novinitumd

[novinitumd]

Crelog #3

(for optimal viewing, please use a computer and blog address ^^)

This is the third Novinitum D crelog! (a.k.a. creator log. I know, very creative). These are basically like devlogs but for my specevo and worldbuilding projects. Entries where it's me updating yall on the behind-the-scenes stuff and also asking for feedback on occasion, maybe even a poll, we'll see.

It's... been a bit lol. After a lot of radiosilence from me for the entire year, I'm happy to say that I've still been chugging along with the plate tectonics, although I sit at a crossroad now.

I have lost passion for the seedworld concept.

It sucks, but it's happened. However I am very passionate about a ground up spec evo concept (evolving a biosphere from scratch), all hope is not lost for spec! So here's my question to the 35 lovely people who decided to take a chance on me (the number will probably go down as a result of this but that's fine there's no obligation to stay since the project is changing):

Do I change this blog into the space for the new project (the name will also change accordingly)

thank you once again for supporting me through intense creative block regarding this

Previous crelog [#2] <- [#3] -> Next crelog [#4]

🗒️Crelogs🗒️

[novinitumd]

Hello, Is there an artist who can simulate a realistic planet map on gplates? I need this for my project and I can pay for it.

yes actually! worldbuildingpasta takes commissions, you can contact him through worldbuildingpasta@gmail.com, but on his blog (which i linked earlier) he gives this general guideline:

Projection help/small jobs/general advice: 20 USD

Climate simulation or Resource mapping: 100 USD

World maps (basic coastlines and topography): 200 USD

Full tectonic history or Detailed Terrain: 800 USD

[novinitumd]

Teaser

Chipping away at the first map at lightning pace!!! Here's a teaser, thanks again for all of your guys's patience

[novinitumd]

Crelog #2

(for optimal viewing, please use a computer and blog address ^^)

This is the second Novinitum D crelog! (a.k.a. creator log. I know, very creative). These are basically like devlogs but for my specevo and worldbuilding projects. Entries where it's me updating yall on the behind-the-scenes stuff and also asking for feedback on occasion, maybe even a poll, we'll see.

It's been a while! Happy 2024! In this entry I'll be discussing some major changes about the planet + a tentative list of seeding taxa! It's very brief but I think I owe it to the very small handful of people who've shown interest in this project.

sneak peak into what this crelog features

Previous crelog [#1] <- [#2] -> Next crelog [#3] 🗒️Crelogs🗒️

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the state of the world map at 0 MY (the massive blank space is part of a plate which is too big for gplates to render)

The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice that not only is this an entirely different map, but that I'm starting from an entirely different method. Instead of starting with a super continent which splits apart - like in Worldbuilding Pasta's method (link to their blog here) - I've started from the oceanic plates first, essentially starting the world from scratch. The map at 50 MY will be seen when I reveal the name of the first time period.

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This list is very tentative but most likely will stay the same:

Animals:

Operculaurisichthys

made up fully pelagic Grimothea species

reef building oysters

scallops

copepods

made up Argyroneta species

clam shrimp of marine and freshwater varieties

made up thalattosuchian genus

made up starfish genus

made up Ptychoceras species

made up Squalus species

made up lanternfish species

made up pycnodont species

Plants:

Zostera marina

indeterminate algae

Valonia ventricosa

indeterminate phytoplankton

Fungi:

marine lichens (I know these aren't true fungi but for simplicity's sake they're here)

That's all for now! There should be more coming soon since progress has been incredibly quick since the change in plate tectonic method

[novinitumd]

Crelog #1

(for optimal viewing, please use a computer and blog address ^^)

First Novinitum D crelog! (creator log, i know very creative). These are basically like devlogs but for my specevo and worldbuilding projects. Entries where it's me updating yall on the behind-the-scenes stuff and also asking for feedback on occasion, maybe even a poll, we'll see.

In this entry I'll be discussing the progress I've made on the first taxon of the project, the infamous fish I've been spamming on my socials for the past week (it finally has a name!). And I'll also be discussing my process on the map and fleshing out the geological past and future of Novinitum D.

sneak peak into what this crelog features

[#1] -> Next crelog [#2] 🗒️Crelogs🗒️

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Operculaurisichthys pelagicus, the type species of Operculaurisichthys (yes that's the name people, write it down write it down!!!)

Enter Operculaurisichthys, the 'eared operculum fish'. This entire project only exists because one night I sat down, drew a made up fish (this one) and thought to myself "what if I started a seed world with this fish?". Now this figure is actually slightly innaccurate now but not noticably so to most people so I think it's fine using it in a crelog, updated figures will be used in its dedicated taxon article anyways.

I wanted to talk about it because 1. it's awesome, and 2. phylogeny.

As many of you know, I created this fish without any intention of clade in mind, that said however, I very much had pachycormids on my mind at the time because they sparked my fish anatomy hyperfixition (fish people will know why I've shot myself in the foot doing that). This means that I unknowingly made its anatomy nearly identical to a generalised pachycormid as pointed out by Sky Jung in a VC (check him out on twitter: @HBivittatus and insta: @teleostei_art). Jumping off of that observation, I created a modified phylogenetic character matrix based on the first matrix in Cooper et al., (2022) in Mesquite.

A little look into the character matrix within Mesquite, 130 characters and 30 taxa in this one

I'll go more in detail in its dedicated taxon article about what exactly was modified in some sort of phylogeny section probably.

After sorting out all the characters for the Operculaurisichthys spp. (yes there are multiple species, more about that in a future crelog probably) I imported the .nex file into TNT which I used to create the majority rule consensus tree you see below.

Everything before Euthynotus spp. is part of the outgroup, so I wouldnt pay them much attention, as you can see, this majority rule consensus tree is the result of 24 most parsimonious trees

The inclusion of Operculaurisichthys didn't break Pachycormidae to my surprise, which is incredibly impressive for a fish that was made with no clade in mind. As you can see its firmly nested within Hypsocorminae in a polytomy with Simocormus and the more derived hypsocormines, which I find incredibly interesting for the afformentioned reason.

Anyways that's all I'm gonna talk about regarding Operculaurisichthys, so if you just came for that now's your chance to leave. Onto GPlates stuff and plate tectonics!!!

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A sneak peak at the GPlates project file, just the sea side tho can't give everything away too early can I now ;P

What is GPlates? I think their website puts it best "GPlates is a plate tectonics program (where you can) manipulate reconstructions of geological and paleogeographic features through geological time." What I'm doing is simulating the plate tectonics through geological time to give my world a realistic look and assure I can keep that same realistic look throughout the course of the project.

I'm using the GPlates portion of Artifexian's worldbuilding series (link to the playlist here) mixed with referencing Worldbuilding Pasta's blog (link to their blog here) which the GPlates portion of Artifexian's worldbuilding series derives from. Artefixian simplifies a lot of stuff to suit his workflow - which is valid - while Worldbuilding Pasta's original method is closer to the level I like, so I cross reference a lot of stuff.

One of the many island arcs on the planet

However one thing I do which is different to both is create the continental shelf portion of my island arcs every 50 million year timestep. This sounds stupid and tedious, but makes sense when you take into account the fact that I'll be making multiple of these maps every 50 Million year timestep or so (still deciding on that). So having that reference and being able to simulate the building of terrain over time is incredibly useful.

Ontop of this I'm also adding an accurate amount of terrain using the equation: (island arc length * age of island arc in MY) / 2 (which is taken from this Artifexian video). This is an incredibly tedious process but imo worth it in the end.

Earlier version of the above island arc showing that it's all one connected element, please understand how tedious this is lmao

So yeah! That's pretty much all I'm willing to reveal right now, hope this gives yall an idea what you're in for and also a look at my creative process (aka my flavour of autism). There will definitely be more crelogs in the future, and more frequently as I continue to make more progress in developing the major parts of the world.

For the first time, thanks for reading!

[novinitumd]

Welcome to the Novinitum D Homepage

(for optimal viewing, please use a computer and blog address ^^)

This is a ground-up speculative evolution project that focuses on the evolution of life on a planet called Novinitum D, a planet that's similar to Earth, but different in a few ways.

This is the homepage of the project where you can find various links for further reading about the solar system, planet, animals, etc. and other information such as the most recent editions or updates.

Please peruse the blog at your own leisure and feel free to ask questions, frequently asked questions will have their own dedicated page in the future if needed (which I doubt).

(This blog is still very much under construction so please forgive the lack of content, in the future the following hyperlinks will actually link to pages in the future)

Project Timeline

🗒️Crelogs🗒️

Animals

Plants

Planet

Terminology

FAQ

Lore