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dinofloof · 5 years

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Worldbuilding June 2019: Episode 12

12. What creatures inhabit your world?

Time for the reason this world even exists.

Dinosaurs survived the extinction and continued to evolve into new species! Which ones survived and what are they doing now?

Hadrosaurs - They were hit pretty hard, but managed to bounce back and became the primary grazers on the savannah.

Ceratopsians - Basically the goats of this world. Oh I am going to have so much fun drawing weird new horn/frill designs when I get around to these guys.

Stegosaurs - Nope. Look, don’t get mad at me, they didn’t even make it to the Cretaceous. :/

Sauropods - Nope. Being a honking massive herbivore isn’t exactly a good thing during a food shortage.

Tyrannosaurs - This is an interesting case because giant tyrannosaurs like T. rex and kin were left hella dead by the extinction, but smaller ones survived and re-evolved giant size. They look pretty different though--ultra shaggy and not nearly as much arm reduction. They tend to dominate the farthest north regions. Humans and dromans alike have killed off a lot of the large prey in the temperate zones.

Paravians - A whole lotta paravian families were small generalists and managed to pull through. They pretty much occupy most of the “ground bird” niches. Many oviraptorids have been domesticated.

Birds - Like explained previously, this world has both euornitheans and enantiornitheans! The bird line from our world has mostly stuck to being waterbirds and seed eaters, and the toothed birds fill most of the other niches.

Now for the mammal side!

The fact that I’ve got humans at all obviously implies that mammals got the opportunity to diversify as well. Contrary to popular belief, dinosaurs weren’t the prime gatekeepers to mammals doing interesting things: that honor goes to crocs. Yeah, crocs. (Crocs were doing some weird stuff back then.) That said, the course of mammal evolution is pretty different in this world. (Although pretty much every mammal that is small, nocturnal, or eats bugs is basically the same here.)

Rodents - Still thriving in exactly all the ways that you’d expect.

Primates - I mean. By definition, I need primates. (Fun fact: did you know that primates are a pretty early mammal group, all things considered?)

Ungulates - They still exist, but the “big herd grazer” niche isn’t as open, so they mostly tend toward the “small, light forest-dweller” (like deer) or the “tenacious generalist” (like pigs).

Carnivorans - The specialization into felines and canines didn’t happen, so most carnivorans are kinda smallish, civet-looking things. They’ve got doggish faces but they climb a lot.

Marine mammals - There are actually more families doing the aquatic thing, if you can believe it. Dinosaurs just aren’t really into the whole aquatic thing. They’ll go semiaquatic just fine (and many of them have) but full-on aquatic requires live birth and archosaurs just kinda suck at that (fun fact: live birth is not a “mammal thing.” Dozens of reptile families have done it.)

#worldbuilding #worldbuilding june #wbj #cenozoic dinosaurs #droman

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animebirder · 6 years

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Top birding locations by Japanese prefecture on eBird

And now for something completely different! Ordered by prefecture number. Sites over 100 species bolded. Info as of 12-31-2017 (US) / 1-1-2018 (JP). ✓checkmarks denote places I’ve personally birded! 1. Hokkaido - Teuri Island (Haboro Town) (149 species) 2. Aomori - Hotoke-numa wetlands (Misawa City) (71) 3. Iwate - Kitakami City (28) 4. Miyagi - Lake Izunuma (Tome City) (89) 5. Akita - Hachirogata Marsh (Hachirogata Town) (14) 6. Yamagata - Tobishima Island (Sakata City) (210) 7. Fukushima - Fukushima City (57) 8. Ibaraki - Myoginohana Bird Blind at Ukishima Marsh at Lake Kasumigaura (Inashiki City) (128) 9. Tochigi - Watarase Retention Basins and Yanaka Lake (Tochigi City) (99) 10. Gunma - (tie) Mine Park (Maebashi City) and Ishizeki Park (Maebashi City) (75) 11. Saitama - Akigase Park (Saitama City) (88) ✓12. Chiba - Yatsuhigata Tidal Flat (Narashino City) (150) ✓13. Tokyo - Kasai Rinkai Park (Edogawa Ward) (193) 14. Kanagawa - Maioka Park (Yokohama City) (88) 15. Niigata - Lake Toyanogata (Niigata City) (158) 16. Toyama - Tsumetaike Hut (Omachi City) (22) 17. Ishikawa - Hegura-jima Island (Wajima City) (250) 18. Fukui - Sakai City (31) 19. Yamanashi - Lake Kawaguchi (Fujikawaguchiko Town / Minobu Town) (65) 20. Nagano - Wild Bird Forest (Karuizawa Town) (117) 21. Gifu - Gifu Castle and Mount Kinka-zan (Gifu City) (58) 22. Shizuoka - Mount Kofuji (Oyama Town) (89) 23. Aichi - Tahara City (108) 24. Mie - Gotenba Beach (Tsu City) (125) 25. Shiga - Lake Biwa (105) 26. Kyoto - Kyoto Gyoen Garden and Kyoto Imperial Palace Park (Kyoto City) (101) 27. Osaka - Osaka Nanko Bird Sanctuary (Osaka City) (123) 28. Hyogo - Dojo Station (Kobe City) (76) ✓29. Nara - Nara Park (Nara City) (57) 30. Wakayama - Mount Koya-san (Koya Town) (35) 31. Tottori - Yonago Waterbird Park (Yonago City) (53) 32. Shimane - Lake Shinji West Bank Beach Park (Izumo City) (68) 33. Okayama - Konko Pond (Asakuchi City) (22) ✓34. Hiroshima - Itsukushima (Miyajima) Island (Hatsukaichi City) (59) 35. Yamaguchi - Mishima Island (Hagi City) (98) 36. Tokushima - Otsu-cho Daiko (Naruto City) (11) 37. Kagawa - Ritsurin Garden (Takamatsu City) (27) 38. Ehime - no active hotspots in prefecture 39. Kochi - Tsuga Dam (Shimanto Town) (12) 40. Fukuoka - Imazu tidal flats and Zuibaiji River estuary (Fukuoka City) (87) 41. Saga - Daijugarami and Higatayoka Park at Higashiyoka Coast (Saga City) (99) 42. Nagasaki - Isahaya Reclamation Area (Isahaya City) (95) 43. Kumamoto - Kumagawa River estuary (Kumamoto City) (93) 44. Oita - Kinrin Lake (Yufu City) (27) 45. Miyazaki - Lake Miike (Miyakonojo City and Takaharu Town) (113) 46. Kagoshima - Izumi Crane Observation Center (Izumi City) (195) 47. Okinawa - Kin rice paddies (Kin Town) (152)

#birding #eBird #japan

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