Posts tagged creature-design
There are a lot of acids in the world, many of them present in biological creatures. Humans, for instance, have hydrochloric acid in their stomachs. What I'm wondering here is just how nasty it cou...
I'm working on this new story in which many people have developed "special qualities" or gifts - call it extreme DNA mutations, if you will. There's this character who has several rows of teeth (ma...
Exactly what the title says. I don't know to exact pH level of the water but it's at a level that it would kill a human should they drink it. What/how would a creature evolve to deal with drinking...
One of my characters has hands very different to the ones we're used to. His fingers can close towards both sides of the hand, meaning that the back of his hand is also a palm and he has a second ...
So it's been a while since I've seen the Nightmare Before Christmas, but it's come up in my thoughts recently. Or at least one specific background character. (Source) This character is apparen...
I think the idea of radially symmetric alien organisms is really exciting in the questions it raises about function and design. For those who don't know, humans are bilaterally symmetrical. If you...
A follow up question for What is the method to produce food within a volcano caldera? How can a plant harness magma's heat to "photosynthesize"? It is very different from an animal, which can move...
Inspired by A.C.A.C's comment, how can the metabolism of an animal that is harnessing the heat from magma or lava be explained? I'm thinking of conventional "eating lava or magma", but it could be...
I've been conceptualizing a species of intelligent insects. They would have 6 limbs, they can fly, but they walk bipedally. I've been thinking of having them get down on all limbs of they need to g...
I want to design a creature capable of surviving long periods without drinking water, but I am not sure how that creature could store water. These are my ideas but I am looking for something more e...
The Resident Evil franchise is obviously the last place you want to take away any lessons on biology, pathology or virology from. However the new(-ish) Molded enemies from Resident Evil 7:Biohazard...
In some science fiction and fantasy settings (mostly fantasy) there are sometimes things like rock giants or rock golems. Basically, what I'm getting at is rocks forms with, sentience in some cases...
I was thinking about how we differ from crocodiles and sharks in terms of teeth. Now of course we don't have carnivore teeth but we also don't grow new teeth unless you are talking about a young ch...
I have been designing a species of elves with blue skin as one of their most striking features. I'm drawing inspiration from primates that also have blue skin. Think the scrotum of a vervet monkey,...
Most species of animal, especially mammals, have a special skin cell the produces melanin, which is responsible for the color of their skin, but orcs are generally depicted as green creatures and, ...
Apparently these lizards have loads of Biliverdin in their blood making their blood green! Besides a defense against parasites I figure this is also an effective defense against predators. I woul...
In a story I am writing, some animals (including sentient ones) can touch fire without being harmed. Not any kind of fire, though. They can caress the fire of a candle with a finger, and they can ...
I was considering the creation a long-lived plant which generates harmful (to other species) radiation. If it could be immune to its own radiation, the primary benefit would be that the plants offs...
The ground shakes as a colony of Triopticpelorovenatorius Baromassobrachiosaurus (T.B.) shamble across the forest floor. A glorious mix of blue, purple, and green colors shift under the treetops as...
Many questions describe hypothetical biochemistries, or alternatives to carbon, water, DNA, etc that aliens could use. They cite specific examples, given a world we know about, of what creatures w...
This question is partly a nod to the current fortnightly challenge. In many fantasy settings and resources, there are creatures capable of, or described as, breathing lightning. How might a creatu...
I have a sapient (alien) species that behaves more or less similarly to humans, and that includes their romantic interactions. However, although they court/date each other much like we do, there is...
In my world I am working on, the species is similar to humans in almost every way except for the following thing things: They a much more slender They have very light hair colors such as blond ...
I want to make a creature capable of filter O2 from normal air in order to make several things... (filter air toxins, increase partial pressure of O2, etc). Could be possible make an organic memb...
I believe there are precious few questions relating to the concept in general, but I was wondering if the concept of an organism absorbing large amounts of CO2 from blood seemed reasonably plausibl...
In my world there is a trading city in the middle of a vast stretch of wild, untamed forest. It was built to serve as an in-between for merchants as there is a peaceful kingdom both north and south...
In one of my fictitious planets, there are large cells that reside in the ocean and are 3 feet (almost 1 metre) in diameter. The cells themselves are aggregates of many amoeboid cells, have only on...
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...
I'm currently enamored with the idea of having a species of living, sapient stars (called "astrae") as the firstborn children of the gods in my space fantasy setting. Magic exists in this setting, ...
Humans developed martial arts to give themselves an advantage in combat against untrained, but possibly stronger or better-armed opponents. Presumably, martial arts are one way of making up for the...
What I am imagining is some sort of gargantuan beast that encloses a star with its monstrous jaws and then feeds off the rays released by the sun to power itself. I am curious what kind of creatur...
Many animals have ears that revolve and pivot when they hear noise. Humans have vestigial structures in their ears that allow them to wiggle their ears somewhat. How would elves achieve this same e...
I'm sure there have been questions on here about fire-breathing dragons, and I recently saw a question about a lightning-breathing dragon, but back in fifth grade I wrote a 150-page story about a d...
I know that certain animals have the ability to see in darker areas but not in pitch black due to a special ability they have in their eyes which also gives them that glowing effect. Could elves ha...
I am attempting to make my species of elves more alien to humans. My plan is to change their physiology in a very specific way. How realistic would it be for them to have retractable claws simila...
Although (as far as I've seen, I haven't done in-depth research) the original/older version(s) of the succubus legend just have them as demons who seduce you, more modern interpretations seem to ma...
I'm designing an intelligent alien species in which child rearing is a very labor instensive and lengthy process (their progeny take a little more than a decade and a half to mature), so much so th...
I've recently read an article (Source: https://www.livescience.com/22146-why-don-t-any-animals-have-wheels.html) explaining why animals don't have wheels for locomotion, and that legs are common be...
Is it reasonably possible for a type of human to exist that rapidly tans in the presence of large amounts of sun/radiation and loses it again afterwards, in a matter of minutes? Also, how might suc...
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 Nachtkrapp is a german version of the bogeyman or in a more general term a kind of bugbear. Nacht is the german word for night and Krapp is used in southern germany and austria as a word for ra...
I'm working on a species of large bird, and trying to determine whether they will be able to fly or not. I know that this equation likely applies: $$ A = \cfrac{L}{\cfrac{1}{2} v^2 \rho C_L} $$ ...
Assuming these vampires are genetically altered humans and not undead humans. What biological structure changes would you need to make vampires with the following parameters realistic. Abilities:,...
Appearance The ''vipers'' are semi aquatic humanoids species with webbed fingers on both hands and feet, they also have 2 fins on each leg and their legs are covered in scales from the feet up to ...
I am creating a creature which uses infrasound to immobilize prey and I have done a little bit of research on the effects of Infrasound on animals, finding that 177 dB with a frequency between 0.5 ...
Need ideas for the fox's tails. In case you're wondering, this is for a speculative evolution book I'm doing which is suppose to build a structure for...
A normal respiration is: $${\displaystyle C_{6}H_{12}O_{6}+6O_{2}\to 6H_{2}O+6CO_{2}+38ATP}$$ A normal cellular respiration uses O2, so my question is if it's possible to have a respiration with C...
In Plague-inc the most typical strategy is trying to infect everyone, while staying hidden by not harming infected people (when a virus, bacteria, fungus is found, people start working on the cure)...
I've been dreaming up what I would consider to be an "ideal" sentient being and there have been a variety of fantastic responses to some of my other questions that got me re-examining my design. F...
Is an alien lifeform covering itself comfortably in flames as a defense mechanism to wane off predators possible? I've heard of microbes surviving the extreme condition of outer space in complete v...
