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Q&A

Posts tagged evolution

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Q&A The Hadean Explosion?

In recent years, the search for the origins of life is becoming complex. It turns out that oxygen is NOT a requirement for multicellular life to thrive. As stated in this BBC article, poriferans ...

4 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by JohnWDailey‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by JohnWDailey‭

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Q&A The plausibility of a pack-hunting carrion-eating snake

I was thinking of a hypothetical species of snakes that join together for protection called Ladôni, due to their habit of mobilising in massive beds which make them resemble a large multi-headed s...

3 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Arbiter Elegante‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Arbiter Elegante‭

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Q&A "Realistic" Dwarfs Part One: Bioluminescence for active Vision

I've been thinking about dwarfs and their depiction in classical fantasy for while now and concluded that I find it unrealistic and lazy. Some research showed me that the current fantasy dwarfs hav...

4 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by TheDyingOfLight‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by TheDyingOfLight‭

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Q&A Plausible homeworld for an insectoid-ish alien species?

I have a planned species of aliens that have many commonalities with longhorn crazy ants (cooperation with colonies of the same species, can live in a large variety of environments, and have the ab...

4 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Pinion Minion‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Pinion Minion‭

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Q&A Why would a virus evolve to subsist on an energy source that doesn't exist on their planet?

In my world, I have a dangerous virus that has evolved to subsist on Aether, which for now I will just call its secondary energy source apart from a normal infection of an animal. Yet on the planet...

4 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Jefferey Dawson‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Jefferey Dawson‭

Question evolution viruses
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Q&A Odd-Toed Ungulates

I'm creating a large ungulate that is likely a part of the suborder Anclyopoda. Suspension of disbelief is expected, but there's a detail with the current design that's really bugging me. The cre...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Wilko‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Wilko‭

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Q&A How would eyes that evolved in air differ from our own?

In one of the documentaries he's featured in, Neil deGrasse Tyson talked about the evolution of the eye. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SXHMm5I-68 The part that's always intrigued me is this: ...

5 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by KernelOfChaos‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by KernelOfChaos‭

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Q&A Could Bamboos Evolve Into Trees In the Past?

This question is based on a scenario on DeviantArt. The presented image is here: The description is as follows: By the start of the Cryocene, bamboo has become one of Serina's most successf...

4 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by JohnWDailey‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by JohnWDailey‭

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Q&A Would having more than two sexes decrease the number of individuals required to have a sustainable population from a genetic perspective?

On a world made up of many small islands, each island cannot support a very large population. Although sometimes individuals from one island make it across the ocean to another, this is usually a ...

5 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Michael Stachowsky‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Michael Stachowsky‭

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Q&A Order of Limb Pair Types for Amphibious Creature (Hexanewt)

I need to add a bit of descriptive detail on a species from a brief description. Essentially add a bit of finer detail to someone else's broad-strokes worldbuilding. An amphibious species' body lay...

2 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by vicky_molokh‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by vicky_molokh‭

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Q&A Catastrophic geology

What would happen to an earth-like planet where an event caused a large (think, the size of the Caribbean tectonic plate) section of the crust to get peeled away, exposing the upper mantle for a pe...

3 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Lee Carlson‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Lee Carlson‭

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Q&A Is acid blood possible?

I'm designing an alien species, whose blood is highly acidic and can easily cause someone's hand to melt down. It's pretty similar to the Xenomorphs from Ridley Scott's Alien, except for the color ...

3 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Johnara‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Johnara‭

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Q&A How big could a land-dwelling arthropod get if it wasn't limited by oxygen consumption?

Insects and other land-based Arthropoda are stuck at the size they are due to how inefficient their respiratory system is. They were able to reach the size they did in the Carboniferous period beca...

4 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Cobbington‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Cobbington‭

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Q&A Is the evolution of my aliens realistic?

So, I have thought about the evolution of my aliens and how they could evolve things like lactation but still retain their reptilian characteristics. Here is my best thought about it so far: Evol...

4 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Caters‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Caters‭

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Q&A Is there an evolutionary advantage to having two heads?

This is a classic of fantasy/sci-fi stories. A creature with two heads, two brains, two distinct personalities, sharing a single body. An entire race of Siamese twins. But the question is, what env...

12 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Cobbington‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Cobbington‭

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Q&A Anatomically Correct Strange Women In Ponds Distributing Swords

Chaos plagues the land. In the West, the King in Orange blusters and bloviates endlessly in barely comprehensible gibberish. Perhaps he is attempting to call forth the Elder Gods? In the East, the ...

7 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by nullpointer‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by nullpointer‭

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Q&A Is bio-luminescence possible in aquatic mammals?

Could a species of aquatic mammals develop bio-luminescence? What kind of bio-luminescence would it be? What circumstances could lead to it?

1 answer  ·  posted 9y ago by jeln‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by jeln‭

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Q&A Could a life form evolve an organ for generating temperatures less than a degree Kelvin above absolute zero?

I was thinking of a life form with a similar surface temperature to Earth, as well as a similar temperature variation to that of Earth. Could such a life form evolve an organ for generating temper...

3 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Anders Gustafson‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Anders Gustafson‭

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Q&A Anatomically Correct Swarm of Rodents

Rats are commonly associated with illness and disease due to the role they played in The Black Death. However, some works of fiction portray rats as carnivorous swarms, devouring people indiscrimin...

2 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Liam Morris‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Liam Morris‭

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Q&A Could six-limbed creatures evolve from griffin or dragon to centaur?

In my setting, centaurs are related to other six-limbed creatures such as dragons and griffins (the "fur" is actually made up of tiny feathers). Assuming they were originally creatures similar to s...

4 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Puck‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Puck‭

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Q&A Beak to teeth reverse evolution - how would the transitional forms be?

Acording to current scientific knowledge, birds descend from theropod dinosaurs. This evolution had, as usual, some transitional forms, like Archaeopteryx. Following this evolutionary path, we not...

6 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by Pedro Gabriel‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Pedro Gabriel‭

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Q&A What would humans look like if they lived 50-100,000 years 6 to 9 km above sea level?

What would humans look like if they lived 50-100,000 years 20,000-30,000 feet / 6 to 9 km above sea level? Or 500,000 years? Would we have bigger lungs / chests? Bigger wider noses? Thicker skin a...

4 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by NoobCreator‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by NoobCreator‭

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Q&A Could Xenarthrans Be Ferried Outside South America?

Right from the beginning, the xenarthrans--armadillos, sloths and anteaters--have been at a disadvantage. For the longest time, their home was an island continent, which made them extremely vulner...

2 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by JohnWDailey‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by JohnWDailey‭

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Q&A Would intelligence affect the evolution of colorful display patters for attracting mates?

On another planet there is a group of organisms that have colorful display patterns allowing them to attract mates. Eventually a branch of this type of organism evolves the intelligence of early h...

7 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Anders Gustafson‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Anders Gustafson‭

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Q&A Bovinae immune to predators

Given an unlimited time to evolve: what are the best ways to make any wild bovinae immune to its natural predators like the classic big felines (lions or tigers) and most reptiles (crocodiles or Ko...

11 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by άλεξ μιζέρια‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by άλεξ μιζέρια‭

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Q&A Anatomically correct Guivre

The Guivre is an amphibious dragon from French mythology: Many of its aspects are typical of Western dragons, but there are two which distinguish it from others: Its breath causes disease It c...

2 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by SealBoi‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by SealBoi‭

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Q&A How could a 10m tall giant swim across a freshwater lake?

Suppose we scale up a human to about 10m in height and their skeletal structure have evolved to ensure they won't succumb under their own weight. Due to their unique blood circulatory system they c...

4 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by user6760‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by user6760‭

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Q&A How could a marilith evolve?

Mariliths are these D&D creatures that are basically nagas except with six arms. OK, technically this image is from Final Fantasy, but you get the point. What environmental factors could cau...

3 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Joe Smith‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Joe Smith‭

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Q&A A Freshwater Octopus?

One of the oddest of cryptids is an octopus haunting the lakes of Oklahoma, a landlocked state. The reason this is odd is that although freshwater mollusks are common, Cephalopoda (the class consi...

2 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by JohnWDailey‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by JohnWDailey‭

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Q&A Anatomically Correct Demons

Demons have been a staple of multiple religions for thousands of years, just like angels. While some of the points brought up in the Anatomically Correct Angels post (and other posts on flying huma...

3 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by The Literary Lord‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by The Literary Lord‭

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Q&A Could a tree evolve to have vastly varying shades?

I was wondering whether it would be feasible to have a tree that at times may have light green, at other times dark green leaves. Why would a tree evolve to change the shade of its leaves? Yes, I...

2 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by A Lambent Eye‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by A Lambent Eye‭

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Q&A Speculative Biology of a Haplodiploid Humanoid Species

In haplodiploid sex-determination system, female/diploid individuals are developed from fertilized eggs by means of sexual reproduction, while male/haploid individuals are developed from unfertili...

2 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by H. Hayashida‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by H. Hayashida‭

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Q&A Reality check: Is this a plausible way to breed raccoons?

You're a lone immortal who's decided to breed raccoons to a human-level intelligence (over the course of hundreds of thousands or millions of years). To do so, you need to both feed a significant p...

5 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Kofthefens‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Kofthefens‭

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Q&A Best species to breed to intelligence

I've included more background below, but the TL;DR is that you're a lone immortal who's decided to breed some species of animal to a human-level intelligence (over the course of hundreds of thousan...

16 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Kofthefens‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Kofthefens‭

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Q&A Is it plausible that current insects will evolve sapience?

Scenario: In my Evil Overlord plan, I release a poison into the wild which should kill all humans. However I made some sort of mistake in my poison design and I killed all Vertebrates bigger than 0...

6 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by Pavel Janicek‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Pavel Janicek‭

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Q&A Could a planet evolve to have jungles, woodlands, savannas and meadows - but no animal bigger than an insect?

I want to have a group of space colonists get stranded on a planet where the only way they can get enough nourishment is to gather or cultivate edible plants.

4 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Bill Bittner‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Bill Bittner‭

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Q&A Would a life form with the intelligence of a human but without an appendage for manipulating its environment be able to have advanced technology?

On another planet there is a life form that has the same level of intelligence as humans on Earth, but it has no appendage to manipulate its environment. It has similar social structures to humans...

3 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Anders Gustafson‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Anders Gustafson‭

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Q&A What can I do to make blood black?

In my world I find it simplest to have iron-based blood. The problem is that iron-based blood is red, and I want it to be black. Two things come to mind; one is making the blood denser, resulting i...

7 answers  ·  posted 8y ago by Uncle Tres‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Uncle Tres‭

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Q&A What would the physical effects be to Elves if they began living underground?

Background: An Elven nation that once thrived for thousands of years as a predominantly agricultural race was forced underground because of unexplainable occurrences of extreme weather conditions ...

3 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Will Robinson‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Will Robinson‭

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Q&A Feasibility of Thermoelectric Metabolism

Larry Niven's "Known Universe" (KU) features "The Outsiders" as one of its most prominent alien races. As per KU canon, the Outsiders evolved in a frigid moon (similar to Nereida) and they sustai...

1 answer  ·  posted 5y ago by luis.espinal‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by luis.espinal‭

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Q&A How to justify evolving pointy ears that stick out from your head, on a humanoid

How to justify evolving pointy ears that stick out from your head, on a humanoid. Like this: They can either start from the usual round-eared human(oids) with ears close to their heads, or hav...

4 answers  ·  posted 8y ago by Malady‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Malady‭

Question biology evolution
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Q&A How to justify frogs taking over?

A cool thing to imagine would be a world where the land was dominated by megafaunal frog-descendants, as it is/was by mammals today, dinosaurs before the mammals, and non-mammalian synapsids and cr...

5 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by SealBoi‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by SealBoi‭

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Q&A What is the botanic equivalent to ears?

As part of a series on plant animals, plantimals if you will, I am now asking about ears. All surface life has them or some sort of equivalent to them and with good reason. Other than sight, hearin...

3 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by Uncle Tres‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Uncle Tres‭

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Q&A Gastric acid as a weapon

The dragons in my fantasy world spit fluid from their mouths when threatened, which upon contact causes a burning sensation. I could have this liquid be standard venom, like modified saliva, but I ...

3 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by SealBoi‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by SealBoi‭

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Q&A How could somersaulting worms evolve?

In Wayne Douglas Barlowe's classic book "Expedition" he has many strange creatures. One that intrigues the most is this one, the flipstick. It has two feet on either side and uses them to flip th...

3 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Joe Smith‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Joe Smith‭

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Q&A Lethal sonic weapons

Sonic weapons are frequently used by military circles as non-lethal irritants to deter opponents. My question is; could a naturally evolved organism kill, or at least incapacitate, small prey using...

6 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by SealBoi‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by SealBoi‭

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Q&A Make slimes great again, but how?

Slimes are seen as merely base-level enemies which don't really challenge the heroic main character, the Chosen One. My question is how to make slimes incredibly powerful without using magic. The...

23 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by System‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Anatomically correct Isitoq

This is the latest in a long series of questions I've asked on my fantasy world which contains many mythical and folkloric creatures. I won't link the other questions since at this stage the series...

3 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by SealBoi‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by SealBoi‭

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Q&A Could an entirely (or mostly) hydraulic muscular system work in terrestrial vertebrates?

In Invertebrates, Muscular Hydrostat, which is a form of biological hydraulic, is used for locomotion. On Earth, (as far as I'm aware) no system exists where hydraulics perform in conjunction with ...

1 answer  ·  posted 5y ago by Foosic17‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Foosic17‭

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Q&A How can humans naturally develop the ability to control their mental faculties while suffering the physical effects of fear?

Fear has been a helpful trait that has kept our race alive since back in the day. It continues to be necessary for survival as a species. However, it can be just as harmful. When faced with death o...

5 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Incognito‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Incognito‭