Dragonthunders

This concept emerged when I was trying to get an idea about megafaunal marsupial macropod without trying to go with the "ground sloth" route, and seeing iguanodon and at the same time all those images of kangaroos with enough and prominent muscular arms I came up with this bizarre herbivore.
Iguanoroo is a descendant of the wallabies, with a length of about 4 meters and weighing 2 tons, is characterized by its strange proportion of arms and hands, which have grown so that these are as big as their forearms, because of this, it has become a forced quadruped, although he is able to stand up when he needs to feed or fight.

Apart from that, I still do not have much about it, it is likely to come with more when I develop the environment of this... 

The Southern Ocean contains an unusual collection of aquatic creatures that inhabit both on under ice and below this and certainly in the water are another variety of beings, many of them hidden from the human eye. One of them had been sighted by humans, and initially had passed as one of other cryptic creatures that are a misinterpretation. The ningen remained hidden for many years until first specimens were found swimming outside the continent. The first sightings occurred in New Zealand, being a huge corpse that had come partially intact. Hence, he had to stay many years before a live specimen was found.

From what could be seen the corpse is that it was a huge mammal, about 7 meters long, and with an estimated nearly 60 tons weight.

The first and most prominent protruding was their appearance, shape not stand out with any known mammal, the descriptions given were:

"A huge being with two giant arms that ended with huge and long claws which in the correct position, they should serve as fins; the lower body was long and more compact, with two legs like fins; his head was round and flat, with a separate medium mouth and binoculars eyes, two nostrils on top; with a length of about 15 meters and weighing 70 tons estimated”

Weeks after taking the necessary samples, they began to make genetic relationships to get some idea of ​​what kind of creature is.

After a while, his closest relative was identified as... a sloth.

Yes, a sloth.

At this point people began to wonder: What kind of joke is this? Of course, this was not a joke, that was real, and much more it was when they began to find living specimens. Many of them were around Antarctica, around the Ross Sea, living alone swimming at depths of 50 to 70 meters. They were recorded as predators and who used to hunt medium-sized animals, such as seals, penguins and even young whales. He did not know much more about them, what their lives were, how they were born or how long they could live.

It is not yet known how it evolved, there isn’t any fossil or material evidence that would give us an answer, but is speculated that they may be a descendant of a south American group of giant aquatic sloths as Thalassocnus which were successful to adopt a full aquatic lifestyle, and some of this species reach Antarctica during the end of the Pliocene. Is also not yet known how they avoided the huge marine predators from the times before the ice age, however, it is believed that should have taken advantage of their sudden extinction in the Pleistocene. They survive until the mankind ages, but for shame, they don't survive us.

Unfortunately with global warming, the conditions surrounding territories began to change dramatically in a point that the specimens found soon die and in a decade, and then, after 30 years, the species was declared extinct. The ningen, went from being one of several cryptids to be the example of the lawlessness of humanity during the contemporary era before the great collapse, it will be a recordatory of no matter how much we know about this world, there are hidden things still remain even in front of us...

This parade was one planned for when it had developed enough of the phanerozoic and it would belong to the next part of the history of the earth, the Akrozoic, being this the exposition of the first marine titans of this new time and several representatives, the Balaenorhincha.
These were exposed in my first parade related to my first concepts about the future diversity of birds with a large representative, the Levythavis. This clade is a kind of snakebirds adapted to the aquatic life, being free of some restrictions from most of their distant ancestors such as the need to lay eggs and being able gestate these inside them as oviviparous and even develop viviparous forms. Although externally they are reminiscent of the cetaceans, anatomically they vary, what would be part of the frontal body is actually only a long neck, the fins are derived from simple stumps of their snake-like ancestors that are remnants of the hind legs, and have been able to re-develop muscular tails.

Its evolutionary history was to begin around 870 million years in the future, being the new regents of the oceans after a minor extinction, reaching its peak around 935 million years, and then suffer a loss of diversity between 950 and 970 m.y. leaving only a remnant of pelagic forms around a billion years in the future.

a)Big-headed filter feeder: something similar to a Humpback whale, this species is capable of catching huge amounts of food in a single puff, they are the most robust in proportion of this group, with some flat ray-like forms that roams the sea floor, this specimen in particular is around 10 to 12 meters in length

b) Shallow sea predator: a medium-sized carnivorous of around 4 meter long that inhabits coasts, reefs and sandy seafloor at depths of between 25 and 30 meters. They are characterized by their almost thin shape being similar to eels, which in many cases use ambush methods to hunt small or medium-sized prey, They, for reasons of ancestry, have developed different and organized rows of serrated and triangular dendrites that act as teeth inside their mouths, which helps them cut and tear easily.

c) High adapted pelagic forms: These would be the most derived forms of this group that would survive in the long term, being somewhat similar in convergence to what were ichthyosaurs and cetaceans, they adopted less sinuous bodies in comparison to ancestral forms and being able to develop a marked dorsal fin.

d) Slow herbivore Honestly I can not resist making manatee-like forms

e) Levythavis and kind: These would be among the largest animals that have ever existed in the history of earth, being able to develop lengths of more than 40 meters in length and reach weights of between 190 to 250 tons, this taking advantage of a rich period of food that would sustain this lineage of true leviathans snakes

f) Orcowl: This would be one of the major apex predators being a branch of the pelagic forms, being large carnivores of about 12 meters in length characterized by its strange cranial configuration that allows them to echolocate, being the chin of this wide and chubby, surrounded by special melon organs that allows them to generate a powerful sound wave, for example, a prey, and then is received by the large face, which acts as a huge ear. Also they use their huge eyes which are partly secondary for the detection of prey.

g) Jawelram: This is a probably a clade related to the robust Humpback-like forms but unlike them, these are much more adapted to severe physical, body-to-body confrontations, having developed a heavy osteoderm covering around the head which as its name indicates can be used as rams and hit everything they consider a thread, being remarkable the wounds of these by fights of members of their own kind across the body.

Well, during these months before having restarted TFIF I had already made several concepts and ideas, which I had not published due to demotivation to paint, a dislike for the drawing or simply lack of time or force to finish them, and now that I will be working with completely new content these sketches or illustrations labeled as "TFIF concept" aren't not more part of the TFIF canon, although the idea of these can be or are canonical in a way.

The sketches above dealt with an idea for one of the first ecosystem that would follow after the end of the phanerozoic, entering the new eon, the Akrozoic, around 700 million years in the future, in a very changed Earth recovering from the great and destructive mass extinction event that had left almost the entire biosphere in a stagnation state for tens of millions of years, plant life was devastated for more than 150 million years by the reduction of atmospheric CO2 amounts and added to the global desertification, left the majority of groups of terrestrial plants to extinction, with few number of species that thrived with the remaining CO2. In the vacuum caused by the fall of the plant kingdom, some of the other groups of autotrophs as well soil dwellers began to thrive in the most isolated continents with the lack of competition, some extending and becoming the main base for new ecosystems, in particular this great amalgam of irregular flora that covers in large mounds the deltas of rivers, the Lichen Reef.

Composed of three different layers of lichens, those that decompose the soil matter (of foamy and granulated appearance), those that consume organic remains, and those that depend entirely on photosynthesis (Scaly crustaceans), result in the whole the most complete ecosystem and complex that exists in the devastated earth.
Among them the little existing fauna make up the major dominant animals, including the distant descendants of birds, the tardiavids, which became the most cosmopolitan vertebrate during this time and some forms of insects, including predatory neotenic "caterpillars", as well large fliers.

And here the third small part

Gigantopithecus blackii, considered as the largest primate ever with an estimated size of 540 kg and with a height of 3 meters standing; Josephoartigasia monesi is the largest rodent known so far, with a length of about 3 meters and a weight of 1 ton; Daeodon is the largest of the Entelodonts, with a height shoulder of 1.7 and a skull of 90 cm long; Diprotodon is the largest marsupial ever, with a length of 3 meters and a weight of 2700 kg.

Well, here goes another bunch of big mammals, As it seems much easier to put them together in a single image compared to the dinosaurs.

Arctotherium angustidens holds a triple size title of being the largest terrestrial carnivore, the largest bear, and the largest terrestrial mammalian predator known so far, weighing around 900 kg, and capable of reaching more than three meters of height standing; Elasmotherium, the siberian unicorn, is one of the largest Rhinocerotid known, with a length of 5 to 6 meters and a weight 4500 kg; Hippopotamus gorgops being the largest member of the Hippopotamus genus as well the biggest Artiodactyl known, with a weight of 3900 kg; Palaeoloxodon namadicus, the largest land mammal known so far, it has a shoulder heigh of 5.2 meters and with a weight of 22 tonnes; Bison latifrons is one of the largest bovid known with a shoulder height of 2.5 and with a weight of 2000 kg; Kubanochoerus gigas is the largest suid known, with a weight of 550 kg and a shoulder height of 1.3 meters.

Well, here I come with new illustrations of Tyrannosaurus rex after I was not satisfied with the latest version I did, this time making more than one individual since in previous versions originally I had only used Sue's reconstruction, adding Stan and the CM 9380 specimen. I wanted to try to practicing with varied colors and patterns, so is why each one has a different coloring.


Sue based on Scott Hartman skeletal reconstruction
Stan and CM 9380 based on Franoys diagram reconstructions

In the twilight of a savage world, few millions of years after us, the last trace of the last living human who ever stepped on the earth has been preserved as a tribute made by the cosmic descendants of mankind, on a impenetrable pedestal made by a very enduring and incomprehensible technology that will preserve this last monument to the first native sapient species of the earth for many eons to come, over the forces of entropy, and while its surroundings, life is thriving on its way.

Preface

 It has been quite extraordinary the many achievements that life has made throughout the history of this planet, the success of thousands of interactions, of individuals, groups, species, populations and ecosystems, all together of several biospheres constituted by countless and varied lifeforms that have evolved throughout the space and time in which the earth has been habitable, that survived the obstacles and challenges that have imposed this chaotic and changing universe; of the few survivors who did not perish to the destructive change of the world and which emerged from the dust, advancing, innovating, adapting and re-diversifying, being a repetitive, identifiable pattern, but with always varied results. These great cycles of flowering and extinction created myriads of species, with countless ecological interactions and ecosystems, of which we have appreciated only a fraction living among us, and yet this fraction is vast and wonderful, with hundreds of thousands of life forms that rose from large and small divergences, and of which we humans are also part in many aspects. A fascinating and impressive fact, all these constant changes never stop, even in the worst of days, during the worst mass slaughter of species that left the planet in total ruin, if there is a possibility of something surviving, it will continue living, thriving, evolving, changing and adapting, even in the moment in which the last human being do its last step on the face of this world or the cosmos, life while still existing, this will continue to generate new and interesting living beings. 

As far as we know, the odyssey of the earth from our perspective is at the midpoint of what remains of habitability time and is still in a eternal changing course, and we, humanity, by our brief and growing contribution to a new change on a global scale because of our innate ability to modify and interact with this planet, will leave another mark in the long history of all the drastic changes that will inevitably shape the next generations of lifeforms, forging the cycles of new species, a wonderful or disastrous future of new variations of life, which we can only try to think and imagine, and only that, try. 

Although probably we, and when I mean "we", to you, the reader and I the writer, like the rest of the persons living now, and probably the generations from now to who knows how far this species can last, will never come to witness all the possible changes by the immense separation of time and space, which continues to leave the curiosity about what is possible to imagine, theorize and speculate about the future, and although there could never be a concrete answer, the question remains for those who try to give an appropriate response: What will happen after us? And probably I have a good response for that question. 

 

Introduction

Well, that's it, 10,000 years had Homo sapiens to establish itself as the dominant species, and with another million years, among thousands of acts, misfortunes and feats, it all ended in a quiet and silent twilight by the inevitable extinction. 

In the end, after the time in which humanity has existed on earth, of all the acts that shaped the course of many stories and the decisions and repercussions that have left marks on beings and things, everything has resulted in the emergence a planet transformed as in any important point in the natural history, although this transformation has been completely different in many aspects from previous events, from the invasion and migrations of different types of animals and plants in many anomalous way to regions that would have been impossible arrive in some natural way in such a short time, the extreme climatic changes caused by the direct and indirect actions of man, the creation of strange and unusual elements that have changed the chemistry of air and land and that have been recorded and accumulated in the geological record, as well, the several extinctions of certain groups and species and the sudden and artificial reappearance of others after being gone for a while. But little matters of some of those events now, as the mankind that shaped the world once is gone forever, and gradually the earth recovers and buries most of the effects we have caused.

The reality of the Earth is another one with the many years gone by, after the last splendid and advanced civilizations disintegrated and fell into oblivion, that the few sophont branches of humanity left the earth and lives now in the stars for long survival term of the kind, and of the fast degradation of the terrestrial descendants to a more wild stage, completely doubled by natural selection again. In this scenario, the legacy of humanity, the last descendants of Homo sapiens has passed the harsh rigor of this inclement planet, thriving and evolving into new varied species of which few managed to pass the game of evolution with the appropriate adaptations, but at last, with various lost. The most notable of these was the loss of intelligence that had developed long ago, being a gradual and safe loss. Around these new branch of hominids, the climatic and geological cycles have slightly changed the appearance of the earth, removing and adding new features on the surface, changing courses of rivers, lakes, coasts, reforming the valleys, volcanoes and mountains, among many other geographical aspects and above all erasing definitively any remnant of what was once build by humanity. 

Life has also started to change due to the new events, despite the fact that a part in the beginning has been caused by the effects of man, the rest of the subsequent changes have been by the earth itself, trying to stabilize the chaotic state in which all ecosystems have remained. The fraction of animals that disappeared during the transition has been great, but not as serious as one could imagine, as humanity despite its overwhelming effect compared to other periods of change and extinction, it caused what would be called just a minor extinction event, only with a substantial part of the extinct terrestrial and marine megafauna, as well as the varied and extravagant forms that resided in the darkest corners of the planet, as the most defenseless before the most insignificant of changes, even with that, most of the world was still intact. In the absence of these special and prominent life, other new beings have taken the void, have expanded, multiplied and populated the spaces left as a result of the ability of life to evolve, adapt and expand over the void, a gradual process that will recover little by little what was lost with new and various forms of flora and fauna. 

And so, this is only the beginning, the cycle of evolution and extinction begins again and the continuous changes it generates, the odyssey of life continues on its way, a path that will continue to advance with new times. And probably, anyone who is reading this, want to know what would happened after that, what is the next step on the evolution of earth? What will happen in the dawn of these new ages? And this is what this history will answer, it probably will not be the most exact and definitive future, it will never be the most feasible prediction, but it would be at least a probable future, a plausible attempt, even though, this would become more and more complicate to speculate the deep we will go, into the distant time, dozens, hundreds of millions of years, even a thousand million years. The earth was in the middle of its odyssey when humanity appeared, and now after, the other half will be presented, and even more, from a beginning to a far end...

 

So, welcome to the future.

A small portrait trying to get away from the lipless representation. 
Maybe something that I could not do well was the lips so sorry for that.