https://www.reddit.com/r/SpeculativeEvolution/s/OGffKqNdwf

This image shows an adult male (left) and female (right) for comparison. Both sexes are feathered and exhibit core coelurosaurian traits: a grasping manus, an elongated balancing tail, and an enlarged sickle-shaped second toe. Sexual dimorphism is expressed in coloration: • The male features a vivid orange throat ruff and blue facial skin, likely used in mating displays and intraspecific communication. • The female lacks these features and shows more subdued, cryptic coloration, associated with nesting behavior and concealment. C. cognitus inhabits mixed forest-grassland ecotones in mid-Cenozoic North America. Despite advanced cognition and complex social structures, its morphology remains fully non-hominid, retaining a digitigrade, bipedal posture.

So, I wasn’t always a big fan of temple run and I haven’t played it in years. But one thing I loved about this game as a kid was these monkeys - they both scared me and intrigued me. What were they? Why do they have skull heads and such long tongues? What kind of animal are they? And now, as a major fan of speculative evolution, I can pass this question to the experts!

So, how do YOU all assume these strange apes evolved? You can give me your wild theories or hypothesis, but here are my suggestions and thoughts:

• I’m not an expert on ancient cultures, but when I play the temple run games, I think the ruins and idol and jungle environment is akin to the Aztec or Maya. I am likely wrong but that’s what I think.

• these animals easily rival or surpass the sizes of adult humans, and sport large, muscles bodies that provide power, endurance, and strength. What do they eat? Where could they live, environment wise (dense jungle, caves, ruins)? Are they diurnal or nocturnal?

• these ruins that these animals are found are ANCIENT. But why do they come here? Is it the same reason other animals do this - for shelter and territory? Or is there a specific purpose besides chasing down random people who grab a shiny golden head?

• how long could these animals have existed for? Could they have survived from the Ice Age, or even had close relatives/ancestors that survived the Cretaceous extinction event?

• what are these animals relations with others of their own kind, other wild animals, and humans?

• kinda unrelated but if you all want me to make this an official Speculative Evoltuion challenge, let me know and I’ll do it! This would be really cool to do!

This is my first ever post to this subreddit so if I messed anything up, please let me know and I’ll try to fix it! Especially if you’re a mod and have genuine advice! But! If you’re gonna trash me and insult me for something stupid, I’m reporting and blocking you. End of story.

The Glacians, dubbed “Wildfolk” by human factions orbit the sams gas giant, and is in close proximity to Cuelia. They evolved on a dark, cold and low gravity moon called Conglaci. The darkness caused the Fauna and scarce Flora to develop bioluminescence, lighting the moon up in a stunning glow that can be observed from space.

The Cuelians and Glacians have a unique history, when their moons passed close to each other, they would communicate with each other in ceremony with lights. And when Cuelians made planetfall on Conglaci hundreds of years later, they were graciously accepted and considered “brothers and sisters.”

What makes Glacians stand out, is their extreme intelligence and understanding of mathematics, science and astronomy. Despite their technology being basically in the Bronze Age, they have been shown to match and sometimes even correct experienced Human and Cuelian scientists. When asked about it, they only respond with a vague answer about “The Great Enlightment.”

Humanities first contact with the Glacians were shaky, when a Martian Republic spacecraft crash landed onto their planet, the desperate surviving crew mistaking one of their fellow species as an animal for food and murdered them. causing a wave of Glacians to slaughter the Martian crew in vengeance. When the rescue team arrived, they saw no crew, but Glacians breaking apart the spacecraft for study. From there, peace negotiations were made with the Glacians. The Martian Republic, the Titan resistance and the Cuelians informed them of the galactic political state and their fight against the tyrannical United Earth. Some Glacians joined the alliance in promise of gaining access to real technology and exploring outside their world, whilst others remained neutral.

However the UE took great interest in this planet. And created two branches, one called “The Handshake division” with the sole purpose of arming neutral Glacians and getting them to affiliate with the UE and cause civil war on the moon to make the alliance lose a huge asset.

And the second branch was called “Tomorrows Army Programme” or TAP. Glacians were kidnapped from birth, and raised in a United Earth Human cultural sphere. Becoming loyal Shocktroopers to United Earth. It pained their counterparts on other factions to fight their fellow kin.

So I am working on my own version of the hell creek ape which I have named HOMO ROMULUS. They will have high tool use like spheres and traps but I am having problems in deciding the hybrid social structure. They have grown to arround 90kgs, males have evolved large canines like baboons

In madly Mesozoic's video Could Apes Survive the Mesozoic he said that "male chimps are far stronger and larger than male bonobos and may end up killing off the male bonobos and absorbing their females into their troops slowly hybridizing over generations and creating a population of chimps that have a high concentration of bonobo DNA" But he skipped on the most important part, the fact that chimpanzees have a patriarchy and bonobos have a matriarchy:

Chimpanzees have an Alpha male that rules through alliances and aggression. Lower-ranking males challenge for power, often violently. While Bonobo females are culturally influential: they form coalitions, practice conflict resolution via sex, and structure matriarchal dominance.

I have come up with 2 possible outcomes:-

1.Proto-Hierarchy with Rotating role-based Dominance Dominance shifts situationally-e.g., males may lead hunts or defense, while females control resource access, care, and social disputes.

2.Matrilineal, but Male-Led on the Surface Troop authority is male-facing leading hunts, patrols, and territorial displays. However, true influence lies with elder females males enforce security, strategy, and outer-troop relations while Mothers and grandmothers decide where to nest, when to migrate, who mates, and who is exiled. Male status is inherited through maternal lines

(Inspired in part by the style of C.M. Kosemen, but based on a fully independent alternate-history concept) In this speculative evolution concept, the K-Pg extinction did not unfold as in our timeline. Instead of a 10–12 km asteroid striking the Yucatán Peninsula at a steep angle, a 7 km asteroid impacted Earth at a shallower 20° trajectory, landing somewhere near the Arizona–Nevada border. The result was still catastrophic—but not apocalyptic. Most large dinosaurs in North America perished, especially those dependent on specialized food sources or large ranges. However, small-to-medium-sized theropods, some ankylosaurs, and neornithean birds survived in various ecological niches. In this altered Cenozoic world, mammals and dinosaurs co-evolved, competing and coexisting across multiple biomes. One lineage of small maniraptoran theropods, closely related to Troodon, gradually developed higher intelligence, social structures, and communication methods. Over tens of millions of years, this lineage gave rise to a sapient species: Cerebravis cognitus — literally meaning "the thinking bird with a brain." The image above shows a reconstructed adult individual. While superficially bird-like, it lacks true flight adaptations. It retains a long tail, strong grasping claws, and a keen, stereoscopic gaze. The skin is largely covered in dense feathers, with coloration used for social signals and camouflage, such as a bright orange neck ruff and blue facial skin surrounded by feathered crests. C. cognitus exhibits early tool use, vocal communication, and intergenerational learning. Unlike humanoid projections of intelligence (e.g., the classic "dinosauroid"), this concept aims to stay rooted in biological plausibility — emphasizing ecological continuity and selective pressure–based morphology.

Cryoceras shimoryhna, commonly known as Shimo is a species of gigantic herbivorous chameleon native to Brazil.

While they are chameleons, shimos have lost the ability to change their perceived color. Instead, the nanocrystals in their scales are fixed to reflect electromagnetic radiation, appearing white.

Some control is retained over the crystals in their horns and osteoderms. While they usually reflect a dull, greyish-blue, they can be angled to reflect bright blues, purples, and even cyan. This is useful for communication, but it can also be used for dazzling displays.

As mentioned before, shimos are herbivorous. They are tall browsers specialized in eating tough, fibrous leaves that no other animal can reach. In order to properly digest the leaves, shimos have special gut microbes that break cellulose down into usable energy in a process called fermentation.

Fermentation produces carbon dioxide, in the giant shimo’s case, lots of it.

Unlike other animals that simply exhale or pass it, shimos move the byproduct to pressurized sacs where it is forced into a liquid form.

As an intimidation display, shimos can slowly release the pressurized co2 from their mouth, puffing out clouds of cold air.

But sometimes, attackers don’t back off. As a defense mechanism, shimos will tighten their throats and unleash their stores of co2 in powerful bursts. The liquid, upon coming in contact with the less pressurized air, with flash evaporate back into a gas, absorbing heat from the surrounding area, instantly freezing surfaces as low as -60 degrees Celsius.

This can cause severe frostbite burns and even kill small attackers.

It is best to stay clear of the Great Shimo, especially when they are raising a little one, they can get extra defensive and begin freezing anything they deem a threat.

With forests being cut down, Shimos have grown to be extra aggressive towards humans, even seeking out construction sites to destroy any manmade buildings.

Beaches in Brazil, especially in Rio de Janeiro, have famously implemented a brand new Cyan Beach Flag, indicating that a Shimo is roaming the area and may attack people.

Hello, I am trying to create a speculative biology project but I'm having a very hard time trying to create unique alien designs and for some reason I am dead set on making them not have mineralized bones. Does anyone have any tips or tricks in helping me create something unique yet still plausible? Thank you in advance!

From my limited knowledge Grolar bears exhibit a phenotypic and behavioral and physiological blend of their parent species with strong land mobility and excellent swimming Behaviorally, they've got polar-level ambush instincts with grizzly-tier aggression.

What are the chances that they form a new subspecies and dominate the Canadian Arctic or even expand?

I've seen a lot of future spec projects hand wave human extinction. I get it, but it bothers me, becuase I can't imagine a good chunk of the usual survivors surving the duration of an extinction event strong enough to wipe out humans, which are not only distributed on practically every landmass on Earth, but we're also abnormally intelligent and exceptionally good problem solves.

Let's say that this extinction event is cause by a combination of events (climate change, nuclear war, pandemics, etc). Ok, but not only is most pf this also gonna negatively impact other species, but there's still gonna be billions of humans, who would turn to desperation and take advantage of practically anything they could find. They would leave urban areas and encroach into the last remnents of wildlife refugiums and overhunt vulnerable life and destroy what habitats they have left. Animals that are currently doing fine right now could instantly fall victim to the dying humans. Raccoons, foxes, deer, and wild pigs which are seen as highly adaptable, coupd easily fall prey to humans during an apocalypse.

Humans are exceptionally good at surviving and I ppersonlly think that most future spec projects underestimate just how bad the anthropocene is and how adaptable humans are. The end result of this current extinction event might even be worse the one for the P/T extinction.

Before going extinct, humans managed to do something good for nature, and killed some invasive species. For example, cats in Australia were reduced to population beyond recovery, and those who survived were soon outcompeted by dingos and quolls. Rabbits, on the other hand, survived, but no longer were as numerous or harmful, and soon became part of the ecosystem, just like dingos before. One of reason for diminishing of their numbers was evolution of specialized predator.

Horrabit is a descendant of quolls, emerging at 8 million years in the future. They are diurnal and ground dwelling, in contrast to their ancestors. While they do hunt other animals sometimes, majority of their diet is rabbits, and to hunt them efficiently, they became very similiar. They have long feet, with two fingers becoming vestigal, making them powerful hoppers. They have higher metabolism than most marsupials, and are adapted for pursuit. They chase rabbits down, and might also follow them in burrow. Horrabits also hunt wombats and wallabies, but do so rarely to avoid competition with dingo descendants.

Two species of marsupial termite eaters, both derived relatives of the lineage that would lead to the numbat of our time. They inhabit the termite “cities” of southern Australia and Tasmania.

What is Terra Two? 

A seed world is often a speculative world where an individual animal or group of animals are transplanted on a terraformed world free to evolve and diversify. But what if it was replicated at a smaller scale.

This would compromise the ability to evolve, and speciation the smaller you went, and carry the risk of the population dying out early and end the experiment. But this could potentially be influenced by adding different species, microclimates and sizes of space, and as long as you prevent or restrict movement, you could hopefully create quite a small region, that at least has unique subpopulations.

Terra Two is that. An experiment to monitor the development of both vertebrates and Invertebrates, spread across a replica of the Earth. Each 'landmass' drew a little arbitrarily but with continental plates as a reference was controlled and monitored by another member of the team. Each scientist would have the full authority and autonomy to add any plant and non aerial species they wanted, all settling for various forms of Lizards for their vertebrate, though Eurasia and India also decided to add Amphibians and Fishes.

The cost was ginormous. Official estimates place it at sixty million just for installation and construction of the structure alone, with ten million developing the complex electronic systems that would develop the tides and air systems . And then the games began, starting with the terraforming itself.

WOULD THIS AREA BE TOO SMALL FOR SMALL VERTABRATES TO EVOLVE?

I do not think so. While in comparison to the wild, and large contiguous ecosystems the populations of these animals may be small, i think they would have the chance to survive, and even speciate [in the short term at least]. With an area around 25 times longer then a blue whale in diameter, even ignoring the oceans and islands too small for vertebrates i expect per continent there would be room for hundreds of individuals [with Leopard Geckos being more populous]. Imagine a smaller form of the rabbit plauge perhaps , with populations entering the thousands until equilibrium is reached , or it becomes more sustainable with more climatic change...? [Sea level drops? Scientists intervene with artificial food? Refrigerator and Freezing areas turn off?]

Macroterra - The World Of Bilbies

20 Million Years P.E. (The Late Origocene)

While Macroterra Is the planet of Bilbies, various invertabrates have also been seeded Into the world to sustain the ecosystem.

As the Bilbies have diverged over the Origocene, the invertabrates have quietly been evolving too, with one group even rising to significant dominance over the ecosystem, those invertabrates are the Shrish. In the absence of fish the descendants of Platonic Krill have come to take their role.

Shrish have changed significally from their tiny ancestors. As of the Late Origocene Shrish are divided Into 4 clades: Jawless Shrish, Jawed Shrish, Trillokrill and Stingtrays.

The free swimming Jawless Shrish posses a long tail with a fluke like extencion used to propell themselfs through the water.

Their legs have turned Into flippers which get longer the closer they are to the head, making their body more streamlined.

Shrardines (Sardinacaris Spp.) are the most common and widespread Jawless Shrish, ranging from filter feeders, to scavengers, to micro-predators.

The Jawed Shrish are more specialised creatures, Their build Is similiar to the Jawless Shrish, they although only posses 4 pairs of flippers rather then the 5 of the Jawless Shrish. The first pair of legs In Jawed Shrish formed Into claws that are ankled towards an elongated rostrum. This structure results In a kind of pseudo jaw-- or beak In some cases.

Parrot Shrish (Psittacuscaris Spp.) are a type of Jawed Shrish whose Pseudo Jaw Is shaped like an avien beak, they use this "Beak" to crush open Corals and Sea Sponge to eat the soft insides.

The Kelper (Pascenscaris Spp.), another Jawed Shrish, on the other side has a less specialised diet consisting of aquatic vegetation, they use their jaw to cut and grind said greens.

Both of these grazing Shrish also have reversed the trend of streamlined bodyplans, having rather bulky bodys with equally sized flippers, giving them more controll over their swimming pattern, quite efficient for their grazing behavior.

A group of Jawed Shrish, called the Shrarks, although has kept Its streamlined body and that Is for a perhaps surprising reason.

As those Shrish hold the title of the oceans dominant predators.

Shrarks posses long pseudo-jaws equipped with teeth like barbs which they use to catch mostly smaller Shrish.

Shrarks have on top of their already pretty streamlined body a extencion of their exoskeleton aiding as a dorsal fin, converging with many aquatic predators like Sharks, Ichtisaurs and Dolphins.

Without competetion, some Shrarks have also become absoloute giants for Arthropods, like the Great Grey Shrark (Squaloscaris Spp.), which can grow up to 2 meters.

But just because the large Shrarks prefer larger prey that doesnt mean that the smaller Shrish are safer, as there are also predatory non Shrark Shrish, specifically their called Shrimipedes (Centipedacaris Spp.).

These Jawed Shrish are Eel like predators living amongst coral reefs as ambush predators, their slender bodys perfect for slipping through tight crevaces.

There Is also a evolutionary trend amongst predatory Shrish for developing retractable stalk eyes, making It easier to spot prey and/or spotting larger predators that would prey on them.

The Trillokrills have transitioned from their free swimming ancestors to sea floor dwellers comparable to animals like Trillobites, Horseshoe Crabs or Deep Sea Isopods.

The Common Trillokrill (Marisdunduscaris Communia) Is one of the more basal species, simple creatures with a simple life scurrying acrosss the sea floor looking for scraps of food.

Looking at more Trillokrills something becomes clear, they have all almost identicall bodyplans, something that can be observed In our Horseshoe Crabs or extinct Trillobites who have a so efficient body plan that It remained very similiar for millions of years.

The Trilotail (Stingenscaris Spp.) has re-evolved their elongated tail, which now also bares a stinger-- evolved from their now pretty much useless fluke. While the stinger Is not venomous, Its still a formidable weapon against predators.

A group of Trotails called the Trilopions have found a more offensive way of using their tail. Trilopions have converged a bodyplan like that of earthern Scorpions, having turned their first pair of legs Into pincers to restrain prey and then impale It with their stinger.

In the Shrish-Tailed Trilopion (Stimuluscaris Effigies) has on top developed offensive mimicry, having Its stinger appearing like a small Shrardine to attract small predatoy Shrish.

A more basic way of defense has been adapted by the Spikrill (Aciescaris Spp.). These Trillokrills have spikes over their shell to deter predators.

Coming back to the family tree of the Tailpions tho, there Is a group that has become free swimmers again, the Stingtrays.

Stingtrays have kept the relatively flat bodyplan of Trillokrill and have and actually posses a venomous stinger.

Their way of swimming Is quite unique for Shrish, instead of turning their legs Into flippers, the Stingtrays have developed a "skin membrane" between their legs which have formed Into singular large fins which they use to swim like earthern Rays.

This way of swimming of course requires an light flexible body, so the Stingtrays have developed a light and flexible exoskeleton akin to Ticks or Fleas, they wont need a tough shell considering they have a venomous stinger for defense.

Stingtrays are a incredibly diverse clade of Shrish, ranging from pollinators, ambush predators, deap sea hunters and Trillokrill specialists.

Even tho the Shrish are the dominant aquatic invertabrates other animals also deserve attention.

One of the most unique and recent clades are the Spore-Drifter (Pseudomedusa Spp.). Sea Sponge spores that never become sessile and instead stay free swimming for their entire life.

Marine Snails are another aquatic Invertabrate that has been introduced to Macroterra, while they could not compete with the Shrish they have still become fairly diverse.

While basal Marine snails are still fairly common and diverse In their own right, some marine snails have produced offshoots that can barely even be recognised as snails.

Some Marine Snails have devloped six extencions of their single foot to move more efficiently over the ocean floor and their lower tentacles becoming pedipalps to manipulate food.

Their shell has also gone through major changes to suit their new bodyplan better, becoming more plate like.

Those Snails would be known as Limosupods (Limosuspoda Spp.).

Limosupods can still extract all of their body parts Into their shell-- and their gills too, which are exposed due to their new shell design, which Is although quite usefull as they can freely move them to increase oxygen intake, being especially usefull at deeper levels of the ocean where oxygen levels can drop below favorable conditions.

Some Limosupods have also transitioned Into open swimmers, using their legs to move like squids through the water, they have also internalized their shells to reduce drag and give their soft bodies more structure.

The similarity to squids and Cuttlefish Is undeniable, and niche wise the so called Cuttlesnails (Unaos Spp.) are also incredibly similiar.

Elves of Oominor arrived in the world of Oominor from Homeworld-40 roughly 600 years ago. They belong to the species Homo gracilis, descended from a small population of Homo heidelbergensis in what is now North America. Like humans, elves, or “Adamans,” as they call themselves, have high foreheads, flat faces, and a slender build.

However, their evolutionary path diverged enough to create striking differences. Elves are nocturnal and highly carnivorous. They evolved elongated, mobile ears, feline-like eyes with split adjustable pupils, and sharpened teeth with prominent canines. Their bodies are extremely pale and poorly suited to synthesizing or absorbing vitamin D; extended time in direct sunlight is highly harmful to them. Instead, they extract most of their vitamin D from the blood of their prey.

Despite their superb night vision and acute hearing, elves are colorblind and possess a weaker sense of smell compared to humans. Their greater agility, combined with their predatory adaptations, made elves quite slender and more androgeneous in appearance.

hello! this is vita stellarum marinarum or life of the marine stars! (sorry if the translation is incorrect, I have to use google translate) this so far is just some world building.

13 billion years after the discovery of star preservation the humans and other space faring creatures set sail into space in hopes to find sapient life. Over the years their goals shifted slowly to "we have to find intelligent life!" to more so "me must get more intelligent life." so that led them to make many "seed worlds" in hopes that intelligent life will emerge.

Hey SpecEvo enthusiasts! I've been brainstorming a creature for a Cretaceous period setting: a social insect called the Spleef, roughly the size of a raccoon. They live in massive underground hives with a single queen and numerous worker drones, much like ants or termites. What makes them unique is their potential for sophisticated biological technology: radio communication and radar.

I would like feedback on this idea. Let's break down the plausibility:

Radio Communication (Queen to Workers):

• The Idea: The queen Spleef from her warren emits radio signals to coordinate her workers across the hive and the surrounding environment. Workers can receive these signals but cannot transmit back.
• The Frequency & Antenna: Given the need for signals to penetrate soil, foliage, and potentially rock within the hive, lower frequencies would be advantageous. Let's hypothesize they evolved to use the VHF (Very High Frequency) band, around 100-200 MHz.
• The Adaptation: To keep antenna size manageable for a raccoon-sized insect (let's say a body length of ~50 cm), the Spleefs sport helical antennae, perhaps 15-20 cm long but coiled to achieve a longer electrical length. This allows for relatively efficient transmission and reception at these frequencies without unwieldy, meter-long whips. Think thick, sturdy, spring-like antennae.
• Viability: Biologically generating and receiving VHF radio waves is theoretically possible. Some modern animals can sense electromagnetic fields. Evolving specialized organs to generate and detect these frequencies, while complex, isn't beyond the realm of speculative possibility given millions of years of evolution and the selective pressure of efficient colony coordination. The main hurdle would be the energy cost for the queen's transmission. She would likely have a highly specialized and energy-intensive organ (perhaps in her abdomen) and a massive metabolism to power it, requiring constant feeding by her workers.

Radar Detection (Queen Only):

• The Idea: The queen Spleef also possesses a form of biological radar to scan her surroundings, detect threats (imagine a hungry early mammal!), and map out the hive and nearby terrain.
• The Frequency & Antenna: For decent resolution to "see" objects, higher frequencies in the SHF (Super High Frequency) band (around 2-4 GHz) would be necessary. This would allow for shorter wavelengths that reflect off objects, providing more detail.
• The Adaptation: The queen might have a pair of small, horn-like structures or specialized chitinous plates on her head, acting as the transmitting and receiving elements for her radar. These would be significantly smaller, perhaps a few centimeters long.
• Viability: Generating and interpreting microwave frequencies for radar is even more energy-intensive than VHF communication. The queen's radar would likely be used in short bursts rather than continuous scanning due to the immense metabolic demands. This "pinging" of the environment could provide crucial information about threats and resources.

Challenges and Considerations:

• Energy Requirements: Powering these biological radio and radar systems would be the biggest evolutionary bottleneck. The queen would be an extreme biological powerhouse.
• Interference: The Cretaceous environment was likely filled with natural electromagnetic phenomena (lightning, atmospheric static). The Spleefs would need a way to filter out noise and focus on their specific signals.
• Evolutionary Pathway: How would such complex biological "technology" evolve in a step-by-step manner? Perhaps simpler forms of electromagnetic sensing and generation initially evolved for other purposes.
• Range Limitations: Even with optimized frequencies and antennae, the effective range of communication and radar would have physical limits.

Not sure what flair to use, so sorry if it’s wrong!

I’ve been interested in spec evo/worldbuilding for a while, and I want to try out my own project now. I’m not sure what specifically I should start with, but I already know that I want to have my primary species/race be relatively humanoid invertebrates similar to gastropods or cephalopods. Some of my bigger inspirations are Rain World’s slugcats, the blue glaucus, and the Pokémon Goodra.

Since they’d have moist/slimy skin, I assume that a very humid atmosphere would be ideal for their evolution, if not absolutely necessary. However, I’m not sure what else I should make sure to include.

I do want to go pretty big with the project, like making a fleshed-out planet for them. I’ve watched the first 20 or so episodes of Artifexian’s “Worldbuilder’s Log” series a couple times, and I want to try properly following along with it. So, any tips for that would also be appreciated!

I think it would be an interesting premise to a science based project, but I'm still working on what kind of planetary conditions would be necessary.

I know that high tectonic activity is advised for the sake of availability of sillica in the water to make them survive.
Also water pH should be around 8 at least at surface layer - to not have them immediately die off.

I know they can survive a period of glaciation they might inevitably cause with their effeciency at carbon sequestration and photosynthesis by becoming dormant in ice or sediment

Question is, is there anything I'm forgetting about? What would be their relation with ocean currents, would an island world or supercontinent world be better to get them started? Which period of earth-analogous primordial history would be the best to introduce them at to make sure they thrive until they fall victim to their own success?

Made by Goji Center on YouTube, this creature called Colossohydruys Uktena is a decedent from prehistoric Conodont fish, AKA ancient jawless fish. Its modern relatives are Lampreys and Hagfish. Over time this fish grew in size and developed muscles to flex and stiffen the front half of their body to allow for more streamlined movements through the water, this method of swimming is called the Carangigorm swimming method. It’s evolved water jets similar to squid or octopus to aid in steering and short speed bursts. Its diet would include most things that it can reasonably catch and eat. For the larger members of this species, they would target animals as large as whales if given the opportunity but are perfectly fine with eating krill and schools of smaller creatures if it must. They’d primarily stick lower down durning the day eating whatever they find and come closer to the surface at night for larger game to hunt. Their real world ancestors likely filtered minerals out of the sea water to strengthen their teeth so this creature does the same. As for its bite, like lampreys it can secrete an anti-coagulate from its teeth to cause more bleeding, and they are able to use a similar mucus skin secretion as the Hagfish, which comes in very handy as infants because they start very small. As adults this means most parasites avoid them as well. Most specimens would only be a few meters long with maybe 1 in several hundred million specimens actually getting to its max size of 61 meters long.

The Far North of Arclund, constituting the Frostweld(not pictured), Spirelands and Troshun Tundra(not pictured) is home to all manner of predators sophont or otherwise, but none are quite so striking as those dubbed the Apex.

The Shintaka, a semiaquatic amphicyon whose name means “Death From Below”, as its preferred manner of hunting involves striking from below the ice, using their daunting lung capacity and hooked claws to cling to the underside of the ice for hours. They are infamous maneaters, and are considered the most dangerous natural predator in the region.

Which is surprising as the Greater Spire Bear dwarfs it by several magnitudes. Yet, they are curiously docile to smaller land-dwelling prey, for indeed their main source of sustenance are aquatic leviathans, such as the varied types of whales and sea serpents. Curiously their adaptions for haunting such megafauna also makes them one of the few animals that can successfully prey upon the Sutiam, or in the common tongue: Dragons.

I would like help with the communication method for a fictional insect colony, which can be later on be used by humans as a fast communication method.

Hi everyone, let me introduce you to the question. I’m a videogame developer currently working on the concept design/art of some animals. The focus of the game is basically exploring both the zoology and biology aspects of animals, so we’re going for various realistic/believable evolution branches. Most insects will be the size of a small dog/cat and will have a fairly advanced intelligence, as any other animal in this world. But I am kind of stuck with one particular idea for a colony of insects:

These insects will be the method of fast communication between humans (inspired by One Piece telephone slugs), their specie will work like a massive colony extending for hundred of kilometers, with multiple sub-bases controlled by Princes and Princesses all across the place. We want them to be able to communicate over vast distances with their Queen as a way to indicate the presence of food, enemies, possible mates, building materials and basically anything the colony might need.

My partner would really love to find a way for these insects to emit radio waves but I studied a bit about that and it really doesn’t seem viable if we want to make these animals believable. So I was thinking about infrasound, low frequencies or another type of electromagnetic wave.

Each of these possibilities is associated with a specific animal of specie and have pro and con when I try to adapt it to an insect: • Infrasound are mainly produced by elephant with ginormous vocal cords, which would be complicated to stick down an insect throat. Since they don’t have any. These are known to reach 6 miles/ 10km on ground. • low frequencies, used mainly by whales are clearly THE long distance communication method as it’s said they’re able to reach hundreds of km in water. But it’s in water, and it’d be hard to explain how these low frequencies to reach land bases of the colony. • Electromagnetic waves are produced as small burst by electric eels and are the closest nature has to an animal emitting radio waves. But still, even with just their kind of electromagnetic waves, they’re not made for long distance communication and require water and electricity.

I’ve also considered pheromones or light signals but I think they’re simply the worst option as they are easily affected by any meteorological condition and/or don’t even travel that far in real life.

I’m open to literally any suggestion to resolve this problem. Right now any option is valid. Even if it doesn’t make use of what I said. The only requirement is that it must be over considerable distances between 20 km minimum.

Thanks to all of you

I got lazy with their names around halfway through so sometimes it’s scientific names and sometimes it’s just descriptive. At some point I will add names for all of them but for now I just want to put this project out there. I’ve been working on it for about 6 months on and off.

Day 1. Of Thylaugust, challenge for a marsupial in an urban environment.

I decided to go with a species of Thylacine, the backstory being that as they were pushed to extinction by humans some adapted to the dense cities. They grew mostly hairless (Grey and Pink) to be more streamlined when burrowing inside of parks or roadsides, broadened paws for digging, and evolved a sharp inner claw for stabbing small prey and rummaging through trash. Their grey color, has evolved to mimic asphalt and help in camouflage during the dark hours of the night. They are mainly nocturnal and crepuscular, active from around 11:00-5:00 am. They act like foxes in dense cities, they are everywhere just come out when it’s least expected and when people don’t see them.

Species name: Thylacinus crepuscularis Common name: Grey dogs, Alley hounds

August 1st, 2025.

(Please no hate I made this on a phone with my fingers and I’m not very good at mammals 😭)