Metazoica back-up

 I found this article very interesting. It's been buzzing around all week. I knew we could not be the only speck of dust in space that has life. It works out so well, there has to be other life somewhere out there! My question is what are they like? Are there predators and prey? Do they have epochs like we did here, where classes of animals go extinct to be replaced with new lifeforms? What do the dominant lifeforms of those planets think of their own wildlife? Do they really come visit us once in a while? So many things to think about! Now we can think about it more seriously thanks to this group of scientists and astronauts. Scientists detect signature of life on a distant planet, study suggests Scientists detect signature of life on a distant planet, study suggests Story by  Ashley Strickland, CNN A team of astronomers have detected what they call the most promising signs to date of a possible biosignature, or signs of past or present life linked to biological activity, on...

 I admit, I cannot take credit for naming the island of Lemuria. That was Dougal Dixon's idea I believe. But it was a good enough name that I decided to use it in my Metazoic project. After all, Metazoica is kind of an extension of the After Man project. It was inspired by it, and I just built on it. I really liked Dixon's ideas and agreed with most of them at the time. Besides, I don't believe his ideas were too far off. For example, the island of Lemuria. Now, I don't really know if that's what it'll be called. But I do know, and there have been studies, that the island, made up of most of the eastern side of Africa, will emerge. I found an article that describes how it is believed this area will form. It is a very seismically active area even today. So, the plates will obviously separate. Scientists now believe that could happen within the next 10 million years (approximately). I picture at first, it will become a channel, which in my book, I call the Nile Ch...

 I saw this video tonight and thought it was interesting enough to talk about here. This film focuses on anole lizards in Puerto Rico that live in forests and now are becoming specially adapted to urban life. This herpetologist has looked at these city anoles and noticed some adaptations they have as opposed to their forest living relatives. Since this is a site where we hope to learn about evolution, I thought it was important to learn about how cities affect the process of evolution. This can also help any upcoming speculative biologists understand how evolution goes. Actually, evolution can go any way. It all depends on a lot of things. This just happens to talk about animals that evolved to live in big city environments. And it's not just in Puerto Rico this can happen. It can happen in ANY city in the world. Courtesy of PBS Terra (YouTube).

This was an interesting article I found, and something to think about in a speculative biology project. How dogs survived so long and reproduced in an infected area, like Chernobyl. The dogs did not die of the radiation. In fact, it's quite the opposite. They have survived and thrived, and still do today. Although you won't want one of these dogs in your home, unless you have a death wish. But they offer some great examples of how animals can live in an area infected with radiation. It could even give some insight to how animals can survive cataclysms that might end humanity. So I thought this was a good subject to post here. To view the article, you can go here  https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/pets/chernobyl-s-feral-dogs-offer-clues-to-radiation-s-role-in-evolution/ar-AA1v0yOb?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=ACTS&cvid=4d41b9f4b3fd4e1d98192c329b8cac1f&ei=17 Chernobyl's Feral Dogs Offer Clues to Radiation's Role in Evolution Story by Angela Park Have you ever thought of...

 The same object that is said to have wiped out life throughout history may also have been the one event that brought life to this planet. Of course, that has been a theory for quite some time now. I used to hear about it back in the 90s. When I was a kid, my ma used to threaten me when she couldn't handle me with "I brought you into this world, and I'll take you out!" This theory brings a whole new meaning to that phrase. This article I found this morning believes that an asteroid is responsible for bringing life to Earth. That would mean that we are not originally earthlings. Also that there must be other forms of life out there living their lives on another planet. Maybe more advanced than we are? Who knows? What could these other forms look like? Could they be creatures with 9 legs and tentacles growing out of their head? Are 9 legs possible in any life form anywhere? I guess that would depend on it's surroundings. The reason we retained the formula of having ...

 I found this article very interesting. Apparently, taxonomic names can be used more than once. So, a few of the names I had to change before, I changed back. For example, Dolichotragus is back to being called Juncus . It's the name of a reed, but I am also using it for a slender therapedid on my list. It's actually a name I gave the animal back when I first created it in the 1980s. So, I think I should continue using it. Now that I have read this article, I know that it is OK. I'm posting the article here, as I thought this might help anyone creating their own futuristic project. If you want to read the full article, you can also view these rules at this link . Rules for assigning scientific names have become well codified in order to keep the names internationally unambiguous and understandable. The full set of rules is rather involved, but the most important parts are fairly simple: Rules for ZoologyBinomens - A genus name is one word. A species name is binomial -- the ...