Speculative Evolution Project

Welcome to Speculative Evolution Project. A brainstorming, worldbuilding thread where you can share any kind of speculative evolution ideas. Any kind of creature or being that is a product of evolution can be posted here.  

Types of Spec-Evo:

Speculative Prehistoric Animal (SPA): Any kind of animal that does not exist in the fossil record but theoretically could.

Alternate History Animal (AHA): What if history had taken a different turn? Any kind of alt-timeline animal can be put under this banner.

Future Earth (FE): An animal from a potential future timeline. Could be near future all the way to Earth's end.

Alien Life (AL): Alien lifeforms that could exist in the universe.

Human Evolution (HE): What could Humans evolve and change into?

Speculative Genre (SG): Animals from genre settings viewed from a speculative scientific perspective.


Profile: (Not needed but helpful for me)

Species Name:
Type:
Appearance:
Lineage:
Diet:
Information:

Species Name: Sea rat
Type: FE (Homocene, Flooded Earth)
Appearance: Sea rats are a species of giant rodent of the rattus genus. They have some familiar features, grey tightly clumped fur, large pointed ears and large pointed fangs. Sea rats have long bodies similar to a sea otter with tall muscular legs and with a long powerful tail. They are around 4 to 5 feet in length due to their rich diet.
Lineage: Rattus (Presumably descended from Brown Rats)
Diet: Omnivorous. Sea rats much like their ancestors will eat anything they can get their hands on primarily they consist on a diet of fish, shell fish and calms but will commonly feed on plants and even opportunistic smaller prey which they ambush from the water.
Information: The Sea rat is one of many new species of rodent to evolve during the Homocene, the late era of human caused climate change. Sea rats are descended from the millions of rats that lived in coastal cities that flooded due to sea level rise. While countless rats perished from the rising waters, washed away and drowned in their flooded homes many resourceful survivors manage to save themselves by mastering swimming and climbing to higher ground. The descendants of these rats adapted to their aquatic environment by swimming between flooded buildings and exploiting flooded land for food. As millions of years passed and the flooded urban environments were claimed by nature the ancestors of these rats remained growing into the giant Sea rat. Semi-aquatic rats that live around coastal waters, sea rats live in large tunnels and in the ruins of the few remaining buildings where they build elaborate shelters from wood and gathered materials. They go out to sea to hunt prey in shallow water before returning to their tunnel-dens to socialize and care for their young. Sea rats are highly intelligent animals able to coordinate care for their tunnel-den homes, cooperate to protect young rats and even sometimes cooperatively hunt large prey. Though many cities have disappeared, the rats that live among them continue on.

Species Name: Forest Singers
Type: HE (Jungle Earth)
Appearance: Forest Singers are a species of Homo which have evolved into a more monkey-esque body plan, they are far taller than most apes standing at 5 to 6 feet and have a tall profile with a hunched stance but they have a pointed psuedo-tail for balance, their bodies are long and lanky with proportionally long arms and legs with feet re-evolved for tree tops. Forest Singers have longer necks than their homo ancestors to carry their complex vocal chords along with a sack of skin for amplification. They have long coarse hair covering their bodies but the hair on the top of their body is quite long descending down their head. Forest Singer males are bigger than females, typically having slightly broader bodies but still quite slim. They have dark black skin and their hair is typically black, brown, red and rarely a yellowish color.
Lineage: Homo
Diet: Omnivorous. Primarily Forest Singers eat a rich diet of plants and fruits but are still active hunters, they regularly collect eggs of birds and reptiles along with using tools to kill large prey. Typically large land based animals which they will ambush with spears and hanging traps before carrying them up to eat.
Information: Forest Singers are a curious species of human descendants, in their universe a generation ship crash landed on a terraformed colony world that developed a vast jungle biome. After millions of years evolving in the lighter gravity the descendants of the colonists evolved into Forest Singers a species perfectly adapted for life in the trees. Forest Singers evolution caused some loss of technology but they are still highly intelligent tool users. They typically live in large family groups and clans which live in treetops making complex tree houses out of plants and wood while spending their days hunting and gathering. They use their booming vocals to communicate over vast distances and establish their territory from other clans. Sometimes especially large clans will come into conflict but with the rich amount of territory these are a rare occurrence.

Species Name: Domestic Farm Elephant (Servodon albion)
Type: SG (Urban Fantasy World)
Appearance: Domestic Farm Elephants are short legged elephants similar to Mastodon with proportionally short legs and a straight pointed back. They have slightly longer jaws than most elephants, shorter than Gomphotheres but it gives them a noticeable pointed muzzle. Breeding Males have short tusks that only subtlety jut out of the jaw while females and steers tend to lack tusks entirely. They are quite fat by elephant standards ideally having large pot bellies and fatty trunks. They are fairly large females stand at 9 feet tall while males stand at 10 feet tall upon maturity. Typically they have short hair covering their bodies which is brown, black and rarely blonde though they are often shaved revealing their silver pink skin.

Lineage: Elephantimorpha

Diet: Herbivorous. Domestic Elephants are fed a very carefully curated diet of rich fruits and vegetables supplemented by grains which is essential for their taste after culling.

Information: Elephants due in part long life spans were considered impossible to domesticate beyond simple taming by humans due to the sheer length of time required. However long lived races such as Elves had no such problem and saw Elephants as a viable food source due to the plentiful amount of food required. Domestic Elephants were domesticated roughly ten to twenty thousand years ago descended from a distinct line of wild elephant a distant relative of Mastodons and Gomphotheres which lived in coastal regions where they browsed on fruits. Elven city-states would carefully plant orchids of fruit trees which would lure in herds of elephants and began cultivating them which removed their natural instinct to migrate between feeding grounds and began integrating themselves among the herd bonding with calves to ensure recognition and trust. Over generations these elephants have been fully domesticated becoming an essential part of the elven diet. Countless dishes are prepared using elephant meat which has lost its natural gameyness due to careful feeding strategies. Domestic Elephants are also sometimes used as a mounts, work animals and kept as companions valued for their strength and long lifespans. Due to careful breeding they are far more docile than any other species of elephant allowing both genders to be kept in a herd, males with less aggression bred causing musth induced aggression to practically disappear from this species.  

In modern times Domestic Elephants have become a controversial subject due to their natural intelligence many argue that they are just as intelligent as their wild kin and that the breeding and slaughter of elephants for meat is cruelty regardless of elven dietary law techniques which make an effort to make life as ideal as possible for these elephants. Many non-elven restaurants ban the serving of Elephant meat and in some nations it is banned entirely which some advocates protest as anti-elven discrimination.