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Published: 2023-10-18 13:29:46 +0000 UTC; Views: 18751; Favourites: 151; Downloads: 6
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Description
Its 50 million years in the future. The ice age is slowly fading and the sea levels are now rising again. When few of the world’s continents began to change, so did the world's oceans. The Americas have split in half, and Australia had moved northwards. This allowed for warm water exchanges between the Indian, Atlantic and Pacific oceans. A few inhabitants of these oceans even went to traverse to different oceanic divisions to fill vacant niches.Gulper monitor
Ancestor: Filter monitor
Size: 3.5 m (length)
The gulper monitor is a much larger descendant of the filter monitor. It retains its traits of its filter-feeding ancestors, only with more pronounced flippers, paddle-like tail, and a slightly more aquatic lifestyle. However, due to cetaceans still being abundant in the oceans, the gulper monitor remains in shallow waters as to not be brought into competition with them.
Sandpole
Ancestor: Anura spp.
Size: 95 cm (length)
The sandpole is a saltwater neotenic amphibian found in benthic areas. While it has happened in one instance during modern times, this amphibian has become completely home to the saltwater oceans, never developing any limb bones even in their adult phases and never coming onto land. The sandpole is primarily a bottom feeder, digging through the sand to search for marine invertebrates including worms.
Two-tongue geoduck
Ancestor: Hiatellidae spp.
Size: 20 cm (length)
Descended from hiatellid bivalves, the two-tongue geoduck is more advanced than other bivalves, so named for its two radulas on each side. It uses them to not only bury itself in the sand, but they also help it to crawl along the bottom to scavenge on carcasses which it supplements its diet.
Reef cow
Ancestor: Phyllidiidae spp.
Size: 1 m (length)
The reef cow is a large nudibranch/sea slug that operates vaguely like a bovine, feeding on barnacles and bivalves, but also grazing on algae, a trait unusual to most nudibranchs. Despite its large size and differing diet, it retains its aposematic coloration, using its bright colors to advertise its toxic chemicals towards predators as a way of protecting itself.
Archergrouper
Ancestor: Banded archerfish
Size: 90 cm (length)
The archergrouper is a large grouper-like fish evolved from the banded archerfish. Whilst it's modern-day ancestor is already unique for shooting water at its prey, the archergrouper takes this even further. With the jets of water it spits out being more pressured than usual, it can be able to shoot larger prey, especially seabirds flying above the surface.
Little phantom
Ancestor: Portuguese man o’ war
Size: 1 m (height), 1.4 m (length)
Evolved from a siphonophore called the Portuguese man o' war, the little phantom isn't just one animal. It is a combined colony made up of a few more individuals. This small ship-like organism shares many traits of its modern-day ancestor, being mostly propelled by the currents as a means of locomotion and using its dactylozooids to catch prey before shocking and paralyzingly them with their venom-rich nematocysts.
Special thanks to Zarekay56 and YellowPanda2001 !
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DarkAmie [2024-07-11 15:53:01 +0000 UTC]
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