Posts tagged evolution
I know in fiction Sonic The Hedgehog is able to run faster than the speed of sound but could an organism actually evolve to move faster than the speed of sound? What type of fuel would such an org...
A parasite starts its first life cycle of youth with the reproductive phase by cloning itself to infect as many people as possible without leaving any signs of its presence. After two days the par...
Could an alien underground macroscopic ecosystem including human sized plant-like organisms evolve around lava as an energy source? These organisms could use heat and/or light from the lava to synt...
This cat looks like a normal Maine Coon to the unsuspecting victim. Except for one little detail: Red claws that inject a neurotoxin into the victim onpon scratching it. What would be the most app...
Some species which reproduce sexually will replace one sex with (or add) hermaphrodites. The coexistence of males and hermaphrodites is androdioecious, females and hermaphrodites gynodioecious, and...
It has been a really long trip since we left our home planet. We have seen so many stellar systems but no planet was over 5 on our Viabilometer©... I was desperate until today ! My Viabilometer...
Some of our ancestors were more robust than modern humans. Could they adapt to a 2-g world better than we might? Maybe even 3-g? Over time their bodies could evolve, i.e. only the most robust wou...
My planet has an atmospheric density 12x that of earth with 0.8 Earth Gravity. Someone pointed out a while back that this would increase the wind strength proportionally. Now this is a problem as a...
Humans don't exist, at least... not here. Instead we have [Insert non-lame animal name here:]. They're not too bright, but also could be considered vaguely self aware, about Gorilla level intellig...
I want to explore the possibilities of an alien species not much unlike that of known to Earth: snakes going through evolution in a way that made them able to reach the intelligence necessary to us...
For those that do not know, the tardigrade is a microscopic animal that can survive: extreme heat extreme cold extreme levels of radiation lack of water indefinitely lack of food indefinitely a...
Biradial symmetry occurs in ctenophores: the body plan consists of two halves which independently display radial symmetry. Spherical symmetry occurs in Volvox algae: any cut through the center of t...
I was thinking of an organism that lives its entire life in interstellar space It eats, defecates, moves, grows, ejects eggs, attracts mates, and has sex in interstellar space. It has skin that p...
In my world, I have a reptilian overlord theme, with humanoid slaves. The planet revolves around a binary star system. What are the basic requirements of the climate and the ecosystem, for the rept...
What are some circumstances that would require a mammal or a reptile to grow another pair of limbs?
Xenomorphs are one of the most dangerous, deadly aliens in movie history. They breed in massive numbers, live in an ant-like society, and have blood that doubles as concentrated acid. Most of tho...
In some environments (think of the Faerunian Underdark for a fantasy example, or a planet orbiting a pulsar for sci-fi folks), high-energy (UV and up, but I'm mostly concerned about UV and very sof...
Bradypodidae is the family consisting of the three-toed sloths, the one we most associate the word "sloth" with. As far as we know, they exist only in the tropical forests of Latin America and nev...
If we were to pull the following races out of a D&D players handbook and remove them from the setting/history of Faerun and look at them from a biological/non-magic perspective (no other planes...
I am designing an alien species of organism (not necessarily intelligent, in fact, probably not). My current settings are these: The female is very large (bigger than cattle, smaller than elephant...
In order for different humanoid races (humans, elves, orcs, dwarves..) to evolve, they need to be separated for a long time, in different environments. However, if all races are supposed to be sent...
On Earth, land vertebrates generally have four limbs. Other creatures such as insects can have more limbs, but those creatures tend to be small. I'm thinking of creating an alien ecosystem with rel...
Certain anatomical features distinguish the alligators, crocodiles, gharials and caimen from the other reptiles. A four-chambered heart, something also found in birds and mammals A unidirectional...
Is it the case that if I was to develop an alien world that the most likely outcome would be that the animal in the middle of the food chain is going to be the one that is most likely to develop in...
Humanity has been exposed to prolonged nuclear radiation for thousands of years. In the past, hundreds of nuclear bombs dropped; then nuclear warfare ceased for thousands of years. Assume that hum...
In some of my first questions on this site I asked about a world with a day that lasts 9 years. Many people agreed that life on this planet could survive via migration, but not evolve.The problem l...
A hypothetical organism is tetraploid and isogametous. To reproduce, four haploid gametes must meet and fuse into a tetraploid zygote. Any four individuals are sexually compatible, barring self-inc...
This hypothetical marsupial species raises young in a manner loosely similar to seahorses. Only the males have pouches: after gestation the female deposits the fetus into his pouch to compete devel...
I have left a link to the NASA video in case you are not to sure what I am referring to or to get a better picture of what I am talking about. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnKFaAS30X8 With th...
Horny and Hungry "You're like a father to me." "Yeah, I wish you were dead, too." "Thanks, Dad!" I have a world in my stories in which the inhabitants evolved from a race that practices s...
Humans are derived from arboreal shrew-like animals that survived the cataclysm which wiped out the larger dinosaurs. As far as I am aware this series of events is entirely the result of chance. Wo...
Would any creature ever need to evolve a second (or multiple) brain(s)? If so, under what conditions, why, and what implications would it have on the creature's intelligence? Note that while an o...
The idea is that a species very similar, but not related to humans have evolved on a different planet and are living in a medieval society. Humans from Earth must be able to live on this planet wit...
What scientifically, socially and logically plausible mechanisms allow two (or more) sapient land-based species (either closely placed on the phylogenetic tree, such as Homo sapiens and Homo neande...
Consider a world where the majority of creatures behave with might-makes-right rules. How could a pacifist race adapt its biological defenses or its society over years of evolution to protect thems...
Lichen are a symbiotic organism that involves algae or cyanobacteria living inside a fungus. The algae produce energy through photosynthesis, while the fungus protect the algae from the environment...
Why certainly! We have all sorts of exotic drink. Can I excite you for a pint of Tarnesian Starköl - bitter, tart, nutty brew this stuff; or rather have shot of H'elvanian Whisky(?) - 7 years o...
Parasite are very unusual creatures, their entire livelihood relies on an unwilling host to allow them to live, some parasite even control the creature itself! Despite this, to my knowledge, there ...
A hyperparasite is "a parasite whose host is itself a parasite" and is the closest analogy to an apex predator in the ecology of parasites. Human sociability, intelligence and status as apex predat...
I had a rough idea of a species that has a tendency to blackmail other species into feeding it. The concept was a tree-dwelling species, a larger one that has few predators among the trees to worr...
A hypothetical species is divided into males and females that exhibit pronounced sexual dimorphism. The males are further divided into multiple morphs (e.g. α-male, β-male, γ-male, etc). This po...
Say we have an organism with the beak of a raptor (the bird type, not the dinosaur), but instead of a full beak, it only has a mandible on the upper jaw, while the lower jaw just has a jaw bone lik...
In my world, an intelligent species has evolved to the point of space travelling. However, this species can eat only one single type of food (which is a product of another species on its planet). ...
Suppose that humanity has spread across the universe, colonizing various habitable worlds, until their empire spans the entire galaxy (or near enough) - but there is no sign of alien life. There ar...
In a world I am building, a race of humans exists on a tropical archipelago with a very hot climate. Their skin, naturally, is very dark, but I want to have their eyes [most, if not all of their e...
On my fictional planet humanoid aliens have evolved on one continent, and have since spread around the entire planet, just like humans did on Earth. On Earth humans have since developed slightly di...
The tree small giant creatures resembling people usually with beards are present in many fantasy stories, but that's it... it is fantasy. From a scientific viewpoint how would such creature even ...
As fas as I know, there isn't a single plant on Earth that (naturally) produces any sort of luminescence. But it is seen in science-fiction worlds, especially Avatar. From an evolutionary point of...
Ecologically, when you're within the latitudes of 23.5 degrees, you'd find yourself in rainforests rich in diversity but poor in nutrition. The forest floor is a barren mess simply because the can...
In the question; Hollow-boned Humanoids Nathaniels humanoids were a flying mammal species called soarfolk. But let's say that I want a sapient mammal to have hollow bones but not fly. These furred...
