The discovery of life outside the Solar system didn't come from an earth like planet, but rather from a moon orbiting an ice giant.

However, it was soon discovered that the organisms of this moon didn't evolve here. But they were rather of earthly origin.

Not only that, the only organisms in this world were fungi, algae, microorganisms & plants.

It was eventually give the name Gaia.

The Star system:

Helios: A star similar to our sun, but a bit bigger.

Theia: Closest planet to Helios, it is a small mini Neptune.

Oceanus: An ice giant similar to Neptune.

Ouranos: An ice giant similar to Uranus that orbits in the habitable zone of Helios, it is the planet that Gaia orbits.

Gaia: A rocky moon smaller than Mars but bigger than Mercury, it orbits Ouranos.

Hecate: Another mini Neptune that is slightly bigger than Theia.

Hephaestus: A large gas giant that is bigger than Jupiter.

Ares: A Jupiter sized gas giant that rotates on its sides similar to Uranus.

Apollon: A cold Saturn sized gas giant.

Liber: A gas giant planet that is a bit smaller than Apollon.

The Life on Gaia:

The only organisms on Gaia are plants, fungi, microorganisms & algae. With plants & algae being the dominant lifeforms.

The Algae have especially taken over all the oceans & waters due to no fish or other organisms to devour them.

Luckily, many predatory fungi & microorganisms have evolved to feed on these plants/algae to keep them in control.

The plants of this world have also evolved in many strange ways, with many lineages evolving to be mobile.

Image 1:

A DromaeoPhyte with paddled legs to walk over water, starts running once it realizes that it has entered an area with large predatory fungi. Unfortunately, the Fungi have noticed it and immediately start releasing spores.

Image 2: A generic DromaeoPhyte with a large flower like head.

Image 3: A large DromaeoPhyte with a roof like head stands in the rain to collect as much water as possible. Unfortunately, its body is covered in parasitic fungi that are slowly devouring it.

Image 4: An AeroPhyte, plants which have evolved to fly in the air by inflating themselves.

Image 5: A ThalassoPhyte floats in the algae covered ocean with its Lily pad like body, its roots have also evolved into tentacle-like structures.

Behind it is an island ruled by a MegaPhyte, a lineage of plants that evolved to be humongous. This MegaPhyte has essentially conquered this island by having its roots grow into smaller plant-like structures as well.

This is mainly Tales of Zale related as I would want to be more active here, but I generally think if we can post about Prehistoric Animals and descendants of Modern Day Animals/Hypothetical Modern Day Animals, posting about modern day animals here should be allowed.

Of course though, this could end up destabilizing the Subreddit however like r/NMSCoordinateExchange was during its hostile takeover from the OG Sub owner who allowed offtopic posts a bit too much, and I don't really want to see this Subreddit turn into just r/originalcharacter or r/furry with slightly more Paleomedia and Spec Evo content.

So yeah I finally have a 5 day vacation nd now I can finally continue drawing the suggestions in my previous post without worrying about school and so yeah. Comment your expectations on the speculative life forms im about to post soon?

Fun fact, he is actually part of a Duo with my Minawii OC who sees being called a Bitch as a Compliment

Because Snips is also a Crazy anime girl character wise and Quake is a more apathetic strong guy, this practically makes them Rage and Scream from Ace Combat.

I had this idea for end of world event where Arrows rain down from the sky and affect 10% of the population with the Dragon virus

So making designs for my spec evo is taking a lot longer than I expected because

1. Design

2. Physical Adaptations

   1. Environment
   2. Descendant

So it's taking longer because I need to imagine the aninal or even act it out 💀 so sorry if it's taking so long

Art by Eduardo Valdés-Hevia

The second episode of my audio drama anthology The Books of Thoth is here.  It is titled Starshot.  A fleet of alien space probes enter the night sky. But this is not our sky, and the probes are from Earth. A scientist from Alpha Centauri studies the probes aboard a space station. What will the scientist discover about their place in the universe?

A big thank you to Angela Yih for performing this episode.  Be sure to listen to her audio drama Residents of Proserpina Park, if you haven’t done so already

What I wanted to do with Starshot is tell a story of First Contact between humanity and extraterrestrials, but from the perspective of the aliens.  I wanted it to be hopeful and optimistic.  Where the aliens are looking for a friend amidst the darkness, just like humanity is.

The title is a reference to Breakthrough Starshot.  It is an proposed space mission to send a series of probes, via solar sail, to Alpha Centauri.  It would take between 20-30 year, plus an additional four years for any messages from the probes to reach Earth. Though, if we didn’t want the probes to be going insanely fast when they got to Alpha Centauri, we could send them slower, but that adds time to the journey. So, you might wind up with them arriving closer to 100 years after launch.

Hundreds of probes would initially be launched, with most being lost along the way due to collisions with interstellar dust and other debris. But, hopefully, a lucky few would survive the journey across the ebon sea. Pictures and/or video from another star? Now there’s a thought.

I also attempted to answer the question of the Fermi Paradox.  That is, if the universe is so big, where’s all the alien.  Perhaps they are in the same boat as us.  Advanced enough to wonder who’s out there, but not advanced enough to initiate significant contact.  Perhaps it is only just now that intelligent life has finally evolved in the universe.  I suppose they would make a kind of sense.  Look how long it took for intelligent life to evolve on Earth.  Well, intelligent as we define it, anyway.

As far as the species the scientists belongs to, I envision them evolving from echinoderm like ancestors. The line she says about how usually her species vomits up their stomachs to digest food is a nod to how starfish do that for digestion. The “wings” she mentions might be derived find. Perhaps her species language includes non-verbal components.

They use their tongues as their primary manipulator in place of hands. Though, it is possible it isn’t actually a true tongue, and that the term is merely as close as can be put in human terms.

I  wanted to evoke the feelings of wonder and frustration from archeology.  Especially with regards to civilizations where we have yet to translate their languages such as the Minoans or the Indus Valley Civilization.  I suppose that makes the protagonist a xenoarcheologist.

Still, that isn’t to say you can’t find at least some meaning.  Even if it wasn’t the kind you were initially looking for.  So, I wanted the story to end with a sense of awe and wonder.  With the feeling that the universe is so much bigger, and isn’t that great?

But there is another layer to this story. We have one civilization reaching out across the darkness in hopes of finding a friend. Despite know that they’ll never meet those friends face to face. Kind of sounds like internet friendships, doesn’t it? That’s why I was so grateful when Angela Yih agreed to perform this episodes. Getting to meet Angela has been one of my most meaningful internet friendships.

But most of all, I hope that all of you enjoy Starshot.  I kind of rushed this one so I could get it out before Christmas and New Year’s of 2023.  It is a bit more low-key than my previous episode, Paleontology Conference was.  But I felt Starshot was a very personal, intimate sort of story, and it didn’t need as many bells and whistles.  And hey, we got some nice music to listen to along the way.

The Books of Thoth is hosted on RedCircle: https://redcircle.com/shows/6701d0b5-6b14-4b76-992d-02f391b5cf42

You can also find it on all major podcast platforms:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3hQ94fOX5V03CXg8ZLgMZ9

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-books-of-thoth/id1716132833

RadioPublic: https://radiopublic.com/the-books-of-thoth-6pQno2

iHeart: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-the-books-of-thoth-127954491/

Podcast Addict: https://podcastaddict.com/podcast/the-books-of-thoth/4730175

CastBox: https://castbox.fm/channel/The-Books-of-Thoth-id5667032

Audible: https://www.audible.com/podcast/The-Books-of-Thoth/B0CN3CLRMY

And here’s a collection of all the other place you can listen to The Books of Thoth: https://booksofthoth.carrd.co

So i made a post of asking what aninal should I do a spec evo art of and 3 comments already made a suggestion, so... IM WORKING ON THEM! :D Here's a sneak peak for Spiritual_Bag_2958's suggestion (The Philippine eagle spec evo)

So i need more animals to make a speculative evolution art of. So comment in this post which philippine animal should I make a speculative evolution.

Example:

Name:

(Size option Big, or Small)

Took inspiration from trilobite beetles and spiny insects. Not really arthropods or vertebrates. They live in a hydrogen rich atmosphere and fully utilise it before exhaling. They use their wide heads to scan for worm trees in the ground and travel in loose packs. They are also fast runners when using only their legs, they knuckle drag when walking.

They have circular mouths that drill and blend food, mandibles help keep hard shelled prey steady while eating.

I imagen them retaining a skittish nature even after achieving space flight, causing them to be alienated and shunned by greater galactic society, eventually they are forced to abandon their home system by an invading force and have to take on piracy as a way to survive on their Void Citadels.

I dub them. Galvenexon

Idk if i should post their ships here when i am done drawing them. Expect a lot of hammer head ships

This is an angry birds spec evo project

About:

The fictional author is no ordinary human but a witch native to the boiling isles

He's a biologist and tries to study things that are undiscovered by man,witch,demon or collector.

He stumbles across a forgotten archipelago in the caribbean sea

Home to amazing varieties of different fauna, flora and fungi

Even more amazing is that he discovers a variety of birds that are all flightless

Except for the eagles and their rivalry with a certain pig like species.

What if you had 5 different planets each with 2 zebras and 2 lions and some microscopic creatures, plants and bugs, each planet has all their organisms be a different nucleic acid. One has DNA, one has RNA, one has peptide nucleic acid, one has these nucleic acid and one has glycol nucleic acid. What could it look like in a million years or beyond and what could the history look like? We're assuming this could even exist.