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Family of the Week: Paddle-Finned Sea Monkeys

 I realize this is late. I was so excited going to the bird expo last weekend, this blog slipped my mind. But I am back now. The family Pinnepitheciidae is the earliest branch of completely aquatic pentadactyls. They arose from the family Promonsamiidae, particularly from the genus Hydrabilis , which is also the precursor of Thaladapis . These sea monkeys differ from the Delphinadapids by having larger, more rounded flippers, and a relatively shorter, spade-shaped tail. But like all other aquatic pentadactyls, these animals are just as agile in the water as other lemurs are in the trees. But unlike such aquatic lemurs as the Promonsamiids, these lemurs are almost entirely aquatic, only coming ashore on the beach to sleep and rear young. They breed in colonies, like sea lions. Their movement is not like that of sea lions, but more like sea turtles. They push themselves over the sand using all four flippers. The fur is short, but thick, like a bear's coat. All species are mostly acti...
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Family Of The Week: Dactylonychidae

 This is a group of specialized lemurs. They are closely related to such species as Testudicodas in the family Promonsamiidae. Unlike Testudicodas , these lemurs do not cling to branches via their tails. But they almost completely lack fleshy fingers that other pentadactyls possess. Instead, the fingers all stiffen at the first finger joint, and is fused into a long, curved claw-like appendage. These claws are long, powerful and sharp, and serve as both clinging devices for the trees and branches, as well as weapons of self defense. They did, however, sacrifice the ability to grasp small branches the same way other pentadactyls (and historically primates) can. These lemurs also share a trait with modern polar bears. They have fur that is hollow, and each strand is tube-shaped. This allows glowing bacteria to colonize these hollows. Specifically, bacteria that glows in the dark. So, these lemurs have the ability to glow, which is used to confuse predators. The glowing action occurs...
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Iridescent Animals Exist

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 I remember a few years ago, someone (who I still respect very highly), told me it was impossible for iridescence to exist in mammals. Since that time, I've discovered that some mammals can indeed have iridescent fur. Thanks to this article I found, I found out it's indeed possible. Notice the pic, of a vlei rat ( Otomys ) is shimmering colors of green, purple and blue.  That's not the only one. There are MANY mammals that have such a feature. Here's a few more... Akhal-teke horse. Golden mole. Polar bear. And there are also several species of mammals that glow... Tube-nosed bat. Flying squirrel. Platypus. Springhaas . In the Metazoic, I just simply take this to a little more extreme. With creatures like Cercolampis ( Pentadactyls, Pileatidae ). They sparkle like glitter, which allows them to hide from overhead predators, like predatory pteropods and eagles. To a watching predatory bat, or an eagle, the sparks of light when Cercolampis moves through the trees, resemb...
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Backwards Evolution?

This is an interesting article that showed up in my feed today. This asks the question of whales and dolphins evolving back to becoming land animals. I must admit, and I don't talk about families I've deleted over the years of working on Metazoica, but I thought about what it would be like if dolphins evolved back to being land animals. But I threw that idea away way back in the days. Because it just doesn't make sense. I've had several ideas since I started this project in the early 90s that I've thrown away. But the one that applies to this is those families. I thought IF whales and dolphins were to revert back to being land animals, they'd have to walk on their forelimbs. They do still have the same bone structure as land-dwellers' feet. But that kind of over-dramatic reverse evolution could never happen. Anyway, this is the article I found... Could Whales And Dolphins Ever Evolve Back To Being Land Mammals? | IFLScience Could Whales And Dolphins Ever Evo...
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Signs of Life

 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...
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The Making of Lemuria?

 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...
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How Cities Affect Evolution

 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).
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