The Grameozoic & The Ascogene: Post Apocalyptic Scenario

[Clarke]

Prelude: Antarctica

The Symbiotic Isles - Antarctic Archipelago - + 150 M.Y.



While highly divergent from their counterparts today, the biota of the world one hundred and fifty million years in the future have a relatively small biodiversity. Some of this owes to the magnitude of disaster produced by the H-G extinction, and some owes to the fact that almost all the continents are connected into Novopangea. But that is not to say all are. Antarctica is the exception to this rule, the continent that has remained separated from the rest of the world since our time. The combined effects of millions of years worth of ice pressure and rising sea levels have reduced the continent to an archipelago, dominated by the two primary islands of Wilkes and Ellsworth. When one thinks of Antarctica, one thinks of a frozen wasteland, the only fauna dependent on its biodiverse coasts. But here Antarctica also differs from its modern counterpart. Antarctica has advanced slowly toward the Indian Ocean since our time, growing slightly warmer with each passing millenia. By now, most of the continent has a subtropical climate, aided in that part with the warmth originating from one one the massive ocean currents that lay scattered across the sea, distributing hat from place to place. And with wet and warm conditions comes biodiversity, aided by the geography of the area, with scattered islands constantly swapping and isolating species, turning the Antarctic Archipelago into a biological hot spot.

A biological hot spot that happens to be in possession of biota not found anywhere else on the planet. For while no plants survived on Antarctica, that is not to say that no flora did. Lichen, always the hardy survivors, slept in crevices under ice, the relatively fresh air of Antarctica allowing many to survive. And as the clouds cleared, a warmer Antarctica greeted them. And with no flying herbivores to spread seeds from South America, and too great a distance once their were, they were free to diversify. Although they grew at tremendously slow rates, natural selection still acted upon them. They expanded across the ground, and so a member that grew faster could over take and cover his neighbors. The faster they could grow, the more intense the selection processes were against slower growers. Soon great swaths of Earth were covered in roughly circular patterns of brilliant shades of teal, orange, tan, green, and even black. When two met, they tried to grow over one another, forming short ridges. Eventually one would overtake the other, flowing down the other side and growing over the rival lichen, digesting the parts that slowly withered without sun. But there was a point at which a plant couldn't grow faster without overtly spending hard-earned materials, and so new strategies emerged, changing the landscape of the archipelago forever.

Now when two lichens met, the result was more ferocious than a simple tug-of-war between the two competing flora. Fungi have always been proficient in the art of digestive acids and antibiotics, and this came into play as competition between lichens became more intense. The short ridges at the meeting of two lichens now didn't last long; their opponent infiltrated the structure of the other, intermingling hyphae, pumping out digestive acids and preying on the other's algae and mycelium until the fabric of one began to fall apart. It was simpler to digest the other if you overlay it, and from that point on the victor would precede to grow over and consume the other. The competition between lichen became a biochemical arms race, each developing an arsenal of digestive acids and enzymes to break other's apart. A pharmaceutical company would have given half their fortune to be able to take samples from this Antarctica, the bounty of which would have provided hundreds of venues for defeating diseases resistant to existing antibiotics.

It was around this time that the first flutterfrogs capable of traversing the now vast distances between South America and Antarctica evolved, and were swept to the islands by freak chance. Many began to make a habit of migrating south-east every year to take advantage of the predator-less conditions in which they could safely raise youth. Seeds dropped in their feces. Some even survived, for a time. But they were not adapted to the massive toxicity of both the soil and the lichens. But the flutterfrogs were luckier. Some could persist year-round on the bounty of the sea, and made their homes on Antarctica permanent. And some found creative ways to feed on the lichen. Unlike the crusts of today, these lichens were thick and porous, most around two cm thick, compressing easily under weight. The centers of the lichens didn't produce many antibiotics, and were therefore relatively safe to eat. Small, 4-cm long frogs adapted to walking, scuttling along on modified fingers, two per modified wing giving the organisms a total of eight appendages for movement. The lichens were quick to adapt, though, producing the same toxins in the centers at those on the end. The scuttlers didn't mind that much, though. A brief die-off was soon followed by a diversification of forms far vaster than that before. Algae wasn't the only symbiote that fungi could take, and with the scuttler's diet of fungi, some species of  its prey were sure to take advantage of the constant intake of half-digested food. Some took up residence in the scuttler's digestive track, and they broke down the poisons that would have otherwise sickened the frogs, in return obtaining part of the harvest. They were superior in other areas as well, and soon took over the functions of the entire digestive tract, producing enzymes to break down food, ridding the need for such cumbersome organs such as the pancreas and liver. And as some scuttlers inevitably took predatory niches, the fungi spread over their skin, producing toxins that would harm the predator if it didn't have an up-to-date symbiont of its own.

And as the fauna diversified, so did the flora. The tiny ascocarps of the lichens became more pronounced, and began to specialized. Conical ascocarps up to a meter tall and spread out at seemingly random intervals over the base collected rainwater, flat ascocarps elevated on tall stalks photosynthesize, and a coat of filaments forming a sparse "hair" on the surface of the lichen gathered water from the atmosphere and spread spores to any organism passing over it. Pustules formed of ascocarps folded in on themselves, blending in with the surface of the lichen. An unwary scuttler that was unfortunate to step on one would be sprayed with potent toxins, which would likely penetrate through their fungal "skin" before the symbiote could break it down. Centimeter-tall ridges extended in a circular pattern from the base; each, like the interior of a tree, represented a year of growth, and provided a line of defense to any invasive rival.

The biodiversity provided by the warm climate and isolated environments would prove to be localized to Antarctica for only a short time. Not all scuttlers had lost their wings, and some began to migrate between Antarctica and Southern New Zealand, and then from Antarctica to Madagascar as the continent moved steadily north. Already, these islands were beginning to fall under sway of the toxic, fast-growing, and highly adaptive lichens, and this was only the beginning. Antarctica was steadily creeping north-west, and it would only be another ten million years before the northernmost islands came into contact with the peninsula composed of what was once Indonesia. A great exchange of species is certain once this happens, and the resulting extinction may well topple the domination of grasses, ushering in the Ascogene and creating a range of new, diverse forms.

[Clarke]

Grameozoic Extinction - 162 M.Y. C.E. - 163 M.Y. C.E.


Spread of Antarctic Lichen, circa +163 M.Y.

The Antarctic Lichen and the flora of the Grameozoic had evolved separately for one hundred and fifty million years. As Antarctica crept closer to Novopangea, it inevitable that one group would succeed, and the other would suffer, at worst going completely extinct, at best being removed from their place as the dominant flora of their respective lands. One might expect the lichen to be the ones which suffered. Isn't that how it had always been, with the lichen remaining under the heel, so to speak, of the Plants? But that was simply because the lichen had never had the opportunity to evolve independently of the plants. To examine which group would come ahead, we must examine the nature of competition between the respective flora's relatives. Both competed for light, but the plants had a habit of growing out of a single point. For them, the most light would be obtained by growing upward faster than their brethren, shadowing them. But the crustoise lichens of Antarctica grew in mats, spreading radially to obtain sunlight. As mentioned previously, this initially led to faster growing, each trying to grow over their neighbors. But the limit on the rapidity of growth meant that the lichens found other ways to compete with each other. On contact with another flora they, unlike plants, actively attempted to kill it by sending probes into its body and releasing toxins. So it should not be overly surprising that lichens had the upper hand on plants when they first came into contact. Much of the Indian Ocean was scattered with islands created by the actions of the shelled, photosynthetic polychaetes. These nutrient-poor wasteland were inhospitable to plants, but perfectly suited to the lichens. The lichens slowly spread from one island to the next, until finally reaching the island of what was once Southern New Zealand, now situated in the Indian Ocean. A rainforest was situated there, a terrestrial sea similar to the one on the East African Peninsula. The lichens adapted to use the interconnected bamboo to their advantage, spreading spores through the massive, interconnected forest. Lichens matured inside the trunks, consuming the nutrient-rich sap, latching on and breaking through the surface of the plant's bark, soaking up sun and repeating the process. Lichens were everywhere, and one by one bamboo fell, their connections to their brethren severed. But it was too late. Patches of light shown through the forest, growing more and more common as the bamboo fell. Grass sprang into the holes left behind in the canopy, and with no new bamboo to compete with, the predominant biome of the island became grassland. But lichen spread as well, spreading over the grass, consuming the grass, poisoning the grass. Within a few thousand years after the first parasitic lichen, the island belonged to the Antarctic flora. And so it spread further Northwest, eventually reaching the new peninsula created by the conjoining of India, East Africa, and Madagascar. It spread laterally, felling the great rainforests that covered the majority of the land area. Then it spread through grasslands, through scrublands, through deserts. With it came the scuttlers, and the symbiotic lichen spread to most vertebrates, and eventually some arthropods. Many plants had time to adapt, but the majority fell. Novopangea became covered in lichens, and the Grameozoic gave way to the Ascogene.

[Clarke]

Its time to play guess the continent name origins!



+ 250 M.Y. - The World of the Ascogene

While the arrangement of continents during the Grameozoic might appear alien to a modern observer, it was at least recognizable. North and South America were clearly defined, and one could make out the outlines of Africa and India, even if they were further conjoined to Eurasia. But the world 250 million years in the future is entirely unrecognizable. The supercontinent of the Grameozoic became more compressed, and as Antarctica slid into place, it resembled a mass of land roughly ovular. This continent was stable, and persisted for tens of millions of years. However, heat built up beneath the massive plate, and plumes of magma developed, ripping Novopangea into thirds. Much of former Australia, South America, South China, and Antarctica split southward, ripping off with it some lands that had been created by the formation of Novopangea. This new continent, Tartalia, continued southward. The sub-continent Brasillia has ripped off of it rather recently, compromising much of what was once eastern South America. At the same time, another schism was forming in the north-western part of the continent. Separated this time was much of Western Eurasia, West Africa, India, East Africa, and Arabia, drifting off to the Southwest. Much of what was once the areas surrounding the Congo Basin have become flooded, slowly eroded away or subducted, creating a warm, shallow sea, and leaving only the island of Nigia intact. Both the Carribean and Scotia plates have encountered the Teranostra plate, the Scotia plate coliding and raising up islands that have gradually resulted in the Scotia peninsula. The Carribean has only recently begun to rub against the Terranostra plate, and with the Caribbean isles long eroded, creating a large island named Columbia. Urania, being composed of much of the North American, plate, as well as the majority of Eurasia and parts of Australia(as well as new lands formed by tectonic action), has only moved slightly to the West, although the Subcontinent containing Greater and Lesser Vinlania(Greenland and much of Northwestern North America) has recently split off of it.

[Clarke]

+ 250 M.Y. - An Introduction to the Ascogene

The spread of lichens has changed not only rearranged the dominance of various forms of life, but actually tampered with the basic structure of life itself, rearranging the basic structures of the cells that compose multicellular organisms and affecting the ways in which organisms compete with each other. The world of the Ascogene is inherently a more competitive place, a world order, more competitive, toxicity woven into the basic components of the organisms which inhabit it. The lichen's spread killed off animals as it killed off animals, unable to adapt to the poisons produced by the fungi. But as the fungi spread, so did the fungal symbiote of the frogs. It spread to chordates first, then arthropods, temporarily destroying the superiority of the insects and allowing the tiny, quick-breeding scuttlers to fill some formerly insect niches before the arthropods regained their footing. Eventually, it even spread to plants, though very late on and only assuring the former masters of Earth's ecosystem a smaller component in the affairs of the surviving organisms.

As a new world order emerged, the new masters were not immune to diseases of their own, did not stop adapting in their own right. A vast mat of interconnected individuals spanning continents bred large quantities of viruses, and unlike the bamboo forests, no symbiosis was present, not way to cut off diseased individuals. Fungal cells became tougher, more resistant, enzymes which would dissolve protein coats and rip apart choice sections of RNA or DNA. The nucleus of the fungi bristled with specialized proteins designed to combat strands of rna or dna without specific markers. This in turn fostered the rapid spread of Prions, strands of RNA that changed rapidly, adapted quickly, not dependent on any structures other than the information itself. They would combat mitochondria, actually integrating their rna into that of the mitochondria, triggered by chemicals that would be produced by their host only when there was a lack of food, so that the mitochondria would only churn out the prions when the cell was weakest. But from this
complicated parasitic system, a symbiosis developed. The fungi could control the chemicals which signaled the production of prions, allowing them to release when the lichen it belonged to was able to cope but its neighbors couldn't, spreading it to its competitors bordering it.

The ability to produce what amounted to simple viruses on demand changed the warfare between lichens, switching it from primarily toxins to actual biological warfare. Mitochondria specialized to produce the prions, and arms races became rapid, as many varieties of foreign prions were constantly bombarding the individual lichen. The symbiotic fungi attached to animals adapted as well, picking up the same strategies, the same moves. Prion organelles were modified to survive outside cells, individuals on the outside of the lichen exchanging vast quantities with their neighbors of other lichens, infiltrating the cell or simply burrowing deep into the organism, spreading multiple different forms of the contagions at once. Modified ascocarps spread cells designed to latch onto competitors far and wide, stealing nutrients and using them to spread viruses. Fungal cells saw multiple "backup" nuclei arise, staying in the background until the normal nucleus became infected, at which point organelles would cease to receive instructions from that nucleus. Horizontal gene transfer became common within a lichen, and between neighboring lichen; your neighbor had the genes that made them immune to their viruses, and as such obtaining them would make you immune as well.

[Hydromancerx]

While I was "away" I was reading the first few posts and I must say this story is great. I am not a big reader when it comes to huge blocks of texts online but when I used my ipod touch it made it more like a book where i could just sit back and read. In short even though this is my forum I have not really spent the time to read it. I am glad I did and look forward to reading more.

[Clarke]

Thanks!

[Morokar]

I wonder if sentient life will re-evolve?

[jlind11]

I wonder if sentient life will re-evolve?

probably after the biological war has ended.

[Clarke]

I wonder if sentient life will re-evolve?

I might do it, probably as one of the last biomes. Now that I think about it, I almost certainly will!

probably after the biological war has ended.

There is not biological war, none more so than there is today! It's simply a new form of competition between organisms, one that will develop further and drive evolution in much the same way different types of competition drove natural selection before the symbiosis.

[jlind11]

hopes clarke is cooking up some new developments for this future world