After thinking about the book I read a few back (Sea Dragons), I started pondering the mosasaurs. They were speciating quite prolificly in the 25 million years prior to the KT Event. They seem to have been something of a success story in their adapting to the sea. They're also rather interesting and look like a crocodile, monitor lizard, and eel had waaaay too much to drink one night doing some rather unnatural things. Mosasaurs are supposed to be relatively close relatives to to the varanids (monitor lizards). We definitely have a number of species there alive and well.
James Nicoll created for SHWI a thread called 'Behind the Green Door' where the US found a wormhole that opened up to the far, far future (250 million years) where humanity had died out. Life has undergone some rather radical changes. There are intelligent, land living octopi. There are others that are equally strange. Birds have all but gone extinct: the sea going ratites are all that are left. It sounds like whales and such are long gone too.
It occurred to me that 'what-if' the mosasaurs reemerged? The varanids (or their descendants) are prolly still around. They're an amazingly versatile bunch. There is an inland sea in the map of future earth that James was using. It's equitorial and would prolly be rather warm. If the sea going ratites evolved in Australia, it means that they are 'restricted' to the World Ocean (was Pacific) rather than the Inland Ocean (was Atlantic). The varanids live in a lot of the places that are going to be along that second ocean...
Just a thought.
Alternately, if by some blessed chance that the Marine Iguana survives humanity and the passing of the whales, etc, then they have a chance to be a major seagoing critter too. That'd be...interesting.
James Nicoll created for SHWI a thread called 'Behind the Green Door' where the US found a wormhole that opened up to the far, far future (250 million years) where humanity had died out. Life has undergone some rather radical changes. There are intelligent, land living octopi. There are others that are equally strange. Birds have all but gone extinct: the sea going ratites are all that are left. It sounds like whales and such are long gone too.
It occurred to me that 'what-if' the mosasaurs reemerged? The varanids (or their descendants) are prolly still around. They're an amazingly versatile bunch. There is an inland sea in the map of future earth that James was using. It's equitorial and would prolly be rather warm. If the sea going ratites evolved in Australia, it means that they are 'restricted' to the World Ocean (was Pacific) rather than the Inland Ocean (was Atlantic). The varanids live in a lot of the places that are going to be along that second ocean...
Just a thought.
Alternately, if by some blessed chance that the Marine Iguana survives humanity and the passing of the whales, etc, then they have a chance to be a major seagoing critter too. That'd be...interesting.
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