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This is the Sagan 4 Glossary, which contains definitions for various terms that are commonly used on Sagan 4. I figured something like this might be useful so that new people know what the words we use mean. Please suggest more words and I'll add them.

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A

• alienified - In reference to a submission, made to seem more "alien" in some way. This is commonly used to refer to unlikely developments that only serve to make an organism "weirder", especially if there is no good reason for it.
• anipede - A major group of fauna on sagan 4 which somewhat resemble arthropods. Sometimes shortened to just "pede".

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B

• beakworm - A type of binucleid worm which resembles a fish with a beak.
• black flora or blackflora - A major group of flora on Sagan 4 which resemble Terran plants, but with black or grey leaves.
• bora - Any organism which lives in the microclimate formed by the fuzzbora and its descendants.
• [b]bubblehorn - A type of binucleid worm which resembles a snail with ten legs and bubbly "horns".

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C

• carpozoa - A major group of fauna on Sagan 4. The term is commonly used to refer specifically to the vertebrate-like spondylozoans, which look more or less like conventional Earth vertebrates but with 6 eyes.
• cephalic segment - A body part present on all binucleid worms which includes the mouth, brain, and, in certain groups, legs, wings, fins, eyes, and/or flippers. Sometimes also known as a "sauce segment".
• challenge - A variety of official challenges, which usually consist of a species prompt and may involve prizes.
• cross swap - A rarer type of swap where each side is for a different project. Usually this is between Sagan 4 Alpha and Sagan 4 Beta. See swap.
• cryoflora Synonym of glass flora. May also be used to refer to related flora in Sagan 4 Beta.
• crystal flora - A major group of flora on Sagan 4 which resemble crystals and behave similarly to both plants and fungi.

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D

• diorama - Any illustration of an ecosystem on Sagan 4. Sometimes, these are made for contests, but other times they are just made for fun. Dozens of them exist.

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E

• earth clone - A derogatory or ironic term for an organism which closely resembles something from the planet Earth. At one time these were greatly frowned upon, however they are currently embraced as an important part of Sagan 4 and its history.
• ecosystem page - A page on the wiki which lists every single biome and every single species within that biome for a particular time period.

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F

• fauna - Organisms which are, for all intents and purposes, animals. We use this term instead of "animals" because our fauna come from several different kingdom-level origins rather than forming a single animal kingdom.
• fermisaur - Any species of a clade of turtsnappers descended from the thornback, which are endemic to Fermi island.
• flavor - Short for "biome flavor", it refers to what "kind" of biome a particular biome is (such as woodland or desert). This is one of the two axes for a single-species submission's habitat range, along with type.
• flora - Organisms which are, for all intents and purposes, plants or fungi. We use this term instead of "plants" because our flora come from several different kingdom-level origins rather than forming a single plant kingdom.
• foundation group - A type of genus group which specifically encompasses flora (plants) such as trees.

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G

• generation - The smaller unit of time on Sagan 4, which generally lasts about 2.5 million years in-universe and contains all new species submitted during it.
• genus group - A type of submission consisting of an entire taxon, usually a genus of flora or small fauna (think insects). Unlike species, genera will typically come in a range of sizes and have a broad region listed for their habitat.
• gilltail - A type of beakworm which has gills running through its tail.
• glass flora or glassflora - A major group of flora on Sagan 4 which have chitinous, lens-like shells.
• gundi - A subgroup of nodents, more specifically noants, which are often eusocial. They are the crown group of noants.

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H

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I

• iron biota - A major group of both fauna and flora on Sagan 4 which have a considerable amount of iron in their makeup.

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J

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K

• keystone group - A rarer type of genus group without which the ecosystem would completely collapse, such as those involved in the nitrogen cycle or soil formation.

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L

• landmark - A submission consisting not of a species, but of a place. These are usually geological formations, such as mountains or hot springs, but they can also sometimes be formed by the activity of organisms.
• lizardworm - A type of scuttlecrab with a lizard-like face.

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M

• Mason - Sagan 4's moon. At one time, it was its own project which ran simultaneously with Sagan 4, to some controversy as they took up generation slots without any compensation even though they otherwise did not interact with Sagan 4's biota.
• Mason replacement - Any retroactive Sagan 4 organisms which serve specifically to "reclaim" generation slots that were previously filled by Mason's life-forms.

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N

• naucean - A sapient species created by Sagan 4 founder Hydromancerx, which has some canonical involvement with Sagan 4.
• nodent - A group of plents on sagan 4 which are known for their resemblance to Earth rodents.

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O

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P

• phlyer - a type of flying plent.
• plague - An organism which serves only to wipe out other species using disease. These have a lot of history but are frowned upon today.
• planda - A panda-like species of plent which was the center of Sagan 4's first drama in 2006. It has since become a bit of a meme.
• planimal - A general term for any fauna on Sagan 4 which has plant-like characteristics, or any organism which cannot be nearly fit into "plant" or "animal". Some noteworthy examples are plents, crastrums, and wormflora.
• plent - One of the major groups of fauna on Sagan 4. Sometimes used to refer only to ambulatory plents, which can be identified by their wooden teeth, horns, and/or claws and the presence of a "nostril" on the rump or the end of the tail.
• purple flora - A major group of flora on Sagan 4 which resemble Terran plants, but purple.

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Q

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R

• replace - In reference to a submission, a species which "replaces" its ancestor is the result of the ancestral species entirely evolving into it, leaving no more representatives of the ancestral species behind.

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S

• Sagan - The star which Sagan 4 orbits around.
• Sagan 4 or Sagan IV - The planet on which this project takes place.
• SaganBot - A bot used on the Sagan 4 Discord server which allows species to quickly be looked up.
• sauce - An external plate present on the cephalic segment of some binucleid worms, under which the brain usually lies.
• sauceback - A noteworthy subgroup of binucleid worm which typically resembles an armless theropod dinosaur with hooves and bug jaws. The "sauce" is named for this group.
• scuttlecrab - A noteworthy group of binucleid worm which resemble arthropods, particularly crustaceans.
• shrew - A somewhat infamous group of carpozoans which look pretty much exactly like Earth therapsids (including mammals), but with 6 eyes. They are notoriously "indestructible", having survived not only several mass extinction events but also no less than three different attempts at wiping them out on purpose.
• skunik - A group of swarmer plents which have 6 limbs and often some amount of exoskeleton. Also known as "land swarmers".
• skysnapper - A type of carpozoan which generally resembles a 6-eyed raptor with pterosaur-like wings.
• split - In reference to a submission, a species which "splits" from its ancestor still coexists with the ancestral species.
• supplementary image - Any artwork for a species which is not the primary image. These are usually anatomical diagrams or depictions of morphs and life stages, but they can also include redraws, fanart, and illustrations of the organism in its environment.
• swap or species swap - An activity where two Sagan 4 members trade submission ideas to work on.
• swarmer - A major type of plent which is typically an aquatic filter-feeder.

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T

• tam - A subgroup of furry shrews which often have scales or osteoderms distributed through their fur.
• terran - In reference to a submission, the organism has familiar "earthly" traits. Also sometimes used to distinguish Earth species from Sagan 4 species.
• treenus - Portmanteau of "tree" and "genus". Synonym of foundation group, and may specifically refer to foundation groups which contain trees.
• turtsnapper - A type of carpozoan which bears some resemblance to Earth reptiles, named for their turtle-like common ancestor.
• type - Short for "temperature type", it refers to the climate of a biome (tropical, temperate, montane, etc). This is one of the two axes for a single-species submission's habitat range, along with flavor.

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U

• ukfauna - A noteworthy group of fauna on Sagan 4. They can usually be identified by their superficially cephalopod-like appearance and prominent tooth.

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V

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W

• week - The larger unit of in-universe time on Sagan 4 typically consisting of 5 project generations and of 12.5 million years in-universe. The map usually updates at the start of each week. Its name is a holdover from when a single in-game week was one real-world week.
• wingworm - A noteworthy group of binucleid worms on Sagan 4, which have eyes on their backs and many of which fly using as many as 12 wings.
• worm - Short for "binucleid worm". A major group of fauna on Sagan 4 descended from exoskeletal worm-like creatures.

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X

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Y

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Z

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I think the omission of the negative connotation of "alienified" (or the inclusion of only the negative connotation of "earth clone") paints a skewed picture of the terms. They're both somewhat vague and have seen negative connotation (if at different times).

I think "flora" and "fauna" could be clarified a little, since the obvious following question would be "well why don't we just call them plants and animals?" (the answer being, of course, that "plant" and "animal" refer to specific Earth taxa).

The "indestructible" reference for the shrews probably needs clarification, given that "indestructible" also has the connotation of physically indestructible (i. e, could be misinterpreted as the shrews themselves having endurance and strength beyond that of their earth equivalents).

Could you add "pedes", "crystals", and "mason replacement"?

Could you also add "Terran" (notable for being a synonym of both "Earthling" and "earth clone" and appearing whenever referring to Earth organisms in descriptions)?

This post has been edited by Cube67: Sep 2 2022, 09:35 AM

Terran is already listed

I have added a bunch of new terms, including many suggestions from Discord.

I've been adding in more names for creatures that we talk about a lot, all of them linking to general pages if available.

@Coolsteph I caught typos while editing this to add a few more terms, and I know I do those a lot. Is there any chance you could proofread this? (And perhaps suggest a few more words?)

More Useful Terms:

I'm surprised Phyler/Phlyer isn't here. It includes the Lari Phlyer, Snapperbeak Hookphlyer, Stonebeak Phlyer, Courier Phlyer, Sky Phlyer, etc. There are more than 200 results by using Ctrl + F and "Phlyer" on the ecosystem page, suggesting they are at least very widespread.


"Gallery" could be useful, as a subtype of supplemental image: fanart added to an organism page after the creator has submitted it. (e.g., OviraptorFan's nodent art)

Scuttlers are fairly biodiverse. There's a Scuttlers genus group, and a few non-genus scuttler species persist, like Hammerhead Scuttlers/hammerheads and Snapper Scuttlers. Bizarrely, the Hammerhead Scuttler is listed as extant on the wiki, but doesn't show up on the ecosystem page using the Ctrl + F "Scuttler" combination. The Scuttlers genus group itself has two descendants, too.

"Cryoflora" could be useful as a synonym to some other term: it only appears in three entries.

"Smoolk" could be added for completionism's sake, although all of Mason's life went extinct, and so they are rarely discussed now. The Smoolk lineage did become widespread enough for a genus group, and there are ten submissions that can be called smoolks. An overview page, at least, may be warranted.

I think I use the term "blackflora", as one word. (e.g., the descriptions of the Ephemeral Sapworm, Billdeka, Gentonna, Sayront, Cryocracker, and Twigdorse; Jlind11 used "blackflora" for the Twinkgreeus).

A handful of submissions use the word "bora" to refer to organisms that live on the Fuzzbora (or its descendant).

Less Useful:

Some organism linages tend to use the same prefix or suffix: "tams" as in "tamow descendants", for example. This could be used to inspire common names, although I'm not sure how many actually use this.

For example, many descendants of the Cottoncoat have the suffix "-coat", although they don't seem to be refered to as "coats" for short. That some such fauna are given the name "-coat" for things that have nothing to do with their pelage (.g., "Fisticoat") further confirms that it's read as a suffix for the lineage. "Coat plent" could be a compromise, as a nod to the naming convention. A quick check suggests that at least most of them are in the suborder Gossypopelta.

Compared to "Nodent" or "plent", using "dundi" is rare. ("Dundis" has three results on the wiki, including the Nodent page.) If I ever release some new dundi ideas (I have three partial descriptions) it might be useful.

I don't think "Fermisaur" has ever gotten on the wiki, but I may have informally used it once or twice. It can probably be considered equivalent to "thornback", anyway.

Arguably, all descendants of the Snoa can be called snoas, although it seems only the miraculously-alive Mostly Purple Snoa still uses that name. Dohves (descendants of the Jaydohve) may be useful, although it's a pretty small group, and in any case, it doesn't seem the word "dohve" is used on its own.

Typos:
"discord server": should be capitalized as "Discord".
"the life-bearing planet" is a little ambiguous. It can be equated with "bear fruit" or "bear a child". Last time I checked, Protosagania didn't emerge from the muck on Sagan 4, but was seeded there by Nauceans, unless that is now non-canon. "the planet filled with life" would be better.
"3 different attempts": three different attempts.



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I've added some, for others I'll have to do some more reading, which I'm not really up for at the moment unfortunately.