Discover Top Posts Tagged with #bighugefrog

Just discovered your Amphiterra Project and I love it so much! Two questions tho:

1.) In this amphibian-dominated timeline, what happened to reptiles and therapsids? Did they die out, or do they coexist in smaller, more marginal forms?

2.) How does the Catastrophic Fraggon reproduce? Does it go through a tadpole stage?

These are some really great questions!

1) This is a question I think I would have answered differently until more recently, learning more about the types of mammals that existed alongside dinosaurs. In the same way that mammals were more diverse and inhabiting different roles during the age of dinosaurs than is generally known, I think reptiles and therapsids would be quite diverse. After all, just because we're in an age of mammals doesn't mean we don't have things like the saltwater crocodile around. There are two specific cases that come to mind for me in Amphiterra - one, reptiles holding onto dominance in hot, dry, desert considitions. Even at Amphiterra's moistest, there would be areas around the equator that would be hot, dry reptile dominated landscapes. As for therapsids, one area I think they would have great success in would be flight - their fast metabolism being better adapted to the rigours of flight than amphibians, I could see bat-like mammalians and marsupials filling many of the niches we see filled in our timeline by birds.

2) I hope to elaborate on reproduction much more for all the species in the future, but as far as the catastrophic fraggon goes, here's what I have in mind:

- Catastrophic Fraggon individuals claim huge ranges of territory, and fiercely defend their territories against others of its species at all times - with the exception of mating season from about March to early June. Fraggon glut through hunting and scavenging in the preceding weeks - they'll soon be quite busy, with limited time to hunt.

- The male fraggon digs a shallow pool using its massive lower jaw as a bulldozer, the pool being maybe up to four feet deep and up to twenty feet wide. The pool has to be a short distance away from running water, and have tree cover. These extremely exacting circumstances needed for nesting are part of what contribute to the relatively short reign of this fraggon - even a relatively short dry period could spell disaster for the species.

-The male fraggon calls out for a female with its characteristic earsplitting wail. This is dangerous for two reasons; he could attract a rival male, who could bully our male away from his carefully dug pool and claim it as his own, especially if the rival is older and more experienced. Should a female be lured in, she judges the pool, as well as the physical fitness of the male. Should she find either lacking, best case scenario, she leaves the male alone. Worst case scenario, the typically larger female is not above cannibalizing the male to provide for her future brood and to claim his territory. (Cannibalism is everywhere in the amphibian world!)

-Should the female find the pool and the male acceptable, she will deposit her eggs into the pool and the male will fertilize them externally. By amphibian standards, the clutch is small and the eggs large, each clutch composing of a dozen or so canteloupe-sized eggs.

-Over the next two months, the fraggon are watchful and dedicated parents, taking turns watching over the pool so the other parent can hunt. The water in the pool is constantly refreshed by the parents carrying over a hundred gallons of water at a time to the pool from the water source in their gular sac.

-The tadpoles are born the size of trout and gain size rapidly, feeding off anything brought in with the mouthfuls of water - fish, small animals, vegetation, and, of course, cannibalism. Out of the dozen or so eggs, only two or three of the biggest tadpoles survive.

-Once remaining tadpoles are about four feet long and start growing tusks, the parents dig a trench from the pool to the river, letting the tadpoles slide into the river and disperse. Shortly after this event, the tadpoles undergo the process of growing their limbs in a familiar amphibian fashion, a process of about 6 months.

-Juvenile fraggon are semi-aquatic ambush predators, living like and often competing with crocodilians in freshwater environments. As it matures, the fraggon will spend less time in water, becoming primarily a terrestrial predator around 5 years of age, and reaches sexual maturity at around 12 years of age. It is at this stage that the species's characteristic red coloring appears. Juvenile fraggon avoid adult individuals of their species at all costs - a juvenile fraggon is a great meal for an adult.

-The upper limit on fraggon age appears to be 25. Not many creatures can kill a fraggon, but competition agsinst others of their species is a shockingly common cause of death.

---

I know there's a lot of detail there, but I actually hope to do some art to go with this text and add it to the main site in a future update. Something I absolutely want to make available both as content and as merch would be a to-scale poster of all the amphiterra larval forms. Thanks for the great questions!

#amphiterra #speculative biology #bighugefrog