Thread:Mr.Robbo/@comment-5870856-20150126033221/@comment-5135903-20150204190824

TheReturnOfTheKing wrote: ...you mention this world is less advanced that Earth... I'm assuming you're referring to the bottom of the /life/biochemistry/ page which says "Despite its much more rapid evolutionary history, Quinoan evolution is still about 0.2 billion years behind Earth’s." This is simply stating that multicellular life came around on Quinoa 0.2 billion years after it appeared on Earth; hence multicellular life has been around on Earth for longer than Quinoa. This does not mean that Quinoan life is necessarily less advanced than Earth life, as both planets have had their fair share of mass extinctions.

TheReturnOfTheKing wrote: ...you mention Aerocetaceans, presumably rather large aerial life-forms... Ah yes! I see you've stumbled across the first animal I intend to write about.

TheReturnOfTheKing wrote: You also discuss an explosion of life Quinoa is going through. Why are these new life-forms evolving, and at what rate? I'm assuming you're referring to the bottom of /life/biochemistry/ where it says "Quinoa also seems to be experiencing an explosion in biodiversity, in stark contrast with the Holocene extinction event taking place on Earth. Geological evidence seems to place a sudden change in Quinoa’s axial tilt which took place a few million years ago as the main cause; Quinoan life has just finished re-expanding into the ecological niches left empty by the ensuing extinction." New life-forms are evolving because the planet is recovering from a mass extinction, as mentioned in the above quote. Generally speaking, the rate at which new species are evolving is therefore greater than the rate at which they are going extinct.

TheReturnOfTheKing wrote: Is this event analogous to Earth's Cambrian explosion? No. It's more analogous to the aftermath of one of Earth's mass extinctions, such as the recent extinction of the dinosaurs. Suddenly, we mammals had no dinosaur competitors romping around like we own the place, so a multitude of mammal species evolved in a big evolutionary fight to fill the evolutionary niches left empty by the extinction of the dinosaurs. Who will be the new grazers? Who will be the predators of the savannah? And so on.

TheReturnOfTheKing wrote: How long is this diversification expected to go on for? "Many of the species we see on Quinoa today will likely be out-competed over the next few million years." Quinoa's ecosystems will eventually stabilise into a 'new normal' following the extinction.

TheReturnOfTheKing wrote: Just wondering, why did people colonize Quinoa? Wanderlust? A need for expansion? Disaster on Earth? Because it's there? I try to avoid going into much detail about the world outside of Quinoa, so as not to distract from the focus of the setting. However, at one point I did go into some detail about the situation on Earth leading up to the launch of Pheidippides. Pheidippides was constructed and launched in 2291 by an organisation called the International Space Fleet, sponsored by ten 'superstates' which existed on Earth at the time (imagine the European Union's model of federal regionalisation extended across the globe). The ISF was responsible for directing a number of missions throughout the solar system in the past, but Pheidippides was its first starship. Pheidippides was basically an extension of humanity's search for extraterrestrial life. Think about it; dozens of probes and rovers and satellites have been thrown at Mars over the years in search of life. As Mars has still failed to turn up anything conclusive, scientists gazes are now wandering toward the next best place: Europa. A probe has already been sent down to Saturn's moon Titan and there are even plans to take a closer look at asteroids. If one day some astronomers say "Hey, everyone! We're pretty sure we've found a planet with developed extraterrestrial life! Oh, and it produces oxygen. And drinks water," then people could get pretty excited. As with all space missions I think there would be many reasons for Pheidippides to be constructed. National pride, scientific reasons, a spirit of exploration or, as you said, wanderlust. For your viewing pleasure, I have temporarily thrown together a summary of the political situation on Earth...  ...and a compilation of notes presented as a makeshift summary of the ISF's functions... 

TheReturnOfTheKing wrote: And one more thing - why Quinoa? Is there any significance to the name? Personally, I think it sounds like a breakfast cereal... Well, it is a foodstuff, but I've never heard of it referred to as a breakfast cereal before. Quinoa is a plant which originates in South America. I've only ever seen it once myself, and what struck me was the bright colours that it flowered in. The quinoa plants seemed to flower predominantly in yellows and purples. The plants on Quinoa are usually pigmented either yellow (Kanariopsinae) or purple (Rhodopsinae), so I thought that someone on Pheidippides might have looked down on the planet and said, "Huh. Looks like a load of quinoa."