THE XENOPERMIAN OF THE URAL SEA
The Xenopermian is a collaborative effort between Scott, Raven, Zach and myself to outline a very different, speculative world. In some ways this is not all that different than the exercises of Dougal Dixon, After Man and The New Dinosaurs. Rather than speculating on what the dinosaurs would be like if they had not gone extinct, much like his New Dinosaurs or the Spec World Project, or project into the future with After Man or The Future is Wild, our team asked the question of ‘what if the Permian Extinction did not happen?
This is the first post about the fauna of the Xenopermian in the Ural Sea region. We have talked about a ‘fossil’ and a faux controversy associated it with. We have talked about the geological staging differences in the XenoPermian timeline, and have even talked about the differences in the world in general under such a different period. We have generalized about the fauna, but now we want to get into specifics. In our first post, we talked about the first faunal member of the Xenopermian, G roma, a pseudochelonid and very derived pareiasaur. Then we talked about Elyardia hensonii, a very derived anomodont.
Today we leap from the very odd therapsids and the derived parareptiles to another of the three major clades of amniotes which grace the XenoPermian. Diapsids in the Permian, both the real life one and the Permian up to and including the Guadelupian were pretty unimportant. Some small forms which graced the here and there, which a handful of larger animals as well. However, they were relatively unimportant to the overall ecology and lived in edge niches. This began to change with evolutionary churn which began with the guadelupian into the extended Xenopermian eruptions of the Siberian Traps.
Opportunistically, the diapsids began to fill different niches. Ironically, except in a few island cases, few became what we would think of as squamates: they would be outcompeted by the millerettids until the XJ extinction. Most would follow other familiar patterns, hovasaurs would break out into the marine environment to compete with the trematosaurs. Archosaurs and their kin with their moderately successful and novel breathing would take to the water…and to the air. And, yes, Virginia, there would be dinosaurs. They were minor participants in the grand ecology of the allohistorical ecology, but they were present. On islands and in thin aired mountains, the dinosaurs and endothermic archosaurs would truly make their mark. And from those heights would spread in a niche only partially filled, the second vertebrate fliers of the XenoPermian: the pterosaurs.
Beginning with something not unlike a very gracile, very small, gliding animal looking somewhat like a crocodile, the pterosaurs would first take to the mountain airs above the Transpangean Mountains, leaping between upland trees and then taking to flight. First they were bug and arboreal hunters, feeding off of smaller animals in the trees. Then snatching fish and temnospodyl and lepospondyl spawn in the cold pools high in the mountains, safe from other animals in the warmer climes below. As their flight capabilities increased, they spread down and out from the mountains. Their spread was at first stymied by the first vertebrate fliers, the rib flapping flutterzards. However, the pterosaurs were simply better fliers and slowly the flutterzards were displaced. If not for the rise of the suminopterans, the pterosaurs would have solely ruled the skies like in our time until the Cretaceous.
The pterosaurs would spread into the Ural Sea region in time. The first lineages were the orophilic, living in the Ural and AntiUral Mountains. Later, though not more than a million years, the piscovorous lineages would spread along the Ural Sea itself. A characteristic species of the latter is Maralae whittoni.
M. whittoni has a curious lifestyle. For this reason, there are no flutterzards left in the Ural Sea forests. M. whittoni practices chronological niche partitioning. There are three populations and the details vary between them due to behavioural differences. The western population is so named because the breeding grounds are in the foothills of the AntiUrals to the west. The eastern population migrates inland to the Urals. The southern population actually lives on craggy, but marshy isles that reside at the mouth of the Ural Sea to the Tethys. They do fish in the Tethys, but for whatever reason the majority migrate back up into the Ural Sea each year.
As with most Xenopermian pterosaurs, the young can fly within a week. M whittoni then escorts the hatchlings to the coastal forests of the Ural Sea. There the young are abandoned. There, they become aerial pursuit predators, chasing down insects on the wing by and large. They do indulge in nest raiding opportunistically. They live colonially in trees for protection. Their noise is cacophonous.
Once they are around three years of age, adolescent M whittoni move to different colonies and begin to exploit the rivers and ponds and lakes for food, even taking small vertebrates by swooping and snatching. The attrition of the newborn to three year olds is pretty significant and only around 10% of the bug eaters making it to the terrestrial and freshwater forager stage.
Finally, at age five, “teenage” and full adult M whittoni have migrated out to the sea and become reproductively active. Here they exploit the seas directly, becoming divers after fish and exploit the carrion bounty of the seashore. At this stage, M whittoni is often solitary, though some pairs or incidental flocks have been noted.
Opportunistically, the diapsids began to fill different niches. Ironically, except in a few island cases, few became what we would think of as squamates: they would be outcompeted by the millerettids until the XJ extinction. Most would follow other familiar patterns, hovasaurs would break out into the marine environment to compete with the trematosaurs. Archosaurs and their kin with their moderately successful and novel breathing would take to the water…and to the air. And, yes, Virginia, there would be dinosaurs. They were minor participants in the grand ecology of the allohistorical ecology, but they were present. On islands and in thin aired mountains, the dinosaurs and endothermic archosaurs would truly make their mark. And from those heights would spread in a niche only partially filled, the second vertebrate fliers of the XenoPermian: the pterosaurs.
(yes, that's a trematosaur, we'll get to them...erm...soon)
Beginning with something not unlike a very gracile, very small, gliding animal looking somewhat like a crocodile, the pterosaurs would first take to the mountain airs above the Transpangean Mountains, leaping between upland trees and then taking to flight. First they were bug and arboreal hunters, feeding off of smaller animals in the trees. Then snatching fish and temnospodyl and lepospondyl spawn in the cold pools high in the mountains, safe from other animals in the warmer climes below. As their flight capabilities increased, they spread down and out from the mountains. Their spread was at first stymied by the first vertebrate fliers, the rib flapping flutterzards. However, the pterosaurs were simply better fliers and slowly the flutterzards were displaced. If not for the rise of the suminopterans, the pterosaurs would have solely ruled the skies like in our time until the Cretaceous.
The pterosaurs would spread into the Ural Sea region in time. The first lineages were the orophilic, living in the Ural and AntiUral Mountains. Later, though not more than a million years, the piscovorous lineages would spread along the Ural Sea itself. A characteristic species of the latter is Maralae whittoni.
M. whittoni has a curious lifestyle. For this reason, there are no flutterzards left in the Ural Sea forests. M. whittoni practices chronological niche partitioning. There are three populations and the details vary between them due to behavioural differences. The western population is so named because the breeding grounds are in the foothills of the AntiUrals to the west. The eastern population migrates inland to the Urals. The southern population actually lives on craggy, but marshy isles that reside at the mouth of the Ural Sea to the Tethys. They do fish in the Tethys, but for whatever reason the majority migrate back up into the Ural Sea each year.
As with most Xenopermian pterosaurs, the young can fly within a week. M whittoni then escorts the hatchlings to the coastal forests of the Ural Sea. There the young are abandoned. There, they become aerial pursuit predators, chasing down insects on the wing by and large. They do indulge in nest raiding opportunistically. They live colonially in trees for protection. Their noise is cacophonous.
Once they are around three years of age, adolescent M whittoni move to different colonies and begin to exploit the rivers and ponds and lakes for food, even taking small vertebrates by swooping and snatching. The attrition of the newborn to three year olds is pretty significant and only around 10% of the bug eaters making it to the terrestrial and freshwater forager stage.
Finally, at age five, “teenage” and full adult M whittoni have migrated out to the sea and become reproductively active. Here they exploit the seas directly, becoming divers after fish and exploit the carrion bounty of the seashore. At this stage, M whittoni is often solitary, though some pairs or incidental flocks have been noted.
By doing niche partitioning in this manner, M whittoni decreases cross-generational competition. It also can exploit more resources, as a species, than many others. The flutterzards, being weaker fliers, are unable to compete with the insectivorous stage M whittoni and have become extinct in the Ural Sea region.
The southern population differs from the other two. The southern isles, formally called the Angliski, are swampy and have limited forests. The terrestrial forager stage flit between isles in flocks, hunting through the fern and mangrove-esque swamps. The bug biter stage stay local to each island they are hatched on. Selection as a result is very powerful and it seems likely M whittoni’s southern population will diverge from the other two populations in the relatively near future.
--> The southern population differs from the other two. The southern isles, formally called the Angliski, are swampy and have limited forests. The terrestrial forager stage flit between isles in flocks, hunting through the fern and mangrove-esque swamps. The bug biter stage stay local to each island they are hatched on. Selection as a result is very powerful and it seems likely M whittoni’s southern population will diverge from the other two populations in the relatively near future.
Given M whittoni’s lifestyle, it would be correctly assumed their species was not a physically large one. The largest of them would have a wing span of two meters and that was an exceptional example. Due to their size and their rhamphorhynoid grade planiform, M whittoni is largely airborne, roosting in trees or in cliffs.
This does bring it into conflict with arboreal species. The manisuminids, including Elyardia, and the foliosensians are two of the largest problems for M whittoni, including being the largest single source of casualties to other animals in the region. A pterosaur could seriously wound, if not kill, a lone Elyardia. However, the pterosaur itself would be wounded and Elyardia is gregarious. And ganged together would kill a M whittoni easily. Adult M whittoni can easily dispact any of the arboreal foliosensian cynodonts, but ‘rat packs’ which some times raid the fledgling colonies are a serious source of adolescent mortality.
When confronted by a manisuminid or foliosensian, a three year old or older M whittoni will first display. This is accomplished by brandishing its teeth and hiss loudly. If this fails, it will make false lunges at the offending Xenopermian critter. If this is still not enough, it will flee and defecate. When it does it, the excreta will have an extra foul smelling substance. This often drives off an offender, but M whittoni does not linger to find out. A rat pack raid can be smelled from the juvnile M whittoni colony long before it can be seen or heard.
M whittoni would survive up until the XJ Boundary while M whittoni’s lineage and descendents would have a good run of it. They would survive the XJ Extinction and even reach the end of the Jurassic. While the pterosaurs as a whole would survive the Bristol Impact at the end of the Cretaceous 55 million years ago, none of the rhamphorhynchine grade pterosaurs, and thus none would be of M whittoni’s line would make it into the Allozoic. While they would be missed, with birds, bats, suminopterans and pterodactyl grade pterosaurs, the Allozoic skies are far from dull.
2 comments:
Wait... pterosaurs? But what about the dragons? :( There's still gonna be avicephalian derived dragons right?
You're thinking of the flutterzards. They're around, but not doing well at this point. The rise of the pterosaurs and the suminids are slowing wiping them out. The last species of flutterzard will last until the Tithonian and go extinct there.
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