History Website / SpecWorld

* EverythingsSquishierWithCephalopods: Salmonites.[[note]]although in the latest revision they have been removed because of the high improbability of freshwater cephalopods[[/note]] Also the balaenateuths.

* GiantSquid: The Baleen Squids, which fill the niche of whales in Spec's oceans.

* ShoutOut: There are many pop culture references intermingled in the creature names and descriptions, most obviously the Alfred Hitchcock's Thebirds and [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} a yellow rodent called the pikachilla from Spec-Japan.]]

The project has [[DeadFic stalled out since 2008]] (mostly due to unexpected discoveries in paleontology that and there are many lost illustrations and broken links. But the imagination, wonderful creature designs, good biology (hallelujah!) and offbeat humor more than make up for it.

* DeadFic: Not entirely though; the [[http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/DinosaurMailingList-KilledThreads Yahoo club]] is still functional. Its activity fluctuates.

* EverythingsBetterWithPlatypi: There are some platypi and platypus cousins, including big ones that are a danger to human feet and gigantic whale-like animals.

* CallASmeerpARabbit: Species are named after Earth animals, fictional Earth animals, fictional characters...

* ShoutOut: There are many pop culture references intermingled in the creature names and descriptions, most obviously the Alfred Hitchcock's Thebirds.

* OurCryptidsAreMoreMysterious: Cryptids in Spec are alleged, undiscovered species of dinosaurs and other creatures whose only reports are eyewitness accounts and unconfirmed sightings, and their existence is usually the topic of much discussion. Fittingly enough, most of them are expies of several alleged cryptids from our world.

* NameOfCain: A noasaurid, and fastest predator of Madagascar. It kills and eviscerates its prey entirely with its hands. On an unrelated note it has a symbolic relationship with a spider that protects it from parasites.

* ScienceMarchesOn: This was pretty much what caused the project to stop updating. From 2008 onwards, the creators simply couldn't keep up with the rate at which new dinosaur discoveries were being announced (especially the possibility that ornithischians may have had feathers) without totally scrapping everything.

Specworld was almost nearly finished, but then, new palaeontological discoveries ([[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tianyulong especially this little feller]]) changed a ''lot'' of what we know about dinosaurs. The project has [[DeadFic stalled out since 2008]], and there are many lost illustrations and broken links. But the imagination, wonderful creature designs, good biology (hallelujah!) and offbeat humor more than make up for it.

* SpeculativeBiology: A whole site dedicated to what if the Cretaceous extinction never occurred.

The best thing you can do is just [[http://speculativeevolution.wikia.com/wiki/Speculative_Dinosaur_Project start reading]].[[note]]The project has been jumping around for the better part of a decade, to put it mildly. You may see the original incarnation [[http://web.archive.org/web/20080731013714im_/http://www.bowdoin.edu/~dbensen/Spec/ here]], but use it only for nostalgic purposes, as a lot has changed[[/note]]

* [[MikeNelsonDestroyerOfWorlds Adorable Fluffy Heterodontosaur, Destroyer of Worlds]]: No work of paleofiction better demonstrates just how game-changing the discovery of Tianyulong was.
-->'''Dave Marjanović''': "Mostly, our reaction to ''Tianyulong'' was just 'oh, shit' and nothing further."

* ScienceMarchesOn: Due to the main site not being updated since late 2008. That said, the authors are well-verse in life in the late Cretaceous, so nearly all of the concepts are still quite plausible and accurate.
** The site refers to a branch of the Therizinosauria as the Ceratonychidae. However, the name ''Ceratonykus'' is now used for a RealLife member of the Alvarezsauridae.[[note]]Luckily, this is barely even a borderline case, as the spelling difference means that there's no name conflict even if they're pronounced the same way.[[/note]]
*** More HilariousInHindsight are the hesperonychid dromaeosaurids. There's now a real dromaeosaurid named ''Hesperonychus'', though fortunately it appears that none of the Spec hesperonychids actually use that as a genus name. Ironically, ''Hesperonychus'' was a small relative of ''Microraptor'', while the hesperonychids (with one exception, the small and slender djanada) are some of the largest and most robust of the Spec dromaeosaurids.
** The magnoraptor, a giant dromaeosaurid, was intended to be a descendant of what was once thought to be a real life giant dromaeosaurid, ''Megaraptor'', which is now known to have been a [[strike:carnosaur]] tentative coelurosaur, possibly a tyrannosaur.
** ''Rahonavis'' was thought to have been a relative of ''Archeaopteryx'' and as thus the descendant group the rahonavids were classed as such. Turns out ''Rahonavis'' is a type of unenlagiinae dromaeosaurid. Oops. Though considering new finds (namely, a recent paper that placed ''Rahonavis'' closer to true birds than to other deinonychosaurs), this may not be far off.
** It turns out the digestive systems of monotremes are too simple to digest meat (or plants) without major changes. Guess what most of all Spec's platypuses eat?
** It turns out that Cretaceous mosasaurs already had tail flukes (and ventured into freshwater).
** Very few of Spec's maniraptorans have the fully formed wings that real maniraptorans would have had.
** The most crushing one to this project is probably the discovery that ornithischians could have plumage. Hehehehe... OhCrap.
** Along with the discovery crocodilians may have been out-competing theropods at least regionally in the Maastrichtian. At any rate, large, carnivorous crocodyllians were very common in the Cretaceous, and Spec originally had too few of those (though ultimately averted in the Yahoo group, where several terrestrial crocodyllian concepts do exist).
** The hoeks and baskervilles are stagodonts based on old reconstructions of ''Didelphodon'' before more complete remains showed that it was an aquatic animal more similar to otters than Tasmanian devils.

* PteroSoarer: Averted. Until very recently, this was due to the project simply not having any pterosaurs at all, as the creators initially believed they were declining prior to the K/T extinction. In the most current version, there are pterosaurs, but they are not numerous and exist mainly as flightless predators in Australia.

* RaptorAttack: Averted. While raptors are abundant, they are all correctly depicted with feathers, and most of them are not pack hunters.

* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: They're the main focus of the site, with other, less spectacular groups like mammals being ignored in their favour.

** This is also the reason why you won't find anything even remotely similar to a sapient creature on Spec; it's a silent protest against [[HumanoidAliens Dinosauroids]] (to the point where the group of dinosaurs to whom Dale Russel's absurdly humanlike Dinosauroid belonged is almost extinct!)

** The magnoraptor, a giant dromaeosaurid, was intended to be a descendant of what was once thought to be a real life giant dromaeosaurid, ''Megaraptor'', which is now known to have been a carnosaur.

* FrogsAndToads: They don't appear to have come very far with their amphibians, but they do have a cookie-cutter tadpole that chomps on the behinds of wading dinosaurs.

SpecWorld, or TheSpeculativeDinosaurProject, is a massive, ''massive'' world-building work in progress. It's basically an attempt to imagine how the world would be if the K/Pg Extinction Event hadn't happened 65 million years ago as seen from the perspective of dimension-hopping explorers and scientists from our world ("Home-Earth").

The best thing you can do is just [[http://speculativeevolution.wikia.com/wiki/Speculative_Dinosaur_Project start reading]].[[note]]The project has been jumping around for the better part of a decade, to put it mildly. You may see the original incarnation [[http://web.archive.org/liveweb/http://web.archive.org/web/20080731013714im_/http://www.bowdoin.edu/~dbensen/Spec/ here]], but use it only for nostalgic purposes, as a lot has changed[[/note]]

The best thing you can do is just [[http://www.specworld-project.com/ start reading]].[[note]]The project has been jumping around for the better part of a decade, to put it mildly. You may see the original incarnation [[http://web.archive.org/liveweb/http://web.archive.org/web/20080731013714im_/http://www.bowdoin.edu/~dbensen/Spec/ here]], but use it only for nostalgic purposes, as a lot has changed[[/note]]

The project isn't entirely dead, as the Yahoo club below shows. Also, some DA pictures from the staff like [[http://pristichampsus.deviantart.com/art/Terrorsaur-139874737 this]] suggest that, [[LeftHanging once the main site is updated, things will get very interesting...]] (A summary including some of the new ideas can be found [[http://speculativebiology.wikia.com/wiki/The_Speculative_Dinosaur_Project here]].)

* DeadFic: Not entirely though; the [[http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/DinosaurMailingList-KilledThreads Yahoo club]] is still functional. Its activity fluctuates, however, and at one point it was uncertain if it was still active, but it returned with a vengeance.
** As of the current time, the site itself has been moved. [[http://www.specworld-project.com to here]]

* BigBadassBirdOfPrey: Avisaurids and the rocs. Dromaeosaurids and oviraptorosaurs could arguably count, too, though they're not avialians.

** The site refers to a branch of the Therizinosauria as the Ceratonychidae. However, the name ''Ceratonykus'' is now used for a RealLife member of the Alvarezsauridae.[[hottip:*:Luckily, this is barely even a borderline case, as the spelling difference means that there's no name conflict even if they're pronounced the same way.]]