Been swamped by the holidays, so been ages since managing to post and catch up here.

I'm still stuck in the Ordovician Age! This time, it's manifest as an illustrative drawing inspired by my friend Carter Kaplan's writing. Without the writing though. . .the explanation would be. . .challenging. XD Suffice it to say that Rabbi Dada Kohenum announces his discovery of the Second aether, a vast realm of darkness and stars, and god's out there, all by himself. . .

Portrayed are several varieties of nautiloids and endocerids, the straight-shelled cephalopods. The cephalopods went through an explosion of diversity during this period, becoming the dominiant predatory life form. The ancient ones were all shelled, they didn't start losing that trait until a long while later. Todays chambered nautilus is an almost exact example of its prehistoric predecessors, it's changed very little from those that came before it. But, back in the Ordovician, there were tons of different kinds of nautiloid, not the one variety we know of now. I say know of, since we know more about outer space than our own oceans.

Also portrayed are several crinoids, which are animals, and not plants, although they look plantish. Today, the remnants of the species are very few, feather stars and sea lilies being pretty much it.


The fact that the first "intelligence" appeared in this specific era is probably one of the reasons that I'm so fascinated with it. Prior to cephalopods, there wasn't anything with an advanced brain, but suddenly, that all changed. Cephalopods are amazing creatures, intelligent, emotional, sentient. It's too bad that since they don't feel the need to go building anything that humans in general don't seem to recognize their sentient aquatic brothers. Especially octopuses.