Newbie Guide/Musculata

This page is under construction. Some sections may be incomplete.

Musculata, Oefsy's analog to Earth's animals, is a very large and diverse group. For a newbie, finding a species among all its diversity to evolve from can be a challenging task--thus, this page attempts to break it down into its major lineages based on their similarities to Earth species so that new members can find a good starting place.

Vertebrate Analogs

Tarata is Oefsy's analog to vertebrates, containing every species which has a backbone. It includes various fish- and tetrapod-like lineages, including ones inspired by sharks, whales, lizards, dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and more--as well as a few unlike anything on Earth.

Fish Analogs

There are various tarates similar to familiar fish from the real world.

Shark Analogs

• Members of Hexapiscidae closely resemble sharks, albeit with a lot of extra fins.
• Members of Makognathusensis fill the same niche as sharks, though they are derived from eel-like creatures.

Other Fish

• Spinagnathidae, for the most part, are based on eels.
• Gendiidae resemble colorful tropical fish with one eye.

Tetrapod Analogs

On a few different occasions, fish-like tarates have crawled onto land and evolved limbs.

Synapsid Analogs

There are currently no direct analogs to any one synapsid group on OFC. However, a few scattered lineages have synapsid-like traits.

• Members of the genus Genaialong, though otherwise dinosaur-like similar to other wyverns, can pronate their wrists and have whiskered faces like some derived therapsids.
  • Some more derived members also have therian ears.
• Draco pinguis is mesothermic in heat regulation, similarly to the earliest therapsids which would eventually become warm-blooded to maintain their body temperature in cooler climates.

Reptile Analogs

• Dracidae are based on various reptiles, mostly of the lizard-like variety.
• Some members of Amfivioslontus also have lizard-like appearances and scaly bodies, though they are largely more amphibian-like

Amphibian Analogs

(INCOMPLETE) The following families have amphibian-like biology and/or life cycles:

• Varanusuchidae
• Most of Terrasuchidae
• Parts of Thalassiidae
• The genus Cynopsis is based off of terran salamanders and Cynopsis pyrrhosynopsm is described as being an amphibian.

Dinosaur Analogs

As dinosaurs are very popular, there are understandably many lineages on Oefsy which resemble them.

• The majority of species in Wyvernsauridae resemble some type of maniraptoran dinosaur with membranous wings, with varying flight ability.
• Many members of Strutidae are based on herbivorous dinosaurs.
  • Members of the genus Strutiocheilius resemble ornithomimids.
  • Members of the genus Strutioceras resemble feathered ornithopods.
• Valkyriansauridae is directly based on theropod dinosaurs and also contains spinosaurus-like members.

Bird Analogs

Like in real life, most of the bird analogs on Oefsy are descended from dinosaur analogs.

• Members of the genus Draconiraptor resemble various seabirds and birds of prey, albeit with teeth.
  • Draconiraptor katharagnathus is based on a pelican.
• Members of the family Avianasauridae also resemble birds, having feathered wings and beaked jaws.
• Members of the genus Strutiocheilius may resemble flightless birds.
  • Strutiocheilius papius and its descendants are semi-aquatic and fill waterfowl-like niches.

Pterosaur Analogs

• Aerialslontus flectopesus and its descendants resemble primitive pterosaurs with 4 wings.
• Members of the genus Aquadracius often hunt from the sea and contain long, ruddered tails not different from the Late Jurassic pterosaur Rhamphorhynchus.

Tetrapod analogs which returned to the sea

Complicated to explain in a title. These are lineages which, whether based on them or not, are much like marine mammals and reptiles that got big, lumpy, and fish-like in the ocean.

• Members of Rostrovenatoridae somewhat resemble early whales.
• Remucauda subaquatica and its descendants are capable of swimming with their tails and spend most of their lives within the water.
• Draco robustus and its descendants are suited for aquatic life despite evolving from terrestrial ancestors.

Unique Vertebrates

A few major tarate lineages do not have any obvious analogs on Earth.

• Members of Oculolophidae and Acutognathidae are similar in appearance to slugs or snakes and see the world around them exclusively using echolocation. They are among the very few species with no real-world analog.
• Members of Secernoslontopterus and Folioslontopteryx are four-winged flying creatures almost completely unlike anything on Earth, which resemble fish and fill insect-like niches.

Arthropod Analogs

Sukopoda is Oefsy's analog to arthropods, and they are indeed strikingly similar. WIP

Mollusk Analogs

Unfortunately, many muscals similar to familiar mollusks such as clams are long extinct.

• Helitesta are based on snails and cephalopods.

Other

Worms

• Woramidae is based on worms.
• Vermislontus detritus and some of its descendants occupy detritivorous worm-like niches, and are simple and elongated in structure to resemble them. Unlike worms, however, they have beaks which they inherited from their ancestors.
• Oslontus disrentius is rather worm-like in shape and in simple ecological niche. Unlike worms, it and its descendants are actually vertebrates and contain jaws and bones in their skeletons.