Specposium 2023 abstracts

July 1st, 2023

Chiroptera in Speculative Zoology: The Good, the Bat, and the Ugly
Nicholas O'Connor and Tristan Landis

We aim to give a brief history of bats in speculative zoology and why they present untapped potential. Our talk will consist of three primary points: why chiropterans are difficult to do well in a speculative context, the issue of terrestrial locomotion in bats, and the biomechanics constraining bat size relative to birds and pterosaurs.

The History of the Horizali
Kyre Fiskrof

A synopsis on the Horizali, a semi-eusocial alien species with four sexes, their society and their world.

Speculative Taxonomy & Cladistics
Adrian Thompson

Speculative evolution relies heavily on evolution and thus, cladistics and taxonomy are involved to some degree. Unfortunately, most spec creators either don't try to learn or have a very limited understanding to effectively use it to their advantage. I always been very interested and somewhat even knowledgeable on taxonomic & more recently cladistic systems on how it is currently used to classify life in a more fluid, nuanced way compared to Linnaean taxonomy & others. The need to use those systems efficiently in spec bio can help not only categorizing your organisms & other lifeforms, it can help how any native sapients of your world catalogue their own native biota to their understanding compared to if humans did so. It also helps not just at a normal scale but at different angles in your projects as the benefit of cladograms and other ways of creating life family trees can help from visualizing how evolutionary relationships works but also showcasing how your setting tackles your unique ecological trends over historical or geochronologic timeframes, evolutionary trends over timeframes between various integral phases such as mass extinctions or faunal/floral turnovers or radiations, & the aspect of how the setting's ecological connections affect the environments, behaviors, competition, and abiotic factors of your setting.

Speculative Biology in the Classroom
Concavenator corcovatus

We are experimenting with speculative biology as a didactic tool for actual biology: as part of this year's zoology course at our university, we had our students design imaginary organisms in order to test and improve their understanding of animal physiology and evolution. This was a very small-scale trial, but a very promising one.

Tsudzava: Life in a High Obliquity World
Michal Janovský

Reviewing the interesting natural phenomena of an extraterrestrial planet with an axial tilt of around 55 degrees. We will examine what would be the effects on the planet's climate and discuss some of the interesting ways life forms could adapt to such exotic conditions.

The project is a WIP and is being reworked into a book format. Accordingly - some of the creative process behind the project will also get talked about.

Fellow Tetrapod: Unlikely Spec-Evo Sophonts
Daniel Bensen

I plan to showcase the many intelligent species of my serial webfiction Fellow Tetrapod, in which humans have contact with sophonts that evolved on other versions of Earth. I'll discuss how I created these species, described them to the reader, and wove them into the story as I wrote it.

Sophonts: A Course in Sentience!
Memalan Mzorie

I will discuss the intricacies of designing, writing and building sophonts while also shedding light on how to avoid accidental racism in sophont cultures!

Confractum-F
Felix Imobersteg

This presentation will go over an incredibly cold and dark Mega-Earth called Confractum-F. I'll focus on the radically different biochemistry, as well as creatures, different clades and the diversity of these lifeforms. Another thing I'll go into are the weird biomes that exist on such a wildly speculative Object.

Niche Swap Creature Generator
Vincent Girgenti

For those interested in alternate evolution, looking for a new project idea, or just thinking of what to draw out of boredom, this is a free editable generator I made to come up with new creature designs. I will be streaming a live demonstration, getting prompts from the site and drawing the creatures in Photoshop. I hope that this will help others to not only make cool stuff but get outside their comfort zone and explore evolution in a new light.

Xenoduotherians: The History and Evolution of a Near-Extinct Mammal Infraclass
Rangell Alexandrino

Mammals have been around since the Triassic, and have first diversified as monotremes, until placentals and marsupials evolved. Which another type of mammal evolved with them, having traits similar to both marsupials and placentals, which they were called xenoduotherians, or "strange double beasts". In the present day, their diversification have no more than declined, with the possibly surviving species is our best helper: the smolpemplen. In this presentation, we talk about the history, evolution, traits, biology, etc. of these interesting types of mammals that have been around since the Jurassic to the Holocene.

Diving into the Seas of Mars
Forrest Caracali

As a spiritual follow up to last years presentation i will be discussing some ocean ecosystem on an ancient mars, it will be primary focusing on one major group of organisms. It'd be like exploring the earths oceans through different fish!

July 2nd, 2023

The Life of Radis
Miguel Moreira

Radis is an exoplanet filled with extraordinary alien lifeforms. It is, in many ways, similar to Earth, with fauna and flora greatly reminiscent of what we know from our Earth's present and past.

However, this project is an attempt to play with bodyplans that could potentially be feasible through biradial symmetry. What if the dominant forms of animal-like organisms were biradial, instead of bilateral, as they are here on Earth? What sort of strange morphologies would creatures like these adopt so that they can achieve a level of diversity similar to those of our planet? Although this is a meek attempt at exploring alien evolution, it is meant as a thought experiment alongside a creature design showcase, where biradialism can show itself as a possible and attractive model of alien creature design, beyond pure radial or bilateral symmetry. With that we will see some of the strangest terrestrial megafauna, from large herbivores to carnivores of shapes never seen before, strange aquatic creatures that adopt weird bauplans to survive, and even insect-like organisms that take biradialism to wilder extremes, as we take a short tour through the planet's complex ecosystem.

Phtanum B - Life on a Halogen-Ridden Super-Earth
Paul Drenckhahn

A number of things inside the Phtanum project will be discussed. The phtanum system‘s planets, multiple deuvertebrate families (Ptyonocodites, Lactismids, Radulids, Ramjet Dragons, potentially more) as well as new artworks regarding the project.

Latest from Snaiad, and Other Spec-Evo Projects
C.M. Kosemen

I will describe the latest developments in Snaiad, my world-design project; showing new creatures and illustration methods. See more on www.cmkosemen.com/snaiad.html

The New Dinosaurs Revised: A Revision to Dougal Dixon's Book
Kadin Mohsenzadegan

A presentation about a community project focused on revising and adding new parts to The New Dinosaurs book and the world and future of it.

Mitochondria, Sex, and Leeuwenhoek: The Moneran Homeworld
Kyle Rosenberg

This presentation will serve as a deep-dive into how the universal principles of chemistry and physics have gone on to have a profound effect on the development of our biosphere, and presumably all others that are scattered across the cosmos. I will also be exploring early evolutionary milestones (the origins of bioenergetics, mitochondria, sex, complex multicellularity, etc.) and whether or not they should be considered to be constants on rocky, temperate worlds where life happens to develop. Lastly, I will be introducing my book and will give a brief synopsis of its contents (this should take roughly 3-4 minutes or so).

Now You're Playing with Post-Human Futures
Henry Thomas

A break from hard spec, this presentation touches upon the spread of spec concepts in media, via a review of themes of human extinction and future speculative evolution peppered into three video game series produced by Nintendo: Kirby, Pikmin, and Splatoon.

Evolution Gove TOO Wild? How Outlandish Can You Get?
Zenwyrm

Analyze how far the imagination can go in science based spec-evo, and if there even is a limit.

The Dragonslayer Codex: A Guide to Dangerous Dragons
Sawyer Lee

A presentation of the art and descriptions regarding the Dragonslayer Codex, a survival guide to the world's most dangerous dragons.

Building a Spec Evo Community
Marigold Rosemier

A presentation on how to start, build, and grow a community for your speculative evolution project.