#the giant deathmat- which just sits there in wait- actually responsible for more deaths a year per cycle

[kariachi]

Thoughts as I look at Pern stuff...

Somehow in all my bitching it has only just hit me that there are no native terrestrial herbivores really shown in the Pern series. The tunnelsnakes are constantly shown as carnivorous, the wherries are constantly shown as carnivorous though there might have been a time they were mentioned eating plant matter, the firelizards are introduced as omnivores but treated like carnivores... Pern just, doesn't do herbivore's apparently.

And before anybody starts on 'well Thread' as a general rule what people tend to use- to my memory- as the basis for how long Thread has been a thing is the age of the fossils of large herbivores found during the initial survey. Well, I'm looking at the page and those were described as being 50 thousand years old. Of course this doesn't give us a proper description of how long Pern has been dealing with Thread- after all, it's entirely possible that some herbivores (they're described as grazers but that's it) survived the early rounds of Thread, as well as possible that they were dead and gone long before Thread showed up- but it's what we have.

Now, 50k years is generally not long enough to have what's considered 'lasting' evolutionary change- that is change that's not going to, well, change- and also isn't very long after an initial Mass Extinction Event to recover, but while Pern wouldn't be near on level with Earth it has two major things going for it on this front-

1) We know for certain the initial extinction event took place over a short period- the effects of the Red Star's passing last about 50 years, with about 200 years of leeway before the next blow. This was a quick hit, with recovery time following, followed by another hit, in a consistent pattern.

2) The species least capable of adapting to Fall would have died out in that first Pass, and it would have continued like that for each Pass that followed, until all that was left was fuckers that could get through. You hear a lot about Thread destroying everything, the McCaffreys like to throw it out there that Pern would be stripped of all life during a Pass if it weren't for human and dragon intervention, but if that was the case Pern would not have had terrestrial life when the humans got there. And I'm sure there's people out there who use that fact to claim that the Red Star has only been around for like two Passes prior to this or something, but the facts as we're given point to Pern having had strong pressure to produce species on terrestrial plant and animal that could survive and even thrive during a Pass, and having been managing it.

Follow along. The first ever Pass hits Pern, the first fuckers that are going to go are the largest terrestrial herbivores and the slowest growing plants. These will both be the ones least likely to be able to evade Fall, least likely to be able to find enough food to survive after Fall, and least likely to be able to make up for the initial loss in numbers. You'll get outliers though- Skybroom trees, for instance, who likely originally evolved to fend off native herbivores, fires, potentially rockslides or some such- mostly those whose preexisting adaptations give them an advantage in dealing with Thread. For example if a species of plodding herbivore used various secretions to build itself thin stone armor, that would grant it greater protection against Thread, while if it also reproduced in large numbers due to young not being as well defended by their armors that would allow more opportunities to make up numbers.

Next to go will the species that rely on those species, select predators, plants, smaller critters, who relied on those species for food, shelter, to disperse seeds, etc.

You'll also see a loss in smaller non-aquatic species who don't have evolutionary traits that help against Thread. Precognition, teleportation, burrowing, cave-dwelling, fire-breathing, shells that were Thread resistant, body oils that that Thread slipped right off (like Thread off a duck's back~), these and more are the traits you're liable to see in a majority of Pernese species by the time of colonization, which by the way by these estimates would be the 201st Pass.

Seriously 50,000 years ago our ancestors probably hadn't run into neanderthals yet, we were over 30,000 years from going "hey, what if we kept some of these wolves around", it's been a while

There's a critter mentioned that has a sticky back that things land on and it digests them right there, I promise you that fucker found success by having just enough bastards that could eat Thread faster than Thread ate them and adapting there let them become absolute menaces to anything that landed or stepped on them. The ones described aren't big, only about 2-by-3 inches, but the survey was brief and I wouldn't be surprised if Pern's flatlands had much larger examples of the fuckers, evolved for a role as stealth predators rather than animalistic sundews.

By the end of that first 50 year Pass Pern's landmasses would have been wiped mostly clear of most of it's species. A serious mass extinction event. But, this would be coupled with a serious uptick regarding aquatic and semi-aquatic species. Pern's oceans and waterways must be astounding, and any species who evolved to turn to the water for protection would have found themselves suddenly among the most successful on the planet.

Everything that survived would have been those species most capable of surviving or recovering from Fall, and the representatives of those species that most strongly presented those successful traits. These would have been the species- plant, animal, bug, whatever- that reproduced. Over the next 200 years there would have been some diversifying, some adapting genetically, and then the next Pass would have hit. Anything that moved away from those survival traits would get fucked, those that doubled down would survive, wash, rinse, repeat 200 times.

Would we be looking at new species? Yeah probably. If nothing else we'd have a lot of subspecies taking advantage of niches that opened up. Skybrooms probably had a smaller range before Thread started up, for instance, but once they turned out be The Most Threadproof Tree competition took a steep downturn.

By the time the colonists showed up Pernese plants would probably fall into three categories- 1) Threadproof- due to thick bark, Threadproof secretions, being dense as hell, etc; 2) Eternal- either the seeds are Threadproof and germinate under specific conditions leaving there always a new generation, or they're capable of springing back from sever die-back; 3) "Hold my beer"- make kudzu look like redwoods, probably adopted the mint when it came over

Pernese animals likely lean heavily towards semi-aquatics, amphibians, and cave-dwelling species most definitely, plus burrowing species, shelled species. You'd have more species than expected with secretions (again, if you can make Thread slide off or something, you'd be the hottest thing in town), and so much fucking psychic capability. Any species that had an inkling of psychic powers before? Is going to have spent 50 thousand years being harshly forced to select for it. Most non-aquatic species are also probably going to focus on making a lot of babies. Focusing on one or two at a time is probably going to be the domain of amphibians, cave-dwellers, and aquatics. Species that don't have to worry about "I put three years into that kid and the sky noodles ate them".

And as far as herbivores go? If you've got plantlife you're going to have something dedicated to eating it. They may not be big, they may not be grazers, but they will fucking be there.