BY LETTER
Arthropleura
Huge but harmless uniramous terrestrial terragen arthropod of the Carboniferous period, it favoured moist swampy forests, where it fed on decaying vegetation and leaf litter, and attained a length of 2 meters. The animals died out with drying out of their swamps, but their great size made them a popular subject for lazurogenic entrepreneurs. Unfortunately they turned out to be unrelated to available myriapod genome, and all attempts at resurrection of the species failed. The species was finally lazurogened by the Hyperturing Lycopods in the Mist Illuminated by the Sunrise, as part of eir ambitious project to create an entire Euramerican Westphalian D coal-swamp biome in the Aristophane system (Sophic League), converting 14 asteroids and 23 comets in the process. Following the completion of "Westphalian D", Lycopods in the Mist Illuminated by the Sunrise seemed to lose interest in embodied existence, and transcended (although some say e still can be found in the nanobio incorporated in a much of the larger vegetation of the habitat). The habitat was managed by a devoted monastic order of Paleomonks, who refused to give out any of "our master's sacred genome" although happily encouraging limited ecotourism along specially selected walkways. During the early Re-evaluation period they became offended by fake Arthropleuras (made from tweaked millipede) that were all the rage at the time, and allowed the genuine genome to be published, provided any animals grown were well looked after.
Arthropleuras make wonderful conversation pieces, but have a limited environmental tolerance and so are somewhat difficult to keep. Especially among the Arthropleura Interest Group there is a strong competitive streak, and a challenge as to who can geneer the largest arthropleurid (without resorting to cyborgization or other forms of artificial bioware). At present the record is held by CarboniferuS Dve4 of Avon, Copernicus Sector (nominal MPA), who has a breeding population of "Big Mammas" (Athropleura bigmammi) that frequently attain 3.5 meters
Arthropleuras make wonderful conversation pieces, but have a limited environmental tolerance and so are somewhat difficult to keep. Especially among the Arthropleura Interest Group there is a strong competitive streak, and a challenge as to who can geneer the largest arthropleurid (without resorting to cyborgization or other forms of artificial bioware). At present the record is held by CarboniferuS Dve4 of Avon, Copernicus Sector (nominal MPA), who has a breeding population of "Big Mammas" (Athropleura bigmammi) that frequently attain 3.5 meters
Appears in Topics
Development Notes
Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Initially published on 07 November 2001.
Initially published on 07 November 2001.
