Spec Evo - Blog Posts

Great burgundy flag-goose

The great burgundy flag-goose is part of a clade of grazing tapajarids originating in the eastern continent of the known world and spreading across the planet. Exploiting the now vacant niche of large terrestrial herbivore following the most recent mass extinction, the clade moved from omnivores and frugivores into bulk feeders, evolving into both the heaviest flying pterosaurs of Feorrlund and into a flightless clade. The flag-geese is a polyphyletic grouping of basal members, with Odontorostruvexilla and its relative evolving a cropping beak and psuedoteeth to feed on a variety of grasses, migrating between feeding grounds in vast flocks. Although never domesticated, their seasonal abundance plays a crucial role in a variety of cultures across multiple sophonts.

Jäegers

The jägers are a clade of terrestrial, predatory fantails native to Crescentia, although some species (primarily jaegerdrossel) can be found in Omnedomum. The most basal jägers are the aforementioned jagerdrossel, thrush-like predators that supplement their diet of large invertebrates with songbirds and small lizards. More derived are the harrierhens, filling niches akin to Terran foxes, but most cases maintaining the ability to fly, with one species having reached the tropical rainforests of Omnedomum and with others filling the niche of apex predator on many islands in the T-SIC (Trans-Straits Island Chain). Despite their continued success, their diversity in recent millennia has decreased due to competition with the more robust larklynx. Finally are the typical jägers, including groups such as the phoros, jägerhirsch and mohawks, the latter two having evolved keratinous spurs amongst for intraspecies fights amongst males. These birds are medium to large pursuit hunters, chasing flocks of fanfowl, rheapidura and other ground birds, typically avoiding the sturdier iguanas.

The lunar harrierhen is the most basal representative of an extremely successful group of jägers, the fowks. These nocturnal predators hunt a variety of lizards, birds and large invertebrates. The lunar harrierhen in particular is native to much of southern crescentia, being especially prevalent in the fog forests in the eastern side of the Boss range, stalking the forest floors from the setting of the sun till it flutters up to rest in the canopy come the break of dawn.

The konigsjager is another denizens of these woodlands. Unlike most other jagerhirsch, this titanic avian is not a swift pursuit predator, but a powerful ambush hunter, specialising in the large iguanas dwelling amidst the fog. These giants have only recently claimed their title, having evolved from a fairly typical lithe jäger less than 2 million years ago, dwelling to its great size in the absence of the predatory iguanas to the north and a population crash of the local macropredatory larklynx following an outbreak of a transmissible cancer similar to that which decimated the Tasmanian devils of earth.

A rare visitor to these cramped forests, the fire-crested mohawk is a classic example of a typical jäger. Patrolling the highland grasslands and open woodland of the Boss range, they form fission-fusion packs to pursue the swift grazing birds that feed upon the herbs, grasses and heaths. During spring the males group into leks and compete for females attention, singing and flashing their bright red crests and, if a winner cannot be decided by looks alone, coming to blows with talons and spurs.

The western scaly-shouldered jagerdrossel is a member of a species complex encircling the Boss range. Fairly large for a jagerdrossel, these birds hunt songbirds and large invertebrates amongst the undergrowth and branches, pursuing their prey on foot or chasing them in rapid bursts of flight, subduing prey with swift pecks from a hooked bill and stabs from an enlarged second toe.

Pasodau is a seedworld established alongside its sister world Snekens in the far future to study the dynamics of evolution without the intervention of sophonts, recalling the numerous worlds established by the Old Ones in time immemorial.

The affair of seeding, as is typical of Terran lead terraforming, was a chaotic undertaking of measures and countermeasures to establish a sustainable atmosphere and biosphere, a process born from the frantic attempts at stabilising the fragile, almost mono cultural terraformed worlds established by Terran factions following a number of narrowly avoided and even total ecological collapses leaving thousands dead and millions displaced. Whilst successful at preventing such planetfalls through redundancies and diversity, this method of seeding a world makes determining the full list of species introduced near impossible due to many extinctions, failed introductions, hybridisations and genetic modifications that occur at a species, genus or even family level amongst microfauna and flora. The list of species that are larger, more distinct, or introduced later in the process is much more complete, with all vertebrates seeded being recorded.

The map above shows the planet at the time of seeding.

Diagrams of formid anatomy. First is external anatomy, red and orange is skeleton, blue is respiratory system and green is digestive system.

(I apologize if I'm wrong and that I'm about to rant)

The second one looks like it might be based off of the gulper eel, also known as the pelican eel!

(This guy ^)

They live on the sea floor of the midnight zone, and they are mostly(?) blind. They eat squids, and, as the name suggests, their mouth acts as a pouch or net, like a pelican's!

(Love the art btw)

some dragons from my httyd spec evo project

Me if I did James Cameron navi avatar design or something idk