#amphiterra project

[iamthekaijuking]

Curious on this if I may ask, what are the reasons that you like the Amphiterra Project by @citysaurus-art? I also like it too, and would love to eventually see new clades, expansions, and revisions to the project as a whole, stuff like the Salamanders or other lineages

So my love for amphiterra actually goes way back and starts with early highschool kaijuking.

Back around 2016 I found the spec evo forms, and while I never joined them and only officially joined the internet in 2017 when I made this tumblr account (dear god don’t go digging for 2017 kaijuking I was a much different and cringier person than I am now), I liked surfing through the forms even though the website was broken and being abandoned. It was a good time killer when I was stalling in class.

Through that I found Warren Fehy’s Fragment (writing a review of which is next on my to do list so I should probably get started on that), Trollmans’ Diyu, and amphiterra. Diyu is among one of my favorites, but Amphiterra grabbed my attention since it was colorful, had a website, and was the most in depth spec evo project I had seen at that point. It offered not only descriptions and illustrations for creatures but anatomical diagrams as well which just tickled my not fully formed teenage brain. I also just liked the designs.

So I was a pretty big fan of the project from the onset and not long after its inception too, way before Curiosity Archive’s video on it. I think I actually even made the first amphiterra fanart on the internet too… which has aged like sour moldy milk because it was a “dat boi” meme reference. I actually personally asked Citysaurus to not put it up on the fanart section of the website. God I feel old.

I would definitely love to see the project revived and maybe we might get that in the future. One day.

…

Also did you know that citysaurus made some illustrations and concept art for Fall Guys?! Crazy right?

[troythecatfish]

[junoniadoesart]

Pliocene by Cosmo Sheldrake needs to become the International Anthem of Speculative Biology.

The sheer vibes that this song exudes. It fits every speculative biology project I can imagine. From big-budget movies like the MonsterVerse and Cameron’s Avatar to web projects like Serina and Nijin-Konai. All Tomorrows and All Yesterdays. Two Sky River. Strange World. Hamster’s Paradise. Snaiad. Darwin IV. Rhinogradentia. Subnautica. Tales from the Loop. Amphiterra. The Cluster. Polinices. More. All of it.  Have a listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0srKjwRJwc

[citysaurus]

Just discovered your Amphiterra Project and I love it so much! Two questions tho:

1.) In this amphibian-dominated timeline, what happened to reptiles and therapsids? Did they die out, or do they coexist in smaller, more marginal forms?

2.) How does the Catastrophic Fraggon reproduce? Does it go through a tadpole stage?

These are some really great questions!

1) This is a question I think I would have answered differently until more recently, learning more about the types of mammals that existed alongside dinosaurs. In the same way that mammals were more diverse and inhabiting different roles during the age of dinosaurs than is generally known, I think reptiles and therapsids would be quite diverse. After all, just because we're in an age of mammals doesn't mean we don't have things like the saltwater crocodile around. There are two specific cases that come to mind for me in Amphiterra - one, reptiles holding onto dominance in hot, dry, desert considitions. Even at Amphiterra's moistest, there would be areas around the equator that would be hot, dry reptile dominated landscapes. As for therapsids, one area I think they would have great success in would be flight - their fast metabolism being better adapted to the rigours of flight than amphibians, I could see bat-like mammalians and marsupials filling many of the niches we see filled in our timeline by birds.

2) I hope to elaborate on reproduction much more for all the species in the future, but as far as the catastrophic fraggon goes, here's what I have in mind:

- Catastrophic Fraggon individuals claim huge ranges of territory, and fiercely defend their territories against others of its species at all times - with the exception of mating season from about March to early June. Fraggon glut through hunting and scavenging in the preceding weeks - they'll soon be quite busy, with limited time to hunt.

- The male fraggon digs a shallow pool using its massive lower jaw as a bulldozer, the pool being maybe up to four feet deep and up to twenty feet wide. The pool has to be a short distance away from running water, and have tree cover. These extremely exacting circumstances needed for nesting are part of what contribute to the relatively short reign of this fraggon - even a relatively short dry period could spell disaster for the species.

-The male fraggon calls out for a female with its characteristic earsplitting wail. This is dangerous for two reasons; he could attract a rival male, who could bully our male away from his carefully dug pool and claim it as his own, especially if the rival is older and more experienced. Should a female be lured in, she judges the pool, as well as the physical fitness of the male. Should she find either lacking, best case scenario, she leaves the male alone. Worst case scenario, the typically larger female is not above cannibalizing the male to provide for her future brood and to claim his territory. (Cannibalism is everywhere in the amphibian world!)

-Should the female find the pool and the male acceptable, she will deposit her eggs into the pool and the male will fertilize them externally. By amphibian standards, the clutch is small and the eggs large, each clutch composing of a dozen or so canteloupe-sized eggs.

-Over the next two months, the fraggon are watchful and dedicated parents, taking turns watching over the pool so the other parent can hunt. The water in the pool is constantly refreshed by the parents carrying over a hundred gallons of water at a time to the pool from the water source in their gular sac.

-The tadpoles are born the size of trout and gain size rapidly, feeding off anything brought in with the mouthfuls of water - fish, small animals, vegetation, and, of course, cannibalism. Out of the dozen or so eggs, only two or three of the biggest tadpoles survive.

-Once remaining tadpoles are about four feet long and start growing tusks, the parents dig a trench from the pool to the river, letting the tadpoles slide into the river and disperse. Shortly after this event, the tadpoles undergo the process of growing their limbs in a familiar amphibian fashion, a process of about 6 months.

-Juvenile fraggon are semi-aquatic ambush predators, living like and often competing with crocodilians in freshwater environments. As it matures, the fraggon will spend less time in water, becoming primarily a terrestrial predator around 5 years of age, and reaches sexual maturity at around 12 years of age. It is at this stage that the species's characteristic red coloring appears. Juvenile fraggon avoid adult individuals of their species at all costs - a juvenile fraggon is a great meal for an adult.

-The upper limit on fraggon age appears to be 25. Not many creatures can kill a fraggon, but competition agsinst others of their species is a shockingly common cause of death.

---

I know there's a lot of detail there, but I actually hope to do some art to go with this text and add it to the main site in a future update. Something I absolutely want to make available both as content and as merch would be a to-scale poster of all the amphiterra larval forms. Thanks for the great questions!

[alphynix]

Spectember Epilogue

Now that Spectember has wrapped up, and I'm catching my breath before we return to the regular paleo-theming of this blog, a couple extra notes:

Anyone who suggested a concept during the original submission period back in May, but didn't see it get used this month – don't worry! I got far more entries than I could possibly fit into the schedule (almost a hundred), and they were all wonderfully creative ideas, so I'm going to try to do something with them at a later date.

(Everyone else, please be aware I'm not currently accepting extra specevo suggestions. While I appreciate all the enthusiasm I can't take on even more work right now.)

Also, here's a few other neat specevo things that I didn't have time to go into detail about this month:

The Speculative Evolution Forum https://specevo.jcink.net/

Almost Real Zine https://almostrealzine.com/

The Epona Project http://worldbuilders.info/

The Next Ten Billion Years https://www.resilience.org/stories/2013-09-05/the-next-ten-billion-years/

Tour of the Neocene (In both English and Russian) http://www.sivatherium.narod.ru/englver.htm http://www.sivatherium.narod.ru/rab_budu.htm

Ilion https://sunriseonilion.wordpress.com/

The Future Is Far https://www.deviantart.com/dragonthunders/gallery/49884273/the-future-is-far

The Squamozoic https://web.archive.org/web/20150603073048/https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/welcome-to-the-squamozoic/

The Amphiterra Project http://amphiterra.weebly.com/

Diyu https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/conceptual_evolution/member-project-diyu-t3513.html

Planetocopia (Speculative planetary geography and climatology. While some specevo is involved, it's rather fanciful and features a lot of taurs for some reason.) http://worlddreambank.org/P/PLANETS.HTM

Demain, les animaux du futur ("Tomorrow: the animals of the future") (A French specevo book published in 2015) https://www.belin-editeur.com/demain-les-animaux-du-futur

Satoshi Kawasaki's World of the Future (In Japanese) http://paleontology.sakura.ne.jp/w-500.html

[draconesmundi]

Your site is added to "Blue Chimera" now! By the way, do you know, Zmey Gorynych is a real animal now? A therapsid from Permian deposits of Russia (Kotelnich location) had been named as Gorynychus. At least 2 species are known.

AAAA I saw earlier this week, I am super pleased!

(Website for my followers: http://www.sivatherium.narod.ru/specbiol/specbiol.htm )

I’ve had a lovely look and found more awesome projects to look at, such as Imaginitive Ornithology, Almost Real and Amphiterra! There were also some familiar faces such as Joschua Knüppe’s various projects (obviously his Dragons of the World is my fave), the Dragons of Wales project, On Beyond Holocene, Nix Illustration etc.

Blue Chimera is such a wonderful list of projects and I am glad that you told me about it and that I got to be included!

And ooo, wonderful! I’m not that savvy with therapsids (crocodiles from the Mesozoic is where my professional interest lies) but I do appreciate a good name! I’ve got a list of prehistoric things named after dragons that I’m saving for writing an article when this blog runs low on content (currently 68 genera, with Gorynychus it’s 69!) - currently the only synapsid named after a dragon on that list is Ankalagon (named after Ancalagon the Black from Tolkien’s Simarilion) so I’m glad I now have 2 synapsids on the list! @drachenwiki​ has a good list of animals named after dragons found here.

Спасибо большое! Я польщен и вдохновлен!

[monstersandmaw]

Have you seen @citysaurus's "Amphiterra" project? It's set in an alternate timeline where the dominant species of earth, instead of dinosaurs or mammals...were frogs. My favorites have got to be the intelligent (and adorable!) Foaming Trogglefolk, and the Catastrophic Fraggon, basically the frog version of a T. Rex. Pretty neat stuff, definitely worth a look ;)

I hadn’t, but it sounds awesome!!

[minireaper]

one of my personal favorites in the ol’ obsession wheelhouse are Speculative Evolution projects online. Most people have heard of Serina (a hypothetical world where the dominant fauna are descendants of Canaries by David Bajda), but there are also incredible works like Amphiterra (Frogs became the dominant species instead of proto-dinosaurs and the results are whacky, by Concept Artist Roxy Valdez) or of course the “the Future is Wild” mockumentary series that ran on the Discovery Channel.

by golly-gee-mcfuck I want an obsession. I want to be obsessed with something. I don't care if it's media or obscure history or outrageous biology I am in TREMENDOUS NECESSITY of a new hyperfixation. internet I pray thee give me a new fixation, fascination, a fatuation, a fetish in the archaic sense, internet please I am at loose ends, I'm a compass without a needle a hermit without a mountain a sad sorry remnant of my former self please my dopamine is oozing from my pores faster than I can rehydrate

[speculative-evolution]

SOURCE

Every part of the arctic fraggon is perfectly adapted for the encroaching ice age. Its sleek, low slung body offers little resistance for chilled air seeking to sap its body heat. Blubbery fat and a thick hide protect its precious heat and moisture. Tiny eyes and ears can seal themselves away from the wind on a relatively small head, with little surface area to expose. Its most unique adaptation is its thick coating of ‘fur’ protecting its underside and vital organs. Each strand of ‘fur’ is a thick dermal papillae, a blood-filled tube of flesh, skin and fat that traps warm air against the fraggon’s body. The fraggon can hunker into a pile of snow, expose only its impermeable hide, and trap warm air against its body for an extended period of time, enough to weather powerful storms.

Part of the Amphiterra Project. Click here to learn more.

[necromatador]

Have you heard of the Amphiterra project? It's a thing someone did for a thesis where what if amphibians became the dominant form of life. It has some cool world building stuff.

I have not heard of it!  I’ll check it out!

[iamthekaijuking]

I was doing warmup doodles to get back into drawing while thinking of amphiterra and my hand slipped

[troythecatfish]

[random-thought-depository]

The Amphiterra Project

http://amphiterra.weebly.com/

Found this yesterday.

[citysaurus]

absolutely OBSESSED with the Amphiterra Project and i just need to know!!! what happened to the Freeple?

Thank you for the interest! And the answer is, probably whatever happens to us. Climate change, war, microplastics...time has yet to tell what finishes off a dominant sentient species.

[iamthekaijuking]

Chatacabra skull and skeleton

Silhouette reference provided by @kaijuthespacemaniraptorian while anatomy references were various 3d models of frog skeletons, anteater hyoids (because sunbear hyoids aren’t available online), and various skeletals @citysaurus made for their amphiterra project. The wide pseudo-ribs and hypertrophied clavicular ring are pretty obvious indicators of that last one.

I’m almost tempted to go back and remake it with Temnospondyl anatomy or make a goss harag or tetsucabra skeleton, but I have some games I need to finish.