Alien Biospheres: Part 9 - Tropical Rainforest

this alien planet is brought to you by campfire technology who are currently running a holiday sale for their new software campfire blaze for more information check out the link in the description or stick around until the end of the video last time we saw how the drying continental interior resulted in the formation of the first deserts tundras and seasonal areas all of which are characterized by extreme temperatures low precipitation and low biodiversity but while the ever-changing climate has reshaped large portions of the landscape there are a few areas which still experience a climate suitable for supporting lush forests as they've done since the invasion of land over 100 million years ago most of these areas will occur around the equator which due to being more or less perpendicular to the sun's rays receives the highest levels of solar radiation per unit area of any latitude on the planet which not only provides more energy for photosynthesis but also results in constant high temperatures with little to no seasonal variation in areas near the ocean this heat will drive extremely high levels of precipitation with some regions like the eastern coast of the supercontinent on the windward side of the mountains receiving two to five meters of rain every year the ample sunlight and water will promote abundant plant growth with the trees here being some of the largest in the world one clade of xylophytes endemic to this area may specialize for reaching enormous sizes ensuring that they have the greatest exposure to the light to provide additional support and stability their roots may grow outward to form a wider base like the buttress roots seen in many rainforest trees on earth these roots will also help the tree gather more nutrients over a wider area which will be especially useful since the constant downpour leeches a large portion of the minerals out of the soil to prevent the rain from accumulating on or damaging their leaves they may evolve special grooves or drip tips to encourage water to quickly run off the leaves and fall to the forest floor to maximize dispersal the gametangia sprouting from along their trunks may grow into long branches so that the spores fall as far from the parent plant as possible with all of these adaptations these xylophytes will become some of the tallest trees on the planet ranging anywhere from 20 to almost 100 meters in height and thus will call them altophytes these trees will play a large part in defining the rainforest ecosystems by dividing them into distinct layers including the forest floor at the foot of the trees the understory among the trunks and low branches and the canopy within the dense foliage around the tops of the trees while all forests share this structure to some extent the sheer size of the altiphytes will accentuate this stratification and provide a greater density of niches than any other biome and with over 100 million years of uninterrupted evolution under an unchanging hospitable climate the inhabitants will have had plenty of time to undergo specialization for every niche the forest has to offer resulting in the greatest biodiversity of any habitat on the planet with the eastern rainforest alone accounting for as much as 10 percent of all terrestrial species one of the primary differences between each of the rainforest layers is the availability of sunlight the vast majority of light is blocked out by the canopy with the rest filtering down through the understory such that only one to two percent of it reaches the ground most low vegetation will struggle to grow in such dim light so the forest floor is surprisingly open and free of undergrowth on this alien planet though the chemophytes have an advantage in that they can resort to chemosynthesis in the absence of light which although it's not nearly as efficient as photosynthesis will still provide enough energy to support a carpet of smaller plants along the ground despite this the forest floor will still be fairly spacious perhaps enough to accommodate quite large animals such as the ancestral megala brackets dromeopods and dynagnathons although the trees may still be too dense for especially large animals like the titanopods the ground vegetation will predominantly consist of brachiophytes which have a larger proportion of their surface area dedicated to photosynthesis and chemosynthesis than other clades of chemophyte giving them an edge in low light conditions as we've touched on previously larger leaves will lose water faster through transpiration and will also be a greater risk of being damaged by the wind however there's certainly no shortage of water in the rainforest and the surrounding trees form an impenetrable barrier against the wind so plants growing on the forest floor can afford to evolve exceedingly large leaves to absorb as much of the scarce sunlight as possible however the lack of wind also presents a problem when it comes to dispersal since most chemophytes rely on the wind to spread their spores and gametes in the previous episode the tylophytes were able to circumvent the limitations of wind dispersal by evolving animal assisted or biotic pollination whereby passing animals get the plants gametes stuck along their bodies and unwittingly spread them to other plants across the desert this method of pollination is fairly passive and unspecialized relying on the host simply brushing against the plants gammatangia by accident but there do exist more efficient means of pollination that ensure that the pollinator will seek out the plant intentionally deceptive pollination also called dispersal mimicry in some contexts involves the plant producing false signals that pollinators mistakenly identify as food shelter or something else of interest for example dracula orchids mimic the appearance and scent of mushrooms to attract fungus gnats carrion flowers like the reflecia look and smell like rotting meat to attract carnivorous flies and beetles and the bee orchid has evolved flowers that resemble female bees which entice males into trying to match with them in all of these cases the pollinators are tricked into making contact with the plant and getting covered in pollen which they'll then inadvertently spread to other plants every time they fall for the same trick because it ensures the plant is visited more frequently this method of pollination is much more reliable and effective than the one used by the tylophytes so it seems likely that it may also evolve among some of the rainforest brachiophytes the asexual bracophyte colonies will grow in any area with sufficient light and nutrients forming large patches along the forest floor in one clade the parts of the plant that emerge above the ground may evolve to collectively mimic the color shape and texture of rotting meat and to exude a pungent stench to attract scavengers the male gametangia may suspend their gametes within a slimy coating on their outer surface which will get stuck all over the body of any animal that comes to investigate and will hopefully be subsequently deposited into the female gammatangia of another colony due to their resemblance to carrion we'll call these plants carniphytes and fortunately for these carniphights there'll be plenty of scavengers around to serve as potential pollinators the rainforest's hot humid climate accelerates decomposition such that despite the constant flurry of organic debris falling from the upper layers the forest floor stays relatively clear among the decomposers will be the necrophites which unlike most other plants don't need to worry about the lack of sunlight on the forest floor as they can obtain all of their energy through saprotrophy the necrophytes will be assisted in their decomposition duties by the abundant malacca forms which remain by far the most numerous and diverse of all animal clades comprising many tens of thousands of species there are also some of the smallest animals ranging in size from less than a millimeter to a maximum of about five centimeters and as such they can't rely on size speed or armor for defense so up to this point they've survived by simply reproducing in vast numbers but the innumerable niches offered by the rainforest may prompt the evolution of new strategies to avoid predators many species may evolve camouflage patterns to help them blend in with the red leaves and dark cuticles of the rainforest vegetation but with tens of millions of years of continuous specialization some clades may take this to a greater extreme defensive mimicry occurs when one species termed the mimic evolves to resemble another species referred to as the model such that predators are unable to reliably distinguish between the two if the model is a species that predators would naturally have no interest in or would actively avoid then the mimic will likewise be left alone and will therefore benefit from their resemblance this puts a pressure on the predators to more effectively distinguish between the mimic and its model which then puts a further pressure on the mimic to evolve a more convincing resemblance and given enough time this arms race can result in mimics and models appearing virtually identical for those malacca forms that feed on leaf litter or decaying organic matter an ideal model for mimicry will be the copious necrophites that blanket the forest floor around them which carnivores will have no interest in as well as a pale coloration they may evolve a crest on their dorsal surface reminiscent of the necrophite's small vestigial meristem and their boneless limbs may elongate to resemble the plant's roots when faced with danger they may raise their eyestalks and their hind limbs off the ground and imitation of the necrophytes gammatangia and as long as they maintain this posture and keep still most predators will simply pass them by to contrast them with their necrophyte models let's call these mimics necroforms but other malacca forms may opt for a more formidable defense many organisms on earth have evolved to protect themselves using biologically produced poisons or toxins which can vary in potency from simply leaving an off-putting taste to killing anything that ingests it within a few minutes toxicity is especially beneficial for small organisms that can't rely on other forms of defense so one clade of malacca forms may evolve to produce a toxin that causes a severe burning sensation in the mouth and throat of anything that tries to eat it however poisoning a predator does no good if the prey dies in the process and therefore in stark contrast to the necrophorms it's in the poisonous species best interest to stand out as much as possible so that their predators can recognize them and know not to eat them apostemitism is the signaling of danger to a potential attacker often accomplished with bright warning coloration which predators then learn to recognize and avoid on earth aposomatic coloration most often incorporates patterns of red and yellow but on our alien planet this wouldn't be very visible against the background of the red foliage so the poisonous malacca forms may instead tend towards bright blue or green colors making them easy to spot even in the low light of the forest floor and ensuring that members of this clade which we'll call chloraderms will be able to effectively communicate their poisonousness to predators but once this association has evolved it will be open for exploitation by other clades a common subtype of defensive mimicry is mullerian mimicry in which two or more poisonous or otherwise well-defended species evolve similar aposomatic displays presenting a sort of universal warning signal for example the monarch and viceroy butterflies which both produce toxins that make them unpalatable to predators have evolved to look virtually indistinguishable which increases the prevalence of the shared warning signal and offers more opportunities for the predators to associate it with danger in light of this if another clade of malacca forms were to independently develop toxicity then instead of evolving their own aposematic display they may simply mimic the signature coloration of the chloroderms taking advantage of the fact that predators already have an aversion to it the presence of this new clade which we'll call cyanoderms will also provide a benefit to the chloroderms by reinforcing their shared danger signals which will be further strengthened by every new species that adopts the same coloration a collection of species that share the same aposomatic coloration is called a mimicry ring and may involve a large number of species from very distantly related clades such as how orange wings with black tips have convergently evolved among certain species of poisonous beetles wasps and moths so the tropics of our alien planet may be home to many unrelated species of poisonous malacca forms that all mimic each other's warning coloration ensuring that every member of the mimicry ring will be left well alone moving up from the forest floor the availability of sunlight gradually increases providing more energy for photosynthesis and making it easier for plants to grow in this regard the xylophytes have a huge advantage thanks to the rigid support tissues within their stems and trunks which let them grow taller than any other clade of plants but equally their towering trunks will provide a platform that smaller plants may use to reach heights that would normally be inaccessible to them epiphytes are plants that grow on the surface of other plants spending all or part of their life cycle off the ground epiphytes are particularly common in rainforests as the struggle for sunlight incentivizes many plant species to take advantage of the surrounding trees to provide the support they need to reach the bright upper layers in this case some qualified species may evolve to adhere their elongated stems to the altiphytes creeping up the trunk and producing a crown of leaves once they reach high enough to experience suitable levels of sunlight and because they can reproduce asexually new individuals will branch off from various points along their stems forming a web-like clonal colony that slowly envelops the entire tree somewhat like strangler figs on earth these epiphytes which we'll call reptophytes will have access to the same levels of light as their altifite hosts without needing to invest in the development of rigid support tissues and so they may see a great amount of success and form a large portion of the understory vegetation some species of brachiophytes may evolve to become epiphytes as well unlike colophytes though brachiophytes have no stem to speak of as their main bodies have reduced in size to protect the meristem so rather than growing up the side of the trunks like the reptophytes they may never make contact with the ground at any point during their lives obtaining nutrients from the fall and organic debris that accumulates around them and forming tightly concentrated colonies along the branches once again though these plants will face a big challenge when it comes to reproduction like the carniphytes they can't rely on wind for dispersal so they may also develop a mechanism of animal assisted pollination but rather than using deceptive pollination these epiphytes may attract animals using a more honest approach on earth the most common method of pollination involves the plant providing a reward for the pollinator usually in the form of nectar or some other source of nourishment provided from special glands or nectaries like deceptive pollination this has the benefit of encouraging animals to actively seek out the plant but unlike deceptive pollination where there's an evolutionary pressure on the animal to identify and avoid the plant's deception this method incentivizes the pollinator to find and feed from the plant as effectively as possible which makes the plant's reproduction much more efficient on earth the most commonly employed pollinators are flying animals like birds bats and insects which can cover great distances and therefore maximize the plant's dispersal so on our alien planet the opisthopterans being the only clade of flying animals that have evolved thus far may be prime candidates for use in pollination although most of our pestoctrine species retain the carnivorous diet of their elastispondyl ancestors the brachiophytes may be able to attract some of the smaller more generalist species by secreting a nectar-like liquid from glands at the base of their leaves they may position their male gametes at the end of long hair-like filaments such that when the opisthopterons secure themselves to the plant to lick up the nectar they brush against these filaments and get the gametes stuck along their undersides meanwhile the female gametangia may evolve into tall tube-shaped structures into which the opisthopterons may unintentionally deposit some of the male gametes they have accumulated from other plants once this relationship develops both the plant and the pollinator will evolve to make it as efficient as possible the evolution of nectar represents an entirely new food source and therefore a new niche for animals to specialize for nectarovores are animals that feed predominantly or exclusively on nectar which although low in many essential nutrients like proteins and minerals has a high sugar content and is very easy to digest which lets the animal power a very high metabolism some of the most common opus doctrines in the rainforest are the latoctorins which also have the maneuverability to navigate through the dense foliage in search of these epiphytic gracophytes which may give them the edge they need to evolve into the planet's first dedicated nectarovores the most important adaptation for a nectarivor is to have mouth parts optimized for extracting nectar which in these latopterons may manifest as a long extensible proboscis to reach down into the plant's nectaries nectarophores also tend to be very small as plants typically don't produce enough nectar to support large body sizes so these forms may shrink down into some of the smallest of all opus doctrines rarely exceeding 10 centimeters in wingspan the evolution of these specialist nectarovores which we'll call pycopterins will prompt the brachiophytes they feed from to become as easy to find and pollinate as possible one of the most common ways this is accomplished in plants on earth is with brightly coloured flowers to increase the plant's visibility however while earth plants typically have flowers that grow from the tips of their branches and contain both the male and female reproductive components as well as the nectaries chemophytes have gammatangia that grow out from the base of the plant and contain only one of the two sexes of gametes while the nectaries only occur on the main plot body because all of these elements are housed in separate areas of the plant instead of evolving multiple distinct flowers it may be more likely for these brachiophytes floral ornamentation to be distributed across the entire plant or even the entire colony with the cuticle and the filaments supporting the male gametes taking on vivid eye-catching color patterns due to this distinctive coloration we'll call these plants chromatophytes as they've evolved in tandem the picopterans and the chromatophytes will depend on each other for their mutual success which may drive the evolution of even more specialized relationships between individual species for example the flowers of the pasaflora plant have evolved such deep funnel-shaped petals that its nectar is only accessible to a single species of pollinator the sword-billed hummingbird which has evolved the longest beak relative to its body size of any known bird species so long in fact that it can now only feed from the paciflora this benefits the hummingbird because it won't face any competition for its food source and it also benefits the plant because it guarantees that the next flower the bird visits will be another paciflora in the same way each species of picotron may specialize to feed on and pollinate only one or a small number of chromatophyte species which in turn may evolve so that only a single species of pycopteran can feed from them however pollination is only one aspect of reproduction once a female gamma tangent has been fertilized and the diospores develop the plant will need a way of dispersing them to new areas without any wind below the canopy any diospores the plant releases will either fall straight to the forest floor where they'll probably die from lack of sunlight or land right next to the parent plant and thus will need to compete with their own parent for resources to mitigate this problem the chromatophytes might once again employ the assistance of animals there are two main ways this can be accomplished the simpler but less common option is to evolve burrs or specialized dispersal structures that cling to the skin of any animal that brushes by them some of the chromatophytes may opt for this strategy turning their fertilized female gametangia into detachable pods covered in sharp hooks to cling to the wings of the visiting picopterans the birds will eventually be dislodged during flight and hopefully land in a suitable area for the diaspores to take root but a more common and more efficient option is much like with pollination to attract potential dispersers by offering them a reward once fertilized the female gametangia may swell into bulbus fleshy structures turning into what might be called fruit like fruits on earth these structures may be brightly colored and packed with nutritious tissues which will entice a wide variety of animals into eating them the dire spores contained within the fruit may evolve a tough outer casing like a seed to let them pass through the herbivore's gut without being digested ultimately getting dispersed in the animal's excrement like the evolution of nectar these fruits will present a brand new food source and therefore another new niche for herbivores to adapt to leading to the evolution of the planet's first frugivores or specialized fruit eaters frugivery has a lot of advantages over fallivary or leaf eating as leaves are quite nutrient poor and contain tough indigestible tissues forcing most follicles to put up with a low metabolism and to invest in large complex guts to process what little nourishment the leaves provide in contrast fruits are rich in nutrients and very easy to digest by design giving frugivores the energy to power a much more active lifestyle so shortly after fruits first evolve some rainforest herbivores may specialize to feed on them exclusively one cleared quite likely to exploit the through gibberish niches are the ancestral platidots which were some of the first creatures to ever evolve scansorial or climbing behaviors and have since become some of the most common and successful arboreal animals although some clades are platidons have adapted to live more or less permanently at ground level like the adapters and the copatarsan's in the rainforest the forest floor doesn't offer very much food or shelter and comes with a risk of attack from predators like the dromeopods so most rainforest platons may remain within the relative safety and plenty of the understory and canopy and after tens of millions of years they may become so specialized for life in the trees that like many arboreal species and rainforests on earth they'll live their entire lives without ever coming down to the ground the chromatophytes may provide an impetus for this specialization as their energy-rich fruits can only be found along tree branches and so like the pykopterans these specialist platodonts may coevolve with the chromatophytes to both clay's mutual benefit but navigating the complex variable terrain of the upper layers will present a multitude of difficulties for these platodonts in many places the branches that the chromatophytes grow along will be very narrow and precarious and even a single misstep could send the animal plummeting to his death possibly the easiest and most effective way to minimize this risk is to become smaller which will let the animal support its weight on thinner or weaker branches as well as increasing the width of the branch relative to the animal's body size making it easier for it to maintain balance and it will let them squeeze through tighter or denser areas of vegetation these species which we'll call scandapods will be some of the smallest platons but they'll thrive on a diet of mixed fruit provided by the chromatophytes and in turn become some of the rainforest's most common seed dispersers but another clade of platidont may arrive at an entirely different solution to the issue of maneuvering through the trees suspensoriality involves hanging below the branches rather than moving along the top of them as seen in many primates sloths and in bats when roosting a key advantage provided by this form of locomotion is that since the animal is already suspended from the branch it won't need to worry about losing balance and falling off meaning the width of the branches won't pose as much of a limit on their maximum size the most fundamental requirement for suspense or reality is to evolve large claws or digits to grip the branches securely enough to let the animal hang beneath them effortlessly and indefinitely this may occur among one clade of platidonts when the claws at the end of their walking limbs evolve into prominent hooks and their ankle joints evolve a high degree of articulation to let them wrap around and grasp branches they may also evolve longer limbs to help them span gaps in the vegetation and to reach for food such as the fruits of the chromatophytes most of these platodonts which we'll call harpactopods will be larger than the skandapods and although fruit may still constitute a decent portion of their diet they may also retain more generalist feeding behaviors subsisting on leaves malacca forms and other small prey but once suspensoriality has evolved it will open up a number of new more exotic locomotive possibilities brachiation is a rare form of locomotion in which the animal moves by swinging arm overarm through the trees on earth this is only known to have evolved among primates with some groups like gibbons evolving such efficient brachiation that they can swing through the canopy at over 50 kilometers per hour making them some of the fastest of all arboreal animals this speed helps escape predators and cover greater distances in search of food so although the rarity of brachiating species on earth implies that it only evolves under very particular circumstances there's a chance it may also evolve in a clade of harpactopods while typically the limbs of most suspensorial animals are of the same or similar length to make them all equally effective in clinging to tree branches brachiation is correlated with disproportionately long forelimbs which let the animal span greater distances between handholds despite the fact that the osteopods have a much greater number of limbs than vertebrates these harpactopods may still make use of only a single pair of limbs for brachiation which keeps the body stable and gives the arms sufficient freedom of movement however their pedopalps are still used for handling food and the front-most locomotive limbs are attached to the bait of the skull which may not be practical for bearing the weight of the whole body so somewhat bizarrely it may be the second pair of legs that evolves into the primary brachiating limbs becoming almost as long as the rest of the animal's entire body the joints connecting these limbs to the body will need to be extremely flexible to give them a wide enough range of motion to swing forward and back in one swift movement to help them rapidly latch onto and let go of branches these limbs may evolve an extension of the ankle bone almost like an extra finger to oppose the sickle-shaped claws and close around the branch like a wrench in contrast although the remaining limbs may still occasionally be used for locomotion they'll play only a minor role in brachiation most of the time simply hanging below the body and since they no longer need to bear the animal's weight or retain any capacity for walking these limbs can afford to shrink so as to not get in the way this will give the animal an overall shape and style of movement similar to that of a pendulum redirecting the momentum generated on the downswing to propel it forward with the exception of the opisthopterans this clade which we'll call the tanner brackets will be some of the most mobile animals in the rainforest and will include frugivores omnivorous generalists and possibly even hunting predators among their ranks but there is one other way of moving through the trees that may evolve in yet another clade of platodonts as we discussed in part 6 many arboreal clades on earth have evolved to petagium to let them glide between branches and to act as a parachute to ease their descent on our alien planet this occurred among the alaska spondells about 60 million years ago but within the crowded canopy of the rainforest some of the platydots may convergently evolve along the same lines evolving a potassium stretch between each of their eight walking limbs initially this will simply help them leap between trees but perhaps with time and the right ecological conditions they may be able to take this development even further it's worth emphasizing that powered flight is a very rare trait so it's by no means inevitable that it will evolve among these gliding platydoms but with the sheer number and variety of niches offered by the rainforest the opportunity may eventually come along for them to evolve into the planet's second clade of flyers however a major difficulty inhibiting this development will be the existence of the opus doctrines which are already a well-established and extremely diverse clade and will present a considerable source of competition for any species adapting for flight for these platydons to have any chance of exploiting aerial niches they and the opisthopterans will need to undergo some form of niche partitioning similar to how on earth bats have specialized for nocturnality to avoid competition with diurnal birds in this case the platinum's characteristic broad teeth will be much more efficient at chewing through plant matter than the opus doctrines oral tentacles so while most apostopterones will be predators or nectarovores these gliding platydots may be able to more effectively fill the niches of flying herbivores and thus the two clades will avoid competition with each other by specializing for different diets on top of this their feeding habits may also be influenced by the metabolic demands of flight itself curiously for livery is very rare among flying animals possibly because leaves don't offer enough nutrition for a high-energy activity like flying so as these platadons specialize for flight the prevalence of leaves in their diet may decrease being made up for by the ample energy provided by through givery to turn their pertagia into full-fledged wings their second and third pairs of limbs may elongate and become more heavily muscled to contribute the bulk of the aerodynamic force to fuel the constant flapping of these wings they'll need to evolve a larger lung and heart and more powerful breathing muscles for greater oxygen consumption as well as thermoregulatory mechanisms to maintain an optimal metabolic rate once they've established themselves this clade may expand into all the niches that the opposite options have thus far left vacant undergoing rapid diversification as they spread into other habitats across the planet we'll call them pluropterans but while all of these various clades of platidont will be very successful they won't be the only arboreal specialists as the majority of rainforest niches are concentrated in the canopy many clades typically only found at ground level may be encouraged to take up arbor reality giving rise to species like tree porcupines tamanduas and silky anteaters such a development may occur among the dusmostricans which have thus far been largely precluded from the arboreal niches by competition from the but once again niches are so plentiful in the rainforest that it might be possible for at least one clade of desmostricans to expand their range into the trees their bodies and limbs may become longer and evolve gripping surfaces on the underside letting them cling to tree trunks and clamber among branches and their whip-like oral tentacles may evolve to bore through the crevices in the plant's cuticles and pluck out the malacca forms within let's call this clade the dolokostricans however while moving into the trees will help them evade the ground predators it will also expose them to new threats like the predatory tanner brackets since they're nowhere near fast or agile enough to outrun predators many species may simply rely on their banded armor for defense but some species may complement this with another form of toxicity unlike poison which simply needs to be ingested in order to take effect venom needs to be delivered directly into the bloodstream venom glands usually evolve from other chemical producing structures like scent salivary or reproductive glands and are usually situated near or within fangs quills or stings to puncture the target's flesh and allow the venom to pass into the blood in these dollar costumes the venom glands may derive from a series of excretory glands along their flanks used by their aquatic ancestors to maintain the balance of salt and sulfur in their blood to penetrate the attacker's skin and administer the venom the sides of their banded shell may evolve into sharp quill-like points which will normally lay flat for ease of movement but will stick up when the animal arches its back or curls into a ball getting stung by these quills may result in severe pain irritation and swelling near the point of contact which should be enough to discourage most predators like the distantly related chloroderms and cyanoderms these dollar costicans will want to make their dangerousness as obvious as possible and so may evolve similar aposomatic color patterns and just like with their malacca form relatives once the predators have evolved to recognize and avoid these animals which we'll call pronocanthids another clade of dolochostics may take advantage of this by evolving to mimic their danger signals however it would be quite unlikely for another clade to convergently evolve the pronoun camp that's venomous quills in exactly the same way so the mimics may simply rely on their aposematism to bluff their way out of dangerous situations batesian mimicry occurs when a toxic or dangerous species is mimicked by a relatively harmless one as can be seen in animals like milk snakes which share near identical apostomatic coloration to highly venomous coral snakes and in hoverflies which mimic the black and yellow stripes of wasps without bearing any stinger unlike muellerian mimicry batesian mimicry doesn't require the mimic to already have some form of defense to back up its warning signals providing a very inexpensive yet effective form of protection among the dollar kostrichens one clade may become batesian mimics of the pronocathets not only evolving the same general body shape and coloration but also long structures on their back that resemble the pronocather's quills but don't actually contain any venom and aren't stiff or sharp enough to pierce skin these animals which we'll call nother cathodes will rely on their deceptive appearance as their sole means of defense and both they and the pronocathetes will be free to forage for malacca forms without fear of attack but venom can also be used for offense as well as defense many predators use venom as a way of quickly subduing prey before it has the chance to escape or fight back in our alien rainforest some of the most common arboreal predators are the ancestral elastas bundles the flightless cousins of the forms that evolved into the opus doctrines although their range and maximum size have decreased over the past 60 million years as a result of the drop in atmospheric oxygen levels and the related shifts in climate they'll still be common and capable ambush predators found in most areas of woodland across the planet being especially prolific in the crowded canopy of the rainforest perhaps in one clade of these elastic bundles the digestive glands on the inside of their mouths may evolve to produce a potent venom which will be delivered into prey along special grooves in the animal's teeth this venom will give these creatures which we'll call kentrodonts a major advantage in tackling large or fast-moving prey one clade may even specialize for hunting flying animals like the opus doctrines and pluropterans which are too agile for most other predators to catch gripping the underside of a branch with their hind limbs they'll lie in weight with their spines bent into a tight curve striking at anything that flies past with a venomous bite that paralyzes the prey before it has the chance to struggle free somewhat like the bat-eating behavior seen in the amazonian giant centipede on earth to aid in this lifestyle this clade may evolve elongated bodies to increase their striking distance as well as powerful forelimbs to ensnare prey and restrain it long enough for the venom to take effect like most flightless elastis bundles these forms which we'll call asparants will be ambush predators and thus rely on prey coming to them but another clade may take this a step further by employing yet another variety of mimicry with the exception of dispersal mimicry all of the forms of mimicry we've discussed so far are categorized as defensive mimicry used by prey species to avoid or deter predators but predators can also make use of what's called aggressive mimicry luring prey by resembling something of interest for instance the tongue of the alligator snapping turtle imitates the appearance and movement of a worm tricking fish into trying to eat it only to end up getting eaten themselves and many clades of mantis have independently evolved to mimic specific kinds of flour attracting pollinators such as butterflies which the mantids then catch once they're within reach for the catrodonts an ideal model for aggressive mimicry will be the chromatophytes which already attract nectarivores like the pycopterins and frugivores like the scandipods and pluropterans initially these kentrodance may simply use the chromatophytes leaves and gamete-covered filaments as cover to implement their ambushes as they specialize for this hunting technique they're likely to evolve color patterns that help them blend in with the bright blues and greens of the plant's cuticles letting them stay hidden until prey comes within range at this point this is only considered camouflage not full-fledged aggressive mimicry which entails that the animal's appearance actively attracts prey rather than simply helping the predator avoid detection this may be accomplished with the evolution of a red crest on their back that mimics the chromatophytes leaves and meristem which the pycopterans and other net terrafores will come to in search of nectar only to be killed by the kentrodan's venomous bite these animals which we'll call phylopharyns will be much smaller than the asparagus but thanks to their potent venom they won't need a great size to make a kill and will be among the most specialized predators in the canopy as this rainforest has the highest density and diversity of species of any habitat on the planet it would be impossible to adequately catalogue the millions of clays that inhabit it and the handful that we've discussed here will represent only a tiny fraction of those that will adapt for rainforest life over the 60 million years or so since the altiphytes first evolve but while the residents of this lush jungle will have enjoyed the stable benign conditions for all this time the planet at large is about to go through an important juncture in its history one that will influence the course of life for over a hundred million years to come in the next episode we'll explore the fate of all of the clades we've discussed so far when the supercontinent finally breaks in two thanks to campfire for sponsoring this episode campfire blaze is a browser-based application that offers all the tools and features you need to plan out and document every aspect of your storytelling and worldbuilding a lot of blaze's features already come with the free version including entries for characters maps timelines species languages magic systems and the option to share your work and collaborate with other users in real time but if you want more you can upgrade your interface by adding new modules to customize your layout to suit your own personal world building needs each module can be individually purchased either as an ongoing subscription or as a one-time payment meaning you only pay for the features you need not only that but for their holiday sale campfire is offering 20 off both subscription and lifetime purchases for all blaze modules which you can get by using the code holiday blaze at checkout to sign up for blaze or to learn more check out the link in the description thanks also to the fans over on discord who contributed artwork for this episode and who saved me an enormous amount of time and effort when making these videos while simultaneously making them look a hell of a lot better in the process links to the main server and the alien biosphere's fan server in the description and once again a massive thanks to all the patrons whose continued support makes videos like this possible thanks for watching and i'll see you in the next video [Music] so you

Channel: Biblaridion

Views: 296,166

Rating: 4.9894204 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: B_SNUf5udMU

Length: 39min 40sec (2380 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 19 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/bobjobjoe]

Lol stumbled across this post as I'm watching the video

[u/Cleveland_28]

This was a Really good episode

[u/1674033]

Reject spider, return to monke

[u/AnomalousPhotons]

I love this series

[u/[deleted]]

Sweet. I've been rereading Serina this weekend and now the other big ongoing spec project has updated.

[u/ArcticZen]

Bib always puts so much effort into his projects; amazing to see how far the Alien Biosphere project has come. Looking forward to the supercontinent split coming up!

[u/Slipslime]

Oh man this is incredible, it's super helpful in giving me ideas to think about for my own project

[u/Camacaw]

Oh cool I love these videos! Me and my dad sit down and watch whenever another one of these is uploaded.

[u/Rauisuchian]

Alien Biospheres is an awesome series, the creativity and realism is hard to match.