NESLife attempt #3

The Jubblera Senti Ilusiaus was the newest Jubblera species and one of the two survivors of that family. It was the most complex Jubblera yet, and at first glance it should have been more vulnerable to extinction. Yet it seems the Ilusiaus had a secret weapon, namely chromatophores on its wings and body, allowing individuals to send colour signals to each other, as well as blend into the background when needed. This could have revolutionised the way hives were organised, allowing them to make better use of the complex social instincts that their ancestors had already developed over millions of years. One way or another, these creatures were able to make the most of the meagre resources around at the time, to sustain just enough individuals to keep their hives functioning. The older Royalis Jubblera Hevina was also able to survive - although less versatile, it was also less demanding, and presumably had just the right mix of qualities to cling to life amongst the few remaining patches of dense vegetation.

The earliest known fossils of Jubblera Latio, with their distinctive large flattened antennae, are dated to the end half of this era, though it is possible this species was actually around much earlier. This was a descendent of the ancient, non-social Jubbleras, which were simple scavengers. The Latio was a better long-distance flier in particular, as well as being able to smell rotting meat from much further away. This was a big advantage as carrion became scarce. This species was the most numerous of all Jubbleras by the end of this era.

The Blood Scourge survived, as did other parasites like the Sea Tick and Riftocult. It seems nothing could eradicate these parasites so long as some host animals were still around somewhere.

The Aurora family was much reduced, although still left in better shape than most. The Long-Nosed Aurora survived by snatching up tiny insects (death and decay of plants and animals did at least ensure some insects were around), while the Ice Aurora was perhaps the hardiest of all Auroras, and the Thieving Auroras were the most versatile and opportunistic (and already the most widespread before the disasters began).

The Diving Auroras were the only branch of the aquatic auroras to survive, at least for a while. Their resistance to cold, combined with the insulation of oil-coated feathers, allowed them to spend all year in cold polar waters, which were always richer in nutrients and oxygen, and thus plankton and small sea animals. But by the end of this era, the Diving Auroras had evolved into, or otherwise been replaced by the newer Deep Auroras, which are generally considered to have been completely flightless at this point, a discontinuity from 'true' Auroras. However, these flightless Auroras were better adapted to swimming and diving, and they gave birth to well-formed and well-developed young which could probably survive (with help from their parents) polar conditions right from birth. Flying while heavily pregnant was a serious challenge, if not impossible. The trade-off seems to have worked well for this species.

The Flevryte family was reduced to two surviving members, the older one being the hardy, burrowing Kryodyte, while the newest was the feisty Madryte which appeared at the start of this era. Madrytes are believed to have aggressively defended their eggs and young using their larger talons, which could certainly have done serious damage to any prowling Thieving Auroras. Yet, compared to the other surviving groups of fliers, neither of these species had very safe populations. The old fruit-rich forests and jungles basically disappeared, leaving little in the way of suitable habitat for them (the surviving sub-species probably adapted to living on rocky cliff-faces instead of trees).

As in other times of disaster, those creatures that fed on death and decay, or on insects (which in turn fed on death and decay), were always the last ones to run out of food. Most of the simpler scavengers and insect-eaters were able to survive in some parts of the planet. The simple, hardy Flannelworms seem to have survived in especially large numbers. The versatile Land Ponduryte was the latest addition to the land scavengers, and was also lucky enough to be one of the survivors.

As for the insect-eaters, the only main casualty was the Herbaneraria, the tentacled tree-climbing rival of the Predatory Inis. Herbanerarias had thrived during the times of lush forest and jungle, but now seemed to lose out to the mostly ground-dwelling Inis. Both species hunted using silk traps (which might not have been 'webs' as such), but it seems the reproductive cycle of the Inis was better suited to the worsening conditions. The Videobulgorb survived alongside a newly-evolved relative the Stickybulgorb, which may have lived as a parasite-eater (or just a parasite) on larger animals.

Plant life obviously declined during this time, but diversity had never truly recovered since the last great extinction. With less competition, few species actually went extinct. Although, crucially, some of those that did die off were the larger fruit-producing 'trees', which no longer had resources to grow. The hardy Liandranel was actually the only real 'tree' left at the end of this era, and it hardly made any fruit at all. The forests that eventually reappeared were much poorer than the old forests and jungles had been, and so there was no big recovery in old forest and jungle dwelling species...

On the other hand, some plants actually did better than before -a landscape of decaying post-uber-tsunami debris, with unreliable sunlight and climate, seems to have worked well for the Zeeboos in particular. The most complex and slow-growing Zeeboos - the Dome and Burrowing species - had been largely confined to icy mountainsides since the end of the Snoscapian Era, but were now able to start growing even at the equator, and stubbornly remained there after the climate began to recover. Even older species, the Tougher Zeeboos and Rock Zeeboos, also did well - in fact, the Tougher Zeeboos had spawned the even-hardier Robust Zeeboo by this time, which seems to have been most successful of all. It is possible that, for a few years at least, the only real 'forests' anywhere on the planet would have been large fields of Robust Zeeboos, growing in otherwise barren terrain. Simpler and faster-growing plants eventually began to take over again, led at first by the Spike Moss, which had evolved from earlier Mosses to be almost as hardy as the Robust Zeeboo, and able to survive in the same dry conditions.

The Legger family, which together made up most of the land herbivores at the start of this era, was reduced to the ChewOn-Saur, Spikasaurus, Tongue Legger and the unique Mamicalon. The ChewOn was built for toughness, speed and long distance travel, combined with good eyesight and omnivorous diet. Although it didn't have the most efficient digestive organs, it had been one of the most common animals before the disasters began, and small numbers of them were able to survive in all corners of the land. Meanwhile the Spikasaurus, despite its name, was not actually related to the Saur line (the confusion dates back to mistakes made when identifying the first fossil fragments), instead it was descended from the old Asmara Scraper, a few steps below the Seer Stalkers which were actually the most sophisticated species of that line. Yet the Seers went extinct, while only the more primitive Spikasaurus that survived. It seems the Spikasaurus had one advantage of its own, in that it laid hardened eggs and had an instinct to guard them against opportunistic predators. Also, although its plant-digesting organs were not as good as the Seer Stalker's had been, they were still more efficient than other types of herbivores, able to gain nourishment from most kinds of plant material...

Unlike other extinction events, this time some large animals were able to survive on land: the Megaltihavalion and the Maiarix. Megalithavalions were able to dig burrows and hibernate during the worst times, while their crushing jaws could bring down just about any animal, and their lazy ambush style of hunting worked well in certain places (lakes, watering holes and river crossings), all of which allowed a small number to survive. The Maiarix survived in even fewer numbers, mostly in the southern plains of 'Hebria' (the western half of the fragmenting supercontinent). Basically it seems the Maiarix was versatile, intelligent, efficient and tough enough to survive the hard times, without being too specialised or demanding. It survived where its relatives the Velocirix and Megarix did not (both those species ultimately went extinct).

The Maiarix was not the sole survivor of the Saaranix family, as there were other survivors from the Bariothorim line - the Barioat was already adapted for life in rugged hills and mountainsides, able to navigate rocky terrain thanks to its strong hooves, and able to take good care of its young and hibernate through cold winters, while the Snorkelorim was a smaller, stranger, more specialised version of the aquatic Long-Necked Bariothorim (the Long-Neck itself did not survive).

The biggest animals of all, the impressive Gigatuplers, would have been tough enough to survive the initial disasters, and their fat-storing bodies would have sustained them for a while. But ultimately they starved to death as they struggled to find enough nourishment to fuel their large bodies. However their smaller relatives, the shy Stealtuplers, were able to survive. Stealtuplers were already adapted to live in drier conditions than most animals, and shared their desert homes (and possibly shared their own burrows) with poisonous Toxidids.



High-level predators were always more vulnerable to mass extinctions, due to their position at the top of the food chain. In the immediate aftermath of any disaster, predators could feast on dead, injured, starving or otherwise weakened prey animals, but that wouldn't last long. Even at the start of this era, there was already a lot of competition among a variety of active-hunting predators - various species of Lupivuses, Kaklieas, Gorgaths, and others - while none of the main prey species were easy targets...

By the end of this era, only the Lupivus Secus and Ground Kakliea remained from the main predator species. The stealthy Shadow Kakliea, the poisonous Valios Toxicum, the mighty Banded Lupivus and Dire Lupivus, as well as all of the Gorgaths, and in fact all the descendents of the Zunatra, all went extinct...

The Lupivus Secus was already an old species, a survivor of several ice ages and other bad times on the planet. While later Lupivus species and other lines of evolution had become stronger and more sophisticated in many ways, none of them had really surpassed the Secus as a fast and efficient hunter on the open plains. It seems the Secus itself came close to extinction, but managed to cling on thanks to its combination of traits - in particular, having just enough investment in physical strength to overpower most prey, as well as just enough social and pack hunting instincts to be able to bring down hard targets like a lone Maiarix, without being so dependent on the group system that individuals couldn't survive on their own when need be.

It may be worth mentioning that the Eater Gorgath was very nearly one of the survivors, and was certainly the last of the Gorgaths to die out (some claim to have found fossils of the Eater dating from over a million years after the initial disasters). But while the Eater was good at conserving energy, it wasn't great at hunting in the first place - it was strong, but slow, and not well suited to hunting in the vast barren plains (Megalithavalions and Mortytes had already filled the roles of ambush hunters in other places).

There are also signs that the Valios Toxicum survived longer than most, but without its ideal habitat of dense forest and jungle, was ultimately out-competed by the Ground Kakleia on the surface.

The Zoone was the very last of the Zunatra-descended hunters to evolve, and seems to have done well in the short time it had before the extinctions began. Fossils of its skull show a large nasal passages that probably gave it an unparallel sense of smell for a land animal, which would have been very useful for tracking prey across vast barren plains, although it wasn't as fast nor as resistant to the elements as the Secus, which had begun this era with a large established population.

As for the Ground Kakliea, this had the niche of nocturnal hunter to itself (at least on the ground, and its night vision wasn't especially good). They were also fairly versatile and adaptable (actually the 'brainiest' land animals left alive), and like the Secus, seem to have been lucky enough to have the right mix of traits to be able to survive. By the end of this era they were probably more numerous than the Secus. Most of all, they owed their survival to the Burrowing Ball, which was probably their main prey.

Burrowing Balls were themselves versatile omnivores, able to eat other small animals and insects, but probably survived by digging into the roots of Zeeboos and other plants. They weren't the most efficient animals, but since they could dig deeper tunnels than most, they were better able to avoid predators and harsh conditions on the surface. Also, their sight and hearing were still about the best of any animal, which was useful - in addition to the Ground Kaklieas, their tunnels would have often been breeched by hunting parties of Mortytes. Still, they survived to become the last living descendents of the first feathered Valions of ancient Agonia, from which the Kunatra, Zunatra and most of the now-extinct predators had also been descended.

The amphibious LungScraper survived another mass extinction, alongside its more recent descendent the Proto-Otterus, and also the Mudtupler, the swamp-dwelling relative of the Seatuplers and Gigatuplers. For one thing, amphibious creatures were better able to survive massive tsunamis caused by the initial impact events, which would have drowned other land animals, and left other sea creatures stranded and helpless. They also had the freedom to move between shallow water habitat and different islands in search of any scraps of food - many new islands were rising and falling during this era, and most were accessible only to fliers and amphibians.

The picture in the oceans is a little more confusing than that of the land surface. The ecosystem based on the volcanic vents on the deep ocean floor was able to carry on basically unchanged, with most of its species still in place. There are signs of great destruction caused by volcanic upheaval in some parts of the seabed, but things were stable enough elsewhere for the new Disgusting Scaper to gain a foothold and then spread across mineral-rich parts of the ocean floor.

Meanwhile, it seems that levels of plankton near the surface rose and fell and different times - perhaps rising in the wake of super-tsunamis, as countless tons of rotting organic debris and nutrients were dragged back into the oceans, yet also falling as sunlight diminished, and volcanic chemicals and/or increased levels of radiation poisoned the water. The level of plankton sometimes dropped far enough that even the super-efficient planktonovores like the Shellster Complexus were in trouble.

But, by the very end of this era, the seas were slightly richer than they had been before all the disasters. Although still suffering from the effects of volcanic poisons, the break-up of the supercontinent had begun to change ocean currents, stirring up more nutrient-rich water from the seabed. The end result was the end of the dominance of the Shellsters in the open ocean - only the Complexus survived (unlike the Reinizio and Iyirein varities), and although still very common, they were now rivalled in population size by various 'Fish' - Roxorfish, Bathysfish and the newly-evolved Needlefish. Other, older Fish species had died out - the ancient Blizzardfish for one, and also the even more ancient Cloudfish (possibly as its last refuge, various inland lakes, began to dry out), which had been one of the longest-lasting species so far, and wasn't far removed from the original Flying-Fin ancestors of the Auroras.

The surviving Fish species had different advantages... The Roxorfish was able to migrate back and forth between inland lakes and open ocean, and could eat hatchlings and other small sea creatures. Needlefish were fast and tough, while Bathysfish could live right down at the hot volcanic vents, and eat various different things growing there. What they all had in common was their ability to survive in deep water, at least temporarily, which hints at there being some kind of occasional hazard near the surface.

Although few sea plants and 'reef' species actually went extinct (and those that did were mostly older species), all their populations generally took a nosedive at some point, or at least showed much the same variation as plankton levels. The versatile, omnivorous Seatupler (ancestor of the Gigatuplers and Stealtuplers on land) was able to survive, as was its mobile swimming relative the Reefwrecker Tudian. But the elegant Velocine Finner, the last of the 'true' Finners, which had been the main herbivore of the ocean for millions of years, did not survive - it seems it simply couldn't find enough suitable plant food to fuel its greater speed and energy demands.

This left the strange Kathulu Finner as the only remaining Finner. The Kathulu probably had even higher energy demands than the Velocine, as it seems to have had a similar fast metabolism, a large brain (the most complex nervous system of any sea creature so far), and is also believed to have been capable of fast swimming (though exactly how it moved is unclear). Somehow, these comparatively-intelligent creatures were able to survive (some suggest they used their tentacle-limbs to build 'shelters' on the seafloor, and cooperated to collect food and store it away for later use, or somehow 'farmed' certain sea plants), though their population was tiny, hovering just above the threshold of collapse due to in-breeding.

It may be noted that the Scythus, a monstrous relative of the Shellters, was the only large sea creature to survive the disasters. The Crusipler, famous for its gigantic over-size claws, did not survive - presumably because of competition with the smaller Seatupler and Reefwrecker species.

One strange new sea 'plant' appeared at this time - the Legionicus was a descendent of the Symbicus, and shared much the same symbiotic talents, except these were now used to link with other organisms of the same species - it is thought that individual Legionicus would gather together in shallow water, piling up on top of each other, to make their own 'reefs', which could be assembled and dissembled as needed. If so, this worked well enough for the Legionicus to survive, and evidently spread across much of the ocean as well as waterways on land.

As for the ocean's meat-eaters, these faced similar problems to those on land. However, unlike on land, many of the ocean predators had long been separated into different niches, using different senses and hunting methods to catch prey, sometimes without much overlap between them. Some predators remained almost totally blind - the Shy Hunters used scent receptors and vibration sense, the Phantomorex used its electrical sense - while others relied mainly on eyesight to hunt near the surface, where there was most competition. In the end, the Baronavalion and its line of large, graceful, sophisticated, air-breathing hunters (descended from earlier amphibious Valions) was not able to survive. There either wasn't enough prey during the worst periods, and/or there was too much competition from the smaller Diving Aurora (now a true ocean-dweller) and the Preditudian. The Preditudian was the latest species in a line of fast hunters (related to the bottom-dwelling Seatupler), which managed to match most of the advantages of the Baronavalion while developing superior senses, and was able to survive on smaller amounts of prey. Though, again, it seems the margin was close enough for the Preditudians to come close to extinction themselves.

Other new predators were able to survive - the Tentakul, relative of the Shellster, which could hunt for small hatchlings in tight spaces using good eyesight and flexible tentacles, and the Skulkavalion, basically a simpler Simplavalion which was better suited for lazy ambush hunting down in the murky depths - the Simplavalion itself died out, brining to an end a species that was even older than the Cloudfish (and was the ancestor of a large branch of evolution including many of the main land and sea predators that had come since).

Finally, the scavengers of the ocean also prospered at times during this era, but the sheer scale of the ocean and the dispersal of dead and decaying things often made it harder to actually find food, compared with scavenging on land. Notably, the Dibbler-Ice 2.0 went extinct - this was another very old species, which had also lasted even longer than the Cloudfish. On the other hand, the Monuol was a new scavenger which was able to survive, evolving from the successful Ool of the previous era - the Monuol was now one of the most efficient scavengers, with mild poisons to deter increasingly-desperate predators. Although gathering in groups had its disadvantages in terms of sustainability, it also meant that the occasional large corpse could be claimed by the group, and guarded against other crawling scavengers like the Micronyte and Sensitive Mibbler.

Lupivus Secus: Grombar
Evolved from: Primus Lupivus
Role: versatile, social, fast land predator
Habitat: warm/cold land, deserts
Survival Status: Competing
Genes (43): Complex Stomach x2, Flesh Eating x4, Swimming x1, Vibration Sense x3, Eyes x3, Brain Power x2, Skeleton x2, Cartilage x1, Jaws x2, Fangs x1, Communal Behaviour x3, Water Retention x3, Lungs x1, Walking x4, Climbing x1, Parenting Instinct x2, Strength x2, Fur x2, Live Birth x2, Cold Resistance x1, Pack Hunting x1
Description: With the further development of Live Birth the Lupivus packs where able to stay more mobile. Though a few would have to stay with the younger cubs. Thus the part of the pack that went out for food during the younger months before the Lupivus Cubs could start to travel with the older ones started to develop a style of pack hunting. Along with this came the development of a true cold resistance added on to the fur they had been growing for generations now.