Posts tagged creature-design
There have been a number of questions focusing on mythical creatures where the logical approach to answering has been to scale up an existing animal. For example dragon's wings can be extrapolated ...
This probably sounds fairly ridiculous- I know, but in short I've been developing a sort of future earth. It's not extraordinarily accurate, but I've been trying to at least keep the obvious in che...
Creature in question: appears humanoid, but secretes some sort of substance which befuddles humans around them. 'Befuddlement' is an inability to think properly, but not to a great enough degree th...
The creature I'm designing has a tail with spikes on the end of it. The material of the spikes should be strong/durable (not break easily), and very sharp (the edge as well as the sides, being able...
There is a species that is quite sentient. Its members know about the world, they have hopes and dreams and great aspirations of what they might do with their lives. They are intelligent, creative,...
Those statues will be pretty darn heavy... but what about a flesh-and-blood naga? The torso of a human connected to a snake's body? I've seen some pretty extreme estimates on their weight... DnD ...
So I was curious what would be the advantages and disadvantages to have 12 DNA bases? For example could it be used to store complex memories in an organism, could it cause very complex structure in...
Think Moa, very big bird, kept as livestock in a western-ish world. Could they be safely lassoed? Their necks are quite long and, I imagine, delicate, at least when compared to cattle or horses. If...
I am looking to have a creature which is basically a small human sized bat, something like man-bat from the batman series. It would ideally fly or at least glide and would regularly hang upside dow...
Many creatures - humans among them - have binocular vision, where two eyes side by side allow good depth perception. There are quite a few other advantages over one eye, including a larger field of...
Heads up"”this is a pretty gross question. The dragons in this world are not reptilian, but rather resemble huge borzois. I've not sure how large I want them to be yet, but they are capable of min...
Aside from very simple or colonial organisms, all animals on Earth have only one mouth for eating. Many organisms have multiple spiracles or even multiple anuses, but not mouths.
Alien and fantasy creatures can be designed in an infinite number of ways. But are there physiological traits that would be common among all tool-developing (technology-building) species? As an e...
I recently asked a question regarding whether or not a fictional theropod dinosaur-like creature I created could feasibly raise and lower its head which sported a number of large horns. I receive...
Those of you who have been listening to the new podcast will know that Andy came up with an idea for an Anemone Tree. The idea is that this "tree" would prey on small animals for some of its neede...
The legends of lycanthropes go back eons; while they have changed over time, a common modern expression of them is of an infected or cursed human that is given the power to transform into a wolf an...
Would it be possible, through genetic engineering or on some alien world, to have a creature with a biological rebreather? That is, a method of recycling the oxygen in a closed circuit, so as to ma...
Just wondering both out of curiosity and something to add to my book, how do the nine tailed fox's dreads grow and developed? This is what I wrote so fa...
Remember the Xenomorphs from aliens, how they didn't show up in heat vision? I was wondering how you could recreate that effect biologically... a creature which doesn't pop-up on IR (at least, not ...
I am trying to design my main character in my post-apocalyptic series to have a very dense, organic, durable skeleton. The skeleton should also be able to handle gun fire, a sledge hammer impact, a...
As part of Fortnightly topic challenge #3: Creature Design I am looking for a realistic way to create a particularly nasty creature. What I would like: A creature that is capable of emitting a ...
OK, so humanity is going to space, and they are going to take farm animals into space, not only humans on earth value meat, but humans in space do, too. However, they don't want to waste precious r...
The Ahuizotl is a creature from Aztec mythology. It is aquatic, and appears similar to a small dog with grasping forepaws like a raccoon or monkey's, and a very long tail ending with an extra hand...
An organism lives and reproduces inside the body of other animals. This organism pays back its host by protecting the DNA from viruses and radiation damage in 100% of all cases. The organism itself...
The Phoenix appears in Greek mythology and are most commonly seen as beautiful golden birds that burst into flame and are reborn from the ashes. Is there a realistic way that they could evolve? Usi...
The main creature in question is an intelligent species that stands from 3' to 4' tall on average. They are heavy-set and primarily bipedal, but able to move comfortably on all fours at the same s...
In particular, I want to know if a creature whose upper body displays bilateral symmetry and whose lower body displays tetramerism like a jellyfish is biologically possible.
If our hands had 2 thumbs and 3 fingers how would they work? I mainly concerned with the bones and how they would interfere and interact with each other. But the muscle work would be helpful as we...
I am working on an alien species with mammal-like features and characterized by radial symmetry, in opposition to bilateral. They have four lower limbs arranged in a square-like disposition, with t...
Anatomically speaking, could an aquatic mammal develop a horizontal fin that instead of being localized at the end of the tail extends up the sides in a similar manner to how an eel's fin extends u...
Quick sketch of how I conceptualize this creature's skeleton. Sorry for the chopped off head, the jaw design and such isn't finished. The 4 yellow bones on the tip of the neck are the base of the...
Taking into account the answer by akaioi to my previous question (Would a human-like symbiotic pair of the same race be possible?). Answer: Is it okay if we turn it around a bit? That is,...
Would a human-like race be possible where the young and their parents live and work etc in a symbiotic pair? My idea is inspired by the character(s) Ferra Torr from the game Mortal Kombat X, th...
At the minimum, I'd like to create a creature with a jaw structure that splits into 4 moving parts (like a +-shape or an x-shape). In order to keep food in, the cross sections will have stretchy fl...
So my main character was genetically engineered to be biologically immortal. By this I mean her DNA is a lot better than ours. The telomeres do not degrade over time same as genetic information. C...
Some speculation on a neurological supercharger for a sapient alien species: The supercharger is a natural biochemical compound of some sort produced and stored in a specialized brain-adjacent o...
The main reason I ask this is because my world's moons both have long periods of darkness based on their phases (see here) so plant life needs to have a way to persist through such a lack of light....
In my story, I plan on having one of my main characters lifted off the ground by a dragon-like creature and carried a couple miles away. Of course the plan involves them surviving the encounter whe...
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...
Recently, a question was posted about how a creature like the mythical Charybdis could evolve. Today I want to talk about Charybdis' mythical counterpart: Scylla. Most depictions of Scylla look so...
I was just wondering how would a humanoid like Ant species develop communication. I know how they communicate with each other in nature using pheromones and touch. Would it be possible that this sp...
One of the inspirations for this was Tactics Ogre: Knight of Lodis, where I liked their depiction of slithering, combat-worthy mermaids. I've been trying to develop mermaids who make pilgrimages t...
Snares are anchored cable nooses set to catch wild animals. There are two types, active and passive. An active snare has the wire under tension and a trigger to cause it to snap closed, while a pas...
I'm thinking of adding humanoid squid into my world, as an expy of the bloodsuckers from the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games. These cephaloids somehow fell into our universe from a parallel one (they don't kn...
How is Charybdis from The Odyssey powered? As odd as it seems, I'm looking for a science-based answer. She needs energy. To suck down warships, she is at least 75 ft in diameter and must suck the...
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 ...
Imagine a tidally locked planet that revolves around the star at just the right distance that a habitable zone can be formed in between the scorching desert side of the planet and an icy desert sid...
The Humerns are quite an odd species when it comes to mating. They have nine distinct sexes (not genders, they're biologically distinct) all of which exhibit varying levels of dimorphism and all of...
On a world similar to Earth in many aspects, a species exists that is partly carbon-based and partly X-based. X can (mostly) be found in the thick exoskeleton that this creature possesses. I'm look...
Imagine a planet where there are extremely cold temperatures and water can be found only in frozen state. To cope with harsh conditions the creature evolved so it can melt ice with its body surfac...
