#planet opi

[c-casu]

The Notalocheiroidea superfamily are a clade almost fully endemic to Notalia, except for a small portion of the Great western rainforest, in the Western continent.

They include small, micropodovorous nocturnal forms, such as the Micraschemopsidae; bigger folivorous representatives, like the Lipocoeliidae; small frugivores, the Brachiopodidae; big suspensorial frugivores, the Isomelidae; and land-dwelling grazers and omnivores, the Corporalidae.

They are, along with their sister clade, the Otorhynchuloidea superfamily, the basalmost Hylocheirids, still retaining really pronounced auditory chambers and Tachycheirid-like skulls.

The ancestor of all of them, except of the Micraschemopsidae, rafted to the island from the Western continent, and there they rapidly diversified to fill most arboreal niches and those of grazers, replacing much of the native Dermatopteran and Lepidischian diversity. After the rafting of the Notalungulates they’ve been mostly outcompeted as the dominant grazers, and in the niche of small arboreal generalist herbivores. The Corporalidae are the only extant (semi-)terrestrial clade, and also the only family inhabiting all of the continent, including the central desert and steppe, and the southern taiga.

They all exhibit sociality to a degree, going from simple herding behaviour and group living to almost eusocial reproductive suppression. Though most of them live either in family groups or in harems, both female and male lead.

In Notalia they’re prey to many predatory Dermatopterans in the trees, and big Ovopilosans on the ground.

[monster-creator-12]

Favorite Spec Evo Project: Tumblr Addition! part 2

The Future Is Far by Dragonthunders01

Mystery Flesh Pit by Trevor Roberts

Praya by Zenwyrmmess

Crowns by Charseraph

Uniima by Yellosnac

Land Dolphins by Alphynix

Planet Opi by C-Casu

Vivere 44 by Styllwaters

Voting ended onOct 8, 2023

[c-casu]

Among the many species on the planet a good portion exhibits migratory behaviours. Some may traverse a huge part of the globe each year, usually flying or swimming, either to find a more suitable climate, better feeding grounds, or to mate, while some others may traverse less than a thousand kilometres.

The Western Gastoples (Gastopla leucops) are one of the many desert-dwelling Pylopodids inhabiting the Setekh desert. They thrive in their cold and dry environment and, thus, in the summer, they travel westward to the mountains, often forming larger herds than usual.

This young male is returning to the winter feeding grounds, but he’s being unknowingly stalked by a lonely hunter. He has left his mother’s pouch one year and a half ago, and has since almost reached his maximum size, but he hasn’t yet won over a harem, and hasn’t neither found the migrating herd yet, so he’s been travelling alone for the last three weeks, and has since reached the lower plateaux, but he’s tired and hungry, and stops to eat. The young Maahes sees his chance and emerges from the vegetation.

Young Mountain Maahes are slimmer and faster than adults and usually can’t compete with them for heavier and armed prey like the Hypacroceros, and the lighter, blunt-billed, faster Gastoples serve as the perfect prey, that they usually follow in a parallel migration.

The young Gastople is grabbed at the base of the neck. His hunter misses the airways but has been able to grab ahold of his prey. He tries to wriggle out of his hold and screams for help, but noone is near. Famished and tired he’ll be thrown to the ground and bitten into the throat, before dying from blood loss while being eaten.

[c-casu]

Xanthizontops asiagus, a species of basal tundra-dwelling Trichopteran

The Trichopterans are an order of flying Tachycheirids, the most divergent of the “true Tachycheirids, along with the rest of the Trichopteromorpha members.

They are the second Tetradactyl group to develop powered flight, after the Dermatopterans. They evolved in the coldest regions of the Western continent, from tree-dwelling gliding ancestors, that became capable of flying over the course of the last ice ages, as trees became more sparsely distributed, and gliding became more inefficient. Now their range extends to most of the planet.

When not flying most are semi-bipedal, capable of both walking on two or four legs, albeit overwhelmingly preferring the former, though many long legged forms use their forelimbs only to take off before flight.

They are covered in two, sometimes three, different types of hair: simple hair ending in few strands, pectinated hair with a stiff and hollow central base, and a thick fuzz on the newborns and juveniles, sometimes kept into adulthood on the area around the face and neck, although more sparse. The more complex hair are what forms most of the wing surface area, and grow from the patagium and the fingers.

As most of their relatives they’re social animals. Ancestrally monogamous, in order to let the young survive in their extremely hostile environment and due to the low population density, they’ve evolved many different mating strategies and forms of sociality.

[c-casu]

Here are some Tachycheirids (this planet's equivalent of Carnivorans and Theropods). The Lowland Dinadrothere (Dinadrotherium ingens) is a big omnivorous scavenger, though it often hunts prey of every kind. They live in the arid north east of the Eastern continent and only form social bonds to mate and to take care of the young

The Ring-tailed Hotu (Intracephalus gracilis) is a small, mostly nocturnal, opportunistic omnivore, that hunts small prey and forages for eggs and plant matter, but also scavenges from time to time.

The Green Mofcath (Setaphorus peninsularis) is a small arboreal social critter inhabiting the Martu peninsula's rainforest. They are granivores that bury the extra food underground coated in a cheese/silk like poisonous and maleodorant substance that becomes edible when in contact with their saliva. They live in harems lead by a matriarch with up to ten males and their cubs. Males act as care takers and breeders, except for the oldest in the group, who only acts as a breeder, and who'll inherit the harem after the matriarch's death by becoming female, since the species is protandrous.

A size comparison also

[c-casu]

Like on Earth, on planet Opi there are some truly enormous flyers. Their size is possible through their flight mechanism: soaring. It has been evolved many times independently among many clades.

One such clade are the Deroptera, whose two main families are the Colubroderidae and the Euderopteridae. The first family is mainly composed of scavengers and small game predators, that use their enlarged cervical wings both as a display and to increase surface area.

The second one are almost fully herbivorous grazers that developed a third pair of wings from their cervical ribs in order to compensate for their low calorie diet with more efficient soaring, and that developed a row of keratinous teeth like structures in their tentacles for better chewing.

Soaring has often evolved in flying creatures hunting at sea, like the Phocidracoidea superfamily, that fish by stiffening their oral tentacles and using them or grab prey under the surface while airborne,

or the Crocopteropsidae, that dive underwater for prey before flying away with their meal, and since their oral tentacles would only serve as drag while diving they’re now almost vestigial, going in the opposite direction of the Phocidracoids, evolving hydrodynamic jaws, similar to Earth’s crocodiles and spinosaurids, or Opi’s isonychians.

The only Trichopteran lineage to develop soaring are the Rosalidae, freshwater filter feeders that routinely travel from lake to lake to find new sources of plankton-rich waters. Like flamingos they get their pink coloration from their carotenoid rich diets.

(Btw to answer @doodlepede comment on my last post, cause idk why but for some reason I can’t comment, the penises are unsheathed because they’re keratinised and can grow back)

[c-casu]

Youre designed a map of opi???

Yep here’s the topography, climate and ocean currents

The planet’s conditions are pretty similar to Earth’s: similar radius, density and gravity, and sits in a similar position to our planet’s in the habitable zone. The oxygen and carbon dioxide levels are slightly higher. The axial tilt is more than Earth’s (at around 30°) which leads to a larger temperate zone.

Like here there’s ice caps at the poles as the planet is in the middle of an interglacial period, towards the end of an ice age that lasted a couple millions of years. The lower sea levels allowed for land bridges and island chains to form between the Western and Eastern continents, giving the two similar biospheres. The third biggest landmass on the planet is the continent of Notalia, which has remained isolated for tens of millions of years, allowing for a much more divergent fauna and flora to evolve.

The two main continents are simply called Eastern and Western continent. The southern one is called Notalia and the South Pole landmass is called Notopelagia. The central sea is called Nereus Sea, the northern one is the Njörd Sea and the southern one is the Pontus Ocean (answering to @monkeyseededworld cause it doesn’t let me answer or comment on my own posts)

[c-casu]

A male Liopronops ergaster, part of the Martu fluvial fisher culture, fishing by a stream

Among the land-dwelling Hylonychians, one lineage had a hard time imposing itself in the savannah ecosystem, surviving only thanks to their group-living and high biparental care, until a species, through refining their ability to manipulate their environment and developing more complex social bonds, eventually made the spark of sapience come to this planet, and became some of the most resilient and generalist organisms on the planet, being able to adapt to almost every situation thanks to their tool making. They eventually left the savanna and diversified in a handful of genera even getting to the Eastern continent thanks to the land bridge of the last ice age.

There are many cultures present worldwide, and as many languages, religions and traditions. Now they’re still in the stone age, but with time, they too will develop.