Help With Animal Survival Rates and Understanding Adaptations And Genetics

Skippable Introduction

I asked a similar question 2 years ago and never got a real answer. I was told the question was too broad or "it can be whatever you want" "magic can do anything" so I thought I'd tighten it up a bit. As a bit of background, my world will be filled with hybrid animals who got their DNA shuffled by volatile magic. Obviously not everything will survive, that's kind of the point, it was disastrous, like the biblical great flood. Lots of things died instantly, turned into abominations that didn't live more than a few days or hours, and things that lived and survived and reproduced. I live playing with speculative zoology but I don't know enough about it to say for certain a hybrid would realistically survive. All of the hybrids I have now are custom-tailored to ecosystems, which I love doing. However...

Question

I'd like to know if there was a way to really test if a hybrid would survive. Like a list of rules or guidelines to follow. There has to be something like that even in our world. Like for example a hummingbird and a bat of some sort, what would it need to have to survive? I'm not asking anyone to world build for me, I'd just like to know if there are any resources I could use to better understand the rules of species survival.

What I Am Asking For

1. Any resources to help understand the rules of survival/adaptations
2. A checklist I could use to determine if a Hybrid Animal would survive
3. Any useful advice when making fantasy animals

posted almost 4 years ago

Game Master‭

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