Posts tagged creature-design
One of the syntactical interpretation of the famous linguistics sentence "Time flies like an arrow." is to consider "time flies" as a noun phrase. This makes "time flies" analogous to "fruit flies"...
Here's the full question: What's the most plausible way to bio-engineer an underground ecosystem, without using photosynthesis, so a mine system would not need an active air exchange system? (It w...
Okay so I get that for flexibility I need no bones. My octopeople do live on land so they do have lungs. But they are more amphibious than we are. So here is my proposed life cycle: Pregnant octo...
So dragonflies are the sky's perfect predator, and while their are many adaptations that make this one big one is their wings. And one character in my story has these along with other mammalian ver...
While researching ghouls, I came across two varieties: The traditional ghoul: a grotesque humanoid commonly featured in fantasy settings that may or may not be undead https://vignette.wikia.nocoo...
My reptilian aliens that lactate become adults at 20 years old. I might add a graph here of proposed shedding rates over time and maybe even a separate graph for growth. But here is what I am prop...
In the game mass effect the Asari are an alien species...no one truly knows their shape and real form, but they do apear as sexy females to many other species, humans included. The asari can repro...
Considering there are at least several thousand depictions of trolls in the media, we'll be talking about the traditional trolls from Scandinavian folklore. They're usually described as being ...
So, in a post-apocalyptic setting, when humans have gone extinct and their cities fell into ruin, I was wondering what animals might evolve to conquer the ruins of our cities. Notice: I know that ...
I watched a youtube video on the Darwin IV probe mission to this planet has lower mass than the earth, about the size of Mars, and has a single sea. According to the movie, the microbes that reside...
Say you are a plant-based life-form (imagine a walking tree). You have roots and leaves. You have two main vulnerabilities: You need sunlight on your leaves for photosynthesis to get energy. Y...
I am thinking about the miniature kind of fae, like Tinker Bell. I think that class of faery would be the most likely to be able to fly realistically, due to the wingspan/body weight ratio. But wo...
[Critter's descriptions] (D1) appearance closely resembles a cat (D2) no bigger than a dog (D3) toothless (D4) strange claws to climb any surfaces (D5) powerful hind legs can sprint like a cheeta...
In a question about mermaids, it was proposed that they might have evolved to look like humans to lure them in and prey on them. How could a creature survive on a diet of nothing but lured-in huma...
Recently, I've been struggling to create an avian race that evolved hands to replace its wings. The consensus on that question was that it was not evolutionarily realistic for the bones of a wing t...
What I'm thinking about is simply an animal,any with a protective bony-like shell covering its eyes. The shell must be openable for clear vision but when closed the animal still has the ability t...
A book that I'm currently writing called Surge features an enemy faction called the Degenerates that are heavily inspired by the Scythians (Indo-Iranian horse nomads that ruled the Eurasian Steppe ...
I'm trying to create an alien which has external lungs. Air can be inhaled normally however, is it plausible that the material the lungs are made of is semi-permeable. Containing the nitrogen and o...
I have been designing a whole solar system for my story, and I am finally able to come down to creatures on the planets. I have already asked a question about one of the planets, Veynerth, so there...
Imagine if you will..a world where humans had large black pupils that covered most of their eye like the picture below The question: What would these humans see and could they see more/better/w...
This question (and the links I found for my answer) Can a "dune" worm actually swim in sand? got me thinking about how a sandworm might reduce friction while "swimming." One idea I hit on would b...
On an hot planet at the wooded poles are two aliens species that coexist in a mutually beneficial relationship. The Honey Mouths use gecko-like feet to hang from the far larger Thorn Shredders, wh...
I have a species of ambush predators that are going to be sentient space-farers one day. But to get them on that path I need them to evolve hands, which will lead to tools, and so on. They come f...
I am writing a story, and it takes place in a solar system way far off from our own. One of the planets, Veynerth, is a dry, deserty planet, but in certain areas there is high volcanic activity. Ho...
In a story I have been working on, there is a planet called Ieuclite. I want to have its surface be entirely covered in ice and have the people live in cracks and fissures. But then I thought, what...
If an organism weighing roughly 20kg existed (same weight as a dog), similar also to the structural composition a dog. How much muscle mass would be required within those legs for it to jump 20m? ...
I watched this video. A network of pipes blows air at the bottom of a bathtub filled with sand. The sand behaves just like water. Objects can float or sink in it. Children can play in it. So, my c...
Imagine a animal with eyes that are a combination of arthropod compound eye with vertebrate eye,I visualize this like a eye with the sclera covered in a layer of compound eyes,or compound eyes with...
The Leopard dragon is one of the fastest and smartest dragons out there. With four eyes, external ears, four legs, two wings, a long tail, and sleek black scales, this dragon is quiet and nearly in...
The Volt Dragon is an incredibly dangerous beast that reeks havoc on any attempted air travel. This dragon generates many small but powerful magnetic fields whose strength can be varied voluntarily...
The Leech Dragon, so named for its round, leech-like mouth, is by far one of the creepiest and most vicious dragons. Part of the reason for its infamy is its ability to exhale toxic and very flamma...
There is this very weird species of bird that just can't get enough of delicious human flesh. But the bird has a problem - humans are big, smart, and social, so this little birdie has a unique skil...
Lately, I have been working on the way a group of humanoids vocalizes. In the anatomy of vocalization, I have recently asked about and explored some variation in vocal cords. The hyoid bone typi...
The smallest type of dragon in my world is a bipedal dragon about the same size as a moderately sized bird, maybe about a falcon. In addition to its breath attack and high intelligence, this little...
If a humanoid had a second pair of vocal cords or similarly functioning structures under the primary vocal cords, what would be the effect on the voice? Would this allow the humanoid to sing with t...
I'm working on a humanoid vertebrate species that I'd like to be capable of true, flapping flight, but still have arms and legs completely separate from the wings. I also wish to avoid a "six-limb...
In this world, there exist a race of humanoid people which, for simplicity, we'll call Rockfolk. Their skin is grey, and visually resembles stone. It is also exceptionally tough and durable, to th...
Enter the [Insert cool and awesome Latin name here] - this species is 3 times the size of a lobster from front to tail, and a powerful hunter. Operating in swarms, they are my worlds equivalent of ...
BACKGROUND I'm working on a medieval world in which homo sapiens domesticated several other species of intelligent hominids during their prehistory, at first enslaving them to take advantage of sp...
So in my world I've got a mostly human like species but they've evolved to camouflage, specifically colour change. The world is an earth-like medieval fantasy. The different parts that appear to ch...
QUESTION Other questions have covered what the physical structure of a humanoid giant might look like. Assuming that anatomically modern humans (or something close) were dispersed into several dis...
Disclaimer: By human-like, I am referring mostly to limb proportions similar to ours. Would it be reasonable for the average member of a bipedal species with proportions similar to those of human...
One of the first things noted about pretty much any humanoid race with horns or antlers is that the neck would not be able to support the weight, making the idea unfeasible. However, some horns are...
I want to have my aliens have a culture that clashes with human modern culture and one way I want to achieve this is having some extreme sexual dimorphism. For these aliens the sexual dimorphism ...
When I played Zelda: Breath of the Wild and met the heavily redesigned Ritos, I took an immediate liking to their designs. Although the fact that they're fully bird-like helps, it's mostly because ...
Everyone knows that water is necessary for life because it is such a good solvent, but could a lifeform use water vapor as a solvent instead of water, or any other gas that works a solvent instead ...
What would Germanium based life look like and what conditions would favor it. I know that it's not that common but I am going to handwave that. What would be the resulting look for such a lifeform...
On my quest to make pretty much every single fantasy creature biologically feasible I have come across a hiccup. It wasn't angels, no you people helped me with that. Demons are easy, we have plenty...
The bonegrass fields are full of other life, despite their dangers. Lots of insects, some birds, and even a handful of reptiles have adapted to the paralytic nature of the air in order to reap the ...
I am designing a creature for a tall tale I'm composing and I have apparently hit a wall when it comes to envisioning an environment that would promote the creation of an intelligent race of arachn...
