Introduction to Extinct Fauna
- This page is under construction.
Sagan 4 is home to many groups of fauna both living and extinct, and for a newcomer just starting to explore its diverse array of biota, knowing where to start can be difficult. Extant groups are introduced in the Introduction to Extant Fauna, however Sagan 4 also has many extinct groups worth covering.
This page includes both natural clades and evolutionary grades.
Up to GRB
These organisms became extinct either before, during, or shortly after the gamma ray burst in generation 100.
Plents
Glider Plents
Glider plents were an early branch of flying plents which flew eternally, both feeding and breeding on the wing.
Phants
- Main article: Phant
Phants were a noteworthy offshoot of bearhogs which resembled elephants and tapirs with two trunks. They became extinct as a result of the gamma ray burst, except for the cavehogs, which silently died out only a few million years later.
Worms
Basal Eastern Saucebacks
Before relatively recent times, saucebacks were roughly divided between eastern and western saucebacks, with the eastern clade being the ancestors of modern forms. Prior to the gamma ray burst, featherless eastern saucebacks were common apex predators on the Wright supercontinent.
Carpozoa
Dromaeocanid Shrews
Dromaeocanids were a branch of shrew which resembled bipedal wolves or hyenas. Though they only existed for a short amount of time, and died out slightly before the gamma ray burst, at the time they evolved they had the longest line of ancestry of any species and they have had a lasting impact on Sagan 4 as a whole.
Non-Capoo Mirageboks
- Main article: Mirageboks
Mirageboks were a grade of herbivorous caudopods which somewhat resembled deer on three legs. Though all basal, three-legged mirageboks died out as a result of the gamma ray burst, they were survived by the bipedal capoos.
Roamers
- Main article: Roamer
Roamers were a lineage of tripedal caudopods with long trunks which carried their eggs under their bellies using their hindlimbs. They are notable for having produced a sapient species, the nomad.
All roamers became extinct as a result of the gamma ray burst.
Non-Azelemur Azelaks
- Main article: Azelaks
Azelaks were a branch of caudopods which didn't walk on their tails and had color-changing fur. Most of them became extinct as a result of the gamma ray burst, but they were survived by the azelemurs.
Many azelaks were herbivorous, but they also produced a branch of raptor-like forms with long hand claws.
Up to Ice Comet
These organisms were still kicking after the gamma ray burst, but died out before, as a result of, or shortly after the ice comet impact event.
Krakowpedes
Trigons
Trigons were a unique offshoot of the centifins which developed radial symmetry. Many were large and pelagic, and could not cope with the ecological collapse which followed the ice comet impact event.
Islepedes
Plents
Shovelheads
Seaplents
Worms
Western Saucebacks
Western saucebacks were the primarily ambush-hunting saucebacks which lived on the Glicker supercontinent. They had naked skin and four toothy jaws, as well as an extra limb segment which is internal in their eastern counterparts. They all became extinct as a result of the ice comet impact event, leaving no descendants.
Rustworms and Shellwalkers
Rustworms and shellwalkers were a branch of terrestrial murkworms which lived mostly in Barlowe. They were all but wiped out by the ice comet impact event, and the rise of chitinbanes shortly after was the final nail in the coffin for this unique group.
Carpozoa
Azelemurs
The last of the azelaks were the lemur-like azelemurs. They held out for quite some time after the gamma ray burst, but ultimately, their large size and arboreal habits were their undoing when the ice comet struck.
Wadjetsaurs
Wadjetsaurs were strange relatives of modern limblesses which had secondarily evolved limbs attached to their heads. One wadjetsaur evolved flight. However, the group was wiped out completely by the ice comet impact event.
Basal Dwellers
Many early dwellers closely resembled the prosubigosaurus which all caudopods descend from. This evolutionary grade was severaly impacted by the gamma-ray burst, with only the Cave Dweller managing to make it through. This species then went on to produce a lineage known as the tree dwellers, who in turn managed to hold on until they met their end following the ice comet impact event.
Ukfauna
Snowkys and Crymaids
Through the Ice Age
The ice age was a major geologic period in its own right, lasting 37.5 million years with a whopping 12.5 million year snowball event in its center, resulting in the extinction of countless groups that had made it through the previous extinction events.
Plents
Shroom-Thief Plents
Pakahes
Non-Nailfin Pipents
Monopodal Nodents
Worms
Butcher Worms
Beach Saucebacks
Beach saucebacks were a branch of saucebacks with an infrared sensor upon their forehead. The group is also characterized by the scutes that covered their bodies, having derived from feathers. They consisted of the dagger saucebacks, which had bladed sauce plates, and the scorpion saucebacks, which had arched tails and sharp tail spikes. The scorpion saucebacks remarkably survived the global glaciation, but they did not make it to the end.
Pre-Ice Age Wingworms
Of special note are the wingworms, which left many survivors that live to this day, but still lost most of their diversity as a direct result of the ice age, which was the only mass extinction of wingworms in Sagan 4 history.
Post-Ice Age
These organisms died out after the ice age for some reason or another, mostly habitat loss from shrinking polar regions and rising sea levels.