Panthalassa Nova600 million years after the present day, in the far distant future, mankind and most of the familiar animals of our age are long extinct. Almost the entire earth is covered by one huge ocean, save for a few fair sized island chains. The world looks like this, because about 100 million years earlier, the earth’s core cooled and solidified, halting plate tectonics. Without this mountain-making process constantly pushing up land, most of the continents eroded away within about 40 million years. The land has been invaded by shallow oceans, only the eroded tops of the tallest mountain ranges provide the remaining vestiges of land.
The sun is a good deal brighter and somewhat larger than in our time, many animals and plants have evolved to cope with excess solar radiation. Levels of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere have fallen to unsustainable levels, making typical photosynthesis impossible. Only plants and micro-organisms that can utilise C4 pathway photosynthesis have predominated, whilst some kinds of marine algae and cyanobacteria have made the change, evolving to use this method instead. On land and in the water, herbaceous plants related to sorghum and amaranth, which do use C4 photosynthesis, are common. Island chains play host to their own ecosystems, some of which contain some of the last tetrapods, as well as droves of insects. In the ocean, marine invertebrates and agnathans dominate, forming rich habitats teeming with life. Now that most photosynthesis is defunct, the plankton of the ocean has changed, cyanobacteria and other photosynthesizing microorganisms form the phytoplankton, and the zooplankton is completely different. The world is indeed very different; earth is a water world full of bizarre animals and unconventional plants, this huge global ocean is the Panthalassa Nova, the last great flourishing of the biosphere. |
A word about timelines -
The future is hard to predict, and this project is based on one hypothesized model of how the earth will be in 600 million years time. Other hypothetical models of this time are quite different, as can be seen in my other project called Millions After Mankind.
The future is hard to predict, and this project is based on one hypothesized model of how the earth will be in 600 million years time. Other hypothetical models of this time are quite different, as can be seen in my other project called Millions After Mankind.
