#what caused our ancestors to become sapient? | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

fountainpenguin · 5 years

Text

A T.U.F.F. Timeline

An analysis of “T.U.F.F. Puppy” society and how it relates to my headcanoned Hartmanverse timeline (Healthy suspension of disbelief required). My intention was to unite all four Hartman shows in the same continuity, so alternate universe explanations were ruled out for this analysis.

If you enjoy reading my Hartman show ‘fics, I highly recommend skimming through this post so you won’t be confused down the road; this is now the official Riddleverse canon and references to it are fair game in my ‘fics. Plus I worked really hard on it and if you read it I will be glad (The post is about 5000 words; TL;DR found at bottom).

I will update my sideblog’s timeline(s) to include this information if you’d like to see it all laid out that way instead.

OH THE HUMANITY

First things first, humans are confirmed to exist in the TUFFverse. Evidence can be found in the episode “The Good, The Bad, and the Quacky:”

This TV card (assumed to be an in-universe card) depicts a human who walks upright and wears clothing. The implication is that humans in the TUFFverse are not treated as pets, but are considered a sapient people.

Furthermore, when skull decorations appear, they’re always modeled after human skulls. The skulls in Snaptrap’s skull collection appear to be human too.

HERE is a link to the Digital Morphology library if you’re interested in browsing its collection of animal skulls. Here is Dudley’s [stylized] skull compared with the skull of a Labrador Retriever, offering evidence that the animals have retained much of their animal anatomy and don’t have human skulls:

We could possibly conclude that Snaptrap has gathered human skulls over the years because he considers them an interesting collectible from the days of an ancient race. However, there is still evidence that humans are alive in modern TUFFverse times:

In “Dog House,” we see the skeleton of a hostage Snaptrap claims to have chained to the water heater himself. This skeleton appears to be human due to the shape of the skull and the lack of ear and tail bones.

In the episode “The Booby Trap,” we learned that it’s illegal to harm an endangered species. We can conclude that humans are probably not endangered species in this time period, because even though Snaptrap is a villain and might not have an issue with killing people, he probably wouldn’t have left an endangered species to starve in the middle of an open room that’s frequently visited by T.U.F.F. agents.

With this evidence in mind, we have reason to doubt that humans are extinct in this time period. Therefore, we can conclude that the Chameleon’s neighbor (Mrs. Ungerman) is a human who doesn’t shave her legs, and that she’s not an animal with balding legs, human-like feet, and a tail kept out of view:

We can assume that humans and animal people are both alive and thriving in the "T.U.F.F.” time period, and that they live alongside one another. However, it seems that there are fewer humans around, or that they avoid associating with the animals for the most part.

Most likely, human communities are still scattered throughout the world, but animal people are the most dominant lifeform (An estimate based on the lack of humans seen in the show and the existence of all the animal puns; in the FOP episode “Abra-Catastrophe,” we also saw an increase in animal puns once animals had become the dominant people of the planet). Assuming that all the animal people can be classified under a single racial label, I would argue that the animal people are by far the dominant race of the planet during this time and that fairy godparents are assigned to animal kids as a result.

THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND

In order to fit “T.U.F.F. Puppy” in the same continuity as the other Hartman shows, I’ve chosen to set it in the future, long after FOP, DP, and BIaB are over. In addition to the existence of animal people, background clues such as the circular doorways, blasters, and elaborate monorail system suggest “T.U.F.F.” is set in a slightly futuristic time period anyway:

A few people suggested that I set “T.U.F.F. Puppy” in the future after a magical war wiped out the humans (most if not all of them). Initially I resisted the idea because it interfered with some fanfic plans (I’ve established in my works that Poof and Foop attend school together, I’ve never mentioned a war, my plan has always been that global warming would flood the planet within a few hundred years and I had a big humans-become-mermaids plot set up, etc). Besides, my preferred genre is contemporary slice-of-life in a fantasy world, and I’m already writing the War of the Angels in two different stories. Trying to make yet another series of magical battles unique sounded like torture.

However, while watching “T.U.F.F.” it became apparent to me that there was no possible way to fit the show in my timeline if I didn’t discard my mermaid plans and prevent global warming floods, unless I wanted to set it during the 2000s with the other shows. The struggle of incorporating “T.U.F.F.”’s animal people and technology in modern times while maintaining the integrity of the other Hartman shows appealed to me even less. So, Riddleverse canon no longer includes a flooded planet plot, and the 130 Prompt “All I Ever Wanted” will soon be updated to reflect this (i.e. the will o’ the wisps will resettle in Pixie World due to a magical war pushing them from their homes rather than floods, and I’ll make changes to some future prompts I’ve been working on as well).

Fairy World’s timeline (that is, the emergence of certain aesthetics, beliefs, and technologies throughout Fairy World) roughly parallels ours, albeit at a different speed (the War of the Sunset Divide stands in for World War I and the War of the Angels stands in for World War II). Fairy World is currently paralleling the 50s (Butch said he designed Cosmo with the 50s aesthetic in mind). Because of this, I designed my version of older Poof with a counterculture aesthetic.

That means that a magical war paralleling the Vietnam War, which filled the 60s and 70s, would fit in Poof’s youth (He’s our flower child, and what’s a flower child without a war to protest?) Keeping with the parallel, I envision this would be a very long war (much longer than either of the two before it) with more and more fighters gradually drawn in.

My take on the Beasts is that they came into existence when regular animals were contaminated with leftover magic (known as “stinky magic” in FOP canon) that infected their food and water sources. I’ve already established in my ‘fics that this contamination was caused by mere magical pollution, so I imagine that a magical war would result in even higher concentrations of stinky magic on Earth (Note: The War of the Angels took place in Fairy World, Anti-Fairy World, and several planets throughout the galaxy and wasn’t centered on Earth itself).

We saw in the FOP episodes “Talkin’ Trash” and “Dust Busters” that Fairy magic, when left to fester, can have bizarre effects on the things around it, which is why I finally decided to be okay with discarding my original timeline plans in favor of a magical war. I haven’t made plans for this war yet, but I do know that I want it to take place on Earth. I want a magic-contaminated landscape to make the Chameleon’s anchor tree a legitimate plant, since he insists he grew it himself:

I imagine the creatures and plants now found in the Petropolis Rainforest were also affected by a magical war. Bringing more magic into a show that has anthro animals and extreme cartoon physics can only help, not hurt...

THAT’S ANCIENT HISTORY

If we argue that “T.U.F.F. Puppy” takes place in the same universe as the other Hartman shows, how do we explain the museum exhibits seen in the episode “The Curse of King Mutt”? After all, we see no humans here.

It’s important to remember that the universe we are playing with isn’t simply “Our world but with fairies and ghosts.” Beasts exist too. They were only driven underground officially in the early 1800s, meaning that they left their mark on the timeline throughout history. It can be argued that the cavemen and King Mutt seen above were Beasts who lived in ancient times in this universe (which seems more plausible than mummifying practices re-emerging in the future following a magical war that wiped out most of human society).

I imagine that after Beasts were forced underground, humans weren’t keen on showcasing moments of history that honored their kind. Historic Beast accomplishments were swept under the rug until Beasts filtered above ground again and earned respect in society; specifically, in a world dominated by animal people, the history of animal people would be more important than it was when humans dominated. During Timmy’s school years, Beasts might have appeared in history books, but only as passing mentions, and mostly in the context of the Creature Wars. Beast accomplishments would be ignored.

Is it reasonable to assume that the canine figures above could be Beasts? Perhaps. After all, not all Beasts are hybrids like Bunsen, or appear to be living pieces of furniture. Some, like Wolfie, resemble anthro animals:

My headcanon for Beasts is that they came into existence when regular animals were contaminated with Fairy magic, then bred and passed on strange abilities to their offspring. Over time, Beasts gained the ability to breed with other Beasts that their ancestors wouldn’t have been able to reproduce with (Bunsen shows both guinea pig and squid traits, among other things).

The animal people we see in “T.U.F.F.” are also able to crossbreed. Dudley was confirmed in “Purr-fect Partners” to have goat ancestry. Bird Brain belongs to an entirely new species (flightless blue-bottomed boobies) who most likely resulted from booby-descended Beasts crossbreeding with flightless birds (probably the takahē). The Chameleon appears to have gecko or anole genes since he can stick to walls, and perhaps snake genes as well since he sheds his skin as a whole instead of in pieces.

(Note: The Chameleon claims he sheds his skin “every night.” He grows it back within a few hours. This is most likely a rapid healing adaptation that resulted from having latent Fairy magic in his system. He flushes injuries off his skin very quickly and can partially regenerate. Some lizards - again, anoles - can grow their tails back if they lose them, so I imagine the Chameleon might even have the ability to regenerate arms and legs again if injured.)

For classification purposes, I will henceforth refer to the animal people as Animals, with the capital A, to distinguish them from the Beasts (This is a time period / show difference, so Wolfie will still be classified as a Beast).

THE GOOD OLD DAYS

We’ll now take a close look at Petropolis and estimate when it was founded. The city itself is a blend of futuristic and old-fashioned, making this a world where corded telephones sit side by side with shiny computers, high-tech wall lamps provide the light to read messy bulletin boards, and automatic doors slide upwards to reveal kitchens full of stovepipes. Split-level rooms with a metallic aesthetic are accented with wooden borders. The raised speedways throughout the city are supported by columns of Grecian design, and populated with a mix of sleek, modern cars and old, boxy trucks.

Petropolis is confirmed to be in California (“The Booby Trap”). It appears to parallel Los Angeles since its population (3,792,621; revealed in “Dog House”) is exactly the same as the population of Los Angeles according to the 2010 census. Notably, previous analysis of Dimmsdale, given its history of being settled by the British rather than the Spanish, has already removed Los Angeles from the equation in my fanfics (Dimmsdale stands in its place, with the Dimmsdale sign taking the place of the Hollywood sign).

With Dimmsdale and Petropolis both taking the role of Los Angeles in their respective shows, and with “T.U.F.F. Puppy” set in the future, we can suppose Petropolis was built on the remains of Dimmsdale in the future after Dimmsdale was wiped off the map (presumably due to that magical war; I’ve already established that Fairy World’s capital city is located just above Dimmsdale, which would make it a prime target in battle).

I also like the idea of setting Petropolis on Dimmsdale’s remains because in FOP, the Rainbow Bridge to Fairy World is confirmed to touch down at the edge of Dimmsdale. If Petropolis is built on Dimmsdale’s remains, we can parallel the Rainbow Bridge poetry series intended to help people grieve for their lost pets.

The founder of Petropolis was Daniel Boone Loony, and it was revealed in “Legal Beagle” that his great-great grandson, George, lives in the T.U.F.F. agency’s stairwell.

Let’s estimate George’s age at 30 for the purpose of this calculation. Assuming that the Animals live human lifespans, we can estimate Petropolis was likely founded 110 to 165 years before the series (For this analysis, we’ll call it in the middle of those estimates and say Petropolis was founded approximately 135 years before the show takes place).

We’ll keep that in mind as we shift to another “T.U.F.F. Puppy” town that’s hinted to be older: Critter Creek. Critter Creek is described as an old Western desert town despite being quite modern by our standards:

It’s implied the town was founded by Gold-Digger Gary (or if it wasn’t founded by him, he was one of its prominent early citizens). If Gary’s statue is accurate, he is clearly an animal, not a human, so we can assume that animal people were sapient beings who walked upright, wore clothes, and were capable of founding towns more than 135 years ago. (Side note: A presumed relative of Dudley’s fought the Loch Ness monster 100 years pre-series).

Since Critter Creek is described as an old Western town, we can expect it was built perhaps 100 years before Petropolis. Clearly, the town has grown over time into a booming city full of skyscrapers and monorails, which exist side by side with buildings of wood and stone:

Critter Creek presumably began life as a wooden town and rapidly expanded as technology improved. In fact, technology seems to have improved so quickly that Critter Creek just kept expanding without knocking down its previous wooden buildings, which were still in perfect living conditions and weren’t worth bulldozing. This rapid development may have even occurred within a single lifetime. In contrast, Petropolis appears to have been designed deliberately with its futuristic layout, suggesting its materials were available from the start.

I imagine, then, that a lengthy magical war ended up shifting to Earth and that Dimmsdale was wiped off the map. Many humans didn’t survive this war (Perhaps magical toxins filled the air and turned some of them into objects, plants, animals, or just killed off a lot of them). The humans that did survive migrated to cities that were still standing where they could access resources (especially fresh water; many water sources were likely contaminated with stinky magic in high concentrations humans couldn’t handle).

We saw in “T.U.F.F.” that Animals seem to be running the northern hemisphere; Animals lead many countries and undercover fighting forces of Animals exist around the world. The capitals of Fairy World, Anti-Fairy World, and Pixie World are all located in the northern hemisphere in my headcanon. The skies above the southern hemisphere are far less populated by magical beings, so it’s possible that the magical war ravaged the northern hemisphere and left the land nearly inhospitable to humans. Humans still exist in “T.U.F.F. Puppy,” and some do still live in the northern half of the planet, but the remaining human population is small and most have shifted to the south.

You know what else is interesting about this “only the northern hemisphere is ruled by Animals” theory?

There seems to be a canon distinction between the two halves. Humans are presumably more common in the south while Animals dominate the north.

DAWN OF AN ERA

Critter Creek was one of the early settlements to spring up after the war. Judging from its name, it wasn’t founded by humans. Buildings were constructed of wood because those were the building materials available at the time- in the wake of the war’s destruction, building many homes and shops quickly was a priority. Once people were settled, they could begin expanding their towns. The technology had already been invented, so implementing it didn’t take long once people were back on their feet. As a result, in modern “T.U.F.F.” times we have a society that blends futuristic and old-fashioned technology.

The T.U.F.F. agency itself (and its counterparts around the world) likely sprang up shortly after the war. I imagine it was a chaotic period for several decades. Humans were learning that much of the northern hemisphere couldn’t support them now that uncontaminated water was hard to come by, while the Beasts most resistant to the stinky magic toxins (AKA the ones from family lines who were least affected by it, AKA those who most resembled animals since their biology wasn’t altered as extremely) were able to survive. Beasts who were less resistant to stinky magic continued producing genetically unstable children who were less adaptive to the environment than the more stable animal-like Beasts.

It’s worth noting that in “Hide and Ghost Seek,” Keswick was convinced there is no scientific evidence of ghosts. Such evidence, it would seem, was lost during this period of chaos. By modern “T.U.F.F.” times, Ghosts were presumably spending most of their time in the Ghost Zone. Stable portals between the Ghost Zone and the Living Realm (the Fenton portal and Vlad’s portal) have likely been damaged by this point, so Ghosts only occasionally slip out of the Zone. I imagine that during this chaotic time, the northern hemisphere looked like the bad future we see in Danny Phantom:

Bleak and destroyed. Water sources and farms were contaminated with magic, abandoned by humans and left for surviving Beasts and animals. I wouldn’t mind headcanoning that TUFFverse future Amity Park looks a lot like it did in the bad future here. Amity Park has always been a high-tech city, after all, and various shields probably went up eventually, whether Danny Phantom was evil or not.

So you have this sci-fi human empire in Minnesota that survived the magical war due to it having shielded itself (while most of the country mocked it, I’m sure). It likely expanded to be a huge metropolis bit by bit, drawing in humans from across the nation who sought shelter and resources. Humans still exist in TUFFverse America, but are not widespread. For the most part, Animals rule.

Critter Creek was built in this kind of desolate world. People scavenged for technology, and banding together helped people survive. Many people who got their hands on advanced tech chose to pillage others. Thus, we see the rise of criminal organizations and rogue troublemakers alike. T.U.F.F. and its counterpart organizations sprang up when vigilantes with a strong moral code desired to protect people. In “Internal Affairs,” we saw the Chief viewing old black and white films that depicted him as a young field agent. Most likely, anything high tech that had been scavenged was claimed by powerful forces like T.U.F.F. and criminal organizations, forcing the general public (including news crews) to rely on older technology.

Critter Creek was most likely built away from old, destroyed cities and its main purpose was to provide shelter quickly with the materials available. Sending a helicopter from Petropolis was considered a reasonable way to pick Dudley and Kitty up after they visited Critter Creek in “Golden Retriever.” The city seems fond of neon, so it’s possibly located in Nevada, not far from Las Vegas, where scraps of neon might have been available.

From its name, we can assume it was built by Beasts who survived the war. Over the next several decades, those who couldn’t adapt to the extreme magic contamination died off, and the more animal-like Beasts survived. This perhaps took 125 years, which allows time for a few generations to pass but doesn’t last too long (People do have access to advanced technology, after all, and sooner or later it will be put to use). That’s the same amount of time between Gold Rush times (1849) and the 1970s. Now imagine having access to advanced technology in that time period and gradually learning how it works and how to build more of it. Presto! A blended old West and futuristic city.

~150 years after Critter Creek was built, Petropolis was founded by Daniel Boone Loony over the ruins of Dimmsdale, which were deemed hospitable by that point. If he’s anything like his namesake, he likely fought his way through the wilderness to the site; Daniel Loony might have been his birth name and “Boone” a nickname added on later. The Petropolis Rainforest is a canon area surrounding Petropolis, and is known for its strange creatures and plants. If Dimmsdale was blasted with magic during a magical war, it’s likely the rainforest sprang up around the ruins over the next several decades.

This store that exists in “T.U.F.F.”-

-is a pants store that was rebuilt by Animals where a pants store used to stand in Dimmsdale. The store was damaged, but the merchandise sold there was obvious, so after it was fixed it continued to sell large pants. After ruling out alternate universes, that’s the best I can do with the 1980 timestamp. Expect me to slip a mention of a pants store into one of my FOP ‘fics (either Come What May or Along the Cherry Lane) just because I can.

~135 years after Petropolis was built, we have the present “T.U.F.F.” day and age. As water sources were gradually purified, a few humans migrated out of the safezones where they’d hidden and began to mingle in Animal-run towns. Advanced technologies, which had been seized by powerful organizations, gradually made their way to average citizens, so old films were replaced with color TV, corded phones with cell phones, and so on.

Year 0 - Just after the war; Critter Creek was founded by surviving Beasts in the next few years.

Year 150 - Around the time Petropolis was built.

Year 285 - Around present day; this is when the show takes place.

YEARS IN REVIEW

So if we’ve established that “T.U.F.F. Puppy” takes place in the future, when might it take place? I did some calculations using timeline clues (which I decided not to include in this post due to length) and determined that the show spans about a decade of time.

Butch mentioned in one of his videos that Snaptrap is 35, so I’ll say he was 35 about halfway through the show since that’s nice and average. That puts him at 30 when the show starts and 40 when it ends. The Chameleon seems slightly younger than him, so I’ll say he’s 30 when Snaptrap is 35. Bird Brain was confirmed to be 23 at the end of Season 1, so we’ll mark him down as 25 midway through Season 2. Let’s say Dudley was 22 when the series started, so he’s about 32 when it ends- still in his prime the whole way through.

Kitty is a bit older than him. She mentions in “Toast of T.U.F.F.” that she attended 8 years of “secret agent college,” and she probably spent 3 years at a university before that starting at age 18 for a total of 11 years of schooling. Then we’ll give her 5 years of field experience before Dudley arrives (4 with her former partner, Jack, and 1 on her own). 18 + 11 + 5 puts her at 34 when the show starts. At the end of Season 2 (“Pup Goes the Weasel”) Dudley guessed she was 30 and Snaptrap guessed she was 42. Snaptrap’s made clear that he’s into older women, so this works with his crush on her.

In the latter half of Season 2 (“Sob Story”) we see the Chief’s credit card due to expire in a year that ends with ‘19.

We can conclude that “Sob Story” (Year 9 by my tentative calculations) takes place either in a year that ends with 19 or a few years prior. 2019 is off the table, and so are the next few hundred years.

In “Quacky Birthday” (two years prior) Dudley marked his birthday on his calendar. I chose to work with this calendar because it’s also in Season 2, just a few episodes before “Sob Story” (though one of the episodes between them, “Agent of the Year,” takes up a year on its own, and “Crime Takes a Holiday,” which is also between them, is confirmed for January).

We can assume the thin boxes along the calendar’s top are labels for the days of the week, and that his calendar begins with Sunday. Many cartoon calendars begin with the first box and aren’t meant to be interpreted literally, but I went with it anyway because it’s what I had. I began searching for future calendars to see if there were any with the 1st on a Monday shortly before a year that ends with 19 (since if the card is due to expire in a ‘19 year, it can’t have been issued more than a few years before). Here is what I learned:

May 1st occurs on a Monday in x017, x417, and x817 years when x is an even number. When x is an odd number, May 1st occurs on a Monday in x217 and x617. Therefore, we can cross-reference Dudley’s calendar with the Chief’s credit card expiration date and argue that “Sob Story” (episode with Chief’s credit card; Year I in my notes) is an xx17 year. The first 5 or fewer episodes of the series (Year A) would take place in an xx09 year (Episode 3 is confirmed August and Episode 6 is confirmed March, meaning the year changes in between unless we start rearranging things).

Based on this, we can determine where I can set “T.U.F.F.” in my headcanon to the year if we can just determine the century. That means turning to my FOP timeline to figure out when the best place to set a magical war is, keeping in mind that I want it to be a few thousand years in the future at most- nowhere beyond the year 10,000. I don’t want to go too far forward since although the technology in “T.U.F.F.” is fairly advanced, it isn’t THAT advanced.

Looking at my timeline, I actually don’t have anything going on between the original Cavatina drama (1,000 years post-series) and Poof and Foop being tweens (about 123,000 years post-series). So I have plenty of space to put a war, especially now that I’m no longer planning to work mermaids in there.

Fairy World is currently in its 50s aesthetic period, and has been since before Cosmo and Wanda were married. The Vietnam War officially began in 1955, so this magical war is due to happen fairly soon after Timmy Turner’s time period. I can’t have the war going on during the first few years of Cavatina’s life, so setting “T.U.F.F.” in the early 3000s won’t work for me.

I want the war to be going on for some time before Dimmsdale is hit, but I also want it to continue going on for a long time afterwards (I want Fairies to be too busy with the war that they can’t afford to pause and rebuild America, and again, I don’t want human technology to be TOO advanced at this point).

With that in mind, I think I’m going to start this magical war in the 3500s. We’ll assume it’s between the Fairies and the Anti-Fairies. At first, the fighting is contained to the cloudlands. Then the first human city to be targeted, Dimmsdale, is destroyed around the year 3700 by the Anti-Fairies, which finally spurs the Pixies into action. Pixies generally stay neutral, but when magic strays to Earth and starts causing chaos, they’re going to get involved (Plus, Fairy World’s capital city is right above Dimmsdale, so perhaps it was the target and that would get the Pixies involved too). This sets “T.U.F.F. Puppy” 2000 years in the future, which is nice and easy to remember. The magical war continues for hundreds (or thousands) of years.

I have a few ideas I can draw on for this war... Somewhere in my plans, there’s a block of time where Anti-Cosmo vanishes without warning and Anti-Wanda and Foop are left to run Anti-Fairy World without him for a few hundred years. I was originally going to set the one-shot in question 100-500 years after FOP ends, but I can easily bump it forward by a thousand years. I’d really like to see an entire war play out while Anti-Wanda and Foop are in charge and Anti-Cosmo is nowhere to be found...

Currently, the story that discusses this “Anti-Cosmo is AWOL” time period is the 130 Prompt “You’ll Never Know,” which is scheduled to post 7 prompts from now (probably January 2020). Keep your eyes out for that one if you want to see a glimpse into the war, because I don’t plan to write an entire ‘fic about it. The prompt will begin either immediately after Dimmsdale is destroyed or immediately before it. That will be fun.

We concluded earlier that “T.U.F.F. Puppy” begins in an xx09 year. Based on my calculations (which were based on the order the episodes were produced with very little rearranging), we can now assume that the series begins in the summer of 4009 and ends in the summer of 4018. I believe this would put the TUFFverse roughly 65-80 generations after modern times.

The biggest issue I have with this timeline at the moment is getting the populations of Critter Creek and Petropolis to 3 million+ each. We’re going to assume that many Animals give birth to entire litters (despite the fact that each mom in the egg maternity ward in the episode “Bad Eggs” appeared to have only one or two eggs) and just roll with it.

TL;DR

In this post, we concluded that-

“T.U.F.F. Puppy” takes place in the future long after “Fairly OddParents,” “Danny Phantom,” and “Bunsen Is a Beast.”

A horrible magical war devastated the land. Amity Park survived intact, protected by a high-tech shield.

The Animals are an anthropomorphic people descended from the Beasts. They are capable of crossbreeding with other Animals and have inherited their ancestors’ resiliency to a great deal of physical damage.

Humans are still around in this time period (Side note: They’re incapable of breeding with the Animals due to the differing levels of latent Fairy magic in their systems).

The Animals rule the north hemisphere while humans rule the south.

Animals are considered the most dominant race on the planet and fairy godparents are assigned to Animal kids, not human ones.

“T.U.F.F. Puppy” begins in the year 4009 and ends in the year 4018.

So, this is how the four Hartman shows fall in my united timeline.

FOP - The fae population has been around for millions of years, and will continue for millions more. They’ve devised elaborate interaction systems that allow them to gain supplies from and trade goods with some groups of people while remaining a mystery to others. Despite their magic powers (or perhaps because of them), the fae fear being taken advantage of by the wrong people. They won’t hesitate to cut ties with individuals or entire societies if they deem that’s what’s best for their people.

DP - Ghosts have always been hated and feared, and for the most part were driven into the Ghost Zone by the mid 1600s. Even before then, large populations didn’t roam the land; Ghosts tend to be territorial, solitary creatures who don’t travel in groups. Mostly they remain in the Ghost Zone, though some have their reasons for wanting to slip out.

BIaB - Beasts were driven underground in the early 1800s; the small town of Muckledunk, founded in 1805, guards a known entrance to Beast World. Before this, Beasts roamed the land and were treated as intelligent, dangerous monsters. Their earliest ancestors (animals contaminated with Fairy magic) came into existence about 250,000 years before the year 2000.

TUFF - The Animals are descended from families of Beasts who were still biologically close to their early animal ancestors (AKA Beasts who were affected by stinky Fairy magic enough to develop into an anthro race, but weren’t harmed to the point of genetic instability). “T.U.F.F. Puppy” takes place in the early 4000s, and the Animal society we see in it grew from a land left devastated after a horrible magical war.

There it is! Thanks for reading, and please enjoy my fanfics! Now that I’ve finished analyzing “T.U.F.F.,” ‘fic updates will resume this summer (that’s 2019 for anyone analyzing my own timeline down the road).

#No 'fic update but you get this instead #I just really needed it off my plate #Eyyy Hartman gang!#ridwriting #Timeline #Spy dog show #FAIRIES!#Beasty such a beaut #Going ghost!#screenshots #Long post

10 notes · View notes

koryos · 7 years

Note

Dear Koryos: Can you imagine a universe wherein bats have become the ancestors of some kind of Highly Intelligent Life Form (not necessarily humanlike intelligence, but something as different from today-bats as humans are different from Ancient Primate Ancestor)? I originally just was thinking about what kind of Cultural Norms such beings would have, but then I realized I couldn't really imagine anything except bat-shaped things that more or less thought like humans.

I’ve sat on this question a while because it’s such an interesting one to me. The biggest issue here is that you’d have to specify which bats you’re making your theoretical ancient ancestor, because there’s such a vast diversity of behavior within the group. A vampire bat would be different from a sac-winged bat would be different from a hoary bat would be different from a flying fox ancestor, is what I’m saying. Any social or behavioral organization paradigm that you can think of, there’s a bat that has it.

So to think about what a sapient bat would look like, we first need to assess the intelligence and behavior of possible ancestral bats. And here I’m gonna stick a readmore, because this gets looooong.

Assessing which species would make a good sapience ancestor based on intelligence is also tricky, in large part because bat intelligence remains mostly under-examined. Bats as a whole share the rough reproductive hallmarks of other intelligent mammals and birds, in that they have long lifespans and small litter sizes (in most cases, a single pup). They also have unusually high whole brain size and EQs for their body size, though this is often attributed to the fact that they need more brain matter to handle echolocation.

However, if you look at EQs across Chiroptera, the general trend is that vampire bats and flying foxes tend to have the largest, followed by bulldog bats, false vampire bats, the fruit and nectar eating bats of Phyllostomidae, followed by most other Yinpterochiropteran groups, and then finally the remainder of the insectivorous bats. The authors of the particular paper I’m referencing suggest that this has to do with lifestyle- bats that specialize on blood, fruit, or non-insect prey may require more intelligence to solve the unique problems posed by their food sources compared to insect-eating bats. But the authors do admit that insect-eating bats may also have been constrained by the need to keep their brains smaller and lighter to allow for faster flight, and it’s entirely possible they’re doing more with less. (Also, it’s important to remember that EQ is an imperfect method for assessing intelligence anyway.)

More than one insectivorous bat species is known to have vocal learning and the capacity to imitate, and it’s highly likely that many others do, given the complexity of bat vocal repertoires. Fruit bats, particularly the Egyptian fruit bat, also display vocal imitation. This is considered pretty smart stuff, and among animals only humans, birds, cetaceans (dolphins and whales), pinnipeds (seals), and elephants are known to be regular vocal imitators, putting the bats in a pretty high-class group. Some researchers are now arguing that bats are better candidates for studying the development of human language than birds are, given their closer relationship to us and various other similarities between our vocalizations. There’s even some emerging evidence that some species of bats may recognize each other by vocal signals unique to each individual (in other words, names). In spite of all this, bat vocalizations remain largely understudied, but it’s clear all their chatter serves a purpose.

I bring up all these points because I like reminding people how smart and cool bats are because it emphasizes that intelligence matters in different ways to each bat group, but all of them show the potential for vocal complexity that could approach that of a human’s. So wherever our theoretical sapient bat comes from, it’s likely to be noisy. (Though maybe at frequencies we can’t hear.) Now, if we look at other measures of intelligence such as tool use and environment manipulation, the evidence is more on the side of fruit-eating bats, specifically flying foxes. Though I’ve never seen one use a tool per se, they are perfectly capable solving complex problems using object manipulation. For example, pulling a plastic chain up link by link to get fruit attached to the end involves a similar amount of intelligence as the animals in that famous raven-gets-meat-on-a-string study. They’re also capable of figuring out grenade feeders (feeders in which “pins” have to be removed to make the food drop out) and sometimes will carry around small objects for no apparent reason.

The unusually long thumbs of flying foxes allow them to manipulate objects with surprising precision and they may also use their feet and even wingtips to this end. Object manipulation is part of their natural repertoire (for example, pulling a branch closer to get at something tasty). This separates them somewhat from non-frugivorous bats, who don’t usually need to manipulate objects in pursuit of food- blood-drinking bats just gotta find a spot to bite, carnivorous and piscivorous bats swoop down like hawks, and the most manipulation I’ve seen an insect-eater do is use their tail membrane as a scoop to toss a bug into their mouth. If you want a sapient bat with lots of tool use, fruit-eaters are your likely ancestral group.

However, bats can alter their environment and get better access to food in quite intelligent ways without using objects. Here we ought to look at vampire bats. The white-winged vamipre bat, which feeds primarily on the blood of birds, has co-opted the behavior of domestic chickens in at least two ways. Some bats may perch on the exact spot on a hen’s back that causes her to assume the lordosis posture (i.e., the bout-to-get-boned posture) and feed from the back of her comb with her holding completely still. Others will press up against her brood patch, imitating a particularly goblin-faced little chick, causing her to nestle down on it as the vampire has its meal. This is incredible stuff, as these tactics couldn’t be utilized against their traditional avian prey- meaning the bats have learned how to manipulate chickens all on their own!

Common vampire bats prefer hoofed mammals to birds, and given the larger size of their prey usually don’t have to resort to such nefarious tactics to stay unnoticed. But their creativity also shines when their normal (at this point, human-introduced) prey isn’t available, and they proceed to feed on whatever they can find- which might include sea lions, rats, crocodiles, porcupines, turtles, and even venomous snakes. Each of these critters requires a different strategy on the bat’s part, but apparently the bats tackle the situation with ease. Indeed, one account tells of a vampire bat taunting a rat snake, easily avoiding each strike, until the snake was too exhausted to do anything as the bat brazenly sipped blood from its nose. It should be noted that this particular snake species specializes on feeding on bats.

So in comparison to a sapient fruit bat, a sapient vampire bat might be much more focused on manipulating the behavior of other species, perhaps even domesticating animals for its own use. I should mention, however, that one species of vampire bat- the hairy-legged vampire bat- has evolved a kind of opposable thumb on its foot (a sixth digit fashioned from the calcar), not found in any other bat species. It uses this thumb to help it grip branches as it scuttles around nibbling bird toes, but if you were to make it sapient, you might imagine that instead of the thumb-based object manipulation seen in pteropodids, this fellow would manipulate stuff with its feet. (No relation to the horrible Dougal Dixon futurebats, though, please.)

Speaking of horrible future bats, most of the speculative future bats I’ve seen have two things in common- a) flightlessness and b) a loss of vision in order to rely primarily on echolocation. But neither of these things are really plausible. I’ve discussed why it’s highly unlikely for bats to evolve flightlessness before, so I won’t go into too much detail here, but suffice it to say that unlike birds, which sometimes seem to drop flight as soon as they can get away with it, no bat has evolved to be flightless even when in the most prime conditions. The degree of specialization they have for flight would make it pretty hard to go back to a terrestrial lifestyle, in fact- at best I can imagine a short-flighted bat that flaps from tree to tree.

Some might argue that evolving the brainpower for sapience would necessitate flightlessness because of how heavy and energy-draining such a big brain would be, but just because that’s how humans do it doesn’t mean it HAS to be done that way: look at the brain sizes of highly intelligent birds, such as corvids and parrots- still flying, and quite well. (And the birds that HAVE evolved secondary flightlessness aren’t exactly known for their brainpower). I couldn’t find any information on the neuronal density of bat brains, but I’d bet that it’s higher than expected, given the dizzying amount of calculations that have to take place in an echolocating, flying, insectivorous bat’s head to be successful.

Sightlessness is as unlikely in bats as flightlessness... again, no bat species we know of, living or extinct, has lost its vision! In fact most bats have pretty good vision, despite the reduced size of the eyes of some species. No bat species lives in complete darkness all the time, which would be what would render vision obsolete- vision is still better off than echolocation when it comes to spotting daytime/dawn/dusk/moonlight predators on the move.

Granted, some species have almost lost the ability to see forward due to specialization for echolocation, I’ll give you that...

But they still have quite nice eyes. (And note how slits in the noseleaf allow for a little forward vision.)

In any case if our hypothetical bat evolved from a pteropodid/flying fox it wouldn’t have any echolocation at all, because they don’t echolocate, with the exception of Rousettus species, who do it via tongue-clicking. (And there’s some evidence that other pteropodids have like, a ~mystery~ version of echolocation using their wings, but we hardly know anything about that right now.) Pteropodids are also largely crepuscular- active at dawn/dusk- rather than fully nocturnal, as well, and their primary sense is vision, which accounts for their sometimes inappropriately large eyes.

Speaking large-eyed, fruit eating critters, I can say with confidence that the behavior of large pteropodids I worked with reminded me very much of the macaques I’d once worked with. Even though it’s been debunked that bats and primates are close relatives, I think large flying fox behavior is very similar to cercopitheceine primate behavior (as well as spotted hyena behavior in some ways). Their social organization is a mixed-sex, hierarchical, fission-fusion sort of society, where mating is promiscuous, coalitions can form around power grabs, and competition for spotty resources is quite fierce. Infantacide does occur in fruit bats as in primates, though I’m not sure if there’s been any study on how common it is.

Compare this to the social structure of the common vampire bat, though. Female vampire bats will shift roosts freely and form multiple-matriline groups, usually with a single or two or three males in attendance. These males defend their “harems” from other males, but there’s not much evidence for female policing as in primates, given that females regularly swap roosts; rather, the males seem focused on defending the favorable roosts themselves.

In addition, female vampire bats are pretty famous models of reciprocal altruism, that is, I’ll-scratch-your-back-if-you-scratch-mine behavior. Because they feed entirely on blood, the bats can’t build up any fat reserves, and over 24 hours without feeding can starve them. To combat this, they have a complex network of blood donors (via regurgitation, not vein-piercing) that they turn to in times of need; it’s based on kinship but even more so on how familiar they are with the bat in question, and whether or not they give blood as well when it’s their turn.

Spectral bats are strict carnivores that eat rodents, lizards, birds, and other bats. They’re notable for being a monogamous species, with two parents raising one pup together while defending a hunting territory, and in some cases the offspring of previous years may stick around to help as well, in the manner of canids and some bird species. An even more exceptional monogamous bat is the Dayak fruit bat, where males lactate as well as females. Check out the armpit-nipples of the lactating male, below.

Many other bats have lek breeding systems, like the hammerhead bat, where males congregate together to perform for females, but otherwise the sexes live separately; other species have males that fly completely solo and sing like birds to attract a mate; in other species like the hoary bat both sexes normally live solitary lives.

Most cave-dwelling insectivorous bats stay in sex-segregated groups until it comes time for hibernation, in which case they cluster together in caves, mate, and nap. Social behavior among these species is probably the most poorly understood, given that they are often tucked into near-unreachable places during the day.

Of course, the social behavior in the vast majority of all bat species hasn’t been studied at all, so who knows what other forms their societies might take? I particularly await with eagerness the discovery of a polyandrous bat species similar to tamarins and marmosets... It’s not unfeasible, given the large size of newborn bats (a pup may be up to 1/3 the weight of its mother) and the fact that they often need to be carried rather than hidden, meaning poor mom has gotta carry them while flying, and in some species it can take two years or more before they’re able to survive on their own- as in our small primate cousins, having two dads could really make life easier. I mean... look how big this newborn ghost bat pup is. (And if you’re brave, watch this evening bat giving birth... that looks painful.)

Anyway.

An important indicator of high intelligence would be a great degree of behavioral flexibility (which can lead to transmitted culture) within a species. I don’t think the social behavior of any bat has been studied thoroughly enough to assess how flexible their lifestyles are between groups, but I would bet vampire bats are among some of the most adaptive, as well as some of the most socially receptive and cooperative.

On the other hand I would love to do a study on observational learning in pteropodid bats; I bet they’d do really well. It’s already been shown that they can learn to understand and respond to human pointing gestures.

I guess my ultimate point is, you could expect a sapient bat to behave very differently based on its ancestral lifestyle and morphology (especially whether or not it echolocates) but sapience would imply a degree of behavioral diversity that wouldn’t be limited to any one set of cultural norms. Which is why I hesitate to say any sapient bat would behave just like such-and-such species, but smarter.

It would be very interesting, though, to design a theoretical culture based on creatures that are flighted (travel would be much easier, but energy requirements much higher, how are the flightless elderly cared for?), or one that drinks blood (would certain species’ blood become taboo? what sorts of species might they domesticate and how would they keep them?), one that primarily hangs upside-down in branches (artificial perches would have to go everywhere), or most especially, one that echolocates. I can only imagine the diverse sorts of oral traditions that an echolocating sapient species would have.

Hope this long, long answer gave you at least some degree of what you were looking for! And thanks for the question.

#Anonymous #learning with koryos #bat #speculative evolution #animal cognition

496 notes · View notes