Alien Biospheres: Part 13 - Biotic Interchange
Biblaridion・41 minutes read
Campfire is a versatile worldbuilding application with various modules for different project aspects, offering collaboration options and tutorials. The Great American Interchange led to significant ecological changes, including biotic interchange and evolution of new adaptations among different species.
Insights
- Allopatric separation of continents leads to distinct biotas that, upon rejoining, cause ecological chaos due to biotic interchange, where competition and extinction occur.
- The survival of species during niche partitioning after interchange events is influenced by factors like body size, reproductive strategies, and adaptations, with generalist species having better odds, like opossums surviving the Great American Interchange due to their adaptable nature.
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What is Campfire?
Campfire is an online writing and worldbuilding application with seventeen modules for different project aspects.
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Summary
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Campfire: Worldbuilding App with Collaboration and Tutorials
- Campfire is an online writing and worldbuilding application with seventeen modules for different project aspects.
- The full version of specific modules can be accessed for as low as 25 cents a month or through a one-time purchase.
- Users can choose to keep their work private or collaborate with others and share projects on the Explore page.
- The Learn page offers tutorials and guidance on worldbuilding and storytelling topics.
- A mobile app for Campfire is in development and will be released soon.
- Allopatric separation of eastern and western continents leads to distinct biotas that eventually rejoin, causing ecological chaos.
- Biotic interchange occurs when previously separated biotas come into contact, leading to competition and extinction.
- The longer the biotas have been separated, the more dramatic the effects of interchange will be.
- The Great American Interchange resulted in significant changes to the biotas of North and South America.
- The outcome of interchange events is influenced by factors like land area, climate, and species adaptations.
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Evolutionary factors shaping species' survival strategies.
- A species' average clutch size is determined by the maximum number of young parents can adequately provide resources for.
- Larger animals take longer to develop and need more resources, leading to a correlation between large body sizes and reduced clutch sizes.
- Live young in animals require longer gestation periods and more resources, limiting the maximum size of viviparous animals compared to egg-laying ones.
- Allobrachids grow larger by producing larger oothecae but must abandon carrying young due to weight limits, leading to communal nesting.
- Large herbivores, phalacrobrachids, will force eastern herbivores into decline, with only a few exceptionally large species surviving.
- Allobrachids crossing the land bridge will introduce new predators, ensidonts, leading to the extinction of more species.
- Ensidonts, with robust pincer-like pedipalps, may outcompete macropredatory cryptodonts, becoming top predators.
- Kleptoparasitism, where animals steal food, may target malleognathans breaking open echinostracans' shells, leading to competition.
- Kentrodonts equipped with venom may evolve new adaptations to compete with western predators, specializing in hunting larger prey.
- Some kentrodonts may evolve infrared sensing, aiding in hunting endothermic animals and avoiding larger predators, potentially leading to new adaptations and strategies for survival.
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Parasitoids: Strategies for Survival and Reproduction
- Parasitoids can be ectoparasitoids, attaching eggs outside the host, or endoparasitoids, laying eggs within the host's body.
- Ectoparasitoid kentrodonts attach eggs to the host's exterior and inject paralytic venom to prevent damage.
- Idiobionts are parasitoids that immobilize hosts to prevent movement or development, mostly ectoparasitoids.
- Endoparasitoids protect eggs within the host's body, allowing hosts to move and grow, known as koinobionts.
- Kentrodonts may evolve oral ovipositors to inject eggs into hosts without paralyzing them, becoming koinobionts.
- Generalist species have better survival odds during niche partitioning to avoid competition.
- Opossums were among the few marsupials to survive the Great American Interchange due to their generalist nature.
- Xenopsids are adaptable mesocarnivores with cooperative breeding and pack-hunting behaviors for survival.
- Polyandry in xenopsids may be influenced by dominance hierarchy, leading to females having multiple mates.
- Rhamphodonts may evolve brood parasitism as a strategy for reproduction, exploiting the care of other species.
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Brood parasites kill hosts' young for care.
- Brood parasites outcompete nestmates by killing hosts' young for more care.
- Greater honeyguide hatchlings have sharp beaks to attack and kill step-siblings.
- Newly hatched cuckoos engage in egg tossing to push eggs out of the nest.
- Some brood parasites evolve eggs mimicking hosts' appearance or produce larger, harder-to-break eggs.
- Parasitic rhamphodonts mimic host helpers, produce large grubs with sharp teeth, and kill other young.
- Lucky geological event spares original eastern biota from extinction by forming Septentria island.
- Septentria serves as a refuge for clades extinct on the mainland, fostering divergence from mainland relatives.
- Plants in Septentrian rainforests face nutrient challenges, leading to parasitism and carnivory adaptations.
- Parasitic plants evolve haustoria to absorb nutrients, while carnivorous plants catch prey using various traps.
- Acanthopods in freshwater habitats evolve electroreception and active electrogenesis for hunting and defense.
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Survival Strategies of Septentrian Dolichognathans
- Deinognathans are being outcompeted by faster onychodonts, but semiaquatic clades like dolichognathans survive in wetlands, particularly in Septentria where competition is lower.
- Dolichognathans may adapt their senses for murky water, potentially using echolocation which involves emitting sound waves and detecting echoes to sense nearby objects.
- Hybognathans, a type of dolichognathans, thrive in Septentria, using a resonating chamber in their cephalothorax to amplify sound for sensing, patrolling waterways for acanthopods and occasionally feeding on small prey on land.
