#future ocean

[dragonthunders01]

Spectember D14: The Future

Has been 200 million years since life on earth changed, a destructive astronomical event wiped out most of the surface life, leaving only the deep-water fauna almost untouched, and they have tried to recolonize the surface little by little, many squids, arthropods, bony fishes and also a very ancient group of vertebrates that passed this cataclysm, sharks.

Sharks have had a constant story of survival over the last 200 million years since they evolved, passing the KPg with ease, and counting back their oldest relatives that had similar body forms, that gives another 200 million years. Although people often want to remark they are sort of “living fossils” that’s just relative superficial as many groups that came before always had peculiar and unique anatomies for being of different groups, and now with the extinction of the surface-dwelling species like lamniform, there would be another wave of new differently forms, preserving some features of their predecessors but changed for the anatomical differences of other groups.

These are the Damselsharks, descendant of lantern sharks (Squaliformes, Etmopteridae) that took over the surface and diversified, sort of adopted a shape similar to the extinct  Lamniformes and so had to adjust some of their anatomy to make it fit to the pelagic predatory role in the ocean, with a drop shaped body and a tall head, very big eyes result of their still prevailing deep water behavior, as well prominent pectoral fins that resemble the ones of a mako shark, short dorsal, pelvic and anal fins and a well developed C shaped heterocercal tail. Their jaws remain similar to their ancestors in articulation and position, but adjusted to tear and cut meat with new types of dentitions depending of their prey.

Many species have lost their bioluminescence but others preserved it, even further developing certain communication behavior that can help them to coordinate whole groups while hunting, which one of the most impressive examples as well the largest species of this family, the Shakopath, a 4 meter long species with characteristic bioluminescent arrangement around the belly and different sized long spots around the pelvic region, they swim in large groups of 20 individuals, patrolling the surface for any potential prey, either large squids that camouflage with their environment and often compete for food or can hunt one of these sharks in an ambush; although also they can preffer fishes that swim or fly over the water, many of the pelagic species crustaceans and even other species of sharks which are also long distant relatives of the Damnselsharks.

[dragonthunders01]

Spec evo Vault, Ocean Flish

An iconic future critter, the Ocean Flish from The Future is Wild stands remarkable of this documentary most featured animals, these constitute a bizarre new radiation of vertebrates from the ocean after tetrapods were wipe out of the face of earth, becoming one of the many recovering animals on 200 million years hence.

This inhabits the coastal regions of the new supercontinent, thanks to the environment lack of competitors that were wiped out 100 million years before with no other trace of land tetrapods left, the sky was basically open for this clade of fish to take over in the last millions of years, being this one of many representatives of a larger group that have diversified across the coasts of the Global ocean and inside parts of the main continent.

According to the canon of the documentary, flishes are descendant of cods, or at least they come from a branch that diverged from cods a time ago that after the mass extinction recolonized the surface and upon the vacuum they developed the ability to fly thanks to strong wings derived of their pectoral fins.

Unlike tetrapods wings, the flish arm anatomy evolved in a way totally divergent in structure, having a short very muscular arm made of three main bones joined in a way that provides a stable and strong base, as well providing great flexibility while flapping and lift enough to fly.

In a general view the anatomy of this animal is remarkable for preserve the Actinopterygii shape with high derived features such as the almost lobed fish like fins, the jawcaps and the strange horizontal fluke instead of the vertical posture of current fishes as well other external features include the lack of any operculum totally sealed, an spiracle upper head that might be related to pulmonar respiration and the most remarkable feature, it extendable jaw.

This peculiar jaw configuration supposedly help them in their method of hunting as these are dipping predators of the pelagic silverswimmers, having the only feature of Actinopterygii developed further with a very extendable mouth with only 2 rows of 3 teeth on the tip.

Although the documentary didn't expose more about their behavior or lifestyle outside of hunting, the main manga did some minor exploration of their land behavior being there showing that they raise their children like altricial seabirds, as well showing that they are capable to stand on land with their pectoral fins up and extended without any folding capability.

As said before, is well known that this animal also has a relative on the forest regions on the north west region of Pangea II but on base of the book description, there may be also a really larger diversity of these derived flying vertebrates covering different niches similar to modern birds, specified by the mentions of comparable analogues of birds.

Probably to add more about this fact on the conference made of the doc (included in the DVD extras) Dixon exposed some concept ideas of more flishes or at least different flish color pattern configurated to specific ecological niches based again on birds.

[scitechman]

Extreme low-oxygen Eddies in the Atlantic produce Greenhouse Gases

Extreme low-oxygen Eddies in the Atlantic produce Greenhouse Gases

  Oxygen in the seawater is not only vital to most marine organisms, its concentrations also affect the chemistry of the ocean and that of the atmosphere above. In oceanic regions with very little oxygen, for example, large amounts of the potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide, also called laughing gas, are produced via biogeochemical processes and can then be released to the atmosphere.

Even though…

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[posthumanwanderings]

Real Drive (RD 潜脳調査室)

“2061 AD. Fifty years have passed since mankind developed the Network society. It was anticipated that this new infrastructure would realize a utopia where people connected with each other at the level of consciousness. However, new social problems such as personal data leaks and proliferation of manipulated information began to surface. Nevertheless, people still relied on the Network to exchange information, and proved unable to opt to abandon it. In due course, a new Network realm with more effective security measures was developed. This was called Meta-Real Network, usually abbreviated as ‘the Metal.’

The Metal accommodated personal memory data within protected virtual stand-alone organic cyber enclaves called bubble shells and eventually pervaded the everyday lives of people. However, people gradually learned to release and explore their instincts within the secure environment of the Metal. The unleashed instincts pushed each individual's consciousness to drown in the sea of information and to be exposed to the pressures of desire. Meanwhile, norms and regulations continued to bind their real world lives. Thus, strange friction between the two worlds began to manifest themselves as aberrations beyond the bounds of the imaginable. Experts who challenged the deep sea of the Metal to investigate and decipher such aberrations were called cyber divers. This is a story of a cyber diver, Masamichi Haru, who investigates the incidents that lie between Reality and the Metal.”