Posts tagged creature-design
In my latest draft, a worm-like species buries itself deep below the crust of their world and consumes/gathers tiny amounts of heavy metals. Can you think of any plausible reason why a wormlike cr...
I have a creature that, thanks to its multiple, unique DNA chains, is impervious to cancer. So now I will move on to the next aspect: energy production. This creature has two types of energy produ...
So for a story I'm working on I thought of a forest-dwelling predator (see the image for a design) which has a skin very sensitive to light (not in a painful way, just that it notices differences i...
Note: I'm talking about a fourth spatial dimension. As far as I can tell, a 2 dimensional creature has one possible digestive system structure; have a cavity inside its body connected to the outsi...
There is a predator that lives in the forest. It is roughly the size of a large bear, and moves quite slowly - a person could outrun it at a light jog. Nor is it agile - although its arms and jaw...
For example, a half-cat half-human hybrid might have a zone partway down their tail, or a human might have one in an unusual place e.g. their scalp, shoulders, whatever. I've seen this used in fic...
I have a world with days lasting 9 years. The inhabitants of this world have taken to migrating across the globe to avoid the deadly night, keeping themselves in a sweet spot. One of the biological...
I have been working on the idea of a mammal following an evolutionary path similar to whales, which started as semiaquatic before becoming fully dependent of its underwater enviroment. So how could...
I love the game Inside. Like its predecessor, Limbo, it is a game where you cannot fight; only running and hiding are allowed. The game ends however, with you coming across a large ball of meat str...
I'm designing an alien species and I want the males to have deer-like antlers. Now I also need this species to have a genetic predisposition (as in it is not just a cultural affectation) to be prim...
I want to design an alien species whose physiology is capable of metabolizing substances regardless of whether their chemical chirality is levorotatory or dextrorotatory. Is this scientifically pos...
In this world Humanity was wiped out, all that remains are several small groups of genetically altered human chimeras. These new "humans" have a genetic cast structure similar to that of hive insec...
I am designing an semi-aquatic sapient species known as the Tetrapi. They have an appearance similar to that octopi, only with 4 tentacles comprised of 3 opposable digits. Unlike octopi, they are a...
Is it possible for an organism to evolve to biologically generate its own nuclear power? If so, how would this evolution occur?
Could a species, over centuries of evolution, evolve a special organ that stores pure energy and allows it to control its own magnetic field? What possible steps would have to happen for this to oc...
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...
I am making a sci-fi web-comic set on an alien world and I thought up an idea for an eye that works much like an eye from a mammal, but instead of moving the whole eye, only the pupil moves. This i...
Another question concerning the Tetrapi, I would like to know if having haemocyanin-based blood (copper-based blue blood) would be an advantage over having haemoglobin-based blood (iron-based red b...
A common feature that we consider to be alien is the eyestalk and rightfully so. To my knowledge the only vertebrate that even comes close to having eyestalks is the hammer head shark (if you can e...
I am currently trying to design a kamikaze goblin. This goblin would drink explosives and have some sort of storage area within their abdominal regions. How would this goblin be able to have these ...
The Inflatable Hedgehog or Zamba Zaraa is a creature, reported from the Gobi Desert of Mongolia. It is described as looking something like a hedgehog. When threatened, the animal strikes its tail ...
Just out of curiosity, could a large constrictor such as a python or a boa evolve to rely on camouflaging itself as a branch, with the right colouration and positioning, in the jungle canopy and am...
A Golem is a creature of Jewish lore, they are living creature created by inanimate objects like clay, stone, hay or wood. They obey their master and will follow their orders. Creating a true golem...
The Spriggan is a tree-like creature native to the Elder Scrolls, where they are often found in forests and groves. In appearance, a Spriggan appears to be made of entirely wood and a glowing sou...
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...
As a school project, I am designing an extraterrestrial animal, and I would like to include a multiple-hearted mammal-like organism. Is there any set of circumstances in which having 3 hearts would...
So, I have a story in which all of humanity flee's the Earth. The reason as to why they left is out of the scope of the question. After they leave, I want for the domestic house cat (or some other ...
In my world magic is conferred genetically. Their are five "types" of magic, which never mix. You either have one type, or you have another (or none at all, the sixth option), you never have a mix ...
Assuming the ocean is deep enough and not overcrowded is there any upper limits to the size a "sea monster" can grow? On land creatures are limited by gravity, they have to be able to generate the...
I'm creating a species of humanoid creatures that live their entire life in couples. From birth to death, they are bound emotionally, they work together as if they were only one individual but the...
Let's assume we have three subjects: a giant (50 ft tall), a human (6 ft tall) and a fairy (6 inches tall). Common sense would lead you to believe that the giant would fair better in the cold, as ...
As part of a series on plant animals, plantimals if you will, I am now asking about the digestive system, that is the mouth, stomach and intestines. All known animal life has some kind of digestive...
In the answers to this question I learned that some cephalopods communicate via color: Some cephalopods are capable of rapid changes in skin color and pattern through nervous control of chromat...
I want to develop a water-dwelling, intelligent species that could ultimately reach space.1 My question here is about the biology of such creatures. I want my creatures to live in the water, not ...
This is a very closely related question to my previous: Evolution of tree-dwelling species that will help predators find prey if prey species doesn't give it a bribe? The premise is the same, a t...
Imagine a planet whose surface is perfectly spherical, without any kind of obstacles anywhere. In such a world, it would be a competitive advantage for any lifeform to evolve wheels, as transport a...
This is a follow up to the creature 'griffins' I sort of created here: Anatomically Correct Griffins The idea of the final griffin was a small tree based species that will leap down on much larger...
In a previous question on my purely peaceful, 100% pacifist species, I asked about how to remove all defining characteristics for sexuality yet still retaining sapience. As was pointed out, I had a...
One of the benefits of humanity is our subconscious need to explore. It is a simple instinct of primitive people wanting to know, not only what is in your territory, but almost what is around your ...
I'm thinking of aliens that don't have hands but use their tentacles to make and use tools and, eventually, advanced technology. I would like to know whether this is a realistic idea. For the purpo...
Could I make a world where gorillas replace elephants in their niche as herbivore? Are there any reasons that they could not?
How might such a species evolve? How would they swim, navigate and breed? How big could they grow, and what complications might arise out of their growing very large?
One of the strangest and most effective weapons in the wonderful world of arthropods in the proboscis of the famed assassin bug, with even the head of the insect working as part of the weapon. T...
Would it be possible, with genetic engineering, to create a form of tree which produces wood with the same strength/hardness as granite, capable of being used in place of stone for castle-style wal...
Which solvent to use for metal nerves? Based on this answer on to how to evolve biological radios, the answer states that if creatures in an ecosystem utilize metal for electrical transmission ins...
Let's say we came across a new species of moderately intelligent birds. Like Alex the parrot, these birds are able to learn a few words and simple concepts. But once we teach these birds the word...
Chlorophyll as we know it on earth is estimated to be between 3% and 6% efficient in converting light energy to useable biomass. This support slow growth and no movement of plants like that observ...
I'm thinking about using this as a sort of meta explanation for how Orcs (and possibly other things as well) are different than humans (in muscularity), but I'm not entirely sure what the result of...
As per my previous question on giants, if the average human is 5"²10"³, and he is scaled up to 50 feet whilst remaining proportionately correct, would this have any effect on what he sounds like? ...
If an average human is 5'10" (1.8m), when scaled to be roughly 50 ft (15 m) how much food would it need to remain healthy? Let's also assume there are three types of this giant; carnivorous, herbi...
