The residents of HP-02017 evolve to resemble their earthly counterparts.
- In the first geological epoch of the planet, the Rodentocene, the hamsters begin filling niches of other rodents and small mammals such as the arboreal squizzels (squirrel-analogues), the carnivorous hammibals (hunting other small hamster species like shrews or weasels) and the grazing hamtelopes (mara/agouti analogues) and cavybaras (capybara analogues).
- Megafauna begin evolving in the next epoch, the Therocene, where the cavybaras give rise to two-tonne buffalo-like grazers called mison, the hamtelopes become tall browsers called girats (as the name suggests, giraffe analogues) and the hammibals give rise to Thylacoleo-like predators, the hamyenas and the saber-toothed daggarat.
- After the girats and hammoths are hunted to extinction by the Harmsters, the giraffe role gets filled by the altolopes, a tall browsing ungulope in Gestaltia and by a tall horned podathere in Arcuterra while the multiton herbivore niche is taken up by the piggalo, which resemble an elephant without a trunk.
- The planet's oceans in the meantime are populated by shrish: descendants of krill that came to fill the niches of fish and are found in numerous forms such as the shoaling shrardines and the predatory shrarks with one group becoming freshwater piranha analogs. There are also the notiluses, swimming sea snails that converge on cephalopods. The Glaciocene adds a second group of fish-analogues: free-swimming sea slugs called pescopods
. - The blubbats are essentially quadrupedal penguins, as they're a semi-aquatic descendant of the planet's then-dominant flyers that lives in arctic waters. One species however, the arctic blubbear, developed into a polar bear-like predator.
- Basal molrocks are equivalents of naked mole rats, but the derived surface dwellers fill lizard niches. The biggest species, the giant armadile, is basically the rodent version of a Komodo Dragon. The descendants of these surface molrocks evolve into the even more lizard-like rattiles, which fill niches similar to geckos, iguanas, skinks, chameleons and water monitors. The basal shingles are similar to tortoises as large, armored herbivores while the varat is even more like a komodo dragon than the giant armadile.
- Even the insects are subject to this trope: a choice few insects were seeded to the planet to act as pollinators and decomposers. As such, they evolve to fill empty niches: spooders are flightless moths that trap their prey in silk like spiders, with some coming to resemble tarantulas and water striders; caterpedes are neotenic caterpillars filling the niche of millipedes and centipedes; parasitic beetles fill the niche of fleas; and the draclets are wasps that have evolved to resemble dragonflies.
- The small, long tailed furbils have the appearance and niches of small mammals and other rodents like shrews, mice and rats.
- Subverted with the burrowurms, a group of rattile with long flexible bodies and reduced limbs. They can't develop fully into a legless snake-like animal because they are constrained by several aspects of their mammalian anatomy, like their two lungs and lack of the proper abdominal muscles with some species even being herbivores or insectivores rather than obligate carnivores. Although some do play it a bit straighter by the Temperocene by developing a venom-like secretion on their front claws for defence or hunting.
- Marine snails have filled many niches of aquatic invertebrates as of the Glaciocene. Small swimming sea slugs called pescopods fill several fish niches, quillnobs are sessile snails resembling barnacles, asterisks are starfish-analogues, and the skwoids are snails that heavily converge on cephalopods save for having stalk eyes and only six arms. Some of the skwoids of the middle Temperocene take on some very unexpected niches. The skwiders are essentially marine spiders who catch food in webs made of mucus, especially the brown reef skwider which hunts larger prey and then cocoons them for later consumption. Meanwhile, some of the freshwater skwoids become similar to small crocodiles, such as the aptly-named, marsh croctopus, as they hunt prey by ambushing them when they come to the water's edge by camouflaging themselves while keeping their eyes above the surface to see them. Then there's the squoads, who have developed into frog-like creatures that move via hopping and catch small invertebrates by flicking out their radula like a tongue, they specifically adapted to fill an amphibian-like niche due to it being previously empty.
- The lemunkies are an obvious monkey analogue with most of them being similar to more primitive primates like lemurs and tarsiers while the chimpmunks are larger omnivores with more terrestrial lifestyles, reduced tails and flatter faces, making them similar to apes like chimpanzees and gorillas. Some more unusual lemunkies include the midnight howler, in particular, is similar to chimps in its preference for hunting smaller tree dwellers, but unlike chimps is an obligate carnivore, the greater oof, similar to ground sloths and pandas, and the aquatic merangutan, which is basically a primate-analogue version of a manatee.
- The pterodents, a clade of flying podotheres in the Temperocene, fill the niches of large avians: the silver soarer is similar to a crane, the ratavult is a scavenger like a condor, and the wandergander is a sea-dwelling migrator akin to an albatross. A later species, the glassy brushbeard, is analogous to the flamingo, being a species that feeds from desert brine pools that cause it to accumulate color pigments, albeit red instead of pink.
- The phorcas are a macropredatory offshoot of the dolphin-like cricetaceans much like killer whales. In the Temperocene, the largest species, the sarchon, develops armor on its face and its teeth become large shearing plates, turning it into a mammalian dunkleosteus.
- The wingles are flying lizard-like mammals but their size and niches make them more similar to flying insects. Most are somewhat butterfly-like due to their colors and tendency to sometimes drink nectar but others take on different niches. The splitwing bumblezard is a long bodied four-winged hunter of small flying insects similar to dragonflies while the hovering gallibee is a tiny species that can hover in place, feeds solely on nectar and mimics the appearances of stinging insects as a defense mechanism, basically a rodent take on the hoverfly.
- The searrels are an interesting example. They're a small aquatic mammal that feeds on the vegetation that they climb on but have a particular taste for the plant's seeds, which they gather and store in dens. This means that they fill the niche of a terrestrial rodent but in a marine ecosystem.
- The treebums of the Temperocene take on several recognizable arboreal niches. The slender noodlenose is similar to new-world monkeys with its more prehensile appendages (with the lemunkies of the eastern hemisphere being more like old-world monkeys) while the black-bellied vertigoth is a slow-moving, upside-down leaf eater like a tree sloth.
- The different baskervilles are reminiscent of different social canine species. The southern species are analogous to wolves as they are shaggy and muscular pack hunters that live in nuclear families and live in a cold, tundra environment. The northern species are similar to dholes, being sleeker with red coloration, larger social groups and more omnivorous diets due to their warm, lush homes. The northern baskerville's sapient northhound descendants retained their social behavior but physically they're closer to maned wolves, being omnivores with long skinny legs and red fur. The outlander subspecies of southhound is reminsescent of captive wolves as they came about from members of the other southhounds who were forced together and developed an aggressive, dominance based group structure.
- The ground ratbats of the Temperocene are analogous to galliform birds. Being omnivorous ground dwellers that are poor flyers and only take to the air to escape predators. One species in particular, the splendid aurickle, is similar to chickens as they have larger males with prominent visual displays that fight over harems of females. They also fight using an enlarged outer claw much like the ankle spurs used by roosters.
- The greater zeebeedee brings to mind the various species of flightless island birds. It's size, stunted wings and brown, shaggy coat is most similar to emus.
- From the end of the original draft, the saharats are similar to Lystrosaurus, being small burrowers who thrived in an age of global desertification.
