Speculative Dinosaur Project

Darth Raptor · Post by **Darth Raptor** » 2007-01-24 08:28pm

Wasn't sure where to post this, but I had to share it because it's awesome. The Speculative Dinosaur Project is a fictional natural history covering a parallel Earth where the Chicxulub Meteor missed by a comfortable margin. The result is a world superficially similar to ours, but with a monstrous megafauna. The only other large-scale attempt to do this that I know of is The New Dinosaurs by Dougal Dixon- which is rather dated. I'm not sure how realistic it is, but it's a good thought experiment in evolutionary biology nonetheless, and really interesting.

Check out the polar drak and the baleen squid!

darthbob88 · Post by **darthbob88** » 2007-01-24 09:54pm

It's fiction, but Harry Harrison's Eden trilogy considers the same result. Very nice series.

Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba · Post by **Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba** » 2007-01-24 10:26pm

Totally bookmarked.

Killer penguins!

Post by **LadyTevar** » 2007-01-24 10:45pm

Woah.... I've been reading this for HOURS!

Majin Gojira · Post by **Majin Gojira** » 2007-01-24 10:48pm

That's been sitting in my bookmark's for ages, I almost completely forgot about it.

I wonder if it's updated since I last checked it out...

Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba · Post by **Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba** » 2007-01-24 11:24pm

Majin Gojira wrote:That's been sitting in my bookmark's for ages, I almost completely forgot about it.

I wonder if it's updated since I last checked it out...

It updated (or rather, moved content around) within the last hour since I read it. Hooray!

wolveraptor · Post by **wolveraptor** » 2007-01-24 11:31pm

I was kind've surprised they had deinonychosaurs surviving. I was under the impression that they underwent a decline under tyrannosaurids in competition for large prey. That's why the later you go in the Cretaceous period, the smaller the raptors get.

darthbob88 · Post by **darthbob88** » 2007-01-24 11:34pm

Mrph. The "creatures" section doesn't work in Firefox for me.

FedRebel · Post by **FedRebel** » 2007-01-24 11:48pm

darthbob88 wrote:Mrph. The "creatures" section doesn't work in Firefox for me.

You'll have to try another browser, it works in Internet Explorer

Ritterin Sophia · Post by **Ritterin Sophia** » 2007-01-25 01:54am

So there'd still be humans?

Xess · Post by **Xess** » 2007-01-25 02:08am

General Schatten wrote:So there'd still be humans?

I think its more like a sci-fi style parallel world colony thingy. Oh, and the Penguins of DEATH kick ass!

Ritterin Sophia · Post by **Ritterin Sophia** » 2007-01-25 02:10am

Xess wrote:
General Schatten wrote:So there'd still be humans?
I think its more like a sci-fi style parallel world colony thingy. Oh, and the Penguins of DEATH kick ass!

My favorite was the Ninja Penguin of DEATH!!!

starfury · Post by **starfury** » 2007-01-25 09:31am

I liked the Imperial Saber tyrant,, Saber toothed T. rexes !, this was something I saw a while back, very nice that it is also known here now.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2007-01-25 10:09am

Reminds me a bit of thr Natural History to Skull Island book by WETA.

Post by **LadyTevar** » 2007-01-25 02:38pm

General Schatten wrote:So there'd still be humans?

I was assuming the humans were explorers from Real-Earth...

Darth Raptor · Post by **Darth Raptor** » 2007-01-25 02:52pm

Yeah, the explorers are from our timeline. This world has primates, but they aren't much more than lemurs and such. That's why you can still have French scientists in a world where France never happened.

I was kind've surprised they had deinonychosaurs surviving. I was under the impression that they underwent a decline under tyrannosaurids in competition for large prey. That's why the later you go in the Cretaceous period, the smaller the raptors get.

Just because they got smaller doesn't mean they weren't doing well. The latest eons of the Cretaceous were a bad time for all dinosaurs in North America, so that's a bad gauge to use. If the archaeopterygids ceded the top predator niche to their more basal cousins, they wouldn't be in direct competetion any more.

Sriad · Post by **Sriad** » 2007-01-25 04:14pm

darthbob88 wrote:Mrph. The "creatures" section doesn't work in Firefox for me.

It's the "ÿþ<H

Sriad · Post by **Sriad** » 2007-01-25 04:18pm

Well, that's very odd. When I quote the faulty HTML, even in code tags, it deletes everything after "It's the "ÿþ<H".

In any case, there's something funky in the opening of that site's HTML code, and Firefox is very unforgiving of certain errors IE blithely ignores. Hence better security, but an occasional pain in the ass.

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2007-01-25 04:34pm

Sriad wrote:Well, that's very odd. When I quote the faulty HTML, even in code tags, it deletes everything after "It's the "ÿþ<H".

In any case, there's something funky in the opening of that site's HTML code, and Firefox is very unforgiving of certain errors IE blithely ignores. Hence better security, but an occasional pain in the ass.

Right click -> Open in IE tab

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2007-01-25 04:38pm

Ghetto edit: wasn't there a TV show about this at some point? Something Walking With Dinosaurs-ish about how life would evolve without humans in the next x million years?

FedRebel · Post by **FedRebel** » 2007-01-25 04:52pm

Bounty wrote:Ghetto edit: wasn't there a TV show about this at some point? Something Walking With Dinosaurs-ish about how life would evolve without humans in the next x million years?

Animal Planet had a show called "Nature Gone Wild" a few years back

It was about how life would evolve over the next hundred million years to 2 Billion years.

Humanity was taken out of the equation, but the show involved the evolution of present lifeforms.

Ritterin Sophia · Post by **Ritterin Sophia** » 2007-01-26 12:01am

FedRebel wrote:
Bounty wrote:Ghetto edit: wasn't there a TV show about this at some point? Something Walking With Dinosaurs-ish about how life would evolve without humans in the next x million years?
Animal Planet had a show called "Nature Gone Wild" a few years back

It was about how life would evolve over the next hundred million years to 2 Billion years.

Humanity was taken out of the equation, but the show involved the evolution of present lifeforms.

Was that the one with the metal spiders, jellyfish rafts, actual flying fish, elephant squids, and a primate-like squid?

darthbob88 · Post by **darthbob88** » 2007-01-26 12:13am

General Schatten wrote:
FedRebel wrote:
Bounty wrote:Ghetto edit: wasn't there a TV show about this at some point? Something Walking With Dinosaurs-ish about how life would evolve without humans in the next x million years?
Animal Planet had a show called "Nature Gone Wild" a few years back

It was about how life would evolve over the next hundred million years to 2 Billion years.

Humanity was taken out of the equation, but the show involved the evolution of present lifeforms.
Was that the one with the metal spiders, jellyfish rafts, actual flying fish, elephant squids, and a primate-like squid?

That's the one. Cool stuff, actually.

Winston Blake · Post by **Winston Blake** » 2007-01-26 11:12pm

darthbob88 wrote:
General Schatten wrote:
FedRebel wrote: Animal Planet had a show called "Nature Gone Wild" a few years back

It was about how life would evolve over the next hundred million years to 2 Billion years.

Humanity was taken out of the equation, but the show involved the evolution of present lifeforms.
Was that the one with the metal spiders, jellyfish rafts, actual flying fish, elephant squids, and a primate-like squid?
That's the one. Cool stuff, actually.

Info on all those awesome creatures can be foundhere.