Metazoica back-up

I am on top of the world! I set a goal to reach 100 new species in the Metazoic checklist by the end of this week, and it has been done!!! In fact, I have 176 new species in the checklist!!!! I also renamed some animals. For example, the Paraphocid genus, Columpiphonium , is now Eidyia . I just did this blindly, I never counted on actually reaching this goal and so soon too!! Most of the new ones are of the pteropod and rodent families, but I've also got some new species scattered everywhere. I have the new checklist, but I am not quite through with it yet so I won't be posting it up on the site just yet. However, with this week's new line-up, I now have a grand total of 1070 genera and 3117 species of mammals listed on the checklist. A far cry from my original goal, but it's a great start! I have also created a counter on the side of this blog, which will be updated every now and then to allow all viewers a chance to see the progress. Though with this one, my goal is...

The Metazoic family Castoridae is basically a continuation of the family we have today. The beaver is one of the largest rodents we have today. The modern basic body form is round, humpbacked, small head and eyes and a short muzzle. It's most noticable features are the short, flat tail and large incisors. During the Metazoic, the family branches out, and takes on several forms. Not only the familiar animal I just described, but there are also forms that resembles rats, squirrels and even guinea pigs. Most species have either short tails or no tails. The longest tails belong to Trogonomys , which are tree-dwelling, rat-like creatures. In most species, the tails are naked, scaly, in some they are covered in fine fur. The feet are naked and webbed in all but Trogonomys . The head is still short and the incisors are long, sharp and powerful. The ears are either very small, or absent in most species. The fur is slick and oily, the claws are long and sharp. The legs are generally short, ...

I have made some more additions to the Metazoica lineup. I've made more new species. Mostly bats. I am still determined to hit that 10,000 species mark! That is, 10,000 species of mammals. That's been my goal almost since the beginning. Though looking at this goal from a 1995 viewpoint, I wanted to have that goal completed by the year 2000. It didn't happen though. I don't have a year point, per se, to reach this goal toward. I just want to hit 10,000 different mammal species. PERIOD. I've mostly been focusing my attention on the bats, namely the Pteropods, the true rats and mice the Pseudomyids, antelope of the family Megalodorcidae, and the therapedidae. Though I've scattered different and new species all over, not just in those families. I was trying to remember all the different animals over the past year that I have discussed with other future evolution fans. I've even added a couple of new families. Besides the obvious naming some of my animals after...

Well, I was reading my latest comments, and an old SE buddy of mine was saying this blog seems to have turned into something it wasn't intended to be before, and he's sick of it. It made me think "ya know, he's right about that." I couldn't argue. My response was I was thinking of starting up the Family of the Week deal again. I said I'd do it when I wasn't so busy anymore, and then I started thumbing through my regular rounds on the internet, and realized there was not much going on. So I decided to start up again tonight. I believe my last FOW was the shrubucks. For the first time in months, this week's family of the week is the marsupial pig. The marsupial pig is the sole species of the family Thylasuidae. Dixon named it the posset, I just call it a marsupial pig. It is the last descendant of the bandicoots. The head resembles that of a modern pig, or boar. They also have tusks that helps them grub for roots and tubers. The feet are not hard l...