forum So I need help coming up with races that evolved from humans?

Started December 29, 2022 by Kinslee Goodman

tune

So I have stuff in mind, I just think that the races I have in mind are too far from evolving from humans. Like that they aren't based on humans. Any advice?

Watch youtube. My favourites are currently Budget museum and PBS Eons. they have many videos on all sorts of evolution and they explain it really well.

If you want your races to work, they can, you just need to jump through a few hoops to get there.
You can go the long root, natural evolution over millions of years; I recommend this video about a book on future human evolutions, it might give you some insight into what the future may hold.

You can also go the more apocalyptic root with radiation, which causes cells and DNA to mutate, making a possible new "breed" if you will.
Don't worry if they don't look like humans, remember that chickens are descendants of the TRex !

There's also a more paranormal (?) root that I've gone with. I have a species of teddy bears that exist millions of years in the future that are the only live descendants of humans. In a last-ditch attempt to save the species, human consciousness was transferred to the bears, and they now have their own civilisation.

there are lots of ways to make your ideas work, all you need to do is look into different ways it happens in the real world :))

Evolution occurs when there is environmental pressure. Humans stopped living in trees because a drop in temperature made the African jungle sparse, making it impossible to move from tree to tree. Assuming your story takes place in the future, what is the future like? Has the Earth changed in any way? Did the descendants of humans leave Earth and had to adapt to other environments? I would focus greatly on changes in the environment and how species adapt to it.

Evolution is a response to a need. Weither it be environmental, physical or social. Whales have evolved from a mammal ressembling a dog. We are far from their original shape and form. They adapted to their need for food and their body evolved to their marine environment.
A Chihuahua in no shape or form ressembles a wolf. Society has created them, to fit a purpuse. If you have a group of people that are force underground as miners, they would evolved over time to fit this environment. We can presume that their long would expend to accomodate more oxygen intake on each breath, making their chest cavity wider. Their eye would either grow bigger, like gollum or go blind and photosensitive from the lack of light. I great exemple of evolution over short period is in Wall-E with the human growing foud of their lazy life on the ship, and getting fatter and fatter with less bones. Couple of years more they would have been blobs. And don't forget the Guild Navigators from Dune. If your story has strong motivations for evolution and a couple explainations for the steps human took over the course of history ( no need to expose it all at one, you may just drop hints here and there), the reader will get behind it.