#or is there like some sort of universal convergent evolution with that

[the-worms-in-your-bones]

Having a normal time (debating on whether or not time lords can be classified as mammals)

[joe-spookyy]

okay! so i’ve been watching a lot of smiling friends. and it would be out of character for me to watch something without doing some sort of intense hyper analysis. so here’s my thoughts on the biological classifications of the critters, humans, and maybe some other species of the smiling friends universe. my friend said this is how sheldon cooper would enjoy smiling friends. and i guess he’s right it’s very scientific. please read on.

first. we look at the wiki. who is defined as a critter? for this analysis, the specific characters that are designated as critters on the wiki i’ll be looking at are charlie, pim, allan, glep, dj spit, and mr landlord. so first, let’s take a look at the anatomical features of each of these characters.

charlie:

- large protruding nose

- eyes on the front of his head (i think?)

- head and some body hair (chest, stomach)

- 4 fingers

- primary and secondary sex characteristics (nipples and genitalia)

- belly button

- average height

- 27 years old

pim:

- no visible nose

- eyes on front of head

- no hair, one exposed nerve ending

- four fingers

- secondary sex characteristics (nipples) and presumably primary (genitals) given the fact that he is always clothed

- belly button

- short

- 34 years old

allan:

- smaller but still protruding nose

- eyes on sides of head

- no hair

- four fingers

- no visible sex characteristics, no clothing required, occasionally to accessorize (tie, bathing suit, floral vacation clothing)

- no belly button

- tall

- 24 years old

glep:

- can’t tell if he has a nose or if it’s just his upper jaw tbh

- eyes on side of head

- no hair

- no fingers

- no visible sex characteristics, only wears a hat

- no belly button

- incredibly short

- 1295 years old

dj spit:

- prominent nose

- eyes on front of head

- facial and body hair

- no fingers

- secondary sex characteristics (nipples) and presumably primary (pants covering lower half)

- no belly button (as far as i can tell)

- average height

- 23 years old

mr. landlord:

- prominent nose

- eyes on front of head

- hair on head

- four fingers

- no visible sex characteristics, does not usually wear clothes

- belly button

- tall

- unknown age

now. that’s a lot of variation! in My humble opinion i feel like that’s enough to designate different species since there is so much different between some of them, especially in the case of a lack of visible sex characteristics and the presence of nipples/a bellybutton, since the latter are distinct signs of a place tal mammal. however, regardless of what i think, it’s clear that there’s a significant amount of genetic variation in this population. what could have caused this?

theories:

here is what i and a few others who i’ve asked have come up with. scroll down to theory four to see the one i think is most likely, and therefore did the most research/explaination for.

theory one: there is no meaning to any of it and there is no pattern. they look the way they do because it is funny. is this a realistic take? yeah. do i like it? no. it’s boring. so i’m disregarding it.

theory two: the critters are just a species with an incredible amount of genetic variation. i guess this is possible and kind of goes with the first theory but there’s a little more nuance to it so i’m including it as a separate theory. again i keep going back to how i wish there was more specification, like certain breeds or races. different races, though, like the spamtopians, seem to be treated as completely different species. although they also have a lot of genetic diversity. additionally, many of the humans don’t look the same/have the same traits. so maybe there’s just high levels of diversity in each species, and there are other ways they’re each distinctly classified.

theory three: convergent evolution from a few different base species. this one could very well be the truth. several of the critters bear more resemblance to reptiles or amphibians, particularly the ones that are hairless and possess no visible sex characteristics. allan definitely has some lizard-esque characteristics, especially looking at the shape of his eyes, and pim kind of reminds me of a frog, and he does in fact refer to his youth as when he was “a tadpole”. glep also reminds me of a small lizard. the more mammalian critters, like charlie, could also have evolved from apes as humans did. maybe charlie and his big schnozz are distantly descended from a proboscis monkey. and dj spit from. something else ape like. idk. i definitely don’t know what to say about mr. landlord. he has some mammalian characteristics (hair, bellybutton) but he also lacks the sex characteristics. he could be the result of some intermixing but i’m truly not sure. additionally, some of the critters have forward facing eyes (typically indicative of a predator species), while some have eyes on the sides of their heads (typically indicative of a prey species). now, this rule does have exceptions, but i do think the possibility that pim is a predator animal is really funny. this one has its merits, but i don’t see why they wouldn’t be just split into different species at that point if there are distinctly reptilian vs mammalian groups, and the existence of those who are sort of in between, like mr landlord, adds to the confusion. additionally, it fails to account for how the critters all seem able to breed with/have relationships with characters classified as humans, because if there are some that are distinctly more reptilian than the more mammalian critters, it’s so incredibly unlikely that the reptilian descendants would be able to breed with humans, since, at least in our universe, humans cannot even breed with other mammals, so there’d have to be something going on for a primarily reptilian species to breed with humans.

theory four: all the critters we see, with a few exceptions, are a result of many generations of human/critter crossbreeding. this is the one that i am rooting for, and it makes the most sense to me. between all the critters, we can definitely see some that have more human traits, and some that have more animalistic traits. so, maybe charlie and dj spit have more human dna, whereas, say, allan and glep have more critter dna in their lineage. again, we do know that human/critter relationships are very commonplace, as both glep and charlie have human partners. in my opinion, it seems that glep is furthest on the critter spectrum, given his lack of any distinct human characteristics and incredibly high age. he could be one of the last remaining true Critters. on the other end, dj spit appears to be the most human. all the others fall in between.

additionally, many of the human characters don’t display Only humanoid traits. some are live action, some are rotoscoped, and some are traditionally animated. the different ways they’re animated (or distinctly Not animated) seems to indicate a little bit of genetic diversity as well. for example, mr boss is animated, and switches from five to four fingers, and has the ability to turn his face into a dog face. i guess there’s no proof none of the other humans can do that, but he does seem to be a little more non-human, when we take that into account along with his disproportionate features (eg. massive head). and i’m not even gonna open up the can of worms that is the fact that sometimes he has massive bazonkers that he can nurse jason with, and sometimes just has pecs. additionally, we can see that doug and professor psychotic, while presumably biological brothers, have a lot of different characteristics, with doug being rotoscoped, and professor psychotic being animated and honestly sharing more characteristics with dj spit (a critter) than his own brother. someone also pointed out that their mother may be spamtopian, as she looks like the waitress that pim and mr boss encountered on their visit to spamtopia. so, we can divide the humans into four groups, going from least to most human.

- wacky/slightly inhuman animated person (mr boss, professor psychotic, desmond, etc)

- regular looking animated person (zoey, marge simpson, etc)

- rotoscoped person (doug, etc)

(i cant find a good picture just go watch the show)

- live action person (president jimble, tyler, simon s. salty, etc)

(you know what a human being looks like.)

now there’s one thing that kinda throws a wrench in this theory: jason. jason is the son of mr boss and an unknown mother, presumably a critter. jason, while being the son of a character that is classified a human, looks the most like glep: meaning that he displays some of the most critter characteristics when compared to any other characters. additionally, he seems to share glep’s aging patterns, being 18 years old and still a nursing baby. so if he’s definitely part human, and appears like glep, maybe glep isn’t a full critter after all. HOWEVER. the way i have elected to combat this is through the use of a punnet square.

now, if H is the allele for presenting like a human, and C is for presenting like a critter, we can see that a half human half critter, when mixed with a whole critter, will produce offspring that are fully critter 50% of the time. now, with the amount of different critters that have varying amounts of human traits, we can assume that it’s a lot more complicated than two genes. but, if all the genes weigh together, it is definitely possible for jason to have inherited mostly his father’s critter dna instead of his human dna, which, when paired with his mother’s full critter dna, resulted in him looking like a pure critter, like glep. yknow, like how some dogs are mixes but they look exactly like one parent rather than the other. now of course, jason doesn’t stay this way, and ends up growing wings and all that jazz, which could be a result of the variant dna, showing that while he may initially look fully critter and age like one, some traits may emerge as he matures that show his differences.

so, to conclude this theory, here is what i think the spectrum of critter -> human is, and where the line between the two is drawn.

now yes, this is a simplification and does not account for any interbreeding between the less common non human/non critter species, such as spamtopians, demons, sentient animals, forest folk, and so on and so forth. but i think it covers the most likely line of progression between the two species and how they’ve presumably mixed over time, with more input from the less popular species as aforementioned.

thanks for listening like and follow for more overanalysis of stupid things.

[o-craven-canto]

What is your position on the debate between contingency and convergence in evolution? As a creator and enjoyer of speculative evolution, I imagine you might fall more towards contingency, but I'd still be curious on your overall thoughts on it, and on how different a separate run of evolution on an earthlike planet would really be.

Hmm.

Biologists usually distinguish two types of resemblance among organisms: analogy, which mostly regards general function and appearance and is driven by common conditions, and homology, which mostly regards deep structure and is driven by common ancestry.

All the limbs of land-dwelling vertebrates and their descendants are made of one long bone, followed by two parallel long bones, followed by a maximum of five (except in ichthyosaur flippers) series of digit bones. This you see from frogs to seagulls to horses to manatees to moles -- the descendants of proto-amphibians such as Ichthyostega -- but not in any other animal group. This is the canonical example of homology: there is no reason for such different limbs with functions so different to share the same 1-2-n pattern except inheritance from a common ancestor. On the other hand, the wings of birds and those of insects, or for that matter their eyes, are so different because they arose independently. The common features in the wings of a hummingbird and a dragonfly are due to the same physical constraints, and that is analogy.

Sometimes it depends from the level of analysis: bird wings and bat wings are analogous as wings -- their flight surface is achieved by different means, feathers in one and skin in the other -- but homologous as vertebrate forelimbs -- they have the same 1-2-n sequence of bones, and their development is regulated by the same genes.

There are, of course, physical reasons for structures to resemble each other: everything that moves quickly through water needs to be more or less spindle-shaped; everything that grows past a few hundred grams on dry land needs some sort of rigid support; photosynthesizers and filter-feeders need fractally branching structures; and so on. Compound eyes and exoskeletons really are more efficient at smaller sizes, camera-type eyes and internal skeletons at larger, so that's a reason other than ancestry for insects and birds to be so different; but the largest butterflies are bigger than the smallest hummingbirds, so it's not just a matter of scale; and the eyes of tunas are more like the eyes of eagles than like the eyes of squids, so it's not just a matter of environment.

Some classical examples of convergent evolutions overstate their case a bit: sharks, ichthyosaurs, and dolphin all started from the same aquatic vertebrate chassis, so their similarity is not pure environment-driven convergence. (But it is a bit: from the same chassis you can also make a turtle or a crane.) Similarly for marsupial mice and moles vs. their placentate equivalent, none of whom gets that far from the original mammal model to begin with. When you get a bit farther, you find that the Australian equivalent of a horse is not an almost identical "marsupial horse" but a kangaroo, for reasons that have to do with marsupial birth. It's the same for the now-famous case of carcinization, which only applies to decapod crustaceans -- it's not even universal for crustaceans in general! If you try over and over to make an open-water pursue predator out of the vertebrate plan, you'll get similar results: the shark, the tuna, the ichthyosaur, the dolphin. But try the same with the mollusk plan, and you get a squid.

Now, convergence is likely to occur on other planets, because anything recognizable as life will have similar requirements and meet similar challenges. But it will be much more subtle than making planets full of blue horses and humans with weird eyebrows (I can't overstate how complex and specific the history of our body shape is). Assuming an Earth-like planet, for example, I'd expect its surface ecosystems to be overwhelmingly based on photosynthesis, its "plants" to have branching shapes with flat light collectors, and its largest "animals" to be bilaterally symmetrical with eyes, intestines, and skeletons of some sort. But that still leaves an enormous amount of variety, based both on ancestry and on smaller-scale micro-environmental constraints: note that the description of "animal" I gave fits equally a tarantula, a giraffe, a snail, and an axolotl.

TL;DR: many important traits of living organisms are made necessary by physical and environmental constraints, but there's an immense variety of ways to develop them, and that is mostly going to be driven by contingencies in ancestry. In my opinion, that is.

As readings, I'd recommend The Equations of Life: How Physics Shapes Evolution (Charles Cockell, 2018) and Convergent Evolution on Earth: Lessons for the Search for Extraterrestrial Life (George McGhee, 2019) as summaries of the physical constraints and useful strategies that are going to arise over and over in living systems, as well as this brief paper on the evolution of complexity in alien life. Note how much similarity they predict, but also note how much they don't!

Thanks for the question! <3

[baenyth]

Bethany's Bizarre Miraculous Rewrite: Basics

Everyone's rewriting Miraculous, Beth. What makes yours so special? What do you bring to the table? Let me answer that:

My purpose and goal with this rewrite is primarily to create my ideal version of Miraculous. I'd say if it were a real show, it would be a serialized action show for older kids, tweens, and teens. Steven Universe and Gravity Falls come to mind for similar shows. So you know. There'll be some horror. There'll be some sad stuff. Also it'd be animated in a 2D animeesque style akin to the PV since this is my ideal Miraculous where all I have to do is look at the executives funny and they start bending to my demands.

The most notable change compared to canon Miraculous is the lack of Miraculous aside from the Ladybug, Black Cat, and Mouse, except the latter is more like convergent evolution and lacks a Kwami. I felt like the Miraculous system was rather clunky and lacked a good strong theme between the abstract concepts represented and the animals each Kwami was. The Chinese Zodiac 12 was a little bit better since there was at least a core theme but in general it felt more like the concepts were made to be unique and fit to certain characters instead of having any strong themes. So instead I decided to keep the powers themed around certain characters, but have the powers come from various sources (something I think in canon Miraculous is also underutilized, considering the United Heroes and Quantic Kids era, among other things.) Said sources include the spirits of an ancient species of sapient bugs, characters being half-human and half-something else, actual magic whether it be from gods or elsewhere, and all sorts of stuff Master Fu keeps in his Miracle Box aside from the Miraculous.

The plot itself starts off like canon Miraculous but with some minor changes to string in aspects from season 5 far earlier and the time there was a five-man band of heroes in the 90s (very important to the plot,) but as the seasons progress things stray further and further from canon until you reach season 5 where the plot is now Steel Ball Run. There's going to be plenty of Jojo references all around, alongside homages from other Miraculous fanworks and fan concepts I like. The Parallel Paris Special is going to drop Marinette into a salt fic instead of introducing flipped-morality versions of the main three characters. Two more things:

There's going to be two Mayuras, although neither of them will be called Mayura on account of the lack of Peacock Miraculous. There is something to create life, however.

Justice shall prevail.

[organ-market]

Plasmo-Parasitism: A Study on the Prevalence of Parasitism in Yharnam and its Relation to the Old Blood [A Bloodborne Essay]

[This piece will include descriptions of body horror. If you suffer from trypophobia or any such phobia, I would recommend stopping here. Additionally, suicide is briefly mentioned.]

While it may seem that the Greater Yharnam Area and its inhabitants are currently facing an epidemic of unseen proportions, recent discoveries imply this is not the case. A team of researchers, having returned from the catacombs beneath the city, have presented fascinating evidence that outbreaks like this have happened before, and perhaps, will happen again.

The catacombs, built by an ancient race of Yharnamites dubbed "the Pthumerians," hold many relics and fossils of the past. Deep within the tunnels, a carcass resembling that of a large wolf or beast of some sort, similar to what we're seeing in modern day Yharnam, shows evidence of worm-like parasites in its bloodstream [Frankfurt et al.] Fittingly, this carcass has been nicknamed the "Bloodletting Beast." It seems a hive of parasites would once have invaded the bloodstream, musculature, organs, and brainstem of the creature, implying its entire body was under the control of foreign entities.

The implications of this discovery are fascinating; if parasitic worms, which were transmitted through blood-contact, toppled the Pthumerian society, could our modern blood-borne epidemic lead to a similar death for Yharnam?

Further evidence of universal-parasitism exists across the channel on the island of Cainhurst. The strain of blood that exists there has been long removed from that on mainland Yharnam, allowing for new branches of evolution to develop. Interestingly, however, where one would expect to see deviant evolution, convergent evolution is present instead. Gathered in large clumps called "clots," massive larvae can be found around the isle. These parasite worms are very similar to those found in the woodlands surrounding Yharnam. Interestingly, both the species found on Cainhurst and the woodland variant seem to be related to that which once consumed the "Bloodletting Beast."

While parasitism seems to be universal throughout the Greater Yharnam Area, the forms in which it manifests tend to vary wildly. Where the "Bloodletting" parasitic worms seem to be related to the beast-like transformations caused by consumption of the Old Blood, some reptilian and insectoid manifestations can be found throughout the Area.

In the aforementioned woodlands, which have recently been declared "forbidden" by the government of Yharnam, a snake-like parasite is extremely common. Snakes have become increasingly rampant in the woods in recent years, so much so that the serpents can hardly move without becoming tangled with one another. This has resulted in massive clumps of snakes, dubbed "snake kings." It seems these snakes may in fact be parasitic themselves. Recent expeditions to the woods have resulted in the horrifying discovery of snakelets writhing beneath the skin of the forest's inhabitants. This eventually culminates in the young snakes bursting through the skull of the host as they reach adolescence, completely taking over the host's body [Djinda et al.] It's theorized that, once a host dies, the litter of snakes will consume it, growing to full size, and, if they are particularly unlucky, entangling to form "snake kings."

Further through the woods sits the lakeside school of Byrgenwerth. The students of the school, unfortunately, have not been spared from the horrific transformations plaguing Yharnam. Many of the former students have grown what appears to be an exoskeleton, resembling that of a fly or spider. Some have even been spotted molting, a sight which evidently caused the expedition extreme distress. Albund Ignar, who is a researcher part of the expedition into what used to be Byrgenwerth, seems to have had an episode of some kind upon seeing the molting process, screaming nonsensically and clutching at his eyes, forcing the other researchers to restrain him. He has now been hospitalized, and we hope for his swift recovery.

Swarming the former students of Byrgenwerth are thousands of flies, which have been observed laying eggs beneath the skin of the students. The students seem to willingly allow the eggs to grow within them, although whether this is the effect of parasitic neurological control is not yet known. Once the eggs hatch, they burst forth upon the student's next molt. Because of their role as willing hosts for many other insects, the students have been nicknamed "gardens." It's theorized that this process is related to the gardens' reproductive cycle. [Ignar et al.]

Before their horrific transformation took place, an expedition of both researchers and hunters left Byrgenwerth for the nearby Hamlet along the lakeside. Evidently, the villagers had dredged up what they believe to be the corpse of a Great One, enticing magnologists from Byrgenwerth to set forth for the Hamlet. Magnology, the study of the Great Ones, was of major interest at the school of Byrgenwerth.

Upon arriving at the Hamlet, the researchers discovered that the villagers too had undergone terrible transformations. Interestingly, these seem to be unrelated to the transformations throughout the rest of Yharnam, as the Old Blood was never as popular among the Hamlet villagers. The villagers now resemble fish-human hybrids, sporting gills and fins along their limbs. Additionally, a breed of coral seems to make its home on the villagers. This seems to be a symbiotic relationship, and it's believed that the color and prevalence of coral on a villager could represent their status in the fish-men's primitive society. While the villagers have a symbiotic status with this coral, it seems their origins were not so mutually beneficial. Upon dredging up the corpse of a Great One, known as Kos[m], thousands of parasites were found beneath its skin. These parasites, unlike the others throughout the Greater Yharnam Area, seem to resemble slugs more than anything else, and appear to be amphibious.

Through intense forensic investigation, the expedition at the Hamlet determined that upon discovering the body of Kos[m], the villagers believed it to be sacred, and harvested the parasites from beneath the Great One's skin, eventually leading to their aquatic transformation. Ironically, the slug parasites that the villagers saw as holy may have been the very thing that killed Kos[m]. Sadly, upon the expedition's arrival, the villagers became violent, attacking the team. With no choice but to defend themselves, the expedition fought back, killing most of the villagers in the process. Additionally, it seems the body of Kos[m] was damaged in the fray, rendering it unrecognizable.

The Byrgenwerth expedition was deeply traumatized by this encounter, though they would soon experience a transformation of their own, becoming the humanoid insects we now know as gardens. One can only hope they don't have the capacity to remember the horrors of the Hamlet. Tragically, a prominent member of the expedition, Lady Maria of Cainhurst, committed suicide immediately following the expedition. It seems the weight of the brutality was too much for her to bear. We wish the best to her family and friends, should they still live.

Being plagued by a grotesque epidemic, we can only hope to defeat its terrors if we can understand them. While the nature of Yharnam's plague seems entirely otherworldly, we have survived worse, and can obtain the knowledge necessary to push through. By studying the past and the present in tandem, we might just have a chance at waking up from this horrible dream.

-Cephalogod

[oliveroctavius]

do you think Snyder got the idea for Batman branding criminals in BVS from Lobster Johnson? Also, do you know if branding criminals was like a common thing old heroes did?

Leaving some sort of calling card or mark with defeated criminals to claim them? That was pretty ubiquitous. But branding on a body specifically seems to be a more modern invention, and possibly a case of convergent story evolution.

Zorro is the proto-proto-vigilante, since 1986 (The Dark Knight Returns #1) often cited as an in-universe inspiration for Batman, with "The Mark Of Zorro" the movie he watched before his parents died.

"Tyrone Power" places this as the 1940 movie. But in the silent 1920 movie that this was a remake of, Zorro slices his titular Z mark into Captain Ramon's forehead to mark his defeat.

The Wikipedia page for Lobster Johnson mentions pulp vigilantes The Spider and The Phantom as possible inspirations, both of whom used ink to stamp marks on criminals' foreheads. (The Singh Brotherhood, 1936). Though the Phantom later just punches people so hard that the ring he's wearing leaves the mark.

The first actual branding I'm aware of is from early neo-pulp vigilante Night Raven (Hulk Comic #1, 1979). The mysterious glove method is almost 1:1 with Lobster Johnson's method (Conqueror Worm, 2001):

I've also run across people comparing Snyder Batman to the 2006 run of Moon Knight where he carves his symbol into people's foreheads. Actually, the non-forehead location really makes Batman v Superman the odd man out here. It feels less iconic, if that makes sense, and therefore more real (and therefore more cruel).

If this was supposed to be a "deconstruction" of the "realistic consequences" of vigilantes marking criminals, it doesn't exactly work. In practice, pulp heroes usually used less intense calling cards; the ones who were that brutal killed their victims first anyways. At that point, they're essentially rogue hitmen signing their work.

[cryptidatlas411]

Hey y'all! I've realized that I never did any type of intro post, so here it is!

My name is Atlas! I use He/Him pronouns. I'm Seventeen as of May, and I'm from Nebraska. I create writing and occasionally art content as well as whatever else comes to mind. This blog is where I am at my most unhinged, but I've got a tiktok and an instagram under the same username as well if you are interested in seeing more of my art!

My current fandoms/ special interests are as follows: Good Omens, Our Flag Means Death, and Greek Mythology(and just mythology in general tbh), What We Do In The Shadows, Interveiw with the Vampire, and Doctor Who

I enjoy Steven Universe, Bee and Puppycat, space, paleo-anthropology(early hominids are my jam!), evolutionary bioligy, convergent evolution, marine biology(marine mammals and cartilagenous fish are my faves), clouds, foggy mornings(or just fog in general tbh), and the fall/spooky season!

I dislike bigots, capitalism, tacos, lavender, bananas, complete darkness, jumpscares, extreme gore....

Some fun facts about me are:

• My favorite animals are rays(manta rays and devil rays especially!)

• I have a really low spice tolerance(thanks to my sister for making me put this one)

•I love matcha

•My favorite colour is a sort of muted olive green

•My favorite foods are Gyros, Sushi, and Chiken Parmesan

•My favorite musical is Hadestown

●My favorite movies are Lisa Frankenstein and Howls Moving Castle

•from my younger sister: "you listen to hozier like you're super religious and hozier is your gospel"

•from my father: "Atlas doesn't beleive in the term 'played out', he listens to the same songs over and over."

•My favorite books of all time are The Underneath(Kathi Appelt), The Song of Achilles and Circe(Madeline Miller), and Clytemnestra (Costanza Casati)

•I love long car rides(road trips, yippee!)

•I know how to do a lot of thing decenly well- paint(watercolour, oils, gouache) (technically acrylics, but i dislike acrylics), draw(digital and traditional), embroider, ride horses, write, sew, act.....

•I dye my hair different colours all the time! The current colour is: Red

•I have dyslexia and adhd, so don't be shocked by my dreadful spelling. I try to fix it when I see it, but I'll undoubtedly miss something.

That's all i can think of for now! If anyone has any questions about me or anything I've posted, feel free to drop an ask, and I will most likely answer if I am comfortable doing so!

This post will be added to and edited, so when things change, don't be surprised.

[instaquarius]

For the Full Res since I know it's like REALLY hard to read (tbh even on dA you might have to just zoom in like 500% and also on dA hit full screen and you should be able to read it. It's mostly including pokedex entries or stuff I found on bulbapedia to further support why I pokemon where they are in the timeline/family tree and stuff

PTA (PokeTale: Ascendance) Legendary and Mythical Pokemon timeline or Family Tree (specifically for my Undertale/Pokemon AU), including Headcanons and so on.

About the lines and stuff and connections:

Black lines are Creation Lines.

Aka for Pokemon directly and intentionally created by another Legendary like Arceus Example: Personally, i like to think that Arceus came first as well and created some of the "bigger" Pokemon Gods *like the Creation Trio and Lake Trio* and then Mew was the last one after the Earth was made/Universe and all that stuff. Though I also personally headcanon that Arceus also created more Pokemon than just the 7.

Like The Original Dragon (or Reshi, Zek, and Kyurem since they're the OG dragon that got split in half) as well as the Life and Death duo ((simply just because... ya know. The literal GODS of Life/Death/Truth/Idealism etc., kinda just sounds like they would be right up there in terms of power scaling with the literal Gods of Space, Time, and Antimatter/Gravity *for the Life Deer and Death bird* and Truth/Idealism, etc. kinda sounds like the Lake Trio territory *Being they're the literal gods of Knowledge, Determination/Willpower, and Emotion* and humans just haven't figured it out yet when writing the Pokedex entries))

(Plus, as much research as I did on Xerneas, Yveltal, and the Tao Trio, nothing I looked up reaaaaaaaally didn't give me an answer on where the hell they came from, unlike most other legendaries soooo ye. Going with my headcanon instead for my AU)

Note: All Legendaries besides the Creation Trio, Lake Trio, Tao, and X/Y duo are more or less all created by the Mew species before they all eventually basically went extinct except for one. Same thing for the humans as well. I believe all humans and Pokemon were mews back in the day, like 10 billion years or so ago, then eventually, through convergent evolution or whatever, they all became what the Pokemon world is today. (And yes. In PTA, Mew was created by Arceus. Arceus was the original/first Pokemon to be made)

The red lines are Related links. Pokemon like the Legendary Dogs was created by Ho-oh when he revived the Pokemon that died from the Burnt Tower. Or Legendary Birds being governed over by Lugia as implied by the Pokemon 2000 movie etc.

Purple lines are the avatar lines. Covering Pokemon that are more or less on Arceus level or even being straight-up stronger than Arceus, like Ultra Necrozma (Ultra Necrozma has a base stat total of 754 which is a fair amount higher than Arceus's previous record of 720.) Also, same reason why I added Eternatus to this (besides also the fact Eternatus straight up looks like a MASSIVE hand in his Gigantimax form, which makes me think Eternatus could have been a part of Arceus at one point but then accidentally fell off or something while Arceus was making all these pokemon/the universe and shit) and even the third legendary from Scarlet and Violet that's been hella implied throughout the whole game. At least just guessing by the whole mystery surrounding it-

Blue lines are artificial lines. Aka, artificial Pokemon made by humans like Mewtwo, Type: Null etc. It's basically self-explanatory.

Pink lines are monitor lines Example: We know from the pokedex Heatran was created from a volcano/lava pool (which was created by Groudon waaaaaaaay back in the early stages of the Earth being made/Groudon creating the continents etc.) Ho-oh is added cuz of his connection to a phoenix and phoenix's are created from ash etc. Ash comes from volcanoes sooo that's why I added him as part of the Groudon fam/part of his sort of "Court" in a sense as a lesser God that sorta serves Groudon etc. and miiiiiight be implied o be the God of Resurrection? or Lugia being Guardian of the Oceans to help Kyogre who's King of the Ocean/God of it etc.

And finally, the yellow line is the Adaption line. Example: Like how the Koraidons had to adapt to the future changing and learn to use his freaking wheels built into his body to become cyclizar then even more modified into miraidon- (maaaaaaaaaaaaaybe same can work the Tao trio?) them adapting to being split into 2 or 3 technically-

-------------

And before anyone says shit like "Uwu this pokemon shouldnt be connected to this because in canon it doesn't say so" I didnt want to just have every single legendary connected to Mew even if in my headcanon i said that Mew HELPED in creating all these legendaries.

Like for example I think a Pokemon like Celebi was "made" by Dialga cuz it has time powers so I kinda feel like Mew made Celebi but Dialga also helped maybe giving Celebi some of its powers so it can time travel and so on.

But also, other legendaries are like- kinda implied to have a connection to this legendary (Like Melloetta singing to make people happy sounds like something that's in Mesprits kingdom or whatever or something she'd rule over, so that's why I had Melloetta as TECHNICALLY being Mesprits kid) and so on.

And it doesn't help either 50% of the time past maybe the 5th gen its like nintendo stopped caring giving all these legendaries cool backstories and stuff or they just KINDA exist to like- giving a prince a ride (looking at the 2 horses from Galar) or Victini being the "Victory" God etc.

--------------------------------------

Oh yeah, also in case anyone wondering why the Hell Zero is also here/eventually becomes Chara's adopted Sibling is because at some point after the Giratina movie, and he leaves Jail he ends up in Paldea and basically eventually meets Iono and ends up on her streams and stuff and they kinda end up dating in PTA (since both like electric-type Pokemon and have Magnetons and shit) 

Chara eventually runs into him again and they talk out about what happened and what Zero almost did to the Giratinas and smoltina and after realizing he changed and such she began to trust him and eventually he ends up as a part of the Arceus family as her brother

Also I crackship Iono and Zero. Cuz I think it'd be a cute ship 

----------------------------------------------

For PokeTale: Ascendance

An AU based off of an RP between me and a friend of mine from my Discord server discord.gg/pQf9ZsdF6E where the Creation Trio as babies (a time they all cant really fully control their powers and junk) accidentally create a portal into the Undertale Universe and meet Chara and basically Arceus finds Chara and adopts her after finding out about her shitty human parents and Chara ends up helping Arceus raise the babies and basically lives in the Pokemon Universe now

[nabooro]

what about the naboo traditional costumes? i know it's inspired by russia and oriental costumes but do u have any idea why naboo valorizes this kind of clothes?

Hi!

So lowkey I had no idea that Naboo was inspired by Russia - I've seen the obvious Japanese/East Asian influence in TPM, but I didn't realise there was a Russian influence as well, but maybe I'm just not very familiar with Russian clothing?

As for why: I suppose from a Doylist perspective it's just because the costume designers or concept artists or whoever made that choice found it cool? Star Wars has a good amount of orientalism just hanging around in there, which I think you can really just boil down to "someone in production liked that."

In-universe, I'd say they that's just how it developed over time. A lot of the world's dress history has... almost what I'd call a sort of convergent evolution, which is not only because of communication between cultures, but because there's only so many ways you can use fabric / other materials to cover the same shape of humanoid body? Obviously Star Wars societies would not have the same limitations that a pre-modern pre-industrial world would in terms of fabric use, but that's kind of how they're built all the same.

The way I see it, Naboo has two distinct styles of 'traditional' dress: wrap dresses, or rindo (i.e. the obvious kimono(s?) in TPM) and stitched dresses, or thoré (i.e. everything else). For me these are regional differences, which could have arisen because of style, or could have arisen because of differences in industry or resources between the regions in question - wrap dresses waste less fabric because of how they are constructed.

Rindo from the east (...this is funny because initially I had Arind and Nirerd, the places I associate most with rindo, panned as west of theed, but when I began working on the map they ended up in the east lmao) are pretty distinctive, and continue to feature more commonly in everyday dress in those regions, though not as much as they used to. Styles of thoré vary widely across Naboo, from more robe-like looks to works with heavier stitching or shaping. A good part of it depends on weather - Naboo is a warm planet, but not uniformly.

Really the Naboo have a distinct sense of style, which has become a point of planetary pride since they joined the Republic (however many centuries ago) and very large and well-developed textile and garment industries. I think there's a good deal of maintaining of their own traditional clothing because of that alone, as any regional differences get kind of erased in the face of the whole galaxy.

Which said, some of the main points of what would Naboo clothing involves, regardless of the specific type of dress, is: stronger fabrics (here, too, they strongly value the organic!), very delicate and fine weave, detail-work where embroidery is involved, and I think distinct types of almost formalised dress, including the formal high collar (nushe kua) and the long sash (camâ).

[jupiterswasphouse]

Fuck it- Ok so!

The idea that centers around these characters is that bugs (and nearly all arthropods in general) have evolved into a more anthropomorphic form alongside humans with some notable features being carried over as a result of this convergent evolution while other features stayed from their ancestors. For example: Their lifecycles have scaled to be similar in length to humans but they've kept their life stages, as in Egg > Larva > Pupa > Adult, Egg > Nymph > Molt > Adult, etc. / A lot of them have gone down in limb count to two arms and two legs but some, like spiders and myriapods, have kept their extras and insects have of course kept their wings! / Among other individual things-

Within bug society they have a lot of the things that we have such as technology, social platforms, typical services, general communities and the like- Afterall this is a world both in which bugs are as intelligent as humans AND humans still exist- But there's also a greater focus on the things that bugs do and help maintain in the real world, with plenty jobs, events, crafts, and inventions based around the ecosystem and individual skills of different arthropods!

One more thing that's important to note as well is that, while a lot of humans like interacting and making friends with the arthropod people, there is, unfortunately, a lot of division between them as well due to the Typical Things such as Historical Wars and General Spite, so many of them don't interact as often as they might like and a lot of governments, especially human ones, try to keep them separated- Thankfully, however, the good folks find a way, and there is still a notable human and bug connection in some places-

With all that out of the way, onto the most notable characters!:

Melis (they/them, non-binary, pansexual, 5'8) is the first bug character I ever made, and they're actually a hybrid of bee species, as some species can do that in this universe. Specifically, their parents were an eastern carpenter bee (Xylocopa virginica) and a western honeybee (Apis mellifera)! They live alone in a house that mostly resembles a hive, with some wooden structural elements, combining the two lifestyles to an extent. They work down in a local garden as a contracted pollinator, as well as making wax charms, indie rock music, and blogging in their spare time. They're typically very nervous and awkward, on top of having obsessive compulsive disorder, but are typically a lot calmer around their close group of friends.

Polis (he/they, trans man, bisexual, 5'4) is a metricus paper wasp (Polistes metricus)! He used to live in a nest-like apartment complex but now lives with his beetle boyfriend, Dynas, in their own home. He mostly stays home, streaming video games online and making little paper crafts, but also likes going out with Dynas to the gym (despite not being nearly as beefy as him) and occasionally volunteering at the garden with Melis. He's sort of the angsty emo type and is very defensive/protective, but has of a bit of a secret soft side, especially when it comes to Dynas and his friends.

Dynas (he/him, cis man, gay, 6'2) is a hercules beetle (Dynastes hercules)! He works as a part of a cleanup and wood collection crew, as well as being a regular at the local gym, while in his spare time he collects hats and tends to his plants at home. He also used to play soccer back in his home town. He's sort of the himbo dad type and is very loving towards everyone he knows, but also isn't afraid to suplex someone into the ground if things get tricky, though he tends to be the deescalator of situations first and foremost.

Basa (she/they, trans woman, lesbian, 5'10) and Rodes (she/they, cis woman, bisexual, 5'6) are a Malaysian shield mantis (Rhombodera basalis) and southern black widow (Latrodectus mactans) respectively! They're a couple that owns a joint class, where Basa teaches dance and Rodes teaches silk knitting, running a joint blog together as well. Despite their very soft jobs and home life, they're both astoundingly good at combat, with Basa specializing in hand-to-hand and Rodes specializing in web-based techniques. Basa is the more graceful and polite type and Rodes, while still polite, has relatively more energy than Basa, which adds considerably to their dynamic when they dance together

Actias (they/them, intersex/bilateral gynandromorph, aroace, 5'5) is a luna moth (Actias luna)! So the funny thing about them is that,,, Real luna moth adults don't have mouths! But since this character is Basically A Person and it'd be extremely fucked up if they starved in like a week- So, I decided that luna moths in this universe evolved to have mouths, although they're entirely mute! To further illustrate the irony of You'd Think They Wouldn't Have A Mouth But They Do, they bake for a living! They're a very calm and at peace individual, often found meditating (or getting high) in the giant flowers around their cabin in the woods. They're also quite the fan of glass figurines.

Aaaaaand that's about it for right now- I have more but I'll probably talk about 'em in later posts if I end up talking about this stuff more OwO

This is mainly a real world entomology blog but y'know- Maybe I should talk about my bug characters eventually >w>

[learnyouabiology]

Did snakes evolve to spit venom in the eyes of humans?

Some snakes can spit venom. 

Now, this is the sort of thing that I assume is common knowledge, because I assume that everyone went through a phase at age 8 where they read obsessively about snakes and other reptiles after discovering that libraries exist. 

What’s that? This isn’t a universal experience? Wild :0

Well, if you weren’t a deeply weird 8-year-old child who likes snakes a lot, then you get TWO fun facts this week! 

First, there are snakes that can spit venom. This is kind of crazy, because generally, venom is all about close-contact. if the toxin is delivered via a bite, it’s venom. otherwise, it’s poison. Right? Right?!

well... things can get complicated when the venom is being shot out of the tooth.

(A slightly more correct way to think of venomous-vs-poisonous is whether the toxin delivery is active or passive. If the animal as actively trying to put the toxin in you, it’s venomous. If you get the toxin in you without the animal needing to do anything, then it’s poisonous. Probably there are exceptions to this, because nature LOVES an exception, but that’s the basic gist of it)

There’s only a handful of species that can spit venom, all of which are cobras. That said, it appears that this trait evolved at least 3 different times: in Asian spitting cobras (Naja, subgenus Naja), African spitting cobras (Naja, subgenus Afronaja), and Rinkhals (Hemachatus; yes I’m counting rinkhals as cobras, because i think they deserve it).

How do snakes spit venom? Basically, they flex their head and neck really hard and shoot the venom out of a little hole in the front of their fangs, which are modified from the standard cobra fang venom-delivery-system:

the small round hole (& the angle leading to the hole) lets them spew their venom up to 2.5 meters. And to be clear: they DO aim for the eyes. Which: rude. But also: fair. 

To make it even more interesting, the venom of spitting cobras is an altered version of the standard cobra venom recipe (which was already deadly) which is EVEN MORE PAINFUL. Ow.

Okay, so that’s the basics about snakes that spit venom.

Fun fact number 2: these snakes (maybe) evolved this venom spitting ability specifically to spit in the eyes of humans. Or, hominins, at least.

Why do we think this? Well, first of all, there’s the fact that it seems like this ability evolved 3 different times (at least). Rather than one species developing a venom-spitting ability, and then evolved into the different species we see today, it appears that there were 3 different times where the ability arose:

this is what we call convergent evolution. (This diagram is kind of a lot, so I over-simplified it into tree on ms paint. This diagram is NOT to-scale with the time line)

The stars are where we think the ability to spit venom arose (again: not to scale). There is actually a good amount of evidence to support the 3 different origins of this ability (which can be read about here or here).

Generally, convergent evolution happens when species are exposed to the same sorts of environments/ predators/ threats. Sometimes, a problem has one solution that just works. Dolphins and sharks look similar because they found a really good design for cruising in the ocean. 

So, what problem does spitting venom solve?

Well. Around the time these adaptations appeared, there were these weird apes that started walking around on two legs and, importantly, using tools that let them attack snakes from a distance. They could extend their reach with altered sticks, or throw rocks, or tie a rock to a stick and throw that, and when the snakes bit these weapons, nothing happened, because the predator was over there, just out of reach. 

Problem: the weird ape predator is too far away to bite & envenomate

Solution: throw the venom in their eyes.

(to be clear, the weird apes are hominins)

Now, this isn’t 100% certain, because palaeontology and anthropology are notoriously difficult fields in which to prove things, on account of the lack of a time machine. (seriously, the academic fights in palaeontology can get spicy).

BUT scientists noted that a) spitting venom is particularly effective against humans, and b) the ability to spit venom seems to have appeared not long after bipedal hominins arrived in their areas. 

African spitting cobras: evolved ~6.7 million years ago.

Hominins (genus Pan): appeared in the area ~7 million years ago.

Asian spitting cobras: evolved ~2.5 million years ago.

Hominins (Homo erectus): appeared in the area ~2.5 million years ago.

(since rinkhals branched off so long ago that we don’t really have a good idea of how long ago they evolved the ability to spit venom; they split off from other cobras ~17 MYA, but their ability to spit venom could have arisen at any point since then. Monotypic genera are like that sometimes (ಥ_ಥ). Genetic studies pending while we Figure Shit Out)

Is it possible that the spitting venom evolved to deal with something else? Yes, it is possible. But, with the evidence we have currently, this is a hypothesis with a reasonable amount of support. 

Also, I just think it’s delightful to think of snakes evolving to spit in my eye. 

[science-lings]

(sorry if this is too long) OK, so this isn't really me asking for a headcanon and it's just me sharing my own headcanon but... You know how in BOTW food is like, basically the primary source of healing and effects? But most of the LU stuff I've seen ignores that. But I've been thinking about how it would actually work and here's how I think it would go.

So basically, many foods and animals in Wild's Hyrule have very special nutrients, and if your body can use them properly, then they can have seemingly magical effects. Sometime a long time ago there was some sort of evolutionary pressure that made it extremely useful for the different races of Hyrule to utilize these nutrients. (although it's simply a case of convergent evolution, not all races process them in the same way, for example, the Zora aren't able to use elixirs)

Now where this ties into Linked Universe, maybe it could be a scenario where Wild and one other hero are injured, and they only have enough potion left for one of them. The other tries to encourage Wild to take it instead of him, but Wild just pulls out some food he had stored, and then eats it and goes to bed. Naturally, the other Links are very concerned about his health, but they can't really do anything about it and just let him rest.

When Wild wakes up in much better health, they are very confused and now he has to explain magic food to them.

YES! I love food enchantments in BOTW. Wild totally prepares meals based on their environment and stuff like that. If they're having lunch before a fight he'll definitely make something with a defensive or a mighty enchantment or hearty foods when someone is recovering from an injury. Someone looks tired? he gives them honey candy which comes with enduring effects. That's just how he takes care of the people around him.

Also my hc for how the plants and animals got the ability to be cooked into elixirs and food is that as magic was lost by people, the magical energy transferred to the nature around them and the natural magic that everything has was greatly enhanced. Like no one has magic in botw unless they were born with it like the champions but all the magic is contained in the plants and animals and rocks.

[fallershipping]

One very important thing about my AU is that the entirety of Legends Arceus is ignored, and Arceus alongside the Sinnoh Trio are not gods. They are fantastic, increadible beasts beyond humankind, probably knowing things that humanity cannot understand physically with their current central nervous system, but the universe is still mysterious and not created by Arceus, nor does Palkia or Dialga control space and time.

After all, Space and Time are still rather human made abstractions of the concept of the universe. A simple way to describe reality. In a sense, these great beings probably still “talk” to humans in the stupid “thou must” speak. But.. Like as if a parrot mimics human speech. Or how a human talks to a pet with a baby voice.

What Arceus truly is, we might never know. Necrozma might even be some sort of convergent evolution equivalent to Arceus in another dimension. (I like the concept that Arceus is a physical form of the power of Pokemon, so Arceus is sort of in the veins of all Pokemon in a sense)

but the big bang and the creation of earth and evolution? all there baby

[theguardianace]

no but like wiglett being a convergent evolution with diglett means there is some sort of evolutionary advantage to having a clown nose in the pokemon universe

[wtf-triassic]

Longisquama insignis

By Tas Dixon

Etymology: Long Scales

First Described By: Sharov, 1970

Classification: Biota, Archaea, Proteoarchaeota, Asgardarchaeota, Eukaryota, Neokaryota, Scotokaryota, Opimoda, Podiata, Amorphea, Obazoa, Opisthokonta, Holozoa, Filozoa, Choanozoa, Animalia, Eumetazoa, Parahoxozoa, Bilateria, Nephrozoa, Deuterostomia, Chordata, Olfactores, Vertebrata, Craniata, Gnathostomata, Eugnathostomata, Osteichthyes, Sarcopterygii, Rhipidistia, Tetrapodomorpha, Eotetrapodiformes, Elpistostegalia, Stegocephalia, Tetrapoda, Reptiliomorpha, Amniota, Sauropsida, Eureptilia, Romeriida, Diapsida, ???

Time and Place: 242 million years ago, in the Ladinian of the Middle Triassic

Longisquama is known from the Madygen Formation of Kyrgyzstan

Physical Description: Longisquama was a small, somewhat lizard-like reptile reaching somewhere around 8 or 9 centimeters in body length from snout to tail - though this is uncertain, as tail elements are not preserved at this time. It had very large, hockey-stick shaped scales in a single row going along its back, with some of the longest scales being as long as the body of the animal - or longer, we really don’t have its tail. They go from somewhat long towards the head, reaching a peak length right after this, and then shrink in size as they go towards the tail - probably. Again, we don’t have a lot in terms of preserved elements of this animal, and while we know they were shaped like hockey sticks, there is a chance the fronds may have varied in size or shape or extended more on the back. They were attached to the spine by knob-like attachment points, similar to follicles for other integumentary structures like hair. There was probably soft tissue surrounding this follicle to keep the scale steady. The fronds had a raised ridge down the middle, with horizontal bars going up and down the length of the scale. The head of Longisquama was small, ending in a short point with tiny teeth inside, and it had a small head. It appears to have been quadrupedal - maybe, we don’t really have hind limbs - and with its legs splayed out to the side on its body. It was also quite skinny, based on the size of its ribcage. 

Diet: Longisquama was probably an insectivore, eating the variety of different insects that were present in its environment. 

Behavior: We really have no idea what the long scaled were used for. They were probably for display, nothing like feathers at all, and would have looked pretty to other Longisquama. They may have even been iridescent, much like many lizard scales, allowing them to display to each other in their deeply green and dense forested environment. There is no evidence that they would have been suitable as flying structures, and honestly beyond that we have no idea. There doesn’t seem to be evidence that they were used like Synapsid sails for cooling, either. Display is the best idea we have at this point. As for other behaviors, it probably would spend a good chunk of time in trees, and may have been social in doing so - the display structures do seem to imply a certain amount of social behavior. As far as parental care or other complex social structures, however, we have no evidence either way. 

Ecosystem: The Madygen was a deeply forested environment, with dense coniferous trees surrounding extensive lakes set in deep mud. This very wet and very green environment meant that there weren’t a lot of large animals present - instead, most of the animals were adapted for the trees and catching each other and plantlife among the branches. This extensively muddy and sticky environment means that a wide variety of animals - especially insects - were preserved well in the formation. Other creatures include the leg-glider Sharovipteryx; the Drepanosaur Kyrgyzsaurus; a mysterious probable-salamander Triassurus; a primitive cynodont Madysaurus; the Reptiliomorph Madygenerpeton; sharks such as Fayolia, Lonchidion, and Palaeoxyris; and many ray-finned fishes like Alvinia, Megaperleidus, Sixtelia, Ferganiscus, Oshia, and Saurichthys. As for insects, there too many to list: the earliest Hymenopterans (the group including wasps, bees, and ants); the great Titanopterans like Gigatian; moths, beetles, crickets, mosquitos, flies, grigs, and even mysterious Triassic insects with no close modern relatives. Seriously, you don’t want me to list them all - there’s hundreds of species on Fossilworks alone! So there was plenty for Longisquama to chow down on. 

Other: Oh Longisquama. Such a poorly preserved animal. Locked away in Russia, far away from the prying eyes of so many in this world. Unstudied, unloved. And yet, from the few photographs we have of its fossil, so many have insisted - insisted - we know exactly what it is. The enigmatic nature of Longisquama and it's completely poor fossil record (and, again, entrapment in Russia) have left it as a sort of Schrodinger’s Triassic Weirdo. What is it? What is it related to? What are those frond things? Does it play a role in the evolution of other groups? 

Here’s the thing, though. Longisquama is so poorly preserved and all we have are pictures of the fossil unless you want to go to Russia, badger some Russians, and look at the fossil - which very few people actually want to do. So, that having been said, we can’t use it for anything, basically, and we certainly can’t say anything about the fossil. 

We do know some things:

The long ribbons on Longisquama are not leaves it fell on top of. There are enough fossils of Longisquama to reinforce that it has these fronds every time, and they weren’t really shaped like any known plant leaves anyway. I know, it’s a bummer. 

It’s not a Dinosaur. It lacks Archosaur features, as far as we can tell from the fossil photos. So, if it’s not an Archosaur, it’s not a Dinosaur. 

It is not a Bird Precursor. While Longisquama - and quite a few other reptiles of the Triassic - convergently evolved similar facial features in the superficial sense to birds, they weren’t actually that similar on the skeletal level - they aren’t archosaurs! - and none of the rest of the skeleton resembles birds. Furthermore, we have one of the best transitional sequences ever known specifically for bird evolution - we have in the fossil record every step of the process from ancestral archosaur to bird, through the dinosaur family tree. The sheer number of feathered dinosaur fossils and other features found in dinosaurs such as similar hand configuration, body shapes, skeletal structures, and behaviors have left no doubt in the minds of the vast majority of scientists that birds are dinosaurs and, therefore, not descendants of Longisquama. 

It’s not a Pterosaur precursor. Literally all studies of its classification puts it far away from pterosaurs; furthermore, there are no clear links between Longisquama and the early pterosaurs of the Triassic period. While Pterosaur evolution isn’t quite as clear as bird evolution, we also have decent reason to believe pterosaurs are Archosaurs; meaning, Longisquama isn’t their ancestor. 

The fronds aren’t feathers. Even if feathers were that deep in terms of reptile ancestry that it was retained through many stages of evolution from Longisquama to early dinosaurs and pterosaurs, there is no evidence for this trait in living non-avian reptiles like Crocodilians (no, they don’t carry a feather gene, they just have the same protein that feathers are made out of) or Lizards, and thus the odds of these being weird pre-feathers is low. Instead, they are most likely highly modified scales. 

So, what is it? We don’t know. Maybe a Drepanosaur (more on those weirdos later). Maybe just a completely separate lineage of Triassic Weirdos. Probably an Archosauromorph? Maybe something else entirely? A Diapsid. We know it was a Diapsid. And that will have to be enough for now. 

~ By Meig Dickson 

Sources Under the Cut

Alifanov, V. R., and E. N. Kurochkin. 2011. Kyrgyzsaurus bukhanchenkoi gen. et sp. nov., a new reptile from the Triassic of southwestern Kyrgyzstan. Paleontological Journal 45(6):42-50. 

Fischer, J.; Voigt, S.; Schneider, J.W.; Buchwitz, M.; Voigt, S. (2011). "A selachian freshwater fauna from the Triassic of Kyrgyzstan and its implication for Mesozoic shark nurseries". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 31 (5): 937–953. 

Ivakhnenko, M. F. 1978. Tailed amphibians from the Triassic and Jurassic of Middle Asia. Paleontological Journal 1978(3):84-89. 

Sharov, A. G. 1970. An unusual reptile from the Lower Triassic of Fergana. Paleontological Journal 1970(1):112-116. 

Sharov, A. G. 1971. Novye letayushche reptilii is Mesosoya Kazachstana i Kirgizii [New Mesozoic flying reptiles from Kazakhstan and Kirgizia]. Trudy Paleontologicheskiya Instituta Akademiy Nauk SSSR 130:104-113. 

SHCHERBAKOV, Dmitry (2008). "Madygen, Triassic Lagerstätte number one, before and after Sharov". Alavesia. 2 (5): 125–131. 

Tatarinov, L. P. 2005. A new cynodont (Reptilia, Theriodontia) from the Madygen Formation (Triassic) of Fergana, Kyrgyzstan. Paleontological Journal 39:192-198. 

Unwin, D. M., V. R. Alifanov, and M. J. Benton. 2000. Enigmatic small reptiles from the Middle-Late Triassic of Kirgizstan. In M. J. Benton, M. A. Shishkin, D. M. Unwin, E. N. Kurochkin (eds.), The Age of Dinosaurs in Russia and Mongolia. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 177-186

[transhitman]

Nobody asked but I wanna talk about my OC universe. Specifically the biology of the human species because I think it’s cool as fuck. Basically, homo sapiens is extinct after nuclear winter and all the fantasy races are the different evolutions of the human species with adaptations that allowed them to survive. There are 6 total and they’re all sort of like combinations of two or more more traditional fantasy races so yeah.

H. magus -- HUMANS -- Only named as such because they’re the only ones that don’t have a major outward change in physiology. They look pretty much the same but are a little bit taller on average and can have gold or purple eyes. They survived via the magic of invention and Literal Magic, and mostly stayed in one spot. They sat on resources and created pretty capitalist-leaning societies, and thus didn’t have to undergo any major changes. However, there are still enough small differences to qualify them as a different species than H. sapiens, namely that their bodies conduct magic really REALLY well.

H. bucerus -- OGRES -- Sort of like a mix between tieflings and orcs. They’re descendants of the people who were ostracized from the Human communities for whatever reason, and had to deal with radiation, harsh weather, and GIANT FREAKING SHADOW MOSTERS. Since the Human ancestors were sitting on all the resources, the proto-Ogres were forced to become nomadic. In order to survive the Badlands, their muscles became much more dense, granting them super strength. However, they also weigh twice as much as a Human of the same volume and require twice as much food. They also developed methods of dealing with cancer caused by the radiation of the world. They basically integrate tumors into their bodies as horns. They have a special type of white blood cell that specifically targets cancerous growths and forces them to the surface of the skin, where they can be removed. They also have tails, which suit their environment. There are different variants depending on the global region they’re from, each with different horn and tail types. Probably the sexiest species. They’re tall ^__^ But their size is limited to like 7ft since being too big and dense would be DISASTEROUS in the food-scarce Badlands.

H. gurges -- DWARVES -- Ok so they’re honestly more mermaid-like, but I’m trying to fit a theme with the names here. They are short, though. And most of them live in cities that are below the surface, just not a solid surface. The Dwarves are descendants of the seafaring survivors of the Pacific Ocean. There is actually a wide variety that could count as dozens and dozens of separate species, but for function’s sake they’re all under the same category. They have convergently evolved with different types of fish, getting less and less human-looking the deeper in the ocean they live. On the surface, they’re just people with fluorescent skin tones. In the Abyss, they’re barely even human. They are able to withstand enormous pressure, and notably can form symbiotic relationships with sessile sea life. Sponges and barnacles and the like often grow on their bodies, sometimes in a very stunning, very beautiful way. Though the people closer to the surface are short, those deeper in the water grow to be gigantic. One of their subspecies includes the Extremophiles, who live in the deepest part of the ocean. They can reach about 20ft in length when counting their tails. It’s unknown weather these Extremophiles age, or what they really do down there. The Dwarves outside of the deepest Abyss usually live in underwater cities, on the coast, or on floating oil rig-type things. They’re all normal.

H. hiems -- ELVES -- Elves are sort of a combination between elves, giants, and general undead creatures (skeletons lol). They’re fucking massive, and live in only the coldest areas. Their skin is usually a shade of grey, tinted by the type of mineral that is the main staple of their diet. They eat rocks. Yeah. In fact, their bodies are so fucked up and adapted to their barren environment that normal food can easily kill them. Sugar specifically is HIGHLY toxic. Because they don’t process food the same way, they’re skeletal. And 12ft tall. Basically, slenderman. Though they aren’t bald. They have pale down-like hair on their heads. They also have another strange diet habit, which developed as a result of food scarcity during the beginning of the apocalypse. They have a very different culture surrounding cannibalism. Though the consumption of entire bodies is Not A Thing anymore, having your loved ones consume small parts of your body after your death is a very important ritual. It is an acknowledgement that the soul has gone, and the body has become empty matter. The other big thing about them is their special Suit Magic, in which a symbol of one of the playing card suits appears somewhere on their body when they go though puberty. The different suits grant them different abilities, and the four suits have divided into factions which were once at war with each other. (Blood (hearts) is healing. Edges (diamonds) creates shield constructs. Blades (spades) is bolts of energy. And Fists (clubs) is bludgeoning-type weapon constructs.) However, Elves are now extremely isolated up in their mountains and tundras. Very territorial. People honestly sort of hate them cause they’re also a little bit specist.

H. invictus -- MONOS -- Mono stands for monochrome. Predictably, Monos are monochrome. Arcane albinism overwrites their natural skin tone, and instead turns them a sickly white color, tinted by their subspecies hue. Everything else on them is jet black, including their blood and organs. Or, it’s that same hue color. They’re really fucked up, honestly. They’re sort of supposed to be a mix between vampires and orcs. They’re an artificially created species, made via eugenics and dark magic. Their creators were aiming to make an unkillable army, and they sort of succeeded, but at the cost of prevalent genetic defects. Around 70% of the Mono population has some sort of disability, which really isn’t a huge problem. They’re more than capable of providing medical care and creating accessibility deceives like prosthetics and magic medicine. You can do crazy shit with technology these days! In fact Monos were engineered to be compatible with tech- oh their creators were fascist eugenicists who abused them and treated them like disposable garbage specifically because of the disabilities they themselves caused though carelessness and forced inbreeding? Well. Alright. Not how I would have done it but... Anyway, long story short, the Monos pulled a 180 at some point and broke free of all that shit. Because they’re sort of a genetic mess, they have really great healthcare out of necessity. They’re the most technologically advanced species on the planet rn, but all of their scientists are engineers and doctors, not warriors, so they’re at constant risk of being annexed by Humans. Monos also have a very low fertility rate, so the percentage of whole-blooded Monos is going way down. They’re close to being endangered at this point. Luckily, some guy figured out how to grow babies in tubes but that’s a story for another day.

H. unicus -- DOWNDEEPERS -- Ok, Downdeepers are just all the miscellaneous designs I came up with that didn’t make sense as one of the other species lol. They’re the decedents of the people who fled to the newly-formed Downdeeps cave system, which is a global system of caverns that goes really fucking deep underground. The high concentrations of magic there cause Downdeepers to mutate rapidly. No two of them are the same. They all just live in tha caves... hell yeah...

The last human species are the CHIMERAS, which are really just the people who are a cross between two or more species. They were rare at first, but they had a population boom after global travel was reestablished (somewhat, anyway).

There are a couple other inorganic races I could talk about but I’m gonna leave it there. Yeah nobody asked for this but I hope you thought it was neat. I am honestly really proud of this world I think it’s cool as hell : ) yeah. And if you’re wondering how all the species can be cohesive despite their ancestors being isolated in different parts of the world (specifically Ogres, who live on every continent and don’t have a common ancestor), that’s because of some meta shit that has to do with how magic and human will interact. Collective subconscious shit. And that would take like 3 pages to explain so like. Just go with it for now lol.