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Inari is the most bizarre extrasolar planet ever discovered, not because it is so different from Earth, but because it is nearly the same. Its composition, structure, and atmosphere are in the range considered "normal" for terrestrial planets, but its biosphere exhibits an uncanny degree of convergence with our own, despite a different evolutionary history. Early on, there was speculation that a currently unobserved wormhole occasionally allowed interactions between Inari's and Earth's organisms, but the former world has supported complex life for twice as long, and its denizens, although similar to Earthlings, do exhibit minor physiological and molecular differences which rule out the possibility that they are truly related to us. Given the immense number of inhabited planets which must exist in the universe, it is of course inevitable that planets as Earthlike as Inari must exist, but for our probes to have happened upon such a world is an almost unimaginable coincidence. (a few people have suggested that this similarity is the result of a deity either guiding Earth's creatures to its twin or creating life the same way on many different planets. However, this explanation has, according to recent studies, garnered approximately 0.4469 +/- 0.00003 seconds of serious attention from the scientific community).
Inari’s plate tectonics are somewhat different than those of Earth. While on earth, continents float on top of plates of oceanic crust, on Inari there is no such difference in density. The continents are actually built up by hyperactive sections of the spreading ridges like those found in the oceans; even where the ridges do not reach above the surface, they may only be one or two thousand feet down.
The planet has three continents, referred to as the primary, secondary, and tertiary continents in order of size.
The primary continent is gigantic; it reaches a width of nearly 4000 miles from east to west, and its spreading ridge towers about 65,000 feet above sea level while stretching from the north pole to near the Antarctic circle. There are also two chains of volcanic mountains where the continent subducts into the oceans; a mountain range- impressive in and of itself at similar height and width to the Andes, but with a far greater length- along the west coast, and a giant island arc 100-300 miles off the east coast.
Tidal zones:
Because of the immense strength of Inari’s tides, many parts of the coasts are lined by sprawling tidal zones, occupied mostly by amphibious plants and animals; with tides sometimes exceeding 50 vertical feet, and nearly impossible to predict. In the tropics, the dominant plant species is the Beach Umbrella Tree. These bizarre trees take root in the tidal sediment in relatively shallow areas, eventually developing anchor roots which can descend more than twenty feet into the sand and silt. Then, gradually growing up through the zone partially covered by water, they finally reach their peak twenty to thirty feet above the tides’ highest point, spreading into a sheet of twisted foliage that eventually collides with and twists around the branches of neighboring individuals. This creates a partial cover of leaves. Some lower branches are intermittently submerged, and both these and the trunks of the trees often become encrusted with hard-shelled sessile marine organisms much like barnacles and anemones. These creatures retreat into their shells to avoid drying out, and extrude their tentacles to feed, typical on suspended debris, when the tide comes in. Beach Umbrella Trees bloom only once per year, and produce seeds too tough for the digestive systems of any animal without the jaws to break them open, but their leaves can provide a food source for animals.
In this ecosystem, the primary communities are:
Canopy: leaf-eaters which spend nearly their entire lives in the trees above the water line.
Tidal zone trunk-dwellers: the aforementioned hard-shelled invertebrates, as well as a few of their small parasites.
Ground-dwellers: These animals are capable of indefinite respiration in air or water, and consist mostly of arthropods, with a few echinoderms. They must also all have mechanisms to avoid drying out. Mostly decomposers, they get their food from the shed leaves of beach umbrellas, and the bodies of many of the animals present. Likewise, the trees’ upper roots will ultimately break down their bodies, along with any leftovers they don’t get. Their major predators are the
Wet migrants: these aquatic animals swim or drift in with the tide, and may use anything left below the water-line as a food source. They often tear apart large carcasses before the ground-dwellers get to them, and prey on these amphibious creatures, but occasionally become stranded themselves when the tide goes out and suffocate.
Dry migrants: At low tide, these creatures venture down from the trees to comb the sand and mud for food, and may go fishing in long-lived tide pools or occasionally dive, but most are sent scampering back to the treetops when the tide comes in.
In addition, several creatures, especially seabirds, use the beach umbrellas as a convenient nesting site, which may be miles off the coast, giving them access to waters further out than they could normally reach. The canopy also makes a good place to raise a family, assuming the nest can be defended from opportunistic predators.
Northeastern Mountains and Plains: In Inari’s thick, relatively CO2 rich atmosphere, high-altitude air is warmer and thicker, and the tree line varies from one mile at the poles to 20,000 feet of elevation in the tropics. Above this level, with no trees to resist its path, the wind tears up the eastern slopes in powerful, shrieking gales, forcing most animals to hold on for dear life. However, a group of insects called Sailbugs not only tolerate these winds easily; they use them to their advantage. Sailbugs have a slow, ectothermic metabolism, but their tissues contain antifreeze compounds and their proteins are all built to handle cold temperatures. Also, their exoskeletons contain air-filled pockets which serve as insulation, and can store fat. These creatures are definitely animals, but their backs of their flat, roughly disc-shaped bodies are covered with a layer of photosynthetic tissue outside the carapace. However, sailbugs must still get most of their carbon and other nutrients required for growth by grazing on alpine plants, so they qualify as photoheterotrophs, the most common on Inari. The trait that gives sailbugs their name is a set of four large wings, similar to parasails, which although incapable of powered flight are perfect for catching strong updrafts off of ledges, allowing the insects to fly in the same way as kites, securely anchored to the rocks by a silken line. This unique method of flight allows them to spend their days well out of the reach of ground-dwelling predators, and the same high winds that benefit sailbugs are too high for most flying animals, so they often have the skies nearly to themselves. However, ants can climb right up a sailbug’s safety lines. The insect holds its line near its mouthparts, and so can brush off or eat some enterprising predators, but many manage to crawl onto the backs of the much larger insects and graze off the nutrient-rich photosynthetic tissue. In some sailbug species, though, these invaders actually benefit the sailbug, feeding mostly off parasitic mites on the insects’ backs. In a few, symbiotic spiders set a deadly trap for these marauders. Finally several sailbugs’ backs are covered with tiny spikes and stinging hairs, much like those found on plants which want to discourage having their leaves eaten. However, while they are mostly safe from predation during truly extreme winds, at night, and during winter hibernation, sailbugs must still descend with furled wings, and can become prey for any creature that can penetrate their armor.
Back on the ground, fur and feathers are nearly universal among Inari’s mountain fauna, along with endothermic metabolisms. Sailbugs only get away with being ectothermic because most of their movements consist of small adjustments to their wings; most creatures need their muscles warm enough for them to search for food and evade predators. Arthropods mostly have insulating pockets in their exoskeletons just like the sailbugs, and many are endotherms as well. Just as on earth similar ecosystems may contain multiple species of ungulates, and bears, wolves, and mountain lions may occupy the same general area, Inari’s mountain forests and sloping prairies contain a wide diversity of animals. Inari’s air is thicker than earths and more oxygenated, and the gravity is lower, a combination perfect for flying animals. Dragonflies are common below the treetops, their wing design giving them the agility to prey on insects and small birds, the latter of which consist of seed-eaters, insectivores, and omnivores. However, above the trees, the dominant arthropods are flying centipedes. Evolved from the gigantic aquatic centipedes, the flippers of these animals have been modified into wings, and their flexible, snake-like bodies, combined with the capability to make dives impossible for dragonflies, picking both those insects and small birds out of the sky with ease. One of the world’s largest, the Blue Angel centipede, named for its blue underbelly which blends in with the sky above, and for its aerobatic maneuvers worthy of fighter pilots, can grow to ten feet in length, and patrols the skies of temperate to boreal forests. It, and many other species, has also been known to dive into lakes to catch fish. However, birds remain the true apex predators of the sky, with the largest reaching wingspans of nearly 20 feet and weights of 25 lbs, large enough to take down deer and other large land animals. Likewise on the ground, mammals, although dominant in similar ecosystems on earth, must share the mountains’ resources with close relatives of the birds which never evolved flight: the therapods.
Although Inari’s animals are superficially very similar to those of Earth, there are some internal anatomy and biochemistry differences, and they actually have a very different evolutionary history history. Mammals and Avians (a group analogous to Earth’s dinosaurs, and later birds) evolved from a single parent group of amniotes nearly 300 million years ago, and both groups have recovered well from subsequent extinction events. As a result, the two groups live in both harmony and competition throughout the planet’s terrestrial ecosystems. In the mountain forests, a family of quadrupedal herbivorous and omnivorous therapods known as the Terramanidae is particularly common; like deer, they feed primarily on low-growing plants and shrubs, but their nimble bodies, aided by long, flexible tails for counterbalance, allow them to rear up on their back legs to reach the low branches of some trees.
Inari’s montane forests and grasslands have no true apex predators; for example, felids typically feed on small prey and hunt alone, while large canids like wolves may hunt in packs, attacking animals several times their weight, as may the vastly successful dromaeosaurids. However, canids are truly restricted to the northeast, between 35 and 75 degrees of latitude. Felids are almost universal, but once again the temperate northeast contains the majority of the population of large dromaeosaurids, in part due to the extremely successful Stellaraptor, an 8 foot long predator which has spread all across the northeastern forests and plains. Thanks to their high intelligence, the result of a complexly folded brain with neuron densities exceeding those found on earth (A trait common to most of the planet’s animals, which allows an extremely powerful brain to fit snugly in an animal’s skull), Stellaraptor can, in spite of being native to temperate forests and prairies, scrape out a living almost anywhere. Isolated packs and loners have been found at the maximum extent of the northern taiga forests above the arctic circle (at higher latitudes, only cold-weather specialists can survive), and in the rainforests and savannas of the tropics. However, they peter out at around ten to fifteen degrees of latitude. In the southern hemisphere, terramanids, canids, and dromaeosaurids are all but nonexistent, although arboreal members of the latter family are almost as numerous in the rainforests as their flying cousins.
Tropical forests: Little can be about Inari’s tropical rainforests but that they host an incredible diversity of life. The tropics extend about 1000 miles from the equator in either direction, and can proceed about 1500 miles inland, thus forming an area the size of Australia. Even sharing with grasslands, Inari’s rainforests boast an area two thirds the size of the Amazon. However, in the low gravity of Inari, trees can reach massive sizes, upwards of 300 feet above the ground, with one species, the Gothic Spire Clover Tree (a member of a genus named for its large, distinctive triplets of heart-shaped leaves, similar to Clover) exceeding 400 feet. This softwood is a broad-leafed columnar tree, with leaf-bearing branches radiating out from the trunk most of its height, starting at a small upward angle, but at their tips being bowed the same amount downward by the heavy leaves. However, only above the main canopy do the leaves reach their full size, with each trio stretching nearly six feet across. Because they stand above the main canopy, these trees have an ecosystem all their own, but are rare enough that most animals migrate up from the canopy or can fly from tree to tree. The trees’ leaves are eaten by insect larvae, and are in turn picked off by the birds and flying insects that nest amid the branches. At such dizzying heights, the wind makes these trees sway dramatically; they can bend up to 30 degrees in high winds, and withstand up to 45 degrees without falling. This equates to massive swing distances of almost 100 feet; any animal in the tree must hold on for dear life or fall the same distance before hitting the first leaves that can bring it to a stop. As one final note, the Gothic Spires bloom each year, producing a bonanza of kiwi-sized purple fruits that can bring temporary migrants up from lower levels; of course, this fruit also falls down to the canopy.
Meanwhile in the canopy itself, many of the rainforest’s most unique animals live out their whole lives without ever touching the ground. The Vernier’s Cat -a feline believed to have evolved from polydactyl mutants of the ground-dwelling Engraving Cat, known for marking its territory by scratching complex patterns into trees which are believed to be unique to each individual- leaps from branch to branch in pursuit of birds, squirrels and even small monkeys. Its modified front paws actually have opposable thumbs, an adaptation perfect for climbing trees. Vernier’s cats also have the longest claws of any feline proportional to their body weight; they are only slightly bigger than housecats, but their claws reach almost an inch long.
The canopy’s trees are rich in edible leaves, and although some are toxic, they often have dedicated species of herbivore which feed only on them. For example, the blade-like leaves of the Red Duodeciparticifolium contain a mixture of toxins which can survive even a full-absorption stomach, and destroy the intestinal lining, necessitating completely draining the digestive tract (a highly painful process) and making an animal’s digestive system useless until the cells can regenerate. Only a particular species of the hard-plated Ironclad Worm has the enzymes necessary to break these poisons down, and feed on this tree. Many epiphytic plants also grow in the canopy, producing edible foliage of their own. In addition, in the rainforest at least one species of plant is always in bloom, and many have flowers modified to only accept particular insects, producing an immense variety of pollinating insects, which also make a good food source. One spectacular example is the Majestic Tuba Vine. Its trumpet-shaped yellow flowers are, on average 4 feet long and can reach 5 feet, and have a u-shaped curve, starting out growing upward from the trees in a large bulb, than thinning and descending to below the substrate branch, with anthers protruding from the fanned out end. They are pollinated by Inari’s largest butterfly, the Royal Tubaist Butterfly (This common name is of course a play on words related to the plant on which the insect feeds). This flamboyant butterfly has a wingspan of over 30 inches, and feed primarily on the nectar of Majestic Tuba Vines. They hang from the flowers inverted, their feet clinging to the blooms’ tough, thick petals, supporting their weight of nearly half a pound. No other insect has a long enough proboscis to reach into the depths of the flower and access its nectar, and such a large body can carry a lot of pollen. However, it takes a lot of food to sustain them, and when the Tuba Vines go out of bloom, the butterflies mate and lay eggs as soon as possible. They can still feed on other plants, however, and about 80% are believed to survive each year inter-bloom period, especially since as overripe fruit falls from the trees, it bursts against the ground, opening its soft, juicy insides to the butterflies.
Fruit trees on Inari must adopt a different survival strategy from those on earth. The digestive enzymes in a full-absorption system would break apart and destroy the seeds of most earth fruit, and the seeds of non-fruiting plants are rarely safe. In a typical Inari fruit seed, the embryo is protected by two additional layers outside the normal seed coat; a thick coat that is slowly worn away inside an animal’s stomach, and only fails hours after the rest of the fruit is gone, and inside that a toxic layer which induces regurgitation of the seeds. In some fruit eaters, seeds simply accumulate in the stomach over the course of a day or night, or even over weeks, and are regurgitated before the animal’s feeding cycle resumes. Even so, seeds frequently have small cracks which allow their destruction. Nevertheless, fruit is a common food source for animals in Inari’s rainforest canopy. Fruit-eaters are common, and any one tree will become depleted, forcing the herbivores to move on, often carrying seeds nearly a mile. Fruit that falls to the ground is a perfect food for animals on the forest floor; not just butterflies eat it; scavenging arthropods, rodents, some avians, and ungulate mammals will all come for their shares. The forest floor and understory have relatively little vegetation, but shade tolerant shrubs and vines can still thrive, and in areas where the trees are a little less dense, form a jungle of dense undergrowth. Fungi are also common, but the probing roots of the trees themselves show similar behavior, growing over and through carcasses and digesting them.
Originally Posted by Jaxilon
