Posts tagged fauna
I am trying to think of animals that would make the strongest enemy for humans if they were bred in a laboratory. My goal is to have an animal that begins by being used in a benign, controlled way...
I am building a world where most of the wildlife is capable of flight and there is an ecosystem that is almost totally isolated from the ground. Is it possible to have a mammal, roughly the size of...
I'm working on a planet that has very similar conditions to earth. Now, I had the idea of animals having four (or even more) lungs. Would that be possible (I imagine there must be a possibility to ...
Roughly how long would arthropods have to evolve before they could reach sizes analogous to current day megafauna (like today's mammals)? Assume an alternate earth where tetrapods never colonize...
The article Why Can't All Animals Be Domesticated? on Live Science sets out a list of criteria that a species needs to meet in order to be successfully domesticated by humans. In short, that list s...
I have an Earth-sized planet in a Milky Way-like galaxy with all the land located at the equator, in a 2000-km line around the planet. There are small islands near the landmass, but no land anywher...
1 of my stories involves a pride. But not just any old lion pride. No, my story involves a pride with 3 different big cat species. I don't know if I should put character histories here or whether t...
Imagine a world in which you have all the creatures from the game franchise "Monster Hunter"... Screenshot from the upcoming Monster Hunter World game ...and when I say all the creatures I mea...
How intelligent would an animal(land bound animal) have to be to not fear fire? It's unable to make it or control it, but when a person is sitting by one, and while other animals act more traditio...
Consider an earth-like world without any flying species. What could be the possible (I'm looking for a physics or chemistry/biology answer) cause of this? Set aside trivial solutions as "rando...
I've been considering the term 'redneck', which is described by Google's info engine as coming "from the back of the neck being sunburned from outdoor work." As I've grown more involved with the Re...
This question is connected to: Fire Resistant Flora I've been pondering a short story concept where a scientific expedition discovered a planet with a huge amount of both free hydrogen and oxygen ...
Assume Humanity was really wrecked by some malignant force, and a group managed to escape and find a habitable planet and 'settle' it. They weren't able to bring along much in the way of advanced t...
Disclaimer: This question is the second of a new series of questions of mine about introducing hexapeds to the fauna of my conworld. There are/will be other questions addressing i.a.: characteristi...
Are there any known laws of nature, which don't allow the existence of an animal with following characteristics? Can fly to the altitudes of modern airliners (around 10 000 meters or 32808 ft). O...
While Prionosuchus and other large temnospondyls are definitely imposing and capable of causing mortal harm, they still adhere to a distinctly salamander-like profile. Anurans (relating to frogs...
In some parts of the world, termites are consumed opportunistically by humans. I'm considering the possibility of using mound-building fungus-farming macrotermes as livestock for a culture of corvi...
Using today's (real) genetic engineering methods, would it be possible to engineer a horse with a single spiral horn? Maybe rub a horse on a narwhal? I know mythical Unicorns have other "powers",...
I've recently been replaying Skyrim (for about the fifth time now), and I've stumbled across something I thought would make for an interesting question. The Greybeards are a group of extremely pow...
The consensus (1, 2) is that the reason most continents have relatively few large animals compared to Africa is that humans, even stone age humans, were able to drive them to extinction. African a...
Which natural conditions are needed to force the evolution to immortality? I've read on a page (I don't remember the page) that if the environment is safe, the animal would evolve to have a shorter...
Elephants are some of the most intellingent mammals, and they have large brain sizes compared to people. They are said to present self-awareness among other things. How could one go about raising ...
If the earth gravity fluctuated between +50% and -50% over the course of 200 years, what specific adaptations would be useful to account for the change?
So, after some advice in narrowing down the topic (used to be what kind of characteristics do animals need in different environments or something like that) I have decided to start a series! Starti...
In a large varied environment where strong winds are the norm and every few weeks or so a huge hurricane sweeps through, how would large land animals (horse- to elephant-sized) evolve to cope? I u...
Bobby, a human space traveler from Theta, and has been in space for a couple of centuries. He's been kept alive either through his own biology or some feat of technology. Having no contact with his...
In fantasy literature wyvern's often have their habitat set as extreme mountains. Sometimes even depicted as needing to drop from a height in order to take off. Evolutionarily speaking this does no...
What would be the daily calorie requirements of a flying creature that could carry 200 lbs on its back? Are there features that could make a significant difference in this calculation (cold blooded...
In the Hickhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Mostly Harmless, on the planet NowWhat there are the Boghogs, and their way of communicating is to bite each other very hard on the thigh, so my question is,...
So, a little bit of pseudo backstory first. Imagine mother nature would be some godly being, that actually exists. Somewhere. In spiritual form. Now imagine humankind would be a big thorn in her ...
Okay, I just asked a question, in which mother nature transformed all animals (or brain containing living beings, if that fits better for you) into a being twice as big in order for them to kill of...
The Scenario: My late Victorian Era mad scientist wants to domesticate the dinosaurs and mammalian megafauna of his "Lost World" island getaway, for use as companions, guardians, draft animals, and...
In this Answer I suggested that an animal could have a tampani acting as a loudspeaker, as in Vernor Vinge's The Blabber, later featured as the race called Tines in A Fire Upon the Deep. In the ori...
Could I make a world where gorillas replace elephants in their niche as herbivore? Are there any reasons that they could not?
In my fantasy pre-industrial world pollen production and plant reproduction has been disabled by some sort of curse. The curse has a limited geographical span, but the region affected is very larg...
If animals were scaled up to be about the same size in anthro form (human-size) regardless of species (i.e. wolf-people and hare-people both become man-sized as well as man-shaped), would the ones ...
Imagine a world much like Earth, except it is nearly tidally locked to its star, making a complete revolution every few thousand years. The planet is far enough away that there is a band of livable...
So given an inconceivably Earth-like planet with two moons in slightly differing orbits, how would the changed tidal system affect the wildlife? Specifically, What general type of marine wildlif...
Imagine a large butterfly- or moth-like creature, with a wingspan of about one meter (it's moth-like, not actually related to Earth insects). It lives its entire life high in the open sky, never to...
This is one of a series of questions centered around living on a giant tree. The setting/scenario is described below: In my fantasy world, elves live on a giant tree, very similar in structure...
I just want to make sure my science and animal biology is correct here. If there's an increase in gravity to 2-3G, would livestock develop to be more lean due to muscle development or would they ma...
I love chocolate. Today, when I was making myself a cup of hot chocolate, I was thinking about Easter and about all the chocolate I am going to eat. And at some point I was wondering: How awesome...
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...
On Earth, we use taxonomy to organize biological organisms into an identifiable hierarchy in which organisms that are evolutionarily related are placed in close proximity. This evolutionary approac...
I'd like to know if a planet without any animals except humans can exist. The cause of this absence of other species could be anything but the humans should not have any social interaction with som...
I'm reading this article on speech in animals, and it made an interesting claim: chimpanzees and other non-human great apes posses the anatomy needed to vocalize words, they just don't use it to do...
This is question #1 regarding the background art of Worldbuilding.SE One of the first things I noticed when I found this site was that amazing background picture. I like to think a great story can...
Let's say we have a wild rabbit that can see a few minutes into the future. Being a non-sentient animal, it barely registers these abilities, and largely uses it to find food, avoid predators, save...
Most fantasy worlds have large creatures living in a world with humans and other races. In Tamriel, the province of Skyrim has giants, mammoth and even dragons roaming freely. The Lord of the ring ...
Many half-human mythological creatures follow a few common anatomical schemes. Some consist of an animal with a human face, such as the sphinx, naga and manticore. Some consist of a human anterio...