Tim Morris' Art and Project Blog

 Here are the birds, Synapsids and mammals of this odd, seeded world. This is the final entry in this series, I am proud of these concepts, despite the failure of the overall project. - A beaver-like descendant of Kayentatherium, that clambers amongst kelp forests, feeding on the ever-present kelp. A giant, manatee-like descendant of Kayentatherium, which propels itself underwater with a laterally undulating tail. A seal-like descendant of Castorocauda. A sea-lion-like descendant of Castorocauda. A large platypus, that probes the sea-bed in search of worms and other small invertebrates. A streamlined, dugong-like descendant of Thalassocnus, which feeds on sea-grass in temperate waters.   A horse-sized, temperate dwelling Anoplothere, a terrestrial inhabitant of one particular island chain. A dog-sized marine Desman, which swims by sculling its laterally flattened tail. It feeds on various crustaceans and gastropods. A merbenig-like creature descended from Adapiform primates, a...

 Here are the Amphibians and Reptiles, to use antiquated words, of this seeded planet. - A fair-sized, dolphin-like Trematosaur. A Trematosaur that uses its mechanoreceptor-lined snout to forage for prey on the sea-bed. A child-sized saltwater frog that lacks lungs and lives entirely on the seabed in shallow water, a lethargic ambush-predator. A large, streamlined leatherback-turtle, that can swim very fast by turtle standards. An eel-shaped, large descendant of Lialis lizards, which feeds mainly on eels and other elongated fish, in coral reefs. A mid-sized mosasaur that feeds by dredging the sea-bed, like a gray whale. A large open-water Thalattosaur, with a swordfish-like nose. An enormous, filter-feeding Hupehsuchian that takes the niche of baleen whales. A pig-sized, tail-less Notosuchain herbivore, a terrestrial island-dweller. A penguin-like, flightless swimming Pteranodontian pterosaur. A foot-propelled, fish-eating diving Noasaurid. A tail-propelled, fish-eating swimming No...

 In this next part, I will show you the fishes, for want of a better term, of this seeded ill-concieved world. - A small lamprey, that chews with its mouth-disc and tongue, to burrow into the hide of large marine vertebrates, in order to feed. It eventually forms and lives inside a gall-like growth that develops on and under the skin. A giant, streamlined pelagic lamprey, whose mouth is adapted to prey upon small fish and squid. A 3-inch-long pelagic Conodont, that shoals in large swarms, filtering plankton as food with its array of spiny teeth. A large, short-bodied horn-shark, with large cranial horns made of dentine. A large, deep-sea shark that looks vaguely like a plesiosaur, due to its extended gill region. A 10-meter-long deep sea shark, related to dogfish, that feeds entirely on marine invertebrates. A small wobbegong that mimics a frond of kelp in order to ambush prey. A fair-sized, pelagic requiem shark that has a boomerang-shaped head, converging on hammerheads and Diplo...

 Hello again, - I have decided to present the best bits of a huge project that I have worked on for the best part of a decade, and never finished to my satisfaction. The original idea was for an earth-like ocean-covered planet, dominated entirely by creatures of earthly descent that could be thought of as sea monsters. It went through over 3 iterations, one of which became my Demons of the Deep project. It eventually materialized as a large, earth-like water-world, covered by ocean, mostly shallow but also having trenches as deep as on Earth. The idea is that it was terraformed and seeded by time-travelling civilized, god-like aliens, using organisms from the history of Earth's evolution. I tried my best to make as many unique and familiar lineages as I could, filling many niches found on earth, included in this were a few island chains which contained various radiations of Gulliverized, island-rule fauna. Then I started changing the niches and what they contained over and over, an...

 Hello again, Now for a post that has a relatively unusual theme. I am seeing speculative-evolution posts recently that propose an alternate Pleistocene, in regards to Neogene mammal evolution. This led me to an Australian Palaeontology question that has been brought up in journals a few times, where were all the marsupial super-predators? The largest Ice Age marsupial predators in Australia numbered only 3, the Thylacine, the Thylacoleo, and the Mainland Devil, all of these were probably below 100 kilograms in weight. Mammal Palaeontologists in Australia have occasionally wondered why we see no "marsupial cheetah" or "marsupial bear" or even any larger marsupial predators closer in size and ferocity to a tiger or Amphicyonid. It appears the question comes down to the old Australian question of reptillian supremacy (no, not David Icke), there were giant Varanids like Meagalnia and even Komodo Dragons, as well as fair-sized terrestrial Crocodiles like Quinkana and ot...