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Q&A

Posts tagged xenobiology

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Q&A Could an organism see in infrared light as well as normal light, using its brain to process what it sees into a single image?

Tl;dr: Humans create a composite image out out what each of their eyes see Humans process the two images into one using their visual cortex Humans can't see infrared because of a lack of photorec...

7 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Lutro‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Lutro‭

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Q&A Can a large animal get nutrition from minerals?

Lithotrophy is a phenomenon known from microscopic life, where an organism converts inorganic substances, usually minerals, into energy. So, we know that a single-celled life form can do this, but...

2 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by SealBoi‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by SealBoi‭

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Q&A Why would males exist in species with hermaphrodites?

I'm designing a world with a humanoid race, which has two sexes, male which is analogue to human male, and hermaphrodite which is analogue to human women with additional male reproductive organs, l...

4 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by hozagi‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by hozagi‭

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Q&A How could a humanoid shaped species have two brains?

So this question is about a humanoid species I was thinking of: They are semi-immortal and live long life spans, which poses the problem of not having enough space for new memories after a long t...

8 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by KawaiiSamii‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by KawaiiSamii‭

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Q&A Tree volcano? (A "treecano", if you will)

Okay, so I have a species of tree that's absolutely enormous, 1-5km tall when fully matured. Its immense size is supported by a large base, bark that incorporates a 2-d carbon lattice for strength ...

2 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by Z.Schroeder‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Z.Schroeder‭

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Q&A How could a humanoid baby glow from hunger?

I assume whatever organs are used for the bioluminescence must be inside the baby's abdomen and specialized for bioluminescence and since the glow is gone entirely at 6 months, those organs must di...

3 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Caters‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Caters‭

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Q&A Intelligent alien life form that is not based from animalia taxonomy kingdom

So far, we see an alien life form depicted based on earth type of animal kingdom, we see an insect like Zerg, a humanoid grey alien, etc. However sometimes we see alien like Guardians of galaxy's ...

3 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by Hariz Rizki‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Hariz Rizki‭

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Q&A Could Organic systems ever power circuits?

I have a race of mainly insectoid aliens known as the Erepo who have virtually bioengineered a ecosystem around themselves. Now I currently have them using either organic systems they can "grow" or...

2 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Celestial Dragon Emperor‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Celestial Dragon Emperor‭

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Q&A Alternative biological oxidizer

A concept I've encountered a few times is aliens with "vastly" different biology than terrestrial creatures. In this case, I'm interested in replacing the parts that use oxygen with something a bit...

4 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Andon‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Andon‭

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Q&A Could complex life evolve after planetary catastrophe in just 120 million years?

Imagine a gas giant orbiting Sirius B, a hot Jupiter. 120 million years ago give or take, the star reaches its final stage as a red giant then collapses into a white dwarf, ejecting countless billi...

6 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by Z.Schroeder‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Z.Schroeder‭

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Q&A How to modify bee physiology to be able to produce firehoney given nectar that is (magically) flammable?

How would fire honey be useful and manageable to a beehive/bee colony? Info In this scenario, bees harvest nectar from a particular flower. The nectar is not only spicy from capsaicin, but litera...

1 answer  ·  posted 6y ago by FoxElemental‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by FoxElemental‭

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Q&A What 3 wavelengths of IR light would be ideal for "Predator Vision"?

Alright, so I'm working on a setting with dwarves in it. I've been thinking that, to make things more interesting, certain clans would have the cone cells in their eyes see infrared light instead o...

2 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Horik‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Horik‭

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Q&A Alternative elements for oxygen transport in an alien blood

I am designing an alien civilization for a story, and I am currently in the biological part. They will be oxygen breathers, so they will need to have that oxygen delivered inside their bodies, and ...

5 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Carlos Zamora‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Carlos Zamora‭

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Q&A Best material for windsilk

I'm developing a silkworm that spins webs of a particular kind of "silk" and weaves thin, fragile webs. The magic part of this is that it also spins wind. The following addresses how this works and...

1 answer  ·  posted 6y ago by FoxElemental‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by FoxElemental‭

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Q&A How does a female-to-male adaptor impregnate?

A hypothetical species reproduces by females impregnating males a la seahorses. However, their reproductive system appears woefully ill-suited to this task. Their genitalia are outwardly similar to...

3 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by Anonymous‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Anonymous‭

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Q&A Xenobiology of extraterrestrial parasitic superorganism

I'm looking to devise an extraterrestrial parasitic organism that perpetuates itself by infecting entire stellar biospheres before moving on to colonize other inhabited star systems. This organism ...

5 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by Christopher Costello‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Christopher Costello‭

Question biology xenobiology
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Q&A Does all life have to use Proteins?

I understand that Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Nitrogen are the source of a lot of great cheap chemistry and I understand why aliens could be made out of those elements. I don't understand though ...

6 answers  ·  posted 8y ago by King-Ink‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by King-Ink‭

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Q&A Could a member of an aquatic species survive a direct shot of the swim bladder?

So, on the planet Aqautas, the Aquata species is the apex species. They have cities underwater, made of an alien coral, and submarines to get around the planet. Crime is also an issue however. The ...

2 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by DT Cooper‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by DT Cooper‭

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Q&A How much metal could a humanoid safely have in its skin and bones and be functional?

Question definitions: "safely" - the metal would be strictly beneficial; there would be no health problems caused by it (perhaps at least for most, there may be "birth defects" which cause some of...

1 answer  ·  posted 6y ago by user16196‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by user16196‭

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Q&A How can I make a Venusian computer?

In my story, the humans of Earth have finally made the trek to Venus, and have discovered a previously unknown life form on Venus. On closer inspection of the mucus creatures, they seem to have the...

3 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Anoplexian - Reinstate Monica‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Anoplexian - Reinstate Monica‭

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Q&A Optimal species body plan for agility in a complex environment

An integral species in a large worldbuilding project I'm working on right now is based around the concept of extreme agility. The species shall be a megafauna (Is that grammatically correct - "a m...

6 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by SealBoi‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by SealBoi‭

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Q&A Ovulation dependent menstrual cycle?

So my Keplerians have a menstrual cycle that typically lasts 45 days on average. My proposed menstrual cycle is dependent on ovulation. So multiple ovulations without a period could occur but multi...

1 answer  ·  posted 6y ago by Caters‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Caters‭

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Q&A Super Vision In the Dark

I have made this planet for my creatures and it is constantly dark, night or day. No it's not a rogue planet, it's dark because of the 1,000 feet tall autotrophs that suck up all the sunlight and...

3 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Amoeba‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Amoeba‭

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Q&A non muscular rapid color changing

I have this alien race of amoeba-like creatures about the size of humans with the ability to morph their shape and move by constantly making and dissolving muscles by manipulating their membrane an...

1 answer  ·  posted 6y ago by Amoeba‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Amoeba‭

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Q&A Reproductive Neck Darts

Yay my second alien sex question, I hope I am not arrested. Context Okay now to nitty gritty, So I got an intelligent species of Ostrich/flamingo looking creatures(this refers only to the shape, ...

6 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Amoeba‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Amoeba‭

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Q&A How to have a reptilian species survive in cold environments?

So, in the far off year of 2569, there are two main empires contending for control in the Alpha Quadrant. They are the United Terran Federation and the Qualian Star Empire. The former empire is m...

2 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Talos 6‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Talos 6‭

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Q&A Could complex, macroscopic life arise and exist without cells?

For the purposes of this question only, I am making the following definitions: Cell: a microscopic, membrane-bound subunit of a living organism. Living organism: an entity composed primarily of b...

6 answers  ·  posted 8y ago by ApproachingDarknessFish‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by ApproachingDarknessFish‭

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Q&A How could an animal run fast using blade-like feet that sink into spongy ground?

In my fictional planet, forests grow not on soil, but on vast spongy mats of fungi. Traditional Earth-like feet would struggle to get grip on the squishy ground, so most megafauna taxa have feet li...

12 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by SealBoi‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by SealBoi‭

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Q&A On an Ice Planet orbiting a Black Hole, could Jungles live in Geothermal Pockets?

The Rygyphae are a species that lives in the geothermal pockets, areas heated by volcanic activity. The rest of the planet is nothing but frozen ice and rock, but these pockets are lush jungles ful...

2 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Sydney Sleeper‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Sydney Sleeper‭

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Q&A What would be the psychological differences between a human and an intelligent detrivore?

I am still working on my intelligent detrivore alien species and so far I have gotten some great help from you guys. But after searching online a lot about detrivore psychology I still cannot find ...

8 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Amoeba‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Amoeba‭

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Q&A Could a predatory semi-sentient species survive, in the long run, without the emotion of fear?

I was thinking of an idea for an alien species in a hard sci-fi universe, and I wondered if a species, with the same amount of emotions as bottlenose dolphins (Except for fear), survive as a specie...

11 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by SealBoi‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by SealBoi‭

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Q&A Could life develop above a planet's atmosphere?

Imagine a planet with extremely low density, and thus low gravity and an equivalently thin atmosphere, but a very active and strong magnetosphere that prevents solar radiation from destroying compl...

3 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Jacob‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Jacob‭

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Q&A How do puffer lizards puff up into flight so quickly?

** * Xenobiology expedition 'Profundity': Log entry 634 * ** These things are remarkably tricky to study!! Puffer lizards live on the open salt pans of Arbslex IV (an incredibly Earthlike planet)...

2 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Joe Bloggs‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Joe Bloggs‭

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Q&A Amoeba Skeletal Structure

So I am making these giant(human sized) amoeba-like aliens and to have something this big it requires a skeleton to maintain shape and to support its body but also needs to be flexible so it can do...

2 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Amoeba‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Amoeba‭

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Q&A Literally Pulsating Brains

Slime molds apparently are incredibly smart for a single celled amoeba and where their smarts lie is in building efficient transport tubes for nutrients, which rival our own highways. They do this ...

3 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Amoeba‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Amoeba‭

Question biology xenobiology
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Q&A How could I explain an alien species' non tool based plant manipulation without using magic?

I'm trying to find a way to explain an alien species' ability to control plants, specifically plant growth for crops, without it being 'magic.' So they can ensure the health and size of the plants ...

3 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Teanna Schmaeh‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Teanna Schmaeh‭

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Q&A How small can an organism get?

In my world, I am attempting to design a primitive organism to be the ancestor of life on an artificial planet with all chemicals necessary for life. I want the organism to be as small as possible ...

6 answers  ·  posted 8y ago by System‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by System‭

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Q&A How CAN we scale up living creatures to be giant sized?

Piggybacking on this question: Can you simply scale up animals? how CAN we scale up living creatures to be giant sized? What would need to done to make truly giant animals (Dragons, Kong, Godzilla,...

6 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Len‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Len‭

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Q&A Species with non-sexual dimorphism

Imagine life evolving on a planet. First creatures crawl out of the ocean and start colonizing the land. Then one of the species gets into such conditions where it needs to specialize in two differ...

5 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Verence‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Verence‭

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Q&A How would a Crystalline species send a probe into space?

I'm creating an Alien race based on Silica-Quartz crystals. While their planet is inhospitable to humans, the tectonically and volcanically active surface has created an abundance of crystalline fo...

7 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Hewholooksskyward‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Hewholooksskyward‭

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Q&A How would a free floating ecosystem on an ocean world function?

The world in question is an Earth-sized planet with a deep global ocean and core of water-ice. Given the lack of an accessible sea floor to root oneself to, how would a complex free-floating organ...

8 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by J. Purdie‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by J. Purdie‭

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Q&A Shedding rate reasonable?

My reptilian aliens that lactate become adults at 20 years old. I might add a graph here of proposed shedding rates over time and maybe even a separate graph for growth. But here is what I am prop...

1 answer  ·  posted 6y ago by Caters‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Caters‭

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Q&A What could be the energy source of a sentient, supermassive biological entity on an ocean planet?

In exploring the xenobiology and design for an entity (Entity X) in my fictional universe, I wanted to raise the viability of an organism that is so massive, it is visible from the planet's upper a...

1 answer  ·  posted 6y ago by frishi‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by frishi‭

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Q&A Mass effect: alternative reason for asari illusionism

In the game mass effect the Asari are an alien species...no one truly knows their shape and real form, but they do apear as sexy females to many other species, humans included. The asari can repro...

3 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Ekaen‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Ekaen‭

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Q&A How could a Jovian cloud-dwelling race develop space flight?

I have been wracking my brain with this one. I'm writing a story where a number of alien races who are unable to leave their homeworld for one reason or another send probes into space out of sheer ...

2 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Hewholooksskyward‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Hewholooksskyward‭

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Q&A How would a Plant Phylum Bio-Ship communicate with its home planet?

One of the worlds I'm creating has a planet-wide communal sentient Biosphere (similar to Avatar). They have evolved the ability to bio-engineer whatever they need, and they have decided to send a p...

4 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Hewholooksskyward‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Hewholooksskyward‭

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Q&A Upscaling Insects and the effect resulting upon their biology

Assuming the information in this video by the Cambridge University is correct, Planthoppers can jump as far as a meter. Their size ranges from 1cm in cooler climates to 5cm in the tropics. With ...

1 answer  ·  posted 6y ago by Lutro‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Lutro‭

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Q&A If I made a plant that could float between clouds, what would it look like?

If I had complete control over the plant's appearance, what would be the best shape for it? I need the plant to be able to float between the clouds. It doesn't have to spend its whole life cycle f...

3 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Nuloen The Seeker‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Nuloen The Seeker‭

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Q&A Feasibility of organisms with translucent upper craniums

After reading this post about a sort of translucent biological visor I was inspired to incorporate a similar design. I'd like to create an organism with a translucent upper cranium, serving no purp...

5 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Lutro‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Lutro‭

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Q&A How to transform matter from an immaterial state to another more solid state

Does matter, physical things that can be observed and measured by our five senses, have wavelength (or phase) the way that radio waves do, and if so can that be manipulated somehow? Let me explain....

5 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Len‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Len‭