Activity for Uncle Tresâ€
| Type | On... | Excerpt | Status | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Question | — |
How can I Determine the Litter Size of a Species? Litter size varies vastly even in just the world of mammals, from the single spawn of an elephant to the up to 30 children an opossum can have. Obvious, litter size will determine population, cultural views of children, child rearing and even the family dynamics. Is there a good solid rule for the a... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
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Mammals evolving antennea In a species I am designing, they have eyesight similar to a cats, their vision at a distance is excellent, but the closer you get, the blurrier the vision is. One solution I had for this was for them to have whiskers, akin to felines. But of course, being a crazy person, I couldn't stop there, I h... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
| Question | — |
Anatomically Correct Borrower In the award winning Studio Ghibli film, Arrietty, there exists a creature known simply as the Borrower. Borrowers are a small version of human, no taller than a few inches, yet are otherwise the same in every way. We have asked before what the maximum size of a human is, but what is the minimum size... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
| Question | — |
Preventing the instantly lethal zombie bite A common thing we see in zombie movies in the ability to remove the infected area (usually the arm or leg) despite the fact that a blood borne illness would travel throughout the body. How could I design a zombie illness that would allow for removal of a limb to save the person? For example, would ... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
| Question | — |
What environments support gliding animals? Gliding is a relatively simple trait to explain in a species' evolution, much quicker than flight or becoming aquatic. But what environments support an animal in the evolution to flight? For example, are redwood forests better than jungles? Are mountains better than mesa? What environmental feature... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
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Anatomically Correct Spriggan The Spriggan is a tree-like creature native to the Elder Scrolls, where they are often found in forests and groves. In appearance, a Spriggan appears to be made of entirely wood and a glowing source that the people claim as magic, they are also claimed to be tree spirits due to the fact that they a... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
| Question | — |
Could the Aztecs have domesticated the Collared Peccary The Collared Peccary is not the name of the greatest man stripper under the sun, but is a species of mammal in the family Tayassuidae found in North, Central, and South America. They are commonly referred to as Javelina, although these terms are also used to describe other species in the family. The ... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
| Question | — |
How can I explain alien skin being different colors? In humans skin color varies slightly in shades of dark brown to a faded pink, which has the purpose of protecting the skin from sunlight. An idea used commonly by people beginning designing alien is to have their aliens have every possible color of skin under the sun, but in my mind this is kind of u... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
| Question | — |
Anatomically Correct Cerberus Cerberus was a three headed dog, commonly depicted with a collar and tail of snakes. Such an organism is quite difficult to justify, but how can such a creature appear that way? Is there a realistic way that Cerberus could evolve? A list of all of the Anatomically Correct questions can be found he... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
| Question | — |
Planet of the Aves: Aquabirds In my world, instead of mammals, birds have become the dominant order. Similar to how Quadrabirds replaced the grazing mammals; Aquabirds will take up the niche cetaceans occupy. My goal is that the Aquabird would be similar to animals like the orca or the narwhal, but I am stuck on the evolutionary... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
| Question | — |
Planet of the Aves: Quadrabirds In the world I am designing, instead of mammals, birds are the dominant species. In this world, replacing the niche of deer gazelle and cattle are a group of animals known as Quadrabirds. These are similar to flightless birds but with the their wings turning into a type of walking limb, hence their n... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
| Question | — |
Planet of the Aves: First Steps On our own world, following the fall of the dinosaurs, mammals became the dominant class. This was caused by a cluster of factors, such as the rapidly changing temperatures and their ability to adapt. No matter how they became the dominant life forms, they are; this makes me wonder could birds become... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
| Question | — |
How can I scientifically explain Marvel universe mutation In the marvel universe mutants are much more fortunate than in our world; they often have extremely useful powers; ranging from telekinetic abilities to wings. As interesting and plain fun as this idea may be, it is hardly explained without using large amounts of handwaving. Using as little handwavi... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
| Question | — |
How could robots ever be accepted into human society? Chappie, Johnny 5 and (the more famous) Overwatch all feature robots that are truly and completely artificially intelligent. Each of these series has people react to them in a different way; In Chappie, they try to kill him; In Johnny 5, he somehow is accepted; In Overwatch, well... We have yet to se... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
| Question | — |
An animal that puts its prey to sleep Hunting is dangerous; even for the predator, hunting can result in death. There have been countless example where a predator was killed by what was supposed to be prey. Animals have evolved many ways to combat this; from a cat's pouch, to a wolf's pack, to a bear's size. Another idea that to my knowl... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
| Question | — |
Would Space Voids be good building for massive space stations? Space Voids are areas in the universe that are for the most part, empty. They lack stars, meteors and black holes; They are simply put, the lack of celestial formation. Considering that future universal empires may want to build super large space stations the size of whole solar systems; would Void... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
| Question | — |
Anatomically Correct Khajiit Behold the Khajiit; Born from the insanely popular game series, Elder Scrolls, the Khajiit are a race of cat people who live in hot jungles. From the moment I saw this race, I fell in love with them, their natural sneak and unarmed attack made me want to play as them in every play through. Recentl... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
| Question | — |
How would a merfolks spaceship take off? If on a water covered planet, an aquatic species such as the merfolk evolved sapience and now wishes to go into space, how would their spaceship take into account the lack of land? How would a space ship built underwater be able to get into space? My question differs from this one in that I am askin... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
| Question | — |
How can I keep sapient species away from each other? Many other questions, as well as a few online sources, all agree that in order for me to have multiple sapient species in my world, they need to be either separated by a natural landscape or not a source of competition to each other. The easier solution here is to just set up a natural barrier in bet... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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Would evolution ever favor eye stalks on vertebrates? A common feature that we consider to be alien is the eyestalk and rightfully so. To my knowledge the only vertebrate that even comes close to having eyestalks is the hammer head shark (if you can even call them stalks). Sure, many species of insects have evolved eyestalks, but they are unlikely to ev... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
| Question | — |
What possible combinations are there for hexapods? On Earth, life took on a quadruped body plan which has lead to many different sub body plans; 4 legged, 2 legs-2 wings, 2 legs-2 arms, etc. This has made me wonder what possible sub body plans can exist on hexapods. Ignoring tails, what are the possible ways a hexapods limbs can be arranged? (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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How can I explain the pokemon version of evolution? In Pokemon, each individual Pokemon "evolves" into a new stage of its evolution. A lot people claim that this can be explained using mere metamorphosis, but there are no mammals that go through such complex metamorphosis. Using Earth-like biology how can I explain how so many animal kinds (from can... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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How can I tell if stone age aliens are sapient? Let's say I have been chosen to evaluate whether or not alien worlds contain sapient life before we terraform them. Just assume that we learned to work together and live as a species in peace, treating intelligent life equally (though in reality we never will). Obviously this is a hard job and sinc... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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What would a Collective Consciousness look like? The idea of a collective consciousness (Or Anthill) is pretty simple: instead of cells you have small sentient animal that make up a larger creature. This is different from a hive mind in that the individuals of a hive mind are all sapient, but in a only the collective is. When I tend to think of th... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
| Question | — |
Would Merfolk Evolution Trade Noses for Gills? 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 to breath. Now Merfolk who evolve underwater would have no need for the sense of smell (as it would be re... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
| Question | — |
What evolutionary benefits does a hexapodal body plan have? 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 the energy they put into using them. What evolutionary benefits does a vertebral animal gain for havin... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
| Question | — |
How can I design spacesuits for Anthills? 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 from a hive mind in that the individuals of the mind are not sapient, only the collective is. My worries ... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
| Question | — |
Anatomically Correct King Kong In the media myth of King Kong, there exists a gorilla; 50 feet tall. The largest great apes ever to exist were Gigantopithecus Blacki which, stood up to 9.8 ft, and weighed up to 1,190 lb. While this is good, it is much shorter than the 50 foot goal we want to achieve. How tall (or heavy) can I make... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
| Question | — |
Does Earth have enough fuel to become a solar empire? If humanity decided right now that they wanted to become a space empire and colonize the entire solar system would they be able to do it? One of the biggest problems with theoretically colonizing Mars is lack of funding and lack of fuel. Assuming that all of Earth, suddenly and universally, agreed to... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
| Question | — |
Is it feasible for one subspecies to have a tail and the other, not to? 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 that separate them from the other subspecies. Most of the features that separate them are easily explained... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
| Question | — |
Is Cancer Biologically Universal? Cancer works by making cells split and reproduce at an accelerated rate, slowly and painfully killing the afflicted. Its true weapon lies in its ability to surpass the immunity system. As far as I can tell, no matter how the cells of an alien work, there is no way to make them immune to this. So I ... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
| Question | — |
How could a collective consciousness evolve? We have talked about hive minds a lot here and relatively recently, a new idea of hive mind has become popular; the collective consciousness. The basic run down is that a collective consciousness species replaces cells, tissues and organs with ants, specialized ants and groups of specialized ants (or... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
| Question | — |
Could a large scale Tunguska air burst cause a mass extinction? Some Background Details In 1908, the Siberian region of Tunguska made headline news when an explosion knocked down 80 million trees in an area of only 770 square miles. The mystery was that there was no crater, which led to the assumption that an "air burst" was responsible. The explosion (named the... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
| Question | — |
Is the Idea of a Collective Consciousness Realistic? In how smart can I make ants, an idea was suggested, to instead of making each ant individually sapient, make the 'anthill' as a whole sapient; a kind of unconventional hive mind. Just as a familiar anthill is more like a single body whose organs happen to not be stuck together, my alien intelligence... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
| Question | — |
What evolutionary history would support Neophobic sapience One of the benefits of humanity is our subconscious need to explore. It is a simple instinct of primitive people wanting to know, not only what is in your territory, but almost what is around your territory. From this came greed, ambition and a bunch of other things humans have. But let's say, for so... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
| Question | — |
Alternate Elemental Bases for Life Here on Earth, Carbon is the base of all life from plants to fungi to animals. The most common alternative that exists is Silicon, but surely out of the over 100 elements other than Carbon and Silicon, there are other options for life bases. Out of the elements that exist, which ones can possibly wor... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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How would plants survive an extremely long, cold night On my planet, the whole day lasts nine years. The day lasts 4.5 years of incredible heat, with glaciers from the night providing water. The night starts with the sunset, during which violent tornadoes occur and enters into the night lasting four and a half years before another set of tornadoes and th... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
| Question | — |
Would a horseshoe orbit planet be able to travel to their partner planet? Recently I have become obsessed with the idea of twin sapient species developing on separate planets of the same horseshoe orbit. As I was considering the technological advancement of this planet, I realized that as one planet discovered space faring technology they would most likely attempt to trave... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
| Question | — |
How could Life develop on a planets with 9 year days In some of my first questions on this site I asked about a world with a day that lasts 9 years. Many people agreed that life on this planet could survive via migration, but not evolve.The problem lies in the earliest stages of the evolution, as microscopic single celled organisms would not know to or... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
| Question | — |
Seasons and Day/Night Cycles on Horseshoe Habitable Worlds? In the latest Artifexian video, he talked about terrestrial moons, bringing up great ways they could and would exist. But the video ended with an interesting concept, Horseshoe Habitable Moons. From Wikipedia: A horseshoe orbit is a type of co-orbital motion of a small orbiting body relative t... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
| Question | — |
Why would merfolk have hair? A classic image of mermaids are their long flowing hair that swishes in the water. But in the scientifically realistic sense this makes none. The hair would be nothing more than a nuisance to the mermaid getting tangled on rocks and offering handles for potential predators, so why would mermaids evol... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
| Question | — |
Evolutionary pressure leading to mammals with scales 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 evolutionary history. The majority of mammals had a different evolutionary path. What factors in early mamm... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
| Question | — |
Anatomically Correct Hydra The Hydra is a Greek mythological creature known for its many head that only increase in number as you fight it. Alcaeus was the one to solidly state the the creature started with 9 heads, a large primary head and 8 smaller secondary heads. Along with the magical details previously stated it was also... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
| Question | — |
Why would merfolk evolve arms? 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 not been asked yet, what evolutionary reasons would merpeople having arms over things like flippers or fin... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
| Question | — |
Why would a parasite evolve sapience? Parasite are very unusual creatures, their entire livelihood relies on an unwilling host to allow them to live, some parasite even control the creature itself! Despite this, to my knowledge, there are no parasites that are very intelligent, never mind sapient. My question is what sort of parasitic s... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
| Question | — |
Why would shapeshifters choose to keep an original form? In any modern story nowadays, shapeshifters always have an original form; Andalites from Animorphs or Mystique from X-men to name a few. It raises the question of why something that can change forms would even bother with an original form. Ignoring the unrealism of a creature evolving the ability to ... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
| Question | — |
Anatomically Correct Xenomorph Xenomorphs are one of the most dangerous, deadly aliens in movie history. They breed in massive numbers, live in an ant-like society, and have blood that doubles as concentrated acid. Most of those aren't a problem to figure out as we have many creatures on Earth with those. The biggest difficulty ... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
| Question | — |
Why would intelligent zombies not use weapons In one of the Worlds I am building, there are zombies. Sadly the zombie genre is dead(sorry), this is mainly due to the overwhelming domination in the genre and lack of new creative zombie types (world war z, 28 days later, etc). To solve this I have simply made my zombies as smart and fast as humans... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
| Question | — |
Genetically Diverse Slaves Thousands of years ago, human domesticated wolfs and from this domestication came dogs, one of the most varied species on earth. This occurred through simple genetic manipulation and forced evolution. What this makes me wonder is if an alien civilization enslaved humanity, over thousands of years cou... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
| Question | — |
Would it be possible for a humanoid creature to use mitosis 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? (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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