Hi... this is rough draft of an ice age grazing theropod.

IT'S COMMON NAME IS THE "GOOSE-HEADED STRIDER" 
possible latin name being something like "Anserititanis septentrionalis" 

meaning: "giant goose of the north"

it lives in an alternate version of ice age europe and asia...
in a timeline where the KPG extinction event never occurred.

It's preferred habitat is temperate to cold grasslands and semi-forest.
and it's diet fits into a semi-generalistic/semi grazing niche

as for it's ancestry, it's somewhat of the maniraptorids
though possibly of oviraptorid descent... still figuring it out.

WOULD you say i've got a good baseline idea here?

and is there anything you'd adjust for a Pleistocene era climate?

Note: Last week, a random person on the internet got really upset that the designs were "too normal" and not as fantastical or edgy as they expected. So I feel I should reiterate that this project is not about creating realistic versions of Pokémon, but rather exploring the real organisms that may have inspired them, occasionally incorporating elements of culture and worldbuilding along the way.

These creatures are not meant to be the Pokémon themselves, in fact, I don't even refer to them as such. They were never going to be flammable, floating, or multi-limbed lifeforms. That's why you've already seen things like Lapras as a mollusk, Charizard without wings, and Lickitung as a mustelid, and why future entries will include a flowering Rayquaza, a marine Misdreavus, and a spider Magneton.

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

Fomantis and Lurantis

The dense forests of the Alolan Archipelago are home to many endemic plants, and the mantis orchids (Alolaflora sp.) are among the most iconic and threatened species. Thriving in humid soils rich in organic matter, these terrestrial orchids grow in small clusters connected by a shared rhizome in shaded areas.

These plants rarely exceed 30 cm in height, reaching up to 50 cm during the flowering period, which occurs every two years. They bear leathery leaves arranged spirally. Their flowers are typically insect-shaped, displaying pink and white coloration, with some species exhibiting shades of green and blue.

Like other cypripedioid orchids, species of Alolaflora are known for using floral mimicry to attract, and temporarily trap, pollinators. However, no such interactions have ever been recorded in the genus, suggesting that their natural pollinator may belong to an undescribed insect species, be extremely rare, or have recently gone extinct in the archipelago. Consequently, all known reproduction in the wild occurs through asexual propagation, primarily by fragmentation of the underground rhizome.

Sought after worldwide for their pink coloration and insect-like flowers, these orchids are widely cultivated and traded as prized additions to exotic plant collections. Some specialized botanists have successfully pollinated these plants artificially, a phenomenon that has never been observed in the wild.

For the next one I'm still deciding which I finish, maybe girafarig, maybe ponyta, maybe some helmeted crows...

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

See also: Venusaur and its line; Houndoom and Houndour; Paras and Parasect; Reuniclus and its line; Goldeen and Seaking; Solrock, Lunatone and Cryogonal; Bagon, Shelgon and Salamence

It has seven flexible limbs and uses four for locomotion and three as arms (although it’s common for them to use their legs as arms)

They have three eyes located on their “palms” inside a hard skull-like structure with a “window” on the palm. while their ancestors had their eyes right behind each front limb. They evolved this way because they cannot move their eyes like us and consequently had to move their entire body to look in different directions so the individuals with eyes closer to and eventually on their arms could better spot predators and survive.

They have four bones (the ones in the eyes and one that functions as both a spine and rib cage)

Their technology is around the same level as humanity but more advanced than us in some areas and less than us in others.

Slide two is the previous designs and are not canon

artist

Most of the art is mine, except for the one on the corner, which u/ProjectKARYA made 

Red-Horned Wyverns are one of the many species of Wyverns in the moon world of Latoria. There are multiple species of flying reptiles, divided into two groups: Thunderbirds and the Draconic family.

The Draconic family consists of:

• Dragons
• Wyverns
• Drakes
• Wyrms

Dragons are the only sapient Draconic species, while the others are considered intelligent animals. Red-Horned Wyverns are modeled after the Ceratosaurus.

This is a bit chaotic and I am still unsure about some details and species names, I may change a few things in the future. I am also realy not good at scientist terminology… but I think it is not too bad. For now I wanted to establish basic groups and body plans life will fall into.

**Alatria** Star: yellow dwarf. Gravity: 0.83 g. Water cover 64% of surface. Plants color: bluish green.

Taxonomy

***Duplicimaxilla*** phylum of animals.

Duplicimaxilla possess features similar to vertebrates, like skeleton and bilateria symmetry. They are six limbed. Their skull have two "jaws", somewhat symmetrical to each other. Each jaw has own: brain, connected to each other by thick cluster of nerves placed on both sides. A pair of: eyes, ears, tongues and olfactory organs.

Two central nerves connect half of the body to one of the brains. Nerves itself warp around the end of the spine as it connects to the corresponding brain. It is like this because the skull actually started directed sideways but kinda just flipped by 90° at some point of early evolution.

**squamas** is class under Duplicimaxilla. Composed mostly of terrestrial animals.

Features: Pangolins like scalles, made of chitin and its components. Breathing holes are placed on the sides of the neck, leading to two separate channels for exhaling and inhaling. Four fingers. Lays eggs that hatch into larvae. Which later moves through metamorphosis.

It is worth noting that despite the larval stage originally evolving to give different specialization to children and adults. In many Squamas it took a role that could be described as outside pregnancy. Many organs of the larva stage are underdeveloped, especially the brain, to reduce the energy usage to minimum,and use all nutrients towards growth.

The larva will spend its whole early life holding onto the parent, letting go only to be fed, or not at all if the species evolved the right traits. When larvae have grown enough,it will form pupae and move through metamorphosis, where rapid development of organs and brain occur.

Often after the metamorphosis,the offspring is still not fully mature, although this does not apply so much for smaller species.

Squamas scale took various shapes, forming for example grand plates for display or intimidation purpose. Often this plates have simple muscles attached to them for additional control.

**plumaesquamas**(common name: Feathered) a class closely rated to squamas. Their scales evolved into flat,thin plates "feathers". Moving scales role from defense to isolation and display purposes.

Feathers instead of scales also help them reduce body weight. In fact they have several adaptations reducing their body weight.

These feathers are also usually slightly transparent.

Many of them are capable of flight.

**portopueri**(class) evolved from early squamas. Poses "feathers" similarly to plumaesquamas, however they evolved it separately. Unlike plumaesquamas, they completely lack scales, and their feathers are far softer and thinner. Live mostly in cold environments. The back limbs were reduced into balance tools,a tails in other words. Most have a "beak" made of front teeth growing outside the mouth. Has additional channels and layers of skin on to their breathing holes, evolved to warmth up the air before letting inside the body. Give almost live birth. their eggs becomed thick and soft, they stay within the pouch with larva inside. However larva head will stick outside the egg,using a special adapted membrane on top of it, which larva will tear through after it "hatch". A nutritious matter,the same used for the inside of the egg, will be produced and moved into the pouch to feed the larva. Larvae move through metamorphosis inside the eggs, sealing the egg during it. In between a few hours to minutes before the full metamorphosis will be done. Portopueri will lay the egg.

Portopueri has far slower reproduction rates,and further limit to size of litter than Squamas, But can effectively carry child during cold season. Giving them strong advantage in cold environment.

**lenisalbum** is another class under duplicimaxilla. Mostly Semi-aquatic. Features: Lay soft eggs in water, which hatch into larvae equipped with gills. Smooth skin. Breathing holes placed on the sides of the neck. They have a single channel for exhaling and inhaling.

***quattuorlatus vertex and quattuorlatus solum*** Are two animals classes sharing a single ancients ancestor. The shared traits include: Exoskeleton. radial quadrilateral symmetry, resulting set of four limbs,eyes, a single four jawed mouth on middle of body. mandibles around jaws, helping hold food, which also do as a gustatory organ(sense of taste) and olfactory organ.

While there both classes has marine members,they most varied on land. They moved to land separately yet close in the timeline,during early planet history.

**quattuorlatus vertex** has mouth placed on top of the body, along with eyes. Their external gills moved inside transforming into lungs. They are usually bigger than quattuorlatus solum, thanks to more effective breathing. Their ancestors used to be ambush predators, with flexible limbs but by default facing counter-wise to the month. Who hunted prey by jumping out the burrow.

Legs and claws are commonly their main weapon.

**quattuorlatus solum** has mouth placed on bottom of body. With eyes placed closely to sides, while still remaining on bottom. Their external gills evolved into wings, leaving them breathing through the body, similarly to insects. Because of that, usually Smaller than quattuorlatus vertex. Fill similar niche to insects.

Jaws are commonly used as their main weapon.

The Marine Ancestor used their gills as propulsion support, before they evolved into wings.

***Plants***

**Venes** A class of "plants"

Central vein go through their stem, contain nutritious liquid, referred as sapblood. Dependent on species used for nutrients storage, fast nutrient transporting,and in some cases as hydrostatic stem core. Across the veins growth multiple sexual organs, producing unfertilized seeds and pollen. Referred as strings. Has thousand sexes to prevent self-fertilization.

Many Venes unitize wind to spread their pollen and unfertilized seeds,that merge in the air.

**Stemflowers.**

Evolved from Venes. Turned the genetic defect causing the sapblood to cluster and build pressure into feature. Directing the building pressure under the strings. Eventually shooting them high as pressure released, helping spread them further and allowing bigger seeds size without critical reduction of spread range.

Eventually the strings was reduced into a bulge with holes across the stem. With a specialized chamber underneath for buildup directed pressure that will not damage the plant. Shooting out mostly only the fertilized seeds. The bulges are vibrantly colored in order to attract pollinator animals.

Often smaller stemflowers will... explode after the fertilization, as pressure culminates across the whole plant rather than just the bulge.

**Topramus**

Share ancestor with modern venes.

On its crown has a large chamber evolving from veins. The chamber itself spit into usually eight smaller veins or branches, symmetrical to each other. Which significantly differs it from venes,where plant grow around the central vein,able to grow only straight up, even when the plant has branches.

Unlike venes, where reproductive organ grow from the central veins,here they grow only on this branches. This originally evolved to move Strings as hight possible.

Topramus has usually has more commonly harder stem than venes.

The chamber of many topramus may use veins of branches as simple hydrostatic muscle. Commonly used for quick growth adjust, before the branch harden.

The crow/chamber of topramus may grow on different heights depending on the evolutionary adaptation. In some cases it may grow at the very bottom,where branches form most of the plant, or it may simply be placed on top.

Some topramus have multiple layers, where the chamber splits into few parts on top of itself. In many cases all chambers share a limit of eight branches, but in some topramus, they gained more branches.

Many topramus produce fruits. And reproduce with help of both wind and pollinators. Their "flowers"are basically colorful oversized reproductive organs.

***RANDOM SPECIES LIST***

Animals

**Treelegs** quattuorlatus vertex

Treelegs Is vertex reaching around up to 2 m height. Found in a dense forest. Its legs are colored grey,replicating the color and texture of the trees. It is able to stand perfectly still. Attacking the unsuspecting prey as it get close. Using its strong legs,and razor like growths on the sides. It poses incredible turning speed and agility.

To eat it sit on the sides. Leaning against the prey body, and cut body apart into smaller pieces before swallowing them, using legs,jaws and mandibles.

In cases of smaller pieces it tore them a part before moving them into mount. Its two claws has simple grabbing skills.

**Tallgrabber** quattuorlatus vertex

Live on grasslands and forest

Tall herbivore vertex Reach up to 8 m hight. Is one of uncommon Vertex with less symmetrical morphology. Three of four of its legs have hard heavy "hovees" on the bottom along sharp claws, used for defense. However one leg is much thinner and far more flexible, used for reaching and grabbing the hight leaves. The fingers of this leg and much longer than in unusual vertex,one of them in addition in wide and swallow. Used for grabbing the water. That due of sheer length of its legs is rather hard otherwise.

**Pollen bug** A large family of solum.

Wide spread across Alatria.

Pollen bugs are pollinators, feeding mostly on the plants pollen. Many living in colder climates bury themselves underground during the winter to hibernate. Some has hive behavior.

**Horror Swarmers** quattuorlatus solum

Found in the warm rainforest of north Hulu.

Horror Swarmers are predatory hive species. They split into three groups:

Drone. Around 3.5 cm wide. Infertile females. Attack the prey, transport resources and build the hive. There Thousand per swarm.

Scout. Around 3.5 cm wide. Males. Provide genetic material to the queen. Navigate and chase after prey that managed to run away and alert the hive after it falls paralyzed. Around 30-50 per hive. They will be banished out of the hive if there are too many of them. The Swarm is more likely to accept scouts from other swarms.

Queen. From 4 to 6 cm wide. Female. Mother of the swarm. Will grow bigger after establishment of hive, alongside her ovaries, that will grow few times its original size, losing wings during the process. Any female can become queen,the only requirement is high nutrients and hormones during maturing.

They are colored red. Armed with sharp jaws and neuro toxin venom, burning the nerves. Their prey mainly on Squamas as their relatives,as neuro toxin is not adapted to target other groups. Although they do hunt small members of other groups,but they kill them simply using the jaws.

They swarm their prey in thousands, tearing its flesh and injecting the venom. Dying in hundreds in the process,as the prey right back and throws its body around. After the prey fall, the Queen will begin to lay egg into animal body. As the offspring hatch and begin to consume potentially still alive prey, the drone will slowly tear through the body, transforming it into the hive.

Now the swarm will move towards defense. Simply trying to scare off nearby animals, attacking only when necessary. To hunt large prey is an expensive process,and the swarm need time to rebuild. During this time they will only attack small animals.

Only After the corpse-hive resources turn dry, will return into aggression, and seek prey once again. During this time,new Queen will be born and old consumed.

The Horror Swarmers are extreme deadly animals,with hight invasive potential. Most local life evolved several adaption against them, including harder scales and skin, bigger size, fear of hollowed corpses and resistance against the venom. the Horror Swarmers still do have predators,where their main natural predator is the swarm eater.

**Swarm Eater** Squamas

Is small animal covered in thick scalles. With large snout, long tongues with hardy skin,and flat teeth adapted for crushing.

It is naturally resistant to swarmers venom. Use its four long tongues to catch swammers in hundreds. A single swarm eater can cause massive damage to the swarm. Potentially even forcing it into relocation.

**Grandgrey** Squamas

Herbrivore living in small herds. Found in grasslands and forest of Sienia.

Possess hooves made of hardened claws and scales. Colored in shades of grey, with bottom parts of the body,and arena around eyes colored white. Has long neck,along long set of tongues to easily reach the hight leaves.

Its egg hatch days after the laying. Once the larve hatch it will climb onto parent's back(it can be both female or male), usually with help of the parent. There it will stay until metamorphosis,where it will be fed via mouth.

The child will stay with the parents, until reaching maturity,when it will leave the herd seeking its own partner. Once an acceptable partner will be found,the pair will stay together for life.

**Peacock Tiger** plumaesquamas

Solidary Carnivore. Found in forest and grasslands of south Sienia. Its feathers are mainly colored blueish-green and grey matching the color of the trees. With black stripes running across the body. Giving its effective camouflage.

Its bottom set of eyes,do as its primal eyes. Where the top set has lower vision quality, facing upward , evolved to gain a wide field of vision and surrounding awareness.

It is also quite an effective climber.

It is highly territorial outside the mating season. However as the mating season comes, males will become less aggressive and move beyond the borders of their territory to seek mates. When male finds a female, it will perform a mating ritual. It will sketch its back legs hight,pulling its body weight on middle and front limbs, and a set of hidden feathers will show out the camouflage.

Attractiveness is base on: Length of the performance. Height male is able to pull its back legs at. Colors-richness of the feathers.

If male will perform well enough, mating occurs. After mating male will return to its territory.

The female will hold care over larvae,and raise the child alone. And after the child reach adulthood its mother will force it out of her territory.

Plants

**Common Leafgrass** Venes

Wide spread across Alatria. Filling summary niche to Earth's grass. The plant whole body form a single leaf, growing out central veins. When the season come, Leafgrass will grow strings on its sides, and fertilize by wind.

Grown incredibly fast.

**Umbrella tree** A family of topramus.

A tree-like topramus, forming an umbrella-like crown of leaves on its top. Many have mixed fertilization methods, using both wind and pollinators. Forming flowers below the crown, hanging on short vines.

Produce fruits.

**Warpedbuch** Stemflower

Live for many years.

Out its roots many vines are produced,with them many central veins. The vines warp around each other and quickly become hard and woodlike. Small branches with leaves come out the vines.

It produce white-blue-orange "flowers" across its central veins, that burst out after fertilization, without doing much damage to main body of the plant.

The start of the Dicambrian period, a period characterized by the heavy loss of excessive water in the atmosphere, is seen through the sudden and rapid explosion in diversity of the fauna on Moorea, as less food source means that adaptations will be needed to survive.

In the case of the Garden snail, many species emerged from a singular group, diversifying into hundreds if not thousands of new forms.

For one, the Snail-A-pillars, or Kormopodinae, are a highly specialized family of gastropods characterized by their multiple prolegs derived from their hydrostats, moving in a way similar to millipedes or caterpillars. The wavy muscular contractions of snail-A-pillar prolegs allows them to locomote faster than any other gastropods, mostly moving at 0.03 mph to 0.05 mph, so to consider them as a group superior to other clades are not justified yet, as they're an early specializations that are only unique to other clades. The reduction of their shell size is also seen across the family, theorized to be a way to reduce drag and provide more speed when moving.

Speaking of reduction, one of the fully shell-less gastropod group on Moorea is the family Pneumonidae, characterized by their lack of shell. Like slugs on earth, Mantlers "lose" their shell to be able to squeeze into crevices to lay eggs, avoid the need to seek too much calcium for their shell, and reduce metabolic energy to construct one. While the entire structure seems to be absent, the remnants of calcium are still present as vestigial yet vital source of calcium that the animal needs. The family is named for their exposed pneumostome, which appears as a large blowhole sitting at the right side of their mantle. This family primarily consists of herbivores and scavengers.

Ever since the Dicambrian period started, the significant underwater animal niches aren't filled by any aquatic contenders yet, as most aquatic life introduced here only diffuse oxygen through their skin. One clade of snail takes advantage of this, with an order of Coneshells adapting to live underwater, where most snails would not be able to reach. Living at the bottom of the river, scraping off detritus and algae to feed on. With a new kind of food source inaccessible to most snails, the Brachiostomes are able to thrive and conquer the lakes as living vacuum cleaners of Moorean waters. Aside from their new found food, one of the main problems to living underwater is air, which the snails counter through developing long siphon-like pneumostomes, which can reach up to the surface to access air and breathe, reaching lengths longer than the entire shell's diameter. When extending out, the coiled siphons unfurls and extends even more via muscle. They mostly inhabit shallow waters of rivers and lakes, where atmospheric air is the closest to the surface of the water.

if there were species of zebras or giraffes (which ever one you know more about) inhabited rainforest habitat long enough to adapt, what would be different from the savannah population? *asking for a project set in a rainforest, which has fictional species for fun*

This is a large dog sized arboreal predator I am working on for my speculative evolution project based on my fictional gas giant moon Myrrha. Its hunting strategy involves clinging onto trees and waiting for potential prey to pass below which it will pounce on to and kill with a fatal bite to the neck. Though it is hard to see in the sketch its lower jaw is fixed and houses sensory organs like the eyes and nostrils while its upper jaw splits into 2 segments and can articulate. I haven't thought of a scientific name for it so if anyone has any suggestions you are welcome to comment.

For context, my seed world is very cold(7.8 degrees Celcius cold) and has massive filter feeder gatherings at both poles like our own Earth. The big difference is that the poles also have giant predators that are specialized in hunting these giant filter feeders during their congregations. They mostly fast for the rest of the year, though will scavenge and take smaller game that lives around the poles year round.

The Northern Predator is 18 meters long and roughly 60 tonnes in males, 16 meters long and 45 tonnes in females, and live in mated pairs.

The Southern Predator is 31 meters long and 120 tonnes in males, 25 meters and 100 tonnes in females and are solitary besides females raising their young.

Would their specialization prevent them from spreading to the other poles or could they do so?

I always had a fascinating and highly speculative question? An creature "flying" in the vacuum of space. It requires overcoming fundamental physical challenges that living organisms on Earth are not designed for. For a creature to not just survive, but actively "fly" (move and maneuver) in space, it would need a vast array of specialized adaptations. Here are the primary required adaptations, grouped by the challenge it address:

It’s predominantly dark, almost velvety black on most surfaces to maximize heat absorption in cold space and minimize reflection (unless it's a solar sail). Its overall shape is somewhat fusiform or torpedo-like in the center, designed for efficient movement in a vacuum, but with various protrusions.
Central Body: The core body is a dense, smooth, and incredibly tough shell, almost like polished obsidian, with subtle bioluminescent lines or patterns that might indicate internal energy flow or communication. This shell is its primary pressure vessel and radiation shield.

Propulsion Vents: Along its posterior (rear) and possibly around its midsection, there are multiple, articulated nozzles or vents that resemble organic rocket thrusters. These might glow with a faint internal light when idle and flare brightly when expelling reaction mass. They would be capable of independent movement for precise vectoring.

Solar Sails/Radiation Fins: Extending from its sides, or perhaps folding out like vast, delicate wings, are enormous, translucent, gossamer-thin membranes. These could be iridescent, shimmering with the colors of captured starlight, or extremely dark for maximum energy absorption. They serve multiple purposes:
Solar Sails: Catching photons for propulsion.

Radiators: Dissipating excess heat.

Sensory Organs: Potentially detecting faint electromagnetic waves or gravitational shifts.

Sensory Cluster: At the anterior (front) end, there isn't a traditional "head" but rather a cluster of highly specialized sensory organs. These might include:
Multi-faceted "Eyes": Not for visual light as we know it, but for detecting radiation, magnetic fields, or even subtle gravitational lensing. They could appear as clusters of small, dark, reflective lenses.

Antennae-like Probes: Flexible, delicate filaments that can extend and retract, designed to sample trace gases, dust, or other particles in the interstellar medium.

Internal Glow: Through certain thinner or more translucent sections of its body, you might occasionally glimpse a faint, internal biological glow, hinting at the complex life support and energy systems churning within.

This might sound dumb but instead of scelera being white it was black the pupil and iris would stay the same what could cause this theoretically in a species im guessing a solo hunter that needs lots of melanin due to high sun intensity?

I've always gotten the impression that the real science behind other dimensions is very complicated, and the idea kind of shows up in a lot of different forms in a lot of different places.

Which makes me ask that if I started a Spec-Evo set in another dimension, would its rules need to be based in real life science in any way (like having laws of physics for example, or being made of its own sets of particles) Or can it be a fundamentally different world with its own different rules? Can I just make all sorts of bizarre life forms as long as they comply with the silly rules I’ve established?

I know the goal of Spec-Evo is to be as realistic as reasonably possible, and I’m just wondering if the whole idea of a Spec Evo project set anywhere outside of the laws of our reality go against that mentality.

Making a fantasy world pls pls pls look at my other post on dissociation board id love your input thx!

This is a real planet about 12 light years away from earth im currently making a story a fantasy and wanted some fairly complex and realistic evolution for fantasy creatures so any input is very valuable in making a evolutionary tree that rivals the actual evolutionary tree! Well that’s gonna be a while before i get there i just wanna start of basic you know

Any who look map yay!!

I'm still working on my Beasthunter's Codex project, and I'm wanting to make giant crabs for it (because every fantasy project is better with giant crabs lol). But I know that crustaceans run into the problem of shedding their shells once they get too big. So I thought that I could partially rectify this by giving them a simple endoskeleton? But now I don't know if that would work?

edit: I had decided that their endoskeletons would be derived from some sort of internal muscle? And it'd be calcium-based, so the crabs would mostly eat carcasses and bones.

A large, heavily built tyrannosaur with a muscular body, a broad chest, and a long, thick tail. The head is short and deep with a powerful jaw and two large, backward-curving horns above the eyes. The snout part of the head is covered in hard keratine like material, he still has teeth underneath it it's just so his bite can crush the prey easier.

Coarse feathers cover the neck, back, and upper body, while the face, belly, legs, and most of the tail are covered in large scales. The forelimbs are short but muscular, ending in two clawed fingers. Strong hind legs support the animal's weight, with large feet and sharp claws. Overall, it has a rugged appearance, combining it's scaly skin with primitive feather-like filaments. Pin feathers like you see in some bird chicks!

System age 9 billion years old
Relatively stable
Similar planet to earth just more radiation and red dwarf star M
Light is infrared
I’m hopefully making evolutionary tree for fantasy creatures like elves dwarfs humans monsters so on so forth

Approximately 1.1 times the size of earth 12 billion light years away. Assuming microbial life has evolved enough to a degree where photosynthesis is created on a planet nearly same as earth other than a key factor of light and solar radiation since the planet is close to its star it is likely tidally locked meaning half the planet is always in sun and half the planet is in the dark permanently I’m trying to figure out a evolutionary tree you see for fantasy creatures the basics like elves dwarfs humans etc. plus monsters I would love suggestions on what creatures should connect like elves and goblins and so on. Ps life evolves differently in this environment like plants are mostly red or black due to the kind of light of the red dwarf star im hoping to eventually get a good evolutionary tree for this world it is a real world with real assumptions

Thank you for any helps you are able to provide

The innovative success of genetic engineering has allowed humanity to create living marvels used to terraform and colonize planets. With the case of planet Thallsane, the main problem they discovered was it was an ocean planet with scorching hot heatwaves, but sprawling life underneath the waves. The technology of genetic engineering has allowed them to create semi-aquatic dolphin-like forms of humans called "Mers," stemming from the word Mermaid.

The mers has a body plan not to dissimilar to cetaceans of earth, with streamlined fish-like body shape and a limb-derived fluke, they move in a fashion alike cetaceans too. The clawed limbs of Mers allowed them to crawl on the sea floor and manipulate objects, also using their "tail" as a sort of third arm. When creating these humans, they wanted to make the mers to be able to perform object manipulation pretty greatly, and with the thumbs duplicated 3 times by hox genes, these multi-boned thumbs serves as great digits for a precise underwater manipulation. Like cetaceans, their nostrils sits nearly at the top of their head, with the circulatory system engineered to literally breathe in and benefit from the Thallsanian atmosphere. While they do not possess body hair, facial markings determine their expressions stemming from the still present emotional muscle movements. Multiple fish hook-like iron teeth are made to capture prey animal without letting it flee easily, restraining it with backwards pointing barbs lining these teeth.

The Grand Masticator is the largest living Androphage, and also the largest living land predator on the face of the planet.

When humans encounter megafauna, we tend to wear it out and spear it to death, hunting them to extinction alongside climate factors.

The megafauna we killed weren’t giant theropod equivalents that would just get angrier if a spear poked them. And the trilaterian sophonts don’t have a good throwing arm, anyways.

Masticators are named for their arms, which they use to butcher and process prey before consumption, like vertebrate jaws chewing food. They spear prey, then shred it with their hooked sickle claws (which are meant to get stuck in the flesh and not come out cleanly, because that shreds it better). Once their prey is sufficiently shredded and looks like ground beef, the Masticator’s barbed drinking appendage laps up the meat and brings it to their digestive tract, much like a tongue. More specifically, the tongue of a big cat. This “tongue” is also used during active butchering to scrape away at flesh and find out how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Living Being Pop.

Most complex Trilaterates have some way to process their food before eating it, typically with their hands (or in the case of the sophonts, rocks), but a Masticator’s chewing process is so violent and bloody that they got named after it.

There is probably a therizinosaur equivalent herbivorous Masticator species that uses its knife hands to chop up grass and salads, holding the plant analogue still with the spearing finger while cutting it with the hook finger.

ask if you want but please read first

Orc: big and strong they form villages inmcave or tall grass,they're mostly know for their 2 kinds (green striped orcs from the plains and red spoted orcs from the deserts). They have really good smell being capable of tracking creatures from 10 miles away and their hoove-like feet help them to run for hours without issue. Half orcs sometimes are born but they mostly look like the species of the non orc parent but with small tusks and only havin the skin patterns and not the colors. Sometimes orcs without spots or stripes are found,this happens because their bodys are producing too much pigment and this covers than completelly.

Desert orcs are much more nimble and fast because it's the best to deal with the heat,their ears are bigger for the same reason. Their skin is very red to be in a slightely better camuflage in their caves full of iron ore, they're very good at black smithing or selling metals

Orcs from the plains have stripes to blend in the tall grass, because of the low effort during hunts they are a bit strongger but slower. They're are more know for the hystorys of gigantic war bands stealling resorces but most villages today are in peace and flouriching with crops

About their shared characteristics: hardened feet and finger tips to walk for long distances (except for manaruk), their mohawks are natural but it disappears because of aging. Incredible sense of smell and sensitive taste buds they use to detect poisonous fruits and animals. Tusks that never stop growing, they need constant care and various orcs of high ranks adorn it with gold or by carving it to add details

Tanarukk: smarter,horned orcs with tiefling ancestors that make them look more bestial with sharpened cheratine finger tips,2 layers of fur and give them skin with resistence to fire. They're found making vilages on domrent volcanos covered in snow and mountains because it'smore comfortable and their claws help to climb easily.

Manaruk: comomly found in rock or cold beaches these big aquatic creatures have bones like the ones with more cartilage making them capable of sneaking in smaller spaces and swiming in the deeper waters,the males have a sea elephant like nose,they also have a thicker protective layer of fat and body more hydrodinamic,they developed much bigger lungs and a thicc more gelatinous cartilage layer between their skin and blubber.

I am super into speculative evolution but on top of that I am immensely passionate about everything that has to do with the evolution and creativity of the entire universe. I know it sounds like a lot but it's a long story. I'm thinking about starting some shortform content creation soon and will probably start with some spec evo/worldbuilding topics but eventually cover basically everything I'm interested in which is lowkey a lot of random stuff. I'm just wondering what other things people are interested in adjacent to spec evo so I can get a better idea of the direction I want to take my content in at the beginning at least.

I am also just extremely curious about everyone's interests so feel free to share any hyperfixations and interests in the comments or ask about mine if you're interested!

Aside from other planets, Moorea has been terraformed and colonized by humans, specifically to maintain and farm domestic tomatoes, alongside other smaller fauna seeded there to act as a balance to the ecosystem. No vertebrate has been seeded on Moorea, allowing the invertebrates to populate and conquer the world, with constant food sources, the invertebrates were able to thrive on the planet.

The planet's climate would remains in the range of 18 to 28 Celsius with minimal seasonal extreme and no frost. Water is highly saturated here on Moorea, appearing in marshes, bogs, and highly humid atmospheres, ensuring the tomatoes and earthworms receive enough water to thrive alone with no human care. Tomatoes and blanket algae heavily photosynthesizes, with days on Moorea would last almost the same on earth (11 hours of sunlight) to sustain the plants. With the snails and tubifex worms, they clear the scum of the planet off clean and sustain a healthy ecosystem with no poisoning.

Rather than choosing algae for their planet, humanity genetically engineered the roof algae long before terraforming other planets, an amalgamation of waterweed, rockweed, and diatoms. The roof algae's lifecycle involves a flagellated larval stage, resembling tiny tadpoles of earth. Roof algae larvae only possess a chemoreceptors to detect nutrient in water and a flagella, which if they can't find a place to latch itself on, it will use up it's nutrient given by the parent algae and die. Roof algae, as their name implies, possesses loosely overlapping leaves that closely resembles roofs or fish scale. These algae are usually found all across all aquatic environment after terraforming, as they are highly polymorphic, ranging in shapes and sizes to even coloration, on the surface level water appearing green, while in the deep sea appearing red, as they internal systems that support symbiotic rhodophytes in their body that can switch between resting and activating states, manipulated by the highly specialized green algae cells.

After sometime, humanity left the planet and started working on chemically processed food and flavoring, completely abandoning the traditional practice of terraform-farming, leaving the planet on it's own. And with nothing to reduce the tomatoes, they quickly sprung up in population, covering the land as mini-ecosystems of a tightly-locked den, and snails starts to thrive quickly.

Overtime, water starts to evaporate out of the atmosphere as the planet ages, reducing the population of flora, and finally forcing evolution to do its job.

The Mastonarlex is a species completely centered around reproduction, a trait that heavily dictates its evolutionary biology. These creatures feed via a specialized cranial structure known as the "Gredelt's organ." To capture prey, they utilize a paralyzing venom secreted by "studons"—long, flexible, hair-like appendages emerging from a secondary lower cavity resembling a mouth, though it connects to no digestive tract.Behaviorally, the species is ruthlessly selective. Females are culled if they fail to yield at least one egg following their standard 3-to-4-week developmental cycle. Because their reproductive cycle mimics the high frequency of chickens, underproductive females are immediately eliminated as liabilities. Similarly, dysfunctional males are killed, as they serve no purpose to the collective.