#pluman

[on-beyond-holocene]

Titanophisuchus leviathan

One lineage of aquatic Proximozoic crocodilians is the Ophisuchia, which have particularly long, streamlined bodies and are fast swimmers. The sea orm is by far the largest, with the longest specimens exceeding 15 meters. The front of the sea orm’s snout is toothless and covered by hardened keratin. It has a varied diet, which depending on the individual can include cephalopods, fish, cnidarians, crustaceans, and large benthic worms. Sea orms can be found globally, except for in the narrowing Atlantic Ocean.

[dinoskybluee]

"hey henry~ dibujanos como a esas caricaturas francesas"

[on-beyond-holocene]

Killer shrews are not the fastest of runners, and this one is unlikely to catch up with its prey. But it may not need to; if it can manage one more bite, its venom could bring this Dromaianser down.

[on-beyond-holocene]

Irwinbasileus giganteus

Irwinbasileus is one genus of large marine crocodilians common in the Pacific Ocean 175 million years hence. Even though it reaches 10 meters in length, it isn’t the largest animal in these seas. It has lost the thick armor of its ancestors, instead bearing smooth, hydrodynamic skin. Its diet consists of mermice, birds, seabats, large fish, and other crocodilians. Irwinbasileus still retains a degree of color vision, being able to tell different colors apart in seawater.

Females are more prevalent in the population than males, and as such they face a degree of sexual selection. When ready to reproduce, females develop a prominent reddish stripe and produce loud calls which sound like a giant motor. These calls can carry for miles over the ocean, and serve to indicate their presence to both competitors and potential mates. Each individual has a distinct pattern to their call.

[on-beyond-holocene]

Parasiteuthis callowayi

The cookiecutter squid is a small pelagic squid species common in the Pacific Ocean 175 million years in the future. It its noteworthy for its habit of attaching itself to larger animals such as mermice, sea orms, or Cetornis. When a potential host animal is sighted, it will rapidly shoot its tentacles towards it. These tentacles are deceptively strong, tipped with chitinous hooks, and function similarly to a grappling hook. If the squid manages to anchor itself onto the host, it will retract the tentacles and grip to the host’s surface with its other arms, the inner surfaces of which are also lined with hooks. Once attached, it will use its powerful beak to excise chunks of flesh. An individual may remove many pieces of flesh from the same host, leaving extensive wounds.

[on-beyond-holocene]

Halenycteris ekrixina

Bats have had a storied history in the future. Being very diverse and populous, they survived the Holocene extinction and made it through the Telogene-Tularean extinction with relatively high diversity, radiating after each event. The Proximozoic has not been kind to them, however; environmental changes and competition from birds and dragons have led to the extinction of many bat lineages. 175 million years hence, the oceanic seabats are among the few that remain.

Seabats like Halenycteris are the most aerial animals the planet has yet seen. They live their entire lives on the wing, and some individuals have never seen land in their lives. The young are born and raised in flight, being carried in a pouch until they are old enough to fly on their own. These bats have lost extensive tissues around the ears and nose in the name of streamlining, and have lightweight bones and a unique breathing system involving air sacs in the wings. Halenycteris grows up to five meters in wingspan, and soars the vast Pacific ocean dip-feeding for fish.

[on-beyond-holocene]

Italodraco giganteus

Most species of dragon are restricted to the forests of Afroeurasia. In most open habitats such as deserts and savannas, birds hold the competitive advantage when it comes to volant niches. Mountains are different, though. Like birds and pterosaurs, dragons have evolved a unidirectional breathing system and a series of postcranial air sacs that help them breathe in a relatively low-oxygen environment. The adhesive pads on their hands and feet helped dragons literally get a foothold, and their large wings proved useful in absorbing solar radiation to help fuel their mesothermic metabolisms.

The mountain dragon is the apex predator of the Mediterranean Mountains, with large individuals growing 7 meters in wingspan. Individual mountain dragons have large feeding ranges, often raising young higher in the mountains. Mountain dragons hunt on the wing and prey on pretty much any animal that they feel like eating. They bear semi-retractable foot talons which are often used to dispatch prey, but they seemingly prefer to startle prey into losing its footing and falling to its death.

[on-beyond-holocene]

Pacific Ocean, 175 million years hence

The Atlantic Ocean continued to widen up to the end of the Tularean period. After that point, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge subducted, and the Atlantic's widening abruptly stopped. For the past 70 million years, it has been closing, and in turn the Pacific Ocean has widened. Now, the most distant stretches of the Pacific Ocean are father from any major body of land than any point of ocean was in the time of humans.

Plankton continue to form the basis of the marine food web, but numerous extinction events have changed the exact composition; for example, there is a greater proportion of rotifers than today. The plankton are fed on by small fish, which are in turn fed upon by squid, fishing seabats, fully marine rodents, and giant filter-feeding marine birds. The top predators of these open seas are large marine crocodiles.

Inhabitants of the Open Pacific Ocean include:

Cetornis dixoni

Cookiecutter squid

Halenycteris ekrixina

Irwinbasileus giganteus

Jaculoteuthis purpureus

Sea orm

Southern spear-toothed mermouse

(pc: Editor abcdef)