First Dynasty

The First Dynasty was a period of Kaimeran ecological stability, it is by far the longest Dynasty, which lasted from around 360mya (Earth's Late Devonian), to around 255mya (Earth's Late Permian). In this time a multitude of unique Kaimeran clades developed.

Video on the Topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=so25L\_7dDXU&t=1633s

## Climate and Ecology

### The First Harvesting Period

Kaimere for millions if not billions of years was uninhabited by extraterrestrial lifeforms, the portal had harvested on other planets than Earth prior to our Late Devonian, but none of these lifeforms were particularly successful due to non compatible atmospheric composition and gravitational pull, this was until the first harvesting period. The first harvesting period of the First Dynasty, and indeed the first Earth harvest on Kaimere, was a period of around 5mya, lasting from Earth's Late Devonian to Earth's Early Carboniferous, many clades were harvested, including placoderms, trilobites, eurypterids, fish, tetrapods, fungus, and primitive plants.

Prior to the First Harvest, the only macroscopic organisms on Kaimere were purple algae, a plant like magic still found today on Kaimere
### Greening of Kaimere

Oceanic ecosystems in the early first dynasty flourished due to magic serving as a reputable food base, terrestrial habitats, however, took far longer to flourish due to a lack of soils. Plant's were fairly rare in early Kaimere, as their roots could not grow on or penetrate the bedrock that the land at the time was composed of, however, certain types of fungus could.

As time passed, the roots of large fungus were able to bore through and break down rocks, releasing vital nutrients. As microbial decomposers of cellulose and tough parts of lifeforms had not yet evolved, fire served as Kaimere's first decomposer. Fungal obelisks would have attracted a lot of lightning to start these fires, ash from these mass burnings further helped establish Kaimere's first soil. The more this occurred the more plants were able to take hold, more soil meant more plants which meant more oxygen, which meant more fire, which helped spread more soil.

On Earth, this process took hundreds of millions of years, on Kaimere, as increasingly derived plants and fungi were collected and introduced to Kaimere, it was a much more rapid process. Soil and plants took over the planet in a staggering ecological boom.

The breaking of rock, done by fungi and reinforced by plants unleashed a tremendous amount of nutrients, notably phosphorous and nitrogen into the water system. This was fantastic for a jungle system now taking over the land, unfortunately, it had dire consequences for the sea. A soup of algal and magical blooms made the shallow marine habitats a toxic wasteland, this was Kaimere's first mass extinction. As many as 95% of all marine life on Kaimere was driven to extinction, eliminating all the placoderms and eurypterids, a majority of trilobites, and many more, with only a few hardy taxa surviving. Thankfully an upside of the rapid boom of nutrients released by the comparatively rapid establishment of terrestrial life meant that it was also able to take over and recover fairly quickly. Decomposers in the ocean helped clean the sludge and the pace of nutrients washed Downstream eased by the early Carboniferous harvests replenished the Seas and since the land was still thriving and giving more nutrients than the portal could ever aspire to require the eldrich God took its rest and slumbered for almost 100 million years.

Kaimere 360myaFungal fire- Keenan TaylorAn early kaimeran terrestrial ecosystem- Keenan Taylor
### Terrestrial Ecosystems

Kaimere during the First Dynasty was extremely humid, with nearly all of the land on the planet being composed of swamps and rainforests. This period was so humid in fact, that some kaimeran paleontologists believe that smaller land fish (ambuloichthyians) were able to wet their gills from the air alone. Due to the global hothouse, nutrients were abundant and biodiversity was extremely high throughout the period. The Early First Dynasty was dominated by dignathian herbivores, which could feed on the large fungus and tough plants of this time. Once the Dynasty truly established itself, Torosteonians became the dominant megafauna, being highly successful due to the high temperature and humidity supplementing their hollow bones and air sacs. Carbosuchians dominated as predators on much of the planet, but the southern continent was dominated by heterotherms, which thrived due to the lower humidity of the south pole allowing for their heterothermic metabolism to have an ecological edge.

Torosteonians got the mid-Dynasty on lock, containing the dominant herbivore and predator. Unfortunately, breathing out their sides requiring humid air, they were the first to choke when the continents kissed
### Aeroplankton Ecosystems

Due to Kaimere's relatively undeveloped biosphere during the First Dynasty, a unique ecosystem had developed on Kaimere, strangely enough, in the sky. This ecosystem was, unlike the other ecosystems on Kaimere, based upon native Kaimeran life, aeroplankton composed of Magic. Due to this untapped resource, many clades took to the sky and developed entirely unique niches, such as in dracocetus, a volant filter feeder. Unfortunately, likely due to this influx of biodiversity, Aeroplankton ecosystems all but disappeared from the lower troposphere (excluding the poles). The air of Kaimere today, up in the higher troposphere and lower stratosphere, aeroplankton of indigenous Kaimeran magic have made an ecosystem unlike any we have on Earth. A similar collection of floating magic is found in Kaishels' forest and several cave systems.

A comglomerate of volant magic
### Oceans

As was mentioned above, oceans in early First Dynasty thrived, but were wiped clean by the first mass extinction event. However, after this event, the realm had an ecological resurgence, due to the high temperatures of Kaimere, sea levels were at an all time high, meaning large swathes of seafloor were avalible for all forms of life. Trilobites served as decomposers in this environment, having been the saviors of the sea during the mass eutrophication event. Due to clean slate that the ocean now was after this event, an evolutionary arms race began, true scorpions took to the sea as predators, filter feeders, decomposers, etc.

Near the end of the First Dynasty, many of the newly evolved tetrapod clades took to the seas as a result of adaptive radiation post the continental collision, such as the scuba diver esc nisomalleorana, an herbivorous marine fabadont.

Goniatites were the most common cephalopods in the First Dynasty, and are diagnostic fossils of the periodDunkleosteus leviathan, Kaimere's first apex predatorMany trilobite clades were harvested during the first harvest, unfortunately, most perished from the greening periodthough eurypterids had short tenure on Kaimere, a clade of true scorpions developed a marine lifestylenisomalleorana, shown at the top right
## Unique Clades

### Whipcraw: Caudomasta

Whipcraw are insects in the order Caudomasta distinguished by powerful mandibles, a lack of (or divergently evolved) wings, and often times a long whip-like telson, for which they get their name. They are extreme generalists, able to metabolize almost any organic material and are found in near every terrestrial biome on Kaimere. They are also some of the only insects to become fully aquatic.

Modern Kaimeran Whipcraw
### Sea Scorpiones

Not to be confused with eurypterids, Trident Scorpions are true scorpions with modified book gills to be able to live underwater

### Ambuloichthyia

Ambuloichthyia are the basalmost vertebrate clade on Kaimere, as their name suggests, these lobe-finned fish were proficient on land, though they were tied to water for their reproduction and the gills that supplemented their lungs required water. The air was so humid that smaller species may have been fully terrestrial aside from needing to visit the water for spawning. One highly diverse clade lost their gills entirely. It is assumed that the largest species of Ambuloichthys spend most of its time grazing in shallows, though their clawed forelimbs enabled them to walk respectable distances on land as suggested by a trackway found in the southern Crescent.

First Dynasty Ambuloichthyians
### Dignathia

This clade is presumed to be descendants of stegocephalians like Colosteids. They are diagnosed by a detached pharyngeal jaw. Though some predatory lineages evolved, and indeed was the ancestral condition of the clade, their most famous members were Kaimere’s first megaherbivores. The primary jaws were robust and useful for manipulating and breaking apart giant fungal obelisks, trees of club moss and seed fern, and ancient relatives of conifers. The secondary jaws are what actually tore off and swallowed pieces of food. This system has no analogue on Earth, but was extremely successful in this group of first large herbivores. Though the fossil record this far back in Kaimere’s prehistory is especially fragmentary, there have been fossils suggesting the largest dignathians may have reached five or six tons. Kaimere has many giants today, but this first era seems to mostly be one of species and population abundance, not overall size, so these giant dignathians definitely stood apart from the crowd.

Dignathians
### Torosteonia

The third class to develop herbivores during this era was the torosteons. The hollow bones diagnostic of torosteons made for a light yet durable frame with which they also grew large. This also helped them take to the trees and become highly proficient gliders and eventually a lineage developed powered flight. Much like birds, they appear to have also been filled with air sacs, with some expanding from their lungs to enhance respiration, while others were nonadaptive and simply invaded various cavities, making them look quite outsized compared to their actual mass. Some of the largest animals of the time were herbivorous torosteons, though the biggest dignathii were heavier. Their hollow nature appears to have been vulnerable to even the slightest dip in temperature leading to sinus infections throughout the body, so while other clades could populate the polar regions, torosteons appears to have been restricted to the tropics of this already extreme hothouse climate. In this context, they were the most diverse and prolific clade.

First Dynasty Torosteonians
### Heterotherms

Heterotherms are a clade of tetrapods completely unique to Kaimere, they are categorized by their Non-Newtonian slime and heterothermic Metabolism, which enables them to go into Torpor during harsh conditions then back into a fairly high metabolism when food is present. this clade was most successful at the poles, where the hothouse of Kaimere was less extreme. Though their most famous descendants, the Moørkutlot, are blind and hunt by sound, these early representatives were visual hunters. Their metabolism, enabling them to rapidly switch between efficient stasis and rapid endothermy, was especially successful in the cooler regions of the southern hemisphere, but the warmth of the tropics it was a negligible benefit. It did help them as they became volant, flying after insects and gliding and eventually flying torosteons, and also was excellent at night, where they really came into their own. Hunting by echolocation and sound with vision as a supplement guided the evolution of the arboreal clade and eventually set the stage for their Moørkutlot descendants. The non-newtonian slime that was their primary defense was easy to maintain in this humid and nutrient-rich world.

A basal heterothermcertain heterotherms developed powered flight, being insect and small game specialists
### Carbosuchia

The top predators of the global swamp during the First Dynasty were the Carbosuchians, so named for being first discovered in coal deposits. These predators looked very much like lizards or crocodiles with fluked tails. Basal carbosuchians had wide heads, yet their more derived members sported long snouts packed with gripping teeth. A low-demand ambush hunting strategy worked very well for them in a world of swamps. Some smaller taxa were arboreal, becoming a bit more active in chasing down prey in the trees, taking over in the tropics, yet another predator dominated this realm to the south.

Panechtherus sarcophagus, one of the largest carbosuchians of the First Dynasty
### Fabadontia

Fabadonts were first described by their bean-shaped teeth, which are among the most common fossils to be found during this age of Kaimere’s history. However, seeing living fabadonts and many of their ancestors especially later in the First Dynasty, it can seem a bit ridiculous that teeth are their diagnostic feature. Very quickly this lineage evolved a highly specialized cranium, with a cornified beak and a formidable collection of teeth that filled out several batteries of each jaw, along the palate, with corresponding rough tongues to help rapidly process the toughest of vegetation. Their eyes grew high on the head, and perhaps strangest of all, their parietal eye increased in sophistication to a degree that it was a fully functional eye early in the First Dynasty. It is assumed that, like modern fabadonts, the parietal eye had highly sophisticated color vision with less motion sensitivity, while the stalked eyes were more sensitive to movement and had fewer color receptors. Although the bodies adapted into many morphotypes over time, the head of fabadonts remained largely unchanged from what it looked like around three hundred million years ago to today. During the First Dynasty, Fabadonts underwent extreme adaptive radiation evolving arboreal, legless, aquatic, bipedal, and even flying clades, yet the head shape remained fairly locked in morphology.

First Dynasty Fabadonts
## Extinction

### Continental Drift and Aridification

Around 265mya, the continents of Kaimere had rotated and shifted closer together, this caused a cutoff of many wind and waterways, which were essential to the maintenance of the global hothouse, Kaimere began to become arid. The dominant clade at the time, the torosteonians, soon became further and further isolated, as the humid and warm air that they relied on for their respiratory system were becoming more and more rare.

Despite still being within the First Dynasty, it seems the portal was positioned in a particularly arid environment, as a result, many arid adapted fauna from Earth's late Permian were harvested to fill the gaps in the arid environments near the portal. Fabadonts, Heterotherms, and dignathians had their arid representatives, so the new fauna were still experiencing competition.

Late First Dynasty Kaimere, now far more arid
### Asteroid Impact

Life on Kaimere was seeming to reach an ecological understanding, Permian fauna and endemic first dynasty fauna both finding their roles in this new context. However, this was interrupted by an extraterrestrial threat, an asteroid. Though not as large as the asteroid which entered the Mesozoic and Kaimere being a larger Planet further reduced the impact it came at a terrible time for native fauna, especially since it struck the tropic of the west coast of the Ni'Khari Kairulan super continent, being kicked while they were down proved fatal and ended the First Dynasty.

Kaimere after the impact
### Faunal Turnover

Torosteonians and large ambuloichthyians both became endangered and possibly extinct due to the extinction. In their wake, fabadonts, heterotherms, and dignathians on the southern super continent thrived , while landmassses to the north, such as the Ni'Khari Kairulan supercontinent, the Permian Continent, and the Permian Islands, became flooded with waves of new life taken from Earth's Late Permian. This began the Permian Dynasty.