WMG / Alien Biospheres

An Extinction level event will give the Lophostoma clade another opportunity to dominate the planet

In our own history, the dinosaurs ruled the Earth for millions of years. When the K-T extinction event occurred, the dinosaurs were wiped out, giving the other animal families (namely mammals) the chance to fill the niches that were left behind, eventually leading to humanity dominating the Earth. On this alien planet, a similar event will take place, and most of the Osteopoda clade will go extinct, giving rise to the Lophostoma clade.

• The problem is, osteopods have superior skeletons and absorb oxygen more efficiently compared to the lophostomes, making them inherently better at diversifying into megafaunal niches. If the mass extinction event wipes out all large osteopod clades, the surviving smaller osteopods will likely recolonize those niches before the lophostomes can. Only a hypothetical flightless opisthopteran species would really have a chance of breaking up the osteopod monopoly over ground-dwelling megafaunal niches, and even then they'd be at a disadvantage since their simple gladius-based skeleton has no joints and doesn't extend into their limbs.

In a future episode, a herbivorous osteopod clade will develop their hindmost limbs into defensive weapons held permanently off the ground.

While predators generally specialize for attacking things directly in front of them, prey animals can benefit from adaptations that allow them to better ward off predators behind them, such as a stegosaurid's thagomizer or a horse's powerful kicks. Osteopods don't have tails, and their gonopores are probably too vital to reproduction to be adapted for any other purpose, so the easiest defensive mechanism for a herbivorous osteopod to develop would likely be powerful kicks like the aforementioned horse. However, unlike horses and other tetrapods, osteopods have several redundant pairs of locomotor limbs which can lose their locomotive function without significantly impacting the animal's speed or stability, so perhaps it would be more efficient for them to completely specialize their hindmost limbs for defense, rather than using them for both defense and locomotion as horses do. As such, they might undergo a sort of inversion of the onychodont's "centaurism", with their hindmost limbs developing into heavily-muscled backwards-facing arms tipped with a spike or claw for stabbing or slashing at a predator trying to flank them.

The leptopods are a likely candidate for developing this adaptation, as their hindmost limbs are already specialized for rapidly generating force backwards, and they are under the same evolutionary pressures for speed that caused the onychodonts to adopt hexapedalism. On the other hand, the megalobrachid clades may benefit more from such an adaptation than the leptopods, as their large bodies and stiff skeletal structure might make them slower at turning around, incentivizing them to invest in ways of defending from multiple directions at once.

• Jossed; the allobrachids, a leptopod clade that developed hexapedalism, simply evolved to free up their foremost pair of limbs, similar to the onychodonts, rather than the rear.

Predictions for Episode 8.

The theme of this episode will be how the terrestrial organisms adapt to extremely hot and cold climates, such as deserts and tundra. Speculate away!

• Many osteopods may end up developing viviparity and/or ovoviviparity to protect their eggs from the cold and dry elements. This is more likely to emerge in the titanopods, as they aren't as reliant on speed and thus won't be weighed down by their unborn offspring.
  • Confirmed; the lystrocheirids develop lecithotrophy, the thylacopods carry their oothecae with their gonopods instead of burying them, and the thecopods develop matrotrophy. No titanopods are mentioned to have developed it, however.
• Some osteopods may develop some kind of insulating covering, such as fat or fur-like filaments derived from their setae.
  • Confirmed in the form of the thylacopods and thecopods.
• Despite a decrease in diversity in the previous episodes, the placostracans and desmostracans may end up thriving in the dry deserts, thanks to their shells allowing them to preserve moisture.
  • Confirmed; although the desmostracans are not thoroughly elaborated on, the placostracans adapted by developing aestivation.
• Some opisthopterans may end up becoming vulture-like scavengers that exploit the desert thermals to soar long distances and search for carcasses.
  • Confirmed, as some migratory species are mentioned to feed on carrion to survive.
• The eurycheirids will almost certainly thrive in these climates, being omnivores that can survive on a wide variety of food, along with having a strong digging ability that will allow them to construct burrows to escape the elements.
  • Confirmed.
• The leptopods probably won't do well in these climates, as their narrow feet may cause them to sink into the sparse sand and snow. Though some could develop tufts of setae on their feet to help spread the surface area of their feet, like jerboas have.
  • Jossed. A clade of leptopods evolved wide feet in a similar manner to camels on Earth, while another evolved a shaggy coat of filaments to survive in the tundra.

Predictions for Episode 9.

The theme of this episode will be tropical rainforests. Speculate away!

• Some of the tall tropical xylophytes may develop flower and/or fruit-like structures, allowing them to be dispersed with the help of animals more easily.
  • Confirmed.
• Forest-dwelling opisthopterans may diversify into forms such as toucan or parrot-like frugivores, woodpecker-like malacovores that drill into wood to prey on wood-boring malacoformes, hummingbird or butterfly-like pollinators, and even harpy eagle-like predators that prey on platydonts.
  • Semi-confirmed.
• The tropical freshwater acanthopods may diversify into forms such as piranha-like predators, herbivores that feed on algae and even fruit (like pacu fish on Earth), and even leech or lamprey-like bloodsucking parasites.
  • Jossed.
• Some platydonts may develop into slow-moving sloth-like folivores, while others may become gibbon-like brachiators. Maybe one lineage could even become a leopard-like arboreal predator.
  • Confirmed.
• Some onychodonts may become tiger or jaguar-like forest ambush hunters.
  • Jossed.
• The procerapods will almost certainly be the dominant herbivores in these forests. Maybe some leptopods will travel back into the forest as well, become deer or tapir-like browsers with spotted coats for camouflage.
  • Jossed. The forests are too dense for any procerapod to traverse through.
• Whereas the deserts and tundra animals had very dull colors to better blend into their environment, the rainforests and jungles will introduce animals with a much more colorful variety (like certain Earth birds, such as parrots). Bright, colorful displays can be used to attract mates, or to threaten and intimidate potential predators and rivals.
  • Semi-confirmed.
• The deinognathans - former apex predators of the primitive forests - may see some representation in the rainforests and jungles. With ample amounts of vegetation to use for hiding, the deinognathans can use ambush tactics to stalk their prey. They may face competition from the onychodonts, however.
  • Jossed.
• Tropical Rainforests, due to being one of the most constantly fertile places on earth will probably give rise to the largest population boom out of all the biome. And because of that, the amount of competition inter and intra species will probably give rise to the largest amount of biodiversity so far.
  • Confirmed.

The lystrocheirids, thylacopods, and thecopods will outcompete their more "primitive" relatives in a future episode.

Not only do they have a more advanced form of reproduction than their relatives, but the thylacopods and thecopods have a fur-like covering on their body, and the lystrocheirids have great nocturnal vision, which may help them to adapt to new environments better than their relatives can.

• Semi-confirmed, the thecopods and lystrocheirids manage to claim dominance over the post-extinction biosphere through their respective xenopsid and rhamphodont descendants, but all thylacopod clades have gone extinct.

The lystrocheirids will develop an insect-like larval stage as they diversify.

In Episode 8, limited food resources leads to them giving birth to undeveloped young that they leave on a carcass to eat, much like some scavenging fly species on Earth. Like the metamorph birds in Serina, this may result in future lystrocheirids giving birth to tiny grub-like larvae that spend their early life burrowing before undergoing metamorphosis into an adult. Some may be able to breathe through their skin when laid in a moist area such as mud, which may lead to some species having aquatic tadpole-like larvae. There may even be neotenic forms that fill fish or invertebrate-like niches.

• Semi-confirmed with the evolution of the gyrinotheres, whose offspring are aquatic but not explicitly stated to absorb oxygen through their skin.

The megalobrachids and onychodonts will not survive the upcoming extinction event.

Large animals (especially apex predators) tend to be more vulnerable to extinction events than small ones. (For example: The extinction of non-avian dinosaurs and many other large reptiles during the K-Pg boundary extinction, or the mass die-offs of megafaunal mammals that tended to occur whenever humans spread to a new continent for the first time.) This will lead to small polyschians growing larger to fill the vacant niches left behind. For example, the titanopods currently occupying large herbivore niches in the steppe and tundra may be replaced by a clade of leptopods, which in contrast to the elephant-like procerapods and bison-like baropods may instead resemble giraffes and horses, due to the polyschian skeleton favoring speed over stability.

• Mostly confirmed; only the more adaptable xenopsids and stenopsids survive.

Predictions for Episode 10.

The theme of this episode will be how all the previous organisms react to continental drift. Let's go!

• One lineage of small chemophyte (possibly a brachyphyte or necrophyte, the latter of which already relies on saprotrophy instead of energy from the sun) may adapt to living in dark underground caves, and will completely abandon photosynthesis in favor of chemosynthesis.
  • Jossed.
• Some malacoformes may start hanging out in large groups for protection from predators, which may lead to a eusocial caste system similar to that of termites or ants. This may in turn lead to lineages of desmostracans and/or eurycheirids designed to tear into their nests much like anteaters or aardvarks.
  • Jossed.
• One lineage of ancestral megalobrachid may outcompete the titanopods due to being a generalist that can both graze and browse, unlike the specialized browsing procerapods and grazing baropods.
  • Jossed.
• A large browsing giraffe-like leptopod may outcompete the titanopods such as the procerapods to inhabit thick forested areas, since their thin and lightweight bodies will allow them to navigate through the thick foliage more easily.
  • Jossed.
• One lineage of freshwater orthorhachid may develop the ability to breathe air in stagnant oxygen-poor water, which may lead to a mudskipper-like amphibious lifestyle.
  • Jossed.
• Some copetarsans may hang out by the coast to feed on marine prey, before evolving to fill a similar niche to sea otters, penguins, or sea turtles.
  • Jossed.
• Prenobrachids may evolve into fully aquatic marine herbivores that graze on seaweed, much like sea cows.
  • Jossed.
• The magnopterans may start scavenging by the coasts, which could lead to some of them becoming seagull or albatross-like marine soaring acanthivores.
  • Jossed in the episode itself, but eventually confirmed in the following episode.
• As mentioned above, the lystrocheirids will develop an insect-like larval stage and metamorphosis that will allow them to take a wide variety of niches.
  • Jossed.
• The thylacopods and thecopods may develop strong parental care and full-fledged mammalian endothermy, which could lead to them outcompeting their more "primitive" cousins for the niches of herbivores and predators respectively.
  • Confirmed.
• Some chromatophytes may adapt for life on the ground, which will cause them to spread to a wide variety of habitats.
  • Mostly Jossed; the chromatophytes do spread outside the rainforests, but this episode doesn't talk about their adaptations.
• The pleuropterans may outcompete many of the larger opisthopterans in the large flying predator niche thanks to having a proper skeleton, which could lead to the remaining opisthopteran species shrinking and filling a role more like that of flying insects.
  • First part confirmed; pleuropterans become predatory as they grow larger than the opisthopterans. No impact on existing Opisthopteran species is touched on, however.
• Some kentrodonts might travel to the ground and develop long slender bodies, making them fill a similar niche to terrestrial venomous snakes. (Especially since a long body will allow them to absorb oxygen more easily despite their inefficient breathing system.)
  • Jossed.
• If any brachyphytes grow in nutrient-poor soil, this may lead to them developing carnivorous habits, much like Venus flytraps or pitcher plants.
  • Jossed.
• Since the pronocanthids rely more on venomous spines than the flexible shell of their desmostracan ancestors, they may internalize their shell to act as a spinal cord, much like the coleostracans, and assist in internal support, especially since their shell is divided into multiple flexible segments unlike the stiff gladius of the coleostracans.
  • Jossed.
• The graphic at the end shows coastal rainforest showing up where there were once deserts, so many of the desert animals could exploit the newfound abundance of food by evolving into the following niches.
  • Ambylpods may wander into the new forests due to the abundance of vegetation. The large quantity of food, new found predators, and cooler temperatures may encourage them to become medium-sized grazers, living a lifestyle similar to deer.
    • Confirmed-ish, but only mentioned in passing.
  • Lystrocheirids may also wander into the forest. Due to being generalists, they will incorporate pretty much anything into their diet, including fruit, malacoforms, and even some small animals. Because they are already nocturnal animals, they may live like raccoons or other procyonids on Earth.
    • Confirmed.
  • Some Sphenopterans may start preying on the flying animals of the forest, evolving to be more maneuverable and to have some way of grabbing flying targets. They may live lives a lot like falcons or more accurately, goshawks.
    • Jossed.
• Many of the previous episodes involve an elaboration on the diversity of a clade that was Put on a Bus in the previous episode. (Episode 7 went back to talk about the aquatic organisms, Episode 8 talked more about the opisthopterans' diversity, and Episode 9 elaborated on the malacoformes.) So presumably this episode will do the same. My money's on the freshwater acanthopods, since Bib mentioned them in Episode 7 and said he'd go into more depth about them in the future.

The tanybrachids will not develop sapience.

Biblaridion has teased the prospect of intelligent life on Tira quite a few times. Many fans are predicting the tanybrachids, due to being this planet's monkey analogue, will become sapient. However, that would be a little too predictable and obvious, since evolving a sapient species from a monkey-like ancestor will kind of undermine the series' point of how different alien life could be from Earth's. Besides, the tanybrachids are most similar to the lesser apes (i.e. gibbons and siamangs) which are pretty overtly specialized for an arboreal lifestyle and would therefore likely die out if they lost their forest habitat, whereas the primates that would diverge to form the lineage that would evolve into humans are the more terrestrial great apes. An alternate candidate for sapience are the allodonts, which consist of omnivores with modified arm-like forelegs that could possibly be useful in manipulating tools, plus they are starting to develop advanced social behavior and parental care as seen in the xenodonts, which may lead to a human-like society.

• Confirmed due to their extinction in episode 14. Volcanic activity wiped out the rainforests and altiphytes, leaving the vestigial-legged tanybrachids without branches to hang onto nor a habitat to live in.

Predictions for Episode 11.

The theme for this episode will be about how life adopts on many of the islands across the sea. Let's go!

• Due to the relative small sizes of some of the islands, many of the species on the islands may undergo some form of either gigantism (smaller animals growing to larger sizes from abundant food sources or lack of predators) or dwarfism (larger animals becoming smaller due to scarce food sources).
  • Confirmed.
• Some pleuropterans and opisthopterans will colonize the islands and then secondarily lose the ability to fly, as they grow larger to fill the megafaunal niches that terrestrial osteopods occupy on the mainland.
  • Confirmed.
• Some small animals, like the scandopods, may find themselves rafting to islands on piles of floating debris-like logs and branches, similar to how the ancestors of South America's rodents and monkeys are thought to have migrated from Africa, along with the ancestors of Madagascan lemurs.
  • Confirmed.
• Some clades, particularly flying ones like basal pleuropterans or opisthopterans, will undergo a burst of adaptive radiation to specialize for different resources, much like Darwin's finches or Hawaiian honeycreepers on Earth.
  • Confirmed in passing.
• More clades will become at least semi-aquatic to avoid competition by feeding on algae or aquatic animals, similar to how marine iguanas specialized for a life along the rocky coasts of the Galapagos islands.
  • Confirmed.
• A terrestrial diplostome species (such as a type of xerostracan or dolichostracan) will be isolated from the mainland and re-evolve into niches their ancestors were forced out of by the osteopods.
  • Confirmed.

Predictions for Episode 12

The theme for this episode will be about the development of various social interactions. Let's go!

• Certain malacoformes will develop a form of Hive Mind, becoming the planet's equivalent to bees, termites, or ants.
  • Jossed.
• More osteopod species will form parental bonds with their offspring, with some even developing something like milk or cropmilk.
  • Not confirmed in Episode 12, but confirmed later in episode 13.
• Herding and/or higher intelligence will become prevalent among titanopods, fitting with their elephant-like nature.
  • Jossed, although many leptopod species exhibit more advanced herding behavior.
• Similarly, some of the carnivorous species, especially the smaller ones like Allodonts, will develop pack hunting strategies.
  • Confirmed.

Predictions for Episode 13

The theme of this episode will be about the reunification of the continents, and the resulting interactions between the species. Let's go!

• It will probably result in a mass extinction, or at least, several species and groups going extinct due to competitions.
  • Confirmed.
• Rhamphodonts, particularly oryctocheirids, will become more widespread and diverse due to their generalist lifestyles.
  • Confirmed.
• Social onychodonts like the prionodonts and xenopsids will outcompete the more solitary cryptodonts for the title of dominant macropredator.
  • Confirmed in passing.
• The animals endemic to Isla Proxima will find their way back onto the mainland and either adapt in new ways or go extinct.
  • Confirmed; all endemic clades have gone extinct.
• Zygophytes will become the dominant non-xylophyte plant clade on the planet, or at least more prevalent.
  • Semi-confirmed with the evolution of the harpactophytes.

Predictions for Episode 14.

This will be a Wham Episode featuring a mass extinction, so presumably some pretty big changes will occur. For instance...

• The titanopods and euonychodonts are almost certainly doomed, the former due to their high food requirements and the latter due to their low population density. The leptopods may die out too, due to being specialized herbivores with a high metabolic rate.
  • Confirmed.
• The allodonts and lystrocheirids will probably survive, being small adaptable social omnivores that can survive on a wide variety of food. In particular, the small burrowing nocturnal rhamphodonts may radiate into a new diversity of dominant megafauna, much like mammals during the Cenozoic or dicynodonts during the Triassic.
  • Mostly confirmed.
• One lineage of malleognathan may survive, due to being cold-blooded omnivores that require very little food and can obtain it from a wide variety of sources. Due to being some of the last synischians, they may revert to herbivory much like pandas or therizinosaurs, and become the first post-extinction megafaunal herbivores.
  • Jossed.
• The zygophytes may outcompete the xylophytes as the new dominant tree, much like how angiosperm trees outcompeted gymnosperms.
  • Confirmed.
• Aside from the thalattotheres, the odontognathans will survive due to their semi-aquatic lifestyle making them less reliant on terrestrial plants to sustain prey populations, coupled with their ectothermy and slow metabolisms, similar to how crocodiles survived the K-T extinction event.
  • Assuming hybognathans survive the extinction, they may also start to populate saltwater coasts and/or evolve live birth independently of thalattotheres, forming a second fully aquatic clade.
    • Mostly jossed; only hybognathans survived and remained confined to a single genus that hasn't diverged much from ancestral stock.
• The island megafauna of Crescentia and Pyronesia are also doomed to extinction, leaving room for other species to expand into their niches or new species to colonize the islands.
  • Semi-confirmed; the islands remain uninhabited after the extinction.
• Of the opisthopterans, latopterans and magnopterans will survive due to their malacovorous and scavenging behaviors, respectively; malacoforms would inevitably survive due to their small size and diversity, and the extinction event will leave behind many dead bodies. As such, these clades will still have plentiful food supplies after the initial throes of the event. Picopterans and sphenopterans will more than likely decline due to their reliance on chromatophytes and larger prey to feed, respectively.
  • The Chromatophytes may scrape by due to their ability to fall back on chemosythesis when photosynthesis is unavailable, much like many of the forest floor plants in the planet's rainforests.
    • Semi-confirmed, only latopterans survive the mass extinction and chromatophytes survive more due to their large diversity.
• The theropterans will reduce in number due to their status as giant flying carnivores, similar to how large pterosaurs went extinct.
  • Confirmed.
• Tylophytes and nodophytes will survive due to their adaptations for extreme climates, which might allow them to endure long periods without sunlight.
  • Confirmed.
• Judging by the slide of a volcano when teasing about a mass extinction event at the end of Part 13, it's implied that some catastrophic eruption (or multiple eruptions) will occur, which will spell out the doom for many of the lifeforms on the Alien Biosphere. It will either be that such eruptions will create a vast amount of carbon emissions into the atmosphere, creating a greenhouse effect that will warm the planet to critical levels, create a blanket that will blot out the sun and create a volcanic winter that freezes everything, and/or acidify and detoxify the oceans leading to the death of marine life, much like the Permian Extinction on earth that wiped out 90% of all life on Earth. Of course, it's also possible that the series will take an Earth-like route and have the extinction event be caused by a space rock that collides into the planet, much like the K-Pg Extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs.
  • Confirmed for the former.
• The aquatic species of Deinognathans may have a brief resurgence as terrestrial predators when the existing carnivorous clades die out, much in the vain of certain land-based Crocodilians on Earth after the extinction of the dinosaurs.
  • Jossed.
• Terrestrial species that are either ovoviviparous or oathecae-carrying will have a major advantage during the mass extinction, as oathecae will be high-calorie targets for many species when food is very scarce. Similarly, clades with lower incubation periods (such as the Rhamphodonts) will be at an advantage as they will spend less time in such a vulnerable state (even if they still require a lot of development), mirroring how beaked birds completely displaced toothed birds after the K-T extinction (toothed birds spent twice as much time developing inside their eggs).
  • Confirmed, but more for their generalist lifestyles.

Predictions for Episode 15.

The Grand Finale, this episode will cover the evolution of sapient life. Let's Go!

• Either an species of Rhamphodont or Xenopsid will develop sapient and thus will developed the first forms of civilizations. Probably both.
  • Stenochelaphorans will have a head start towards developing sapience due to their forelimb arrangement allowing them a greater ability to manipulate their environment by grasping objects with precise muscle control, not unlike the opposable thumbs of primates and other mammals. This adaptation will allow them to use tools with greater ease or effectiveness than other clades like pachychelaphorans or acrocheirids.
  • A species of Oryctocheiridae will be the most likely candidate and contender for developing sapience, since they have hand-like appendages with their claws to allow them a greater ability to manipulate their environment around them and there is what appeared to be sets of 3 claws paints lining a cave wall in the final art (made by C.M. Kosemen) shown and seen in the final scene of Ep 14.
• There will be species domestications.
  • In particular, megantroforms will be raised as livestock for either their meat, crop milk, or general labor, similarly to how the now-extinct aurochs was what gave rise to modern cattle, which produce beef and dairy as well as being used as beasts of burden.

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