#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

[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!

[random-thought-depository]

The Amphiterra Project

http://amphiterra.weebly.com/

Found this yesterday.

[iamthekaijuking]

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

[troythecatfish]

[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.

[iamthekaijuking]

What do you think is the status of the Monster Hunter world’s biosphere in terms of a “dominant” tetrapod clade like how we have Mammals in the Cenozoic and Non-Avian Dinosaurs in the Jurassic-Cretaceous? While the obvious answer might be Wyverns, I feel it’d be interesting if Mammals/Beasts, Amphibians, and Leviathans are the dominant groups instead

I think it’s important to distinguish what one considers a “dominant clade”. I assume you mean who occupies the most megafaunal niches, in which case mammals are the rulers of the Cenozoic. But success in biology is often measured by species diversity, and large animals are often less diverse due to their longer lifespans and larger resource requirements. Going by species diversity, dinosaurs still technically rule the land since birds are the most diverse family of tetrapods.

Going off of megafaunal success, you are right that the obvious answer seems to be that wyverns (specifically flying and bird) are the most diverse. Now if that group includes fanged wyverns is up for debate since different people classify the monsters differently. But we only really see the megafaunal side of the world of monster hunter. 5th and 6th gen slightly alleviate this with endemic life, but there’s still so much we’ve never seen, so it’s anyone’s guess as to who is the most species diverse tetrapod group.

In a different timeline I can definitely see amphibians or mammals being the dominant megafaunal family in monster hunter (in fact if you want to see a world dominated by frog then check out @citysaurus’s amphiterra project). Leviathans maybe no so much just due to their body plan.

[iamthekaijuking]

Wow, I was not expecting 131 votes on this.

About 55 people voted frog, including me.

About 4 voted salamander, which to my knowledge is what the amphibian monsters canonically are… for some reason. Probably kanji pun reasons.

About 17 voted reptilimorph.

About 33 voted Temnospondyl.

And about 21 voted other/multiple. (Dire-Miralis accidentally clicked Temnospondyl when he meant this).

(I know that only adds up to 130, I’m not good at math)

A lot of people made very good points and logically Temnospondyl is the best answer for these guys, but I voted frog and now that the poll is over I’ll share my reason for my vote in more detail.

So the monster hunter amphibians have teeth on their lower jaw, scales, tails, no rib cage if we assume they’re salamanders or frogs, and claws. Distinct features that separate them from frogs. At least most of them.

Frogs lost the genes for teeth on their mandibles 200 million years ago, but it is possible for them to re-evolve them. The frog Gastrotheca guentheri managed to do it, possibly because the genes that tell teeth were to grow are tied to the genes for gums, but that’s my educated guess and could be wrong.

Claws are also something frogs can evolve if they face pressure for it. For instance the African Clawed Frog has keratinous extensions of the toes that help cut up prey.

Scales is a little harder though. For tetsucabra at least I remember some item drops in generations saying the scales are more like toad warts in texture, but I can’t find the item drop that says that so I might have Mandela effected myself. Regardless, frogs can do weird stuff with their skin such as the hairy frog, and in a land of dragons and dinosaurs I’d imagine they’d be pressured into evolving osteoderms. Leptobrachium boringii males can grow a mustache of keratinous spines during mating season.

Frogs also don’t have a rib cage, and that is a limiting factor in how big they can get. But the monhun frogs could get around this with very well developed obliquus externus and rectus abdominis muscles with a high amount of elastin to prevent damage when getting jostled around, and that could be good enough for monhun’s fast and loose approach to physics.

The tails are probably the main point against the frog theory though. It is possible that the tails of the monhun frogs are actually extensions of the cloaca like the tailed frog, but we don’t really see them squash and stretch like a boneless appendage and instead move like they have an internal rigid support structure. Now that doesn’t necessarily mean that they have vertebrae in their tails… but it’s the most logical answer. And if the tails are actually true tails, then this implies things about their hips.

The genes responsible for the particular shape of the hip bones in frogs is also intrinsically linked with the re-absorption of the tail in their tadpole stage. The re-absorption of the tail allows for the specialized muscles and unique hip structure that allows frogs to jump to be present. Because of this, you can only really have one or the other. If Tetsucabra, Zamtrios, and Tetranadon have true tails, then they’re likely accomplishing their great leaps in a way very different from other frogs.

But my greatest reason for voting frogs, my great Hail Mary…

Is that I just find frogs to be very endearing animals and I have a fondness for the amphiterra project, so I like to headcanon the monhun amphibians as frogs.

Thank you everyone for voting in this poll!