It is often said that love of provolution is a purely Terragen trait. However it is known that extinct xenosophonts like the Builders of the Black Acropolis also practised provolution enthusiastically and some branches of the Muuh were involved in the creation of the Soft Ones. In any case, it is true that the Terragens have been especially prolific. Humans, Terragen AIs and vecs, the provolves they created, and even xenosophont races that have come in contact with Terragen civilization have all shown themselves to be prolific provolutionists.
No fewer than 138,000 indigenous Terragen species - representing all major metazoan phyla, and in some cases even plants, fungi, protists, and colonial prokaryotes, have been provolved, some with more success than others, and some, like human domestic companion animals (felids, canids, etc.) many times. This number does not include sophont clades that evolved or gengineered themselves further from their provolved ancestors. Many xenobiota have been provolved as well, leading to the peculiar fact that the majority of "xenosophont" citizens of the Terragen galaxy are actually provolves. Lazurogened animals are another popular choice for provolution; some assert that it is not just necessary to restore these long-extinct species to life; one should also maximize their intelligence as well. Dinosaurs, therapsida, Paleogene mammalia, ammonites, trilobites — there is no limit to the type and diversity of prehistoric animals that have been provolved. Today, provolves number in the many trillions, and many have gone on to establish their own polities, cultures, and religions, to radiate into daughter species and clades, and to provolve other species in turn.
Actinopterygian or Ray-finned fishes (as opposed to lobe-finned, from which all Terragen land vertebrates are believed ultimately to be derived) were not originally considered by many to be promising candidates for provolution - being cold-blooded, small-brained, generally non-social, and lacking fine manipulators or anything that could easily be adapted as such.
The first successful sophont plant provolves.
Ao Lai (Gamma Leporis A and B) contains two Klemperer rosettes of artificial planets, and hosts a rich complex of civilisations under the umbrella of the Institute for Primate Provolution.
The baseline Architeuthis harveyi (Order Teuthoida, Family Architeuthidae) is the giant squid of Earth. It is the largest post-Mesozoic baseline invertebrate, and inhabits a bathypelagic environment. It has the largest eyes of any Cenozoic animal (only some ichthyosaurs had bigger eyes), reaching up to 25 cm in diameter. Specimens may reach 17.5 meters in length (including the tentacles), and weigh 900 kg or more. It is preyed on by sperm whales. Even more so that other terragen life, there is a lack of information on the current status of Architeuthis on Earth, due to the species deep ocean habitat.
Avianoid provolve species based on the Terran ostrich.
Provolved snail clade; one of the smallest sapient biont clades, and a notable example of Frankenstein Syndrome.
Squid provolve clade that gives cephalopods a bad reputation.
Balaenoptera musculus musculus - the largest animal that lived on Old Earth, the baseline blue whale was, like all the Mysticeti, a gentle plankton feeder that fed on krill and small fish and attained a length of over 30 meters and a weights of around 150,000 kg. They were hunted to extinction by the whaling nations during the Atomic and early Information Age. A wealth of evidence suggests that the species has been lazurogened by GAIA, certainly there must have been baseline blue whales to serve as a template for the provolve species.
A planetary system with no large planets, but several smaller worlds which have been shephereded over time into stable orbits.
Plant provolves who perceive time more slowly than do typical Terragens.
It was perhaps inevitable that the first species domesticated by humans would also be the subject of some of the earliest attempts to increase intelligence in a non-human species.
Originally designed as a pet for some clades of cephalopod provolves, and designed primarily for aquatic environments.
Provolved marine snail species and clade, Utopia Sphere and elsewhere.
A clade of provolved bonobos, famous for their skill as empaths.
Large and important dolphin provolve clade.
Environmental Minds; entire ecosystems which have become intelligent.
A popular reptilian pet dating back to pre-Technocalypse Earth, descended from monitor lizards. It has expanded with humanity to the stars, typically fulfilling a role as a pest-control predator or a companion animal. The clade has diversified to many different breeds, including a number of provolve lines.
Institute created in the Vesta Convention of 937 AT with the specific aim of protecting the rights of provolved clades.
Following the Great Expulsion, the archailect GAIA (perhaps at the suggestion of some of the Children of Gaia) resurrected many or even all the species of great whales, some representatives of which were then provolved. Hence the term "Gaian Whales", which refers to those species that were restored by GAIA and to derived provolved clades.
Technology that replaces, or augments, biological limbs, or acts as manipulators for aioid entities.
Tweaked and provolved space spiders Hobo sapiens that can produce buckytube from their spinnerettes.
Provolved Corvids with interdependent mental specializations.
Clade of provolved, sophont polyps which are rather like a cross between coral and sponge, created around 4500 A.T. by a Pan-Sophontist group on the ocean world of Vanora in the Pan-Sophontist League.
Successful splice/provolve clade; large proportion of their genome is derived from Mormyrus kannume, an "electrical" fish species from Old Earth's Africa. Sophont individuals are polysomatic, based on small schools of fish rather than on a single organism.
The Keelan are a race of cat provolves (apparently originally from the Utopia Sphere) that developed in isolation with the loss of wormhole links following the Version War.
Provolved plant clade based on seeds. In their baseline form members of this clade give rise to a tree at the end of their lives.
Manta sapiens, sometimes known as Enhanced Mantas.
A clade of provolved orang-utans.
Immense, catlike marsupials of the frigid planet Kragliath.
Rhesus monkey cyborgs, originally purpose-built with a "slave" mentality to serve a small polity on the Periphery but freed by avatars of Sun Wu K'ung.
Important and influential porcine provolve species.
Clade of plesiosaur provolve, named after a mythical creature from Old Earth.
Utopia Sphere whale and dolphin world.
A social group of baseline whales. Among cetacean provolves (enhanced dolphins, gaian whales, etc.), pod has various meanings, ranging from a small family or social group to a community, a ship's crew, a polity, or (rarely and usually poetically) an entire clade.
A rat provolve clade of ancient pre-Technocalypse origin.
Rats of several species with artificially enhanced intelligence.
A planet with five moons, mostly inhabited by Dog provolves.
Chimp and bonobo races raised to sophonce, and sometimes beyond.
Intelligent clade derived from Geckos.
Zoosplice/Provolve sapient based on synthesis of Siberian tiger and red kangaroo.
A clade of neogen-splice artist provolves, originally designed as companions to human artists. They long ago established an independent homeland in the Utopia Sphere and their own reputation for artistic talent. Soomia or gorups of Soomia tend to travel widely for extended and so are known throughout Terragen space.
Major religion derived from the Universal Church.
Early provolve echinoderm clade originally designed for underwater construction work.
Proboscidian Terragen mammals (that is, elephants), or derivatives thereof, who have been provolved to full sophonce.
Termite derived clade evolved by Dixolutionist techniques.
First and Second Singularity transcended Whales.
A race of tree provolves created on the Zoeific Biopolity world of Sanobar, they first achieved sophonce in roughly 6500 A.T. Like the Alseid they have been modified to have ganglionic brains spread throughout their bodies, as well as eyes, ears and chemical senses and defenses.
Initially published on 03 March 2001.