05-28-2016, 02:20 PM
Obviously these are only suggestions, and would be subject to change if too many of you disagree, but anyhows here is one possible set of differences between the IDU?s mammalian fauna and that of RL Earth. I?ve given one ?Order? of mammals that already exists in RL, namely the Lagomorpha (the Rabbits, Hares, and Pikas, in RL?) a more detailed prehistory in the IDU than the RL version possesses, and expanded its ecological roles ? primarily at the expense of its closest relatives, the Rodentia ? in ways that seem to me to be plausibly alternative routes that evolution could have taken. What do you think about this?
(N.B. This wouldn?t prevent your nation?s people keeping hamsters or gerbils as pets, they?d just have to imported the ancestors of those stocks from elsewhere at some point?)
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Order Lagomorpha
On the ?RL? version of Earth the Lagomorpha consists of two families that contain extant as well as extinct member species, namely the Leporidae (containing the Rabbits and Hares; oldest fossils attributed to this family = Eocene) and the Ochotonidae (containing the Pikas; oldest fossils attributed to this family = Miocene); one family whose last species became extinct as recently as the 18th century AD, Prolagidae (containing the Sardinian Pika, and some other species that became extinct at earlier dates; oldest fossils attributed to this family = Miocene); and a few extinct genera that have not yet been placed definitively into any families.
In the [main] lands of the IDU, however, this order has enjoyed ? and still exhibits ? significantly greater diversity than has been the case in RL. Because of this fact, there is a school of thought among zoologists which suggests that the order actually originated in these lands and that its ?modern? families on the ?RL Earth? only moved there as colonists from the IDU ? presumably during one of the ?Faunal Interchange? events that also involved various other groups of animals expanding their ranges in the opposite direction to that ? later on...
Higher Classification
Class Mammalia
Sub-class Theria (viviparous, or ?modern?, mammals)
Infra-class Eutheria (or ?Placentalia?; the placental [i.e. non-?marsupial?] Therians)
Super-cohort Boreoeutheria (a group of Eutherian lineages that are all derived from a single northern-hemisphere rootstock, as distinct from either the Xenarthra [of South America] or the Afrotheria [of Africa, of course])
Cohort Euarchontaglires (which also includes the Order Primates & its closest relatives)
Super-order Glires (which also includes the Order Rodentia?).
Sometimes previously placed as a Sub-order in the ?Rodentia?; sometimes previously, especially when treated thus, called the ?Duplicidentata?. The most obvious single difference between Lagomorphs and ?true? Rodents is that the former possess twice as many incisor teeth as the latter.
Lower Classification
(At the start of an entry in this list: ?I? = both continents + nearby islands, ?N? = northern continent + nearby islands, ?M? = Malabra + southern continent + nearby islands, ?S? = southern continent + nearby islands.)
Family Proterolagomorphidae (M; presumed ancestral stock of the entire order; known only from a few fossils, Palaeocene to Eocene in age [i][with one example for which an origin in the later stages of the Cretaceous Period, i.e. before the extinction of the dinosaurs, during has been claimed]; relatively generalised ?early? mammals)[/i]
Family Asciuridae (M; ?Tailless Squirrels?, or ?False Squirrels?; known only from a few fossils of late Eocene to mid-Oligocene age; apparently filled a similar arboreal niche to tree-squirrels, and were replaced by those rodents during the Oligocene)
1/. Sub-order Euleporida
a/ Family Prolagidae (N; several species, all of them except for one fossil form ? whose classification is disputed ? belonging to one or the other of two genera that don?t occur in RL)
b/ Superfamily Leporoidea
=> Family Leporidae
=>=> Sub-family Euleporinae (I; Rabbits & hares as represented in RL, including endemic species & even genera in addition to those shared with RL lands)
=>=> Sub-family Marroilepoirinae (only on ?Marro Islands?; the Marroi Hares, a group of closely-related species that have been isolated on a remote island for several million years and have diverged there to fill a wider range of ecological niches)
=>=> Sub-family Parvoleporinae (I; the Mouse-Rabbits, a group of small leporines that commonly move by hopping on their back legs; they fill comparable ecological niches to RL Earth?s gerbils, jerboas & jirds, jumping mice, & kangaroo rats; sometimes considered to constitute a full family, the ?Parvoleporidae?, in their own right)
=> Family Cervoleporidae (N; the ?Deer-Hares?; slightly larger on average than are the Leporine ?Hares?, and with their males bearing antlers that they may use for defence against predators as well as for competing with each other over mates; reduced in both diversity and overall range since their heyday back in the Miocene; it is suspected that occasional animals from this family might have found their way to RL Earth?)
=> Family Erinaceolagidae (basically M; the ?Spiny Rabbits?; a group known from a few extant species, with no proven fossil relatives but genetically distinct enough to argue for a lengthy period of divergence from the related families)
=> Family Thylacolagidae (S; the ?Fanged Rabbits?; known only from fossils of late Miocene & early Pliocene date; a single genus has been identified, containing three or four recognised species; palaeontologists disagree about their probable lifestyle?)
c/ Super-family Ochotonoidea
=> Family Ochotonidae (I; Pikas as represented in RL; all species endemic, with some belonging to endemic genera ? one of which still has extant species, rather than just extinct members, as well as to the single RL genus)
=>=> Sub-family Orthoochotoninae (I; the pikas of the ?South Idu? continent?, and some of those from the main Idu continent as well; sometimes divided into two separate sub-families, one per continent, called Notoochotinae & Boreoochotinae)
=>=> Sub-family Neoochotoninae (N; the remaining pikas of the main Idu continent and all those of RL Earth; one of the more recent studies suggests that they may actually be a sister-group not just to the Orthoochotoninae but to the remainder of the Ochotonoidea as a whole? or even to the remainder of the Euleporida! If that hypothesis is correct then possibly an early Euleporid stock that either had migrated into ?RL Earth? at an early date or was actually that Earth?s own native counterpart of the IDU?s native early Euleporids evolved into this family, and then subsequently colonised [or recolonised] the northern Idu, whereas the Idu?s native proto-Euleporids gave rise separately [within the IDU?s lands] both to the other [fully endemic] ?Pika? lineages and all of the Leporoidea?)
=> Family Geomiseridae (I; forms better-adapted for burrowing than are the ordinary Pikas, and with ?pouches? to the sides of their mouths for carrying food)
=>=> Sub-family Geomiserinae (I; the ?Pocket Pikas?, or ?Burrow-Rats?; they fill comparable ecological niches to the RL hamsters and pocket gophers)
=>=> Sub-family Bathymiserinae (N; the ?Mole-Pikas? or ?Tunnel-Rats?, of the main Idu continent; more heavily adapted to predominantly subterranean lifestyles than are the Geomiserinae, they fill comparable ecological niches to RL?s mole-rats)
=> Family Notomiseridae (M; the ?Mole-Pikas? or ?Tunnel-Rats?, of the IDU?s southern continent; even more heavily adapted to predominantly subterranean lifestyles than are the Bathymiserinae, they fill comparable ecological niches to RL?s mole-rats; recent studies confirm earlier suspicions that they are more closely related to the Ochotonidae than either of these families is to the Geomiseridae)
2/. Sub-order Paraleporida
(This taxon actually might be ?polyphyletic?, i.e. with its members? latest common ancestor too far back to qualify as a member of this group itself?)
Family Eoleporidae (M; another group that is known only from fossils, in this case of Eocene to late Oligocene or very early Miocene age; their resemblance to modern Leporoids is more obvious than that of the Proterolagomorphids, but adults of some species seem to have been rather larger than are those of any still-extant Lagomorph species; thought to have been probably the ancestral rootstock for this entire Sub-order)
Family Paraleporidae (I; a group with fossil evidence from at least the middle of the Oligocene, but also with living members; the smallest species could easily be mistaken for members of the family Prolagidae, without detailed examination of their skeletons or molecular biology, but the largest species ? now long extinct ? were comparable in size and probably also in lifestyle to Tapirs; members generally more likely than Euleporids to be browsers rather than grazers, although the latter lifestyle has also been followed by a significant proportion of them)
=>Sub-family Proparaleporinae (S; fossils from early to mid-Eocene, possibly ancestral to some or all of the other sub-families)
=>Sub-family Mesoparaleporinae (I; the largest group, including most of the hare-sized to sheep-sized [or slightly larger] fossils forms; probably ?paraphyletic?[ i], i.e. the latest common ancestor of its members does qualify for membership but some of that ancestor?s other descendants have been excluded, and possibly even[/i] polyphyletic instead; middle-Oligocene to Recent, but declining seriously around the Miocene/Pleistocene boundary and now extinct; replaced either by Neoparaleporinae, by Euleporids or by Ruminants)
=>Sub-family Gazelloleporinae (N; fast-running grazers, mostly from a bit larger than hare-sized to a bit larger than sheep-sized; early Miocene to mid-Pliocene; replaced by Ruminants and Perissodactyls)
=>Sub-family Plioparaleporinae (S; similar to Mesoparaleporinae, but with limbs apparently better adapted for digging burrows and less so for running fast, dentition suggests that all of them were ?mixed feeders? that both grazed and browsed [maybeso changing the ratio of feeding methods seasonally] instead of individual species ? or the entire group, as a whole ? being more specialised; early Pliocene to mid-Pliocene definitely, and there are some fossils that appear to be from around the middle of the Pleistocene although it is possible that the deposits in which their remains were found had been ?reworked? from Pliocene ones by natural forces)
=>Sub-family Neoparaleporinae (N; rabbit-sized grazers & mixed feeders, currently native to various islands that lack rabbits; these are among the Paraleporid forms that could be mistaken for members of the Prolagidae; probably of Mesoparaleporine ancestry; mid-Pleistocene to present day)
=>Sub-family Cryptoparaleporinae (Malabra only; a small group of species with modern members found only in the forests of south-eastern & southern Malabra, and with no fossils identified so far; approximately hare-sized, with a gracile build; primarily browsers [and often eat significant amounts of fungi] but in some cases will also consume invertebrate animals or even smaller vertebrates; they thus fill a similar ecological niche to RL?s Chevotrains?)
=>Sub-family Boreoparaleporinae (N; a group whose members basically resemble small-to-medium species from the Mesoparaleporinae, except in their number of molar teeth, but which seem to have appeared in the IDU?s main continent at about the same time that the earliest known fossils of the latter group appeared on the southern land-mass; middle-Oligocene to late Miocene)
=>Sub-family Macroleporinae (M; sheep-sized to tapir-sized forms, browsers or possibly mixed feeders but apparently no pure grazers; late Oligocene to early Pliocene; replaced by Ruminants and Perissodactyls)
Family Hydroleporidae (N; hare-sized to sheep-sized grazers and mixed feeders, with some adaptations [such as closable nostrils] for a semi-aquatic lifestyle, filling similar ecological niches to RL?s capybara and coypu; mid-Pliocene to present day)
(N.B. This wouldn?t prevent your nation?s people keeping hamsters or gerbils as pets, they?d just have to imported the ancestors of those stocks from elsewhere at some point?)
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Order Lagomorpha
On the ?RL? version of Earth the Lagomorpha consists of two families that contain extant as well as extinct member species, namely the Leporidae (containing the Rabbits and Hares; oldest fossils attributed to this family = Eocene) and the Ochotonidae (containing the Pikas; oldest fossils attributed to this family = Miocene); one family whose last species became extinct as recently as the 18th century AD, Prolagidae (containing the Sardinian Pika, and some other species that became extinct at earlier dates; oldest fossils attributed to this family = Miocene); and a few extinct genera that have not yet been placed definitively into any families.
In the [main] lands of the IDU, however, this order has enjoyed ? and still exhibits ? significantly greater diversity than has been the case in RL. Because of this fact, there is a school of thought among zoologists which suggests that the order actually originated in these lands and that its ?modern? families on the ?RL Earth? only moved there as colonists from the IDU ? presumably during one of the ?Faunal Interchange? events that also involved various other groups of animals expanding their ranges in the opposite direction to that ? later on...
Higher Classification
Class Mammalia
Sub-class Theria (viviparous, or ?modern?, mammals)
Infra-class Eutheria (or ?Placentalia?; the placental [i.e. non-?marsupial?] Therians)
Super-cohort Boreoeutheria (a group of Eutherian lineages that are all derived from a single northern-hemisphere rootstock, as distinct from either the Xenarthra [of South America] or the Afrotheria [of Africa, of course])
Cohort Euarchontaglires (which also includes the Order Primates & its closest relatives)
Super-order Glires (which also includes the Order Rodentia?).
Sometimes previously placed as a Sub-order in the ?Rodentia?; sometimes previously, especially when treated thus, called the ?Duplicidentata?. The most obvious single difference between Lagomorphs and ?true? Rodents is that the former possess twice as many incisor teeth as the latter.
Lower Classification
(At the start of an entry in this list: ?I? = both continents + nearby islands, ?N? = northern continent + nearby islands, ?M? = Malabra + southern continent + nearby islands, ?S? = southern continent + nearby islands.)
Family Proterolagomorphidae (M; presumed ancestral stock of the entire order; known only from a few fossils, Palaeocene to Eocene in age [i][with one example for which an origin in the later stages of the Cretaceous Period, i.e. before the extinction of the dinosaurs, during has been claimed]; relatively generalised ?early? mammals)[/i]
Family Asciuridae (M; ?Tailless Squirrels?, or ?False Squirrels?; known only from a few fossils of late Eocene to mid-Oligocene age; apparently filled a similar arboreal niche to tree-squirrels, and were replaced by those rodents during the Oligocene)
1/. Sub-order Euleporida
a/ Family Prolagidae (N; several species, all of them except for one fossil form ? whose classification is disputed ? belonging to one or the other of two genera that don?t occur in RL)
b/ Superfamily Leporoidea
=> Family Leporidae
=>=> Sub-family Euleporinae (I; Rabbits & hares as represented in RL, including endemic species & even genera in addition to those shared with RL lands)
=>=> Sub-family Marroilepoirinae (only on ?Marro Islands?; the Marroi Hares, a group of closely-related species that have been isolated on a remote island for several million years and have diverged there to fill a wider range of ecological niches)
=>=> Sub-family Parvoleporinae (I; the Mouse-Rabbits, a group of small leporines that commonly move by hopping on their back legs; they fill comparable ecological niches to RL Earth?s gerbils, jerboas & jirds, jumping mice, & kangaroo rats; sometimes considered to constitute a full family, the ?Parvoleporidae?, in their own right)
=> Family Cervoleporidae (N; the ?Deer-Hares?; slightly larger on average than are the Leporine ?Hares?, and with their males bearing antlers that they may use for defence against predators as well as for competing with each other over mates; reduced in both diversity and overall range since their heyday back in the Miocene; it is suspected that occasional animals from this family might have found their way to RL Earth?)
=> Family Erinaceolagidae (basically M; the ?Spiny Rabbits?; a group known from a few extant species, with no proven fossil relatives but genetically distinct enough to argue for a lengthy period of divergence from the related families)
=> Family Thylacolagidae (S; the ?Fanged Rabbits?; known only from fossils of late Miocene & early Pliocene date; a single genus has been identified, containing three or four recognised species; palaeontologists disagree about their probable lifestyle?)
c/ Super-family Ochotonoidea
=> Family Ochotonidae (I; Pikas as represented in RL; all species endemic, with some belonging to endemic genera ? one of which still has extant species, rather than just extinct members, as well as to the single RL genus)
=>=> Sub-family Orthoochotoninae (I; the pikas of the ?South Idu? continent?, and some of those from the main Idu continent as well; sometimes divided into two separate sub-families, one per continent, called Notoochotinae & Boreoochotinae)
=>=> Sub-family Neoochotoninae (N; the remaining pikas of the main Idu continent and all those of RL Earth; one of the more recent studies suggests that they may actually be a sister-group not just to the Orthoochotoninae but to the remainder of the Ochotonoidea as a whole? or even to the remainder of the Euleporida! If that hypothesis is correct then possibly an early Euleporid stock that either had migrated into ?RL Earth? at an early date or was actually that Earth?s own native counterpart of the IDU?s native early Euleporids evolved into this family, and then subsequently colonised [or recolonised] the northern Idu, whereas the Idu?s native proto-Euleporids gave rise separately [within the IDU?s lands] both to the other [fully endemic] ?Pika? lineages and all of the Leporoidea?)
=> Family Geomiseridae (I; forms better-adapted for burrowing than are the ordinary Pikas, and with ?pouches? to the sides of their mouths for carrying food)
=>=> Sub-family Geomiserinae (I; the ?Pocket Pikas?, or ?Burrow-Rats?; they fill comparable ecological niches to the RL hamsters and pocket gophers)
=>=> Sub-family Bathymiserinae (N; the ?Mole-Pikas? or ?Tunnel-Rats?, of the main Idu continent; more heavily adapted to predominantly subterranean lifestyles than are the Geomiserinae, they fill comparable ecological niches to RL?s mole-rats)
=> Family Notomiseridae (M; the ?Mole-Pikas? or ?Tunnel-Rats?, of the IDU?s southern continent; even more heavily adapted to predominantly subterranean lifestyles than are the Bathymiserinae, they fill comparable ecological niches to RL?s mole-rats; recent studies confirm earlier suspicions that they are more closely related to the Ochotonidae than either of these families is to the Geomiseridae)
2/. Sub-order Paraleporida
(This taxon actually might be ?polyphyletic?, i.e. with its members? latest common ancestor too far back to qualify as a member of this group itself?)
Family Eoleporidae (M; another group that is known only from fossils, in this case of Eocene to late Oligocene or very early Miocene age; their resemblance to modern Leporoids is more obvious than that of the Proterolagomorphids, but adults of some species seem to have been rather larger than are those of any still-extant Lagomorph species; thought to have been probably the ancestral rootstock for this entire Sub-order)
Family Paraleporidae (I; a group with fossil evidence from at least the middle of the Oligocene, but also with living members; the smallest species could easily be mistaken for members of the family Prolagidae, without detailed examination of their skeletons or molecular biology, but the largest species ? now long extinct ? were comparable in size and probably also in lifestyle to Tapirs; members generally more likely than Euleporids to be browsers rather than grazers, although the latter lifestyle has also been followed by a significant proportion of them)
=>Sub-family Proparaleporinae (S; fossils from early to mid-Eocene, possibly ancestral to some or all of the other sub-families)
=>Sub-family Mesoparaleporinae (I; the largest group, including most of the hare-sized to sheep-sized [or slightly larger] fossils forms; probably ?paraphyletic?[ i], i.e. the latest common ancestor of its members does qualify for membership but some of that ancestor?s other descendants have been excluded, and possibly even[/i] polyphyletic instead; middle-Oligocene to Recent, but declining seriously around the Miocene/Pleistocene boundary and now extinct; replaced either by Neoparaleporinae, by Euleporids or by Ruminants)
=>Sub-family Gazelloleporinae (N; fast-running grazers, mostly from a bit larger than hare-sized to a bit larger than sheep-sized; early Miocene to mid-Pliocene; replaced by Ruminants and Perissodactyls)
=>Sub-family Plioparaleporinae (S; similar to Mesoparaleporinae, but with limbs apparently better adapted for digging burrows and less so for running fast, dentition suggests that all of them were ?mixed feeders? that both grazed and browsed [maybeso changing the ratio of feeding methods seasonally] instead of individual species ? or the entire group, as a whole ? being more specialised; early Pliocene to mid-Pliocene definitely, and there are some fossils that appear to be from around the middle of the Pleistocene although it is possible that the deposits in which their remains were found had been ?reworked? from Pliocene ones by natural forces)
=>Sub-family Neoparaleporinae (N; rabbit-sized grazers & mixed feeders, currently native to various islands that lack rabbits; these are among the Paraleporid forms that could be mistaken for members of the Prolagidae; probably of Mesoparaleporine ancestry; mid-Pleistocene to present day)
=>Sub-family Cryptoparaleporinae (Malabra only; a small group of species with modern members found only in the forests of south-eastern & southern Malabra, and with no fossils identified so far; approximately hare-sized, with a gracile build; primarily browsers [and often eat significant amounts of fungi] but in some cases will also consume invertebrate animals or even smaller vertebrates; they thus fill a similar ecological niche to RL?s Chevotrains?)
=>Sub-family Boreoparaleporinae (N; a group whose members basically resemble small-to-medium species from the Mesoparaleporinae, except in their number of molar teeth, but which seem to have appeared in the IDU?s main continent at about the same time that the earliest known fossils of the latter group appeared on the southern land-mass; middle-Oligocene to late Miocene)
=>Sub-family Macroleporinae (M; sheep-sized to tapir-sized forms, browsers or possibly mixed feeders but apparently no pure grazers; late Oligocene to early Pliocene; replaced by Ruminants and Perissodactyls)
Family Hydroleporidae (N; hare-sized to sheep-sized grazers and mixed feeders, with some adaptations [such as closable nostrils] for a semi-aquatic lifestyle, filling similar ecological niches to RL?s capybara and coypu; mid-Pliocene to present day)