Posts tagged fauna
I am in the early stages of planning a story called The Four Flamingos of the Apocalypse. The premise is that the Four Horsemen have manifested on the surface of the earth and are tasked with bring...
I understand, vaguely, how human voices vary with the overall size/shape of the individual(s vocal chords), and I can use that to make reasonable assumptions about what the voice of non-human fanta...
Animals on planets are so 20th century - let's herd us some space animals! In this story I have the need to move a herd of pesky space animals. They like Suns for their juicy solar energy and hydr...
These creatures have the ability to see all possible outcomes within their vicinity within the next 30 minutes or so. This is not the same as foreknowledge that they have no choice over. Even if ...
It is inspired by this furry trout. I mean fish (not necessary to be a trout), not aquatic mammals, and real fur, not from fungi or mold (or looks like fur because of the dead cell, like Mirapinna...
Assume that a species of bigfoot-type animal/person exists. Most of this also applies to ogres or trolls, whatever big dumb giants your particular setting has. My world's specs: They range 7-10 f...
Since a lot of people are already asking about multiple-headed creatures, I wonder what about multiple tails? Such as kyuubi, nekomata, etc. (I know some have asked about these mythical creatures, ...
Hypothetically there is a large-ish planet, which is extremely dense due to its high metal content. This planet has relatively high gravity as a result. The fauna and flora have adapted to the high...
EDIT: As many have pointed out, the whole Lunar Collision aspect I originally envisioned is probably more extreme than I predicted. I don't know where to start as far as the math goes, although my ...
Here on the stack exchange we talk about dragons... a lot. We have discussed all the factors that would allow dragons to exist and yet, there is a question we have not asked. What evolutionary pres...
How would you design a saddle for a giant turtle (think rhino size) and a bridle, and how would you make it go, given that spurs or whip wouldn't really be an option with the shell?
Would a "working deer" living in cities with hard paved or cobbled stone ground need "deershoes"? The deer are mainly used for light work: no heavy lifting or pulling. Would unchanged deer feet an...
inspire by xenomorph acid blood from alien movies. so the water either rivers, lakes, and oceans in my world or some of the regions is highly acidic because some of the dirt or stone minerals cont...
I understand that some non human animals build structures that they innately know how to build, such as how birds innately know how to build nests, and spiders innately know how to make webs, and b...
Venoms have evolved in certain classes of animals on Earth (notably snakes and frogs, but also fish and maybe elsewhere that I can't think of right now), sometimes for defense and sometimes (partic...
Assuming a turtle or tortoise evolved adaptations to become large comparable to that of sauropods. How large could they become (in weight or potentially carapace size)? The turtle needs to be prima...
Could a creature plausibly exist with its diet consisting of consuming ice, possibly for hydration? I'm unaware if it needs a secondary diet for nutrition, but how would its metabolism feasibly w...
Basically, I'm trying to see if a land-based creature roughly between 50-100 ft. long could exist on Earth at the moment and still be scientifically plausible. I know that whales and other creatur...
I was inspired by geckos which can sever their own tails. I wonder if a creature which has such an ability, especially with a high regenerative power to grow its body parts, can sustain itself ove...
The chicxulub asteroid impact caused climate change, and the climate change caused a mass extinction. But many land-based animal groups survived, crocodillians, lizards, snakes, turtles, frogs, sa...
Imagine a situation kind of like Zootopia with many different creatures all living in one environment, some significantly larger than others. These species aren't necessarily furries like in Zooto...
I have had an idea for a possible story, where the protagonists are some kind of future, sapient hominid descendants (Not descended from humans; bonobos or gorillas or something). The main premise...
Suppose that there was a tribe of nomadic mermaids whose lives were primarily centered around following pods of dolphins to eat. They live in the equivalent of the frigid antarctic seas. As they ...
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 ...
The world I am creating is in a swamp that contains larger than life bugs; this includes fireflies. What I ask is, could the bioluminescence of their glow somehow be harnessed or used as a light so...
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...
I'm in the process of designing a creature loosely resembling a theropod dinosaur that sports a number of horns/tusks on its head and face, and I'm wondering if anyone can help me evaluate its feas...
There was an apocalypse. Humans left cities in swathes, leaving their canine companions behind in the ruined cities. My question is, which types of dogs survive? Criteria -The dogs are going to be...
So a friend is working on a worldbuilding/rpg project and I'm "beta-testing". He drew up an earth-like map and set the players start locations. Then I ask him about fauna. Will it be modern earth? ...
In my worldbuilding project, 2 continents located on roughly the same latitude are connected by a land bridge. Both sides of the bridge are surrounded by a temperate grassland, and the lack of seas...
Mounts are one of the coolest things about fantasy in my opinion. Riding around on raptors, dragons, elephants and even weirder things is one of the main draws to a lot of fantasy things. However,...
About 100 people settled in a tropical area near a seashore five years ago. They've been feeding themselves by hunting and fishing, but now they're also trying to grow crops, including hemp and cor...
Subarenaceous animals are those which can move long distances through dry sand - like sandfish lizards, or Dune's sandworms. The main problem they have to tackle is turning the sand immediately aro...
I am writing about a blood magic cult, and they drink/paint with collected blood to preform rituals and bursts of magic. Most of their supply is garnered through the use of human cattle, but in a p...
Biologically speaking, what would be the best real world explanation for a pyro, torch, fire-starter type mutation. Leeching heat energy from the environment might freeze dry your surroundings. G...
Photosynthesis does not provide enough energy to allow animal activities on its own (see this post for example). But can we think of a species using photosynthesis as a secondary energy source? Her...
In the mythology of the Lambas people of Zambia, there is a creature called the Ichisonga. It is a herbivore, and very rhinoceros-like in appearance. Upon hearing a hippopotamus, it allegedly sne...
In my story, there is a civilization living in the Amazon rainforest. They need some time of mount that is adapted to the forest. I don't think horses can survive by themselves in there, so I was t...
So I've been thinking for a while about making a world where cats aren't as common and instead are more of a regional domesticated animal, replaced in (mostly Northwestern) Europe by foxes. How co...
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...
What makes an animal suitable for domestication? I know it has something to do with the danger to productivity ratio. But this is not helpful for fantasy animals in the worlds we build. What factor...
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...
So, I am writing a comic which will perhaps grow into an entire series about a group of aquatic heroes. One of those heroes is a monster size aquatic lizard. The story of how this lizard came about...
I'm playing around with the idea of making a world heavily based on one of my favorite childhood book series. (basically a fanmade rewrite of sorts). The series is called Warriors, and is about ta...
Given there is no other species that can do the job better. How much can you change a species to fulfill a specific task. The evolution of horses was pretty extreme from what I remember. Are those...
On our world, human minds can be transferred intact into animals. It was originally intended for people with medical conditions, but some genius thought it would be clever to store violent prisone...
Having read the answers to the How much mayhem could I cause as a fish? of the salmon mayhem gang series, I was wondering, what means the salmon gang had to actually figure the impact of their evil...
Assuming that horses went extinct early in history, what would replace the horse, and how would the change in domesticated animal affect the development of the first civilizations? Info on horse e...
I have created a planet which is a clone of Earth. Except I messed up where wasps, cobras and scorpions were concerned and they have turned out to be the size of elephants (everything in proportio...
When one hears the name "Beringia", we most often think the land bridge that formed as a result of a drop in sea levels during the Pleistocene, resulting in a connection between Alaska and Russia. ...
