Posts tagged biology
Which natural conditions are needed to force the evolution to immortality? I've read on a page (I don't remember the page) that if the environment is safe, the animal would evolve to have a shorter...
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...
Can an organism have traits that resemble both an animal and a plant? Such as bone, chlorophyll, muscles, and cell walls. Not necessarily a hybrid, but something that can be classified in between t...
If you can lower your mass without changing the surface area, you become 99% resistant to fall damage (like small spiders). So, why not? In order to do this, I wish to replace bones with kevlar, h...
Elephants are some of the most intellingent mammals, and they have large brain sizes compared to people. They are said to present self-awareness among other things. How could one go about raising ...
I'm working on a story that is set in the future where human females have evolved to have a fertile period once a year for two months. Is such an evolution scientifically feasible?
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...
Santa delivers to the homes of the 7 billion people on Christmas night, eating cookies and milk at each of the homes. Provided each home puts out a glass of milk and 3+ cookies, that's a lot of mi...
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'm creating a fantasy planet with an interior that has a god phasing in and out of our dimension, adding to and taking away mass in mysterious fashion while keeping everything but the influence of...
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...
The area of the earth covered by desert is more than 20%. (Sites range from 20-33%, I don't know why the wide range). With technology close to providing zero cost solar (not free, but declining e...
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...
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...
I want to create a world where tying yourself to a single partner would be considered irresponsible because it is potentially deadly. The more often two people come together and exchange DNA throug...
I'm making an alien race that's kinda like the Tyranids. My problem right now is that they're starting out on a planet. How would they actually leave this planet using only their biological abiliti...
Back home, the Tibetan Plateau averages 4,950 meters above sea level with its highest point being Mount Everest, 8,848 meters--29,029 feet--above sea level. At such heights, problems are resulted ...
I was imagining a scenario where an 21st century engineer accidentally finds himself transported through time to early Renaissance Europe. Realizing that no help or rescue is on the way, he decides...
I swear I saw this question elsewhere. Let me know if this is a dupe. Photons are great. They're little bundles of energy that Reflect off of nearly everything, allowing us to see faraway obj...
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...
Does anyone know what the relationship is between the range of likely eye colors in animals and the color of the sun on a given alien planet? For example, on Earth we primarily see browns, greens, ...
(Perhaps termite people would be more appropriate) In my world, the Gbajumo (think race of semi-gods) decide that the humanoid beings of the world have become too cocky and comfortable in their su...
An octopus is one of the most intelligent non-human species on Earth, can manipulate objects, and has lots of other interesting adaptations (e.g. the ability to change color). But, an average octop...
Image people with roughly the same brain and nervous system layout as a human as a first approximation using the same kinds of cells and chemicals, etc. But, these people have organs that can dire...
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...
Ceraon is a moon with advanced megafauna and flora. The moon is pretty small, so gravity is only about one fifth of that on earth. Much of the life-preserving atmosphere is retained through a gre...
In one of my more recent questions, one Xandar The Zenon commented that a mutation that creates the gene for red or orange pigmentation on the human skin is more likely than green, blue or purple. ...
Lets indulge in a bit of Mad Science, here. Assuming the world described here: Making the Enterprise Fly (60% of earth's gravity, 50% denser atmosphere) what is the wingspan needed to allow an ave...
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 ...
This question is specifically about the mechanics of an alien creature swimming in highly viscous magma, the unlikeliness of life surviving at magma temperatures etc isn't relevant. Just imagine it...
I have designed an alien species similar to octopi (Tetrapus Sapiens) who live in the tropical waters of a fertile, lush world known as Iridia. The octopi (more like tetrapi) have moved past the hu...
In this world, there are a small percentage of humans with "special" abilities. The source of these abilities is alien genetic meddling for their own cryptic reasons (though the characters don't kn...
Basically I'm considering the physiology of eyes and camouflage might look like on an eyeball planet; tidally locked to the sun so the sun is stationary in the sky. At any point on the habitable tw...
I'm designing a world similar to Earth (liquid water, temperate climate, there is an atmosphere, oxygen and complex life everywhere). The only big difference is that there is a giant (not glowing!...
Traditionally, a Cyclops has one eye, as well as some other aliens in fiction. My question is simple: Would there be any situations, Earth-like or otherwise, where a creature would benefit from h...
So, I understand that human skin color is based on the distance from the equator, but would it be possible to evolve skin to be a non-natural color such as green, pink, blue, purple, ect? Perhaps i...
In a parallel universe, death is physically impossible so nothing can ever die but this universe has lots of life. It is also physically impossible for any life form in this hypothetical universe t...
Premise After an unfathomably powerful mass extinction event ALL life (fauna, flora, even extremaphiles and microbes) have died off. The Earth was then sterile for an undetermined amount of time. ...
We have 24 hour schedules because the earth rotates about once every 24 hours. But what if humans were on a planet that didn't have 24 hour days? Would their bodies adapt to stay awake for far long...
I'm in the process of writing a speculative evolution book which is based on the natural history of the nine tailed foxes that suppose form a structure for a novel series I'm also doing (rather as ...
In many stories we hear about people whose genetic structure is modified after they're born (Spider-man, The Fantastic 4 and practically any other superhero you care to mention). However current sc...
Would it be possible for an extraterrestrial humanoid or superhero to increase and decrease their hearing at will, and if so, how? I'm thinking specifically of an alien who can somehow adjust their...
My question is: Can a human be used as a living ant hill or bee hive, e.g. have insects living inside themselves under the premise that they (the human) are completely immobilized? "Living hill o...
My question is: Could a macroscopic (e.g. visible) plant grow on a living human, provided that the human is completely immobilized?
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...
My idea is that the agent is absorbed quickly into the skin and will cause localized paralysis of muscles. It is housed in a paintball esque container, that soaks the target in impact. This is larg...
