'Amphiterra' Explained | Speculative Biology

Hypothetical question for you: what if frogs ruled the Earth? Not just terms in terms of numbers… but in terms of your position in the ecosystem. Amphiterra is a

speculative

biology

project by talented artist and writer Roxy Valdez, who imagines the incredible, surreal shapes frogs could achieve if they were given the perfect environment to evolve. While the world of Amphiterra often looks like an alien planet, the artist imagines that it is actually an alternate timeline of Earth, where subtly different climatic conditions led the first amphibians to compete with the first dinosaurs and proto-mammals. What creatures will develop and thrive in this drastically different story?

For this archive entry, we will explore the fascinating possibilities of Project Amphiterra. And remember to support Roxy Valdez on Patreon using the links below if you're a fan of this project. Now let's go back 252 million years and begin our journey through the Amphiterra timeline... Our epic story of the rise of the frogs begins in the early Triassic, with the oldest member of the frog lineage: the tiny Triadobatrachus. This amphibian is also present in our timeline, but in the alternate world of Amphiterra, the more humid and humid conditions will make Triadobatrachus more suitable for the period than early synapsids and reptiles.

As a result, their descendants will ascend to the top of this primordial Earth... By the Late Triassic, in what is now Nigeria, the common Eofrog emerged from Triadobatrachus and represents the first major deviation of our world. Brought about by the ideal conditions of this alternate timeline, Eofrog is, essentially, just a big frog. But over many eons, it will provide the anatomical basis for the most important species of this alternate reality. The reign of the amphibians has already begun... In the early Jurassic, the descendants of the Eofrog have evolved to fill several important niches in the world's ecosystems.

In the swampy plains, one of the first effective predators has emerged: the funny Greater Moistboy. While these life forms have a comical appearance, the advancement they represent is tremendous, as they have placed their limbs under their bodies to be taller and faster than their competitors. The Moistboy also possesses an enlarged clavicular ring, which essentially functions as a ribcage and helps support its increasing weight. Many of the most successful predators of the future will be derived from this design. In the rainforests of what is now North Africa, the marbled snapper perches on a branch. This early tree-dweller has developed a form of creeping, unpredictable movement, convergent with the chameleons of our timeline, and will serve as the basis for several unusual branches.

It is already becoming more sedentary, a lifestyle that will continue until it reaches truly extreme levels... In the forests of what is now East Africa, another important tree-climbing species has emerged: the Lanky Frogget. While they still spend some time on the forest floor, these slender, long-legged organisms are expert climbers and move patiently from branch to branch. Even more than Snapapple, the Froggets' descendants will be the marquee champions of the world. And the last important niche occupied is that of the grazing herbivore, which is currently occupied by the Lowland Dogus. These living lifeforms are cousins ​​of the Greater Moistboy and have also achieved the decisive step of lifting their body off the ground.

A wide range of future herbivorous megafauna will owe their evolutionary ancestry to the Dogus, as the various descendants of Eofrog continue to diversify and expand in number... On the dry plains of the Cretaceous period, a powerful predator comes to rule. Bullpronks are descendants of the Greater Moistboy and have become efficient pack predators. They hunt animals that graze in coordinated packs, much like the lions of our day. To communicate while patrolling, Bullpronks can raise and lower their tails like signal flags, and even fill them with color. These tails are actually a conserved trait from their tadpole stage, showing that these life forms have had to get creative to occupy niches not normally associated with amphibians.

And speaking of being creative, in the misty northern rainforests, Mottled Suckerlump is a creature whose specialized lifestyle has caused a tremendous change in its body plan. Even more so than their ancestors, the Marbled Snapples, these animals are incredibly inactive, with some spending their entire adult lives rooted to a single branch like an amphibious barnacle. As with the flatfish in our timeline, their anatomy seems absurd, but is actually perfectly suited to their survival methods. Suckerlump's lifestyle requires few calories, so they can subsist on insects that come within range of their projectile tongue. And with their characteristic mottled color, they effectively hide from insects. . . until it's too late.

And later in the Cretaceous, an even stranger variant of the Suckerlump will emerge from beneath the waves. The Tropical Frondle can be found nestled in shallow waters underwater and has a really strange lifestyle. Starting out as a free-swimming tadpole, once they mature they never develop limbs and become completely stationary filter feeders. This lifestyle requires little brain power, so like the soft-bodied "sea squirts" of our timeline, Tropical Frondle surprisingly digests most of its brains upon reaching adulthood, reusing the valuable proteins. in other places. The most characteristic adult feature of the Frondle is its highly derived tongue, which has developed sticky branches to trap the planktonic organisms on which it survives.

At this point in the timeline, some creatures have clearly become unrecognizable as amphibians... And high in the treetops, around the same period, a frog with an equally strange body design makes its home. The Tree Frixel is a descendant of the Lanky Frogget, the other tree specialist that emerged alongside the Snapapple. However, the Tree Frixel is even better suited to trees, with a body design that at first seems implausibly awkward, but makes a lot of sense when the Tree Frixel is in its element. Like our primates, Tree Fixels swing through the canopy above, with their hind limbs perfectly positioned to navigate from branch to branch, as illustrated by this biomechanical visualization.

As a result, Tree Frixels have developed thumb-like digits and an overall increase in cognitive ability. Over time, they can lead to something really exciting... A relative of the Frixel will take a very different path from its tree-climbing cousins. In the forests of Central America on our timeline, you may see an Alloo Glider. So far in the Amphiterra timeline, amphibians have yet to conquer the skies like our birds or bats have, as their ectothermic, low-metabolism bodies are not well equipped for the rigors of powered flight. But the Aloo have found a way out. To hunt, it climbs trees and uses its eyes turned almost to the back of its head to judge the distance of its prey.

Once a target is locked on, the Alloo leaps back first toward the forest floor, using primitive wings and a specialized sac that inflates to provide resistance and slow its descent. As strange as Alloo's strategy may seem, it is no different than the first dinosaurs, Archeopteryx in our timeline, who managed to fly. The future may yet hold skies dominated by the curiously inverted descendants of the Alloo. Speaking of curious descendants, at the end of the Cretaceous period, the arid grasslands will give rise to a creature so strange that it will be difficult to understand at first. This is an inhabited Lorge, a slow, bulky herbivore that is a distant descendant of the lowland Dogus.

At first glance, the slow-moving Lorge might appear vulnerable to predation. But Lorge has his own private security in the form of Colonial Gobolins, a species that has evolved to live inside Lorge's hump. The tiny gobolins are actually another branch of the Banded Suckerlump family tree and have developed a close symbiotic relationship with their living nests. At the first sign of danger, the Gobolin horde will emerge from Lorge and attack the attacker until he retreats. It's an effective strategy, but this highly specialized pair won't have many offspring in a changing world... Yet another descendant of the Lowland Dogus will continue.

In the cold tundra of the early Tertiary period, an amphibian has found an ingenious way to survive the cold. The Sparkling Waster lives further north than most amphibian megafauna may exist. However, the Squander stays warm thanks to its namesake foam. Specialized pores on the back of the waster produce a thick, imposing layer of insulating foam. This foam is similar to the layer of mucus that some frogs in our timeline produce to keep their skin moist. However, the Squander's foam is unique in that it traps heat within its structure, allowing it to roam the polar reaches. With this clever adaptation, Squander's descendants will be well equipped for the cold climate...

To the south, another species that will have many successful descendants dominates the dry steppe. The Steppe Fraggon is a giant carnivore distantly related to the agile pack that hunts Plains Bullpronk. Now very territorial, the huge Steppe Fraggon does not need a pack and hunts alone. But the Steppe Fraggon is actually an omnivore, with a lifestyle that could be compared to that of a bear, gorging itself to accumulate fat for winter hibernation. As the planet continues to cool, Fraggons will endure and diversify in unexpected ways... But a creature whose fate is more mysterious lives in the trees of temperate environments.

High in the canopy, the amazing Freeple live in raised wooden villages. Freeple, a descendant of the Frixel tree, has reached a level of intelligence roughly analogous to that of a human. Like male frigatebirds, under the chin, Freeples have a highly developed gular pouch for communication. But Freeple's communication is very complex and its language is almost comparable to a curious form of Morse code. Even more curious, the Freeple appear to disappear from the Amphiterran timeline several million years after their evolution. What fate did these enigmatic creatures suffer? Did they die out or, over time, did they reach a level of advancement that allowed for a different type of output?

We have no way to say for sure, but no matter the nature of its departure, Freeple's absence leaves room for even stranger species. In the late Tertiary, an isolated island environment has given rise to an impressive way of life. The Splendid Fraggon is a descendant of the Steppe Fragon and has become a peaceful herbivore, spending its days wading through swampy jungles on graceful stilt-like legs. With vibrant color, a Splendid Fraggon walking silently across its home island would probably be a magnificent sight. They feed on mushrooms that grow in abundance in this region, giving up the omnivorous lifestyle of their ancestor...

On the mainland, however, another descendant of Fraggon has taken the opposite path. The Catastrophic Fraggon is the largest terrestrial carnivore the world of Amphiterra has ever seen. The Catastrophic Fraggon's rotund anatomy may seem surprising at first glance, as it almost appears too bulky to stand upright. However, upon examining the animal's skeleton, the Fragon's center of gravity is a clavicular ring that began to overdevelop in the Great Moistboy. This hypertrophied ring acts as the axis of the enormous mass of the fraggon. While the reign of the catastrophic fraggon is amazing, it is also quite short. An imminent temperature drop will cause the Fraggon era to end prematurely.

However, one type of Fraggon, which is already well adapted to the cold, will survive. Stalking the newly formed tundra, the Arctic Fraggon thrives well into the Tertiary, protected from the cold by layers of blubber and thick skin. However, its most unique adaptation for keeping warm is the thick layer of "fur" on its underside. These hairs are actually dermal papillae: tubes of skin and fatty tissue that trap warm air against the Fraggon's body. And since Anfiterra's ice age is thought to be less severe than our own, the Fraggons have everything they need to continue thriving. But there are other ways to survive the cold.

A short distance to the south, the Eon Toad are a species with a very different method of enduring the long winter months. Not a type of Fraggon, the Eon Toad is actually a descendant of the Foaming Squander that has swapped its foamy fur for something even stranger. Eon Toads enter a state of hibernation that can last several years, enduring periods of minor freezing and thawing while waiting for spring.perfect to get active again. While this type of cold protection has never been seen in an animal, some plants contain cryoprotectants that prevent their cells from lethally shrinking while left frozen for long periods.

And on the subject of plants, the Eon toad often wakes up to discover that many types of vegetation have grown on its body, which can be harmful if left unchecked... And in the same region, you can find the last species of this timeline. - which serve as an example of how strange Amphiterra's fauna can be. The Foaming Trogglefolk are another descendant of the Foaming Squander, who are considerably smaller than their ancestors. Incredibly, the trogglefolk live in villages built from their signature foam, which freezes into solid structures due to the cold. They are also very communal and sculpt foam from the bodies of family members in distinct regional "styles." This social grooming behavior is no different from that of certain primates in our timeline and shows emerging intelligence.

In fact, certain communities of troggle people have begun growing edible mushrooms within their nests, demonstrating the beginnings of agriculture. Like the Freeple before them, Trogglefolks can reach incredible heights... Throughout this journey, we've seen pseudo-frogs rise and fall, develop incredible adaptations, and fill unexpected niches. But now we must return to our own timeline, where frogs, although not as abundant, are still wonderful. If you enjoyed learning about Amphiterra as much as I did, you can support Roxy Valdez on Patreon and social media using the links in the description. And as always, thanks for watching. If you liked this post, please support me by liking, subscribing and hitting the notification icon to stay up to date on all things Curious.

See you in the next video.