The Early Therocene: 30 Million Years Post-establishment

The Early Therocene: 30 million years post-establishment

In Plains Sight: Life in the Noderan Plains

The continent of Nodera is thriving in the beginning of the new era of HP-02017's history: the Therocene Era. New forms of hamsters have gotten bigger and bigger as time went on, and thirty million years later they have finally attained the niches of megafauna, and spread upon the continents once the land bridges became exposed during a brief period of glaciation that marked the end of the Rodentocene Era 5 million years earlier.

Today the ecosystems of Nodera have attained a diversity like never before, as enormous creatures of various clades have spread throughout its grasslands and filled numerous herbivore niches. Most prevalent are the bipedal hopping boingos, large descendants of the jerryboas that have become widespread as the predominant plains grazers, with the boldly-striped streaky zibba (Saltozebroides melanoleuca) being one such example. Another common grazer is the massive Noderan plains mison (Buffalomys noderus), the heaviest megafauna of Nodera.

Despite competition from the mison and the boingos, the hamtelopes of Nodera are also thriving in the plains. Some have evolved to become much smaller, feeding on low-growing softer plants in the plains, such as the lesser plains phonie (Equinomimus minimus), while others went the opposite route, becoming the towering long-necked girats, such as the axehorn girat (Altocervimys securiceros) which became high browsers specializing on the sparse, thorny trees that grow sporadically throughout the open grassland.

Such a wide diversity of herbivores in one same ecosystem is made possible by the unique phenomenon of niche partitioning, where each herbivore specializes in eating different plants, or different parts of the same plants, and thus can coexist with minimal competition. Tall, tough grasses grow in abundance in the Noderan plains, and the mison greatly relish the leaves- but not the sheaths and tough woody stems. Once the mison have passed, the boingos move in: with teeth adapted for abrasive vegetation they feast upon the woody stems and twigs that the mison ignore, and once the boingos too move on, the grass begins producing tender new regrowth, which small hamtelopes such as the phonies in turn feed upon.

The abundance of herbivores brings about in turn a diversity of predators, which specialize to hunt in the plains. Ratbats-of-prey such as the northern striped hawkbat (Nyctaccipiter borealis) soar above the plains seeking out small prey, such as jerryboas and small hamtelopes, while on the ground, large carnivorous fearrets, known as the carnohams, reign as the top predator of the open grassland. The largest of them, the lion-sized grassland nottiger (Pseudopanthera tigrileo), is Nodera's biggest carnivore, and specializes on hamtelopes, boingos, and the young of girats and mison, though adults are far too large for them to tackle.

This diversity is but a tiny fraction of the large new life that has dawned on the planet in the Early Therocene. In other continents and other biomes, thousands of other species thrive and evolve: all from one single species millions of years ago.

Some misconceptions to clear up:

-Polyamory is not necessarily synonymous with “open relationship”. Poly relationships can be and often are closed relationships, involving only the members already present and not seeking out more people.

-Polyamory is not inherently abusive, disrespectful, cheating etc. People can lead happy, loving, fulfilling lives in poly relationships.

-Polyamorous people are not naturally “less committed” to their partners than monogamous people are. Polyamorous people can be and often are very committed to their partners, just as much as monogamous people are. Having multiple partners does not make a person less committed, the same way that you aren’t “less committed” to your friends for having multiple friends.

-Not all poly relationships are sexually oriented. Plenty of poly relationships do not include sex at all, in fact. That being said, there is nothing wrong with poly relationships that involve or are primarily about sex.

-Polyamorous people may have one-on-one sex with each other. Not everyone participates in all sex all the time.

-Polyamorous people/relationships aren’t inherently more “kinky” than monogamous people or relationships. Poly people can have quite vanilla sex lives. That being said, there’s nothing wrong with poly relationships that do involve kink.

-People in poly relationships may have different relationships to each other. Not everyone in a poly relationship feels the exact same way about everyone else. For example, A, B, and C may all be romantically attracted to each other, but only A and B are sexually attracted to each other, and so C is involved in the relationship in a romantic way but not a sexual one. Or perhaps A is sexually involved with B and C, but B and C are not sexual with each other. Or perhaps B and C are not romantically attracted to each other, either! There are different terms for these different sorts of relationships between members.

-Polyamory is not a solution to cheating, disrespect, abuse, etc. in monogamous relationships. If someone is disrespectful/abusive/a cheater while in a monogamous relationship, they’re still going to be abusive/disrespectful/a cheater in a poly relationship.

-If a monogamous partner tries to make excuses for cheating by saying “it’s polyamorous”, then that person is still a cheater, period. Polyamory is about informed consent for all parties involved, and cheating is not. If someone cheats on you and makes these sorts of excuses, you’re fully within your rights to dump their ass.

-Yes, it is possible to cheat on your partners in a polyamorous relationship, and it’s just as bad as cheating in a monogamous relationship.

-It’s not always easy to transition from a monogamous to a polyamorous relationship, even for people who know it’s exactly what they want. Polyamorous people can sometimes still feel jealous and insecure about their partners finding new people to love.

-Some polyamorous people consider their polyamory to be an important aspect of their identity. They may refer to themselves as polyamorous even when single, and they find themselves unable to be fulfilled in a monogamous relationship. They perceive their polyamory as similar to a sexual or romantic orientation. Other polyamorous people may consider their polyamory to be something that they choose to do, rather than a part of who they are.

-Polyamory is heavily, heavily stigmatized in many parts of the world. Polyamorous people deserve the support of other marginalized communities, such as the LGBTQ+ community, and activists would do well to work towards ending stigma and bigotry towards polyamory, and monogamous normativity.

Poly people, feel free to add on to this

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enbylvania65000

2 years ago

the royal palm is a heritage breed of turkey known for its distinctive black barred pattern. a smaller-sized turkey, they have fewer health problems than commercial breeds, are more agile fliers, and tend to have good dispositions for pets.

The Late Rodentocene: 20 million years post-establishment

Island, You Land, We All Land: The Centralis Archipelago

In between the narrow strait separating the continents of Nodera and Easaterra lies a small group of five islands, that have been separated from the northeast peninsula of Easaterra for only 500,000 years. And yet in this in this relatively short span of time life has evolved in strange ways in these secluded islands: as islands in isolation become hotspots for unusual routes of evolution, and the Centralis Archipelago is no exception.

No other example illustrates this better than the badgebears of Isla Maslum, the largest and most northernmost of the islands that unlike the others was once part of the Noderan mainland. On the scrubland of southern Nodera lives the common striped badgebear (Badja badja badja), a lapdog-sized omnivorous ferrat that feeds on a wide range of available food. However, in the forests of Isla Maslum, lives a different subspecies: the insular striped badgebear (Badja badja maslum), still technically the same species as its mainland relative. However, the differences are obvious: the insular subspecies is at least three times as big as the mainland one, and is entirely herbivorous, feeding on fruit, seeds, and low-lying vegetation that grows in abundance close to the forest floor. In the absence of competition, the insular striped badgebear has filled an entirely new niche, despite otherwise still closely resembling its mainland subspecies in nearly every other respect save for size and diet.

Isla Maslum is also home to grazing hamtelopes, most notably a close relative of the rusty hamtelope, the painted hamtelope (Erythrocervimys piniata maslum). Free of competition from large grazing jerryboas the painted hamtelope is free to conquer the open grasslands of the eastern side of the island. Its conspicuous bright coloration is used in social signaling, with the lack of predators making camouflage less necessary.

Meanwhile, on the other islands live very unusual forms of ratbats, which spend most of their time hunting on the ground and only rarely and clumsily taking flight. It has not been long since the ratbats first evolved flight, and yet here in these islands some are already on their path to flightlessness. Having flown to these islands only 100,000 years ago, they quickly filled the niche of ground predator at the expense of their flying capabilities, and are now, for all intents and purposes, now confined to this isolated ecosystem.

On Isla Vodum lives the ground foxbat (Nyctovulpes kitsuni vodum), a Labrador-sized omnivore that forages on the forest floor for small rodents, insects, fruit and berries. Still capable of short bursts of flight to ascend trees, it is now by no means a significant flyer, unlike its relatives on the Easaterran mainland, which, as with the badgebears, are technically the same species, but now in a subspecies behaviorally different from its still-extant forebearers.

Meanwhile on Isla Dolum lives another insular ratbat, that has independently began losing its flight as well. Known as the Dolumian catratbat (Nyctoailurus felinoides dolum), this tiny carnivore is about as big as a small housecat, and is an avid predator of the numerous abundant furbils and duskmice that are endemic and plentiful on the island. Hunting its prey on the ground, it has almost all but lost its ability to fly: an unnecessary expenditure whose energy is better spent toward better running, after its grounded quarry.

However, despite these unique adaptations that they have developed, the endemic fauna of the Centralis Archipelago have essentially backed themselves into a spot of trouble. Evolving in isolation, they have lost many of their abilities to deal with competitors: and should the islands reconnect with the mainland in the distant future, these strange new pioneers may struggle in the face of new adversity: forced to adapt, or go extinct trying.

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