Planet Earth, Terraformed by Time-Traveling Aliens

In the shimmering galaxy of Eridani Prime, approximately 50 million years ago, a civilization of prehistoric time-traveling aliens known as the Vardanos discovered a distant planet named Pangeus. Using their advanced terraforming technology, the Vardanos decided to cultivate this desolate world into a vibrant, living planet. The Vardanos had always been fascinated by the colorful variety of life, especially the exotic forms found on Earth. They had compiled a biological database of every species they had encountered picking select species that they believed would flourish and create a balanced, self-sustaining ecosystem on Pangeus. The majority of this selected flora and fauna included various species of fungus, plants, invertebrates, fishes, amphibians, and small reptiles. However, they were particularly enamored with the Earth's rhinoceros - a robust, iconic creature that represented strength and endurance to them. Thus, they included all five living species of Earth's rhinoceroses—white, black, Indian, Javan, and Sumatran—in their project. Once the terraforming process began, Pangeus transformed from barren rock to a beautiful tapestry of biodiversity. Over the course of a few millennia, the diverse fauna adapted, diversified, and multiplied. The planet's plethora of fungi and flora provided immense biomass, allowing the former Earth-born organisms to thrive. Mighty aquatic ecosystems, murmuring nocturnal woods, fungal forests, and sprawling, swamp-like deltas painstakingly sprung from the initial barren rockscape, all teeming with invertebrates, amphibians, and small reptiles. The rhinos, however, proved to be the true marvel of Pangeus. With a generous environment and no large mammalian competitors, the rhinos experienced an evolutionary bloom, with each species adapting to fill a unique ecological niche. The Javan and Sumatran rhinos, for example, evolved into agile, forest-dwelling varieties, while the Indian rhino developed a thicker hide and grew larger, becoming the lumbering giants of the lumber forests. The White and Black rhinos’ descendants took on varied forms, with one line adapting to burrow through the dense underground fungi, like some giant, horned mole-rhino, and another sprouting a thick fluff of insulative fur adapted to the chilly, high-altitude grasslands. The dominance of the rhinos had a profound influence on other lesser fauna as well. Small reptiles evolved into various shapes and sizes, many resembling dinosaurs, and others took on the look of mammalian rodents, equids, and carnivores, each finding ways to coexist with the ruling rhinos. Over the course of millions of years, Pangeus flourished under the reign of the rhinos—the dominant species—providing a captivating sight to any who ventured to this corner of the Eridani Prime galaxy. This unusual biodiversity evolved into a wonderous testament to the transformative power of life, in all of its unpredictable beauty.