Welcome to my Metazoic site! This site discusses the existence of the creatures to come along after humans will be extinct. I first became interested in a world after man when I acquired my first copy of Dougal Dixon's After Man: A Zoology of the Future in 1992. However, I unwittingly created creatures that did not exist from the time I was about 8 years old. But it was after I obtained a copy of that book (now a collector's item) that I decided to take these same creatures I created as a child and make them more realistic in an evolutionary sense. Though it may be hard for a lot of us to grasp, humans will soon become extinct. One of the biggest factors of how this will happen is the current overpopulation rate. Which is why I don't contribute to the population. I created this world with little more than mammals fulfilling all ecological niches with the help of some friends. I even gave the era of the age after man a name, I called it the Metazoic, derived from the words for "After-era" (Meta, meaning after, and zoic meaning era). We are now in the Cenozoic era. To view all the animals I have created since I began this project, you can go to the "Meet the Mammals" section of this site. To discuss your own ideas about what you think will happen in the future world, and share your ideas with others, please feel free to leave a comment.
One more thing, some of you may find this site quite offensive, and you have a right to your own opinion. But please respect my right to have an opinion too. I'm not saying there is no GOD, I believe it was HIM who got the ball rolling. But I believe after that, evolution took over. There is so much more evidence of evolution than there is of creation. Even that going on right under our noses. Other than that, enjoy yourself and visit our many links.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

New Family Posted: The Cryptopters!!!

Another family to be presented in Metazoica, the Cryptopteridae. I was talking about them on here yesterday and decided to create their page on my site. You can view their page here: http://www.metazoica.com/Cryptopters.html. I "stole" Dixon's idea for Arbovespertilio, only instead of making it a predator, I made it a harmless plant-eater, like a modern sloth. I think it makes better sense, since the animal would not be able to move fast enough to capture mice and such fast-moving animals as that. In their world, which is the Hawaiian (or Batavian--according to Dixon) Islands, their main predator, Cercomoloch, lives in the top level. So these bats live at lower and ground levels, and all have lost their wings. Most do however "fly" in different ways. Acronurus "flies" in the same manner as lemurs and monkeys do today. Another species, Pitheconycteris, brachiates like modern gibbons do. And Cryptopterus "flies" along the ground, like deer and antelope can.

In today's world we are already seeing some island bats turn somewhat flightless. It's almost a stones-throw to these animals losing their wings completely and adapting to using other methods of "flight", even if it is mock-flight. Most of these animals do not get very big. Since they are confined to the small Hawaiian chain, they can only get so big. The 2 largest species are Cryptopterus and Arbovespertilio. Arbovespertilio gets up to about the size of a modern orangutan, and is tailless. Cryptopterus is about the size of a St. bernard dog, and has a very short tail. The longest tail belongs to Acronurus, a strictly tree-dwelling animal the size of a domestic cat. The tail is longer than the head and body length.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

So, I think these ones look like usual animals. But, being the chiropterans by the origin, they must inherit and develop the features of their ancestors. But your bat ancestors look too ordinary. As fior me, I don't see the features of their ancestry.

Dee TimmyHutchFan said...

They have leafs on their noses. The fingers are fused together, except for the thumbs. Other than that, they aren't meant to look much different.

Dee TimmyHutchFan said...

BTW, forgive me if I am wrong, but your last name is so familiar. Is this Paul??? How've you been? How's the new baby?

Anonymous said...

Yes, I'm.
My baby is all right, and now we are half-year old!

Dee TimmyHutchFan said...

Good to see you again!! I wondered where you disappeared to.

Anonymous said...

So, Cassandra, what do I mean talking about chiropteran features? First of all, these creatures have skeletal specializations to flight, and their descendants must inherit them. And you, as a creator of new animals derived from bats, must take them into account.
First of all, bats have joined chest bones. Ribs are movelessly attached to the column (except of flying foxes), and vertebrae are also fused (bats breath exclusively due to movements of diaphragm). Because of it we must say goodbye to galloping forms moving with the help of the spinal mobility (remember the cheetah, for example).
Next, the reducing of ulna limits the rotational movements of hand. It means: say goodbye to primate-like tree-climbers. Their reduced wing-hands may look and act like rake, being not able to complex actions.
And, of course, the position of hind limbs turned asides and not able to move in parasagittal plane strongly limits the set of possible directions of terrestrial bat evolution. They may be small tree-climbers (I mean, bark-creepers, but not branch-grippers), small rodent-like ground dwellers moving supporting on external surface of wrist, and so on. Possible, they may even jump like grasshoppers on turned back to front hind legs. But the movement like typical terrestrial mammals is prohibited for them by principles of evolution.

Dee TimmyHutchFan said...

As for the feet, I'm figuring bats to learn how to pearch, like birds, which will turn their feet foreward.

The rest, I will have to think how to integrate them into these animals. "Jump like grasshoppers"? Hmm...