The Armor Games website will be down for maintenance on Monday 10/7/2024
starting at 10:00 AM Pacific time. We apologize for the inconvenience.

ForumsThe TavernCreate-an-ecosystem club

54 8389
DeadlyVelociraptor
offline
DeadlyVelociraptor
3,415 posts
Nomad

Hello there! One of my favorite hobbies after studying some biology and paleontology I always liked doing the same thing:

Creating a fictional (yet as realistic as it can) ecosystem and evolution.

I am not the best at it, as scientists say "there is always more research to be done about life", I (in the last few years) have (in a way) created three eco systems....

In this club (if you decide to join) you will create a fictional, yet realistic eco system and environment... you can either choose something like determining only some organisms on one sort of land (for example creating a desert and inventing the multiple species in it)

Want to join? Just say so... here is (as I like to do it) how you start:
(note that you can just post your idea for environment and do the rest later)

1. First you need to determine the environment, you can go from normal earthly environments (like sea, desert, jungle, alpine, plain, etc...) to thinking harder about what would happen to life in extreme temperature or creating your own environment. (Note: you can also create more than one if you want and they should change as time and evolution take place) also in this part you SHOULD try to start thinking about your kingdom plantae


2a. Determine the equality of your eco system, how many carnivores? How many herbivores? How many omnivores?

2b. Start thinking about animals, how do they look? How do they react with other animals? Start modeling your species... if you want you can try to draw it...

2c. I never REALLY bother to do much about bacteria, viruses and fungi, if you feel like researching those and creating some for your eco system feel free to do so...


3. start determining how evolution goes, this is (to my opinion) the funnest part, you start thinking, how do the enviorment change affect my eco system? Are there mass extinctions? Biological rivalry? Maybe a species grows sentient, what happens then?


there is a lot more stuff to do, though I will let you decide about it on your own... this project is good for both fun and educational purposes, also I want to see what are other people's ideas....



Have fun, if you have any questions just ask me!
~DV~

  • 54 Replies
CommanderDude7
offline
CommanderDude7
4,689 posts
Nomad

On a normal day some Walkers are watching over their Squiggles when suddenly one spots some Pac-eaters shooting their way. They quickly try to scatter the herd but the Pac-eaters' speed carries them through grabbing several Squiggles. However two of the Walkers did manage to grab a Pac-eater with their lower appendages and hold it down for the rest of the herd to eat it's fill.

nesanelf
offline
nesanelf
560 posts
Nomad

Alelsi(that is the plural AND singular tense. like the word "fish". singular(aa-lek-see)plural(aa-lek-sie)) not very physically strong. their strength is in their numbers and in their unique style of weapons. In the scenario you gave me there was only one Jaurus attacking. But if you want ill make that one...

scenario: One Aleksi strays from the tribe...or did he? One Jaurus swoops in on the open prey and calls its friends. All of a sudden about 20 Aleksi jump out behind a bush and start slicing at the Jaurus's low hanging claws. They shriek in pain and fly away. Casualties: 2 injured, 1 dead.

nesanelf
offline
nesanelf
560 posts
Nomad

typo *aleksi

DeadlyVelociraptor
offline
DeadlyVelociraptor
3,415 posts
Nomad

okay, now that you that you have created a sort of eco system you can start shaping the environment, is there something special about it? How many different kinds of plants are there? Are there volcanic activity or something of the such?

jdoggparty
offline
jdoggparty
5,860 posts
Nomad

1. I've always wondered, what if there was a whole eosystem of microscopic organisms living high in the sky? This is unlikely, but interesting, so that is my environment.

2a. All the animals start out as herbivores, living off just oxygen itself. As they develop, most of them will become herbivores or scavengers. These creatures will usually eat by coming back down to the surface. There they will find either plants or dead animals. The few carnivores and omnivores will almost never come down to the surface, at least until they are fully grown. The omnivores will survive off of the things that pass through the sky, and will usually stay at a lower altitude than the rest. The carnivores will usually eat some of the unlucky tiny spores in the sky, waiting to develop into an animal. They also will eat the other tiny organisms in the sky.

B. Come back.

C. There are some small fungi and bacteria that mostly survive off of the water in the clouds. Some of these are poisonous, but this is very rare, but powerful, because so many tiny organisms drink from the clouds.

3. Come back.

jdoggparty
offline
jdoggparty
5,860 posts
Nomad

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/3663/ecosystem.png

The organisms all start as a herbivore, feeding off oxygen, and are tiny dots, and cannot be seen with any microscope as of now.

The tiny creatures become a bit bigger, and now are seen with only the most powerful microscopes.

Now the animals start splitting up into species.

Herbivores (Blue)

They start out as either a blob with legs or a blob with arms. The arms are super thin, and are not used for much, except for pushing the air.

Once they grow bigger, they either grow wings, or legs and arms. The creatures with wings are very fast, and are hardly ever eaten because they can get away. But with arms and legs the creatures can physically defend themselves a bit better, but against a carnivore usually lose a fight.

***The animals are no longer microscopic after this stage***

The birds with wings grow into small, agile birds, tht are great at flying, and use mostly their beak to grab things.

The birds with legs and arms grow more plump, and develop their legs and wings more. They grab things with their arms, and feed themselves more like humans.

Scavengers (Red)

These creatures start out as blobs. Some of them have a sort of "U" shape, and eat by sucking up the dead creature, and then their body decomposes it with the acids inside it.

The other creatures are an "O" shaped blob. They also eat by sucking up the creature. But as the creature is passing through the gap in their body, the chemicals in the creature attract the essential nutrients to the actual part of their body.

This stage the creatures mostly grow bigger. The "U" now has muscles in the lower part of it's body, so it can fly, and the "O" is now shaped like a star, so it can touch things, and fly a bit better. It cannot grab, but the tiniest of creatures might stick to it's gel-like skin.

***No longer microscopic***

Over time these creatures evolve a lot into this stage. The feet of the original "U" creature are now much more diverse and powerful. It can sometimes grab things, and can fly very fast. It now has eyes and can see, and has a mouth. This creature only eats with it's mouth.

The star creature's limbs are much longer, stronger, flexible, and overall just talented. They can grab almost anything, and are good at defending themselves, but they don't make him much faster. They grow a mouth, which can open as far as the creature wants, like the gap in the original "O" stage. It also now has eyes.

Carnivores (Green)

They start off as a circle with arms basically. They have what you might call hands, but are not great at using them yet.

They now evolve into two groups.

Some of them grow wings, and legs with talons. These creatures are very fast, and usually just kill imediately with their talons.

The other group grow teeth and horns. Unlike the other species, these animals usually tustle for a while before killing and eating an animal. They are not very agile, but once they get a hold of something with their teeth, they will not let go.

***No longer microscopic***

The winged creatures grow more powerful legs, and can now walk. Their wings get bigger and stronger, and they grow arms, that also have talons (forgot to draw talons). But no hands. They still kill very quickly. This animal eats in small portions, but eats about once a day.

The horned creatures grow into more of a body, and less of a blob. They now have powerful wings, a very large mouth, and sharper teeth. They still do not have legs. They eat by scooping harmless animals off of the ground, unlike the last stage, where they would fight for a while because they were slow.

Omnivores (Pink/Purple)

These animals start as a blob with legs, short arms, and hands. They can grab things, and eat by forcing it into their body.

Next, they might grow a mouth and longer arms. They now can eat much easier, and use their arms mostly for fighting the prey, not to eat with. They do not eat plants with their arms, just their mouth.

They might grow wings, and lose their legs. These animals are fast, and usually try to knockout the enemy with high speed flying before eating it. They still use their arms to grab and eat things by pushing it into their gel-like body.

***No longer microscopic***

The animals are very similar now. They grow very powerful wings, and a beak to eat with. One species grows strong arms, the other legs.

The creature with arms are more carnivore than the other. They fight for their prey.

The creatures with legs are very fast, and usually eat their prey in one-bite without the prey even knowing. This creature eats more plants than live creatures though.

That was fun =)

nesanelf
offline
nesanelf
560 posts
Nomad

okay, now that you that you have created a sort of eco system you can start shaping the environment, is there something special about it? How many different kinds of plants are there? Are there volcanic activity or something of the such?


I'm assuming you were talking to me? There are 5 different types of plants: Jarg (this is the favorite and main food of the jukon, small lettuce type), Zamns(grows off Treez(red trees with cactus-like branches)and are giant spiky apples. Antri are the only creatures of the planet that can eat the zamns because they can wiggle into the zamn in the space between the spikes and have a feast), Zorkeel(basically purple rice, Aleksi use this to make salads), Naurus(star shaped fruit(similar to starfruit), has a certain type of acid in it that does not allow any other creature of the planet to swallow it without it burning up their digestive systems besides for the Kaurus), Gilgon Fruit(light green shell covering the fruit but when you peel off the green part, there is Gilgon Juice which is drank by all herbivores.

Carnivores take their food from the meat and they have special vacuums in their throat which extracts the liquid from the meat and that is there liquid to survive.

There are oases of Gilgon Juice every couple of miles. It is said that these oases were made by their ancestors by making pools of the gilgon juice from the fruit.

The planet is flat and no one has dared try go to the tips but there are rumors that there are force fields that bounce you back.

There is a huge volcano located in the center of the planet. It is known as The Fiery One by the Aleksi. It is surrounded by mountainous and difficult terrain. There are no civilizations within miles of the volcano. It is rumored throughout the Aleksi, Kaurus, Jaurus, and the other carnivores that there are demon like creatures living there.

The prey herbivores are not intelligent and only live by their born instincts.

I think im done here?
DeadlyVelociraptor
offline
DeadlyVelociraptor
3,415 posts
Nomad

thats very good everyone, try to make more scenarios and here is another thing you can do:

try to ask your self questions: What will happen if? If this is that way then how come this is another way? Try to make a more realistic web of life, you can see sort of threads of interactions between animals on earth that keep the eco-system balanced, how does it work on your environment?

nesanelf
offline
nesanelf
560 posts
Nomad

Kaurus (Intelligent dinosaur types, feeds on anything it thinks it can beat, high jumps)


I just realized i wrote that it eats anything it thinks it can beat which was a mistake sorry.

Im not sure wat you meant by your post but heres a scenario: A Kaurus is peacefully eating a Naurus when a pack of 5 Jaurus find prey with their echolocation methods. The swoop in on the Kaurus talons outstretched. The Kaurus badly scratched from the surprise attach recovers. It jumps high in the air and nags a Jaures's wing with its teeth and rips it off. The Jaurus plummets down dead. The Kaurus grabs one Jaurus in his hands and squeezes automatically killing the Jaurus. But in the swift motion another Jaurus came and stabbed the Kaurus in the eye with its beak. The Kaurus now half blind wanders around trying to fend off the attackers with its hands. Finally one Jaurus stabs his beak deep into the back of the Kaurus's head. The Kaurus plummets down dead with the Jaurus. The two remaining Jaurus nurse their injuries and feast on the 3 dead Jaurus and the Kaurus. They bring chunks of the meat back to their cave for their family.
DeadlyVelociraptor
offline
DeadlyVelociraptor
3,415 posts
Nomad

okay, now that you have developed scenarios you are able to go for evolution, do you want to start by going back in history or forward? I would suggest backward if you are intending the aleksi become a civilization....

How did those species get their features? What problem in the environment caused them to have their features? How did they start having those complex rivalries?

jdoggparty
offline
jdoggparty
5,860 posts
Nomad

A youngling grows up.

A tiny spore is floating through the air, enjoying all the scenery he takes in. Some other tiny creatures are eating, some are eaten. After about a week, the spore starts to grow. His body expands, and he grows muscles. He floats around, constantly slowly growing thanks to the oxygen and the water in the air. Even his body meshes into new shape, so he now is taller. After another week he sprouts his legs out of the extra cells his body just grew. They keep growing and growing, and now he flies around and avoids the scary carnivores. His feet keep getting stronger and stronger, and eventually he grows toes, and stubs of arms. He is even faster now, and can almost grab things with his feet. A few more weeks and his arms are fully grown, and he starts using them for more things, like eating plants. He grows hands, and starts to grow a bit of his fings. He now has very strongs legs, feet, and toes. He is growing thinner towards the top, instead of just a fat blob. His arms are now fully capable of picking things up, fighting off enemies, and helping him fly. His wings are not fully grown, but still give him much better balance.

After a couple weeks, his wings grow and develop, and he is nearly fully grown.

jdoggparty
offline
jdoggparty
5,860 posts
Nomad

A normal day in the kingdom.

The herbivores stay in large schools. They will go to the clouds to drink water first thing. During that timy the omnivores usually attack. They attack about once a week. 2 out of every 10 herbivores get eaten in these attacks. The omnivores travel in packs, but not as big as the herbivores. Every day they don't attack other creatures, they will descend to the surface for some plant to eat. They eat once a day. The herbivores continue their day descending back to the surface, hoping for no more attacks. But, of course, there are always 1-4 carnivore attacks during this time. Again about 1 out of every 10 get eaten. The herbivores take very small bites, and don't eat much, but they eat twice a day.

The carnivores travel alone or in small packs. They eat once a day from the sky. They also swoop down to the surface and pick up animals once a day. But they will soar back and forth about 5 times.

The scavengers travel in huge packs. If they see a dead carcass, they will fight for it. The don't play fair. They go down to the surface to feast once a week. But on that day they take a long time and eat a lot. The scavengers do not care about each other. But, they also aren't cannibals, and will not eat their own species.

DeadlyVelociraptor
offline
DeadlyVelociraptor
3,415 posts
Nomad

okay, now make up questions: what is happening? how is this happening? Why is this happening? When is this happening? This will help develop your planet's life equality and bring you to a perfect stance to start planning out evolution

MageGrayWolf
offline
MageGrayWolf
9,462 posts
Farmer

I'll have to get in on this a bit later. I have had some ideas on this for a while.

nesanelf
offline
nesanelf
560 posts
Nomad

How did those species get their features? What problem in the environment caused them to have their features? How did they start having those complex rivalries?


wait, this has to be on Earth? Because if it doesn't then its obvious, the species were born like that, just like an ant is an ant.
Showing 16-30 of 54