For all those who didn't follow my old TL, A brave new world is a TL that follows the rise of the Troodontidae and their decedents, a species of birdlike Therapod dinosaurs that, unlike, OTL, survive the K-Pg extinction event and continues to evolve into Paleogene and into modern day. In it, I tried to show a possible version of what a world with a surviving dinosaur species would have looked liked-and what species would have evolved. As it was, my original TL soon ran out of steam and, riddled with inaccuracies, errors (including grammatical) and a lack of direction (it had initially been a spur of the moment Tl anyway,) I had to call it a day.
Fortunately for those who were fans of the TL, its back, and this time armed with new information, new ideas (and a spellchecker
,) I am determined to finish it.
A few things first. Firstly, yes, this isn't in ASB like some of you want it to be on the grounds that A, the definition of ASB is "alternate history scenarios that involve time travel, magic, alien intervention, anything in the sea of time, and other such weirdness. Also alternate histories taking place in fictional universes (Star Wars, etc)"
My TL is not fantasy, and while it may be weird, it has nothing to do with star wars. So there.
Secondly, I may from time to time take some artistic liberties when it comes to the location of creatures (though not, obviously, creatures from completely different continents.)
Finally, I would also like to thank all those who commented-and nitpicked-my old TL. Without you guys, my TL would still be full of inaccuracies.
Oh, and enjoy!
==========================================================
The Earths atmosphere,
above the continent of Laurentia,
66,038,000 BC (1)
In history, everything is shaped by cataclysmic events beyond the control of those who suffer from it. Sometimes the events are foretold years before, sometimes they are are mere accidents or caused by the fickle hand of chance. Sometimes they simply come out of the blue.
And sometimes, cataclysms and the events leading up to it are pre-ordained years, decades, thousands, if not millions of years before, and yet when it finally strikes, nobody or nothing is prepared for it.
Those creatures living more than 65 million years ago could have done nothing to stop, or even prepare for what was to happen even if they were intelligent enough to recognize the warning sighs. They were mere, playthings, pawns, collateral damage at the whim of events beyond both there control and there understanding. Just another layer of charred, broken layer of bones in a cliff face, the evidence of there life slowly swallowed by the relentless tides of time and decay, until all that is left is dust and imprints in the rock.
And yet sometimes, there are those who defy to whims of fate and survive.
And for them, the whole world is at their feet.
If only they can survive it.
The cataclysm in question came, not from earth, but from the heavans. It came in the form of a huge, jagged piece of space rock, worn down by seemingly endless millennia of collisions with other asteroids, yet still formidable, daunting. (2)
And dangerous.
It could be argued the fate of those Archosaurs and other large reptiles on earth was sealed in there infancy, over 150 million years before, when an Astroid in a far away belt on the other side of the solar system collided with another was was propelled on a fateful course.
It's course had sent it on a journey spanning millions of years hurtling through the bitterly cold, endless expanse of space, passing stars and planets, all of of a vast array of different shapes, sizes, colours, dying stars that were pulsated with energy desperatly bursting to be released, planets smothered in thick emerald green fog, planets made of blood red rock.
So beautiful, picaresque, dazzling and utterly lifeless. And the asteroid had flown past them harmlessly. But this planet it was hurtling towards was different.
It had life.
It had entire continents covered in thick, lush forests full of stinking primeval swamps .
Dry, scorching hot deserts where only the toughest survived, wide expanses of flat grassy plains that were inhabited of by a Manager y of monsters never seen before.
Huge, lumbering beasts we would have called " sauropods," with long windy necks that reached up through the thick canopy of trees into the blue skies above, Winged, grotesque flying demons that soared through the skies in there endless search for prey, smaller herd based creatures with strange crests with which they could create beautiful melodies that bathed the plains with a cacophony of sound and huge, terrifying, two legged tyrants, with hundreds of serrated, jagged teeth in a massive jaw capable of ripping its way through even the toughest bone or tendon. It had a vast body frame that put off even the bravest and most persistent rival, making it the master of all it surveyed through its cruel , piercing reptilian eyes.
All of them living in perfect harmony, in a never ending circle of life that had existed for more than 160 million years and seemed set to continue for another 160 million years.
There are those that argue that dinosaurs were already in decline at the end of the Cretaceous, with the number of species decreasing slowly as climate change and new plant life slowly scythed away at their population. Others argue they would have continued to flourish and evolve.
As it was, we will never know because a blinding flaming ball of flame tore through the sky and in that instant the entire world, with its perfect yet delicate circles were torn apart and plunged the world into fire, smoke, choking gas and then an endless winter.
And when the dust settled everything had changed. The vast forests were reduced to tinder wood, deserts turned to Arctic wildernesses, the great grasslands turned to a seemingly lifeless burial ground, covered in ash covered bones belonging to once to mighty monsters. All gone. For a whole decade sunlight was blocked out by a thick layer of ash and dust, preventing fresh plant life from sprouting forth, while lack of food soon caused the surviving carnivores to die of starvation. A few, remote groups of Maiasaura and Therapods struggled on for thousands of years, some making it into the Paleogene. But soon, disease and poisoning from new plan life and lack of food soon wiped out each group, 1 by 1, until it seemed the last of them were gone.
And then, in among st the wreckage of an old world, and the flaming crucible that marks the forming of a new one, the distant, birdlike caw in the early morning gloom marks the beginning of a new day. A new world.
For something has survived.
(1): This is based on radioactive decay of argon, and is accurate to within 100,000 years.
(2): new evidence released in a science journal recently suggests that it was a comet that struck during K-Pg event, although the asteroid is still the excepted theory. Other popular theories include flood Basalt's, sea regression, radiation or disease from new flowering plants.
Fortunately for those who were fans of the TL, its back, and this time armed with new information, new ideas (and a spellchecker
,) I am determined to finish it. A few things first. Firstly, yes, this isn't in ASB like some of you want it to be on the grounds that A, the definition of ASB is "alternate history scenarios that involve time travel, magic, alien intervention, anything in the sea of time, and other such weirdness. Also alternate histories taking place in fictional universes (Star Wars, etc)"
My TL is not fantasy, and while it may be weird, it has nothing to do with star wars. So there.
Secondly, I may from time to time take some artistic liberties when it comes to the location of creatures (though not, obviously, creatures from completely different continents.)
Finally, I would also like to thank all those who commented-and nitpicked-my old TL. Without you guys, my TL would still be full of inaccuracies.
Oh, and enjoy!
==========================================================
The Earths atmosphere,
above the continent of Laurentia,
66,038,000 BC (1)
In history, everything is shaped by cataclysmic events beyond the control of those who suffer from it. Sometimes the events are foretold years before, sometimes they are are mere accidents or caused by the fickle hand of chance. Sometimes they simply come out of the blue.
And sometimes, cataclysms and the events leading up to it are pre-ordained years, decades, thousands, if not millions of years before, and yet when it finally strikes, nobody or nothing is prepared for it.
Those creatures living more than 65 million years ago could have done nothing to stop, or even prepare for what was to happen even if they were intelligent enough to recognize the warning sighs. They were mere, playthings, pawns, collateral damage at the whim of events beyond both there control and there understanding. Just another layer of charred, broken layer of bones in a cliff face, the evidence of there life slowly swallowed by the relentless tides of time and decay, until all that is left is dust and imprints in the rock.
And yet sometimes, there are those who defy to whims of fate and survive.
And for them, the whole world is at their feet.
If only they can survive it.
The cataclysm in question came, not from earth, but from the heavans. It came in the form of a huge, jagged piece of space rock, worn down by seemingly endless millennia of collisions with other asteroids, yet still formidable, daunting. (2)
And dangerous.
It could be argued the fate of those Archosaurs and other large reptiles on earth was sealed in there infancy, over 150 million years before, when an Astroid in a far away belt on the other side of the solar system collided with another was was propelled on a fateful course.
It's course had sent it on a journey spanning millions of years hurtling through the bitterly cold, endless expanse of space, passing stars and planets, all of of a vast array of different shapes, sizes, colours, dying stars that were pulsated with energy desperatly bursting to be released, planets smothered in thick emerald green fog, planets made of blood red rock.
So beautiful, picaresque, dazzling and utterly lifeless. And the asteroid had flown past them harmlessly. But this planet it was hurtling towards was different.
It had life.
It had entire continents covered in thick, lush forests full of stinking primeval swamps .
Dry, scorching hot deserts where only the toughest survived, wide expanses of flat grassy plains that were inhabited of by a Manager y of monsters never seen before.
Huge, lumbering beasts we would have called " sauropods," with long windy necks that reached up through the thick canopy of trees into the blue skies above, Winged, grotesque flying demons that soared through the skies in there endless search for prey, smaller herd based creatures with strange crests with which they could create beautiful melodies that bathed the plains with a cacophony of sound and huge, terrifying, two legged tyrants, with hundreds of serrated, jagged teeth in a massive jaw capable of ripping its way through even the toughest bone or tendon. It had a vast body frame that put off even the bravest and most persistent rival, making it the master of all it surveyed through its cruel , piercing reptilian eyes.
All of them living in perfect harmony, in a never ending circle of life that had existed for more than 160 million years and seemed set to continue for another 160 million years.
There are those that argue that dinosaurs were already in decline at the end of the Cretaceous, with the number of species decreasing slowly as climate change and new plant life slowly scythed away at their population. Others argue they would have continued to flourish and evolve.
As it was, we will never know because a blinding flaming ball of flame tore through the sky and in that instant the entire world, with its perfect yet delicate circles were torn apart and plunged the world into fire, smoke, choking gas and then an endless winter.
And when the dust settled everything had changed. The vast forests were reduced to tinder wood, deserts turned to Arctic wildernesses, the great grasslands turned to a seemingly lifeless burial ground, covered in ash covered bones belonging to once to mighty monsters. All gone. For a whole decade sunlight was blocked out by a thick layer of ash and dust, preventing fresh plant life from sprouting forth, while lack of food soon caused the surviving carnivores to die of starvation. A few, remote groups of Maiasaura and Therapods struggled on for thousands of years, some making it into the Paleogene. But soon, disease and poisoning from new plan life and lack of food soon wiped out each group, 1 by 1, until it seemed the last of them were gone.
And then, in among st the wreckage of an old world, and the flaming crucible that marks the forming of a new one, the distant, birdlike caw in the early morning gloom marks the beginning of a new day. A new world.
For something has survived.
(1): This is based on radioactive decay of argon, and is accurate to within 100,000 years.
(2): new evidence released in a science journal recently suggests that it was a comet that struck during K-Pg event, although the asteroid is still the excepted theory. Other popular theories include flood Basalt's, sea regression, radiation or disease from new flowering plants.
