It's All About Streamlining

I've often been asked about why I made my animals the way I did, well it's all about streamlining. Evolution as we all know is a process of improvement. You look at most modern mammals, and you see big, rather clumsy creatures. Felines lumbering from side-to-side, elephants incapable of jumping, cattle built more like tanks than a creature who should be able to quickly and easily escape predators, mammals with gliding membranes creep slowly up tree trunks. Well, that is what my Metazoic site set out to improve upon. What would make these animals more streamlined for running, jumping, climbing, and still be able to do some of the things that they are likely meant to do? Well, we see some of the answers in modern mammals already.

For example, what makes an animal streamlined for running? The fastest animals have developed hooves for running. So I applied this concept to several species, and even to some predators. The deer-like Deinognathids are prime examples of having streamlined legs for being able to capture their prey. They are also equipped with jaws so powerful, it would make a crocodile feel envious!!! Their jaws are their primary weapons (hense the collective family name "Deinognathids" which mean "terrible jaws"). The teeth are well developed for grasping onto prey. But we will look further into the family when I get to them for Family of the Week. But they would be great examples of mammals that combine speed and agility with predatory precision. If we could see one of these animals running today, we would see they run with the very same spring in their step that we see in modern deer and antelope, rather than the slow, lumbering, swaying motions seen in modern felines.

Another thing that seems to stump everyone is why my gliding lemurs have developed ribbed gliding membranes rather than the typical sugar-glider style membranes. Well, again, it's streamlining. Sugar gliders, flying lemurs, and flying squirrels have this feature, and by consequence are not very fast climbers. Nothing like their relatives are anyway. The gliding lemurs of the Metazoic have eliminated the extensive gliding membrane for a set of wing-like projections from the ribs that fold back when the animal is climbing. Therefore giving them better and faster gliding power, and still be able to glide over long distances, even though their gliding membrane is rather small. In short, these animals climb much faster than the animals that have extensive gliding membranes, like sugar gliders, because their arms and legs are more free and flexible.

Another thing I get asked a lot is why do I have bats that have only one finger in the wings, ie, the Monodactylopterids. Again, it's all about streamlining. Look at modern sea birds, like gulls, albatross and terns. Their wings are very streamlined compared to say how a sparrow or robin or even an eagle's wings are built. Because these birds basically are built to ride the oceanic wind currents. So are the Monodactylopterid bats of the Metazoic. Most of these species are ocean-dwellers, and built to ride the wind currents. Though I still have some Metazoic Pteropods that have all 4 fingers in their wings and do indeed inhabit the oceans, the process of improvement allows for the Monodactylopterids to lose 3 of the 4 fingers in the wing, and move on to a more streamlined 1-fingered wing, making them considerably faster and better capable of navigating from continent to continent by using the wind currents to their advantage. And yes, the Monodactylopterids did evolve from the Pteropods.

Well, I hope this helps others understand a little bit about the World after humans that I have created. Though the animals may seem strange, they are not impossible.