flora sketches here, too. They would be near-contemporary alternate-timeline ideas.

I saw no "submissions are now closed" note on the forum.

Duramceri (Pseudoaperus foedus)
Ancestor: Duramboar
Habitat: Fermi Desert, Fermi Tundra (rarely)
Diet: Herbivore (Sunstalks, Sunleaves, Fermi Sunstalk, Greysnip tubers, Dalmatian Spinetower tubers, Candletower secondary tubers, Saturntower tubers, Greyblades roots, Bonespire roots, Spinetower roots, Umbrosa roots) Larvae: Herbivore, Detritivore
Size: 1.2 meters long
Respiration: Active, Oxygen
Support System: Bone Endoskeleton
Temperature: Adults: Mesothermic, Giganotothermic; Larvae: Endothermic (Low Temperatures)
Reproduction: Spawning in Water, Frog-Like Eggs Incubated in Male Bladlap Apparatus

(Image depicts a female.)

Duramceri superficially resemble even fattier Duramboars, which they replace. Other than their fattier bodies, their biggest differences are internal adaptations for cold, dry conditions and reproductive developments, namely the larval development stages and the connection between male Duramceris’ dewlaps and bladders.

Duramceris’ huge, fatty, dark-colored bodies allow them to gain heat fairly quickly, and lose it fairly slowly. Their large, rounded bodies make them so good at holding onto heat that they may, at times, risk overheating during hot days after sustained running from predators. When this happens, they increase blood circulation to their shoulder-spikes and thigh-spikes, making them a redder shade and releasing them to the surrounding air. Only the shoulder spikes contain bony elements: the thigh spikes are keratinous structures similar to iguana spikes, with an inner core of spongy tissue connected to the vascular system. The blood supply to the spikes can be constricted to reduce heat loss in the cold.

Their necks are not particularly flexible: it was unnecessary for it to be too flexible, due to having six eyes and a wide span of vision.

Males have slightly longer lower teeth. Since they don’t poke out of the mouth, they aren’t quite tusks.

Duramceris migrate between latitudes as the seasons change.

---Reproduction---

Male Duramceris' bladder-dewlap apparatus ("bladlap apparatus") is used to incubate eggs and larvae. After Duramceri spawn in shallow pools of water, the males shall take eggs he’s fertilized into his bladder. It is somewhat akin to gastric brooding frogs incubating young in their stomachs, although a different organ is used. Until the larvae hatch, the father Duramceri cannot urinate, although the large storage capacity of the bladder delays really needing to for a few days. The eggs hatch faster than Duramboar eggs, and as tiny, immature larvae, the young move from the bladder into the dewlap, and the ducts connecting the two organs constrict after their passage. At this point, male Duramboars can urinate.

Retaining the larvae within the bladlap apparatus means less water is used through the course of their development: a useful trait in the desert. The males have remarkably large bladders while incubating young. They are not nourished within the bladlap apparatus; they depend on stores of yolk provisioned from within the egg. Within his body, the larvae are kept warmer than they would in shallow ponds, which accelerates their development. The larvae moving between the organs is sometimes uncomfortable, as clear from the father’s grimacing and slight shuffling. Since the travel is quick and the pain not so severe it puts him at risk of predators, however, there has been no evolutionary pressure for their bodies to change.

Females’ urinary openings are moved up onto their underbellies rather than under their tails, as a side effect of bladlap apparatus development. Their bladders are not connected anywhere unusual, however.

---Growth of the Young---

Duramceris give birth within days of each other in late spring. Duramceris birth 3-5 young at a time: an adaptation to having several predators. The young are born tiny (2-3 cm) with no body spikes (a constraint from the small openings they emerge from), and look mostly like tiny, less-fatty, lengthier adults with a little tadpole-like tail membrane that is soon reabsorbed.

Duramceri young grow to 40 cm shockingly quickly, and maintain a somewhat slower but still fast pace of growth to 60 cm. Before reaching 60 cm, the young are extra-skittish and hard to spot, rarely straying far from the legs of adults. The young are voracious but picky, craving more nutritious food than the adults do. The voraciousness from their high metabolism inclines them to eat almost constantly. Duramceris are somewhat cooperative, and the adults do not mind if the young eat some of the tubers they dig up. The quick growth of newborns reduces how long they are vulnerable to snapperkies, a major predator of the young. Below about 20 cm, they are too small to access their preferred foods quickly with some measure of safety, so their voraciousness leads them to consume undigested remnants of food from the dung of adult Duramceris. The practice is somewhat similar to that of young elephants and young hippopotamuses eating the dung of adults of their species. Young Duramceris' high growth rates compel them to eat high amounts of calcium. If their diets or dirt from tubers and roots cannot sustain them, they will gnaw on bones and bark and even swallow clumps of dirt.

Born far too small to make use of giganotothermy or the insulation of fat, the young (birth to about 60 cm) are somewhat endothermic, like tegus, and bask on any warm rocks near the herd to heat themselves up more. They can maintain their body temperatures up to 10 degrees Fahrenheit higher than their surroundings. As they grow, they lose their relative endothermy.

---Other Details---

The development of bladlap incubation has made it less useful to migrate to the tundra, as a formerly low-predator environment that also has low volumes of food it can eat. Indeed, by living outside the tundra, it is able to avoid [[Snowstalker Tuskent]]s entirely. However, due to being migratory but not having especially fine-tuned navigational senses to avoid overshooting, some end up in Fermi Tundra occasionally anyway, before eventually moving on in search of more food.

Duramceri live most densely at oases and “savannas”. They avoid the temperate beaches, not from a lack of food or adaptations but because the beaches have so many predators.

They live in small herds, typically 6-8 adults, which periodically splits off as it gets too large. Duramceris have tough, thick skin, and blood vessels which constrict in cold temperatures. The spikes pale in the cold. Like its ancestor, the flap of skin over its nostrils can be used to protect its nostrils from dust storms or colony stalk defense phytids, though it prefers to not eat colony stalks due to being unable to protect its eyes, too.

Toes

Unlike its ancestor, it only has two toes per foot: one in the front, and one in the back. Its migratory lifestyle and dependence on speed (and to a lesser extent, its bulk) to deal with predators has led to the loss of its toes, in a similar way to the evolution of horses. Its hooves are constantly growing and must be worn down through travel on rough terrain.