Neocene-Project

<b>African Paralagus</b> (Paralagus zinjii)<b>Order:</b> Lagomorpha<b>Family:</b> Leporidae<b>Habitat:</b> Tropical forests of Zinj The lagomorphs – rabbits, rabbits and the related to them pikas – are a successful group of mammals, which live all over the world, with the exception of Antarctica, including because of human activity. Despite this, the lagomorphs are quite conservative, changed relatively little over many millions of years of evolution - they early mastered the ecological niche of the small running herbivore, and their body and legs structures adapted to running by jumping – something that turned out to be very successful for millions of years.In the Neocene, this situation has changed somewhat: hare descendants appeared on Earth, which occupy ecological niches of large herbivores – the graceful harelopes, as well as their giant relatives, such as the obda and the lagomoropus. The African paralagus is another large species of the lagomorphs.Outwardly, this species resembles some ancestral form of the harelopes, but is their rather distant relative instead. This is a large mammal, about 1 m in height in the shoulders, weighing up to 50 kg. It is covered with a monochromatic reddish-brown fur on the body, which is lighter, more faded in color, on the legs, head and neck. Males are slightly larger than females. The ears of the animal resemble those of the hares’ - they are long and mobile, with white tips, clearly visible in the shade of the forest.Unlike the harelopes, the paralagus has only two middle toes on the front legs with hooves (in fact, these are thick shortened claws, like a modern camel’s) and they are connected together by elastic ligaments. The movable inner fingers have real claws, which are of a quite significant size - when walking, this mammal bends them back so that they do not touch the ground and remain relatively sharp. However, these claws are used not as weapons, but to bend branches with foliage to the mouth of the mammal. This species can stand on its hind legs, as does its distant relative that lives in the Neocene Azores. The hind legs are three-toed, with hoof-like claws and pads on the feet.The paralagus feeds on a variety of plant foods – mainly on foliage, but it can also eat bark and moss from trees, woody mushrooms and epiphytes, and even animal food like insects, bird eggs and chicks. Larger predatory animals often attack it, so the paralagus is a rather alert and cautious mammal, usually active in the morning and evening, at dusk, and it lives in dense forests. In sparse forests and in open places, this mammal appears rarely, only at the watering holes. Usually this species drinks water from forest puddles and streams. The sense of smell and hearing are good, the vision is sharp.There is no pronounced mating period in the paralagus - in females of this species, sexual maturity occurs at the age of one year, in males at a year and a half. Females leave odorous marks, males fight for the right to mate, sometimes quite seriously, causing wounds with the claws of the front legs. Unlike their hare ancestors, adults of this species usually live in pairs, and their offspring are raised together. Sometimes 2-3 pairs of paralagus form a small herd, but this is not very common. In females of this species, 1-2 cubs are born, but already quite large (about 3 kg at birth) and developed - they can walk in a few hours, and after a few days, they run on a par with adult animals. The female can bear offspring up to three times in 2 years.This mammal can live up to 13-15 years, but their average life expectancy is not more than 8 years.

Steppe carrot (Daucus neocenis)Order: ApialesFamily: ApiaceaeHabitat: 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 two years.

Hypochaeris europaeusOrder: AsteralesFamily: AsteraceaeHabitat: Southern EuropeThe 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’ own. The trunk is relatively short; the branches form a wide, sloppy crown. The foliage resembles the leaves of the ancestral species, but with a wider and rugged edge to produce more shade: Hypochaeris europaeus is quite a light loving plant, and does not tolerate competitors around its roots, trying to eradicate them by casting shadows around itself.The flowers of this species are yellow in color; they are pollinated mainly by local species of bees, bumblebees and similar insects. Seeds are formed on the site of the former flowers, and resemble the seeds of the ancestral species - they are partly carried by the wind, and partly - in the intestines of different birds, which willingly eat the seeds, (usually they are different species of finches, distant relatives of the desert finch, who lives in the Mediterranean salt desert). The outer shell of the seeds is digested, and the seeds come out together with defecation, and grow in new places, (or they are brought there by the wind). At this time they are very vulnerable and can easily die, but if they grow to at least two meters high, the individuals of this species can live up to 100 years, or even a little more.

Steppe Rose (Rosa aridaphila)Order: RosalesFamily: RosaceaeHabitat: 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 alternately on branches. Their flowers are typical of roses, dark pink, (sometimes there is a color morph, where the flowers, on the contrary, are bright white), which are pollinated by different insects, primarily by the local species of bees and bumblebees.Steppe roses have branches that are strong, long, and spiky. Most large herbivorous animals do not like to eat these bushes, (and from caterpillars, snails and the similar invertebrates the steppe rose is protected by local small songbirds, which often nest there, away from their own predators), but when the steppe rose’s berries mature, they willingly come to her thickets and eat them. Seeds of the steppe rose only benefit from this - they only grow better from this transaction, and so the steppe rose often grows along animal trails, (but not as intensely as the aforementioned Malikaat).If the steppe rose is not eaten in youth, when it is still small and not very prickly, it will be able to live a few decades.

Mud mushroom (Lycoperdon africanus)Order: AgaricalesFamily: AgaricaceaeHabitat: African riverbanks, lakesWhen 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 the latter, this fungus is not poisonous, on the contrary - its spores grow better, passing through the stomach of various herbivorous animals. As a result of which, the mud mushroom has developed certain substances in its biochemistry, which makes it more attractive to the smell and taste of its main distributors - wild African pigs, such as the runner warthogs, and the other species.But in nature, nothing happens for nothing - the increased "popularity" of this fungus in the runner warthogs and similar species has been affected by the worse perception/digesting in other herbivores, such as different species of African harelopes, which, after eating this fungus may begin to have health problems, (which makes them more vulnerable to predators). True, some "wrong" animals, like huge flathorns, eat these mushrooms without much damage to their health, but that is only in the view of their mighty immune systems. It is too early to say that mud mushrooms (named this way because they prefer to grow and breed in the mud of the banks of African rivers, lakes, and other freshwater bodies) begin to form a kind of symbiosis with African species of swine, but something similar in their evolution begins to occur.Mud mushroom can live several decades in the form of fungus, and even if it is almost all destroyed, it will be able to recover in a few months.In addition, to the north of the Nile, in the area attached to the Mediterranean basin, and just south - where groves of tree-like cacti, baobab opuntiums, grow, grows a relative, the sand mushroom, Lycoperdon aridophilus. Externally, its’ fruit bodies resemble the fruit bodies of a mud mushroom, only a different color: not yellow with red spots, but white with pale green spots. However, this fungus just does not like the abundance of moisture, unlike its yellow-red relative, and does not need contact with herbivorous animals for its spores to grow better - it prefers to spread underground without forming fruiting bodies. Therefore, its’ fruit bodies are just weakly poisonous, and in great quality can even kill an animal the size of a small harelope. This fungus species itself parasites on the root system of the baobab opuntia, without causing them much harm - it lives for as long as the host tree does, and dies with it.

Far Eastern Magpie (Pica asiaticus)Order: PasseriformesFamily: CorvidaeHabitat: Far EastMagpies 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 kg). It resembles the other magpie species, but its’ legs are proportionally longer and stronger - like the carnivorous corvids, for example, it also spends a lot of time on the ground. It is colored as the other magpies are - in black and white - but more brightly, with a fiery metallic hue, (especially the males, the females are more dim).The Far Eastern magpie is an omnivorous bird, eats both plant food and animal, but it prefers more plant matter. It flies well, but gets tired quite quickly, and prefers to hide from enemies - birds of prey and mammals - in the forest bushes on the ground. Unlike various other magpie species, it is a tropical bird, and is not found north of China.The Far Eastern magpie is a polygamous species, as one male usually fertilizes 2-4 females that live on its territory, but does not care about the hatchlings. The females raise them themselves, laying usually 4-6 eggs, (sometimes less or more). The chicks hatch after 3 weeks, unlike most songbirds, they get on their feet and grow fluff (and then feathers) very quickly, and after 12 weeks, they are already independent.If the Far Eastern magpie does not die in the first 2-3 years, it will be able to live more than 10 years.