Posts tagged creature-design
Suppose a species possessed different sets of DNA for different parts of its anatomy. I'm not suggesting one set for every function in the body; that would result in hundreds of thousands of unique...
Say there is a humanoid creature. This humanoid creature is very tall, with elongated arms and legs. The creature has legs that end in, rather than feet, complete points (similar to a spike). Woul...
The primary purpose of the human nose is to detect scents. This is an obvious statement, as is that the primary function of the mouth is to eat. The secondary purpose of both of these features is t...
We all like hexapods, from the Centaur to the Griffin. A large problem with the realism of the hexapodal body plan is that there are not many reasons for a creature to have them and is still worth ...
Let's say I have a species similar to human, as sort of New Humanity. The only thing that separates them from humanity is their subspecies: the Sublorans. They have multiple animalistic features th...
The idea of a collective consciousness (or anthill) species is pretty simple; instead of cells tissues and organs you have ant-like creatures, all making up a larger creature. This is different fro...
A creature on my world can draw in energy from the sun and convert it into chemical energy with 100% efficiency. For the purposes of this question assume the animal has similar structure to a (phot...
I've got a humanoid race living in a extremely bright and hot desert. Would there be a plausible or realistic reason for them to develop without eyesight, due to the harsh rays of their sun? Or, in...
The easiest thing to relate the creature itself to is a mixture of an armadillo and a bear. It's a large animal with essential physiology similar to that of a Spectacled Bear and large plates of in...
I've been working on an alien species for some time that combines several traits I find interesting into a single being. This species is for use in a fantasy story, but I want it to have a hard sci...
The pangolin is a fascinating creature. Belonging to the only group of mammals with scales, they are arboreal and are not hindered by them in any way. However, these animals have a very complex evo...
This creature is a waterdweller that somewhat resemble a fish. It lives in the retreating oceans of a planet orbiting a star that is reaching its red giant stage. The planet is now experiencing ver...
My setting takes place in a densely forested continent, with huge trees and rushing rivers. The problem is that this forest stretches on for thousands of miles, only occasionally punctuated by some...
Is it possible that a complex humanoid creature to somehow still use Mitosis as a method for reproduction, and if so, what would it look like?
Could a creature reasonably have both armor (in the sense of armadillos or pangolins) and be able to change color over the short term (less than a day)? I'm afraid I don't know enough about biolog...
A common feature in fantasy are half-human creatures such as centaurs, satyrs and merpeople. As much as the worldbuilding community wants these to be real, the evolution and anatomy don't match. ...
Introduction: Welcome to a world where hominids developed to have two different sized hands (similar to the male fiddler crab). We have developed societies, art, and naturally war. But, how exactl...
I was thinking of an organism that lives its entire life in outer space. It would be shaped like a rocket and have skin to pressurize its insides so that its internal organs are pressurized even w...
Not sure if this is too broad, but I am currently in the process of making a few flying alien species and, of course, didn't want to use the old insect or bat-like wings. Of the types of wings (or...
I've designed a creature for my alien world that is a large apex predator known commonly as a wraith. It lives mostly in dense jungle and forest and uses stealth and ambush to catch its prey (it ca...
So, I have an aquatic humanoid species that I want to be able to use echolocation. They are extremely similar to humans,with some minor differences, like gills. (The reason I include this tidbit is...
I am working on the development of a humanoid species. I figured they'd have split along the evolutionary chain around the same time as humans. They'd live in a warm climate, resulting in little ha...
In the animated movie Monsters Inc. the monsters which populate the universe all look very different despite the fact that they are presented as being the same species (since they can interbreed). ...
It makes sense to believe life is more likely to evolve on the surface of large objects like planets, moons, and asteroids. However, a common fantasy trope is the massive space creature: some kind ...
Caveat: No cold fusion! Questions Q1: Where can my dragon source for nuclear energy on Earth set in medieval age and how does it convert this energy for fight or flight? Difficulty:âš Q2: How ...
This was inspired by the question How would tattoos fare on reptilian scales Let's assume for this question that humans never lost their hairy, hairy bodies and are covered in fur. How would tattoo...
It seems that my ability to create interesting creatures is limited by the need for sexual reproduction, which is absurdly useful, but also rather limiting, method of sharing genetics. I acknowled...
Some days ago I had a discussion with a friend about possible alien life forms. He was stating that there anywhere could be lifeforms that do interplanetary or even interstellar travel by jumping ...
This is a question I've been thinking about for a while now. Dragons are, by all observances related to the reptile family, (or maybe lizards) either way these are cold blooded animals. Common ...
There have been questions about sizing giant animals, giant humanoids, giant flying creatures (also discussed particularly for dragons and giant floating mammals), and giant spiders, one type of i...
In my alternate history (1800s), I have troop hiking through tropical sub-Saharan Africa. For plot reasons, I have man-killing mosquitos, but I also have a plant that exudes CO2 and other attracta...
I would argue that ants are one of the most dangerous, effective and successful creatures on earth. But as we know they are not the dominant form of life. They also vary through-out their many spec...
Virtually all animals on earth ranging from insects through to swimmers, fliers, mammals and reptiles, have a symmetrical body plan. In other words legs and wings come in pairs, as do most sensory ...
I am a survivor of the United Nations Space Corp's 2nd Exploration Fleet. On our travel to the distant Epsilon Canares system, our scouts encountered a strange lifeform. We call them 'shapeshifter...
Watching E.T. I was wondering what evolutionary factors could cause a species to have the appearance of E.T., like the environment he would likely live in and the gravity of his homeworld.
Why would a creature that lives on the surface of a planet evolve limbs that can bend at many points (like a tentacle or elephant trunk) and still end in some sort of hand-like appendage?
In a world I'm designing, one of the eldest extant intelligent species is the Trolls. These are not D&D trolls, but something else. I have a number of basic characteristics for these beings, an...
This question How often must carnivorous grassland eat? was really interesting for me to read. However it made me wonder, how would the bone grass scientifically kill? (is there a way to really m...
Given the existence of neon kittens with: the internal properties and mentality of normal kittens bioluminescent fur. What evolutionary process outside of intentional human breeding/gene manip...
Many different books and novels contain creatures that have human upper body. But have the legs and thorax of spider. They are usually called by different names but they're sort of like centaurs b...
Exhibit A: The apex predator of my world, one that can both fly and swim under water. This deadly monster employs 4 limbs - they act as wings in the air, and fins in the water. It hunts for gam...
Continuing from this question: The rodents on the synthetic planet ( which I am now calling Ark ) can now walk/run erect when desired. The scientists continue with biological forging and work on t...
I was reading more Laundry stories and just went through Equoid. The humorous "Procurement Specification" got me thinking. In a rational SF approach (as opposed to magic), imagine a civilization d...
I hope my question isn't too vague or broad. It's a follow-up to this one. So, we have a human (genetically modified in order to support life on another place, from previous question) on an alien ...
In a couple of games, you encounter a creature or two that regrows limbs immediately after losing them, not necessarily the same kind or aesthetic of limb. You shoot the creature, it loses an arm, ...
The title is a bit different to the question, but there's a reason to that. I am currently in the worldbuilding stage of creating an alien planet, mainly the wildlife, and I may have run into a pro...
A team of alien researchers get bored one day, and decides to conduct an experiment. Seeing that the great ape Homo sapiens sapiens turned out so well ( in terms of technological development and ...
For my current world in progress, I have devised a variety of species possessing multiple, unique DNA chains that can receive copious amounts of short-term energy due to their large stores of sugar...
Elementals are based on the 4 classical elements: earth, fire, air, and water, as those were all that the ancients knew of. However, with science we have learned that none of those are actually ...
The Hecatoncheires was the collective name given to three monsters; (Briareus, Cottus and Gyges) who were the children of Gaia and Uranus. They were not only known for their frightful enormity, b...
