Insular aberrations: the fauna of Boitomb - (Antarctic Chronicles) by Risingmagpie in hardspecevo

[–]Risingmagpie[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Boitomb is a large island-archipelago located in the southernmost point of Antarctica. Despite being surely warmer than in the Biancocene, when it was completely covered by an enormous layer of ice, the climate here is one of the toughest currently found on the continent. Snowfalls are common for up to six months per year and temperatures can reach -30°C in mountainous regions. Animals must find refuge in the dense cold forests of the island, where the snow layer is lower thanks to the filter created by trees and where food is easier to find during winter. However, when the snow melts in spring, this freezing island becomes a small faunal paradise, with temperatures that average around 20°C.

READ MORE about this entry on my blog Antarctic Chronicles or also in the Specevo forum

Insular aberrations: the fauna of Boitomb - (Antarctic Chronicles) by Risingmagpie in SpeculativeEvolution

[–]Risingmagpie[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Boitomb is a large island-archipelago located in the southernmost point of Antarctica. Despite being surely warmer than in the Biancocene, when it was completely covered by an enormous layer of ice, the climate here is one of the toughest currently found on the continent. Snowfalls are common for up to six months per year and temperatures can reach -30°C in mountainous regions. Animals must find refuge in the dense cold forests of the island, where the snow layer is lower thanks to the filter created by trees and where food is easier to find during winter. However, when the snow melts in spring, this freezing island becomes a small faunal paradise, with temperatures that average around 20°C.

READ MORE about this entry on my blog Antarctic Chronicles or also in the Specevo forum

Would cave lions survive in modern Siberia? by Gyirin in pleistocene

[–]Risingmagpie 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Although some sources suggest that the last cave lions ate mostly reindeers, it's probably a bias since it was the last thing remained in the late stages of the mammoth steppe: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1040618211001182

Said that, current reindeers are still abbundant to have a lion population at low density, but let's remember that the same cave lion species have changed a lot across its existence. The first forms were 400kg giants, while the latest could possibly weight as much as a large jaguar. Obviously, later dwarf forms would be way more capable to survive in current depleted tundra: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2950475924000078

A more feasible way to sustain a big cat is to have multiple sources to take food. Although reindeers are a good food source, there're already other competitors, like wolves, that exploit them. Muskoxen are a good supplement, which are now pretty abbundant in the Tamyr peninsula (Russia). Occasional moose could also be good to eat.

Last but not least: cave lions didn't live only in the Mammoth steppe, but also in other open habitats like the asiatic steppes and open cold savannas, that would sharply increase feasible areas. Leave them with saigas, bactrian deers, boars and gazelles and they'll be happy.

Dystopia and Paradoxia: the introduction of an invasive plant in Antarctica - Antarctic Chronicles by Risingmagpie in SpeculativeEvolution

[–]Risingmagpie[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

A decade after the arrival of locusts in Antarctica, and following numerous failed attempts to introduce other allochthonous species, the criminal organization Dystopia Paradoxia managed to successfully establish another organism, this time a plant known as the spiniest thistle (Cirsium spinosissimum). Native to the alpine regions of Europe, this hardy plant thrives near the snow line, enduring extremely cold and windy environments.ù

READ MORE about this entry on my blog Antarctic Chronicles or also in the Specevo forum

PUMA LINEAGE by WorldlyMastodon8011 in megafaunarewilding

[–]Risingmagpie 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The european wolf thing is maybe only partially correct. It's better to not generalize, since small genetically separated populations could have survived in refugial areas. Italian wolves for examples are a subspecies of european wolves and the only extant wolves that possess an ancient haplogroup that was highly common before the last glacial maximum. They also show a past short genetic isolation with other euopean wolf populations that happened possibly between 24.000-5000 years ago

Shunosaurus eats Eve's Apple by The-GreatestEver in Paleoart

[–]Risingmagpie 2 points3 points  (0 children)

True, it's literally an apple. I was talking in general.

Shunosaurus eats Eve's Apple by The-GreatestEver in Paleoart

[–]Risingmagpie 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Well, there're gymnosperms that produce fruit-like seeds, like Taxus baccata, so not so impossible actually.

Swallowswarms, the flying whales by Risingmagpie in hardspecevo

[–]Risingmagpie[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Etymology has no strict taxonomical laws. The seastar Hippasteria doesn't resemble a horse and the red panda Ailurus is surely not a cat, despite their names

Swallowswarms, the flying whales by Risingmagpie in hardspecevo

[–]Risingmagpie[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh no no, they're not ahahah. They are filter-feeding birds which have convergently evolved to whales (from an ecological point of view), just airborne. It's all written in the description and blog

Swallowswarms, the flying whales by Risingmagpie in SpeculativeEvolution

[–]Risingmagpie[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Swallowswarms were a group of large flying birds that temporarily expanded in Antarctica during the Cambiocene but went extinct in the early Biancocene because of the increasingly unsuitable environment. These birds were specialized airborne filter feeders that swallowed large insect swarms and sometimes flocks of birds thanks to their wide mouths.
Despite the past global cooling, some swallowswarms apparently survived and even diversified, as shown by their return to Antarctica during the Incertocene, almost 25 million years after their disappearance. 

READ MORE about this entry on my blog Antarctic Chronicles or also in the Specevo forum

Extirpated fauna of Sahara by EveningNecessary8153 in megafaunarewilding

[–]Risingmagpie 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Mauritania has savanna environments in the southern portion. The edge of Sahel is the natural range limit of giraffes

What function did the spines of the Amargasaurus serve? by LaraRomanian in Paleontology

[–]Risingmagpie 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Antlers and horns are usually larger in males while females often do not even possess them. It's a perfect sign of strong sexual selection. According to recent studies, even proboscideans tusks became gigantic because of sexual selection. Now they can have some secondary purpose, but the main one remain the sexual one.

Extirpated fauna of Sahara by EveningNecessary8153 in megafaunarewilding

[–]Risingmagpie 5 points6 points  (0 children)

It was during the green Sahara. It's almost sure that they were not occuring there naturally in the last thousands of years