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No spinning Earth: The cynodonts, North region

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After the Earth remained in its "non-rotating" form, climatic and environmental conditions became completely catastrophic in the first million years, reaching the point of exterminating a large amount of the fauna and flora of the earth at the same level as the Permian Extinction, leaving all the diversity of synapsids reduced to only the Cynodonts and Dicynodonts, however, in the world where they were to live both lineages would not be one to recover, but one that would remain in the same stage permanently. Interestingly due to the conditions of the equatorial supercontinent, divided two populations of the same group, each lineage evolving independently in each hemisphere, different spaces and different events led each branch to develop another group. In this case we will see the Northern Hemisphere lineages.

Going through the Early Mesozoic on the no-spinning earth, the cynodonts had a rather hard time being mostly small creatures that hid in their burrows, and this was not because they were overtaken by another group, but by the chaotic Climate and the extreme daytime and nighttime seasons that still impeded the proper development of more complex ecologies. Around 200 to 150 million years ago, the cynodonts had their first period of diversification thanks to the establishment of the first environments formed by the few conifers and surviving ferns, being predominant in the large and medium-size carnivorous niches, with many small generalist species.

Around 65 million years ago, the K/Pg extinction event occurred, however, due to the habitable conditions of the planet and the great resistance of the fauna was not as devastating as in our timeline, only eliminating certain groups and species (mostly megafauna) that depended on substantial quantities of food shortages during the event. With the disappearance of several of these groups, a lineage of mammalian-like forms rapidly diversified into the available niches both on land and water, becoming one of the dominant clades in the hemisphere. The few remaining true cynodonts resurfaced in new clades, some becoming effective flyers and powerful water dwellers.

a) Theropotami: these are medium size semiaquatic herbivores, being part of the Liponasid family, a mammalian-like group formed by herbivores and omnivores that dominates the pacific coasts. Unlike most of its fur relatives, these are one of the few types of animals that instead of being protected with a layer of wool, these rely heavily on body fat to maintain their temperature. This has 2 long incisors in the form of tusks, which use both for defense and to attack its rivals.

b) Aerobarchia: aerobarchians are a kind of flying cynodonts which evolved in the early Cenozoic, being the only lineage of synapsids able to develop true flight, and also being one of the few kind of animals that has been able to colonize the South territory. Its wings have 2 phalanges which support a membrane that extends towards the legs, giving a similar appearance to the bats and bats of our earth.

c) Delphicina: this is a high derived marine descendant of the cynodont, being part of a great family of aquatic synapsids called the Cetioboreons, the dominant aquatic tetrapod clade in the northern ocean. This species has evolved similarly to shaped whales; however, these still possess their hind limbs, and have not developed advanced echolocation.   Thanks to the fact that they are not limited for any geographic accident like its terrestrial relatives, these animals are able to continue migrating to territories where food is never scarce, being mainly around the light zone.

d) Bososaiga: this is a terrestrial form of Liponasid, descendant of arboreal species that inhabits in high forest regions around the pacific, is characterized by its strange appearance derivative, with huge forelimbs which are being supported by a single finger hoofed, a big hump, shorter back legs which ended in legs with 4 hooves distributed in a zygodactyl way, and a robust head with a short trunk-like nose which has the function of heating the air before entering the lungs during the winter.

e) Baropercussor: this is a kind of robust carnivore form descendant of the surviving cynodonts, is a huge opportunistic animal which feeds in the preys hunted by other predators. Are usually solitary, although they are able to congregate in small groups in case of being with cadaveres of large animals in the coasts. 

f) Raptostenus; a minor relative of the Baropercussor, It is an active semiaquatic predator being able to hunt an extensive variety hard shell animals such as gastropods, coastal ammonoids and crustaceans. It is much more graceful in form and appearance, having a relatively long neck and body, a flat head on top but robust at the bottom, legs and short tail.

g) Eusora: this species belongs to the basal forms of the Liponasids called “Vulgosoricid”, small generalist insectivorous species of cylindrical body with a short tail and legs, a triangular head and a long muscular nose. This species in particular lives on the coasts mainly, being a mollusk-eater, which live the woods of the conifer “mangroves”

h) Saltomuria: is a bipedal rodent-like Liponasid, being part of one of the most resistant types of animals on the planet, able to inhabit the semi-arid territories and with low amounts of oxygen, near the limits of the coast and inland territories of the central continent. It is characterized both by its appearance similar to a gerbil, and by having two long spurs which it uses as a defense against predators such as predatory Aerobarchia.

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This is a new update of a old concept I did around the end of 2014  No spinning earth cynodonts by Dragonthunders
In this case I decided to give a little more derivation to each descendant of these animals.
I probably going to do more updates to this old proyect :)

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Doofingus's avatar

I would love to see a remake of this! It's fascinating to see hypothetical situations where non-mammalian cynodonts evolved into stranger forms. Also, this image is really pixilated.