“No more shall any shepherd meet

The ladies of the fairy clan,

Nor are their deathly kisses sweet

On lips of any earthly man.

And half I envy him who now,

Clothed in her Court's enchanted green,

By moonlit loch or mountain's brow

Is Chaplain to the Fairy Queen.”

-The Fairy Minister, Andrew Lang

Elaine rubbed at the bags beneath her eyes as she finally coaxed the twins into bed at just shy of midnight. Damn, kids, what kind of world are you growing up in? And did my mom ever feel this old when she joined the 27 Club?

She had been very late to work that morning. Some kind of horrible tragedy had struck the city’s commuter rail service. A purely accidental disaster was what the authorities were saying, one that somehow multiple stations to burst into flames, and then spread to the mayor’s office and the home of the police chief. C’est-la-friggin-vie, she thought. Elaine had been written up when she finally got in, warned that her job would be in serious jeopardy if she didn’t learn to plan ahead for things like that.

Yeah, sure, piplan ahead. For a goddamned terrorist attack?

Trying to forget the troubles of the day, she turned on the TV and turned up the volume. There was nothing worthwhile on the boob tube, but she needed the noise to drown out the incessant sound of nothingness outside her fleabag apartment. The nights in this part of Philadelphia had once been filled with sirens and gunfire, but it had grown paradoxically quiet in recent years. Police didn’t come here without armored convoys to support them anymore. The local gangs, in contrast, had grown so wealthy and so powerful that they actually took an increasingly dim view of petty crime committed against local citizens.

They ruled through extortion and terror of course, and they happily fought bloody wars with each other without a single thought to innocent people caught in the crossfire, but muggers or random wackos who caused trouble on their “turf” risked facing a swifter and arguably more unerring form of justice than anything they would have feared from conventional law enforcement. And in any event, a city that had once seen a row of townhouses besieged, bombed, and razed by its own police department had never put much trust in their protection or service. Even with their absence, and in those weeks where the gangs weren’t chunking hand grenades at each other, the streets were almost becoming safe enough to walk at night.

On that note, the corner store down the street was

Terrestrial vertebrates on Earth all have similar body plans based on the evolution of the tetrapod lineage. While arguments can be made that four (or fewer) legs are optimal for large organisms ultimately the fact their ancestors (e.g. tiktaalik) had two sets of paired fins fixed the number of limbs. Is this arrangement inevitable for alien life too?

On another post I suggested that this situation could perhaps be avoided if terrestrial life went straight from living in the water to living in the trees. Maybe a planet has much stronger tides than on Earth and extensive mangrove swamps dominate the coastline for many miles. What body plan would be best adapted to an amphibious lifestyle among the mangrove roots though?

The mangrove killifish can stay out of out water for many days but it doesn't appear to have four legs. Would a many legged worm-like form like arthropleura be better? What about multiple tentacles like a squibbon for rapid arboreal locomotion? Perhaps a simple snail's foot is adequate?

I think I'm leaning towards something akin to a chiton with spiny shells like a scorpion conch for a spine along with cuttlefish tentacles and perhaps an extended two lobed foot like a plough snail. That would seem to give a range of options for terrestrial clades that look nothing like Earth tetrapods but are instead mollusc-vertebrates.

Does anyone else have thoughts on this or are tetrapod aliens the most popular?

Author's Note: I made this as a kinda Wikipedia style biological summary of Nargacuga with speculative features and explanations for its abilities. Do note that this is heavily speculative and mostly based on my very basic understanding of biology and general observation with these monsters. It is all labelled so you can skip to specific parts if you want.

Classification:

(Note: Many of the taxonomic classifications are named after the classification of Earth’s species because I don’t have the creative energy to come up with appropriate sounding Latin words for all of them and it simplifies the process and makes it easier to draw connections.)

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Wyvernia

Order: Felisauria

Family: Felisauridae

Genus: Pterotheristes

Species: lateni

Description:

1. Size and appearance

Nargacuga is a medium-sized pseudowyvern (Felisauria) native to densely forested areas, such as the Ancient Forest of the New World. The largest adults reach up to over 23.5 meters long and weigh up to 7 tons but most individuals are around 17 meters and 4.5 tons. They are covered in dark blue semiplume with red plumage covering leaf-shaped streaks from the base of the beaks to throughout the inside of the external ear and along the trailing edges of the wings. Their scales are a smokey grey.

The Nargacuga is overall morphologically typical of a pseudowyvern, possessing four limbs, two legs and two wings, all of which are used for terrestrial locomotion. They walk and run with a semi splayed limb posture. The wings are of similar proportions to the other two known extant genera of pseudowyverns, Tigrex (Tigrex) and Barioth (Cryofelis), being muscular and longer than their hindlimbs but noticeably shorter compared to “true” flying wyverns while their hind limbs are highly developed and more gracile compared to Tigrex and Barioth.

Hatchlings have features typical of baby wyverns, with a large, short face and proportionately smaller limbs. They have dark grey downy feathers which are replaced with adult feathers once they’ve reached two-thirds of their adult size.

2. Head morphology

The skull is wide, deep and lightly built. Small triangular antorbital fenestra located just below the eye further minimize weight. It has large eye sockets and large cylindrical-shaped eyes loaded with rod cells which work well in low light conditions, allowing Nargacuga to see in near pitch-black though their cone cell count is still also quite high. Their pup

Intro: This is a part 1 of 2 about an original race I created for my setting. Feel free to suggest areas I could add to or cut back on, or suggestions that can improve my description or ask questions so I can clarify and edit in the future.

Now let's begin:

Homins are a species that are unique among humans due to their distinctive long, prehensile tails and hand-like feet capable of well-articulated movements making them more at home in the trees then they are on the ground. They are also short in stature, most below four feet in height even in adulthood. Even with humble beginnings in the high leafy canopies of tropical forests, their drive, curiosity, and fighting spirit allowed them to settle in various forests the world and even grow new woodlands to improve their livelihood. Their lifestyle and mannerisms have also led to the race having relatively good relations with most other races of the world.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Homins mostly resemble humans with proportionate dwarfism, although their arms are slightly longer, as they can put their hands on their knees without them bending their legs. The major distinctive differences from other human species besides size are their prehensile feet with longer grippable toes and a opposable thumb and their fully prehensile tail that extends from the lower base of spine and covered with a fine layer of hair, the same color as that on their head. Homins come in roughly four different phenotypic groups: Tropic homins tend to be the most lithe, most sparse body hair and dark skin; Isle homins tend to be smaller with the darkest hair and skin; Silvid homins tend to be taller and of intermediate skin color; Taiga homins tend to have the lighter shades of hair and skin. Of course many homins have a blend of these traits due to admixture.

Facial characteristics

Tropic homins tend to have round flat faces with small noses and epicanthal folds near the eyes making them appear narrow and slanted. Silvid homins tend to have prominent cheekbones, a wide face tending to square on the bottom, and small eyes. Isle homins tend to have broad heavy faces with a large straight nose, rounded jaw-line, full lips and occasional epicanthal folds. Tiaga homins tend to have short heads and broad faces with low and widely spaced eyes with a medium sized nose that gives a child-like quality.

Biological Traits

Prehensile Tail: Homins have a long, flexible tail that projects from the sacral triangle that they can use to hold o

I dont think running from the warden should be easy, you shouldn't have made the mistake of making a sound in its presence in the first place. You could've faced death as it came by inches away from where you stood, and kept silent and frozen still, invisible to the warden. But now that its locked on to you, its not going to lose you so fast. The warden should remind you that even with all your netherite and enchantments, you are mortal, and that you put yourself in danger for intruding.

Locomotion is the ability to move yourself from one place to another. We already know the warden can walk and run after you, but what if it could do more than that?

I listed them in an order where each one builds off the previous one. The first couple of ideas are really minor, but as they get combined with more abilities, it gets more complex. If I had to pick only one thing to add, it would be climbing because they have large strong arms that are long in proportion to its body, features associated with arboreal animals. In other words, wardens look like they are built to climb. Some of these abilities are compatible with others, while some conflict with each other, so its not necessary to have every single thing.

walking

just plain walking upright on 2 feet. From the reveal video they look roughly 3 blocks tall, 2 blocks wide, and 1 block across, so for this purpose I will say their hitbox is 1.6 x 3. This is a little larger than the iron golem's hitbox of 1.4 x 2.7.

ducking/crouching

It decreases its height by 0.5 blocks making it 1.6 x 2.5. If the ceiling is 2.5 blocks high, the warden would have to lower its head to fit under, it has to duck. Or else it would hit its head. Alternatively, it could bend down slightly to crouch, like when the player sneaks. Either way it does the same thing, just a different posture. No need to implement both ways. It doesn't affect its speed.

balancing

wardens look 2 blocks wide so if it has to walk on a path 1 block wide with air on both sides, it would hold its arms out and slow down like its trying to balance. Maybe if there were blocks it had to duck/crouch under, it would even hold its arms up like its holding on to the ceiling for balance. I thought it would be cool if instead of walking with its feet stepping on air (because they are wider than the path), it "reacts" to the narrowness of the path on by changing its pace.

• It

I help two people feed and assist a feral cat colony. I noticed one of the cats had a wound on one of its toes. Trying to describe by phone this wound to one of those people, I saw the light turn on...

Both primate opposable halluces would collide between themselves when normal hominan bipedal walk.

A note to be considered is that it is just a ultimate cause, that is, it wasn't the primary reason. The very primary reason could be an evolutionary gaining and specialization of a dual combined locomotion, arboreal locomotion (brachiation), plus terrestrial locomotion (bipedal hominan locomotion); but, then, the definitive initial reason of the development of orthograde bipedal gait was the evolutionary specialization of prehensile (arboreal, brachiating) hands and forelimbs in other tasks than terrestrial or arboreal locomotion at all, that is, the definitive initial reason of orthograde bipedalism was the specialization of prehensile hands and forelimbs in different skills of object manipulation.

INDIVIDUAL PROFILE:

SPECIES: VARIUPITHECUS KLAMATHENSIS

SPECIES SHORTHAND: VKL

INDIVIDUAL ID #: 233

OTHER ALIASES: "JOEY"

SEX: MALE

HEIGHT: 3 FEET

ARM LENGTH: 2 FEET

WEIGHT: 6 POUNDS

HAIR COLOR: DARK GRAY

AGE: ???

STATUS: ALIVE

NEXT OF KIN: VKL-231 "CHUP", VKL-232 "TWIG" (PARENTS), VKL-234 "CRAWLEY" (SIBLING)

-----------------------

PROFILE AUTHOR: DIRECTOR FOSSIL

PROJECT ASSIGNED: WARBLER

AREA OF STUDY: WILDERNESS AROUND PORT HEWITT, CALIFORNIA, USA (ADJACENT TO WILLOW CREEK AND SIX RIVERS NATIONAL FOREST)

ARRIVAL DATE: 7/7/2025

DURATION: TWO WEEKS

FIELD CONTACT: HORACE FIELDS (NOTE: MISCOMMUNICATION RESULTED IN ME NOT KNOWING HE WAS THE CONTACT)

---------------------------------------------------------BEHAVIORS---------------------------------------------------------------------------

• Arboreal Movement: In what is a possible uniform behavior for young Bigfoots, Joey demonstrates himself capable of advanced and agile arboreal movement, brachiating from tree to tree and climbing trees with skill. These forms of arboreal movement are not too dissimilar to other primates such as gibbons and other lesser apes. It is hypothesized that all young Bigfoots are capable of these forms of locomotion, but lose their ability to do so once they mature.
• Fleeting Bipedalism: Since he is older, Joey displays more and more of his natural bipedal locomotion, and though he still likes to navigate the trees, he is walking on two legs more and more often, and I have no doubt that he will improve.
• Fascination With Thermal Cameras: Out of all the field equipment utilized within the family's turf, Joey finds the thermal cameras the most fascinating. It is not uncommon to see an up-close of his face on the feeds, and it is possible he is attracted to it because of the heat coming off the batteries.
• Curiosity Towards Natural and Artificial Objects: An addendum to the behavior above, he along with his younger brother exhibit curiosity towards any and all new or enticing objects in their environment. Not only have they shown curiosity and fascination towards other field equipment, but has also done so towards things in their environment, with things such as insects, flowers, rocks, abandoned nests, and shed hairs drawing their interest.

---------------------------------------------------------MISC. NOTES-------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Joey, unlike his younger brother is able to

Many species here on earth have strange biological quirks or life histories: why shouldn't aliens be just as strange? Mainly looking for those that exist in or are inspired by nature, but they don't have to be necessarily.

##1d100 Biological Quirks of Alien Species

1. Size is sexually dimorphic

2. Undergo parthenogenesis

3. Must shed an exoskeleton regularly

4. Indeterminate growth: older individuals can reach enormous sizes

5. Variable growth pattern: size and number of appendages vary between individuals

6. Form eusocial colonies with a queen

7. Skin secretions are an irritant to other species

8. Only adapted for high pressure environments

9. Internal magnetic "compass" organ: useless off a planet and damaged by strong electro-magnetic fields.

10. Multiple different sexes/mating types that can breed with any but their own

11. Redundant organ systems with gradual organ regeneration u/Gmknewday1

12. Can only see a very narrow range of colors in the visible spectrum. u/archDeaconstructor

13. Harbor a symbiotic species of vastly smaller aliens that can leave their bodies for a short time to perform tasks on their behalf. u/archDeaconstructor

14. Has multiple distinct stages in its life cycle with different levels of sapience.u/archDeaconstructor

15. Produces a droning noise at 19hz while communicating - a frequency which causes humans to potentially experience visual hallucinations, among other effects. u/archDeaconstructor

16. Lack discernible heads. Brain's location in the body changes as members of the species age. u/archDeaconstructor

17. Rapidly change color in response to temperature. u/archDeaconstructor

18. Can live indefinitely as long as they regularly molt. u/archDeaconstructor

19. Can hock spit over short distances at velocities that can stun small prey. u/archDeaconstructor

20. Can tear open parts of its own limbs to release a spray of venomous substances. These venom glands are otherwise inaccessible. u/archDeaconstructor

21. Allergy to a common substance u/World_of_Ideas

22. Amphibious. It is capable of breathing air or water u/World_of_Ideas

23. Can hear (sub-sonic, ultra-sonic) frequencies u/World_of_Ideas

24. Can roll itself into an armored ball like an (armadillo or pill bug) u/World_of_Ideas

25. Cat-like tongue u/World_of_Ideas

26. Colour-changing skin u/World_of_Ideas

27. Colour blind u/World_of_Ideas

28. Has a crest on its (head, neck) that it uses to display a signal u/World_of_Ideas

29. Communicate t

# Major League Soccer

# NWSL

# USL Championship

# USL League One

# USL League 2 - USL League 2 Live Streams

<<<Previous <First> Next>>>

So… it’s been a while. I’ve been dealing with some real life shit and it hit hard.

Finally feeling up to writing some more, so thanks to everyone who has been reading and I apologize about the wait.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

>Autopsy Notes:
>
>Species: Mantodea Chironis (Colloquially called, Centaur Mantis)
>
>Size: 2 Meters (2.5 Meters when standing on hind legs.) Width equivalent to an average Earth donkey.
>
>Anatomy:
>
>Quadrupedal, with for spiked appendages it uses for locomotion. Spikes likely for locomotion through swampland rather than weapons. It has an enlarged abdomen that runs perpendicular to the ground that supports its upright thorax. Thorax supports a head and two large scythe-like appendages. Scythes are used for defense, though there could be other applications.
>
>Its jaw is unique to anything seen on extant Earth arthropods. It is equipped with with multiple layers of blade-like protrusions spaced seemingly at random before it’s mandibles. Running hypothesis is that it uses the blades much like the blades of a wood chipper, to eat branches whole.
>
>It's exoskeleton is camouflaged to its environment, shifting pigments similar to a Cuttlefish. In addition to its camouflaging ability, the exoskeleton is porous, suggesting it breathes through it similar to Earth Arthropods. It’s large size is likely due to the abundance of oxygen in the atmosphere. Requesting samples of Late Carboniferous - Early Permian period Earth Fossils for comparison.
>
>Diet: Largely herbivorous, it uses its large scythes to cut foliage to a reasonable size for consumption. Findings of small arboreal animals have been found in the stomach, suggesting an omnivorous diet. Skeptics claim that these creatures are unintended prey, caught during regular feeding.
>
>Using drone footage, they have been spotted in pods of up to 100 individuals. All samples found thus far were male in origin. Females of the species (though undocumented as

Originally Titled, 95 Years of Revolutionary Industrial Unionism, by Michael Hargis—featured in Anarcho Syndicalist Review, #27 and #28. This time line copied from the web site of the Industrial Workers of the World

1904-83: A Time-line of the Industrial Workers of the World

https://libcom.org/article/1904-83-time-line-industrial-workers-world

1904

* Meeting of six industrial unionists in Chicago issues call for a January conference to discuss formation of a revolutionary working class organization.

1905

* January 2: Conference of 23 industrial unionists in Chicago issues an Industrial Union Manifesto calling for an industrial Union Congress to be held in Chicago June 27.
* IWW Founding Convention—June 27: The “Continental Congress of the Working Class” establishes the industrial Workers of the World with cooperation of elements from Socialist Labor Party/Socialist Trades & Labor Alliance, Socialist Party of America, Western Federation of Miners and survivors of International Working People’s Association.

1906

* Haywood, Pettibone and Moyers, WFM leaders, framed for attempting to kill the governor of Colorado.
* Second Convention of IWW abolishes office of president and ousts “pure and simple” tradeunionists.
* Lockout of IWW members in Goldfield, Nevada. Vincent St. John arrested for conspiracy to commit murder in death of a restaurant owner.
* WFM-IWW miners strike against wage cut in Goldfield. Federal troops sent in to crush strike; first stay-in strike (3,000 workers) of the 20th Century carried out by IWW at General Electric plant in Schenectady, NY.

1907

* Founding of National Industrial Union of Textile Workers, 1st chartered IWW industrial union.
* Strike at Marston Textile Mill, Skowhegan, Maine;
* 3,000 IWW sawmill workers strike in Portland, OR;
* IWW smeltermen strike in Tacoma, WA win 8-hour day and 15% pay hike;
* Lumber workers strike in Humboldt County, CA, Missoula, MT and Vancouver, B.C.;
* Bakers in San Francisco strike;
* Lumber workers strike in Montana;
* Textile strike at Mapleville, RI;
* American Tube strike in Bridgeport, CT

1908

* Textile workers strike, Lawrence, MA
* Fourth convention results in split between political actionists, led by Daniel DeLeon of the SLP, and direct actionists, led by Vincent St. John and J.H. Walsh. DeLeonists set up rival IWW in Detroit

While I have to agree that the emergence of an amphibious fish-analogue, coming on land to tap into new food sources and evade predators is the most direct and logical progression, I've lately been wondering how to spice things up a little.

For example, if by some weirdly rapid plant evolution a species of fully fledged mangroves had already taken hold on the coastlines, could a species go directly from an aquatic niche to a an arboreal one, moving via saltatory locomotion (or crawling up low-hanging branches) and occasionally dropping back into the water to rehydrate? Or could powered flight starting from an aquatic niche without a terrestrial intermediate stage be feasible?

If so, what unique aspects to consider? What selective pressures could facilitate these unusual evolutionary paths and are there any more unorthodox ways out of the sea that I have missed?

You can find the current list of flairs available below. If you don't see the flair you want on the list you can put in a request. For a new flair to be added it needs to meet the following requirements:

• The team must be a real current or former American/Canadian team
• The team must receive at least 3 unique requests.

###MLS

• MLS
• Atlanta United
• Austin FC
• CF Montreal
• Charlotte FC
• Chicago Fire
• Colorado Rapids
• Columbus Crew
• DC United
• FC Cincinnati
• FC Dallas
• Houston Dynamo
• Inter Miami
• LA Galaxy
• LAFC
• Minnesota United
• Nashville SC
• New England Revolution
• NYCFC
• NYRB
• Orlando City
• Philadelphia Union
• Portland Timbers
• Real Salt Lake
• Saint Louis SC
• San Jose Earthquakes
• Seattle Sounders
• Sporting KC
• Toronto FC
• Vancouver Whitecaps

###CPL

• CPL
• Atletico Ottawa
• Cavalry FC
• FC Edmonton
• Forge FC
• Halifax Wanderers
• Pacific FC
• Valour FC
• York United

###NWSL

• NWSL
• Angel City FC
• Chicago Red Stars
• Houston Dash
• Kansas City
• NJ/NY Gotham FM
• North Carolina Courage
• OL Reign
• Orlando Pride
• Portland Thorns
• Racing Louisville
• San Diego Wave
• Washington Spirit

###USL Championship

• USL Championship
• Atlanta United II
• Austin Bold
• Birmingham Legion
• Charleston Battery
• Colorado Springs Switchbacks
• Detroit City
• El Paso Locomotive
• FC Tulsa
• Hartford Athletic
• Indy Eleven
• LA Galaxy II
• Las Vegas Lights
• Loudon United
• Louisville City
• Memphis 901
• Miami FC
• Monterey Bay FC
• New Mexico United
• New York Red Bulls II
• Oakland Roots
• OKC Energy
• Orange County SC
• Phoenix Rising
• Pittsburgh Riverhounds
• Queensboro FC
• Real Monarchs
• RGV Toros
• Sacramento Republic
• San Antonio FC
• San Diego Loyal
• Sporting KC II

Since humans are by far the most overpowered build that Outside has ever seen, you might expect that the other members of the guild which humans came from also rank near the top of the tier list. And you’d be right, but it might not be so obvious what specifically makes them among the best. So to address that question, today I’m going to examine the basic ape build and all its variations, explaining why the basic ape design provides such a strong foundation and how the different great ape builds, particularly humans, built on that design to dominate the meta.

The great ape guild first appeared during the Miocene expansion, about 17 million years ago. They arose from the monkey faction, but differed from their monkey ancestors in a few key ways. The most immediately visible difference, and the one that’s most commonly pointed out as the defining distinction, is that apes have no tail. This was a controversial choice, since the prehensile tails of monkeys are a very useful trait, providing both an extra way to grip onto trees and a fifth limb for picking up objects. Most non-arboreal mammals also have tails, which are usually used for balance when running. So why did apes make the unusual choice to give up this ability? The answer is that apes are optimised for a different form of locomotion than monkeys. Whereas monkeys are principally designed to walk and climb on four legs, apes tend to move with a more upright posture. When they climb, the front arms are used to swing from branch to branch while the hind legs just hang below. In this type of locomotion, a tail would only get in the way and be a nuisance. Other differences between apes and monkeys are typically also related to their more bipedal movement styles. Compared to other primates, great apes have more flexible shoulder joints, which allow them to swing their arms more freely, and a shorter, less mobile spine, which allows them to better balance while standing on two legs. These adaptations are mainly relevant when climbing, as they’re still predominantly quadrupedal when on the ground, but they also help to walk while carrying food or tools.

Shifting from quadrupedalism to bipedalism might seem like a minor change, but it actually has some pretty important advantages. For one thing, raising yourself on two legs means you have a wider field of view, which helps to detect predators. But more importantly, only using two of the limbs to move means that you now have two extra free limbs which you ca

Hey again /r/mls I'm back with part four of the state soccer teams. For those of you seeing this for the first time, I began a project last summer where in a made-up universe, each U.S. state (commonwealth for the people in KY, MA, PA, and VA) had their own state soccer team. I have done Part I revised a few weeks ago, and now I am on to part four!

To get read-up on everything, check out Part 1.

#Previous Threads Part 1 (AL-CA) | Part 2 (CO-GA) | Part 3 (HI-IA) | Part 4 (KS-MO) | Part 5 (MT-OH) | Part 6 (OK-TX)

#Kansas

• Home Stadium: Children's Mercy Park, Kansas City (Capacity: 18,500)
• Notable players: Nick Besler, Dániel Sallói, and Tyler Freeman
• Likely CONCACAF equivalent: Trinidad and Tobago
• Rivals: Missouri, Nebraska, and Colorado

This is an update list of all currently known sentient species. For more information or details on each spieces, please refer to other logs.

Name: Antiloca

Preferred environment: 18.6°c, 6.13 m/s^2 gravity, 24.4% oxygen levels, terrestrial.

This is a bipedal, herbivorous, mammalian prey species. They are adapted for high speed running on open plains. They have horns which serve as mating displays and defence against predators.

Name: Aractide

Preferred environment: 19.1°c, 5.83 m/s^2 gravity, 26.1% oxygen levels, arboreal.

This is a octapedal, carnivorous, insectoid predatory species. They are adapted for climbing trees to place naturally made webs to catch small, flying lifeforms. Their strong carapace is used to protect against impacts from prey or falls.

Name: Foivora

Preferred environment: 16.9°c, 5.61 m/s^2 gravity, 23.9% oxygen levels, arboreal.

This is a bipedal, herbivorous, mammalian prey species. They are adapted for climbing and hiding in the trees. They have long, blunt claws for climbing and a thick fur coat for warmth.

Name: Verkton

Preferred environment: 17.5°c, 5.97 m/s^2 gravity, 20.8% oxygen levels, aquatic.

This is a tripedal, carnivorous, cartilaginous predatory species. They are adapted for quick swimming in clear oceans. They have streamlined arms which can be held against their sides for less drag while chasing prey.

Name: Ursion

Preferred environment: 14.3°c, 6.43 m/s^2 gravity, 24.7% oxygen levels, terrestrial.

This is a bipedal, omnivorous, mammalian predatory species. They are adapted for ambush hunting in forest. They have thick fat for warmth and as armour and energy storage.

Name:Varanide

Preferred environment: 22.1°c, 5.55 m/s^2 gravity, 22.6% oxygen levels, terrestrial.

This is a bipedal, carnivorous, reptilian, predatory species. They are adapted for high temperatures and a small biosphere. They are cold-blooded and have sharp claws for ripping into prey.

Name: Formicid

Preferred environment: 17.5°c, 5.82m/s^2 gravity, 26.3% oxygen levels, subterranean.

This is a hexapedal, herbivorous, insectoid, prey species. They are adapted for digging and building underground. They have slimy and acidic saliva for processing and securing tunnels.

Name: Neuroter

Preferred environment: 18.4°c, 5.83 m/s^2 gravity, 26.1% oxygen levels, subterranean.

This is a hexapedal, carnivorous, insectoid, predatory species. They are adapted for digging burrows and building traps. They have strong mandibles for restraini

Hey all! Just some random posthuman ideas I've thought up

Tree Huggers: Made from an agrarian colony of the Star People, these literal tree huggers lived simple lives in the treetops, gliding branch to branch and eating fruit. Their planet is a world of immense forests with tall trees and a variety of arboreal fauna. The Tree Huggers still retain a fairly humanoid body, possessing a beak (a result of fused teeth), sharp claws to fig into bark and long arms for wrapping around trees to keep themselves steady. Similar to flying squirrels they have a parachute-like membrane on their arms which allows them to glide amongst the treetops. They also have a variety of colourful hair which the Qu likely based off the tropical birds living in their planet's forests. Despite how simple they may seem, greatness will return to them with enough time...

Hoppers: True to their name, these posthumans had thin, insect-like legs that allowed them to hop as their main form of locomotion. Hoppers had fairly sharp claws that they used for digging along with a long tongue for feeding on insect colonies. They inhabited a world of open savannas, deserts and small seas. Small ruins of the Star People's cities dotted the landscape in some areas, which the Hoppers have a natural curious instinct towards. A few of the Qu's pyramids remain too though some form of deep genetic memory makes the Hoppers purposefully avoid them. I'm currently not too sure what to do with these guys as I don't have many ideas for any further evolution of them, any ideas are welcome in the comments!

Ring Riders: One of the Qu's most bizarre, if not interesting creations yet, the Ring Riders were whale-sized behemoths, inhbaiting the rings of a gas giant. The Qu got creative with these creatures, giving them an internal respiratory system along with a sac-like organ that recycles carbon dioxide back into oxygen before being transported into the lungs. Their arms were around 50ft long, ending in hands with long, spindly fingers used for gripping/anchoring to asteroids within the rings. Their legs are now little more than fins. While the Ring Riders themselves may be weird, the environment that dwell in is even stranger, essentially thriving within a void ecology creates entirely by the Qu. This ecology consists of large web structures made from colonies of genetically engineered plankton to live in space, most of which connect some of the asteroids within the ring. They are the main food sour

You may remember that three years ago, I made this headcanon regarding a nationalized American rail network under the Progressive Party. Since then, I've revised it greatly to make it a bit more realistic.

One thing that doesn't change is that the 2ACW is still averted (I'm mainly going off the Kaiserredux mod here) after George Norris won the 1936 election and righted the boat.

Anywho, let's begin:

Prelude

With Huey Long and Jack Reed satisfied by a relief bill and William H. Murray, leader of the Old Democratic Party, arrested, President Norris turned to other matters. Chief among them was reviewing the United States Army, namely the debate over doctrine; ultimately, Leslie McNair's reforms involving massed artillery strikes was chosen.

Among Norris' priorities, however, was completely restructuring American society. He termed his reforms "capitalism with socialist characteristics", a fancy way of saying "social democracy". His biggest achievement was abolishing the archaic Electoral College, with all future presidential elections decided by the popular vote. But what usually gets lost among his achievements is the reorganization of the entire government.

One of the lesser examples was renaming the various departments to "administrations". For example, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) was renamed the "United States Justice Administration" (USJA), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) was renamed the "United States Agricultural Administration" (USAA, not to be confused with the United Services Automobile Association), and the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) was renamed the "United States Transit Administration" (USTA).

Formation of the United States Transit Administration

The formation of the USTA coincided with the nationalization of almost all forms of transportation in the United States. Each sub-administration was as follows:

• United States Highway Administration (USHA), responsible for the highway system
• United States Bus Administration (USBA), responsible for all bus services, both city and long-distance
• United States Mass Transit Administration (USMTA), responsible for all streetcar and subway operations
• United States Shipping Administration (USSA), responsible for all trucking and maritime trade, both ocean and river; this included nationalizing United States Lines and Matson, and all

https://preview.redd.it/xd7jowsjuus51.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&s=b20bfb044819f7ad188d2176e6e386d40891cba5

The debate over the identity of certain reported unidentified, large, bipedal, furry primates has ensued for as long as the possibility of such beings existing was debated. Whether or not entities like Sasquatch exist or not is beside the point of this exercise. Rather this is a thought based deep dive into the subject meant to speculate as to the identity of such creatures as if they were real animals that were verified tomorrow and my prediction on what they would turn out to be if we could genetically test them or uncover their fossil record. Frankly, I’m much of an agnostic on the whole thing, always open to the possibility while giving everything multiple grains of salt; but I will be treating it quite seriously both because of the respectability owed to some of the individuals involved such as Lyle Blackburn, Loren Coleman, and Dr. Jeff Meldrum among other men and women, and my own personal fascination with the subject matter.

For the sake of simplicity, I will be working off several assumptions.

Firstly, contrary to some hypotheses I will assume that there is only one species of unidentified large bipedal primate, of which they are a type of ape. I know many have posited the suggestion of multiple Sasquatch types, but I will be working on the assumption reports seeming to indicate wildly divergent body types were a result of mistakes in recollection by the witnesses. Under stress and surprise, the brain is very shoddy at making accurate recollections, as psychological testing on first responders, soldiers, and people involved in armed robbery among other stressful situations all show. This is not me calling any of these witnesses liars, just that the brain is not a perfect repository for information. It’s just not how memory works. Secondly, I will be calling all of the unknown bipedal primates Sasquatch and focusing on North America for the sake of brevity. In theory, this would apply to many places around the world, but I only have so much time in the day.

Now the two main hypotheses I put forth as to the identity of Sasquatch, should it be a real unknown entity, is that it is either a relic hominin or a descendent of Gigantopithecus. Both of these have perks, however, I feel both of them have glaring weaknesses very few think to delve into. As well as traits in conflict with what is reported in Sasquatch most comm

It's ridiculous to think that, fucken, dogs could evolve primate-like torsos. The hominoid arm is one hell of a specialized structure that evolved under a mosaic arboreal paradigm encompassing grasping, manipulation, and brachiating locomotion. You see dogs having any need for swinging through trees like a goddamn Tarzan of the Wood Apes? Me neither. No matter how dog-like their faces get, or how superficially Canid their legs might be, nothing that has hominoid upper-body anatomy could derive from anything but catarrhine stock and you can take that to the bank. Also, there's no way for a dog to evolve grasping hands either. Paws are too goddamned specialized to be modified back into grasping digits with an opposable thumb. That's why pandas had to fuck around with a wrist-spur. Read some Gould. Don't even get me started on the evolutionary gymnastics required to make dogs bipedal; there's just no reason why nascent bipedalism would ever be advantageous over the already-efficient all-terrain quadrupedal locomotion dogs already have.

They might belong to the same, extremely morphologically diverse, species as Sasquatch. Like army ants, only without analogous eusocial organization. Think like a species complex, or a single species separated into socially-controlled populations based on phenotype with interbreeding occurring along the boundaries.That's why you see people talking about seeing creatures that look like your typical flat-faced hairy humanoid Sasquatches, your superficially-canine-faced Dogmen, and other creatures that fall somewhere in between.

"But what about the tails, Boonie! The legs! Hominoid apes don't have big bushy tails or digitigrade legs, you stupid bastard!"First of all: Jesus Christ you sound like my mother. Secondly: you're right, but show me how you got there and I'll show you a straight line drawn across a cereal box maze. Let's look at what makes a Dogman "Dog", man.

• Disproportionately (for a primate) large head, described as being similar to a German Shepherd's. This means a broad jaw packed with biting/chewing muscle, a long prognathous snout with large canine teeth, a wet nose, and erect, furry, subtriangular ears.
• Digitigrade legs. The familiar Z-shaped (or S-shaped if it's looking to the left) hind leg used by every cursorial or bipedal animal in natural history except for primates. The kind of leg where the tibia and fibula form a hock, while the metatarsal ("foot") bones remain elevated and only the terminal

Hi there,

It's been a while. You may remember me from last year's database edits for FM 2020 featuring a regionalized American Pyramid that spawned an extremely fun challenge from USL club /u/forwardmadisonfc!

While I've spent less time on database editing this year, I've been working slowly on a revised American pyramid and subsequent revision to CONCACAF club competitions that I feel like - while probably still featuring some bugs/changes needed - are in a place where I'm comfortable sharing with people to enjoy.

These databases are meant to be used together, I've never tried to use them individually without using both and they may not work individually!

I'll tell you a bit about each database here and then post both the Google Drive link to the editor files as well as the Steam Workshop link for both!

#REVISED AMERICAN PYRAMID V2

PURPOSE

This is a simple, revised U.S. pyramid consisting of four tiers of 24 teams each with pro/rel between them. This pyramid uses existing clubs with some altered characteristics (reputation, bank balance, transfer budget) so that each club at each tier starts on equal financial and reputation footing, with descending amounts for each tier.

NOTE, I STRONGLY SUGGEST CHECKING THE SETTING THAT ADDS PLAYERS TO PLAYABLE TEAMS. MANY OF THE PREVIOUSLY UNPLAYABLE TEAMS HAVE INCOMPLETE ROSTERS

CALENDAR

The season shifts to a European-style calendar to match the CONCACAF competitions, beginning in early August and ending in early May with a season reset date of June 30 each year. Transfer windows are the full month of January and the full summer period of July 1-August 31.

SETUP

The four tiers are as follows:

• American Premier Division (Tier 1) - MLS clubs, minus a few
• American Championship Division (Tier 2) - Remaining MLS clubs, independent USL Championship clubs minus a few
• American First Division (Tier 3) - Remaining independent USL Championship clubs, independent USL League One clubs, NISA clubs, plus a few higher-end amateur clubs
• American Second Division (Tier 4) - Best amateur clubs from USL2/NPSL

Co

Entirely Harmless: Incapable of harming most species

Harmless: Capable of causing harm, but extremely unlikely

Potentially Harmful: Treat with caution

Dangerous: Recommended to avoid without local expertise

S Class: Do not approach under any circumstance, illegal to remove from the planet

Honey Badger: Honey Badger

Kakapo

A large, nocturnal, herbivorous ground dwelling parrot (see: parrot), the kakapo is noted for its blotchy yellow and green plumage, its disc-like face and large beak and feet. Kakapo evolved on predator-less islands, which resulted in them nearly becoming extinct upon the accidental or careless introduction of predators to their islands (human efforts are resulting in a rise in kakapo numbers). Indigenous human communities of a nearby island would often import kakapo as companion animals as the bird’s lack of predators made it unusually friendly towards humans and easily handled. The bird’s attitude towards its humans was often described as comparable to a dog (see: dog), the kakapo is also noted as being a very long lived animal with lifespans comparable to, or exceeding humans. Despite their companionship other kakapo were “hunted” (it is not really hunting when the animal comes to you) as a delicacy and their warm feathers were used to line cloaks that were used as symbols of power and wealth.

Rating: Entirely Harmless, and a bit weird

Kangaroo

“That big boy’ll fuck your shit up.” - The description given to me by a local when we spotted a male kangaroo

Kangaroos are marsupials that can grow to [200cm] tall, they are a heavily muscled obligate herbivore that interestingly do not emit methane as most ruminants do, instead their gut microbiology converts the hydrogen from fermentation into acetate, which the Kangaroo uses for energy. The kangaroo is identifiable by their long lower limbs, especially the feet, and the very long tail, the kangaroo’s primary method of locomotion is bounding, which it can do at speeds approaching [50kmph]. The kangaroo lacks many natural predators, and can usually defeat most introduced predators, either by fleeing into waterways (the kangaroo is also an adept swimmer), holding predators underwater to drown then, holding them and disemboweling them using their rear legs or by kicking them with enough force to break bones and burst organs. The kangaroo’s young are birthed live but not fully developed, they are protected by a flap of skin and will remain inside this “pouch” until they are app

Hello people of the internet. I am an archaeologist, university instructor and long-time player of Dungeons and Dragons. In my spare time I've been contextualizing the fantasy races of D&D in evolutionary theory, and I wanted to share with you short article on the subject. It is directed primarily at dungeon masters, world builders and people interested in learning more about how anthropologists approach the study of human beings.

If you want to read more on the topic, I also posted an article regarding the sociobiology of Orcs, which you can check out [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/bxxgu3/taken_to_tusk_the_sociobiology_of_orcs/)

And another on [dwarven evolution](https://www.reddit.com/r/DnDBehindTheScreen/comments/c0m3m7/the_dwarves_of_paleolithic_eurasia_or_what_can/)

And another on [halfling evolution](https://www.reddit.com/r/DnDBehindTheScreen/comments/c2hupw/when_bigger_isnt_better_insular_dwarfism_and_the/)

And yet another on [elves]( https://www.reddit.com/r/DnDBehindTheScreen/comments/c68c06/working_smarter_not_harder_the_evolution_of_elven/)

Enjoy!

The D&D race that I'll be covering in this post is the dragonborn. These bizarre humanoids are a blending of reptile and human traits. Among other things, they are covered in scales instead of skin or hair, they have large jaws full of sharp conical teeth, and clawed hands and feet. Alternately, they are cultural organisms, with a sophisticated grasp of language and technology, and stand upright like humans, elves, dwarves and others.

Convergent Evolution

When we see a walking, talking lizard, we might be initially struck by the resemblances to human behaviour and biology, and come to ask how the lizard acquired these traits. To answer the question, we need to know that similarities in nature come about as a result of two basic processes: recent shared ancestry and convergent evolution. Recent common ancestry means that two groups of organisms diverged from one another only recently in evolutionary time. For i

Introduction

In my spare time I have taken to creating a sample curriculum for each Harry Potter class. This could be a nice aide to authors needing their students to being studying something that isn't important for plot reasons. Of course, this is a mere guide. The plot should not be sacrificed in order to follow this too closely.

I admit the curriculum here is a bit idealized. It assumes that a competent professor is teaching the class and that they are using useful curriculum. This is especially noticeable in History of Magic, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Muggle Studies.

I tried to incur some inter-connection between some of the classes. For example, in Third Year, the focuses of History of Magic and Defense Against the Dark Arts will be on magical creatures. While History of Magic will deal with the sentient ones such as merpeople, centaurs, and goblins, Defense Against the Dark Arts will cover defending against magical creatures such as hinkypunks, grindylows, etc. And of course, those taking Care of Magical Creatures as an elective will get even more curriculum on magical creatures.

Fo another example, in Fourth Year, students would be learning about useful First Aid Potions while they are learning about magical plants that are used in salves and healing potions in Herbology.

It very loosely follows what is presented in the books, but is more in depth than Rowling's writings while leaving plenty of wiggle room for fanfiction authors.

Core Classes

Time for a new serial!!!

It had been almost sixty million years since the planet Aberoon had been permanently occupied by a sentient race. Evidence suggested that this long departed race, colloquially referred to as the Quiqak, had been a desert dwelling race. Their civilization had peaked somewhere around 50 million years ago and then, almost overnight, they had vanished leaving behind little to mark their passage save a few mammoth structures. The so called Aberoon temples.

No one knew what the temples were really used for. Worship? Grain storage? Or maybe they were vaults for their culture's riches? No one knew because it appeared the Quiqak either did not keep written records or, if they had, they had been destroyed or allowed to decay. As for Aberoon itself, there was evidence of sorts that there had been some sort of catastrophe that roughly coincided with the decline and eventual disappearance. A catastrophe, it should be added, that appeared to affect the entire planet's ecosystem and from which it appeared to still be recovering.

Most life on the planet was of the single cellular variety. A few simple fish swam in the ocean and very primitive plants could be found upon the surface near the coast lines. In the interior of the planet, however, very little life more complex than bacteria could be found. Even then, much of that only when one dug a meter or so under the ground. There were many theories about the origin of the mysterious catastrophe that had befell Aberoon. Some were fantastical but most were more grounded in reality. The star it orbited had gone nova. A rogue virus had ravaged the planet. An asteroid or a volcano had caused global warming or global cooling. There were problems with each theory and very little in the way to support any of it. Aberoon, it seemed, simply was a planet of the dead for the dead. A ghost planet. Perhaps, some whispered, a cursed planet.

So it was that despite the fact that Aberoon was habitable and was available for colonization, it remained empty to this day. It held no interest to the scientific community nor to explorers. It was considered untrustworthy for habitation or agriculture. It was an unwelcome addition to the galactic map in an undesirable neighborhood. All of which meant it was ideal for the clandestine meetings of the Order of Initiates.

To claim that the Order of Initiates turned the wheels that ran the Galactic Continuum would be misleading. The Order did not rule. Rule of someth

So quokkas (just in case you didnt know, its a kangaroo, specifically short tailed wallaby) are partly arboreal, so i thought, in scenario when wildfires keep happening in Australia they could, become fully arboreal, walkin on toes, and develop small wings for gliding of burning trees (also, they could use them for normal locomotion). Whatcha think?

Don't forget to restart your steam client.

Updated: https://forums.kleientertainment.com/forums/topic/108000-launch-upgrade-now-open-for-testing-346893/

Changelog added:

New Buildings

• Gas Range cooking station
• Desalinator
• Ethanol Distiller
• Rust Deoxydizer Wood Burner
• Airborne Critter Bait
• Monument
• Duplicant Motion Sensor
• Park Sign

New Critters

• Pokeshell
• Pip

New Fauna

• Arbor Tree
• Dasha Saltvine
• Oxyfern
• Waterweed

New Locomotion, Power, Stress, Insulation, Digging and Modding Tutorial animations New asteroids to colonize

• Asteroid select screen
• 9 variant Asteroids
• Additional start type: Forest
• World "Traits"

New Game Options screen New foods

• Spicy Tofu
• Sushi
• Improve food with Table Salt

New Biomes

• Tide Pools
• Rust
• Forest

New Colony Initiatives and Imperatives

• Imperatives are "big goals" for the colony
• Initiatives are optional goals and checkpoints
• Colony summary screen

New Space Destinations New Salt Water Geyser New Park and Nature Reserve room types

All other fixes and changes are on the full update page.

full changelog

Skygrazers: a lineage of sauropterygians that developed lateral collagen fins, first to allow them to glide like flying fish but then having grown enough to provide lift for permanent flight, while the wings formed from the limbs provide thrust and steering. Spend their entire lives thermally soaring through the air, even giving birth on the wing. Some species feed on aerial plankton (seeds, insects, spiders et cetera) while others opt for more predatorial ecologies like those of frigatebirds.

Balloon Predators: a lineage of spiders that became more specialised to ballooning. In windless conditions they launch their webs, suspended on electricity high up in the air until they spot prey. Then they release their webs and spread their flattened, wing-like legs to glide down towards their prey - or, failing that, the ground.

Boneless Scavengers: a lineage of terrestrial echinoderms related to sea stars that developed an hydralic locomotion system to slither after their prey much as they did on the sea.

Pentapods: a lineage of terrestrial echinoderms related to crinoids that developed functional, arthropod-like legs from their stalks. Another set of stalks is still employed to pick up small animals and plants to eat, while yet another developed eyes on their ends. They are highly adaptable, occuring in nearly every terrestrial habitat and bearing developmental variations like stockier proportions and fur on colder climates or slender proportions and a reflective carapace on desert environments. Their larvae bear wings and are scattered by the wind much like winged seeds.

Grazers: a lineage of highly specialised endothermic slugs covered in air and that have seperated their eyes from their stalks: the former have become more complex and layered and the latter have become moth-like antennae. They reproduce by release their gonads which worm around until they find other gonads; then they fuse and form a cocoon that attaches to plant roots and absorbs their nutrients, gestating a young that will be born fully formed. Most are herbivores though some have specialised towards fungivory.

Predators: a lineage of arboreal eutriconodonts that superficially resembles tarsiers or aye-ayes. They are obligate carnivores that hop on their prey, using their thumbs to kill them. They bear complex social behaviours, often coordinating hunts.

Terrans: the next generation of melons.

All quiet on the cosmic front.

Much adieu about nothing elsewhere.

Why I was enlisted, conscripted, enrolled, or condemned to serve as lonely brooding spectator to the development of a temporo-spatial exercise in futility, I shall never know. In any case my circumstances seem, by most every calculation, a punishment.

For what? Oh, some accusation levied against me.

When?

A time that eludes me now.

By who?

Hard to say.

Eons begin and end without context. Generic milestones come to pass, certainly, but gradually, and without the glamor or scope or tenor or umph to make anything like a lasting impression. Accretion, early on, appeared to be the sole dynamo of change worth a glance. Developments were few and far between and drearily cyclical, and a lobotomized sea-scorpion armed with one claw, an abacus, and sufficient time will have eventually haphazarded his way to predicting the size, location, and basic properties of these stellar seed pods of physical change - I am convinced of it.

Often in the isolated madness where I've placed myself I find myself asking questions of myself. Less often, but indeed on occasion, my madness is such that the answers I give sound tantalizingly unlike myself.

Why am I here?

To watch.

To watch what?

Everything.

Why?

Someone has to do it.

Until when?

Until there is someone else.

I am discouraged, and not only for the inauspicious nature of the conversation I'd, in all likelihood, conducted alone - but for the prospect of any "Watcher" coming to relieve me.

If it is true that my role here is to supervise the unfolding of a cosmos, then I have been nothing if not a faithful executor. I have seen first-hand the monotony of time and space, of its reluctance to transgression, of its iterative predictability. Surely this role of mine is a punishment, and of the cruelest design, for no thing in the realms of possibility has achieved so little worth mention in so many moments strung together.

Some eons undeserving of the space they occupy in my memory thereafter, the first ill-named glimmer of hope would form as a bacterial sludge unfurling itself across the face of a world.

First I wept, for I was not so alone as I thought. In time I wept more deeply, for poke and prod and appeal to fraternity as I might, those microbes, living though they were, were not so different in effect from the mindless deluge of their inorganic predecessors.

The cosmos had changed again, but had not produced my lik

This paper came out just two weeks ago! It is known that snakes, especially arboreal species, can climb high lengths, but this lasso style of movement was only recently recorded and published.

video of locomotor activity: https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(20)31763-2

popular article: https://scitechdaily.com/lasso-climbing-scientists-discover-bizarre-new-fifth-mode-of-snake-locomotion/#:~:text=Home%20Biology%20News-,%E2%80%9CLasso%20Climbing%E2%80%9D%20%E2%80%93%20Scientists%20Discover%20Bizarre%20New,Fifth%20Mode%20of%20Snake%20Locomotion

scientific paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982220317632

Apologies for my absence, I have been finishing my final exams in order to graduate this upcoming weekend!

Cetaceans roam our oceans today as both immense predators and gentle giants. From the tiny Vaquita to the enormous Blue Whale (the largest animal currently known to inhabit our planet in all it's history) these marine mammals occupy some of the niches left open by the extinct sea-going reptiles of old. They began this journey some 50-55 million year ago as a terrestrial hoofed mammal no larger than a housecat.

What drove this return to the sea? What evidence do we have to support it? How could it occur so quickly?

This post aims to document the evolutionary transitions of cetaceans from their humble terrestrial beginnings to the majesty of the great organisms roaming our seas today, as well as examine the genetic and embryologic evidence for this journey. Finally, we will examine some of the qualms YEC sites have with the entire idea.

Key Sources:

Comparing Skeletal Structures (Excellent)

On Joint Transitions Specifically (Site is a bit messy)

Vestiges (Concise)

Genes Etc (Great)

Theistic Evolution Site (Informative)

Basic Wiki (For the Lazy)

Let's get started!

Part 1: Feet and Fins

As usual with these posts, we must identify what separates our "starting" species or genus from our "ending" species or genus. It is important to keep in mind that our classifications of organisms is an attempt to categorize a gradient of ever-changing forms; it's somewhat arbitrary. That said, these classifications serve to help us observe evolutionary trends.

Although first we must define some of the aspects of our modern cetacean's classification.

Modern cetaceans are apart of the order Artiodactyla, or, the even-toed ungulates. These are hoofed animals who bear weight on an even number of toes. But they have other defining characteristics, such as their scapula shape and unique joints (trochlear hinges) built for maintaining stability at high speeds.

The latter, is wh

Entirely Harmless: Incapable of harming most species

Harmless: Capable of causing harm, but extremely unlikely

Potentially Harmful: Treat with caution

Dangerous: Recommended to avoid without local expertise

S Class: Do not approach under any circumstance, illegal to remove from the planet

Honey Badger: Honey Badger

Ocelot

Yet another carnivorous cat-like (see: cat) mammal. The Ocelot is medium sized and mostly nocturnal, they are highly territorial and adept at climbing and swimming. They sleep in trees or in dens below large trees to avoid other wild cat, large snakes, birds of prey and coyotes (see: coyote). The Ocelot pelt is occasionally hunted by humans and also kept as companion animals (of course, because they are a furry animal), they rarely attack humans and will usually stay away from human settlements. In most encounters with humans the ocelot will act playfully towards humans, if they do attack the damage will likely be superficial.

Rating: Harmless

Octopus

A marine invertebrate with eight limbs (two for propulsion, six for manipulation), they are molluscs like limpets (see: limpets), cuttlefish (see: cuttlefish), squid (see: squid) and snails (see: snail) among others. Octopuses are highly adaptable due to their simple design and species live in nearly all regions of the oceans. The basic layout of an octopus is a bilaterally symmetrical body centred on a hard beak surrounded by its eight limbs. Each limb has a semi-independent nervous system, with two thirds of the octopus’ brain distributed throughout its body. The octopus has two large eyes that can distinguish polarised light, some species possess colour sight (it is theorised that they use sensation beyond the eyes to detect colours, including proteins in the skin). Like the cuttlefish the Octopus has haemocyanin blood rather than the haemoglobin standard for earth. All octopuses produce a venom, but only the blue-ringed octopus is lethal to humans (it is also one of the smallest, and very difficult to see). They vary in size from a span of [2.5cm] to [9m] and can weigh up to [270kg].

Other defence strategies include: camouflage (many species of octopuses are capable of changing the colour of their skin to blend in with their environment), the ejection of a black liquid called “ink” that is believed to confuse olfactory based predation or to produce a decoy. Similar to lizards (see: lizards) the Octopus can detach limbs to distract predators, these limbs can be regene

Four ground sloth families are currently recognised: Megatheriidae, Nothrotheriidae, Megalonychidae, and Mylodontidae. All the groups had certain features in common, such as large claws, longish tails, and probably the ability to locomote both quadrupedally and bipedally, but they had many different feeding habits, and the families had some unique attributes. Many genera appeared only within the last one million years, and the latest fossils of some mainland species have been dated to only a few thousand years ago.

Megatheriidae contained the largest members of the group, Megatherium and Eremotherium, as well as the sea-sloth Thalassocnus; Nothrotheriidae, formerly a part of Megatheriidae, contains the famous Shasta ground sloth Nothrotheriops.

Megalonychidae (which contains the famous Megalonyx, as well as the smaller "ground" sloths of the Caribbean) will come up the most in this post, and members of this family had two features which set them apart; they walked on the soles of their hind feet, not the sides; and they possessed caniniform teeth at the fronts of their mouths, where the other groups lacked teeth. These teeth are important later in this post.

Mylodontidae, containing sloths such as Mylodon, Glossotherium, Scelidotherium, and Paramylodon, was the only ground sloth family to be armoured with bone ossicles beneath the skin, a fact which will also be important in this post. The family is cryptozoologically-significant for the remarkable skins discovered in Patagonia in the 1890's, which led to a belief among some turn-of-the-century European scientists that Mylodon or Glossotherium might still survive. Modern two-toed sloths were formerly placed in Megalonychidae, but current thinking groups them close to Mylodontidae.

Ever since the first fossils were discovered in the 18^th Century (Megatherium was among the first prehistoric animals to be described), people have wondered whether these animals might not still be alive in some remote part of South America. Chronologically, the attentions of theorists were focused on Paraguay, Patagonia, Central America, and finally Amazonia. This post will list the evidence for living ground sloths in the fourth, most recent, and probably most likely centre of investigations, the Amazon. It covers all the main cryptids, but is by no means a complete study, only a general outline and introduction.

But first, a little cultural fact. In the film Ice Age, Sid the ground sloth quest

#Lamar Hunt US Open Cup

# Major League Soccer

# Canadian Premier League

# USL Championship

# USL League One

# USL League 2 - USL League 2 Live Streams

South Bend Lion

<<<Previous Next>>>

So… it’s been a while. I’ve been dealing with some real life shit and it hit hard.

Finally feeling up to writing some more, so thanks to everyone who has been reading and I apologize about the wait.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

>Autopsy Notes:
>
>Species: Mantodea Chironis (Colloquially called, Centaur Mantis)
>
>Size: 2 Meters (2.5 Meters when standing on hind legs.) Width equivalent to an average Earth donkey.
>
>Anatomy:
>
>Quadrupedal, with for spiked appendages it uses for locomotion. Spikes likely for locomotion through swampland rather than weapons. It has an enlarged abdomen that runs perpendicular to the ground that supports its upright thorax. Thorax supports a head and two large scythe-like appendages. Scythes are used for defense, though there could be other applications.
>
>Its jaw is unique to anything seen on extant Earth arthropods. It is equipped with with multiple layers of blade-like protrusions spaced seemingly at random before it’s mandibles. Running hypothesis is that it uses the blades much like the blades of a wood chipper, to eat branches whole.
>
>It's exoskeleton is camouflaged to its environment, shifting pigments similar to a Cuttlefish. In addition to its camouflaging ability, the exoskeleton is porous, suggesting it breathes through it similar to Earth Arthropods. It’s large size is likely due to the abundance of oxygen in the atmosphere. Requesting samples of Late Carboniferous - Early Permian period Earth Fossils for comparison.
>
>Diet: Largely herbivorous, it uses its large scythes to cut foliage to a reasonable size for consumption. Findings of small arboreal animals have been found in the stomach, suggesting an omnivorous diet. Skeptics claim that these creatures are unintended prey, caught during regular feeding.
>
>Using drone footage, they have been spotted in pods of up to 100 individuals. All samples found thus far were male in origin. Females of the species (though undocumented as of yet) are hypothesized to be solitary and only approach the males during breeding season.
>
>Highly Territorial. Do not approach areas with infestations unless prepared to engage the entire brood.
>
>Advice: Remove Nests Near Colony Sites; Otherwise, Avoid Unless Necessary.

The

# Major League Soccer

# NWSL

# Canadian Premier League

# USL Championship

# USL League One

You can find the current list of flairs available below. If you don't see the flair you want on the list you can put in a request. For a new flair to be added it needs to meet the following requirements:

• The team must be a real current or former American/Canadian team
• The team must receive at least 3 unique requests.

###MLS

• MLS
• Atlanta United
• Austin FC
• CF Montreal
• Charlotte FC
• Chicago Fire
• Colorado Rapids
• Columbus Crew
• DC United
• FC Cincinnati
• FC Dallas
• Houston Dynamo
• Inter Miami
• LA Galaxy
• LAFC
• Minnesota United
• Nashville SC
• New England Revolution
• NYCFC
• NYRB
• Orlando City
• Philadelphia Union
• Portland Timbers
• Real Salt Lake
• Saint Louis SC
• San Jose Earthquakes
• Seattle Sounders
• Sporting KC
• Toronto FC
• Vancouver Whitecaps

###CPL

• CPL
• Atletico Ottawa
• Cavalry FC
• FC Edmonton
• Forge FC
• Halifax Wanderers
• Pacific FC
• Valour FC
• York United

###NWSL

• NWSL
• Angel City FC
• Chicago Red Stars
• Houston Dash
• Kansas City
• NJ/NY Gotham FM
• North Carolina Courage
• OL Reign
• Orlando Pride
• Portland Thorns
• Racing Louisville
• Washington Spirit

###USL Championship

• USL Championship
• Atlanta United II
• Austin Bold
• Birmingham Legion
• Charleston Battery
• Charlotte Independence
• Colorado Springs Switchbacks
• El Paso Locomotive
• FC Tulsa
• Hartford Athletic
• Indy Eleven
• LA Galaxy II
• Las Vegas Lights
• Loudon United
• Louisville City
• Memphis 901
• Miami FC
• Monterey Bay FC
• New Mexico United
• New York Red Bulls II
• Oakland Roots
• OKC Energy
• Orange County SC
• Phoenix Rising
• Pittsburgh Riverhounds
• Queensboro FC
• Real Monarchs
• RGV Toros
• Sacramento Republic
• San Antonio FC
• San Diego Loyal
• Sporting KC II
• Taco

You can find the current list of flairs available below. If you don't see the flair you want on the list you can put in a request. For a new flair to be added it needs to meet the following requirements:

• The team must be a real current or former American/Canadian team
• The team must receive at least 3 unique requests.

MLS

• MLS
• Atlanta United
• Austin FC
• Charlotte FC
• Chicago Fire
• FC Cincinnati
• Colorado Rapids
• Columbus Crew
• DC United
• FC Dallas
• Houston Dynamo
• Inter Miami
• LA Galaxy
• LAFC
• Minnesota United
• Montreal Impact
• Nashville SC
• New England Revolution
• NYCFC
• NYRB
• Orlando City
• Philadelphia Union
• Portland Timbers
• Real Salt Lake
• Sacramento Republic MLS
• Saint Louis SC
• San Jose Earthquakes
• Seattle Sounders
• Sporting KC
• Toronto FC
• Vancouver Whitecaps

USL Championship

• USL Championship
• Atlanta United II
• Austin Bold
• Birmingham Legion
• Charleston Battery
• Charlotte Independence
• Chicago (2020)
• Colorado Springs Switchbacks
• El Paso Locomotive
• FC Cincinnati (2016)
• FC Tulsa
• Hartford Athletic
• Indy Eleven
• LA Galaxy II
• Las Vegas Lights
• Loudon United
• Louisville City
• Memphis 901
• Miami FC
• Nashville SC (2016)
• New Mexico United
• New York Red Bulls II
• North Carolina FC
• Oakland Roots
• OKC Energy
• Orange County SC
• Philadelphia Union II
• Phoenix Rising
• Pittsburgh Riverhounds
• Portland Timbers II
• Queensboro FC
• Real Monarchs
• RGV Toros
• Sacramento Republic
• San Antonio FC
• San Diego Loyal
• Swope Park Rangers
• Tacoma Defiance
• Tampa Bay Rowdies

USL League 1

• USL League 1
• Chattanooga Red Wolves
• FC Tucson
• Fort Lauderdale CF
• Forward Madison
• Greenville Triumph
• New England Revolution II
• North Texas SC
• Penn FC
• Richmond K

You can find the current list of flairs available below. If you don't see the flair you want on the list you can put in a request. For a new flair to be added it needs to meet the following requirements:

• The team must be a real current or former American/Canadian team
• The team must receive at least 3 unique requests (Exception for UPSL clubs).

Survey for Dual Flair on /r/MLS

MLS

• MLS
• Atlanta United
• Austin FC
• Charlotte MLS
• Chicago Fire
• FC Cincinnati
• Colorado Rapids
• Columbus Crew
• DC United
• FC Dallas
• Houston Dynamo
• Inter Miami
• LA Galaxy
• LAFC
• Minnesota United
• Montreal Impact
• Nashville SC
• New England Revolution
• NYCFC
• NYRB
• Orlando City
• Philadelphia Union
• Portland Timbers
• Real Salt Lake
• Sacramento Republic MLS
• Saint Louis MLS
• San Jose Earthquakes
• Seattle Sounders
• Sporting KC
• Toronto FC
• Vancouver Whitecaps

USL Championship

• USL Championship
• Atlanta United II
• Austin Bold
• Bethlehem Steel
• Birmingham Legion
• Charleston Battery
• Charlotte Independence
• Chicago (2020)
• Colorado Springs Switchbacks
• El Paso Locomotive
• FC Cincinnati (2016)
• FC Tulsa
• Fresno FC
• Hartford Athletic
• Indy Eleven
• LA Galaxy II
• Las Vegas Lights
• Loudon United
• Louisville City
• Memphis 901
• Nashville SC
• New Mexico United
• New York Red Bulls II
• North Carolina FC
• Oakland East Bay (2021)
• OKC Energy
• Orange County SC
• Ottawa Fury
• Phoenix Rising
• Pittsburgh Riverhounds
• Portland Timbers II
• Real Monarchs
• Reno 1868
• RGV Toros
• Sacramento Republic
• San Antonio FC
• San Diego Loyal
• St. Louis FC
• Swope Park Rangers
• Tacoma Defiance
• Tampa Bay Rowdies

USL League 1

• USL League 1
• Chattanooga Red Wolves
• FC Tucson
• Forward Madison
• Greenville

Hey folks,

I was brought on to overhaul the flairs. I have removed a ton of flairs that weren't being used and made the flairs we do have look better. I also recoded everything to make it easier to manage; however, that means that all of your flairs are now broken.

If you want an MLS flair you can select it from the sidebar.

Regarding non-MLS flairs you can find the current list of flairs available below. If you don't see the flair you want on the list you can put in a request. For a new flair to be added it needs to meet the following requirements:

• The team must be a real current or former American/Canadian team
• The team must receive at least 3 unique requests (Exception for UPSL clubs).

MLS

• MLS
• Atlanta United
• Austin FC
• Chicago Fire
• Cincinnati FC
• Colorado Rapids
• Columbus Crew
• DC United
• FC Dallas
• Houston Dynamo
• Inter Miami
• LA Galaxy
• LAFC
• Minnesota United
• Montreal Impact
• Nashville SC
• New England Revolution
• NYCFC
• NYRB
• Orlando City
• Philadelphia Union
• Portland Timbers
• Real Salt Lake
• San Jose Earthquakes
• Seattle Sounders
• Sporting KC
• Toronto FC
• Vancouver Whitecaps

USL Championship

• USL Championship
• Atlanta United II
• Austin Bold
• Bethlehem Steel
• Birmingham Legion
• Charleston Battery
• Charlotte Independence
• Chicago (2020)
• Colorado Springs Switchbacks
• El Paso Locomotive
• FC Cincinnati (2016)
• Fresno FC
• Hartford Athletic
• Indy Eleven
• LA Galaxy II
• Las Vegas Lights
• Loudon United
• Louisville City
• Memphis 901
• Nashville SC (2016)
• New Mexico United
• New York Red Bulls II
• North Carolina FC
• Oakland East Bay (2021)
• OKC Energy
• Orange County SC
• Ottawa Fury
• Phoenix Rising
• Pittsburgh Riverhounds
• Portland Timbers II
• Real Monarchs
• Reno 1868
• RGV Toros
• Sacramento Republic
• San Antonio FC
• St. Louis FC
• Swope Park Rangers
• Tacoma Defiance

You can find the current list of flairs available below. If you don't see the flair you want on the list you can put in a request. For a new flair to be added it needs to meet the following requirements:

• The team must be a real current or former American/Canadian team
• The team must receive at least 3 unique requests (Exception for UPSL clubs).

MLS

• MLS
• Atlanta United
• Austin FC
• Chicago Fire
• FC Cincinnati
• Colorado Rapids
• Columbus Crew
• DC United
• FC Dallas
• Houston Dynamo
• Inter Miami
• LA Galaxy
• LAFC
• Minnesota United
• Montreal Impact
• Nashville SC
• New England Revolution
• NYCFC
• NYRB
• Orlando City
• Philadelphia Union
• Portland Timbers
• Real Salt Lake
• Saint Louis MLS
• San Jose Earthquakes
• Seattle Sounders
• Sporting KC
• Toronto FC
• Vancouver Whitecaps

Trophies

• Current MLS Champions
• MLS Cup
• Supporters Shield
• Wooden Spoon
• USOC Trophy

USL Championship

• USL Championship
• Atlanta United II
• Austin Bold
• Bethlehem Steel
• Birmingham Legion
• Charleston Battery
• Charlotte Independence
• Chicago (2020)
• Colorado Springs Switchbacks
• El Paso Locomotive
• Fresno FC
• Hartford Athletic
• Indy Eleven
• LA Galaxy II
• Las Vegas Lights
• Loudon United
• Louisville City
• Memphis 901
• Nashville SC (2016)
• New Mexico United
• New York Red Bulls II
• North Carolina FC
• Oakland East Bay (2021)
• OKC Energy
• Orange County SC
• Ottawa Fury
• Phoenix Rising
• Pittsburgh Riverhounds
• Portland Timbers II
• Real Monarchs
• Reno 1868
• RGV Toros
• Sacramento Republic
• San Antonio FC
• St. Louis FC
• Swope Park Rangers
• Tacoma Defiance
• Tampa Bay Rowdies
• Tulsa Roughnecks

USL League 1

• USL League 1
• Chattanooga Red Wolves
• FC Tucson
• Forward Madison
• Greenville Triumph
• Lansing Ignit

I've been working on a fantasy railroad, as well as a "what if" thing with an old railroad and if it had survived to the present day. I'd love to see pictures of what everyone else has done.

Hello people of the internet. I am an archaeologist, university instructor and long-time player of Dungeons and Dragons. In my spare time I've been contextualizing the fantasy races of D&D in evolutionary theory, and I wanted to share with you short article on the subject. It is directed primarily at dungeon masters, world builders and people interested in learning more about how anthropologists approach the study of human beings.

If you want to read more on the topic, I also posted an article regarding the sociobiology of Orcs, which you can check out [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/bxxgu3/taken_to_tusk_the_sociobiology_of_orcs/)

And another on [dwarven evolution](https://www.reddit.com/r/DnDBehindTheScreen/comments/c0m3m7/the_dwarves_of_paleolithic_eurasia_or_what_can/)

And another on [halfling evolution](https://www.reddit.com/r/DnDBehindTheScreen/comments/c2hupw/when_bigger_isnt_better_insular_dwarfism_and_the/)

And yet another on [elves]( https://www.reddit.com/r/DnDBehindTheScreen/comments/c68c06/working_smarter_not_harder_the_evolution_of_elven/)

Enjoy!

The D&D race that I'll be covering in this post is the dragonborn. These bizarre humanoids are a blending of reptile and human traits. Among other things, they are covered in scales instead of skin or hair, they have large jaws full of sharp conical teeth, and clawed hands and feet. Alternately, they are cultural organisms, with a sophisticated grasp of language and technology, and stand upright like humans, elves, dwarves and others.

Convergent Evolution

When we see a walking, talking lizard, we might be initially struck by the resemblances to human behaviour and biology, and come to ask how the lizard acquired these traits. To answer the question, we need to know that similarities in nature come about as a result of two basic processes: recent shared ancestry and convergent evolution. Recent common ancestry means that two groups of organisms diverged from one another only recently in evolutionary time. For i

You can find the current list of flairs available below. If you don't see the flair you want on the list you can put in a request. For a new flair to be added it needs to meet the following requirements:

• The team must be a real current or former American/Canadian team
• The team must receive at least 3 unique requests (Exception for UPSL clubs).

MLS

• MLS
• Atlanta United
• Austin FC
• Charlotte MLS
• Chicago Fire
• FC Cincinnati
• Colorado Rapids
• Columbus Crew
• DC United
• FC Dallas
• Houston Dynamo
• Inter Miami
• LA Galaxy
• LAFC
• Minnesota United
• Montreal Impact
• Nashville SC
• New England Revolution
• NYCFC
• NYRB
• Orlando City
• Philadelphia Union
• Portland Timbers
• Real Salt Lake
• Sacramento Republic MLS
• Saint Louis MLS
• San Jose Earthquakes
• Seattle Sounders
• Sporting KC
• Toronto FC
• Vancouver Whitecaps

USL Championship

• USL Championship
• Atlanta United II
• Austin Bold
• Bethlehem Steel
• Birmingham Legion
• Charleston Battery
• Charlotte Independence
• Chicago (2020)
• Colorado Springs Switchbacks
• El Paso Locomotive
• FC Cincinnati (2016)
• FC Tulsa
• Fresno FC
• Hartford Athletic
• Indy Eleven
• LA Galaxy II
• Las Vegas Lights
• Loudon United
• Louisville City
• Memphis 901
• Nashville SC
• New Mexico United
• New York Red Bulls II
• North Carolina FC
• Oakland East Bay (2021)
• OKC Energy
• Orange County SC
• Ottawa Fury
• Phoenix Rising
• Pittsburgh Riverhounds
• Portland Timbers II
• Real Monarchs
• Reno 1868
• RGV Toros
• Sacramento Republic
• San Antonio FC
• San Diego Loyal
• St. Louis FC
• Swope Park Rangers
• Tacoma Defiance
• Tampa Bay Rowdies

USL League 1

• USL League 1
• Chattanooga Red Wolves
• FC Tucson
• Forward Madison
• Greenville Triumph
• Inter Miami II
• Lansing Ignite

Apologies for my absence, I have been finishing my final exams in order to graduate this upcoming weekend!

Cetaceans roam our oceans today as both immense predators and gentle giants. From the tiny Vaquita to the enormous Blue Whale (the largest animal currently known to inhabit our planet in all it's history) these marine mammals occupy some of the niches left open by the extinct sea-going reptiles of old. They began this journey some 50-55 million year ago as a terrestrial hoofed mammal no larger than a housecat.

What drove this return to the sea? What evidence do we have to support it? How could it occur so quickly?

This post aims to document the evolutionary transitions of cetaceans from their humble terrestrial beginnings to the majesty of the great organisms roaming our seas today, as well as examine the genetic and embryologic evidence for this journey. Finally, we will examine some of the qualms YEC sites have with the entire idea.

Key Sources:

Comparing Skeletal Structures (Excellent)

On Joint Transitions Specifically (Site is a bit messy)

Vestiges (Concise)

Genes Etc (Great)

Theistic Evolution Site (Informative)

Basic Wiki (For the Lazy)

Let's get started!

Part 1: Feet and Fins

As usual with these posts, we must identify what separates our "starting" species or genus from our "ending" species or genus. It is important to keep in mind that our classifications of organisms is an attempt to categorize a gradient of ever-changing forms; it's somewhat arbitrary. That said, these classifications serve to help us observe evolutionary trends.

Although first we must define some of the aspects of our modern cetacean's classification.

Modern cetaceans are apart of the order Artiodactyla, or, the even-toed ungulates. These are hoofed animals who bear weight on an even number of toes. But they have other defining characteristics, such as their scapula shape and unique joints (trochlear hinges) built for maintaining stability at high speeds.

The latter, is wh