Posts tagged fauna
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...
I'm (slowly) working on a semi sci-fi world, set in a WWII-ish tech level (Semi sci-fi being how they got to this world). Except in this world, aircraft have developed significantly later, and batt...
As a whole, the reptiles have a problem. The majority of them have legs sprawled away from the body, so when they move, they would suffer a kind of problem called "Carrier's constraint", and what ...
Disclaimer: This question is the first of a new series of questions of mine about introducing hexapedae to the fauna of my conworld. There are/will be other questions addressing i.a.: ecosystems, e...
I plan on writing a story about a human born in the wild and raised by wild animals. I have heard of stories of real humans being raised by wild animals, mostly in Africa. I have also done some res...
Now I love huge living creatures and fantasy settings, this just might be reflected in my questions, so I had the idea to make a massive living island. I saw a similar question, but unfortunately i...
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 ...
I am currently working with a landmass roughly 1,000 miles (1600 km) in length and width. Would insular dwarfism or gigantism occur in this landmass? If not what is the largest a landmass can be be...
Here are some lists of North American and South American megafauna that went extinct during the Quaternary. In Eurasia, many species of large mammal were domesticated, most particularly the 'big 4...
In a world where man entered North and South America without causing a mass extinction, all of the paleofauna which became extinct ~10,000 BC in the Americas are still around. There are several fam...
Humans sleep more then nearly any other creature (true sleep, not low-activity like cats and sloths), and are some of the only true sapient species on earth. Many other intelligent, or nearly sapi...
On my planet, the only animals are plankton, krill, shrimp, etc., but no fish or land animals. The colonists on this planet have brought equipment and embryos from the home world, but the only free...
Another mermaid questions I'm afraid! Fish have tail fins which are vertical, whales have fins which are horizontal. My race of merfolk are: Very active (more likely to be warm blooded) Have gil...
Quite simple really. How large can a bat grow before it is too big to fly. I would like a bat with a similar external and internal structure to a real bat just scaled up. I am willing to accept cha...
What natural environmental pressures or opportunities might drive an alien ophidian species to evolve sapience and caudal tool use? Conditions The species should be lacking limbs prior to the e...
So let's say you live in a terrifying post-apocalyptic world. For whatever reason, this world is now infested with cockroaches the size of chickens (similar to radroaches from the Fallout games, bu...
UPDATE!!!! - FINISHED THE SCULPT :D [UPDATE: Much Much bigger response and feedback than i anticipated, I am hugely greatful and overwhelmed by the ideas and the help, I will keep the thread goi...
If the North and South Poles' ice melted instantly, what would be the effect on humans and other animals? Would the sea creatures thrive? Would a lot of land get covered by water?
In this scenario, all the humans on earth have disappeared, except for Fred. Sure, Fred is sad that everyone that exists is dead but him, including his friends and family, but he doesn't let that g...
Many pets are very disturbed by the presence of mirrors or other reflecting surfaces where they see their own image. If there were many reflecting surfaces in nature I would think that it would rep...
I have two large continents on an earth like world. I would like for the dominate predator on the more desert continent to be a large cat. I have found the leopards and jaguars of Egypt, but am unc...
I have wondered what a terrestrial ecosystem would look like dominated by cnidarians and ctenophores rather than insects and tetrapods. In order to fulfill the same niches I imagine they would need...
The animal I envision is very protective over its planet. It goes out into space and eats anything that gets close to it. To do this, the animal can float through space, and leave/re-enter the atmo...
This is one of a series of questions centered around how an isolated group of people would survive. Each question focuses on a single aspect of survival. Details about the peoples' situation are be...
So I'm pretty sure your are all aware of what a cell is the microscopic organic units that make up all life. Well they don't have to be microscopic. An unfertilized chicken egg is a single cell. ...
The Megaphragma mymaripenne is the smallest animal with eyes, brain, wings, muscles, guts and genitals. If by some miracle it could be still shrinked, how much smaller could it get before it st...
I have a native tribe in pre-Columbus America that has successfully domesticated small, omnivorous bears. They are similar in size to Sun Bears [120"“150 cm (47"“59 in) / 27"“80 kg (60"“176 lb)]. I...
What are the effects of introducing 2600 sharks of the primitive Edestus Gigantus specie* in modern waters in different places on earth? Will they survive, how ? for how long? can they destroy the...
Disclaimer: This question is the third 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.: characteristic...
Satyrs, fauns, pan, and even the devil are commonly depicted as humanoid bipeds with goatlike unguligrade hooves for feet. However, common as such beings may be in fantasy and mythology, I have bee...
My question is pretty simple, all the details about the planet are pictured below.
Some details about the planet and its moon plus the host star. Star: 0.85 Sol, 0.54% of the Sun's luminosity Planet: 0.04926 (M⊕) 4836 km, 0.34 G, Orbits the host star at 0.901 AU. The atmosph...
Age varies vastly even in just the vertebrate world, from the 2 years a rabbit has to the over 170 year old Seychelles giant tortoise, who is still going. Obviously, Lifespan will determine populat...
Caloric intake varies vastly even in just the world of mammals, from the hundreds of pounds of leaves an elephant eats everyday, to the small amount a sloth eats. Obviously, caloric intake is impor...
Litter size varies vastly even in just the world of mammals, from the single spawn of an elephant to the up to 30 children an opossum can have. Obvious, litter size will determine population, cultu...
In my story, a group of people were stranded on an uninhabited 600 km2 sized island. They were forced to glide there due to fuel starvation of the airplane. Its only "domesticated" animal are feral...
What would be the most effective feet design for sustaining massive weight and also allow for the ability to climb? The organism in question has 12 limbs, 8 of which are large and strong legs that...
Positing a high (c. 35%) Oâ‚‚-level on a roughly Earth-equivalent planet (atmosphere about like the early Carboniferous), what types of lifeforms would flourish? Obviously, giant insects could be ...
Two vastly dissimilar organisms turn out to be the same species upon gene sequencing. In this hypothetical animal species one or more components of the life cycle is a fungus, algae, plant, lichen ...
The Collared Peccary is not the name of the greatest man stripper under the sun, but is a species of mammal in the family Tayassuidae found in North, Central, and South America. They are commonly r...
Given the chance to bring back from the jurassic any plant, which one would be the most adapted to survive and spread in our actual environment?
In my fictional world there are small organisms the size of a dog or smaller,some have the shape of mini-volcanoes, while some are stuck between rocks, they don't move and live in both sea and land...
Some people created synthetic bacterial life forms to use them as fuel producers back then; it's called synthia I believe... and I don't know how it ended up. So creating life is already possible...
If a tribe of homo evolves into a wild animal that doesn't resemble at all a hominid, is there any chance for this animal to evolve back to the original humanoid shape through atavism/other means? ...
Short question, what events would induce the evolution from hands of 4 fingers and 1 thumb into hands of 2 fingers and 1 thumb like the hands of Yoda in Start wars?Would be 2 thumbs and 1 finger be...
Why would an non-Eusocial animal have a caste of sterile individuals? Formicidae and Apoidea have sterile workers,but those outnumber the fertile drones and princesses or queens. In another anima...
In the real world we live in, people mostly domesticated herbivores like cattle. Some of the reasons for this are: They are efficient in terms of cost and profit. A cow simply takes in grass whic...
I was thinking I would have a race and at the most basic level it is a ground covering moss. As it encounters other colonies of itself they will join together to form one contiguous colony while ke...
