Mupoa world building

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Earth's history

Geology

Divisions of geologic time

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geologic_time_scale#Divisions_of_geologic_time

Chronostratigraphic unit (strata) Geochonologic unit (time) Time span
Eonothem Eon Several hundred million years to two billion years
Erathem Era Tens to hundreds of millions of years
System Period Millions of years to tens of millions of years
Series Epoch Hundreds of thousands of years to tends of millions of years
Subseries Subepoch Thousands of years to millions of years
Stage Age Thousands of years to millions of years

Geologic time

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geologic_time_scale#Naming_of_geologic_time

# Name Time span Duration Etymology
1 Hadean 4567 - 4031 million years ago 536 million years Hades / Underworld
2 Archean 4031 - 2500 million years ago 1531 million years Arche / Beginning
3 Proterozoic 2500 - 538 million years ago 1961 million years Proteros / Earlier, Zoe / Life
4 Phanerozoic 538 - 0 million years ago 538 million years Phaneros / Abdunant, Zoe / Life

List of Eons and such - Ascending order

Resources include Wikipedia and ThoughtCo.

  1. EON: Hadean (4567 - 4031 million years ago)
  2. EON: Archean (4031 - 2500 million years ago)
    1. ERA: Eoarchean (4000 - 3600)
    2. ERA: Paleoarchean (3600 - 3200)
    3. ERA: Mesoarchean (3200 - 2800)
    4. ERA: Neoarchean (2800 - 2500) - Kenorland supercontinent (hypothetical)
  3. EON: Proterozoic (2500 - 538 million years ago)
    1. ERA: Paleoproterozoic (2500 - 1600 million years ago) - Columbia/Nuna supercontinent (hypothetical)
      1. PERIOD: Siderian (2500 - 2300)
      2. PERIOD: Rhyacian (2300 - 2050)
      3. PERIOD: Orosirian (2050 - 1800)
      4. PERIOD: Statherian (1800 - 1600)
    2. ERA: Mesoproterozoic (1600 - 1000 million years ago) - Rodinia supercontinent
      1. PERIOD: Calymmian (1600 - 1400)
      2. PERIOD: Ectasian (1400 - 1200)
      3. PERIOD: Stenian (1200 - 1000)
    3. ERA: Neoproterozoic (1 billion - 538 million years ago) - Rodinia supercontinent
      1. PERIOD: Tonian (1000 - 720)
      2. PERIOD: Cryogenian (720 - 635) - Pannotia supercontinent
      3. PERIOD: Ediacaran (635 - 541)
  4. EON: Phanerozoic (538 - 0 million years ago)
    1. ERA: Paleozoic (538 - 251 million years ago) - Pangaea
      1. PERIOD: Cambrian (541 - 485)
      2. PERIOD: Ordovician (485 - 444) - Cephalopods, nautiloids
      3. PERIOD: Silurian (444 - 419)
      4. PERIPD: Devonian (419 - 359)
      5. PERIOD: Carboniferous (359 - 299) - Coleoidea
      6. PERIOD: Permian (299-252)
    2. ERA: Mesozoic (252 - 66 million years ago) - Pangaea
      1. PERIOD: Triassic (252 - 201)
      2. PERIOD: Jurassic (201 - 145)
      3. PERIOD: Cretaceous (145 - 66)
    3. ERA: Cenozoic (66 - 0 million years ago)
      1. PERIOD: Paleogene (66 - 23)
      2. PERIOD: Neogene (23 - 2)
      3. PERIOD: Quarternary (2 - 0)

Notable time periods

  • Hadean: Water, LUCA
  • Archean: Single celled life, photosynthesis, earliest oxygen
  • Proterozoic: Eukaryotes, sexual reproduction, multicellular life, fungi; Late proterozoic: Earliest plants and animals
  • Phanerozoic: Plants, anthropods molluscs, dinoaurs, flowers, birds, mammals

Supercontinents

  • Kenorland (2.7 - 2.5 billion years ago) (hypothetical)
  • Nuna/Columbia (1.6 - 1.4 billion years ago) (hypothetical)
  • Rodinia (1 billion - 633 million years ago)
  • Pannotia (650 million - 560 million years ago)
  • Pangaea (335 million - 200 million years ago)

Continents coming together and breaking apart is a cycle, happening about every 600 million years. (From PBS Eons, "What Will Earth Be Like 300 Million Years From Now?"

Modern landmass locations as we know it are younger than 50 million years. (https://theconversation.com/how-the-earths-last-supercontinent-broke-apart-to-form-the-world-we-have-today-131632)

Land (dry land)

Land: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land

Plate tectonics, volcanic activity?

tectonic_plates.png

Figure 1: From Wikipedia

Biology and kingdoms

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_(biology)

Life - Domain - Kingdom - Phylum - Class - Order - Family - Genus - Species

Kingdoms:

  1. Animalia
  2. Plantae
  3. Fungi
  4. Protista
  5. Archaea/Archaebacteria
  6. Bacteria/Eubacteria

Cool life interactive diagram / visualization: https://www.onezoom.org/life/

Ocean ecology

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelagic_zone

By Chris huh(Original text : K. Aainsqatsi) / K. Aainsqatsi - self-made(Original text : self-made), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3251432

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oceanic_zone

  • Coastal habitats
    • Littoral zone
    • Intertidal one
    • Estuaries
    • Mangrove forests
    • Seagrass meadows
    • Kelp forests
    • Coral reefs
    • Continental shelf
    • Neritic zone
  • Ocean surface
    • Surface microlayer
    • Epipelagic zone
  • Pelagic (open ocean): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelagic_zone
    • Epipelagic (down to 650 ft)
    • Bathypelagic (down to 3300 ft)
    • Ayssopelagic (down to 13000 ft)
  • Sea floor
    • Seamounts
    • Hydrothermal vents
    • Cold seeps
    • Demersal zone
    • Benthic zone
    • Marine sediment

Layers of the ocean

https://www.noaa.gov/jetstream/ocean/layers-of-ocean

  1. Epipelagic (surface - 200m)
  2. Mesopelagic (200 - 1000m)
  3. Bathypelagic (1000 - 4000m)
  4. Abyssopelagic (4000 - 6000m)
  5. Hadalpelagic (6000 - 10994m)

East Pacific Rise and hydrothermal vents

East_Pacific_Rise.jpg

Figure 2: East Pacific Ridge (light blue) from Wikipedia

East Pacific Rise is ??? far down ???

Seasons in the ocean

https://farallones.noaa.gov/visit/seasons-of-the-sea.html

  • March - August: Upwelling
    • Cold, nutrient-rich waters churning; sunlight and photosynthesis.
  • September - November: Oceanic
    • Slow winds, relaxed ocean, warm surface waters.
  • December - February: Winter Storm
    • Cold waters.

Human evolution

  • Earliest record of Homo genus was from 2.8 million years ago. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human#Evolution)
  • H. erectus body shape is more human., around 2 million years ago.
  • Homo Sapiens emerged around 300,000 years ago.
  • Humans began exhibiting behavioral modernity about 160,000 - 70,000 years ago. (also from Wikipedia).
  • "Most scholars agree that modern human behavior can be characterized by abstract thinking, planning depth, symbolic behavior (e.g., art, ornamentation), music and dance, exploitation of large game, and blade technology, among others." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_modernity
    • "Underlying these behaviors and technological innovations are cognitive and cultural foundations that have been documented experimentally and ethnographically by evolutionary and cultural anthropologists. These human universal patterns include cumulative cultural adaptation, social norms, language, and extensive help and cooperation beyond close kin."
    • "Some examples of these human universals are abstract thought, planning, trade, cooperative labor, body decoration, and the control and use of fire. Along with these traits, humans possess much reliance on social learning." "This cumulative cultural change or cultural "ratchet" separates human culture from social learning in animals."
    • Burial, fishing, figurative art (cave paintings, petroglyphs, dendroglyphs, figurines), pigments and jewelry for self-ornamentation, bone material for tools, transport of resources over long distances, blade technology, diversity standardization and regionally distinct artifacts, hearths, composite tools.

So biological humans were around, but didn't begin behaving like modern humans for another 140,000-ish years?

Oldest hafted spears from 500,000 years ago, then more complex version about 70,000 years ago with glue. "Well-formed meaningful sentences" estimated at about 200,000 years ago. Modern language only about 50,000 years ago? Oldest evidence of using ochre pigment from 300,000 years ago. Symbolic repretational cave paintings, 40,000 years ago. Music instruments around same time. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_QgWgEGpCY)

Timeline:

  1. Homo genus, Homo Habilis (2 million years ago)
  2. Homo Erectus (2 million years ago)
  3. Homo Erectus migrates from Africa to Eurasia (1.75 million years ago)
  4. Evidence of use of controlled fire (1.5 million years ago)
  5. Estimated ability to make fires (780,000 years ago)
  6. Homo Sapients evolution (300,000 years ago)
  7. Evidence of cooking fires (300,000 years ago)
  8. Behavioral modernity (160,000 - 60,000 years ago)
  9. Evidence of clothing (120,000 - 90,000 years ago)
  10. Oldest known pottery (18,300 - 17,500 years ago)
  11. Evidence of animal domestication - Dog (15,000 years ago), other livestock (starting 8500 BCE)
  12. Copper Age - earliest evidence of copper smelting (5,000 BCE)
  13. Evidence of permanent residences - Jericho (10,000 BCE), Catalhoyuk (7100 BCE), Xia dynasty in China? (2100 BCE)
  14. Evidence of writing - Mesopotamia (3300 BCE), Egypt (3250 BCE), China (1200 BCE), Mesoamerica (650 BCE)
  15. Bronze Age (3300 - 1200 BCE)
  16. Iron Age (1300 BCE - 800 CE?)
  17. Silk road trading network (202 BCE)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_history

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_first_human_settlements

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-city

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_ancient_history

https://www.thoughtco.com/animal-domestication-table-dates-places-170675

https://humanhistorytimeline.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_human_migration

(Note: This diagram seems very Euro-centric but I have it here as an initial starting point to visualize the history of human civilizations.)

Generations example:

Birth Person (for my reference) Relation # of people at this tier
2020s?? (If we ever get past this infertility!) Theoretical child 0
1980s Rachel Me 1 (just me)
1950s Rhonda Parents 2 (two bio-parents)
1930s Bobbie Grandparents 4 (four bio-grandparents)
1910s Era Great-grandparents 8
1880s John 2x GP 16
1850s Georgia 3x 32
1820s Nancy 4x 64
1790s Moses 5 128
1750s Mary 6 256
1710s James 7 512
1680s John Mitcham 8 1024
1650s Michall 9 2048
1640s Bridget 10 4096
1620s Mary 11 8192
1600s Margaret 12 16384
1560s Elynor 13 32768
1530s John Barrenden 14 65536
1510s Jone Balcombe 15 131072

The concept of time and family trees are bonkers. Also my backed up family tree isn't necessarily accurate, I just had a trial of Ancestry and added any ancestors it suggested based on other peoples' records. ;P Each of my grandmothers (bio-dad side, bio-mom side, adoptive-dad side) combined I've probably seen fewer than twenty times in my life. Never met any of my grandfathers.

I just put this here to quantify how far back I know potential ancestors, to give context to just how freaking long human history is.

Also if you think about it, the last column shows how many people had to f*** in order to create me. (I mean more than this, clearly, since we all have ancestors going back to the start of sexual reproduction and before that.)

famtree.png

Mupoa

Pre-life Mupoa is going to represent Earth, with the life evolving being similar to Earth's animal kingdom, but may differ.

Questions I'm interested in:

  • With different intelligent species of different animal types (cephalopod, elephant, squirrel, etc.) how do they overlap in time and how would inter-species communication work, with the different phyical abilities?
  • How much do peoples remember about their ancestry and where they came from, and when their families arrived to where they lived? (As a white U.S.ian, who is half-adopted but also whose mom is estranged from her family, I don't really have any connection to those before my mom so much. I've found ancestry stuff online, but I don't feel that connection or sense of origin, no culture or traditions or stories to carry with me. I feel like an empty slate.)

Life on Mupoa

"o": The first culture (Cephalopod/Octopus-like), about 195 million years ago

language-animation-1.gif language-animation-2.gif

Language: The "o" live underwater, but are able to change their color, use their tentacles/arms to sign, and any "phonetic" pronunciation of words is based on mouth shapes they could make while blowing out water. (My thought is that this would eventually be used to create an intermediate dialect for the "o" and maybe a land specices in the far future.) Sounds include: "B", "H", "M", "P", "S", "W", and vowels "A" (aah), "I" (eee), "O" (oh), "U" (ooo) and diphthongs?

Word Color Symbol (arm shapes) Phonetic
Us gray word-us.png o (oh)
Others orange \(\to\) gray word-other.png po (poh)
Warm yellow word-us.png owa
Cold orange \(\to\) yellow word-cold.png saa
Safe blue word-safe.png wuu
Danger orange \(\to\) blue (repeat) word-danger.png sisi
Know gold word-know.png mu
Unknown orange \(\to\) gold word-unknown.png bo
Food turquoise word-food.png ama
Yes gray-blue word-yes.png ho
No orange-red word-no.png is (ees)
Move brown word-move.png pu
Stay orange \(\to\) brown word-stay.png baa
Look purple word-look.png bu
Hide orange \(\to\) purple word-hide.png hai
Help emerald word-help.png upu
Fight red word-fight.png piu
Rock white word-rock.png poa
Pit orange \(\to\) white word-pit.png pao
Plant green word-plant.png baba
Dead black word-dead.png ha
Alive orange \(\to\) black word-alive.png aa
Small pink word-small.png i (ee)
Big orange \(\to\) pink word-big.png mu
Short pink word-short.png haba
Tall/long orange \(\to\) pink word-long.png puu
Shallow pink word-shallow.png hawu
Deep orange \(\to\) pink word-deep.png supuu

Mupoa, the name of this world and setting, comes from this first species' term for their home: "mu-poa", "big-rock". Other species on the planet have different names for the planet, but the setting as a whole I call Mupoa.

This initial "o" culture we'd follow in this game would be a group living around a geothermal vent.

History?

  • Carboniferous period / Pangaea land
  • Triassic period / Pangaea splitting apart; East Pacific Rise area
    • 200 million years ago - Early "o" life and migration began around the East Pacific Rise using hydrothermal vents for warmth and food.
    • 195 million years ago - "o" live in groups at various regions along the East Pacific Rise.
      • Traveling up and down for food, intermingling with other groups of "o". Novel experiences, movement, converging and diverging of groups results in development of rudimentary language, also encouraging coordination within groups.
      • As populattions grew, more migration into cooler parts of the ocean, further from the hydrothermal vents. Additional challenges bring an incentive to develop solutions, find shelter for protection, and alternative food sources.
    • 194 million years ago
      • Some groups migrate closer to land and shallower waters. Those in the ocean where the sun can penetrate into the waters develop a concept of days and even seasons (though from an occeanic perspective, not traditional 4 seasons we think of in North America).
      • Counting large values probably came later with concept of property and agrilculture? So counting years probably didn't develop until then, plus maybe a notable event to count from?

??? (Elephant-like), about 61 million years ago

Elephants are related to manatees??

??? (Squirrel-like), about 60 millions years ago

When I watch squirrels their tail twitching and chittering reminds me of morse code. They also have fine control with their hands, so these could be used for complex manipulation of their environments.

??? (Parrot-like, crow-like), about 55 million years ago

??? (Dog-like), about 44 million years ago

??? (Cat-like), about 33 million years ago

??? (Dolphin-like), about 25 million years ago

??? (Raccoon-like), about 21 million years ago

Similar hand dexterity.

??? (Ape-like), about 8 million years ago

History of Mupoa

Author: Rachel Wil Sha Singh

Created: 2024-08-31 Sat 22:13

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