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Experiments (mander.xyz)
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[-] nihilomaster@lemmy.ml 75 points 1 month ago

I could swear I have built all of those in Spore at some point.

[-] OpenStars@discuss.online 53 points 1 month ago
[-] Aquilae@hexbear.net 1 points 1 month ago

The ones on the right are kinda cute imo

[-] Dagnet@lemmy.world 52 points 1 month ago

Just play Spore and you will understand

[-] chasingtheflow@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago
[-] Dagnet@lemmy.world 32 points 1 month ago

At the time it was revolutionary, till this day I haven't seen any attempts at recreating it. I did prefer the earlier 2 stages tho (as in evolution stages), later it wasnt as much fun.

[-] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 22 points 1 month ago

It was more revolutionary the day before it was released than the day after though. That game was my first lesson in not getting hyped about something just based on what marketers were saying.

The game could have used at least a few more years of baking. The earlier stages were more complete, though IMO even they lacked breadth and depth. But the later ones were disappointing in their simplicity.

[-] Ophioparma@feddit.de 6 points 1 month ago

Be preoared then: https://revolutionarygamesstudio.com/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/1779200/Thrive/

Actually, they working on the microbe stage for years now, but their goal is actually the whole Spore experience.

[-] Dagnet@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

That's cool, pretty cheap too. I hope they finish it eventually

[-] Adalast@lemmy.world 46 points 1 month ago

Geez, it's like nobody has ever played Spore.

[-] icetree@sh.itjust.works 15 points 1 month ago

Spore

More spikes is always the correct solution.

[-] merari42@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

Too few phallic animals for that

[-] galoisghost@aussie.zone 30 points 1 month ago

Did they really look like this or were there big fat blubbery bits that didn’t survive fossilisation

[-] Contramuffin@lemmy.world 40 points 1 month ago

Unlikely for there to be bubbly bits. These are bugs, so we know their shape because their exoskeleton (which is what fossilizes) is their shape. Fish haven't evolved yet

[-] leftzero@lemmynsfw.com 8 points 1 month ago

These seem to be illustrations of Burgess Shale organisms, Burgess Shale being renowned for the excellent preservation of soft tissues in its fossils, so the bubbly bits were actually quite well preserved, if maybe a bit squished and deflated.

[-] galoisghost@aussie.zone 2 points 1 month ago

Thanks. I looked it up.

You saying these are bugs tickles my funny bone imagining a metre long anomalcaris scuttling out from under the fridge, like a scene from a Cronenberg movie.

[-] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 22 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Life got pretty boring following the last mass extinction. So many mammals evolved from that mouse which survived that we all have the same basic features from hamsters to humans. So much so that mice are a good experimental model for humans...

[-] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 22 points 1 month ago

It was the N64 era of evolution.

[-] azi@mander.xyz 21 points 1 month ago

First one looks like an urchin with pattern baldness

[-] ComfortableRaspberry@feddit.de 27 points 1 month ago

My first thought was "a brain with blades in it" and now I wonder how different our answers in a Rorschach Test would be...

[-] TurtleTourParty@midwest.social 6 points 1 month ago

In my mind the brain blades can extend and retract wolverine style.

[-] Neon@lemmy.world 18 points 1 month ago

okay, but seriously, why did they evolve so differently than modern-day fish? and if we magically reintroduced them, would they be more fit or less fit than modern-day fish?

[-] pyrflie@lemm.ee 38 points 1 month ago

Less, one of the major genetic innovations of the late Cambrian was development of jaws. The vast majority of these species would get wrecked by modern fish in moments.

[-] maynarkh@feddit.nl 19 points 1 month ago

It's so cool to think we are living in an era of modern superfish, which would absolutely destroy any other fish that ever lived, since fish were upgraded over millions of years to where they are.

[-] Sphks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 1 month ago

Imagine the future with megafishs, having evolved.... fish nets ?... and lasers!... and and barbecues...

[-] pyrflie@lemm.ee 11 points 1 month ago

Lasers and barbecues not so much yet, but Blue Whales, Humback Whales, and Whale Sharks have effectively turned their teeth into fishing nets.

[-] SoleInvictus@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 1 month ago

It is wild to remember we're all descended from fish. I mostly refer to our primate tendencies (listen to a kid scream and tell me we're not descended from apes) but a lot of our parts, like our skeletons, are highly modified fish parts. It's crazy.

[-] Spacehooks@reddthat.com 3 points 1 month ago

Sharks with lazers on thier head! Because everyone deserves a warm meal.

[-] maynarkh@feddit.nl 2 points 1 month ago

I mean, it follows that eventually evolution would produce fauna that would take apart a nuclear submarine in seconds.

[-] ImInLoveWithLife@lemm.ee 23 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I am not a biologist or really anyone with any authority on the matter. Just some guy who likes to read and think about all manner of subjects, so I cannot adequately explain anything here, but if you're interested in the why, it really boils down to the simplicity of morphological structures early in the development of life on earth, to more complex as evolution did its thing. That's not to say that evolution has a goal, just that added complexity often means greater advantages. Also, it isn't as though nothing similar to these creatures exist at all today. These basal forms were a prerequisite to the life we see in the oceans (and on land) today.

Definitely stay interested and read more about morphology and evolution in general! Fascinating stuff.

[-] Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 1 month ago

One of the big advances around then was being able to be an effective predator at all. It's likely one of the big causes for the Cambrian explosion was the arms race to not be eaten vs being able to eat your neighbors effectively.

[-] olafurp@lemmy.world 13 points 1 month ago

It was a different meta back then. Bottom right is as apex predator

[-] CptEnder@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago

Early devbrach alpha build, balancing and design got implemented through testing.

[-] cordlesslamp 11 points 1 month ago

It's just a phase.

[-] BreadOven@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago

You know what they're doing? Their goddamned best.

[-] jol@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 1 month ago

Or, just like dinossaurs, we don't know how they actually looked like because fossile records only contain bones.

[-] SoleInvictus@lemmy.blahaj.zone 20 points 1 month ago

Other tissues can become fossilized but it's less common as the conditions need to be just right. That's how we know some dinosaurs had feathers and what their skin texture was like.

Cambrian genera like Hallucigenia completely lacked bones and we have numerous fossils of them from deposits of shale. That's how we know what they looked like: tiny Lovecraftian horrors.

[-] embed_me@programming.dev 4 points 1 month ago
[-] Collatz_problem@hexbear.net 3 points 1 month ago

My favourite is Sharovipteryx with the wing on its hind legs.

thanks for introducing me to natures thigh highs.

[-] HopingForBetter 2 points 1 month ago

What an unusual shrimp.

[-] bbuez@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

OP acting like they got a chance against #1 smh..

#3 still lives today in the form of night terrors, seriously wtf is that thing?

[-] Classy@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago

Honestly 2 gets me. Hallucagenia!

this post was submitted on 06 May 2024
708 points (98.9% liked)

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