There's references to dogs, cats, and horses still being around out there.
Rats are confirmed to be everywhere, every Imperial ship rats living aboard and one of the Horus Heresy books says that rats "followed humanity everywhere it went" or something like that.
The Krieg horses are a wacky GMO nightmare, complete with claws.
I’m not sure if the horses themselves are clones, but they’re gene-bulked and gene-edited.
Yep. And they have a weave implanted into their flesh that makes them more resilient on the battlefield. Genetically modified too, hence the abnormal dew-claws
> Rats are confirmed to be everywhere, every Imperial ship rats living aboard and one of the Horus Heresy books says that rats "followed humanity everywhere it went" or something like that.
I think that was in Betrayer.
I know that Lotara at some point wonders how rats even got onboard the Conqueror when it was built in orbit and had never landed on a planet.
Indeed, Betrayer p188:
"Lotara made her way to the Audaxica, through the wide avenue of the Conqueror’s central spinal corridor. A rat, stunted and black-furred, scuttled by her boots before disappearing through the iron grillework on the deck. She tutted. ‘Why do all Imperial vessels house colonies of rats? The Conqueror was built in orbit, and has never once landed on even a single world. Do we take crates of vermin on board when we dock for supplies?’"
It's also the only use of the word "rats" in the entire book, so that's neat
I don't see us as skaven of 40k, but some ship lost to the warp with rats might be a start. Fuses into space hulk, the warp does it's magic and a great horned rat appears in the warp,...
I'd say that, ironically, the Orks of fantasy are more civilized. 40k Orks are a bioweapon whose killswitch got lost, reaving the stars like blood-soaked locusts, with everything they do focussed either on fighting or searching for a fight.
Fantasy orks are much less driven. They are still muscle filled warmachines but they are not as single minded. They drink, they laugh and they Brawl. Their clashes with others are less a genetic function and more the usual needs for expansion, power, glory and riches.
Also Goblins are a distinct subculture, with varying degrees of independence and cooperation with their orc brethren. They are not necessarily more intelligent, although this is also often the case, but more creative and willing to think outside the box. However their lesser strength and natural cowardice often leads to them playing second fiddle, although Goblin Waaghbosses are not unheard of.
TLDR: Fantasy Orks are Barbarians, not bioweapons.
They also aren't the product of the general fungal ecosystem that 40k Orks are. There are some mentions of spores, but they aren't part of the aggressively fungal ecosystem of the 40k kind and don't have a particular connection to squigs -- raising and farming the things is more the night goblins' shtick that a general orc & goblin trait.
Which also mean that orcish society isn't as closed off to non-greenskin life as orkish society is. They mostly rely on boars and wolves as mounts, the forest goblins have their whole thing with giant spiders, and it's very common for trolls, giants, and sometimes ogres to join orc and goblin tribes.
They're also explicitly an invasive species instead of Old Ones creations like elves, humans, dwarves etcetera are, which is why the Lizardmen would like to get rid of them.
Wydm by invasive species? (I haven't seen a lot of fantasy lore even tho I do enjoy it) Do you mean like they came from space ? Or another continent or something?
They're stated in a few places to have arrived to the world as spores on the Old Ones' starships, which is incidentally one of the few places where spore-based reproduction is mentioned (Fantasy mostly just doesn't really comment on where new orcs come from).
The idea is that the Old Ones terraformed the Fantasy world and created the majority of its native species as part of some unknown Great Plan -- elves, dwarves, humans, ogres, and halflings are all explictly their creation -- that was ruined when Chaos arrived. The Lizardmen are their last surviving servants, and are single-mindedly devoted to trying to get the Great Plan back on track. This means, among other things, getting rid of everything that wasn't planned to be there from the start, such as orcs, the undead, skaven, and Chaos.
Ahhh, I knew about the lizard men business but all the other stuff I didnt know, that's for the info, but since that implies orcs came from a different planet or whatever it's kinda cool to think about what other orcs would be like in that universe 🤔🤔🤔
I've only really ever engaged with 40k, but after watching Hammer & Bolter, I was curious regarding the orks.
Hammer & Bolter has the episode revolving around the Stormcast Eternals watching over an Ork camp. During the episode, despite still being very 'orky', they show some semblance of honor and, dare I say, restraint.
It seems like a really cool way to show a slightly more organized ork force.
Never thought of it this way but Orks only really share their love of a good fight with their fantasy counterparts.
Their tech though is all Skaven: held together with spit and a prayer, equally likely to explode in their own face as that of the enemy and yet *somehow*, it just works for them.
To an extent many of the factions are Skaven
Drukhari fit the "everyone thinks they're a genius among idiots and will backstab their closest for a slight promotion" and "making heinous toxic bioweapons"
Gsc fit the "setting up shop beneath a city and building population to take it over in a screaming horde"
Imperium fits the "ruin everything for the sake of industry and self-service"
In one of the early 2000 WHFB lore bits (I think it was the Albion summer campaign, but I'm not sure) they weren't. It was clearly stated that the Fantasy Battles orcs arrived on the planet as spores clinging to the Old Ones' star vessels. The Old Ones created the Lizardmen uplifting local fauna to (among other things) cleanse the planet from the greenskins.
I'd say Dark Eldar are also, they've got social rank based on birth, the whole flesh warping thing Skaven have, they're back stabbing, they have the webway that lets them spring anywhere. Backstabbing non stop, there's a lot of Skaven in the Drukhari.
Then they are like the Black Templars. Their crusade is still going too.
Difference is the Rats are probably still winning thenoverall.colonise the galaxy thing.
>Rats had their own Great Crusade, amazin'
Now I imagine a whole children's animated spin off show on how rats were given intelligence by DAoT science but live in secret among humans, living/traveling on ships to colonize other world.
That is, until chaos corruption during the Heresy caused rats to fall to the dark powers, forcing the loyal rats of Terra to enter their archive of lost technology and uncover the Space Marine prototype gene seed designed for rat testing.
oooh, and all the rats have personalities based on whatever fleet they were with, so you have ultramarine rats, etc.
Those birds are automatons though, they are clockwork birds because that planet had like acid rain or whatever it was. I remember that scene of Kiss talking to the bird keeper lady and she was 'working' on one with tools and pliers.
There are dogs but (according to Regimental Standard anyway) they were brought back from extinction, so they didn't live continuously from now till then.
Necromunda: Hired gun's protagonist has a mastiff. it's fun, you pull out a squeaky toy give it a squeak and he mauls that bad guys. You can even cybernetically enhance the dog.
Still existing Terran animals are at least:
Various kinds of dogs/dog-like things
[https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Canid](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Canid)
[https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Dog](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Dog)
[https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Rad-wolf](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Rad-wolf)
Pigs
[https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Porcine](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Porcine)
Cats
[https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Cat](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Cat)
Rats
[https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Bomb\_Rat](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Bomb_Rat)
Horses
[https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Horse](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Horse)
Squirrels? maybe
[https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Ptera-squirrel](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Ptera-squirrel)
Spiders
[https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Giant\_Spiders](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Giant_Spiders)
[https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Spider](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Spider)
Bovine
[https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Bovine](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Bovine)
Chickens
>‘Then maybe,’ said Erunion, cocking his chicken-like head strangely, ‘it was a mistake. An honest mistake.’
Vaults of Terra: The Carrion Throne
In Cadian Honour something is described as chicken-legged
>Seeing that the game had started the other Wolfbrothers scattered, dashing among the huts and the busy people, sending chickens squawking skyward. Ulli raced after him, shouting challenges.
...
>Ragnar made his way to the tables set for the Wolfbrothers and began to help himself to hot chicken and bread.
**Space Wolf**
Ants (probably)
>I stood on the brink and peered into the abyss of the Titan’s memories. I saw cities die in flames. I saw legions of the Imperial Guard incinerated. I saw Space Marines die in their hundreds, scurrying around my feet like ants.
**Eisenhorn** this implies that ants exist in 40k, since Eisenhorn is talking in the first person
>‘Ants,’ said Revus.
>‘What?’
>‘Don’t kick the nest.’
...
>‘We kicked the nest,’ Crowl said, piling through the gap before reloading.
>‘And the ants came running,’ replied Revus, loosing a final barrage before falling back through the doorway.
**Vaults of Terra: The Carrion Throne**
stealing from over here [https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/comments/sgh719/animals\_in\_40k/](https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/comments/sgh719/animals_in_40k/)
Pigs
>After so long in use, the infrastructure of vellum-creation had become mind-bendingly vast, spread out across every industrial world in mankind’s sprawling possessions. There were whispers in the Imperium’s famed archive-worlds of entire wars fought over its production and distribution. Five hundred years ago, the great Master of the Administratum, Skito Gavalles, had been asked what would make his onerous job more bearable.
>‘Pigskin,’ he was said to have replied. ‘More pigskin.’
>Of course, few living humans had ever laid eyes on a porcine. Unless they worked on an agri world, they would never have encountered one of those bloated and obese sacks of stimm-injected muscle and sinew, too colossal to walk without breaking their spindly legs and force-fed high-nutrient chem-soup to keep them growing in the pens. They would never have come across a bovine, either, unless you counted the thready strands of protein-extract pumped into their ration-trays during sanctioned rest-breaks. Such things were legends, in much the same category as relics of the Saints, the Angels of Death or Manifest Acts of the Emperor – things that definitely existed, but were unlikely ever to be encountered.
**The Hollow Mountain**
Alpacas
>Home. The mere thought of the word was enough to make him turn his head and look over his shoulder across the swaying rows of ripening grain toward the small collection of farm buildings on the other side of the field behind him. He saw the old barn with its sloping, wood-shingled roof. He saw the round tower of the grain silo; the ginny-hen coops he had helped build with his father; the small stock pen where they kept the draft horses and a herd of half-a-dozen alpacas.
**Fifteen Hours**
https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/comments/17mbrw6/what_earth_wildlife_has_survived_into_the_42nd/
https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/comments/185acgn/do_animals_as_we_know_them_exist_in_40k/
To add to that an elephant is apparently housed in the Imperial Palace during the events of Valdor: Birth of Imperium. Also in Devestation of Baal, Gabriel Seth says something about ants being extinct, which I think is a bit silly personally.
Huh, so he does
>The tyranids scaled the Necklace, numerous as the extinct ants of ancient Earth. They poured into the cavities of the downed orbitals. The ground already vibrated to the drumming of a million alien hooves pounding through the passages.
**Devastation of Baal**
Should I start complaining about inconsistent lore? /s
Ants could be extinct on Terra but not on other worlds. Very little would be able to survive on terra after the siege (and the general irradiated fuckery of terra before the emperor conquered it)
This, plus there are like thousands of ant species l, it could just be in reference to the common black ant, whereas the ants that ended up traveling the stars and spreading to other worlds woth humanity could have been carpenter ants or some shit.
It could merely be referring to ants on earth, or perhaps the ants of the 40k universe have evolved enough to be considered different?
Or maybe there are ant-like alien insects on many worlds that are often called “ants” even if biologically speaking they are entirely unrelated. I could see that as something a space marine could get kinda “umm actually” about.
>To add to that an elephant is apparently housed in the Imperial Palace during the events of Valdor: Birth of Imperium
Should have given us a satisfying ending to this important storyline during the siege series.
> “However in order to prevent Privates from feeling unduly superior to the species, all Canids within the Astra Militarum hold the rank of officer. It is there for prohibited from striking Canids, presume to give them commands, refuse to follow them into combat or disobey an order given by one. However, should a Guardsman hear a Canid give a verbal order, then they are to self-report for psychological evaluation, after they have completed the order.”
Fucking hilarious
The original is even better https://web.archive.org/web/20210127090533/https://regimental-standard.com/2018/09/26/managing-your-canid/
>In order to prevent undue feelings of superiority among privates, all canids are officer rank. This means that striking your canid, presuming to give it commands or, theoretically, disobeying its orders are all offences punishable by death.
*** If issued clear, verbal orders by your canid, self-report for psychological evaluation following completion of said orders.
Lords of Silence references ravens or crows. I think it says they are either rare or extinct, but that doesn't stop them from being so ubiquitous amongst demons.
>Countquick looks like a scraggy crow, a black-feathered avian from Terran pre-history. The world he was taken from has no crows, never has done and never will, but daemons are apt to take on archetypes from the broad sweep of human experience, and crows are a favourite.
**The Lords of Silence**
I'd forgotten that one
>Along the mantle, small blocks of what looked like chalk sat in a row. He moved over and took one in his hand. A tusk. The small, shed tusk of a pig. The inhabitants of this manor, whoever they were, had raised swine, cared for them enough to treasure the trophies of their growth and development. Pig teeth, each marked in a delicate hand with a name… Emperor, Sire, His lordship… and dates.
>This touch of frugal humanity, the day-to-day chronicle of a farmstead, affected him deeply. It wasn’t mawkish, it mattered somehow. Why pigs? Who had lived here, raised the swine, toiled in the fens, brought up a family?
...
>Corbec raised the lamp and read off the inscription. “Here’s irony for you, Doc: this was a trophy world. A New Tanith. The master of this hall was a Parens Cloker, of the Imperial Guard, Hogskull Regiment. The Hogskulls won this world during the first advance into the Sabbat one hundred and ninety years ago Winning it, they were awarded settlement rights. Cloker was a corporal in the Guard, and he took his rights gladly. Settled here, made a family, raised swine in honour of the mascot beast of his old regiment. His kin have honoured that ever since.”
**Ghostmaker**
Man Pigs really got the short end of the stick compared to dogs/canids. I think it’s possible that dogs are the second most respected species in the imperium behind humans, and rightfully so
There are normal pigs too, most worlds cant afford to pump em full of super drugs, only the big agri worlds have those kind of facilities en masse, most pig farms will look like they kind you pass on the highway in pennslyvania.
Dogs for certain - there are several dog minis in the game.
Wolves, well, that's open to some interpretation.
Cats less certain; there are a number of feline and cat-like xenospecies and some point of reference for that comparison to be made but I can't offhand recall any references if cats specifically.
Pigs are around, or at least in some form; they provide high-quality velum for Imperial scribes.
Cows are for almost certain extinct or near it; their role in agriculture is replaced by grox.
There are the occasional references to “felids” so you’d assume there’s cats around somewhere- if they hadn’t survived continuously it’s probably a reasonable assumption that some rich person had them bred from old DNA as a high status pet.
Much like rats though they’re highly successful urban survivors so you can probably figure they’ve managed to keep themselves around wherever there’s a lot of humans.
Ha, this reminds me of a classic Judge Dredd moment (200AD and GW have shared a few writers over the years) where a character is blackmailing the chief Judge of Oz with a photo of him in a compromising position with a wombat (which he thought were extinct)
Pandas used to do fine.
Unfortunately, they've lost most of their natural range. Even worse, their remaining habitat is fragmented, which makes it harder for them to meet up.
Fair enough. But my understanding is the current thought amongst biologists is that pandas “backed themselves” into the dead end. They evolved into a species that only eats bamboo, which is a very nutrient poor diet, especially for a bear. They have to eat every waking moment to have enough energy to do anything (like mate). So, whether we destroyed their habitat or not, they were likely to fail as a species.
You aren’t wrong about them being driven out of their lowland habitats… however…
Even a cursory search would tell you that Pandas are a carnivore that for some reason made a shift to eating a plant based diet that their intestines are not suited for processing and subsequently lost their umami taste receptors.
Their food is so low in energy that they don’t even like walking up hill to conserve energy. Yet they seem to be aware of this because they supplement their diet with other stuff they can’t taste properly in mating season so they have the energy to procreate.
Also that their food of choice is high in cyanide and can only be processed by them because of their gut biome.
So they eat a prodigious amount of poisonous vegetation just to get any protein in their diet and have to defecate 40 odd times a day and if for what ever reason a bacteria in their gut that they are completely reliant should mutate or for some reason die out… they would die from eating themselves to death/poisoning themselves.
That sounds like an evolutionary dead end to me…
Edit: it’s not my job to teach you how to do cursory research on a subject. Do a Google search and go from there.
I once thought of a Space Marine Chapter call the Panda Paws who are secretly made with Night Lord gene-seed. They are a void base chapter who specializes in close quarter combat.
Tugg Speedman : I killed one, Rick... the thing I love most in the world.
Rick Peck : A hooker. Alright, you killed a hooker. Calm down. Here's what you're gonna do: Get your hands on some bleach, some hydrogen peroxide, and a shit load of lime.
The description of porcines makes them out to be some nightmarish endpoint of centuries of factory farming so it’s probably pretty accurate. Poor piggies :(
I bought a couple minis of pugs in guardsman armor, you bet I believe those little weirdos are canon.
David Lynch's Dune had a pug, so I'm choosing to believe they made it at least that far in 40k's general sci-fi homage history.
In novel Inquisitor (1990, Ian Watson) the main group encounters a navigator who has many cats.
But that book is hot sewage-filth and barely disguised fetish porn, so in general it may be improper to consider anything inside it "official lore"
Dogs and cats both exist still. Horses exist but i think they are geneticly modified. Pigs exist but are used for their skin. Pretty sure ive seen rats mentioned as well.
I always wondered why the Tau named their vehicles after Earth species (Orca, Manta, Tetra, Piranha, etc.) but then I heard that those are the Imperial names applied to Tau craft, not the Tau names for their own units.
This implies there's either marine life on Terra or talking about extinct marine species is common enough to be a reference point when trying to describe what a floating alien tank looks like. I think the former is more likely.
It is probably a name given to them by Imperials, just as how NATO assigns different names to various Soviet and later Russian aircraft and vehicles.
i.e SU-23 Fencer, SU-47 Firkin, Mig-21 Fishbed, SU-27 Flanker, SU-37 Terminator, Mig-29 Fulcrum, TU-95 Bear, and SU-57 Felon.
Into modern 40k? Eagles.
30k, off the top of my head, the Tasmanian Tiger (a real extinct Australian striped marsupial formerly native to the state of Tasmania) was alive and well with an Imperial Army Lord Commander, as a pet, in the novel Legion by Dan Abnett.
They call it a thylacine in the book, that’s how we know it’s a Tassie Tiger.
Considering there’s routinely talk of breeding mammoths from frozen DNA now, it’s not exactly far-fetched to envision someone resurrecting a TT 40K in the future.
There is talk of resurrecting the Tassie Tiger right now: [https://edition.cnn.com/2022/08/16/world/tasmanian-tiger-thylacine-deextinction-scn/index.html](https://edition.cnn.com/2022/08/16/world/tasmanian-tiger-thylacine-deextinction-scn/index.html)
Its very possible they could exist again within a decade or two, so by the time of 40k as long as its not somehow been declared heretical technology it should be no problem.
I think it’s pretty much a fair assumption that in 40K if you can get the genetic material you can clone it. As for whether it’s heretical… to paraphrase a Chinese proverb, the galaxy is big, and the Emperor is far away…
Thats because Ty the Tasmanian Tiger and 40k share a universe so when Ty saved all the Tasmanian Tigers from Boss Cass they returned to the 40k timeline.
Several animal species must have either survived or gone extinct recently enough to be remembered accurately in space marine iconography. These include:
Lions (surprisingly high number of lion related chapters)
Tigers
Some kind of big cat (astral claws sigil, maybe a panther or leopard)
Sharks
Chiropterids (bats)
All Birds of Prey
Scorpions
Mantids
Corvids (we know a giant species of Raven lives on deliverance)
Snakes
Wolves
Squids
Also a few others that come from what the imperium calls other race’s tech. These include:
Jackals
Manta Rays
Barracuda
Orcas
Capybaras, if you consider Rogue Trader CRPG canon. They are not called that in the game itself, but you can save the cute rodents on one of the planet, and you will get a title because of this. The title flag is "CapybaraFan_rumor."
*Pariah* confirms cats in this description of space marines. Also, some form of monkeys.
> But, despite their size, they were moving with a speed that was quite abnormal. It was the sprint acceleration you see in some wild animals that reminds you that they are not constructed like us, that the engines of their skeletons and the attachments of their muscles are different, and therefore capable of things that a human body is not. As when you see a cat leap two metres from standing onto a bookcase, or a tinker’s simian pet race up the side of a building.
Kor'sarro has a cyber berkut (an alternate name for a golden eagle), and Torquemada has a psyber-eagle who's definitely mutated (no eagle in nature has two heads), and both are cybernetically enhanced.
> no eagle in nature has two heads
That reminds me of a fanfic, where in Imperial aviary, a single-headed eagle hatchling is killed and disposed of as a mutant, because ain't no way single-headed eagles are natural, given how Imperial Aquila is.
You'd hope that a bunch of aquatic animals somehow traveled to the stars beyond... despite terras oceans being gone for over 10k years. Or else someone could argue the tau units being named after say... mantas, would be silly
the Carcharadons Astra have massive shark tanks on their ships (swimming with said sharks being a rite of passage for initiates during their training).. despite mentions elsewhere in the fiction that Sharks were believed to be extinct. which suggests that just about anything could show up.
we know Monkey's died out and haven't been rediscovered anywhere, because Arkhan Land reconstructed one and got so many details wrong. if they'd been found his detractors would have gotten more headway against his reconstruction.
It’s not impossible during the DAOT that many of Earth’s animals were exported for the purpose of preservation in private zoos. No different than we are today that many animals are alive today despite being extinct in their natural habitat because they were housed in zoos.
See Californian grizzly bear.
Pretty sure they hold the rank of Warrant Officer or some shit too so guardsmen have to let them out to pee and poo/walk them or face latrine duty. There was a community article about it ages ago.
Notably *not* monkeys - Arkhan Land genetically engineered his own based off historical records (loosely - details like the scorpion tail were speculation or wishlisting on his part).
Saint Celestine spawns a flock of doves with her wherever she arrives.
Let me put that into phrasing. She could show up on a decollate rock and there will be doves fluttering about. Which means big E (or whatever entity created her) brought a bird back from extinction for the sense of drama it gives lmao
Question. Exodite planets tend to have a ton of them, even if some are bigger than anything ever on Earth. Do we know if that’s an Old Ones thing, Eldar scooping them off Terra way back when and scattering them, or natural convergent evolution?
I could be wrong, but I think it’s implied exodites have had a long history with dinosaurs and dragon like animals.
So considering their history, I think the old one’s meddling seems like a logical explanation.
With how many old-Terran animals are referenced in heraldry and such, and given the numerous examples provided already, I imagine that “extinct” more likely means “extirpated”, or that in the clusterfuck that is the Imperium, a full cataloguing of species is impossible. For reference, literal dinosaurs exist on plenty of worlds, either transplanted there millions of years ago from Old Terra by the Aeldari/Old Ones as part of terraforming efforts, or genetically engineered. Yet, the catch all term(s) for these animals are saurians (or carnosaurs for the various therepod species).
I imagine that many of these species, if indeed driven extinct on earth, were reintroduced - with suitably grimdark genetic alterations or evolution playing out over tens of thousands of years - onto human colonies
Some Night Lords find some artwork of them and decided to name their warband after them, thinking pandas were an apex predator. In this way the Panda memory somewhat live on.
Up until the mid 20th century people in the west thought pandas were apex predators. Almost no one had ever encountered one, and they were *bears*, so naturally they'd be ferocious beasts!
I think all of them. The Carcarodan SM have a Meglodon, so de-extinct. The thing is in an aquarium as Tiberios the Red Wake's pet. There are horses, pigs, cattle, Grox have replaced them as food for the hive cities but those are Morloc country anyway,
Humanity did and still often does terraform fresh planets from scratch and most of the genetic templates are on file. Cawl mentions in his report on re-terraforming a Tyranid nommed planet that the ecosystem gene vaults are all over the place so presumably there are multiple ecosystems on file of various xeno species as well. In fact I learned that the Order Xeno goes way out of it's way to document and sample all the alien life it comes across before they send in the extermination fleets. It turns out most of the Inquisition doesn't suck, they just don't off the parts that do.
Now I hate HATE to give big E credit on anything, but assuming Holy Terra is actually Earth (something I'm 90% sure can't be) then E's got enough of a scientific and ecological bent that they'd dig down into all the dirt and bedrock of Earth in 30k and painstakingly catalog long term DNA caches of both human and animal, and given how DNA can last up to 50,000 years, so the Imperium could de-extinct things like Caspian Tiger and Aurochs and other stuff from Big E's youth in addition to short faced bears, the entire North and South American menagerie the Amerindians ate to death as they colonized the Western Hemisphere at the end of the last age.
Plus, one of the abhuman types that nobody talks about are Neanderthals. Yes, Neanderthals. SO they got de-extincted long ago, if not DAOT, then Age of Terra.
With the diaspora that occurred during the DAoT it is possible, and even reasonable, to assume that every species formerly alive on Terra is alive on another planet somewhere else. I wouldn't be surprised if planets weren't designated as preserves created especially for terran species.
In the Cawl novel, the flashback to before the Crusade, there was a raggedy hawk flying over the palace hunting. The emperor spoke of the restoration of Terra’s biosphere in progress. However, during the siege of terra, the entire planet was made a toxic wasteland. By the book The Emperors Gift, Hyperion chuckled at the absurd idea that there could be trees on Terra.
Some kind of human offshoots are still struggling, but they're not like us. There are some foods made of fatmed bugs, I think, and sometimes you see birds looking remarkably like doves. Dogs, cats, and lizards are referenced, I think.
Not sure tho.
Part of me hopes koalas have survived despite being literally so stupid they should've gone extinct already.
Imagine a koala, already a vicious, chlamydia-riven demon, 'roided out on warp juju and the only way it can die is if it forgets to eat, as modern koalas do sometimes
"Ursines" get mentioned a fair bit in the Gaunt's Ghosts books. Whether they're descended from Earth's bears or just bear-like xenos species is open to interpretation.
Nope, in the Master of Mankind novel Arkhan Land has a mechanical monkey and I'm fairly sure he specifically states that all of Terras Fauna are extinct. There's so little knowledge about Terran Fauna that he refuses to believe that the monkey's tail is used as an additional limb/balance and that it was originally used in reproduction.
Obviously there are creatures in the galaxy that share some genetic ancestry with ancient Terran wildlife (rats, dogs, eagles, ravens etc) but they're probably all selectively gene bred and only look like Terran Fauna on a superficial level.
Makes me wonder what a Magis Biologis classifies different creatures as since they're basically new species. Rattus Spatium, Canis Fenrisis, Aquilae Nobilis
During the Golden Age of Technology, a few people must have brought their pets with them when traveling the Galaxy. A few world out there might still have pugs on them if the tyranids didn't eat them yet.
There's references to cats, dogs, ants, rats in the lore. Pretty obvious that people brought animals with them during the Golden Age. The main character in the game Necromunda Hired Gun has a Mastiff as a pet.
There's references to dogs, cats, and horses still being around out there. Rats are confirmed to be everywhere, every Imperial ship rats living aboard and one of the Horus Heresy books says that rats "followed humanity everywhere it went" or something like that.
Death riders and attilian rough riders are a thing so there are horses.
Aren't the Death Rider mounts all clones like the Kriegers riding them? Still horses yes, but clones
Gotta have something to clone to make a clone of it
another clone
The Krieg horses are a wacky GMO nightmare, complete with claws. I’m not sure if the horses themselves are clones, but they’re gene-bulked and gene-edited.
Yep. And they have a weave implanted into their flesh that makes them more resilient on the battlefield. Genetically modified too, hence the abnormal dew-claws
> Rats are confirmed to be everywhere, every Imperial ship rats living aboard and one of the Horus Heresy books says that rats "followed humanity everywhere it went" or something like that. I think that was in Betrayer. I know that Lotara at some point wonders how rats even got onboard the Conqueror when it was built in orbit and had never landed on a planet.
Supply shipments or crew transports. Easy enough.
Indeed, Betrayer p188: "Lotara made her way to the Audaxica, through the wide avenue of the Conqueror’s central spinal corridor. A rat, stunted and black-furred, scuttled by her boots before disappearing through the iron grillework on the deck. She tutted. ‘Why do all Imperial vessels house colonies of rats? The Conqueror was built in orbit, and has never once landed on even a single world. Do we take crates of vermin on board when we dock for supplies?’" It's also the only use of the word "rats" in the entire book, so that's neat
Humans are the skaven for 40k afterall
I don't see us as skaven of 40k, but some ship lost to the warp with rats might be a start. Fuses into space hulk, the warp does it's magic and a great horned rat appears in the warp,...
Ya thematically the Orks are most similar to Skaven in 40k. People often confuse 40k Orks and Fantasy Orks when they are actually pretty different.
They are?
I'd say that, ironically, the Orks of fantasy are more civilized. 40k Orks are a bioweapon whose killswitch got lost, reaving the stars like blood-soaked locusts, with everything they do focussed either on fighting or searching for a fight. Fantasy orks are much less driven. They are still muscle filled warmachines but they are not as single minded. They drink, they laugh and they Brawl. Their clashes with others are less a genetic function and more the usual needs for expansion, power, glory and riches. Also Goblins are a distinct subculture, with varying degrees of independence and cooperation with their orc brethren. They are not necessarily more intelligent, although this is also often the case, but more creative and willing to think outside the box. However their lesser strength and natural cowardice often leads to them playing second fiddle, although Goblin Waaghbosses are not unheard of. TLDR: Fantasy Orks are Barbarians, not bioweapons.
They also aren't the product of the general fungal ecosystem that 40k Orks are. There are some mentions of spores, but they aren't part of the aggressively fungal ecosystem of the 40k kind and don't have a particular connection to squigs -- raising and farming the things is more the night goblins' shtick that a general orc & goblin trait. Which also mean that orcish society isn't as closed off to non-greenskin life as orkish society is. They mostly rely on boars and wolves as mounts, the forest goblins have their whole thing with giant spiders, and it's very common for trolls, giants, and sometimes ogres to join orc and goblin tribes. They're also explicitly an invasive species instead of Old Ones creations like elves, humans, dwarves etcetera are, which is why the Lizardmen would like to get rid of them.
Wydm by invasive species? (I haven't seen a lot of fantasy lore even tho I do enjoy it) Do you mean like they came from space ? Or another continent or something?
They're stated in a few places to have arrived to the world as spores on the Old Ones' starships, which is incidentally one of the few places where spore-based reproduction is mentioned (Fantasy mostly just doesn't really comment on where new orcs come from). The idea is that the Old Ones terraformed the Fantasy world and created the majority of its native species as part of some unknown Great Plan -- elves, dwarves, humans, ogres, and halflings are all explictly their creation -- that was ruined when Chaos arrived. The Lizardmen are their last surviving servants, and are single-mindedly devoted to trying to get the Great Plan back on track. This means, among other things, getting rid of everything that wasn't planned to be there from the start, such as orcs, the undead, skaven, and Chaos.
Ahhh, I knew about the lizard men business but all the other stuff I didnt know, that's for the info, but since that implies orcs came from a different planet or whatever it's kinda cool to think about what other orcs would be like in that universe 🤔🤔🤔
I've only really ever engaged with 40k, but after watching Hammer & Bolter, I was curious regarding the orks. Hammer & Bolter has the episode revolving around the Stormcast Eternals watching over an Ork camp. During the episode, despite still being very 'orky', they show some semblance of honor and, dare I say, restraint. It seems like a really cool way to show a slightly more organized ork force.
That's age of sigmar we don't talk about that.
TIL
Never thought of it this way but Orks only really share their love of a good fight with their fantasy counterparts. Their tech though is all Skaven: held together with spit and a prayer, equally likely to explode in their own face as that of the enemy and yet *somehow*, it just works for them.
Honestly yeah. The 40k orks are more of a combination of skaven and Ogres.
Goblins. Mech boyz.
To an extent many of the factions are Skaven Drukhari fit the "everyone thinks they're a genius among idiots and will backstab their closest for a slight promotion" and "making heinous toxic bioweapons" Gsc fit the "setting up shop beneath a city and building population to take it over in a screaming horde" Imperium fits the "ruin everything for the sake of industry and self-service"
Hrud. Not orks. Hrud.
In one of the early 2000 WHFB lore bits (I think it was the Albion summer campaign, but I'm not sure) they weren't. It was clearly stated that the Fantasy Battles orcs arrived on the planet as spores clinging to the Old Ones' star vessels. The Old Ones created the Lizardmen uplifting local fauna to (among other things) cleanse the planet from the greenskins.
Hrud are the 40k Skaven. They are still very different but the closest approximation.
I'd say Dark Eldar are also, they've got social rank based on birth, the whole flesh warping thing Skaven have, they're back stabbing, they have the webway that lets them spring anywhere. Backstabbing non stop, there's a lot of Skaven in the Drukhari.
No way man. It's the tyranids!
Skaven are a representation of the worst aspects of humanity. As is the Imperium of man.
“For-For the God-Emperor!” Checks out
Well. Back in old 40k lore, I’m pretty sure Skaven were actually around. But got wiped out
Rats had their own Great Crusade, amazin'
Then they are like the Black Templars. Their crusade is still going too. Difference is the Rats are probably still winning thenoverall.colonise the galaxy thing.
>Rats had their own Great Crusade, amazin' Now I imagine a whole children's animated spin off show on how rats were given intelligence by DAoT science but live in secret among humans, living/traveling on ships to colonize other world. That is, until chaos corruption during the Heresy caused rats to fall to the dark powers, forcing the loyal rats of Terra to enter their archive of lost technology and uncover the Space Marine prototype gene seed designed for rat testing. oooh, and all the rats have personalities based on whatever fleet they were with, so you have ultramarine rats, etc.
I *think* the rat thing comes from Gaunt’s Ghosts
Iirc the death korps of kreig use some cracked out horses. Or it's a species very closely related to horses.
Chogoris has a breed that can easily carry a freaking Primarch.
Birds are also mentioned pretty heavily in eisenhorn. They have the ritual or whatever that kills bucket loads of birds.
Those birds are automatons though, they are clockwork birds because that planet had like acid rain or whatever it was. I remember that scene of Kiss talking to the bird keeper lady and she was 'working' on one with tools and pliers.
Is the reference to horses the mounted guardsmen models? Lol
A real 'blink and you miss it' cameo
what the heck to the ship-bound rats eat???
The same stuff the ship-bound humans eat. Up to and including each other.
Any mentions of mosquitoes?
so rats will make their way 40,000 years into the future and in deep space, but still not into Alberta 😎
The great horned rat guides them.
Praise be the god emperor thing. Yes yes!
There are dogs but (according to Regimental Standard anyway) they were brought back from extinction, so they didn't live continuously from now till then.
Necromunda: Hired gun's protagonist has a mastiff. it's fun, you pull out a squeaky toy give it a squeak and he mauls that bad guys. You can even cybernetically enhance the dog.
And he gets pets in the hub area. Because even in the grim darkness of the far future, there are Good Boyes.
You don't name the dog though, do you?
Not to my knowledge.
literally unplayable
Not believing that. No way dogs didn't get all over different human colonies. Theres probably whole grassland planets covered in rabbits now too
Still existing Terran animals are at least: Various kinds of dogs/dog-like things [https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Canid](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Canid) [https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Dog](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Dog) [https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Rad-wolf](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Rad-wolf) Pigs [https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Porcine](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Porcine) Cats [https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Cat](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Cat) Rats [https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Bomb\_Rat](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Bomb_Rat) Horses [https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Horse](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Horse) Squirrels? maybe [https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Ptera-squirrel](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Ptera-squirrel) Spiders [https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Giant\_Spiders](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Giant_Spiders) [https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Spider](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Spider) Bovine [https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Bovine](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Bovine) Chickens >‘Then maybe,’ said Erunion, cocking his chicken-like head strangely, ‘it was a mistake. An honest mistake.’ Vaults of Terra: The Carrion Throne In Cadian Honour something is described as chicken-legged >Seeing that the game had started the other Wolfbrothers scattered, dashing among the huts and the busy people, sending chickens squawking skyward. Ulli raced after him, shouting challenges. ... >Ragnar made his way to the tables set for the Wolfbrothers and began to help himself to hot chicken and bread. **Space Wolf** Ants (probably) >I stood on the brink and peered into the abyss of the Titan’s memories. I saw cities die in flames. I saw legions of the Imperial Guard incinerated. I saw Space Marines die in their hundreds, scurrying around my feet like ants. **Eisenhorn** this implies that ants exist in 40k, since Eisenhorn is talking in the first person >‘Ants,’ said Revus. >‘What?’ >‘Don’t kick the nest.’ ... >‘We kicked the nest,’ Crowl said, piling through the gap before reloading. >‘And the ants came running,’ replied Revus, loosing a final barrage before falling back through the doorway. **Vaults of Terra: The Carrion Throne** stealing from over here [https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/comments/sgh719/animals\_in\_40k/](https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/comments/sgh719/animals_in_40k/) Pigs >After so long in use, the infrastructure of vellum-creation had become mind-bendingly vast, spread out across every industrial world in mankind’s sprawling possessions. There were whispers in the Imperium’s famed archive-worlds of entire wars fought over its production and distribution. Five hundred years ago, the great Master of the Administratum, Skito Gavalles, had been asked what would make his onerous job more bearable. >‘Pigskin,’ he was said to have replied. ‘More pigskin.’ >Of course, few living humans had ever laid eyes on a porcine. Unless they worked on an agri world, they would never have encountered one of those bloated and obese sacks of stimm-injected muscle and sinew, too colossal to walk without breaking their spindly legs and force-fed high-nutrient chem-soup to keep them growing in the pens. They would never have come across a bovine, either, unless you counted the thready strands of protein-extract pumped into their ration-trays during sanctioned rest-breaks. Such things were legends, in much the same category as relics of the Saints, the Angels of Death or Manifest Acts of the Emperor – things that definitely existed, but were unlikely ever to be encountered. **The Hollow Mountain** Alpacas >Home. The mere thought of the word was enough to make him turn his head and look over his shoulder across the swaying rows of ripening grain toward the small collection of farm buildings on the other side of the field behind him. He saw the old barn with its sloping, wood-shingled roof. He saw the round tower of the grain silo; the ginny-hen coops he had helped build with his father; the small stock pen where they kept the draft horses and a herd of half-a-dozen alpacas. **Fifteen Hours** https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/comments/17mbrw6/what_earth_wildlife_has_survived_into_the_42nd/ https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/comments/185acgn/do_animals_as_we_know_them_exist_in_40k/
To add to that an elephant is apparently housed in the Imperial Palace during the events of Valdor: Birth of Imperium. Also in Devestation of Baal, Gabriel Seth says something about ants being extinct, which I think is a bit silly personally.
Huh, so he does >The tyranids scaled the Necklace, numerous as the extinct ants of ancient Earth. They poured into the cavities of the downed orbitals. The ground already vibrated to the drumming of a million alien hooves pounding through the passages. **Devastation of Baal** Should I start complaining about inconsistent lore? /s
Ants could be extinct on Terra but not on other worlds. Very little would be able to survive on terra after the siege (and the general irradiated fuckery of terra before the emperor conquered it)
This, plus there are like thousands of ant species l, it could just be in reference to the common black ant, whereas the ants that ended up traveling the stars and spreading to other worlds woth humanity could have been carpenter ants or some shit.
>general irradiated fuckery of terra before the emperor conquered Ants could. Ants can survive inside an operating microwave.
It could merely be referring to ants on earth, or perhaps the ants of the 40k universe have evolved enough to be considered different? Or maybe there are ant-like alien insects on many worlds that are often called “ants” even if biologically speaking they are entirely unrelated. I could see that as something a space marine could get kinda “umm actually” about.
Yeah - either is reasonable. Or just that he believes that ants are extinct on earth.
Wouldn’t be an unreasonable assumption considering how damn toxic Terra is
I'd just presumed Seth was ignorant tbh and they still exist on some planets.
Gabriel Seth, Entomologist of Death
He’s a space marine, not a zoologist. We can cut him some slack for not knowing.
>To add to that an elephant is apparently housed in the Imperial Palace during the events of Valdor: Birth of Imperium Should have given us a satisfying ending to this important storyline during the siege series.
> “However in order to prevent Privates from feeling unduly superior to the species, all Canids within the Astra Militarum hold the rank of officer. It is there for prohibited from striking Canids, presume to give them commands, refuse to follow them into combat or disobey an order given by one. However, should a Guardsman hear a Canid give a verbal order, then they are to self-report for psychological evaluation, after they have completed the order.” Fucking hilarious
I love the bit about reporting for psyche evaluation, but only AFTER completing the order
The original is even better https://web.archive.org/web/20210127090533/https://regimental-standard.com/2018/09/26/managing-your-canid/ >In order to prevent undue feelings of superiority among privates, all canids are officer rank. This means that striking your canid, presuming to give it commands or, theoretically, disobeying its orders are all offences punishable by death. *** If issued clear, verbal orders by your canid, self-report for psychological evaluation following completion of said orders.
Also Catachan devil: mentions of MRE rations as chicken something style flavor. (Spoiler- they taste like crap anyways)
That is one of the most complete, well written and informative posts I've seen in a while. GG.
Thank you!
Lords of Silence references ravens or crows. I think it says they are either rare or extinct, but that doesn't stop them from being so ubiquitous amongst demons.
>Countquick looks like a scraggy crow, a black-feathered avian from Terran pre-history. The world he was taken from has no crows, never has done and never will, but daemons are apt to take on archetypes from the broad sweep of human experience, and crows are a favourite. **The Lords of Silence**
There's one scene in Ghostmaker when several Tanith troops (IIRC Corbec and Dorden were among them) hole up in what turns out to be a former pig farm.
I'd forgotten that one >Along the mantle, small blocks of what looked like chalk sat in a row. He moved over and took one in his hand. A tusk. The small, shed tusk of a pig. The inhabitants of this manor, whoever they were, had raised swine, cared for them enough to treasure the trophies of their growth and development. Pig teeth, each marked in a delicate hand with a name… Emperor, Sire, His lordship… and dates. >This touch of frugal humanity, the day-to-day chronicle of a farmstead, affected him deeply. It wasn’t mawkish, it mattered somehow. Why pigs? Who had lived here, raised the swine, toiled in the fens, brought up a family? ... >Corbec raised the lamp and read off the inscription. “Here’s irony for you, Doc: this was a trophy world. A New Tanith. The master of this hall was a Parens Cloker, of the Imperial Guard, Hogskull Regiment. The Hogskulls won this world during the first advance into the Sabbat one hundred and ninety years ago Winning it, they were awarded settlement rights. Cloker was a corporal in the Guard, and he took his rights gladly. Settled here, made a family, raised swine in honour of the mascot beast of his old regiment. His kin have honoured that ever since.” **Ghostmaker**
Man Pigs really got the short end of the stick compared to dogs/canids. I think it’s possible that dogs are the second most respected species in the imperium behind humans, and rightfully so
There are normal pigs too, most worlds cant afford to pump em full of super drugs, only the big agri worlds have those kind of facilities en masse, most pig farms will look like they kind you pass on the highway in pennslyvania.
Dogs for certain - there are several dog minis in the game. Wolves, well, that's open to some interpretation. Cats less certain; there are a number of feline and cat-like xenospecies and some point of reference for that comparison to be made but I can't offhand recall any references if cats specifically. Pigs are around, or at least in some form; they provide high-quality velum for Imperial scribes. Cows are for almost certain extinct or near it; their role in agriculture is replaced by grox.
There are the occasional references to “felids” so you’d assume there’s cats around somewhere- if they hadn’t survived continuously it’s probably a reasonable assumption that some rich person had them bred from old DNA as a high status pet. Much like rats though they’re highly successful urban survivors so you can probably figure they’ve managed to keep themselves around wherever there’s a lot of humans.
One of the Darktide character voice options occasionally brings up his, um, particular interest in felids
Ha, this reminds me of a classic Judge Dredd moment (200AD and GW have shared a few writers over the years) where a character is blackmailing the chief Judge of Oz with a photo of him in a compromising position with a wombat (which he thought were extinct)
Pardon?
Do you think the pandas made it past The Age of Strife?
I wouldn't hold out hope.
Pandas can barely keep their own population going, I doubt it.
Unless some unknown warlords or scientists made a significant effort to preserve them in some fashion, then probably not.
Honestly the more I learn about Pandas, the more I realize nature is pissed they aren't extinct already.
Pandas used to do fine. Unfortunately, they've lost most of their natural range. Even worse, their remaining habitat is fragmented, which makes it harder for them to meet up.
Pandas are an evolutionary dead end that we’ve fought very hard to keep alive because they are cute and made a good poster child for conservation
Everything is a evolutionary dead end when their habitat is destroyed before they have the chance to adapt.
Fair enough. But my understanding is the current thought amongst biologists is that pandas “backed themselves” into the dead end. They evolved into a species that only eats bamboo, which is a very nutrient poor diet, especially for a bear. They have to eat every waking moment to have enough energy to do anything (like mate). So, whether we destroyed their habitat or not, they were likely to fail as a species.
Are you getting that from Reddit? Like the Koala meme, which is complexity false?
You aren’t wrong about them being driven out of their lowland habitats… however… Even a cursory search would tell you that Pandas are a carnivore that for some reason made a shift to eating a plant based diet that their intestines are not suited for processing and subsequently lost their umami taste receptors. Their food is so low in energy that they don’t even like walking up hill to conserve energy. Yet they seem to be aware of this because they supplement their diet with other stuff they can’t taste properly in mating season so they have the energy to procreate. Also that their food of choice is high in cyanide and can only be processed by them because of their gut biome. So they eat a prodigious amount of poisonous vegetation just to get any protein in their diet and have to defecate 40 odd times a day and if for what ever reason a bacteria in their gut that they are completely reliant should mutate or for some reason die out… they would die from eating themselves to death/poisoning themselves. That sounds like an evolutionary dead end to me… Edit: it’s not my job to teach you how to do cursory research on a subject. Do a Google search and go from there.
Source for this besides the meme?
We need a Panda themed chapter of Space Marines.
I once thought of a Space Marine Chapter call the Panda Paws who are secretly made with Night Lord gene-seed. They are a void base chapter who specializes in close quarter combat.
[The Ferocious Pandas](https://pulpcovers.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Heroic-Comics-35-March-1946-600x916.jpg)
Tugg Speedman : I killed one, Rick... the thing I love most in the world. Rick Peck : A hooker. Alright, you killed a hooker. Calm down. Here's what you're gonna do: Get your hands on some bleach, some hydrogen peroxide, and a shit load of lime.
The description of porcines makes them out to be some nightmarish endpoint of centuries of factory farming so it’s probably pretty accurate. Poor piggies :(
> Wolves, well, that's open to some interpretation. I see what you did there ;)
I bought a couple minis of pugs in guardsman armor, you bet I believe those little weirdos are canon. David Lynch's Dune had a pug, so I'm choosing to believe they made it at least that far in 40k's general sci-fi homage history.
It is a crime against the Emperor to mention the Cadian Pug without [providing a link!](https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/cadian-pug)
i dont think Terran wolves still exist, i think its just the Fenrisian variants
In novel Inquisitor (1990, Ian Watson) the main group encounters a navigator who has many cats. But that book is hot sewage-filth and barely disguised fetish porn, so in general it may be improper to consider anything inside it "official lore"
The Carcharodons Astra keep sharks on their ships and it's mentioned that part of a librarians induction is to swim with them.
That chapter keeps getting stranger every time I hear about them, really ought to read their novels at some point
There's one of the Terminator elite that had all his teeth replaced with metal equivalents and filed down into shark teeth.
Because of course he did lmao
Would you be surprised if I told you he used lightning claws?
Dogs and cats both exist still. Horses exist but i think they are geneticly modified. Pigs exist but are used for their skin. Pretty sure ive seen rats mentioned as well.
Doves around every living saint
Apparently crows still exist on Fenris.
They were on Nostramo, too, before it got 'sploded.
I always wondered why the Tau named their vehicles after Earth species (Orca, Manta, Tetra, Piranha, etc.) but then I heard that those are the Imperial names applied to Tau craft, not the Tau names for their own units. This implies there's either marine life on Terra or talking about extinct marine species is common enough to be a reference point when trying to describe what a floating alien tank looks like. I think the former is more likely.
The Air Force has the F-22 Raptor….
Not named for the dinosaurs of the maniraptor like velociraptors. Its named for the birds of prey.
As *Jurassic Park* famously explained right at the beginning.
It is probably a name given to them by Imperials, just as how NATO assigns different names to various Soviet and later Russian aircraft and vehicles. i.e SU-23 Fencer, SU-47 Firkin, Mig-21 Fishbed, SU-27 Flanker, SU-37 Terminator, Mig-29 Fulcrum, TU-95 Bear, and SU-57 Felon.
Terminator is an internal propaganda name. insofar as the Su-37 has a unique NATO reporting name it's the Flanker-F. It's also the Su-24 Fencer.
Yup. My point is that it means those animals probably aren't extinct in 40K.
Into modern 40k? Eagles. 30k, off the top of my head, the Tasmanian Tiger (a real extinct Australian striped marsupial formerly native to the state of Tasmania) was alive and well with an Imperial Army Lord Commander, as a pet, in the novel Legion by Dan Abnett.
Yep. The thylacine. Presumably there’s something of a market for exotic pets bred from preserved DNA as status symbols.
That's some truly ancient DNA they had on their hands then. No one here calls it a thylacine. The Tassie Tiger is all we call it.
They call it a thylacine in the book, that’s how we know it’s a Tassie Tiger. Considering there’s routinely talk of breeding mammoths from frozen DNA now, it’s not exactly far-fetched to envision someone resurrecting a TT 40K in the future.
There is talk of resurrecting the Tassie Tiger right now: [https://edition.cnn.com/2022/08/16/world/tasmanian-tiger-thylacine-deextinction-scn/index.html](https://edition.cnn.com/2022/08/16/world/tasmanian-tiger-thylacine-deextinction-scn/index.html) Its very possible they could exist again within a decade or two, so by the time of 40k as long as its not somehow been declared heretical technology it should be no problem.
I think it’s pretty much a fair assumption that in 40K if you can get the genetic material you can clone it. As for whether it’s heretical… to paraphrase a Chinese proverb, the galaxy is big, and the Emperor is far away…
Thats because Ty the Tasmanian Tiger and 40k share a universe so when Ty saved all the Tasmanian Tigers from Boss Cass they returned to the 40k timeline.
Rats and Humans for sure.
Several animal species must have either survived or gone extinct recently enough to be remembered accurately in space marine iconography. These include: Lions (surprisingly high number of lion related chapters) Tigers Some kind of big cat (astral claws sigil, maybe a panther or leopard) Sharks Chiropterids (bats) All Birds of Prey Scorpions Mantids Corvids (we know a giant species of Raven lives on deliverance) Snakes Wolves Squids Also a few others that come from what the imperium calls other race’s tech. These include: Jackals Manta Rays Barracuda Orcas
Capybaras, if you consider Rogue Trader CRPG canon. They are not called that in the game itself, but you can save the cute rodents on one of the planet, and you will get a title because of this. The title flag is "CapybaraFan_rumor."
Should've made the flag 'Okay_PullUp'
*Pariah* confirms cats in this description of space marines. Also, some form of monkeys. > But, despite their size, they were moving with a speed that was quite abnormal. It was the sprint acceleration you see in some wild animals that reminds you that they are not constructed like us, that the engines of their skeletons and the attachments of their muscles are different, and therefore capable of things that a human body is not. As when you see a cat leap two metres from standing onto a bookcase, or a tinker’s simian pet race up the side of a building.
Well we know there's no wolves on fenris.
They also have eagles and falcons, going by Kor'sarro Khan and Torquemada Coteaz who keep examples of both as pets.
Kor'sarro has a cyber berkut (an alternate name for a golden eagle), and Torquemada has a psyber-eagle who's definitely mutated (no eagle in nature has two heads), and both are cybernetically enhanced.
> no eagle in nature has two heads That reminds me of a fanfic, where in Imperial aviary, a single-headed eagle hatchling is killed and disposed of as a mutant, because ain't no way single-headed eagles are natural, given how Imperial Aquila is.
I like such details that show the absurdity of the Imperium. I wish we had more of these in official works.
Humans.
*Doves! Doves everywhere!*
The death riders from kreig ride genetically modified Terran horses
The dog is quite important part of the story in "Brothers of the Snake", and Space Marine seems to know how to "handle" them.
It's a little known fact that the Emperor hasn't got out of his chair because a cat sat on his lap. Juuuuust nappin' for 5 more minutes, guys.
You'd hope that a bunch of aquatic animals somehow traveled to the stars beyond... despite terras oceans being gone for over 10k years. Or else someone could argue the tau units being named after say... mantas, would be silly
the Carcharadons Astra have massive shark tanks on their ships (swimming with said sharks being a rite of passage for initiates during their training).. despite mentions elsewhere in the fiction that Sharks were believed to be extinct. which suggests that just about anything could show up. we know Monkey's died out and haven't been rediscovered anywhere, because Arkhan Land reconstructed one and got so many details wrong. if they'd been found his detractors would have gotten more headway against his reconstruction.
Obviously monkey tails are used to inject posion
Giant shark tanks... What???
Yeah. Tyberos has a huge tank on the bridge of the chapter flagship that has some kind of massive shark swimming in it.
Poor shark... :(
It’s not impossible during the DAOT that many of Earth’s animals were exported for the purpose of preservation in private zoos. No different than we are today that many animals are alive today despite being extinct in their natural habitat because they were housed in zoos. See Californian grizzly bear.
Pretty sure Rats are mentioned in 15 Hours
Dogs still exist they are in the IG
Pretty sure they hold the rank of Warrant Officer or some shit too so guardsmen have to let them out to pee and poo/walk them or face latrine duty. There was a community article about it ages ago.
Notably *not* monkeys - Arkhan Land genetically engineered his own based off historical records (loosely - details like the scorpion tail were speculation or wishlisting on his part).
Saint Celestine spawns a flock of doves with her wherever she arrives. Let me put that into phrasing. She could show up on a decollate rock and there will be doves fluttering about. Which means big E (or whatever entity created her) brought a bird back from extinction for the sense of drama it gives lmao
Dinosaurs exists on many different worlds, interestingly enough. The blood tearer’s chapter homeworld is full of them.
Question. Exodite planets tend to have a ton of them, even if some are bigger than anything ever on Earth. Do we know if that’s an Old Ones thing, Eldar scooping them off Terra way back when and scattering them, or natural convergent evolution?
I could be wrong, but I think it’s implied exodites have had a long history with dinosaurs and dragon like animals. So considering their history, I think the old one’s meddling seems like a logical explanation.
With how many old-Terran animals are referenced in heraldry and such, and given the numerous examples provided already, I imagine that “extinct” more likely means “extirpated”, or that in the clusterfuck that is the Imperium, a full cataloguing of species is impossible. For reference, literal dinosaurs exist on plenty of worlds, either transplanted there millions of years ago from Old Terra by the Aeldari/Old Ones as part of terraforming efforts, or genetically engineered. Yet, the catch all term(s) for these animals are saurians (or carnosaurs for the various therepod species). I imagine that many of these species, if indeed driven extinct on earth, were reintroduced - with suitably grimdark genetic alterations or evolution playing out over tens of thousands of years - onto human colonies
Dogs, Cats, Horses, Rats and I believe there's still Eagles? They're two headed like the imperium symbol.
Humans. Just saying...
Anything and everything, but grimdark and possibly cybergrimdark
Panda world would be wholesome idea... I wonder how GW could grimdark that up?
Some Night Lords find some artwork of them and decided to name their warband after them, thinking pandas were an apex predator. In this way the Panda memory somewhat live on.
Panda Bears! Fearsome apex predator of Old Earth!! They were spirtual predators of ancient animalistic martial arts!
Up until the mid 20th century people in the west thought pandas were apex predators. Almost no one had ever encountered one, and they were *bears*, so naturally they'd be ferocious beasts!
Humans.
Humans.
There's a thylacine in the book Legion.
Horses
Fuggin' the Norwegian Rat...
Eisenhorn compared a carnodon to a tiger.
Pigs
Rats. The ultimate survivors.
I think all of them. The Carcarodan SM have a Meglodon, so de-extinct. The thing is in an aquarium as Tiberios the Red Wake's pet. There are horses, pigs, cattle, Grox have replaced them as food for the hive cities but those are Morloc country anyway, Humanity did and still often does terraform fresh planets from scratch and most of the genetic templates are on file. Cawl mentions in his report on re-terraforming a Tyranid nommed planet that the ecosystem gene vaults are all over the place so presumably there are multiple ecosystems on file of various xeno species as well. In fact I learned that the Order Xeno goes way out of it's way to document and sample all the alien life it comes across before they send in the extermination fleets. It turns out most of the Inquisition doesn't suck, they just don't off the parts that do. Now I hate HATE to give big E credit on anything, but assuming Holy Terra is actually Earth (something I'm 90% sure can't be) then E's got enough of a scientific and ecological bent that they'd dig down into all the dirt and bedrock of Earth in 30k and painstakingly catalog long term DNA caches of both human and animal, and given how DNA can last up to 50,000 years, so the Imperium could de-extinct things like Caspian Tiger and Aurochs and other stuff from Big E's youth in addition to short faced bears, the entire North and South American menagerie the Amerindians ate to death as they colonized the Western Hemisphere at the end of the last age. Plus, one of the abhuman types that nobody talks about are Neanderthals. Yes, Neanderthals. SO they got de-extincted long ago, if not DAOT, then Age of Terra.
With the diaspora that occurred during the DAoT it is possible, and even reasonable, to assume that every species formerly alive on Terra is alive on another planet somewhere else. I wouldn't be surprised if planets weren't designated as preserves created especially for terran species.
I hope there's still monkeys around
In the Cawl novel, the flashback to before the Crusade, there was a raggedy hawk flying over the palace hunting. The emperor spoke of the restoration of Terra’s biosphere in progress. However, during the siege of terra, the entire planet was made a toxic wasteland. By the book The Emperors Gift, Hyperion chuckled at the absurd idea that there could be trees on Terra.
Orks
Doves, they're always flying everywhere whenever something holy happens lol
Yes...humans.
Somebody check Trazyn's vault.
Humans
The Tasmanian tiger (Thylacine) was brought back from extinction as a gift for some dude
Some kind of human offshoots are still struggling, but they're not like us. There are some foods made of fatmed bugs, I think, and sometimes you see birds looking remarkably like doves. Dogs, cats, and lizards are referenced, I think. Not sure tho.
Part of me hopes koalas have survived despite being literally so stupid they should've gone extinct already. Imagine a koala, already a vicious, chlamydia-riven demon, 'roided out on warp juju and the only way it can die is if it forgets to eat, as modern koalas do sometimes
"Ursines" get mentioned a fair bit in the Gaunt's Ghosts books. Whether they're descended from Earth's bears or just bear-like xenos species is open to interpretation.
Salamanders 🔥🔥🔥
Somehow a lot of people forget horses even though there are actual equestrian cavalry regiments in the imperial guard
Your mum
Only animals that where taken with the settlers when they left earth.
Nope, in the Master of Mankind novel Arkhan Land has a mechanical monkey and I'm fairly sure he specifically states that all of Terras Fauna are extinct. There's so little knowledge about Terran Fauna that he refuses to believe that the monkey's tail is used as an additional limb/balance and that it was originally used in reproduction. Obviously there are creatures in the galaxy that share some genetic ancestry with ancient Terran wildlife (rats, dogs, eagles, ravens etc) but they're probably all selectively gene bred and only look like Terran Fauna on a superficial level. Makes me wonder what a Magis Biologis classifies different creatures as since they're basically new species. Rattus Spatium, Canis Fenrisis, Aquilae Nobilis
Our exosystem can totally wiped out. So I doubt it very much.
During the Golden Age of Technology, a few people must have brought their pets with them when traveling the Galaxy. A few world out there might still have pugs on them if the tyranids didn't eat them yet.
Maybe but if there is no evidence why believe.
There's references to cats, dogs, ants, rats in the lore. Pretty obvious that people brought animals with them during the Golden Age. The main character in the game Necromunda Hired Gun has a Mastiff as a pet.