Speculative Biology

Styphon · Post by **Styphon** » 2005-03-24 04:16am

ok... so... on various message boards, including this one, I've seen reference to the Speculative Dinosaur Project. When I was a kid, After Man was one of my favorite science-y books... so my question is, where can I find other creations in the field of speculative biology?

also, on the SDP, why dinosaurs? Why not speculate on what would happen if the Permian or Triassic extinctions had never happened and dinosaurs had never risen to dominance in the first place? What if Australopithecus (and by extension, all other hominids) had never come into being and the mammoth and assorted other giant mammals had survived to the present day?

my apologies if this has been done, but an archive search didn't seem to bring up anything on speculative biology...

Majin Gojira · Post by **Majin Gojira** » 2005-03-24 11:43am

I know that the author of After Man did a "What if the Dinosaurs Survived" speculation. Though, some of his ideas are outdated, it is about 25 years old or so, it ain't bad.

I think the answer to "Why Dinosaurs" is simply due to the popularity of the Giant Archasaurs. Little more.

wolveraptor · Post by **wolveraptor** » 2005-03-24 12:05pm

dougal dixon is one of my favorite writers. i wish he would do more of these things.

personally, i'd like to do one myself, if vertebrates hadn't evolved, or something incredibly wild.

Styphon · Post by **Styphon** » 2005-03-24 12:32pm

something I forgot for the first post... for those who haven't seen it, the Speculative Dinosaur Project.

This the book you're talking about MG?

and actually, I kind of intended to propose we start up a speculative biology project of some kind (that if vertebrates never evolved one sounds like an interesting idea) in the first post, but somehow forgot to...

CaptainChewbacca · Post by **CaptainChewbacca** » 2005-03-24 01:00pm

The Permian/Triassic extinction event is one single event, not two.

Styphon · Post by **Styphon** » 2005-03-24 01:06pm

CaptainChewbacca wrote:The Permian/Triassic extinction event is one single event, not two.

no no, I mean the extinctions at the beginning of the Triassic/end of the Permian and at the end of the Triassic/beginning of the Jurassic...

dinosaurs were not the hot shit planet dominators during the Triassic... they were around, but they were part of a very diverse landscape... then something came along and wiped most of their competition out.

CaptainChewbacca · Post by **CaptainChewbacca** » 2005-03-24 01:27pm

Styphon wrote:
CaptainChewbacca wrote:The Permian/Triassic extinction event is one single event, not two.
no no, I mean the extinctions at the beginning of the Triassic/end of the Permian and at the end of the Triassic/beginning of the Jurassic...

dinosaurs were not the hot shit planet dominators during the Triassic... they were around, but they were part of a very diverse landscape... then something came along and wiped most of their competition out.

I don't recall an end-triassic extinction event. But then, I only took basic paleontology and learned the big ones.

Firefox · Post by **Firefox** » 2005-03-24 01:32pm

There was one towards the end of the Triassic, apparently. Only around a quarter of all families went extinct, however.

The Beeb.

Styphon · Post by **Styphon** » 2005-03-24 01:47pm

funny... I'd heard the end Triassic event was one of the five worst extinctions.

Firefox · Post by **Firefox** » 2005-03-24 01:56pm

Ahem...

Styphon's link wrote:The death toll: 22 percent of marine families, 52 percent of marine genera. Vertebrate deaths are unclear.

Emphasis mine. The BBC link says similar.

CaptainChewbacca · Post by **CaptainChewbacca** » 2005-03-24 06:26pm

Right, that's the one that killed off the nautiloids, IIRC.

wolveraptor · Post by **wolveraptor** » 2005-03-24 08:16pm

ammonites were killed by the Cretaceous extinction.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/darwin/e ... aceous.htm

CaptainChewbacca · Post by **CaptainChewbacca** » 2005-03-24 08:27pm

I got a C- in paleontology

wolveraptor · Post by **wolveraptor** » 2005-03-24 08:30pm

i just wish i could TAKE a paleontology class, or even a zoology class

CaptainChewbacca · Post by **CaptainChewbacca** » 2005-03-24 09:20pm

Why can't you?

Firefox · Post by **Firefox** » 2005-03-24 09:41pm

If he has the same problem I had with astronomy in HS, it's probably because the class isn't available. He'll have to wait for university, assuming he's not attending one already.

wolveraptor · Post by **wolveraptor** » 2005-03-24 10:36pm

all right, i admit, i'm a highschooler.

Tasoth · Post by **Tasoth** » 2005-03-25 01:11am

Zoology was a fun class in high school. The whole disection and review of the various (Orders is it?) Lets you see how evolution really made an improvement with next iteration.