Posts tagged creature-design
I am assuming that monkey like animals are more likely to develop some form of horn or antler than apes(feel free to correct me), the question is what would be the most plausible function of the ho...
In the real world, humans have tamed horses and use them as mounts. Horses have very specific characteristics that make them a viable mount, such as size, back-strength, stamina, diet, behavior, et...
Imagine a terrestrial creature with a sail on its back, like a Spinosaurus or Dimetrodon. Would it be possible to use this sail as a lung for oxygen exchange with the air?
Disclaimer: This is not a duplicate of this question. This question deals with a specifically non-marine snake. My fantasy story requires a giant snake. The easiest way to create one (as far as f...
I'm writing a species of dragon-sized butterflies¹ as flying mounts into a low-magic fantasy setting², and would like to know if these creatures have to be imbued with magic, or if they could jus...
The Question: So, in my fantasy world, I have a race of human-like creatures that can talk to any land animal. The basic question is what kind of and how many voice boxes would this race need to be...
I love chocolate. Today, when I was making myself a cup of hot chocolate, I was thinking about Easter and about all the chocolate I am going to eat. And at some point I was wondering: How awesome...
My Kepler Bb humanoids are externally gender neutral until they are 5 years old. So you can only tell if they are male or female before then via genetic testing or an abdominal scan like an ultraso...
Hunger and tiredness both take a long time to cause a human baby to cry but hunger is often the longer of the 2. Now, yes, for us humans, a hunger cry is important, even though it attracts predator...
The end goal is to have human like beings with vestigial horns or antlers, but I am unsure of what types of horns they should be. Apparently there are three type of horn: living horn-bony outgr...
For starters, allow me to define more carefully what I am asking. For now I am not worried about any of the following, as if this question is answered they will be covered in later questions: The...
For starters, allow me to define more carefully what I am asking. For now I am not worried about any of the following, as if this question is answered they will be covered in later questions: Bon...
Another question for my comic: my friend has made a demand that I give one of her characters a flying mount, preferably griffin-like. I have some designs but I want them to be plausible: How bulk...
This cat looks like a normal Maine Coon to the unsuspecting victim. Except for one little detail: Red claws that inject a neurotoxin into the victim onpon scratching it. What would be the most app...
My planet has an atmospheric density 12x that of earth with 0.8 Earth Gravity. Someone pointed out a while back that this would increase the wind strength proportionally. Now this is a problem as a...
Consider centaurs, mermaids/mermen/merfolk, driders/arachne, lamia/naga, and other half-human creatures with similar bodyplans, which I will henceforth refer to as "centauromorphs". They all have a...
One of my fictional planets is a lot like Venus. Tons of volcanoes, extreme air pressure, similar density. The volcanoes are active. There is 1 creature here that depends on minerals and acids. Wit...
Ok I'm not exactly sure how to tag this or where to ask, but... Could someone create living, breeding-viable wolf adults with the genes responsible for Siamese points (as found in the cat breed), a...
This is question #1 regarding the background art of Worldbuilding.SE One of the first things I noticed when I found this site was that amazing background picture. I like to think a great story can...
For those that do not know, the tardigrade is a microscopic animal that can survive: extreme heat extreme cold extreme levels of radiation lack of water indefinitely lack of food indefinitely a...
Xenomorphs are one of the most dangerous, deadly aliens in movie history. They breed in massive numbers, live in an ant-like society, and have blood that doubles as concentrated acid. Most of tho...
Many half-human mythological creatures follow a few common anatomical schemes. Some consist of an animal with a human face, such as the sphinx, naga and manticore. Some consist of a human anterio...
Listen. You hear that crunching, cracking noise? That's the marrow adders. They're all around us. Tiny, timid, pretty much harmless. If you break open one of the larger bones left behind by the bo...
I'm writing a book about a man traveling on a Desert planet (colonized) and I need help with some of the species he might encounter there. I'm focusing on animals right now. I need to know what ada...
I'd like to make a sentient plant species that can perform tasks such as communication and problem solving. My Definition of Sentience When asking this question, I mean sentient as in able to...
Is there a plausible makeup for a lifeform which is highly resistant to even very advanced firearms (or any ranged weaponry for that matter), but can be injured more readily (albeit still a major f...
I am designing an alien species of organism (not necessarily intelligent, in fact, probably not). My current settings are these: The female is very large (bigger than cattle, smaller than elephant...
Planet Swamp. As the name suggest, it is a planet fully covered with swamps. A new kind of carnivorous plant has been discovered on this planet: when its leaves are touched by an animal or moved b...
My world is science-based with an earth-like biology. The dragons fly when they're young and then grow too heavy and can only glide if at all. They breathe fire by expelling gas and igniting it. Th...
On Earth, land vertebrates generally have four limbs. Other creatures such as insects can have more limbs, but those creatures tend to be small. I'm thinking of creating an alien ecosystem with rel...
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'm coming up with a science fiction world for an assignment. Would it be possible for a planet like Earth to be eaten by a giant alien creature that moves through space at a relatively slow speed...
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...
If an alien species ate minerals (aka a lithovore species), how might their bodies differ from ours? How would they eat/digest the materials? Do those answsers change if they eat substances like di...
Would any creature ever need to evolve a second (or multiple) brain(s)? If so, under what conditions, why, and what implications would it have on the creature's intelligence? Note that while an o...
Consider a world where the majority of creatures behave with might-makes-right rules. How could a pacifist race adapt its biological defenses or its society over years of evolution to protect thems...
So to start, let's assume that this hypothetical life form relied on something similar to LNG (liquefied natural gas) - mainly relying on ethane - as a solvent in the same way humans rely on water....
Parasite are very unusual creatures, their entire livelihood relies on an unwilling host to allow them to live, some parasite even control the creature itself! Despite this, to my knowledge, there ...
Polycythemia is where the hematocrit is above 55%. This can be divided into absolute and relative and absolute can be further divided into primary and secondary. Absolute polycythemia is where the...
I am aware of biological constraints to our size, such as the issues presented by Vsauce in this video. However, letting the biological factors aside, what is the perfect size for a technologicall...
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...
In the question; Hollow-boned Humanoids Nathaniels humanoids were a flying mammal species called soarfolk. But let's say that I want a sapient mammal to have hollow bones but not fly. These furred...
I am aware of the square-cube law, so what conditions do I need for this to work ? The tortoise will be a similar size to the isle of Wight and will walk around in shallow areas in the ocean. What ...
Like the title says, could a creature use metals absorbed through consumption to harden its natural armor? Metals and minerals that would be available would be similar to those on Earth (iron, alum...
Microraptors are cretaceous-period dinosaurs with feathered wings on both their forelimbs and back-limbs. Despite this, they are not considered 'true flyers' as it is believed they used their five...
I would like to create a sentient creature with telepathy and/or telekinesis. Can either (or both) of these concepts exist biologically? If yes, what would the biological mechanism be? Would ...
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...
Every species I'm aware of on earth has two sexes (with the possible exception of species which change their sexes to allow self fertilization). Is it possible for a species to evolve which could ...
In my Fantasy world I thought it would be interesting to have a creature whose eyes would be precious gemstones or crystals. I want to understand how that could be possible, and if any ramification...
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...
