Welcome to Kappa: the World of Turtles

welcome to Kappa the world of turtles this is a speculative Evolution seed World Alla the likes of Serena where the only vertebrate introduced is the alligator snapping turtle you heard that right the only vertebrate that means no mammals no birds no other reptiles not even any godamn fish Turtles are probably my favorite animals ever and their Anatomy is absolutely insane so I can't wait to see what evolution does them as well as the Snappers Kappa was seeded with just a few common Wetland organisms of course there was also a ton of initial microorganisms fungi decomposing mites and small worms to ensure cycles of Decay introduced plants include bull rushes Reeds lies Hy synth orchids and seagrasses as well as some simple red and green algae the only species of insect on Kappa are the monarch butterfly and Luna Moth triops small Hardy crustations are the only fully aquatic animals so welcome to the world Kappa was designed as a wetland Sanctuary so it was terraformed to have a number of unique features it's got one tidily locked Moon called chelon that creates a single continuous high tide on opposite sides of the Equator Kappa is therefore only affected by mild solar Tides about a third of the strength of the lunar Tides we experience on Earth this also means that the equator experiences daily solar eclipses on the near side of the planet the planet's Continental shelves vary in height by only about 1,000 M and slope gently this creates flat land masses where winding river deltas run down from gently Rolling Hills and Highlands emptying out into shallow Seas with the sandb bars that support endless seagrass Meadows greenhouse gas levels are exceptionally high this creates a boiling hot house world with thick cloud cover and heavy rainfall precipitation levels are so high that deserts are essentially non-existent rather the equator is covered by a belt of steaming oceans and wetlands where the water can get hot enough to literally cook you alive flat land masses high temperatures and high precipitation also fuel enormous seasonal storms these are incredibly powerful and destructive and almost every form of life on Kappa has had to adapt to in some way luckily these powerful wind currents also create significant nutrient cycling around kappa's many small Islands preventing massive toxic algae blooms that would otherwise make the oceans uninhabitable now I want to go over some of the biomes of this strange wet world with some notable exceptions Kappa is comprised almost entirely of some kind of wetland there are also as of yet no trees making certain biomes like Jungles and swamps impossible ible at the poles are the Shivering soaks these are cold Tundra like regions that freeze over briefly during Winters although High global temperatures ensure that this is not for long in temperate areas we find biomes that resemble the wetlands of Western Europe such as salt marshes tidal flats and Peep bogs of course you have your classic subtropical Wetland basins like the Florida Everglades the iconic Earth Wetland fed by runoff from lakes and rivers and cover in non-woody vegetation there are Great River delts on some of the larger land masses resembling the danu or Amazon that travel hundreds of miles before meeting the sea in brackish estries at the equator is the aforementioned steam belt a ring of boiling wetlands and seas with the highest humidity precipitation and temperature levels on the whole planet these deadly equatorial conditions create a near total ecological barrier between kappa's Northern and Sou hemispheres so life in these separate Realms will take distinct evolutionary paths there are some very limited Hills in Highlands rising to only about 800 m above sea level at Max these get lots of rainfall and low light levels due to heavy cloud cover supporting a wide variety of giant mosses and creating vast mats of spongy vegetation this unique biome I'm going to call the lump lands kappa's oceans are all mostly extremely shallow in these sunlet water Waters vast sandb bars support nearly endless seagrass Meadows however there are two areas of true open ocean on opposite sides of the planet created by the gravitational pull of chalus here the sea gets to over 500 M deep sure that's absolutely nothing by Earth standards but lying at the very bottom of this swollen bulge of sea are the cracks these are Rifts in kappa's single massive continental plate creating an AIG that stretches down for 9 km and the cracks appear to be spreading let's explore some very early adaptations and radiations among Kappa fora with abundant food and a stable environment the population of turtles absolutely explodes until they exploit all available food this forces the Snappers to begin evolving we're not talking major changes here though especially considering the short time we're dealing with at this stage it's mostly about size and behavior Snappers already have a pretty varied lifestyle giving them a solid foundation to specialize in various different ways classically they sit and wait in Ambush for prey to swim into their open Moore lured in by a specialized wormlike tongue also they often actively hunt eating small animals and especially other Turtles they are also omnivorous particularly liking fruit Florida locals have even seen them eating grapes that have fallen from trees unfortunately for the turtles there's no fruit bearing trees on Kappa so they'll have to make do with the other abundant but less tasty vegetation so some turtles adapt to become smaller and faster specializing in eating the Abundant triops other animals commit wholeheartedly to Ambush sitting at the bottom of slow moving waterways and lying in weight some of these Snappers remain small but others grow huge big enough to lure in and devour other adult turtles others specialize more in plant matter they become larger and larger fueling their growth with near constant feeding their main defense is to Simply grow so large that nothing else can harm them other Turtles start to spend more time on land they become significantly smaller than their ancestors and develop proportionally longer and straighter limbs to zip about on some specialize in feasting on caterpillars and other vertebrates While others consume more land plants all turtles have some kind of burrowing ability helping them to cope with kappa's massive storms but some take this lifestyle further they become smaller and develop more powerful for liims burying themselves in the dirt when the winds really hit these adaptations also make them better at hunting worms and other soil for than their relatives and they can dig up nutritious Roots more easily for now snapping turtles stick to fresh water or brackish habitats not yet having the adaptations to tolerate salt water the triops expansion and radiation is orders of magnitude faster evolving to reproduce rapidly in ephemeral pools their generational Cycles are extremely short in just a couple of months the next generation is ready to be born so they evolve with blinding speed with visible physical changes happening in as short a time span as a human lifetime they rapidly adapt to the different levels of salt in their Waters some spread out into the oceans While others stay in rivers lakes and wetlands in general these populations intermix a lot since kappa's Wetlands usually somehow connect to the Sea those that make it to the oceans have absolutely no competition and arthropods get the greatest chance to grow large since the silurian age of giant sea scorpions some become huge 2 m long filter feeders slurping up Al Plankton others stick to The seagrass Meadows hiding amongst the leafy fronds and using them for food still others become massive arthropod super Predators the size of reef sharks stalking amongst the green meanwhile some lose their ability to swim entirely starting a lazy New Life of filter feeding and floating along with the currents the triops adapt just as rapidly in the turtle's freshwater domain some become benic bottom feeders growing massive armored bodies to protect themselves from predators while they grind up plant matter While others become specialist DET travores others gather together in huge shs to protect themselves from predators although this strategy isn't restricted to freshwater smaller crustation Predators hunt here too snatching up other triops and even baby turtles when they can but they need to be much more careful here for unlike in the open oceans they are not the top of the food chain many species become borrow ERS whether it's in the sand or the Muk letting them avoid the worst of the storm Seasons some even make tentative steps onto land thriving in moist environments that would be intolerable to other invertebrates with no birds bats bees or anything else butterflies and moths become the Supreme rulers of the Skies but being aerial animals they are particularly vulnerable to Kaa devastating seasonal storms with their short lifespan the descendants of the Luna Moth don't migrate rather they wait for the storms to pass entirely before hatching and enjoying brief Windows of respite whenever they can monoch butterflies on Earth are already iconic migratory animals so on Kappa their descendants take this Behavior even further timing their pupation against the weather so that when they hatch they can fly away to calmer Skies every year billions of leopard doans hatch from underground cocoons and take flight in great clouds thick enough to darken the land below low some of these species become absolutely enormous with wingspans rivaling modern Eagles some become Predators developing their swirling prosis into a stabbing Rostrum to hunt their relatives and even baby turtles they also use this new tool to happily feed on kappa's abundant carrying the caterpillars of butterflies and moths become the dominant terrestrial invertebrates munching endlessly on vegetation some even become entirely neotenous never metamorphosing into butterflies they become the ultimate generalist Cleanup Crew eating plant and animal matter alike with powerful grinding Jaws kappa's plant life also explodes loving the high CO2 and constant rainfall soon the planet is totally carpeted in various shades of green sea grasses cover every Oceanic surface that gets enough sunlight providing habitat and food for the saltwater triops it's here that we see the beginnings of the meadow Reef biome some seagrasses develop tough ryms to protect themselves from the storms While others develop extremely rapid growth to quickly recover from weather damage tough Woody structures provide shelter and food while the animals fertilize the seagrass with their droppings and corpses and even help to pollinate them with uncountable billions of pollinating insects flowering plants become especially successful carpets of water lies and higher synth cover bodies of fresh water growing to ridiculous sizes and providing shelter and food food their strategy is to grow and reproduce as rapidly as possible before the storms smash their fragile bodies meanwhile orchids grow enormous tangling aerial root structures absolutely loving the humid environment and being the only plants that survive near the boiling steam belt Reeds and bull rushes become more permanent fixtures than their flowering counterparts their Woody stems become thick and strong while winding root structures reach deep into the soft Earth kappa's powerful wind current transport their seeds and pollen for thousands of miles ensuring that their kind reach every corner of the planet for now Kappa is a vast wet World covered in stinking swamps and racked by huge storms tune in next time to see what happens when Evolution really gets going

Channel: Kappa: the World of Turtles

Views: 303,624

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Id: zHz_rQZ-7Es

Length: 12min 59sec (779 seconds)

Published: Sun May 12 2024