#supercontinent cycle

[geopolicraticus]

Friday 11 October 2024

Grand Strategy Newsletter

The View from Oregon – 310

Permutation of Cyclicality and Linearity

…in which I discuss linear and cyclical history, reductivist formulations of history, Nietzsche’s eternal return, inter-definability of permutations, temporal iterations, uniqueness in time, repetition, plate tectonics, and the supercontinent cycle…

Substack: https://geopolicraticus.substack.com/p/permutations-of-cyclicality-and-linearity

Medium: https://jnnielsen.medium.com/permutations-of-cyclicality-and-linearity-1dead7293ef4

Reddit:

[rhobi]

The Audi

Homeplanet: Aodilea (Frontier) Habitat: Temperate Coastal Lifespan: ??? Diet: Mesocarnivore (50-70% meat consumption)

Evolving from ancient oceanic odontocetes off the northwestern coastline of the Frontier supercontinent, the Audi are gentle giants and reknowned for their pride, curiosity, and hospitality. Audi have exceptional hearing and tactile awareness to offset their incredibly poor eyesight that gets worse the older (and larger) they get. They also sport a handsome melon to assist in their own form of echolocation, a frequency too low for the human ear to parse. Species with more delicate hearing have often complained of Audi cities being the one of the most audibly overstimulating experiences due to this rumble being incessantly present.

Audi lack any form of dymorphism, as every individual has the capabilities to become pregnant and induce pregnancy.

More about the Audi life cycle under the cut.

The Audi are (assumedly) the longest-living species of sentient lifeforms in the Laurelai Galaxy. It is difficult to pinpoint age in any Audi due to their complete lack of any calendar system; Audi view time as constantly moving forward instead of cyclically repeating, and age records were never anything of value.

Because of their lack of birth dates, Audi categorize their lives into phases. Their first official phase is childhood, with their lack of an 'infant' category caused by the species having two fetal incubation periods: the first organic and the second synthetic. Audi give birth incredibly prematurely due to their narrow pelvic gap, and, to prevent damage and even death to the parent, birth is induced within a two-to-three month time period. Full fetal growth is achieved at ten to eleven months, with the second incubation period done with the asisstance of advanced medical technology that simulates a natural womb. Due to this technology, Audi's infant mortality rate went from 80% down to 25% with three out of four Audi infants reaching childhood.

The second phase is adulthood. What criteria needs to be met for this phase is up to speculation, as Audi seem keen on keeping that information private. What can be assumed is that it's personal for every Audi, and every Audi reaches adulthood at different times. Height ranges anywhere from 6'8" (203cm) to 9'11" (302cm) on average, with older individuals being on the taller end due to Audi constantly (albeit slowly) growing their entire lives.

The final phase is She, a coveted example of Audi excellence and potential. Reaching the phase of She takes an impossible amount of time and physical growth. Every She, of which there are currently six, has a leadership role, ranging from cultural preservation and the arts to science and engineering, with each She taking a 'mastery' of one of these core values of Audi society. An interesting note is that every She is referred to as 'She', making it difficult for outsiders to deduce which of the six She is being referenced. She cap out the Audi height range at an even 10' (304cm), though why this is considered maximum height or how they suppress growth past this point is still being studied.

[serpentface]

Rough map of the far eastern subcontinent, the contemporary spread of its Major language families, and the (VERY, VERY rough strokes of the) three human migrations that formed the majority of this landmass' population (and initiated the spread of these languages).

There were three major major human settlement events in this area, two of which began during the paleolithic period. These dispersals occurred over a scale of centuries/millennia, and not all at the same time.

Peoples derived from the same settlement group share at least some degree of 'recent' (on the scale of millennia) common ancestry, and descendants of separate settlement groups have at times merged (IE the North Wardi are of mixed proto-Finnic (northwest settlement) and proto-Wardi (south seaway settlement) descent on a population-wide scale (reflecting a complete merger of previously separate populations, rather than mixed ethnicity on individual or sub-population scales)).

-SOUTH SEAWAY SETTLEMENT: Likely the first human settlement event here. Emerged across former land bridge that fully connected this landmass to the rest of the supercontinent. Initiated the spread of the North-center seaway, Dain, and Viper language families.

-NORTHWEST SETTLEMENT: Emerged from across the far northwest Inner Seaway via sea travel. Initiated the spread of the northwest-seaway and north sea language families.

-SOUTH SEA SETTLEMENT: The most recent settlement event (began during the neolithic period). This originated with a group dispersing via sea travel over a 50-100 year period, fleeing rising sea levels in a formerly extant large island chain to the southeast. This is the only settlement event that has any form of historical documentation, via the Migration Cycle body of stories preserved among the Yanti people. Initiated the spread of the South Sea language family.

---

A language family refers to groups of languages descended from a common ancestor, not mutual intelligibility (IE: The Highlands, Finnic, and Keppeji languages are all from the same language family. A Highlands speaker might recognize cognates in the Finnic language, but could not comprehend a Finnic speaker, LET ALONE a Keppeji speaker). Each can be further subdivided into narrower language families (IE: Wardi/Wogan languages form their own family with closer common ancestry than to other Viper language family groups)

The language map should not be taken dead literally and shows approximate areas in which each family is spoken Predominantly, with no nuance for areas of linguistic convergence or the influence of outside language families. It also does not include comparatively minor language families developed in isolation, or major language families with very few representatives on this landmass (ie: Jazaiti language is of the major White Sea language family, not shown on this map).

Here's a (by NO means exhaustive) list of established peoples who speak languages from each family predominantly:

Northwest Seaway language family: Keppej, Korya, Moorlanders, Finns, Hill Tribes, and North Wardi.

Dain language family: Royal Dains, Dainach, Tho-Tykoso, 'Sea Dains', The Floating House, Hrolje.

North Sea language family: Varkhata-Byla, Rodi-Byla, Uswa-Byla, Urswali, Ursvali.

Viper language family: Wardi, Wogan, Cholemdinae, Ubiyan, Askosi, and Uboe.

South Sea language family: Yuroma, Highland Yuroma, Yanti, Losurrwe, Ur-Yamse.

North-center seaway language family: Buweni, Thingarri.

[wumblr]

indianapolis really is the most crossroads ass city. you'll be sitting at the bus stop talking to someone about their lost loved one or the job they're applying for or how their children are all moving away from home and this guy will come up and ask for coins to cross the river styx. and it's like man. i think the type of coin you need went out of circulation back when this was a supercontinent. there was an article in the newspaper about it and everything. can't you remember? we've tried everything. we've been to the coin expo at the fairgrounds and even the philatelist in case he knew something. and all of the coins we've tried pass straight through your palm. here, watch. see? i'm sorry. somebody should really call the mayor's action line or something. and they do, and the mayor commissions another pensive thinkpiece about the guy who needs two coins to cross the river styx and the cycle begins anew

[cosmozoa-sys]

⋯ paleontology themed id pack !!

names ⁘

fossil ⋄ trilo ⋄ dino ⋄ cambria ⋄ amber ⋄ nuna ⋄ shale ⋄ marrella ⋄ archo ⋄ azhdarcho ⋄ strata ⋄ phyla ⋄ devon(ia) ⋄ mosa ⋄ darwin ⋄ finch ⋄ kimberella ⋄ pteraspi ⋄ stega ⋄ raptor ⋄ burgess ⋄ holocene ⋄ lichida ⋄ luca ⋄ zircon ⋄ ediacara

trilo: as in trilobite | cambria: the cambrian period | amber: where many insects are preserved | nuna: one of the oldest supercontinents | archo: as in archosaur | azhdarcho: as in a group of large pterosaurs | strata: as in stratigraphy | devonia: the devonian period | finch: darwin's finches | stega: as in stegosaur | burgess: the burgess shale, british columbia | lichida: a group of trilobites | luca: last universal common ancestor | zircon: a crystal that can help search for early microbial life | ediacara: the ediacaran period

pronouns ⁘

paleo/paleo ⋄ fossil/fossils ⋄ dig/digs ⋄ dino/saur ⋄ dino/dinos ⋄ geo/geology ⋄ phy/phylum ⋄ tri/trilobite ⋄ bone/bones ⋄ mammoth/mammoths ⋄ flora/fauna ⋄ zo/zoa ⋄ tetra/tetrapod ⋄ evo/evolve

titles ⁘

The Most Ancient ⋄ (prn) Who Swims with Ichthyosaurs ⋄ The Fossilized One ⋄ (prn) Who is Encased in Stone ⋄ The Ancestor of Life ⋄ The Driver of Evolution

system names ⁘

the burgess shale ⋄ the fossil dig ⋄ the cycling lands ⋄ prehistoric pack ⋄ mesozoic menagerie ⋄ the index ⋄ heart of ediacara

As a certified paleontology nerd with a tattoo of a cheirurus trilobite and an anomalocaris.... this was absolutely necessary. -Iris (she/her)

credit: 1, 2

[geoledgy]

Hi I have a geology question?

So I just saw this picture:

And I assume it's accurate (as accurate as a distant projection can be anyway) since it is from natgeo (I checked), but it makes no sense to me at all? I remember from my hs geology class that the atlantic ocean is expanding because of the mid-ocean ridge diverging fault, and that the pacific ocean is shrinking because the pacific plate is subducting under most of its neighboring plates. But this picture shows that the exact opposite has happened and I am bewildered. What am I missing????

Hi! Awesome, I had an obsession with tectonics and supercontinent cycles back in my undergrad this is gonna be fun.

So for context, this is an image of "Pangaea Proxima" which is one of the four different suggestions for how the next supercontinent could look like, including: Amasia, Novopangaea, and Aurica. It's not that this isn't an accurate image, but it's a scientific model of a proposed supercontinent that could happen. Some key points of each model is:

Pangaea Proxima - prediction that Mid-Atlantic Ridge becomes a subduction zone, first between South America and Africa, leading to closing of Atlantic Ocean. Based on knowledge of previous continent formation and break-up cycles rather than current modern day mechanisms.

Amasia - prediction that Pacific Ocean closes while Mid-Atlantic Ridge pushes the Americas westward, following the current subduction trends we see today. Asia and North America would collide first in this model, at the North Pole.

Novopangaea - another prediction that the Pacific Ocean closes due to movement from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Based on current tectonic and subduction trends. The configuration is pretty similar to the Amasia model but this one involves collision of East Africa and Australia (since East Africa is actively rifting).

Aurica - most recent proposed prediction. A very dynamic model that proposes the Pacific AND Atlantic Oceans will close at some point, and a new ocean replaces them. Eurasia is split into halves due to a proposed rift zone forming from the arctic to India. The Americas are then bodied on both sides from the 2 rifted halves.

In geology, "the present is the key to the past", but the future can be a bit more uncertain because tectonics are proven to be unpredictable. There is research that states the tectonic cycle is full of unexpected shifts, and so Pangaea Proxima (the one you shared) accounts for that unexpected possibility either the Mid-Atlantic Ridge turning into a subduction zone or just failing/ceasing to continue rifting. There are many failed rifts, one that I distinctly remember is the North America Midcontinent Rift (near where the midwest/Great Lakes are).

Hope that answers your question!

[andy-paleoart]

The burning Gondwana! | Gondwana em chamas!

🇬🇧

Finally, my favorite time interval! My studies in paleobotany focus on the Upper Paleozoic, and today I bring to you this paleoenvironment that illustrates what the Permian-Carboniferous was like in Gondwana. Drawing fire is always a challenge, but I really enjoyed the outcome. I sped up the time-lapse because the video ended up being really long. Each tiny leaf was drawn individually, which made the video a bit less dynamic in the end, but it was a very cool creative process.

I dedicate today's post to Dr. André Jasper. Jasper is one of the earliest Brazilian paleobotanists to dedicate his life to studying paleovegetational fires in the Upper Paleozoic of Gondwana. He is one of the leading global experts in the study of charcoal and fire dynamics in the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras.

Let’s get started! 🔥

The Permian-Carboniferous, also known as the Late Permian, is a division of the Permian geological period that occurred approximately between 298.9 million and 251.902 million years ago. During this period, Earth was united into a single supercontinent called Pangaea, which consisted of two main landmasses: Laurasia in the north, and Gondwana in the south.

The flora of the Permian-Carboniferous was dominated by a wide variety of plants, including ferns, lycophytes, horsetails, and the first gymnosperms (seed-bearing plants). These plants formed dense forests in many parts of the world, especially in tropical and subtropical regions.

Paleovegetational fires in Gondwana refer to forest fires that occurred during the Permian in the forests of the supercontinent Gondwana. These fires are identified through geological evidence, such as coal layers, which are formed from carbonized plant material. These fire events were influenced by a combination of environmental factors, including dry climate conditions, the presence of combustible biomass, and volcanic activity.

Paleovegetational fires in Gondwana played a significant role in the evolution of plants and forest ecology during the Permian. Forest fires may have promoted the adaptation of some plant species to fire conditions, leading to the development of features such as fire-resistant bark and the ability to regenerate after fires.

At this point in geological time, the planet is transitioning from a climatic cycle of Ice-house (cooling, with presence of ice at the poles) to a Green-house (warming, absence of ice at the poles). This ultimately leads to the demise of peat bog systems in many regions of Gondwana, causing many plant species to no longer occur during the Permian.

🇧🇷

Finalmente meu intervalo de tempo favorito! Meus estudos na paleobotânica se concentram no Paleozóico superior, e hoje trago para vocês esse paleoambiente que ilustra o que foi o Permo-Carbonífero no Gondwana. Desenhar fogo é sempre um desafio mas, gostei muito do resultado. Acelerei o time-lapse porque o vídeo ficou realmente longo. Cada pequena folha foi desenhada individualmente, o que deixou o vídeo pouco dinâmico no fim mas, foi um processo criativo muito legal.

Dedico a postagem de hoje ao Dr. André Jasper. Jasper é um dos primeiros paleobotânicos brasileiros a dedicar sua vida estudando os paleoincêndios vegetacionais no Paleozóico Superior do Gondwana. É uma das grandes referências mundiais em estudo de charcoal e dinâmica do fogo no Paleozóico e no Mesozoico.

Vamos começar! 🔥

O Permo-Carbonífero, também conhecido como Permiano Superior, é uma divisão do período geológico Permiano, que ocorreu aproximadamente entre 298,9 milhões e 251,902 milhões de anos atrás. Durante este período, a Terra estava unida em um único supercontinente chamado Pangeia, que consistia em duas massas de terra principais: Laurásia, no norte, e Gondwana, no sul.

A flora do Permo-Carbonífero era dominada por uma grande diversidade de plantas, incluindo samambaias, licopódios, esfenófitas e as primeiras gimnospermas (plantas com sementes nuas). Essas plantas formavam densas florestas em muitas partes do mundo, especialmente nas regiões tropicais e subtropicais.

Os paleoincêndios vegetacionais do Gondwana referem-se aos incêndios florestais que ocorreram durante o Permiano nas florestas do supercontinente Gondwana. Estes incêndios são identificados através da evidência geológica, como camadas de carvão, que são formadas a partir de material vegetal carbonizado. Esses eventos de incêndio eram influenciados por uma combinação de fatores ambientais, incluindo condições climáticas secas, presença de biomassa combustível e atividade vulcânica.

Os paleoincêndios vegetacionais do Gondwana tiveram um papel significativo na evolução das plantas e na ecologia das florestas durante o Permiano. Incêndios florestais podem ter promovido a adaptação de algumas espécies de plantas a condições de fogo, levando ao desenvolvimento de características como cascas resistentes ao fogo e capacidade de rebrota após incêndios.

Neste momento do tempo geológico, o planeta está saindo de um ciclo climático de Ice-house (resfriamento, com presença de gelo nos polos) para um Green-house (aquecimento, ausência de gelo nos polos). Isso acaba resultando no fim dos sistemas de turfeira presentes em muitas regiões do Gondwana, levando muitas espécies vegetais a não mais ocorrerem durante o Permiano.

[wokrs-of-whimsy]

The oldest material found in the Solar System is dated to 4.5682+0.0002

−0.0004 Ga (billion years) ago.[35] By 4.54±0.04 Ga the primordial Earth had formed.[36] The bodies in the Solar System formed and evolved with the Sun. In theory, a solar nebula partitions a volume out of a molecular cloud by gravitational collapse, which begins to spin and flatten into a circumstellar disk, and then the planets grow out of that disk with the Sun. A nebula contains gas, ice grains, and dust (including primordial nuclides). According to nebular theory, planetesimals formed by accretion, with the primordial Earth being estimated as likely taking anywhere from 70 to 100 million years to form.[37]

Estimates of the age of the Moon range from 4.5 Ga to significantly younger.[38] A leading hypothesis is that it was formed by accretion from material loosed from Earth after a Mars-sized object with about 10% of Earth's mass, named Theia, collided with Earth.[39] It hit Earth with a glancing blow and some of its mass merged with Earth.[40][41] Between approximately 4.1 and 3.8 Ga, numerous asteroid impacts during the Late Heavy Bombardment caused significant changes to the greater surface environment of the Moon and, by inference, to that of Earth.[42]

Earth's atmosphere and oceans were formed by volcanic activity and outgassing.[43] Water vapor from these sources condensed into the oceans, augmented by water and ice from asteroids, protoplanets, and comets.[44] Sufficient water to fill the oceans may have been on Earth since it formed.[45] In this model, atmospheric greenhouse gases kept the oceans from freezing when the newly forming Sun had only 70% of its current luminosity.[46] By 3.5 Ga, Earth's magnetic field was established, which helped prevent the atmosphere from being stripped away by the solar wind.[47]

As the molten outer layer of Earth cooled it formed the first solid crust, which is thought to have been mafic in composition. The first continental crust, which was more felsic in composition, formed by the partial melting of this mafic crust.[49] The presence of grains of the mineral zircon of Hadean age in Eoarchean sedimentary rocks suggests that at least some felsic crust existed as early as 4.4 Ga, only 140 Ma after Earth's formation.[50] There are two main models of how this initial small volume of continental crust evolved to reach its current abundance:[51] (1) a relatively steady growth up to the present day,[52] which is supported by the radiometric dating of continental crust globally and (2) an initial rapid growth in the volume of continental crust during the Archean, forming the bulk of the continental crust that now exists,[53][54] which is supported by isotopic evidence from hafnium in zircons and neodymium in sedimentary rocks. The two models and the data that support them can be reconciled by large-scale recycling of the continental crust, particularly during the early stages of Earth's history.[55]

New continental crust forms as a result of plate tectonics, a process ultimately driven by the continuous loss of heat from Earth's interior. Over the period of hundreds of millions of years, tectonic forces have caused areas of continental crust to group together to form supercontinents that have subsequently broken apart. At approximately 750 Ma, one of the earliest known supercontinents, Rodinia, began to break apart. The continents later recombined to form Pannotia at 600–540 Ma, then finally Pangaea, which also began to break apart at 180 Ma.[56]

The most recent pattern of ice ages began about 40 Ma,[57] and then intensified during the Pleistocene about 3 Ma.[58] High- and middle-latitude regions have since undergone repeated cycles of glaciation and thaw, repeating about every 21,000, 41,000 and 100,000 years.[59] The Last Glacial Period, colloquially called the "last ice age", covered large parts of the continents, to the middle latitudes, in ice and ended about 11,700 years ago.[60]

Chemical reactions led to the first self-replicating molecules about four billion years ago. A half billion years later, the last common ancestor of all current life arose.[61] The evolution of photosynthesis allowed the Sun's energy to be harvested directly by life forms. The resultant molecular oxygen (O2) accumulated in the atmosphere and due to interaction with ultraviolet solar radiation, formed a protective ozone layer (O3) in the upper atmosphere.[62] The incorporation of smaller cells within larger ones resulted in the development of complex cells called eukaryotes.[63] True multicellular organisms formed as cells within colonies became increasingly specialized. Aided by the absorption of harmful ultraviolet radiation by the ozone layer, life colonized Earth's surface.[64] Among the earliest fossil evidence for life is microbial mat fossils found in 3.48 billion-year-old sandstone in Western Australia,[65] biogenic graphite found in 3.7 billion-year-old metasedimentary rocks in Western Greenland,[66] and remains of biotic material found in 4.1 billion-year-old rocks in Western Australia.[67][68] The earliest direct evidence of life on Earth is contained in 3.45 billion-year-old Australian rocks showing fossils of microorganisms.[69][70]

During the Neoproterozoic, 1000 to 539 Ma, much of Earth might have been covered in ice. This hypothesis has been termed "Snowball Earth", and it is of particular interest because it preceded the Cambrian explosion, when multicellular life forms significantly increased in complexity.[72][73] Following the Cambrian explosion, 535 Ma, there have been at least five major mass extinctions and many minor ones.[74] Apart from the proposed current Holocene extinction event, the most recent was 66 Ma, when an asteroid impact triggered the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs and other large reptiles, but largely spared small animals such as insects, mammals, lizards and birds. Mammalian life has diversified over the past 66 Mys, and several million years ago, an African ape species gained the ability to stand upright.[75][76] This facilitated tool use and encouraged communication that provided the nutrition and stimulation needed for a larger brain, which led to the evolution of humans. The development of agriculture, and then civilization, led to humans having an influence on Earth and the nature and quantity of other life forms that continues to this day.[77]

YESSSS, FEED ME KNOWLEDGE

(Did you copy and paste from Wikipedia)

(And I’m also writing this in school😈)

[pokemonbiologyirlthetabletop]

Tropius (#357)

Tropius (#357)

Tropius modernus

General Information: Tropius the Fruit Pokémon, this living fossil has been around for a hundred million years, and has been a friend to humanity through that time

Tropius are non-evolving Pokémon that average at 6’7 feet tall (2 M) and 220.5 pounds (100 kg). They are rather bulky Pokémon, but their flying type gives them the ability to use their leafy wings in flight. Still, they are not particularly graceful fliers, and their flight abilities are more function over form.

Habitat: Tropius are an ancient Pokémon that existed before South America and Africa separated completely. While the initial splitting of Gondwana began around 184 MYA, the two sections of the supercontinent would take many tens of millions of years to fully break apart and separate from each other. Early members of Tropiusaurus emerged from the Sauropods during the Mid-Jurassic period (174-163 MYA), where they spread across Gondwana. Records indicate migrations between the land masses for millions of years as Tropius populations steadily split with the diverging lands, but their flight kept their populations interbreeding for countless generations and even across the Atlantic Islands that developed between Africa and South America during these times. Of course, there were other species of Tropiusaurs during this time period, but the metapopulation remained cohesive for millions of years until it steadily became less and less feasible for Tropiuses to make trans-Atlantic migrations to other lands.

Because of this incredibly long history, and Tropiuses remaining largely the same throughout time, these living fossils can be found in the tropical regions of South America, Central America, and Africa, as well as the assorted tropical islands of the Atlantic Ocean.

Life Cycles: Tropius live for many decades under optimal conditions, living well into their 40s and 50s in the wild. They are megafauna by our standards, though tiny compared to Tropiusaurs of the past. These huge creatures reproduce every other year from an egg that takes ages to develop and hatch. They will mate during the dry season (if applicable) of one year, and inside their bodies steadily gather the energy needed to create an egg during the rainy season, the egg is laid during the following dry season, and it hatches in the rainy season. If such seasonal distinctions do not exist, then the Tropius simply mates at random in a 2-3 year cycle.

These babies take two years to emerge after mating, but they emerge fully formed and capable of flight with no early stage to hinder themselves. Of course there is parental care, for Tropius are communal creatures who care for their young and prefer to exist in groups that work together.

Tropius are at the greatest risk of predation during the first two years of its life, when they are smaller and less able to handle the world around them. The main things that eat Tropius are leopards and jaguars.  

A Tropius becomes reproductively mature around 10 years old (and, of course, it is at least level 15), and is able to have offspring until its death.

Behavior: Tropius live in family groups called herds or “forests.” These groups range anywhere from a handful to many dozens of Tropiuses. In general, it is the males that will leave for other herds, often even forming many bachelor herds, but this is not a hard rule. Their mating rituals are complex, involving a lot of necking, singing, and displays of strength and agility.

Tropius are known to be migratory creatures who fly to other areas in search of seasonal foods or in search of other herds.

During the flowering season of their homes, Tropiuses will shake their necks to spread the spores of their favorite fruit, helping to pollinate them.

Diet: Tropius eat fruit and absorb sunlight through their big leafy wings. They will implant their favorite fruit, usually a type of banana, as a seed onto their necks where they then grow the fruit directly from their necks. These fruit are then fed to baby Tropius, though many Pokémon will consume them without harm to the Tropius.

Their sociality makes them excellent companions to humans!

Conservation: Least Concern. They are numerous, hardy Pokémon that have managed to survive many changes to the planet, and are not in danger of extinction anytime soon.

Relationship with Humans: Tropiuses have existed in some form for far longer than humans and our primate ancestors have walked the earth. Our ancestors have eaten the fruit of Tropius since time immemorial. They have historically been large creatures of the forest that many smaller creatures and Pokémon could seek protection through. They were protection from leopards and other predators, and they sometimes provided fruit. While it’s hard to say what the Tropiuses got out of these relationships, if anything, they certainly aren’t harmed by them in the modern day.

In paleolithic times, Tropiuses were likely hunted by ancient humans as we ate most things that we could catch, but our co-evolutionary history with them means that Tropiuses are wise to our ways and thus, like the rest of the African megafauna, did not go extinct.

In modern times, Tropiuses are seen as the gentle giants of the jungle, who’s fruit are edible and who yield no danger to humans so long as we do not bother them. There are farmers who raise Tropiuses specifically for their exceptional neck fruits, and children in particular love these fruits. Tropius are excellent around human children and are a quintessential aspect to the lives of humans in the tropics of Central/South America and Africa. Additionally, there is a cereal brand called Tropius Fruit with a Tropius mascot (“Kids love Tropius!”), and it’s a banana-flavored cereal shaped into bananas with Tropius-head marshmallows.

Classification: Tropius have the species name Tropius modernus. Interestingly, they are not the only species of Tropiusaurs alive, but certainly the least derived from their ancestral state. Meganium is part of the Tropiusaurs, though a species that lost its wings and evolved to develop neck flowers instead of neck fruit. This split likely occurred tens of millions of years ago.

~~~~~~~~

Hey guess what, if you like my stuff, this is my website where you can find other Pokémon I've written on and more information about the game that I’m slowly making! Check it out! I write books sometimes too.

[o-craven-canto]

Time into space, or if the history of Earth were a path 10 km long

(note: 1 km is about 2/3 of a mile, 1 m is just over 3 ft, 25 mm go into an inch)

Suppose the whole span of Earth's history, from its formation 4.56 billion years ago to its engulfment by the dying Sun 7.59 billion years in the future, is converted into a path 10 kilometers long.

On such a scale, a billion year corresponds to about 800 meters, a century to 0.08 millimeters, and a single year to 0.8 micrometers -- the length of an average bacterium. The present 21st century would correspond to the thickness of a single paper sheet standing upright about 3/8 of the way from the path's starting point.

Looking back from that standing paper sheet, you would have to go back a single millimeter to reach the time of the united Roman Empire, which had begun roughly half a millimeter before. The end of the latest glaciation and the beginnings of Near Eastern agriculture would stand a further centimeter back. Our species started spreading outside of Africa 6.5 cm before the standing sheet, and diverged from the line of Neandertals about 30 cm back.

You would have to walk 5 meters to reach the point where out line diverged from that of chimpanzees. Then other 50 meters to reach the extinction of dinosaurs, and then other 140 to reach their first appearance as Pangea started to split. From the standing sheet, walking a total of 300 meters would bring you to the appearance of animals on dry land, and 450 to the Cambrian Explosion. Walking a full kilometer backward would take you to the first multicellular algae, and two kilometers to the time when oxygen started to build up in Earth's atmosphere for the first time. Beyond that point, you'd meet only bacteria. 3.75 km would take you back to the very beginning of the path, when Earth congealed out of rings of dust surrounding the early Sun.

Walking in the opposite direction from the paper sheet that marks this century, we can probably expect new glacial cycles over the next meter, and a new Pangea-like supercontinent to form between 80 and 200 meters from it. You have a much longer way (6.25 km) to go all the way to our final reabsorption by the Sun, but only about one kilometer before our star's expansion causes Earth's oceans to boil off. Beyond that, all bets are off.

[vickysaurus-art]

I've got a geologic timeline running along the walls of my new appartment, so I made some icons to mark the mass extinctions on it! They depict the Big Five, plus the End-Ediacaran extinction, some in a more literal fashion and some more metaphorically. Detailed look and explanations in reverse chronological order below the cut.

Cretaceous Paleogene Extinction: Meteorite hitting the Earth.

End-Triassic Extinction: Pangaea split by a line of fire to show the future mid-oceanic ridge massively erupting as the supercontinent breaks up.

The Great Dying: To depict the worst extinction of all time, I drew the Earth as a skull.

Late Devonian Extinction: The Late Devonian extinction may have been set off by the evolution of trees completely changing how the world's climate and cycles worked. By breaking up rock into soil they released massive amounts of nutrients into the environment, leading to anoxic waters. They reduced the CO2 in the atmosphere, causing a temperature drop. The knock-on effects of all this, possibly combined with a volcanic period, resulted in a mass extinction. To try and depict the trees indirectly killing life, I drew them literally killing it with their roots. Some of the victims are lobe-finned fish, jawless fish, brachiopods, trilobites, crinoids, and cystoids. Another root is turning into an ice crystal and another into a very eutrophic pool of algae-infested water.

Ordovician-Silurian Extinction: This one is considered to be the result of an ice age, so I drew a snow crystal. The middle part is also meant to be reminiscent of a bright star, in reference to the (not especially probable) hypothesis that it was set off by a nearby supernova.

End-Ediacaran Extinction: I really struggled with this one, as it's still fairly poorly understood, but is thought to involve a major anoxic event. But how do you clearly depict a lack of oxygen? It's not easy without resorting to drawing choking humans or crossed out oxygen formulas and such. Instead, I depicted the results of it: the disappearance of the Ediacaran biota and their replacement with the more familiar creatures of the Cambrian. This is a trilobite crawling over the fossils of a Dickinsonia, Charnia, and Tribrachidium.

[sciencestyled]

The Prophet's Unlikely Prelude to Pangea Ultima

Lo, in the days of my youth, long before my visage was etched with the lines of prophecy and worry, I found myself in an odd predicament that foretold of my future musings on the fate of a world far beyond my time. A peculiar passion, nay, a curiosity most bizarre, led me down a path that culminated in the writing of "Jeremiah’s Lament: Climate Catastrophe and Mammalian Doom on Future Supercontinent Pangaea Ultima."

It all began on a day most unremarkable, under the sweltering sun of the Judean desert. Whilst wandering in contemplation of the divine, I stumbled upon a gathering most peculiar: a convocation of creatures, great and small, engaged in what can only be described as a parliamentary debate. The topic of their spirited discourse? The future climatic conditions of a land yet to be, known to them, by some prophetic insight or perhaps divine jest, as Pangaea Ultima.

At first, I thought the sun had overcome my senses, or perhaps a vision from the Almighty had descended upon me. But as I listened, hidden behind a date palm, the earnestness of their exchange became apparent. A camel, sagacious and long-lashed, spoke with grave concern about the forecasts of unbearable heat, while a jackal, quick-witted and sharp-tongued, argued for the innovation of burrows with air-conditioning, a concept so far ahead of its time that it left me bewildered.

Their debate, laced with humor yet underpinned by a somber recognition of their own mortality, sparked within me a fascination with the future of our planet. How could it be that these creatures, whom I had always viewed as part of the landscape rather than participants in it, held such profound concerns for the world to come?

Driven by this newfound curiosity, I embarked upon a quest unlike any prophet before me. I consulted scrolls and studied the stars, seeking knowledge of this distant future. I learned of the movements of continents, the cycles of climate, and the fate of the mammalian kin I had heard debate under that desert sun.

Years turned to decades, and my beard grew long and white as I toiled over parchments, piecing together a narrative that would bridge the wisdom of the ancients with the revelations of the future. I foresaw a world where science and prophecy intertwined, where the fate of all creatures, great and small, hung in the balance amidst rising temperatures and changing landscapes.

Thus, with a quill fashioned from the feather of a bird that had listened intently to the desert debate, I penned "Jeremiah’s Lament." It was a work born of an unexpected assembly, a humorous encounter that had unveiled to me the interconnectedness of all things, and the importance of looking beyond the present to the future that awaits.

In this manuscript, I sought not only to warn of the impending climatic trials but to honor the spirited debate of my desert interlocutors. For in their humorous yet earnest discourse lay the seeds of a truth too important to ignore: that the fate of our world is a shared concern, spanning species and epochs.

And so, dear reader, as you peruse the pages of my lament, remember the camel and the jackal, the parliament under the palm. Their debate, as whimsical as it may have seemed, was a harbinger of the serious contemplation we must all engage in when considering the future of our planet.

For in the end, it is not just the fate of mammals on Pangaea Ultima that we must ponder, but the legacy we leave for all generations to come, be they prophet, peasant, or pangolin. May my words serve as a bridge between epochs, a testament to the power of curiosity, and a reminder that sometimes, the most profound truths are revealed in the most unexpected of gatherings.

[sakuraswordly]

@POETICandFUNNY: The story of the gömböc begins with a brilliant mathematician named Vladimir Arnold, who proved in 1995 that such a shape could exist. He did not make it or see it. He just knew it was possible, because he was good at math. He wrote down his proof and showed it to other smart people, who nodded and agreed. But nobody knew how to make this shape. Nobody knew what it looked like. Nobody knew if they would ever find it in the real world. That’s where two Hungarian engineers, Gábor Domokos and Péter Várkonyi, came in. They were fascinated by Arnold’s proof and decided to take on the challenge of finding the exact formula for the shape. They used computers and calculators and lots of paper to solve the puzzle. They named it the gömböc, after a word for a round dumpling, because they liked dumplings.

Ancient diamonds hold the secrets of how continents evolved Diamonds found in Brazil and Western Africa reveal the history of an ancient supercontinent. The secrets of how continents grew and moved throughout the early history of life on Earth have been revealed by the analysis of ancient, superdeep diamonds discovered in mines in Brazil and Western Africa. Tracing the complex history of the ancient supercontinent Gondwana These diamonds developed at the foundation of the supercontinent Gondwana between 650 and 450 million years ago. Supercontinents are large landmasses that are formed when many continents combine to form a single, massive location. Gondwana is one of the most notable ancient supercontinents. It existed from the Neoproterozoic to the Cenozoic era and included the landmasses that now make up South America, Africa, Antarctica, India, Australia, and the Arabian Peninsula. Now, isotope analyses of the tiny silicate and sulphide inclusions in the diamonds have revealed how this supercontinent formed, stabilized, and moved around the planet. “Superdeep diamonds are extremely rare and we now know that they can tell us a lot about the whole process of continent formation,” said Dr Karen Smit of the Wits School of Geosciences, who was part of the study. “We wanted to date these diamonds to try and understand how the earliest continents formed.” Diamonds are one of the very rare minerals resistant enough to survive and witness the supercontinent cycle. The supercontinent cycle involves the recurring construction and dissolution of supercontinents over hundreds of millions of years. It is driven by the movement of tectonic plates, which are large sections of the Earth's lithosphere that float on the semi-fluid asthenosphere beneath them. When paired with current plate tectonic models of continent migration, geochemical analysis and dating of the diamonds revealed that the materials formed at extremely deep levels beneath Gondwana between 650 and 450 million years ago, when the supercontinent covered the South Pole, explained Smit. A complicated history that reveals the origins of ancient supercontinents Diamonds have travelled incredibly far both vertically and horizontally within the Earth, as evidenced by their complicated history, which can be used to trace both the origins of the supercontinent and the last stages of its evolution. What the researchers found was that host rocks containing the diamonds were added to the supercontinent's base, and Gondwana effectively "grew" from below. Violent volcanic eruptions then transported the diamonds to Earth's surface 90 million years ago, and with them the secrets of how Gondwana may have formed. “We need this type of research to understand how continents evolve and move. Without continents there wouldn’t be life. This research gives us insight into how continents form, and it links to how life evolved and what makes our planet, Earth, different from other planets,” concluded Smit. Smit is currently working at the University of the Witwatersrand where she is a member of a team creating a new isotope lab and procedures to eventually conduct diamond inclusion analysis in South Africa.

[thesecondface]

Sea of Tranquility - Emily St John Mandel

Humour did remind me somewhat of Saki's Reginald, though whether that was intentionally inspired or just my brash linking I can't say.

I loved the descriptions of the wilderness – I loved the cyclicity of the ending of civilisation. Admittedly I am partial to cyclicity; even in the context of geology we have supercontinent cycles and I do quite like the idea of destruction/reconstruction etc etc.

[hmantegazzi]

No idea if you had seen this, but there's a paper positing that it might be the impact of Theia the one responsible for making Earth, but not Mars nor Venus, to have plate tectonics, by forming Large Low Shear Velocity Provinces (LLSVPs), the "blobs" of hotter material deep in the Earth's mantle, with some of the material of Theia that didn't ended building the Moon.

As the hypothesis goes, these LLSVPs, by remaining distinct from the surrounding mantle material, would have driven the Earth's crust to thin and crack in specific places, and then guide their movements of accretion and division. The opposite case would be Venus, where, without plate tectonics, the evidence suggests that the whole crust would renewal in massive events of global earthquakes and volcanic activity, contributing to the inhospitable conditions on the planet's surface.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2023GL106723

The video is from another study, which is the one that models the behaviour of the LLSPVs during the last 200 million years, showing how they appear to be linked to the supercontinent cycle:

What if the fact that we had 3 'Earth-like' (Earth, Mars and Venus) planets in our Solar System is because of the very precise material balance of the protosolar nebula and its formation, and every single planetary system is completely different in composition in a way we can't even predict without direct observation? We can tell exoplanets have such and such mass, but perhaps their composition (which has had such a delicate balance here on Earth so we can get a planet with continents instead of something entirely dry or oceanic) is completely something else.

Even in our Solar System, while we got a bunch of icy moons and Uranus and Neptune that are mostly similar (mostly) every planet is markedly different from the rest. And we've already discovered and speculated on very strange planets such as hot jupiters, carbon planets, hycean or oceanic worlds, etc. Who knows what a star with more metalicity or less can produce, or one where, for whatever reason, you got a greater concentration of certain elements.

What seems sure is that planetary systems are incredibly common, so there must be so much weird stuff out there. Exciting.

[myfeeds]

Geologists challenge conventional view of Earths continental history stability with new study

In a study led by Illinois geology professor Lijun Liu, researchers used previously collected density data from the Earth’s uppermost rigid layers of crust and mantle — known as the lithosphere — to examine the relationship between craton surface topography and the thickness of their underlying lithosphere layer. The results of the study are published in the journal Nature Geosciences. The lack of deformation within the cratons since their formation makes them the longest-lived tectonic units on Earth — surviving supercontinent cycles like the formation and breakup of the supercontinent Pangea, as well as the lesser-known and more ancient supercontinent Rodina, the study reports. “It is generally accepted that the cratons are protected by their thick underlying mantle roots, or keels, which are believed to be buoyant and strong and thus stable over time,” Lui said. Several recent papers from Liu’s research group directly challenge this wisdom by showing that these mantle keels are actually quite dense. In a 2022 study, the team demonstrated that the traditional view of buoyant craton keels implies that most of the Earth’s cratons would be sitting about 3 kilometers above the sea surface, while in reality, their elevation is only a few 100 meters. This requires the lithospheric mantle below the crust to be of high enough density to pull the surface down by about 2 kilometers, Liu said. In another study, the team used gravity field measurements to pinpoint the density structure of the craton keels to find that the lower portion of the mantle keel is most likely where the high-density material resides, implying a depth-increasing density profile below the cratons. In the new paper, the team shows that the lower portion of the mantle keel that has a high density and tends to repeatedly peel away from the lithosphere above when mantle upwellings, called plumes, initiate supercontinent breakup. The peeled-off — or delaminated — keels could return to the base of the lithosphere after they warm up inside the hot mantle. “The whole process is like what happens in a lava lamp, where the cool material near the surface sinks and the warm material near the bottom rises,” Liu said. This deformation history is expressed in some of the more puzzling geophysical properties observed in the lithosphere, the study reports. “For example, the repetitive vertical deformation of the lower half of the mantle keel allows the seismic waves that vibrate the rock vertically to travel faster, compared to the upper half of the keel, which experienced less vertical deformation,” Liu said. The team also determined that mantle delamination will cause the craton surface to rise, leading to erosion. “This is reflected in the strong dependence of crustal thickness on lithospheric thickness, an observation never made before this study,” Liu said. “In particular, there are two major uplift and erosion events in the past, when supercontinents Rodinia and Pangea each separated, the former causing what is known as the Great Unconformity — a feature in the Earth’s rock record shows no evidence of new deposition, only deep craton erosion. This is the reason why we see pieces of ancient lower crust exposed at the craton’s surface today.” With the help of numerical simulations, the team said that this episodic deformation style of the lower craton keels is how the craton crusts survived the long geological history. “We believe this newly hypothesized lifestyle of cratons will significantly change people’s view on how continents evolve and how plate tectonics operate on Earth,” Liu said. Illinois geology professor Craig Lundstrom and Illinois graduate students Yaoyi Wang, Zebin Cao, Lihang Peng and Diandian Peng; and Chinese Academy of Sciences professor Ling Chen contributed to this study. The National Science Foundation and the National Natural Science Foundation of China supported this research.