Thursday, March 23, 2006

Spec blog location -

For access to my spec-blog, go here:

http://spectim.blogspot.com/

Enjoy, and by all means contibute!

Spec is a place where all can make their mark!

Tim

Friday, March 10, 2006

Writing-Up-species-(Hopefully for bestiary entry)

Forest giant false-mihirung (Neodromornis titan)
Order: Cassowaries (Casuariformes)
Family: Cassowaries (Casuaridae)
Habitat: Lowland rainforest of Northern Meganesia.
The Thick impenetrable rainforests of holocene New Guinea, covering miles of vast mountains and vallies, proved to be the saving grace for some species endangered by man. The remote surviving areas left after man's extinction spread and survived even the early Neocene's ice ages, and as a result, animals like cuscus and cassowary survived and prospered in the neocene. One such descendant is the Forest giant false-mihirung (Neodromornis titan), a descendant of the Mountain cassowary.
This is a beastly bird, with powerfull, long legs, shaggy auburn feathers, and standing three and a half metres tall. It is descended from the equally impressive cassowaries, but looks more like the near-mythical prehistoric dromomornithids, these neocene giant-birds are called false-mihirungs. It has a powerfull, deep beak, that runs into the casque on the head, it destroys both soft and hard vegetation of Australia's tropical forests, as it feeds. A single bird will leave a visible path of destruction in the rainforest and floodplain scrub. The bill and casque are bright red in males and yellow-orange in females, the wattles around it's face and neck are blue and yellow, with red blotches. When startled or angry, they charge headlong through the forest, at speeds of up to sixty kilometres per hour, leaving undergrowth trampled. As well as vegetation, mainly leaves, bark and branches, they greedily eat fruit and tubers, and will scavenge or tear apart small animals. The males weigh seven hundred kilograms, five hundred with females, with rounded calloused bellies. The once lethal toe claws are now blunt hooves, though they can still kick fiercely. It also feeds readily on fallen fruits, much like it's ancestor. False Mihirung courtship is brief and violent, but happens all year round, males will call to attract females with a deep, fearfull bellow. A female will enter an area cleared by the male in the forest undergrowth, here they will tussle, the male attempting to mount the female, the female throwing her off, the most persistent and strong males mate sucessfully. Male and female care for the nest, the nest is a mound of rotting vegetation up to 2 metres high, covering 20-30 ostritch-egg-sized blue-green eggs. The male and female have no need to sit on the nest, and hence lose their belly-feathers as they mature, which are replaced by a thick patch of calloused hide, which helps protect against injury from predators and from kicking one another, which they commonly do in confrontation. The young are tan-brown with black spots, and they follow their parents feeding on small animals and fruit. They mature at 4 years of age.

Emu-like false Moa (Neodromauis velocipes)
Order: Cassowaries (Casuariformes)
Family: False moas (Pseudodinornitidae)
Habitat: Open and swamp savannah, scrub, and forest periphery throughout Meganesia.
The sucess of some species during the holocene has resulted in very similar descendants in the neocene. The neocene's sucessor to the emu in almost every sense, and descended from the emu also, it is found on savannah, both dry and swampy, and also on the forest periphery in most open areas of Meganesia. It can run at seventy kilometres per hour at it's fastest, is naturally alert and has keen vision and hearing, at 150 centimetres tall and 50 kilograms in weight it can't defend itself as well as the massive false moas (Pseudodinornis) can, but can still give a painfull kick. It's feathers are shaggy and grey-brown, and the belly is extensively covered in soft, white feathers, it's face has blue and yellow wattles, and it's legs are long and powerfull for fast running, the lower leg has thick brown scales. They are gregarious, feeding, nesting and travelling in flocks of up to 200. They breed all year round except during particularily dry or paricularily wet times. The male incubates the clutch of dark green eggs, there are usually about 15 to 20 of them. The babies are yellow-white with black stripes, and mature within 2 years, feeding on nutritious grubs and insects, aswell as pieces of vegetation loosened by their father, which cares for them until they mature.

Marsuipial Puma (Diablowallabia camelophoneus)
Order: Marsupials (Marsupialia)
Family: Kangaroos (Macropodidae)
Habitat: Moutainous areas of Meganesia.
The result of the extinction of fissiped carnivores across Meganesia during the early neocene has resulted in many marsuipials userping the long-vacated niches of powerfull hunters. In the mountanous areas of Meganesia numerous types of agile, adaptable rock wallabies prospered, and one gave rise to a fearful cranivore.
This is a fierce macropod, 100 kilograms with a flexible torso and long, bushy, balancing tail. A carnivore, it feeds on birds, herbivorous macropods and mountain camel-gazelles. It terrorizes the rocky mountainous uplands, as well as scrubby and forested mountain ranges over most of Australia, including the Great Dividing Range. Their colouring is a mottled gray and tan-brown, though the darkness of the patterning varies with how heavily vegetated the terrain is. They have a huge advatage in the rugged terrain, being far more agile than marsuipial jaguars or marsuipial panthers. With long, strong limbs and feet, and strong, curved claws, they can easily pursue and subdue even goat sized prey. They pounce on their prey and pin them down with their powerfull forearms, then rip out their throats with long, sharp incisors. The long jaw hides slicing premolars, and sharp cusped molars, the snout contains masses of turbinals, their sense of smell is very keen. They can run very fast over short or long distances, but in open or lowland terrain, they often conflict with other marsuipial predators. Courtship and mating occurs at any time of the year, and pairs mate for life and live as hunting nomads. The young are born as twins or triplets twice a year, once in April, once in December, the litter are suckled in the female's large pouch. The young are spotted, and this pattern fades to a rough mottling with age, the young are able to follow their parents in the first year, and help with the hunt by the third year.

Orcine sea-polecat (Orcinomustela mordax)
Order: Carnivores (Carnivora)
Family: Seal-Polecats (Phocamustelidae)
Habitat: Nearshore and open-sea waters of the Pacific and Indian oceans.
In the holocene's pacific, indian, and atlantic oceans, the terror of the seas were orcas. The Neocene is bereft of any whales or dolphins, but the two oceans other than the atlantic have a fierce marine mammal. It originated in the southern coasts of New Zealand, where introduced polecats gave rise to seal-like aquatic mammals in the early neocene. The Orcine sea-polecat (Orcinomustela mordax), is the largest of this group, and it terrorises fellow marine mammals, fish and squid from the arctic down to the antarctic. Though it is most prevalent in cooler or cold waters, it is found throughout the indian and pacific oceans. Roaming the seas in packs of up to ten, their arms are powerfull, the paws webbed, and large-clawed for grabbing prey, the back legs are short, with wide, webbed backfeet. The covering of slick, water resistant fur is ash greay with black spots and a cream underside, and beneath the skin is an insulating coat of subcutaneous fat. The head is streamlined, with huge jaws and teeth, it is the beast's main killing organ. Though it's tail is shortened, it swims with vertical undulations, pushing the water with it's lower torso and backfeet. Once their large eyes fix on prey, the pack will chase down the other animal, grab it with their clawed flippers, and rip it apart. They birth on land, the whole pack mate and bear young at the same time each year, usually in the spring or summer, mainly on isolated beaches in the sub-antarctic, the southern Meganesian coasts, Northern Eurasia and the Arctic, protecting the cubs as a group. Pregnancy is about 5 months in duration, each individual bears a single black-furred young, which mature within two years. Woe-betide the foolish land predator that stumbles on calving Orcine sea-polecats.

Rat-sealion (Phocorattus sp)
Order: Rodents (Rodentia)
Family: Rat-sealions (Otarattidae)
Habitat: Nearshore waters of the Pacific and Indian oceans.
The extinction of most marine mammals left many nieces open as the neocene proceeded. In the atlantic, these nieches were taken by birds like loons and gannets, which became flightless and marine, aswell as becoming larger. In the Indo-pacific, large rodents and feral polecats in Meganesia and New Zealand gave rise to many species which came to greatly resemble the Phocids and Otarids of the Holocene.
Found in numerous similar, yet differing species across the pacific and indian oceans. The Rat-sealions swim acrobatically after squid and fish through seas of many differnt climates, from the cold antarctic waters to the bay of bengal. Descended from the fierce and adaptable Australian water rat, the beasts are now similar to alsatians in size, with broad, powerfull, webbed back feet, and paddle like tails. They swim somewhat like a seal, with powefull strokes of it's feet and tail, also using them to steer. Like seals, they mate and raise their young on island or beach colonies in the summer, where they congregate in numbers. Pregnancy lasts 2 months, and they a bear single, white-furred young which mature within a year. They eat mainly fish and squid, but their powerfull, sharp, rodent dentition can process shelled animals as well.

Gibbon-possum (Pithecopetaurus hylobatoides),
Order: Marsupials (Marsupialia)
Family: Marsupial apes (Pithecophalangeropsidae)
Habitat: Lowland mixed forests, jarra and eucalypt woods of Southeastern Meganesia.
Grey-black, round headed mammals swing through the trees, chewing on eucalyptus leaves, gumnuts, bark, and fruit. This creature, much like a gibbon in size and shape, but also having a medium-length tail, is actually descended from the Common Ringtail Possum (Pseudocheirus peregrinus), a creature that also gave rise to the marsuipial apes. The Gibbon-possum (Pithecopetaurus hylobatoides), has long, powerfull, ape-like forelimbs and strong leaping hindlimbs, both with well developed opposable digits. The body is compact and well muscled, with a large balancing tail, strong hips and powerfull shoulders. A stout neck, and a robust set of jaws for chewing tough foliage make it seem at home in the canopy with other animals like koalas. The pelt is a dark grey, with a tawny face and neck, and white extremities. Their digestive systems can process eucalyp leaves and other foliage, which is their main food, very well, and they often also eat fruits and nuts for energy. When they leap between trees, it is their powerfull limbs that provide the propulsion. Though they are ape-like, their brains are only slightly larger than their ancestor because they live in family groups. The real neurological advantage the marsuipial apes have, as do macropods, is an independantly evolved nerve link between the brain's two hemispheres, which allows better coordination and improved agility. This feature, though standard for placentals, has had to evolve independantly in marsuipials. Each year, during the winter courtship season, the males roar loudly and harshly in order to attract a female, mating is generally brief. In the spring the female gives birth to a single joey, which remains in the forwrd facing, muscular pouch for a 6 months, emerging fully able to follow their parents.

Eucalypt gecko (Eucalyptogekko ledii)
Order: Squamates (Squamata), suborder Lizards (Lacertilia)
Family: Geckoes (Gekkonidae)
Habitat: Lowland mixed forests, jarra and eucalypt woods of Southeastern Meganesia.
This is is a ten centimeter, diurnal, eucalypt dwelling, insectivorous gecko. It has a body that is almost identical in patterning, shape and colour to a eucalypt leaf, and is usually very hard for a predator to find in the canopy. To aid this camouflage affect, the animal can contort it's body into an uneven "S" shape, to imitate a dry eucalyp leaf. in the summer, when the leaves become brown, so too does the Eucalyp gecko's colouring. They lay their eggs on the surface of eucalyp branches, as many geckos do, they have sticky eggs that adhere to any surface when still moist.

Pine cockatoo (Pinocacatua chlorocaudus)
Order: Parrots (Psittaciformes)
Family: Cockatoos (Cacatoidae)
Habitat: Pine forests of Flinders Island.
The pines of flinders Island harbour Black-green Pine cockatoos (Pinocacatua chlorocaudus), descendants of Red-tailed black cockatoos. These noisy, messy, smelly, winged brutes eat pinecones, pine nuts, pine needles, branches and constantly drink the sticky pine sap. They are jet black in colouration, witha green pearlesence to the feathers of the upper-parts, with bright green bands on the tail, the bill is grey and powefully built. They process the sap and incorporate it into their tissues, refining the chemicals and storing it in glands under the tongue. When a predator comes along, they open their mouth and spray the foe with noxious, sticky fluid, allowing the birds to escape. They breed mainly in the spring when there is alot of pine nuts to feed on, their eggs incubate in a hole in a tree, and hatch within a week, the young leave the nest-hole at three-months of age.

Pine-Pseudoscorpion (Pinochelifer pinophagus)
Order: Pseudoscorpionida
Family: Cheliferidae
Habitat: Pine forests of Flinders Island.
The Pine-Pseudoscorpion (Arboropseudoscorpios pinophagus), is a quarter-inch in body length, bright red, and has poisonous pincers and mouthparts, unlike their ancestors. They raise their young in an open pinecone, also protecting fiercely the cone itself, untill the eggs hatch. Then they vacate the cone and allow it to fall, on the forest floor, where the young grow to maturity on the insects of the leaf litter.The adults will find a new nursery each year. The adults feed mainly on insects and spiders in tree bark and pine needles, never straying more than ten metres from their home-cone.

Pine gecko (Pinogekko chloris)
Order: Squamates (Squamata), suborder Lizards (Lacertilia)
Family: Geckoes (Gekkonidae)
Habitat: Pine forests of Flinders Island.
The Pine gecko (Pinogekko chloris) is a twenty centimetre long, bright green, insectivorous gecko, being crepuscular and dwelling among the pine needles. The creature is covered almost entirely with long, green, quill like scales which look very much like pine needles, allowing it to blend in perfectly with it's habitat among the pine needles. As with other leaf-mimicking geckoes, they change colour when the foliage becomes brown in summer. Eggs are layed on the bark of a tree, to which their sticky surface adheres.

False-marsuipial lemur (Pithecophalanger papiops)
Order: Marsupials (Marsupialia)
Family: Marsupial apes (Pithecophalangeropsidae)
Habitat: All forested areas of Meganesia.
Down among the fruit trees, false-marsuipial lemurs (Pithecotricosurus papiops), descened from the common brushtail possum, growl and hoot as they gorge on fruit and other vegeatble matter, they leap and chatter like some otherworldly, ten kilogram, brobdignagian squirrels. Their faces are bright blue and leathery, with huge incisors, and yellow stripes on the cheeks. Their fawn coloured fur is thick and wooly, the males have an orange and brown-red tail to attract females in the mating season, which lasts for most of the year. False marsuipial lemurs are descendants of the Common Ringtail Possum (Pseudocheirus peregrinus), this neocene group also contains the marsupial apes. They breed throughout the year, females give birth to 2 to 4 cubs, which mature in the pouch within 3 months, and sunsequently ride on their mother's back untill they are able to keep up with the group's movements.

Marsuipial civet (Phascolocivetta australiensis),
Order: Marsupials (Marsupialia)
Family: Predatory marsupials (Dasyuridae)
Habitat: All vegetated habitats throughout Meganesia.
The tiny and adaptable marsuipial mice survived the rigors of introduced predators and the early Neocene's ice ages with relative ease, and have given rise to many small and medium sized predators 25 million years from now.
The Marsuipial civet (Phascolocivetta australiensis) is a constant prescence in almost any Meganesian habitat, from savanah to rainforest. Eating mainly animal matter, but also seeds, fruits and flowers, their family groups can bring down marsuipial lemurs with ease. The males mainly wander alone once they mature. The adult females and young travel in hunting parties of up to 17, mating with any roaming males they meet. This creature, like other neocene marsuipial predators, is descended from marsuipial mice, small dasyurids. They mate throughout the year, giving birth to 1-4 young, the pouch young are able to leave the pouch within three months of birth.

Marsuipial cat (Phascolofelis nanus)
Order: Marsupials (Marsupialia)
Family: Predatory marsupials (Dasyuridae)
Habitat: All vegetated habitats throughout Meganesia.
Some species of marsuipial mice already climbed trees and jumped with great agility in the holocene, and their descendants in the neocene are the marsuipial cats.
The Marsuipial cat (Phascolofelis nanus) the size of a common tabby, and closely resembling a cat in general bodyform, with supple legs for pouncing, leaping, and climbing, a balancing tail, aswell as keen vision and hearing, they feed mainly on small creatures like rodents, insects, and rabbits. Marsuipial cats can be found in many climates and habitats in meganesia, where they vary by colour and fur thickness. During the most bountifull times of year, they mate and subsequently give birth to a litter of 2-5 pouch young, which are able to leave the pouch within two months.

Mauruipial racoon (Omnivorantechinus medius)
Order: Marsupials (Marsupialia)
Family: Predatory marsupials (Dasyuridae)
Habitat: All well vegetated habitats throughout Meganesia.
Another coniseurr of insects, worms, small vertebrates and also fruit is the mauruipial racoon (Omnivorantechinus medius). The size of a racoon or coati, it is descended from the Antechinus, which beat other small creatures to the role of generalised omnivory over much of Australia's forest floor. The bandicoots that used to fill such niches were hunted to extinction by feral cats early in the neocene, before meganesia's carnivorans went extinct. It's colouration is a dappled and banded brown, which is fawn in the females and auburn in males. It's head is flat, it's teeth broad, and it's canines are large so it can deal with large insects and small vertebrates as well as fruit and seeds. Like other descendants of marsuipial mice, they breed at almost any time of year, the litters are usually 2-4 young, the pouch young are able to leave the pouch within 3 months.

Marsuipial jaguar (Phalangerobalam ferox)
Order: Marsupials (Marsupialia)
Family: Predatory possums (Carnopossumidae)
Habitat: Forests of Meganesia, including mixed forests and northern Megeanesian rainforests.
Many marsupial carnivores evolved from relatively innocuous ancestors when Australia's introduced fissipeds went extinct. Even the relatively sedate-looking possum has left a legacy written in blood.
The marsuipial jaguar (Phalangerobalam ferox) , a semi-arboreal, sixty kilogram, carnivorous possum. With huge, razor sharp claws, gripping thumbs on feet and hands, and wide jaws with huge hide piercing incisors, and slicing molars, it can make short work of even a bear-sized-marsuipial. It's fur is grey-fawn with black stripes across it's long, strong torso, turning into bands on it's long, bushy tail. The family that this species belongs to has also evolved from the Brush tailed possum, the group is known as Carnopossumidae, which also includes bear-like, and hyaena-like possums. They raise a single young in spring, the cub leaves the pouch within four months of birth.

Stegochidna (Stegotachyglossus armatus)
Order: Monotremes (Monotremata)
Family: Echidnas (Tachyglossidae)
Habitat: Forests and scrub of Meganesia.
The back and tail of a strange, dinosaur-like beast, one and a half metres tall at the shoulders, bristling with horny spikes and scales, wanders in the wake of the larger forest animals. No reptile, but a huge, root-and-tuber-eating echidna, the Stegochidna (Stegotachyglossus armatus), digs with it's gargantuan foreclaws for growth below the ground. It is the largest monotreme ever, 2 metres tall at the shoulder, and weighing 150 kilograms. Walking on it's knuckles, and having a huge, roman-nosed head, it grinds the tubers beween horny plates in it's jaws and on it's tongue. It also greedily eats grubs and worms, as well as fallen fruit. It's skin is sparesly furred with short, black fuzz, and it's skin is two-centimetre-thick, horny leather. The spines are long and sharp along the back, being bright red, becoming orange plates on the hips and tail. Mating usually occurs when there are ample tubers and roots to feed upon, usually in late spring and early summer, three large eggs are laid in the female's pouch, and they are fed constantly on milk-secretions young emerge from the pouch well developed after three months, and they follow their parents, feeding upon grubs untill they are robust enough to process tubers.

Gerenuk-wallaby (Neoprotemnodon gracilis)
Order: Marsupials (Marsupialia)
Family: Kangaroos (Macropodidae)
Habitat: Lowland and upland rainforest of Northern Meganesia.
While numerous browsing and grazing camels can be found in Meganesia, there are also many browsing and grazing marsuipials, one such creature is the Gerenuk Wallaby.
Gerenuk-wallaby (Neoprotemnodon gracilis), a descendant of the black wallaby, browses quietly. Though it's colour is much like that of it's ancestor, the physiology has changed. It has a long face, long ears, upturned nose, and powerfull snipping incisors and chewing molars set in a deep jaw, and a long tongue to aid in gathering the leaves it eats. It's neck and torso are extremely long and slender, as are it's arms, all to aid it in it's browsing. It's legs and feet are extended and danity, with the help of it's tail this allows it to reach up to three meeters into the trees, but when it is standing normally, it is around 2 metres tall. these wlallabies are able to move very quickly, even through the dense Meganesian rainforest. On the plains, such roles are filled by camels, but as bushy trees grew taller in the southern woods, some wallabies followed this food source before the camels could migrate south. The result is the numerous species of tree dwelling and tall browsing wallabies. They mate all year round, and produce several joeys each year from different males, the pouch young take 2 months to become strong enough to follow their mother.

Spotted false moa (Nanodromauius agilis)
Order: Cassowaries (Casuariformes)
Family: False moas (Pseudodinornitidae)
Habitat: Dense mixed forest throughout Meganesia.
Spotted false moa (Nanodromauius agilis), is commonly seen sprinting through the dappled forest undergrowth. Unlike it's larger cousins it is only one point two meters high, living on herbaceous plants and leaves, aswell as small animals and fruit, much like the emu, it's ancestor. With black feathers, spotted with white patches, this pattern was formed during evolution from the stripes and spots of juveniles, retained into adulthood. It can run fast, about seventy kilometres maximum, when healthy. They mste and nest often, whenever food in it's forest habitat is plentiful, the eggs are large and black, ten are laid, and the male broods the eggs. The black-and-white-striped young follow the male and feed in his wake untill they are large enough to fend for themselves.

Quollupe (Lupequoll socialis)
Order: Marsupials (Marsupialia)
Family: Predatory marsupials (Dasyuridae)
Habitat: All vegetated habitats throughout Meganesia.
Quollupes (Lupequoll socialis), wolf quolls, the Meganesia's answer to pack hunting canids. They tear their prey with independantly evolved carnassial shearing teeth, bone crushing back molars, and long canines, the once timid quoll has left a bloodthirsty legacy. The Quollupes are found in forests and open areas, with different subspecies across the continent. The quollupes are brown in colour, with white spots, their bodyform is very canine in general, with powerfull running legs, a flexible spine, a meduim-length balancing tail, a thick neck and a powerfull set of jaws. They hunt in large family groups of up to 25, bringing down prey through chasing them to exaustion. The females give birth to a single cub, occasionally twins, and the cubs leave the pouch about two moths after birth. When hunting takes place, groups of females care for the cubs while others bring down the prey.

Gargantual burrowing cockroach (Titanoblatta hoplitochelys)
Order: Blattodea
Family:Blaberidae
Habitat: All heavily forested areas of eastern meganesia.
Inumerable invertebrates, worms, beetles, isopods, swarm amongst the soil, processing the dead leaves, fruit and gauno of the forests of eastern Meganesia. But they mostly go unseen, or become food for larger beasts. One, The Gargantual burrowing cockroach (Titanoblatta hoplitochelys), is far more noticeable. A giant, wingless, burrowing cockroach, fifteen to twenty centimetres long, it is descended from the bush burrowing cockroach of the holocene, but coloured metallic jet black. It feeds mostly on dead leaves and fallen fruit.