General
- Chemophytes are a Fantastic Flora Counterpart of plants, being sessile autotrophs that form the basis for almost of all the planet's ecosystems. In fact, they're so similar, Biblaridion usually just calls them "plants" for the sake of simplicity. Also, the symbiotic relationship between the chemophytes and the photosynthetic algae that provide them with energy is explicitly compared to the relationship between the fungal and algal components of a lichen, and is also reminiscent of the evolution of chloroplasts from photosynthetic cyanobacteria that were consumed by the ancestors of plants and algae, although it takes place at a much later point in the planet's history.
- Archaeophytes are primitive chemophytes which form large mats in wet regions, similar to mosses.
- Eucaulophytes are the oldest clade of xenophytes, (chemophytes with a stem and leaves) making them similar to ferns.
- Brachyphytes are small xenophytes with long, narrow leaves and a meristem near the bottom of their body, similar to grasses.
- Xylophytes are xenophytes with toughened support tissues that allow them to grow extremely tall, similar to trees.
- As of the post-mass extinction period, the xylophytes have become a clear counterpart to specifically coniferous trees, as they used to dominate all forest environments, but have since been replaced in low-latitude forests by newer, more successful trees and now reside primarily in the colder climates.
- Necrophytes buck the trend by filling the role of fungi instead of plants, being sessile detritivores and the primary decomposers of the planet's terrestrial ecosystems. Their distinctive pale white colour, developed as a side effect of losing their unneeded algal symbiotes, also makes them similar to ghost plants
, which developed a similar colouration as a side effect of adapting to parasitize other plants and subsequently losing the ability to generate chlorophyll. - Tylophytes are brachyphytes that have evolved tuber-like bodies and short, toughened leaves to prevent water loss in their desert habitat, much like cactuses or other succulent plants on Earth. They also developed pollination to reproduce, much like many flowering plants on Earth.
- Nodophytes are xylophytes that possess thinner leaves and thicker trunks to allow them to store water in extreme climates, like conifers or evergreen trees.
- Cryptophytes, including pagophytes, are brachyphytes that have evolved to shed their leaves in the dry season, mirroring many trees on Earth.
- Altiphytes are enormous xylophytes that form the planet's rainforests, like giant sequoias, kapoks, and other similarly large rainforest trees.
- Carnophytes are brachyphytes that mimic rotting meat to attract scavengers to pollinate them, similar to plants in the Rafflesia genus, the titan arum, and other "carrion flowers".
- Chromatophytes rely on animals to pollinate them, but unlike the carnophytes, incentivize them to do so by rewarding them with nectar or fruit rather than tricking them, and thus have evolved bright colouration to make themselves more noticeable to their pollinators, making them TIRA's equivalent of angiosperms. A lineage of chromatophyte, the aphyllophytes, have lost their photosynthesis in favor of using their roots to steal nutrients from other plants, much like many parasitic plants on Earth.
- One type of chromatophyte, the zygophytes, have evolved colonial behavior with different individuals acting as one organism and filling different roles, like a terrestrial floral equivalent of siphonophores. One lineage, known as the harpactophytes, are carnivorous plants that hunt with sticky flypaper-like leaves, much like sundews.
- After the mass extinction, the zygophytes give rise to the zygodendrales, a new type of tree that quickly becomes the most successful lineage of trees in the new era. This puts them in a similar role to angiosperms (flowering plants) in the Cenozoic, compared to the xylophytes as gymnosperms/conifers.
- Reptophytes are long, thin plants that creep up the altiphytes to obtain better access to sunlight, like various species of tree-climbing vines.
- Coelophytes are xylophytes that have evolved massive, buoyant seed pods that are dispersed by rivers and ocean currents, allowing them to colonize the planet's islands, similar to coconut trees.
- Broadly speaking, the relationship between the lophostomes and the osteopods is analogous to the relationship between terrestrial arthropods and vertebrates. The former had a several-million-year head start over the latter in regards to colonizing the land, but their inefficient respiratory system and lack of an internal skeleton limited their size, causing them to be outcompeted by the latecomers for all megafaunal niches.
- Biblaridion coined the terms "malacivore" and "acanthivore" to respectively describe any animals which occupy niches analogous to insectivores or piscivores on Earth, and that have convergently evolved traits similar to insectivores or piscivores as a result.
Anthostomes
- Archaeanthostomes are radially symmetric aquatic filter-feeders that begin life as motile planktonic larvae, then root themselves to the seafloor and metamorphize into a sessile adult form with a calcium-based exoskeleton, very much like corals and other cnidarians with a polyp phase. Episode 7 reveals that they even form large "reefs" that act as a habitat for other aquatic animals.
- Gastrozoans, in turn, are similar to other cnidarians - gastrozoan larvae drift through the current and use their tentacles to ensnare prey, like jellyfish, and adult gastrozoans are sessile predators that use their tentacles to pull prey into a simple stomach, like sea anemones.
- The tentaclostomes descend from gastrozoan larvae which evolved to never develop into their sessile adult form, similar to how early fish are believed to descend from sea squirt larvae which evolved to never develop into their sessile adult form. The most distinctive feature of the tentaclostomes is arguably their shell, which has been modified in different clades to suit a variety of purposes, making them somewhat similar to molluscs as well.
- Lithostracans and their basal tentaclostome ancestors are benthic tentacled predators, like cephalopods. Much like cephalopods are divided into the primitive shelled nautiloids and the younger soft-bodied coleiods, the lithostracans are divided into the primitive shelled eulithostracans and the younger soft-bodied anostracans.
- Myzostomes are small herbivorous freshwater relatives of the lophostomes that fill a similar role to freshwater snails.
- Archaeoplacostracans are large diplostomes that browse for low vegetation and have thick armour to defend against predators, similar to armoured dinosaurs like stegosaurs or ankylosaurs. Their euplacostracan descendants are heavy grazing herbivores similar to rhinos or bison, although as they continue to shrink in size due to the decline in atmospheric oxygen, this comparison becomes less and less accurate, with the later smaller euplacostracans being more like tortoises.
- Desmostracans are small terrestrial diplostomes which have long flexible appendages for snapping up malacoformes (this planet's arthropod analogues) and a segmented shell that allows them to curl into a ball, similar to armadillos or pangolins. The dolichostracans are arboreal malacovores with gripping limbs for climbing trees, like porcupines and arboreal anteaters. Pronocanthids are a line of dolichostracans that have evolved venomous spines for defense, like a terrestrial version of scorpionfish on Earth, while nothocanthids are harmless mimics in much the same vein as milk snakes are to coral snakes.
- Coleostracans are predatory diplostomes that have internalized their shell in the form of a gladius, like squids and cuttlefish.
- Archelastospondyli are stealthy tree-dwelling coleostracan predators which hunt malacoformes and other small prey, and have strange sideways feet that allow them to better grip branches, similar to chameleons. Their bizarre manner of movement was explicitly based on inchworms. The kentrodonts that evolved from them have similar niches to snakes due to their venom and elongated bodies; the aspidonts' hunting strategy was compared to a centipede snatching bats out of the air while hanging from a surface. The phyllophorans are predators that lure in prey with similar colors to the chromatophytes, similar to the alligator snapping turtle, orchid mantis, and even more so to the spider-tailed vipers.
- Episode 13 introduces two new lineages of kentrodont: the trypophorans, which have heat-sensitive pits on their faces like many vipers, and the deinoglossids, which are parasitoids that inject eggs into their victims and use them as living incubators much like many parasitic wasps.
- The early opisthopterans closely resembled their archelastospondyl ancestors, but with the addition of a patagium between their limbs allowing them to glide between trees and cushioning their falls, similar to gliding mammals or the extinct gliding lizard Xianglong. As the planet's only flying animals, the later opisthopterans have an obvious similarity to birds, but the comparison is more than superficial - much like birds are technically reptiles despite possessing traditionally un-reptilian traits like endothermy and a pharynx, and survived the K-T extinction event that rendered all other dinosaurs extinct, opisthopterans are technically diplostomes despite possessing traditionally un-diplostome traits like active respiration and a primitive endoskeleton, and seem poised to thrive in spite of the arrival of the osteopods and declining oxygen levels that have lead to the decline or extinction of all other diplostome clades. Their primary wings being located on their hindlimbs was based on the extinct gliding reptile Sharovipteryx.
- Latopterans are small forest-dwelling opisthopterans designed for maneuverability and preying on small arthropod-analogues, making them this planet's equivalent to songbirds. Sphenopterans are fast-moving grassland-dwelling predators that fill a similar niche to raptors such as hawks, eagles, and falcons. Magnopterans are large opisthopterans with long narrow wings that soar over desert and steppe in search of carrion, much like vultures. Picopterans are small, nectarivorous opisthopterans with highly specialized elongated feeding apparatuses, similar to butterflies, hummingbirds, and nectar bats. Dyptopterids are island-dwelling opisthopterans that have lost the ability to fly in order to specialize for a semi-aquatic lifestyle, similar to penguins.
- The malacoformes are an extremely diverse clade of small lophostomes that fill this planet's role of terrestrial arthropods such as insects and arachnids.
- Chloroderms and cyanoderms are two distinct clades of malacoform, the former being a clade of aciulognathans while the latter is one of isognathans, although both have independently evolved poison and distinct warning colors for defense against predators; this is similar to how the monarch and viceroy butterflies are virtually indistinguishable from each other and share a toxic defense despite being unrelated, and even more so to how different clades of insects with poison converge on the same warning patterns.
- Necroforms are malacoforms that avoid predators by mimicking necrophytes, similar to some species of katydid, leaf-tailed geckos, and leaf insects on Earth.
- Myzognathans are isognathans that have adapted to attach to hosts and drain their blood, similar to ticks and blood-sucking mites on Earth.
- Echinostomes are a basal clade of malacoform that has taken up an endoparasitic lifestyle within their hosts, similar to tapeworms or parasitic flukes. Their heteroxenous lifestyle and tendency to alter their first host's behavior are also similar to parasites like Toxoplasma gondii.
Polypods
- Tachypods are planktonic filter-feeders which beat their pleopods to swim in a manner resembling the antenna-based swimming of copepods.
- Acanthopods loosely resemble anomalocarids, and like them are the first large, active predators of the ancient ocean. They later diversify to fill niches analogous to fish on Earth. These later acanthopods not only perform a similar role to fish, but also have an extremely similar body shape, because the hydrodynamic properties of a medium as dense as water put a lot of pressure on pelagic nekton to adopt a fish-like shape.
- Tanypterids are primitive acanthopods which continue to employ anguilliform swimming, have long flexible tails, and mainly inhabit anthostome reefs where maneuverability is more important than speed, making them most similar to eels.
- Remipterids are another clade of reef-dwelling acanthopods, closely related to the tanypterids, which have adopted median paired fin propulsion and have a laterally compressed body, similar to many species of reef-dwelling fish.
- Hadrorhachids are fast-moving acanthopod predators which have adopted more efficient modes of locomotion such as carangiform swimming, and mainly inhabit the open sea where speed is more important than maneuverability, all corresponding to different species of sharks. Ptilopods are enormous filter-feeding hadrorhachids that have grown to the largest size an animal that breathes using gills can attain, similar to whale sharks. Dorypods are smaller predatory hadrorhachids that can rapidly protrude their spear-like feeding arms forwards to grab prey, then retract them to pull their prey into their mouth, similar to the protrusible jaws of goblin sharks. Temnopods are larger predatory hadrohachids that can employ thunniform swimming and their long torpedo-like body to reach extremely fast speeds, similar to great white sharks and barracudas.
- The diplocurrids are freshwater hadrorhachids with long sensitive barbels like many catfish. The astrapophorans are a lineage that produce electric fields to both sense their environment and stun their prey, like many electric fish on Earth.
- The fluid-filled, piston-like limbs used by all non-osteopod sarcopods are based on the feet of starfish, only using blood instead of water.
- Coelopods and their basal sarcopod ancestors are benthic scavengers which walk along the seabed and sift through the detritus in search of organic matter, much like crabs and lobsters on Earth.
- In a loose, narrative sense, the synischians and polyschians are similar to the synapsids and sauropsids, being the two main lineages of terrestrial vertebrate-analogues which are distinguishable from each other by differences in their skeletal structure. In Episode 14, it turns out that the synischians became an analogue to most Mesozoic prehistoric life — with all of them except the hybognathans dying in the mass extinction.
- Archeplatydontids are arboreal omnivorous polyschians similar to squirrels and primates.
- Leptopods are small steppe-dwelling platydont grazers which are specialized for high speed and have hoof-like feet, similar to antelopes, deer, or primitive horses.
- Camptopods are leptopods that have evolved to instinctually gather in large herds, making them even more similar to antelope.
- Ambylpods are leptopods designed for inhabiting deserts with their long-spaced legs, wide feet, and eyelash-like setae designed for protecting their eyes from sandstorms, much like camels and desert-dwelling antelope such as addaxes and oryxes.
- Thylacopods are large stocky leptopods designed for inhabiting colder regions, complete with a shaggy coat of filaments, much like caribou or musk oxen.
- Allobrachids are thylacopods that have become hexapedal independently from onychodonts, albeit this time to drag down vegetation like a chalicothere, giant ground sloth, or therizinosaur. Teleobrachids are an offshoot family stated to have taken up similar niches to titanopods, making them similar to the woolly mammoth (although to a lesser degree than the more elephant-like pachypods). Many clades have also developed sexual dimorphism. Ceratobrachids have males that violently rut during mating season, much like deer or bighorn sheep. Male corythobrachids, on the other hand, use brightly colored crests to impress a mate, similar to peacocks or (ironically enough) peacock spiders on Earth.
- The phalacrobrachids are a very large browsing lineage of allobrachid that not only lost most of their fur to aid in thermoregulation like many large mammals and non-avian dinosaurs, but also lay their oothecae in large social nesting colonies, much like hadrosaurs.
- Eurycheirids are small, omnivorous, steppe-dwelling, opportunistic platydonts which have a keen sense of smell to help them find carcasses or oothecae to scavenge, similar to jackals or hyenas.
- Lystrocheirids are a clade of burrowing, desert-dwelling, crepuscular eurycheirid offshoots that live much like fennec foxes and other small desert mammals. Their reproductive cycle of giving birth to relatively undeveloped young onto a carcass also brings to mind various carrion-eating flies or if one looks for a mammalian analogue, marsupials. Trypanocheirids, themselves an offshoot of this clade, die shortly after rearing their young, much like many small marsupials such as some mouse opossums and certain small dasyurids. The oryctocheirids are a eusocial clade that bring to mind mole rats.
- The acrocheirids are a type of rhamphodont that feed their young a regurgitated material from their crop, roughly equivalent to the milk of mammals or the crop milk of some birds. One lineage of acrocheirid, the apatocheirid, are brood parasites that deposit their young in the nests of their more social cousins, much like cuckoos or many brood parasitic hymenopterans.
- Copetarsans are semiaquatic river-dwelling archeplatydonts with streamlined bodies and paddle-like limbs, which have a lifestyle similar to otters, muskrats, and platypi.
- Scandopods are arboreal frugivores that are smaller than even the average platydont to make them better suited for traversing thin branches, making them even more similar to squirrels in ecological niche.
- Pleuropterans are flying platydonts that, as upstarts challenging the established flying clades, have a similar relationship to the opisthopterans as early birds did to pterosaurs or bats do to birds. Their frugivorous diet also seems to recall fruit bats or parrots. Their close evolutionary relationship with the brachiating tanybrachids also makes them similar to the colugo, an obscure gliding mammal closely related to primates.
- Platypterans are large pleuropterans that still possess a similar diet to more basal varieties while being suited to migratory behaviors, like many birds on Earth.
- Theropterans are pleuropterans that have become large flying predators similar to derived pterosaurs.
- Hypsirhynchids are massive, herbivorous, flightless island pleopterans whose wings have become vestigial, similar to ratites. Their cousins the temnorhynchids are flightless predators that are roughly equivalent to the extinct Flores giant stork, or the pterosaur Hatzegopteryx.
- Basal harpactopods are small, arboreal platydonts with mostly herbivorous tendencies that suspend themselves from tree branches in a manner reminiscent of sloths or basal primates. Appropriately, the more derived tanybrachids brachiate through the treetops like simians, especially gibbons.
- Xenodonts are a lineage of platydonts that have colonized the island Crescentia and split into two clades. The predatory streptotarsans are climbing predators that walk on their knuckles to keep their claws sharp, roughly equivalent to the retractable claws of felids or the hooked claw of dromaeosaurs. The brachiocephalians are herbivores that underwent centaurism and developed large claws on their forelimbs to aid in feeding, much like Therizinosaurus.
- Archedromaeopods are fast-running predatory polyschians similar to canids.
- Archeonychodonts, unlike their ancestors, are Lightning Bruiser steppe-dwelling hypercarnivores similar to big cats like lions or tigers. Their unique forelimbs, which have evolved to be permanently held off the ground in order to increase their running speed and help them restrain prey, make them also somewhat similar to theropod dinosaurs.
- Cryptodonts and ensidonts have each independently adapted to become more efficient predators, with the former developing more raptorial forelimbs like mantises and the latter developing large pedipalps that face each other instead of downwards, similar to derived clades of spider on Earth. The prionodonts are a lineage of ensidonts that have developed pack-hunting behavior, much like wolves or lions, while the tachydonts are a type of cryptodont that specialized more for small and fast-moving prey to avoid competition with their larger cousins, much like cheetahs.
- Hadrodonts are a clade of onychodonts that co-evolved alongside pachypods to become a robust apex predator of the tundra, mirroring the saber-toothed cat Smilodon.
- Allodonts are onychodonts that have developed a mesocarnivorous lifestyle similar to their dromaeopod ancestors, much like foxes on Earth.
- Thecopods are a clade of allodonts that have developed a dense coat of filaments and shrunk in size compared to their otherwise giant relatives, similar to the Arctic fox or the extinct tyrannosaur Nanuqsaurus.
- Amphidonts have developed heterodonty, much like many mammals on Earth, as well as monogamy like birds. Their more social descendants the xenopsids are matriarchal pack hunters much like spotted hyenas.
- The eriotheres are a clade of allodonts that colonized islands by traveling across sea ice, much like how arctic foxes colonized Iceland or how the extinct Falkland Islands wolf colonized the Falkland Islands.
- Archemegalobrachids are enormous browsing herbivorous synischians that fill a similar niche to elephants and giraffes.
- Proceropods are even more elephant-like than their ancestors, having erect, pillar-like limbs that allow them to grow taller and heavier. At least one proceropod species, Megaphagus matti, even has elephant-like dark grey skin. The stylopods that derived from them became taller to reach higher vegetation, making them even more similar to giraffes in niche.
- Baropods are a close relative of the proceropods and rival them in size, but have adapted to fill the niche of large grazing herbivores, making them more similar to bison, rhinoceroses, or wild cattle. Their tundra-dwelling relatives the pachypods are basically this planet's equivalent to woolly mammoths or woolly rhinos, being enormous migratory grazers adapted for the cold.
- Nanopus proximensis is a species of baropod that has adapted to an island environment by drastically reducing in size, similar to the extinct Cretan dwarf elephant or Pygmy mammoth.
- Prenobrachids are large semiaquatic herbivorous megalobrachids which feed on marsh vegetation and have eyes close to the top of their head to better see above the waterline, similar to hippopotamuses or capybaras.
- Eudeinognathans are enormous omnivorous synischians with a preference for meat, like bears and the extinct entelodonts.
- The odontognathans are deinognathans that have evolved into semiaquatic ambush predators compared to crocodiles, and the dolicognathans that branched off from them could be considered a counterpart to the gharial due to its diet of fish-analogues and elongated, narrow mandibles with needle-like teeth. While most of these died out during the mass extinction, the hybognathans survived just like how crocodiles managed to survive extinction events to this day.
- The actatherians are marine carnivorous odontognathans with paddle-like limbs that are forced to return to the land to have their young, much like pinnipeds on Earth.
- The evolution of the thalattotheres strongly mirrors the evolution of marine reptiles or whales on Earth, since their deinognathan ancestors became more and more aquatic over time until they were completely tied to the water, even forgoing the production of oothecae for live birth. Like plesiosaurs and mosasaurs, the thalattotheres mainly rely on their wide flippers to generate propulsion, and like whales, one clade of thalattotheres (the isopterygians) specializes as filter-feeders and grows to become the largest animal on the planet. Another clade, the anisopterygians, are fast powerful macropredators similar to orcas.
- Malleognathans are small, durophagous deinognathans that shifted from being predators to opportunistic scavengers, bringing to mind hyenas and the extinct borophagine canids.
- Metaxypods are an obvious counterpart of frogs and other amphibians, being close relatives of the osteopods which never developed any way of protecting their eggs from desiccation and consequently are unable to adopt a fully terrestrial lifestyle.
