tarantula2107

Here's the current backstory for Sargons: Homó piskárius, more properly H. sapiens piskárius, is an offshoot of H. s. sapiens (mankind) that diverged from its parent species several centuries ago after 800 or so Greek and Roman citizens, many of whom were members of Salákia’s cult, took the legends about the lost continent of Pandora to heart and decided to try finding it in 107 BCE. While everyone expected Salákia to protect her cult members from death on their dives, very few expected her to protect the others who’d come along despite her being known as the calm aspect of the sea, at the time. Those Romans found Pandora on 1 Sólárius, then Iúnius, 106 BCE and kept the find among themselves out of fear that they’d be put to death if it got out. Therefore, they, and their descendants, have referred to the years prior to that date as ante annum Pandorai (AAP) (before the year of Pandora) and the ones after the date as anno Pandorai (AP) (in the year of Pandora) ever since, making that date the beginning of AP 1. By the end of Október AP 3, Salákia sectioned off an area consisting of 2 square miles (5.18 sq. kilometers) extending north, south, and west from the coastal point at which one explorer made the discovery where the people could live safely and explore more without having to dive anymore. Exploration of that area continued for another five years or so before they even had to rely on Salákia’s protection again. By the end of AP 25, Salákia had expanded her protection from the initial area to the entire continent. I'm playing with the idea of having Salákia manipulate their genome so they may reproduce with any oceanic mammal that overlaps with their range as well as humans to improve their chances of survival. I know I'd need to change the subspecies' name. H. s. maritimus is the front-runner for the new name. Would I have to make up a new generic name as well? Essentially, they'd still look like humans but be able reproduce with local cetaceans.

That's a good idea I had the idea of using xenotheria or exotheria as the megaorder and the correct declension of whichever planet a particular species calls home, in this case Salacia, as the order at work last night. Would something like this work? Edit: I meant to include that this topic is for the general use of anyone who's constructing a species in my opening post. Would a mod please edit that tidbit into that post since I can no longer do it?

I'm in the process of creating an as-of-yet-unnamed species of humanoids from the fictional planet Salacia (sah-lah-chee-ah) that evolved to a humanoid form (head, torso, two arms, and two legs) in that planet's ocean. Originally, they were supposed to be amphibious with two slits for a nose, gills on the sides of their necks, hands with three digits (thumb and two fingers), which are connected by flexible webbing, and feet with three toes, which are connected by rigid webbing, while being able to reproduce with us. Currently, however, their working status is a species that started as solely aquatic mammals before moving onto land and losing the gills and webbed hands/feet that can't reproduce with us. My dilemma is their placement within mammal classification. Do I need to create a new megaorder, or would they fit somewhere in Boreoeutheria?