Resource:Speculative Evolution

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(This is intended to be a resource page, in the proposed "Resource" namespace, and would be located at Resource:Speculative Evolution if my proposal is accepted)

Speculative evolution, sometimes shortened to spec evo or just spec, is a subgenre of science fiction as well as an artistic movement which specifically focuses on hypothetical scenarios in the evolution of life. Related to it are speculative biology, which focuses on fictional biological workings with or without evolutionary principals, and speculative zoology, a subgenre of speculative evolution specifically focused around hypothetical animals. Speculative evolution is deeply intertwined with creature design, to which it may sometimes be referred to as the "hard sci-fi" equivalent. More information about the genre and its history can be found on Wikipedia.

What is and Isn't Spec?

Within the speculative evolution community itself, there are varying definitions of speculative evolution, ranging from highly inclusive (eg. anything with some form of biological, ecological, or evolutionary principal in mind during its creation qualifies) to highly exclusive (eg. only works that are perfectly realistic and fully up to date with current scientific knowledge qualify).

For the purpose of clarity, this wiki uses a generalized definition of speculative evolution to be any biological or creature design-oriented work that is intentionally made with evolutionary principals in mind and is, to the best of the creator's own knowledge at the time it was made, evolutionarily possible within the rules of the setting. This excludes any creature design not made with these principals in mind, even if it happens to accidentally appear biologically possible, but does include, for example, an honest attempt at explaining the evolution of an existing creature design, as well as evolution that involves magic if the setting allows for it. (Sagan 4 is not one such setting, but this resource is intended to be used by anyone).

Useful Topics for Spec Evo Creators

(cover what is typically expected of the genre, with links to specific topics as well)

Evolution and Evolutionary Forces

To create strong speculative evolution content, one needs to have a grasp on the processes at work in real-world evolution.

Evolution is sometimes semantically divided between microevolution and macroevolution. Speculative evolution as a whole usually focuses on macroevolution, which concerns evolution of entire species, whereas microevolution concerns the individual variation at shorter timescales which are usually brushed aside in speculative evolution works. However, understanding microevolution is itself important to understanding macroevolution--all evolutionary changes begin as individual variation in a population, which is acted on in the short term by evolutionary forces.

Natural Selection

Main article: Resource:Natural Selection

The most well-known evolutionary force is natural selection, where some variants within a population will be more likely to survive and reproduce than others.

For example, an individual creature which is bright neon blue is unlikely to pass on its genes, as it will be easily spotted and eaten by a predator. However, sometimes it can be more complicated than that; for example, if that organism happens to be poisonous, the same coloration will enact natural selection on its predators, which will quickly learn not to eat it. Another, non-poisonous creature could then evolve to mimic that same coloration, because any that happens to be the same color as the poisonous species would be left alone while others get eaten.

This doesn't just apply to getting eaten, but to starving as well. For example, for a seed-eating species during a food shortage, individuals with large beaks might be able to eat bigger nuts that others can't access, allowing them to stave off starvation even while surrounded by competitors which ate all the small seeds first. Those with the large beaks are therefore less likely to starve and more likely to pass on their genes, and over time with repeated shortages of small seeds, this can result in the entire species evolving to have large beaks.

Within speculative evolution content, the details of these processes may be brushed aside or summarized, such as "it evolved to be poisonous and warns would-be predators with its blue coloration" or "it evolved a larger beak to take advantage of large nuts as a food source", which are easy to grasp and digest on their own; however, attempting to design macroevolutionary changes without a grasp on the underlying process can result in strange or unlikely adaptations. For example, evolving a fifth leg for stability--even if the final organism technically works and the fifth leg does indeed make it more stable, did an individual just mutate to have an extra leg one day? Why didn't it hinder its movement? How was this "fifth leg gene" able to spread through the population? While answering such questions in the text is generally optional, wildly unrealistic adaptations will not go unnoticed and may break the reader's suspension of disbelief.