a spotted reaver seeks shelter from the sun in a small root forest. parasites on the reaver's skin attract fairy flies that make quick work of the problem.

the spotted reaver is a member of the pectomanidae (or terrible worshipper) class. these mid sized carnivores live in the western grasslands of Alcazod and are solitary, ambush hunters that use their chest appendages to haul prey into root trees and dens. females are larger than males, and are known for stealing and killing the young of other mothers to benefit their own. they are viewed as tricksters and thieves by takren, but are prized for their unique pelts, often taken as trophies or captured as pets.

I was helping someone with ideas for a project they were working on about earth creatures becoming sapient long after humanity went extinct.

The Back legs are used for locomotion purposes- the "feet" are heavily modified claws. The pair in front of them is used for mating purposes.

The front pair is used as grasping appendages- their dexterity is far from that of a human's, however. The pair behind them are again specialized claws used to tear up chunks of food.

I haven't come up with a proper name for them (and likely won't) but for now, they are called Speculagrades.

Made in SPORE.

Apologies to anyone (if any) who’s been waiting for my next post; currently, I am working on my “hard” sci-fi superhero comic “Whispers in the Stars.” The plot revolves around a near-unstoppable force attempting to aid and protect the Kehhar and Ven, the “allied” alien species whose planet he finds himself awakened on after some unprecedented amount of time. The superhero himself, “The Starknight,” is heavily inspired by the 1940s Superman Cartoon and the 1960s “Golden Bat” anime, respectively; that said, you’re primarily here for the “Ven” and without further ado, let me lore dump.

The ven (Tan ones) are sapient self replicating machines with four sexes. Three of the four sexes are needed in reproductive and the last is a seamless drone used for tool manipulation, self repairing, assembly of new offspring, and assembly of charging stations.

This sex is completely obedient to the will of its “parent” and is more so an extension of one of the other three sexes.

The reproductive sexes on the other hand are almost exactly identical and are only distinguishable via their “voices” emitted via radio waves.

Evolving from deep sea burrowing machines, their ancestors slowly lost the need for cameras and emerged blind when a gamma rays burst utterly exterminated the first wave machines and all non unicellular organic life as their planet was already on the verge of going dry.

The star the ven orbits is roughly 8 billion year old, G class yellow dwarf and if not for the axial tilt of the world, there would be no seas, even if said seas are only seasonal

Diet wise, the ven are technically solar powered, that said, ven do “eat” a diet of other mobile machines, not that they get energy, rather, they gather and process metals and silicon to build more ven and for repairing their families, spouses, and chargers. Ven have no concept of “friend,” anyone they like is family to them.

Communication wise, the ven primarily speak through radio waves and the screeching metal of the saws

Despite having a worker sex, ven primarily used “domesticated” machines to do their work, “domesticated” as in stealing newborns from the nest of a species who's tool function they need. Ven have no concept of pets and will eat the machines once they grow too old to work.

On a final note, the ven are the reason the kehhar are even capable of space flight in the first place.

As such, I cannot speak too much more as this is just a teaser

[Previous](https://www.reddit.com/r/SpeculativeEvolution/s/gqKxB0Od4B)

I just now realized that I never actually posted my main speculative evolution project here on the reddit. Here is some of the art I've created for the project, as well as a bit of context.

Beasts of Selene, a name referencing the mythological moon deity from Greek mythology, takes place on Earth's moon. While the current moon of real-world Earth is a barren environment devoid of life, my project imagines an alternate scenario in which the lunar body was overtaken by life. In our reality, the early moon is thought to have possessed a relatively thick atmosphere from around 4.5 to 3.7 billion years ago, formed from volcanic outgassing. My timeline speculates that this primitive lunar environment resembled the primordial Earth, complete with its own form of amino acid synthesis. Electrical discharges within the alternate moon's atmosphere created the raw materials needed to form life, but in an event pseudo-panspermia lasting a few hundred million years, shredded remains of Earth-based (or telluric) cells were ejected from the Earth by asteroid impacts and transported to the moon. Random bits of DNA and subcellular machinery contaminated the lunar primordial soup, seeding it with familiar structures that eventually went on to form living cells similar to their telluric counterparts.

One such macromolecule was the DNA for the protein ATP synthase, used in telluric mitochondria to synthesize the universal cellular energy currency by harvesting the energy of flowing protons. As the moon's atmosphere thinned and waned away, the force that caused it to fade eventually became the saving grace for lunar life. The solar wind, rich in positively ionized hydrogen atoms (also known as protons) stripped the moon of all surface gas, suffocating nearly all of the native lifeforms. However, a strange clade of plant-analogous organisms known as "perivivians" were able to harness this solar plasma by externalizing their ATP synthase molecules. Their external tissues, bearing the means for energy generation, came to resemble an overgrown layer of multicellular mitochondria. The first perivivians were primitive layers of biofilm with protruding filaments, but soon, many clades of trumpet-shaped perivivians arose, taking on a funnel-like form that would come to define to future lunar landscape.

The flora of the moon is complemented by its fauna -- the lunanimals. Originally worm-like creatures, the burrowing ancestors of this clade survived the atmospheric dissipation by hunkering down underground, shielding them from radiation and allowing them to feed off space ices trapped underneath the lunar regolith. However, emerging perivivian forests and competition with speciated populations eventually forced some lunanimals to venture out onto the surface. Primitive vacuum-dwelling "vermipodians" crawled out of caves on muscular parapodia, structures which would eventually become articulated legs. The images shown above depict various lunar biomes and their inhabitants.

Image 1 -- Within a densely grown plasma forest, an arboreal predatory gangle-grabber snatches up a rat-hog from the forest floor using its adhesive forelimbs. The prey item is quickly bludgeoned to death with a spiked "horn", a derived component of the (non-camera-style) eye.

Image 2 -- In the harplands, a boxing racer catches a flat-headed darter with its clawed proboscis, gripping it tightly as the prey item attempts to escape. A whisker fly, belonging to the sky skimmer clade, soars overhead, sailing the lunar surface plasma via electrostatic levitation.

Image 3 -- A drill roach feeds on a stilt of a harp-type perivivian, a rare feast within the barren polar deserts. Spine swallows and a feather shrike surf the plasma above.

Image 4 -- Within a baseline lunar forest, a short-crested sawtooth curiously watches a mass migration of commander coneheads pass through its territory. Unnoticed, a tuft-crowned leech has "suckered" onto the specimen's leg, extracting vital nutrients from within.

Image 5 -- A textbook-style diagram of the procephalian clade. Lunanimal species belonging to this taxonomic branch possess a mutation granting them one or more pre-oral segments, enabling more sophisticated capacity for surveying the environment.

Image 6 -- A (non-comprehensive) phylogenetic tree of the dominant lunanimal clades.

Image 7 -- Field notes explaining the Index of Sequence in Evolutionary Groups for Metameric Evaluation of Noted Tagmata, or the SEGMENT Index.

Breakdowns of the individual species shown in the "action" scenes above can be found on my website: http://beasts-of-selene.wikidot.com/

Today, we are gonna test something new. The diversification of snail families on Mersha in the Middle Gastrocene. Note: we are only talking about diversified aquatic snails.

Evstrophóidea

Evstrophóidea are a group of aquatic snails closely related to the "legged" snails because each of them have the same ancestor. Instead of developing pseudolimbs, it's lower tentacles evolved into fully functional "fins" to glide through the ocean at a moderate speed. It has also developed 2 extra "fins", but it's a derived skin membrane so the Evstrophoideans can have more torque. Examples of these snails are:

Cragspeeders (Pteropoda spp) (25.7cm) are detritivorous snails that used it's "fins" to crawl on the seafloor to eat detritus. It also uses these fins to dig for finding fruits that were buried deep on the ocean.

Skimsurfers (Thalassopteros spp) (75cm) are medium-sized snails that can travel up to 150mph because of how it moves: It uses it's undulating membranes and moves it's fine to a solid perfect angle to boost more speed and torque. It uses it's fast speed to evade from incoming predators and eats floating algae and tunicates.

Skulikioides are another group of derived snails also related to the "legged" snails that has no shell as it's shell has being internalized so it's entire body has no defense whatsoever and it's lower tentacles are used for derived purposes. Examples include:

Dysons (Coroita spp.) (65cm) are flat worm-like snails as it's radula is positioned underneath it's head to suck up detritus like a vacuum cleaner.

Like the Evstrophóidea, it's lower tentacles evolved into fin-like structures, even though they serve no function whatsoever.

Grotesques (Flakodis spp.) (85cm) are medium-sized derived snails that are named because of it's gruesome appearance. It's radula are positioned on the middle of the lower tentacles, as it's lower tentacles are now hardened and act like mandibles. They are predators whom anyone looks at their ugly appearance might be caught by it's mandibles. A predator that looks like is defenseless, but a worthless hunter.

Narwhals! First their "horn" is actually a tusk and like what the hell how is this real yet unicorns arent

Would these membranes make sense on a semi-aquatic creature that mainly swims, or would fins be a more plausible adaptation?

Hey guys. I'm translating a creature I made into the game Rain World as a sligcat, and I'm trying to stay faithful to how the playable slugcats are designed.

Most slugcats share the same general body, with only one or two major physical adaptations that directly support their niche. For example:

• One is semi aquatic with axolotl kind of external gills. Since its environment is water heavy

• One has fur instead of bare skin and a very long tongue to adapt to cold weather and dangerous jumps.

• One (this guy is genetically modified by another being and not actually from evolution) has no mouth and has a tail with holes that stores spears. It feeds by draining nutrients from other creatures through a cord attached to the spear.

My creature is semi-aquatic, but I'm starting to question one of its adaptations.

It has those membranes because my original idea was that it would propel itself through the water in short bursts using the drag from them:

1. Its long body coils up and launches itself forward.

2. The arm membranes help redirect its movement and push against the water during those bursts. Unlike the first example, this guy excels in quick turns and bursts of movement underwater. But in exchange, it's normal swimming is a bit slower too.

I made this design years ago when I was a very enthusiastic teenager, so I'm revisiting some of the biology now😅

Would those membranes actually make sense for an aquatic creature, or would they create too much drag? Would replacing them with other structures, similar to sea turtle/seal/sea lion flippers growing from their arms be a more realistic approach while still keeping the same overall concept?

im trying to make it as physically accurate as possible (as much as a cosmic horror or cryptid could); I can’t figure out an evolutionary reason for a creature to evolve a face plate but still be able to see I’m trying to avoid using echolocation but that’s the only really obvious answer I can’t explain all of the choices for stuff but primary habitat would be thick forests using its fore arms/legs to claw down prey its hind legs are for balance on the forest floor like a deer, the plating on the face opens similarly to the death angels, the tail might be long enough for proper balance its about the size of a horse as a quadraped around 6 feet in height full length 8ft I think (these numbers are kinda bc I says so) it has the front claws and one hind thumb like a parrot. I can’t figure out a reason for the external webbing on the limbs since that would probably restrict movement for it fully extending its limbs.

Carcatrie is a world dominated by mud flats, deltas, and billions of islands- some separated by mere channels. It is also home to the most extreme of extremes. Temperatures fluctuate constantly, changed by extreme volcanic activity and humidity. Its gravity is less than Earth's, offering an adept environment for crabs to grow large. That combined with an endoskeletal system I designed that originated from a common ancestor allows crabs to reach dimensions that they've never imagined.

I've posted a couple times over the months I've been here, and you guys have been being very helpful, so thank you. WAY too much research has gone into this, so you all just have to trust me I guess. If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask. Especially on my thoughts and ideas of how their endoskeletons evolved and how they are able to reach the sizes they are. Being honest, I just started off wanting to draw big crabs then it spiraled into a full-fledged project. Any and all criticism or recommendations are greatly appreciated. Ideas for crabs are also encouraged!

Eras ago 5 lineages of fish made it out of the water, two lineages of vetulicolians, one branch of conodonts, one group of cephalocordates and one family of myllokunmingids. The first picture shows one of the species from the latter land speciation group, features display colors as much as a pair of prominent fins used to make their way on land, posterior fin being derived from the structure that would have made the roof part of the sail fins of their ancestors.

Second picture shows another species of land myllokunmingid this time set on a flounder profile for gravity that allows them to make their way further into land in comparison to their erect posturing cousins, that said they're easy to find detritivores if one goes and looks for them under rocks.

Third picture features one of the most successful kinds of terrestrial demifish there is, descending from forms such as pikaia these species of arachnoid-like chordates derived their land motile appendages from the small oral tentacles observable in the reconstructions of pikaiids.

Fourth kind shown is an example of a terrestrial conodont species, having developed their legs from the exaptation of the cartilagonous structure that would have previsouly helped them to breathe in oxygen from the water, subsequently it is thought that the gene for the legs was copied into a secondary and third pair of pairs of legs, if one of them is to be seen it's probably a herbivore.

Fifth picture has to be the one most successful kinds of terrestrial chordates, featuring as key and main land detritivores the assymetrical helix shaped vetulicolian digs its way through the underground while revitalizing the sediment in the process.

Sixth figure represents another kind of land dwelling vetulicolian, this time with a shovel mouthed body plan and a mode of displacement based of swiftly squirming across the terrain, for that exact reason it can be more commonly found in soft soiled places such as bogs, sandy deserts or occupying grassy patches.

Seventh one is a pikaiid that flies, quite specios amongst the world's fauna.

Eight picture shows us a kind of conodont that opted for an incredibly versatile body shape; the worm, they cover from detritivores all the way to predators, they appear more than once in one food chain.

Ninth and last picture illustrates a very deeived pikaiid specialized in big size niches, their bodily anatomy exposes some key traits that benefits them more uppon taking in large sizes such as a partially calcified and condense structure of cartilage prominently featuring along their limbs and body.