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Once upon a time, there lived a merrow in the northern sea, and she had a mermaid cousin, with whom she didn’t get along. “How will I ever get myself a handsome fisherman, if you are scaring them all away?” She would ask when the two would meet... occasionally. As far as the two cousins went, the mermaid was the more feral one, and both cousins knew this. Thus, the mermaid was dismissive of her cousin, until she wasn’t. “You’re lonely?” She suddenly asked during one such occasion, starting them both, if truth be told - the lives of the two cousins rarely crossed and they had nothing to talk about... usually. “Fine. Go to the Whale bay tomorrow - there you’ll meet someone, I’m certain,” she muttered, and with a flick of her tail, she was gone. The merrow thought this over: she and her cousin didn’t get along, but nothing more, so why not to follow her advice? Plus, there were no bad rumours about the Whale bay, just some odd ones, and so the merrow decided to cooperate, and swam to

Steppe carrot (Daucus neocenis) Order: Apiales Family: Apiaceae Habitat: Steppes and Prairies of North America ... Like most domesticated animals, domesticated plants did not survive humans, and disappeared without a trace, leaving almost no offspring. As for those descendants that remained, then they only faintly resemble their native ancestors, which applies to plants, and not only to animals. One of these descendants is the steppe carrot, a descendant of the "common carrot." It is a medium-sized plant, about 50 cm tall. Its flowers are wide white “umbrellas”, pollinated mainly by different flies and mosquitoes, (and smelling not very good). Its’ dark seeds are located in boxes; when the seeds ripen, the boxes burst and shoot the seeds around the area. The leaves are green, reminiscent - remotely – of feathers. The roots resemble the ancestral species, but are much more skinny and bitter. However, different animals willingly eat this plant. Steppe wild carrots live for about

Hypochaeris europaeus Order: Asterales Family: Asteraceae Habitat: Southern Europe The world of flora is no less, if not more, confusing, than the world of fauna. Throughout the Cenozoic, next to the famous dandelions, lived and their close relatives, so-called cat’s-ear flowers, which environmentally replaced dandelions in South America, and coexisted with them in Eurasia and North Africa, managing to get along with them without much rivalry. In the Neocene, this situation has changed somewhat - the cat’s-ear flower genus still dominates in South America, the dandelions dominate in the North America, but in Europe and North Africa, some species of cat’s-ear flowers have transformed from grassy plants to trees, unlike the dandelions. The main species among them is Hypochaeris europeaeus. It is quite a large plant – as tall as some species of the Cenozoic oaks. It grows on the slopes of the mountains of southern Europe, and does not form large copses – it prefers to grow on its’

Steppe Rose (Rosa aridaphila) Order: Rosales Family: Rosaceae Habitat: North American Prairie ... Contrary to popular belief, the family of Rosaceae (i.e. roses and relatives) is not restricted to the wild rose flower and its domestic descendants; among them - are different kinds of flowers-driads, and one of them, Malikaat, has become, in the Neocene, one of the main herbaceous plants of tundra, a kind of "satellite" of local herbivores, (like the scythehorn). Another member of the Rosaceae family is a "real" rose, an American descendant of the Holocene wild rose. Externally, the steppe rose resembles its ancestor in general terms, but it is much more large, somewhere 3.5-4 m in height. A separate steppe rose is more of a bush with several trunks than a tree, and - with proportionally long and prickly branches. Even in itself, it looks impressive, but the steppe roses are more likely to grow together, in small groves. Their leaves are oval, with a jagged edge, and they grow

Mud mushroom (Lycoperdon africanus) Order: Agaricales Family: Agaricaceae Habitat: African riverbanks, lakes When the beginning of the Neocene began a new ice age, planet Earth had a hard time, and especially for the residents of climatic zones away from the equator, which were more prone to icy cold. Winds, snow and glaciers came from the North Pole quite far to the south, driving there the former northerners. Therefore, in the Asian and African tropics, and then savannas, there appeared European species of animals, plants, and even of mushrooms. Many of them died out, unable to adapt to the change of places, but some survived, and even left descendants behind. Thus, in North Africa, (but not to the north of the Nile) there is a descendant of some European puffball mushrooms. Externally, this fungus - or rather, its fruit bodies - somehow resembles an ancestor: it is a kind of rounded ball of bright yellow color with red spots, somewhat resembling a fly agaric. However, unlike

Far Eastern Magpie (Pica asiaticus) Order: Passeriformes Family: Corvidae Habitat: Far East Magpies in Eurasia have established themselves for a long and a successful period. They are less sociable birds than some of their relatives, such as the jackdaws and rooks, crows and ravens, but they are able to act together, and solve complex problems, and in general - to be enduring birds. They were able to survive the anthropomorphic pressure of the Holocene, and the climatic cataclysms of the Neocene, and even - after the re-formation of Beringea in the North Pacific - to expand their range in North America ... but mostly they are still birds of the Old, not the New, World. The Far Eastern Magpie is one of the more unusual birds. It is not as large as some of the predatory Neocene corvids are, but it is still quite large: the male, on average, is 70 cm long, and the female - about 50 cm long (the weight is corresponding - the male is about one and a half kg, and the female - about 1

Iberian Magpie (Neopica europensis) Order: Passeriformes Family: Corvidae Habitat: Southwestern Europe Like crows, jackdaws and rooks, magpies were some of the most resilient and hardy birds of the Holocene, able to live with and without humans. This helped them to survive the end of the Holocene/the beginning of the Neocene, when people died out due to different climatic cataclysms. Magpies remained, and gave birth to new species, which, however, outwardly often resemble the old species, for the changes have occurred, rather, at the level of behavior. One of such Neocene magpies is the Iberian magpie, a descendant of the common magpie of the Holocene, (Pica pica). Externally, as well as in size, it resembles its’ ancestor, only its’ color is darker - not black and white, but gray-black with ripples. The tail is long, the legs are also - this bird prefers to live in sparse, rather than in dense, forests, (which in the south-west of Europe are not very numerous to begin with); the

Swift scops owl (Otus apodiforme) Order: Strigiformes Family: Strigdae Habitat: Caucasian Mountains The beginning of time between the Holocene and the Neocene was marked by climatic cataclysms and mass extinctions of many species of animals and birds, especially larger ones. Smaller species survived, and took over new niches, formed new species, sometimes quite unusual, like the swift scops owl, a descendant of the common scops owl of the Holocene, (Otus scops). Despite its name, the swift scops owl is quite a large owl, the size of a hooded crow of the Holocene. Its’ appearance is similar to that of its’ ancestor, including the facial disc typical of all owls, as well as feather tufts, typical for owls of the Otus genus. The plumage coloration is also quite owl-like – it is rippling gray or red, (different color morphs of this species exist), but here the body proportions of this bird resemble the more different swifts or swallows, than of the other owls - short legs with

Blue color is the fifth color. Blue is the color of water, of weather, of power of the storms, of water above in the air, and below, right beneath and among the ground, as it flows and spreads and saturates. Blue is the color of life, of nourishment, of plentifulness – of time when there is plenty to drink and plenty to eat, as the formerly dry earth is fertilized by water coming from above and flowing through it, even from below. Blue is the color of death, of storms, of destruction – of time when torrential rains and pounding waves come onto land, washing it away, washing it all away into its dark, sunless, still depths. Blue is the color of Spinosaurus – glaring eyes and snapping jaws from beneath the water’s surface. It may not be as popular as the big duo – Giganotosaurus and Tyrannosaurus Rex, but it is just as formidable as both of them are, just as big as either of them, if not bigger. Like them, it too has killer jaws, but its’ jaws are fish traps, they catch slippery fish