Posts tagged biology
Forgive me if a similar question has been asked, I can't find it. How would tiny creatures, ants, plankton, bacteria, for example, be affected if the Earth had twice as much mass. What are the gra...
what are the rules I need to follow to name different races of a specie and different species that have one ancestor in common ? Additionally how do i know when a race becomes a species ? Is an ...
Could a creature evolve to have multiple consciousness ? Let me add more details : -They all live in the same body -They communicate with each other silently -They cycle phases of work whe...
So I'm looking to make an insect-like organism for my book, and I was wondering what I need to think about to make it feasable, given these conditions: -These insectoids are approximately 2 meters...
I am trying to find a way to justify the creation of a single celled sentient (sorry intelligent) being. It's general structure is not specifically apparent although it should have the ability to e...
Inspired by Frank Herbert's Dune: Action Joe is kept prisoner in Doctor Evil's prison. Doctor Evil knows that Joe's escape is inevitable. So he decides to introduce poison to Joe's body. Joe gets ...
Bioluminescence is badass. It involves living beings emitting bright light in the visible spectrum. Would it be, though, possible that a lifeform emits UV (ultraviolet) light? Does it occur in re...
A type of species is not defined yet. It can be the insect like bee, slime like oak moss or AI. There is a hive-mind species, but its hive mind is not queen/king/mastermind. Each individual in t...
Non-Newtonian fluids are fluids that exhibit the qualities of a solid under rapid pressure but function as a liquid under long duration pressures. Is it possible, that an animal skin or some sor...
I'm looking for various factors; Atmosphere Composition, Type of Sun, etc, whatever would work. That is, of course, if this is even likely/possible. I believe that yellow is generally not an ideal ...
Would it be possible for plants to evolve a co-dependency on a community of bioluminescent bacteria in order to survive in a low or zero light environment? Such as the plant gathering nutrients an...
The idea I have is an Athmosphere with heavy gasses so the creatures that inhabit this planet have an easier time flying. The temperature is colder than Earth -119° as minimum , 12° average and ...
At what levels of carbon dioxide do humans have breathing problems (e.g. hyperventilation) or adverse medical effects? And what level would people need to wear breathing apparatus to survive? This ...
Related to this question on the topic of merfolk. What would be the consequence of higher oxygen level in water? As far as I know it is at 14 to 15 mL per liter with a water temperature at 0°C. (...
Having somewhat successfully raised bamboo plants myself, I know that they're hardy plants. However, our moon is a pretty different story. If we were to bring bamboo to the moon and maintain a smal...
I'm writing a story where Kradjin carnivorous flightless birds have been used as mounts by a nomadic steppe living people for millennia and I'm curious how this might have altered their morphology....
A hypothetical mammal has developed an unusual reproductive cycle. The females normally ovulate upon experiencing orgasm, whereas the males only display sperm production and heightened sex drive du...
The definition of a dragon depends on who you're asking. We are so used to the fire-breathing, bat-winged, avaricious antagonists of Europe and the long, lank wise men of Asia that we don't often ...
This is a partner question to How do centaurs get enough calories to live? Centaurs are a common mythological figure, with the body of a man where a horses head would be. They usually exist in fan...
This is a partner question to How do centaurs get enough oxygen to run Centaurs are a common mythological figure, with the body of a man where a horses head would be. They usual exist in a fantasy...
Apparently life on Earth has no meaning, the closest thing to a reason to exist is creating as much biodiversity as possible, through reproduction forced as the only achievement every creature can ...
The planet in question is Earth-like in size and composition and orbits a Sun-like star. Its atmosphere is less than 5% Oxygen and plants (lichens, some grass and river vegetation) have started col...
What sort of circumstances would allow for a parasitic relationship between two dominant species of an Earth-like planet? The criteria for an answer is as follows: The relationship must involve n...
In the book The Host by Stephenie Meyer, a parasitic species (Souls) attach to the back of the spinal cord of alien creatures to control their brains, but I find this a wee bit unbelievable. As it ...
These settlers live on a planet, which surface temperature and pressure are compatible with human life. However humans cannot breath its atmosphere. The gas in the atmosphere is not necessarily tox...
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...
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...
One of the settings I've been working on is a retro-futuristic world with a technology level and aesthetic of the early cold war era, something quite similar to the setting of the Alien franchise i...
Might make more sense to ask this in a skin-diving discussion, but... would something like motorcycle leathers hold up to water well enough to function as a wet suit, trapping a layer of warm water...
Let's assume that the dictator of a large and rich country is approximately 70 years old, and that signs of old age are showing, meaning that his death is not very far. Let's assume that the people...
Isogamy: "sexual reproduction by the fusion of similar gametes." Not to be confused with Isogyny, "marriage between people of similar status or age." All such species on Earth lack tissue-level or...
So, according to Other blood colors it is entirely possible for other blood colours to evolve based on what base they use, but why? What would be the benefits of these different bases? What purpose...
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...
So, if you haven't looked at my previous question: Would a sentient species be able to thrive when mating means the death of the male partner? Please do, as the information in it directly pertains...
Could a chemical compound change a human body in a way that a regular quantity of that compound is needed to stay alive after the first dose? The short answer would be yes, there exist already suc...
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...
Let's say that tens of thousands of years pass and earth effectively becomes a giant city. What species of organisms survive our conquest? How do these species evolve to adapt? How long would huma...
Basically, in the event of a blotting out of the sun á la an impact winter, what sort of food source (if any) could be used to sustain humanity? In my universe, underground/makeshift greenhouses ...
I've had a great idea to leap over the giant boundary of respiration when making giant insects.The largest problem is that insects rely on diffusion through exterior holes (spiracles) to breathe, a...
In my universe there is a human civilization that is advanced enough to have computers, computer networks, and robots, however they have a relatively rudimentary knowledge of medicine/biology. The...
Merfolk can be easily described as humans with the lower half of fish. On this site we have discussed; How their tails work, How they sleep, And how they hear. But there is one question that has no...
Many questions on Worldbuilding have posited different reproductive strategies that often result in the virtual enslavement of females (when there are females involved). On Earth, normal human biol...
I plan to make a RPG setting and I want it to be as credible as possible. By that I mean that I want to be able to explain everything with science without cheating. Statistically not likely but pos...
In a world I am working on, I have a wilderness-living, social, group-living species that for various reasons lacks access and ability to anything resembling modern medicine, including vaccinations...
Recently there have been up to two habitable planets discovered around the star TRAPPIST-1, if animal life was able to evolve on either planets how would eyesight evolve under such a dim star? How ...
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...
I am working on a coastal salt marsh ecosystem, and need an organism which has a large trunk. From my poking around it seems to me a large woody grass, or a Prototaxites like fungus\lichen might be...
I'm looking for a scientific explanation as to why vampires would be incapable of entering a human's house uninvited. There have been many terrific scientific explanations for some of the most in...
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 ...
