Metazoica back-up

Part of what characterizes the Metazoic is the existence of long-living flowering and fruiting plants. That means the flowers bloom longer, and the fruits are slower to ripe. This article may show how this is feasible. Flowers are lasting longer due to global warming, making them more productive. Those that cannot adapt will suffer and eventually go extinct. Fact of life there. http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/02/24/climate-change-plants.html Climate Change Can Supercharge Plant Growth Emily Sohn, Discovery News Feb. 24, 2009 -- Climate change might help some plants thrive -- not just because temperatures will be warmer, but because temperatures will be more variable. As deeply frozen winters give way to more cycles of freezing and thawing, certain plants will become more productive, according to one of the first studies to consider the link, though not all plants will benefit and those that do might suffer in other ways. "These findings illustrate that climate change will provi...

These are not true camels, but in fact are descended from deer. However, they have developed camel-like feet, soft and fleshy instead of hard and hooved. The head is rather camel-like, but no species in this family has a hump. The fur is soft and lies flat. The neck is long and flexible. The ears are small, the eyes are large, the tail is completely absent. The body is short and round. All species are vegetarians, feeding mostly on grass, but also on leaves. Some of the larger species specialize in eating leaves from the higher tree branches. These animals are all rather large and bulky, with the exception of a few species. The larger species are not really made for fast running, though they prefer to run away from danger. But they use their bulk as a form of defense. They live in small herds, though Neantilopa lives in the largest herds of all. But the larger species gather in smaller herds or live in couples. The hearing and eyesight is good in all species, and is the first thing us...

These are my own ideas anyway, but Metalraptor created a new group he called the Sphinxipithecids, I was just thinking, since the Metazoic apes are derived almost directly from Metazoic lemurs anyway, why not have the Sphinxipithecines as a sub-family of the Monaciids? I kinda like the idea that Castosarchus is an ape and not necessarily a lemur. I like the contrast in the family. A savage killer such as Castosarchus related to a gentle giant like Monacium and a sweet, innocent, lemur-like tree-dweller like Arbrariel . I think it's cool. I will still keep the look Metalraptor gave to Castosarchus , just make the tarsium a little longer. I might still go with making the Tyrannopithecines a separate family from the pouched lemurs. There are quite a few differences. As predators, tyrannopithecines have lost the tooth comb that is present in lemurs. That way they wouldn't break off when a tyrannopithecine was crushing the neck or head of a struggling victim. And all other speci...

Well, my time on this computer is almost up. It is a rented machine and I have decided because of this recession that I cannot make the payments anymore, so it has to go back. I will be giving this computer back to the store on the 3rd of March. Sad as that is, but I will be coming back. Probably not until May or June. One of those months. Just wanted to let my loyal readers know this beforehand. I wanted to find someone to take over the posts here until I can return, but the only person I really trust to keep on the subject told me he doesn't really respect bloggers. So I won't ask him. As for commenting, I'm probably going to have to fix it so that comments are posted immediately, instead of having to be approved by me. So any commenters who are reading this, if you want to say something, and you don't want it read by others, do not post it here. Instead, send it to me through e-mail. I can maybe try to get online about once a week at the library computer. But no prom...

This is something I think I've known all along. Hibernators are indeed better at surviving, and this article explains why. I thought this would be a great discussion here. I remember back in 1992, I watched a documentary about dinosaurs and one of the things I remember was Bob Bakker's theory that dinosaurs were killed off by diseases. While it could be a plausible theory, I never bought it. I think he has since changed his way of thinking, but the things that kept me from believing his theory was that ammonites also died out and so did a lot of sea creatures, who could not catch land-based diseases. And they all died out at the same time as the dinosaurs. But I've quoted Bakker from a comment he made on one of the documentaries he did when he compared dinosaurs to frogs and frogs to elephants. Frogs were around when the dinosaurs were, and they managed to survive. Bakker asked, "What does an elephant do that a frog doesn't?" His answer was that elephants spre...

Metalraptor sent me some new ideas on how to make some of the animals on my site look less like Dixon's creations, and more like our own. He even sent me some drawings to illustrate. I'd like to quote his recreative passages as well on here. First up, what was formerly known as Dixon's rabbucks: Lagomerycines The first of these is a revised lagomerycine, which is not based on Dixon's rabbucks at all. The metacarpals are fused at one end, similar to the feet of tyrannosaurs, and the unguals have become flat and hoof like (resembling the claws of mesonychids more than rabbits). Also note the teeth coming out of the upper portion of the skull. Rabbits today have eight incisors, but only two pairs are actually used. In lagomerycines these incisors come back up through the head, forming horns. Second, well, this one is still kinda in limbo as of this second. Metalraptor calls them "Sphinxipithecids". I want to call the family the "Tyrannopithecids", and p...

It's true. Some new frog and salamander species have been discovered in Colombia. I just figured this would be a great video to share, I found it yesterday. If you like frogs, as I do, you'd love this video. Personally, I think I like the glass frogs best of all. They are just so little and so cute and unique-looking! Perhaps in the future (if frogs have a future) these little frogs will become even more transparent. Who knows? That'd look AWESOME!! I remember the days vividly when I used to "collect" frogs. I had all kinds of species. I had some red-eyed tree frogs, some monkey frogs, and several varieties of poison-dart frogs. The blues and greens were my favorites! But I also had reds and yellows as well. I think the poison dart frogs were my all-time favorite species to keep. Not only for the thrill, but also because they were the most active species. Most other frogs that you keep, just sit in one place until nightfall. That's because poison dart frogs ar...

Here is another interesting article I found about what could happen in the future for reptiles. Reptiles, as we all know, need sun and warmth to regulate their body temperatures. But according to this article, the effects of global warming might affect their ability to regulate their internal temperature. Reptiles are pretty much stuck, unless they can develop some endothermic forms. I know of some people who thinks they can. Who knows? Evolution has done much the same thing in the past. There is no reason it cannot happen again. I've been down in the dumps all day. I just heard some things about JD Fortune that I wish I hadn't! But that is kinda useless ramble to this blog. I am still faithful to INXS, but I would like to think I would be faithful to JD as well. But the most hurtful thing is what it's done to someone I hold dear as an online buddy. She lost friends because she told them that she doesn't want to support JD anymore. It's a long story! Well, I've ...

Some evolutionists may already be aware of this theory, or may or may not agree with it, but mass extinctions cannot be caused by asteroids alone. This article says that they must be accompanied by another massive event, like volcanic eruptions. The article explains how. But I remember the eruption of Pinatubo in 1991, and I also remember what that meant as far as climate change. We hardly had a summer that year. It was mostly cloudy and cold. Even though Pinatubo is in the Philippenes, we could feel some of the impact here. It was an eruption more powerful than that of Mount St. Helens in 1980. And if I recall correctly, we didn't have much of a summer that year either. But I wouldn't remember so well, I was a young sprig then! But I definately remember the impact of Pinatubo, it did cause some climate change. If this is what happened at the end of the Cretaceous, coupled with a meteor impact, then it must have been Hell on Earth for the dinosaurs!! And I'm not too sure th...

At first, this family, Articulostiidae, was almost directly inspired by the eeopie from Star Wars. But I trashed that and instead made these descendants of the tapir more like the prehistoric Macrauchenia from Walking With Prehistoric Beasts. For the most part, these animals also resemble a cross between the tapir, a horse, and a llama. They have large eyes and a long, flexible proboscis, as seen in modern tapirs. The body is more streamlined than those of tapirs though. The legs are longer, much more like in llamas. The neck is long and slender. The ears are small and round. The tails are either really short or non-existent. In one species however, Hippotapirus longicaudatus , the tail is longer and tipped with a tassel, as seen in giraffes. The feet are like those of tapirs though, only more slenderly built. The fur is soft and thick, though not as long as it is in the llamas. But rather short and lies smooth like in camels. These animals live in herds. The herds usually number up t...

Hm. It seems that I have been accused by someone of shamelessly ripping off Dixon’s creatures from After Man. LOL! Well, that is something that I have openly admitted to since the beginning. I really do not care what this person says or thinks, but I thought it would make for an interesting topic to put on this blog. I thought that I would look at some of the critters on my site that were indeed directly inspired by the creatures presented in After Man. Some I altered a touch, some that I felt were fine the way they are I didn’t need to alter at all. Some I altered completely. So, let’s look at them all, shall we? Castosarchus - a carnivorous ape referred in After Man as “ Phobocebus ”, and I kept that name at the beginning. At first I thought it was a good idea to give the animal scaly feet pads for more traction and faster running. But then I tossed that idea, and just made it a slender ape with nude feet pads. There are 2 species on my checklist of Castosarchus . One was the one pr...

I wanted to take this moment to make a public apology to one person who I insulted on this blog, Venatosaurus. This is ONLY for Venatosaurus... Venatosaurus, I am truly sorry that I hurt your feelings. I hope your project does good. Please forgive me. I also wanted to thank Katrina publicly for not taking her own personal feelings for JohnFaa to the SE forum, and telling it to him like it is on his blog. WTG Katrina!!!! I've still retracted my apologies from Viergacht as he has admitted he has autism and needs help. I will say I do feel sorry for him though, and I hope he can get the help he needs. Which is why I am not sorry, but I will not attack him anymore, I am not the type to attack people with mental problems. Poor guy.

As a bonafide whale-watcher, I found this article interesting! Bull whales actually love larger women (cows). LOL! This might mean that if whales last a bit longer, they might actually get bigger. How much bigger though can blue whales get? They are the largest mammals ever to evolve. Maybe they can make it to about a 200-foot long animal. Maybe. Would be fascinating to see what would evolve from this. In my own life, I've been on the edge because I have no idea if I will ever be seeing my favorite band INXS again. Seems they are retiring from the music industry. I'm awaiting this article a friend of mine found that explains all. It's exasperating to wait! A shame if they are, I enjoyed their concerts more than that of any other rock groups. Anyway, here is the article about whales: http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/02/13/humpback-whale-attraction.html Male Whales Prefer Enormous Females Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News Feb. 13, 2009 -- While svelte, petite women may attrac...

Good news! The Discovery Channel and all it's associates have been spending this past week celebrating Darwin's 200th birthday! Yea! The man is an inspiration. This is an article I found about him. He turned 200 yesterday, but yesterday was a busy day! My sis Anna is planning a long trip and we spent most of yesterday talking and thinking about that. This trip will definately change her life! But anyway, last night I was watching a couple of programs about him on the Science Channel and that is what inspired me to post this today. http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/02/09/darwin-anniversary.html Darwin at 200: Still Evolving Gregory Katz, Associated Press Feb. 9, 2009 -- It's well known that Charles Darwin's groundbreaking theory of evolution made many people furious because it contradicted the Biblical view of creation. But few know that it also created problems for Darwin at home with his deeply religious wife, Emma. Darwin held back the book to avoid offending his wif...

Here is a little more info about how mammals can further benefit from adopting a bipedal stance. Not only would mammals benefit better in becoming bipedal, but also they would do better walking around like the theropod dinosaurs used to, as seen on the mammals of Metazoica, rather than upright as we do. This was one scientists' observations that was sent to me by a friend. The first of these is in the book Chasing Kangaroos by Tim Flannery. In it, some scientists did a comparison of energy efficiency of kangaroos compared to quadrupedal animals. In energy efficiency, the kangaroo blew the quadrupedal animal tested out of the water. Another interesting coincidence is found in humankind itself. Among mammals, humans have extraordinary endurance; a fit human can outpace a quarterhorse! The second one shows how dinosaur-style bipedal gaits are better than erect gaits. Among mammals, humans are unusually subject to a panoply of back problems. This is because our spinal chords are erect,...

Some people do not seem to be doing any research at all before creating a World of the Future! I was going to spare my blog all this misery until I got this in an e-mail this afternoon. Now, I simply MUST speak out!!! I cannot take it anymore! This is based on one person's vision of the future. 1. The family Canidae is extinct. I repeat, the family Canidae is extinct. Yes, even those adaptable little foxes, of whom many of which are considered pests today. My response: Why would the canines go completely extinct? That doesn't make any sense at all! Even I have a canine-based family in the Metazoic. I call them "bear dogs", and they are actually descendants of foxes. And foxes are too adaptable to just die out! 2. Felidae and Hyenidae are gone. Despite Metazoica probably disagreeing with me, both families are highly diverse, and many of them are not endangered at all. (Even the aardwolf, though it is still probably doomed due to overspecialization) My response: OK, who...

The family Banzidae I admit it at first was inspired by the bantha from Star Wars. hehe! But recently myself and a new bud worked a little bit on the species and created a whole new evolutionary path for modern day horses, which despite what all I used to hear about them, they will indeed survive into the next generation. For now, I just call them the "Metazoic Horses", or "Bantz and relatives", as that is the new name I came up with for these animals. They still retain the single-digit hooves of their modern relatives, and really few changes have been made, with the exception that a few have grown horns and the members of the sub-family Allomeoplinae are semi-bipedal and may in the future even represent a family of their own, but for now, I have placed them in the Banzidae. The heads are still very horselike, some even still have the horse-like mane. The neck is long and muscular, the tail is long and usually with a tasseled tip, except in Banza , which still has a...

We all know that today's dogs are decended from the gray wolf, but according to this article wolves are really wolves in dogs' clothing. It talks about the different color mutations in wolves, much like the variations of colors in domestic dogs, like how a labrador can be either black or yellow or chocolate. Kinda funny really, and very interesting, no one understands why wolves have developed the black phase in the wild. I was attracted to the article because it was about one of my favorite subjects, wolves. So without further adeu, here's the article. http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/02/05/gray-wolves.html Found: Wolves in Dogs' Clothing Randolph E. Schmid, Associated Press Feb. 5, 2009 -- Today's dogs are descendants of ancient wolves. Now, it turns out, at least some of today's wolves inherited traits from ancient dogs. Gray wolves have that name because of their color, but in North America many of them have dark or black coats instead of the standard gray...

So many people have wondered what caused the extinction after the Permian period that took out almost all living things at that time. I think even I have posted several articles about this subject. It is probably one of the most controversial topics in biological science. But this article I found was interesting in that it discusses another idea of what ended the Permian period. Their idea was volcanic gases. http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/02/04/volcano-mass-extinction.html Toxic Gases Caused World's Worst Extinction Michael Reilly, Discovery News Feb. 4, 2009 -- An ancient killer is hiding in the remote forests of Siberia. Walled off from western eyes during the Soviet era and forgotten among the endless expanse of wilderness, scientists are starting to uncover the remnants of a supervolcano that rained Hell on Earth 250 million years ago and killed 90 percent of all life. Researchers have known about the volcano -- the Siberian Traps, for years. And they've speculated tha...

The second article I found was this one that says animal life is much older than first expected. Seems every time I turn around, I hear that animal life is actually getting older. Not that it's a bad thing, but sometimes I wonder how old animal life really is. Will the scientists ever really find out? The more I look, the more I realize sooner or later it's going to be proven that the chart on my site is wrong. http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/02/04/fossils-life.html Fossils Push Animal Life Back Millions of Years AFP Feb. 4, 2009 -- Animal life first appeared on Earth tens of millions of years earlier than thought, according to a new study released Wednesday. A novel technique used to date fossils buried in rock sediment in Oman shows that sponges, among the most primitive of animal organisms, flourished there more than 635 million years ago. The new dating answers a puzzle that beset Charles Darwin. In the mid-19th century, the first evidence for the kingdom of Animalia, al...

I found 2 new and interesting articles today from Discovery.com. This first one is about an ancient whale species that gave birth on land. I knew it was likely that these animals had their young on land, as they still had feet, and hadn't taken to the oceans yet. This species is called Maiacetus , and is described as resembling a cross between a cow, a shark, an alligator and a sea lion. Must have been a nasty animal!! But apparently is was a good mom. http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/02/04/whale-fossil.html Ancient Whale Gave Birth on Land Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News Feb. 4, 2009 -- A rare fossil of an ancient whale with a fetus still inside reveals that its species -- an ancestor to modern whales -- gave birth on land 47.5 million years ago, according to a paper published in the online journal PLoS. The discovery, along with prior fossil finds, suggests the first whale ancestors were full-time land dwellers that might have been related to the early relatives of hoofed anima...

During the Cenozoic, all antelope were classified in the family Bovidae. Though these animals in the Metazoic are called antelope, and have pretty much the same lifestyle, they are not exactly the same as Cenozoic antelope. They are however, an off-shoot and in a family of their own, the Megalodorcidae. It is closely related to the modern antelope family, but has some characteristics that are different. The horns being the main thing. Unlike Bovid horns, Megalodorcid horns can branch out into several prongs, looking a bit more like deer antlers than like the horns of bovids. Especially in the sub-family Megalodorcinae, which contains several large and bulky species. The feet are fully hooved, most species are vegetarians, though there are some that are omnivorous, feeding on a variety of small creatures like insects, lizards, mice and earthworms. The ears for the most part are large and highly mobile. The eyes are large and placed on the sides of the head. The males have horns, though ...