Activity for NixonCranium‭

Type	On...	Excerpt	Status	Date
Question	—	What Stops Dragons From Causing Ecological Collapse? In my setting Dragons evolved on a n isolated continent far from where man evolved. But in the past thousand years dragons have been introduced to the human inhabited continent, which is filled with real world Eurasian and North American wildlife as opposed to the fantastic. Introduced species have... (more)	—	about 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: Could a Monotreme Griffin exist? Be Flexible With What Counts as Wings Your griffons are four legged as the common depictions show, but rather than wings separate from the limbs instead there is a gliding membrane like that of a sugar glider or flying squirrel. A lion's body plan is simply unsuited for flight, but there are multip... (more)	—	about 4 years ago
Question	—	Could an Environment Sustain Large Eusocial Animals? Eusociality, is the most sophisticated level of organization of sociality, is defined by the following characteristics: cooperative brood care, overlapping generations within a colony of adults, and a division of labor into reproductive and non-reproductive groups. Eusociality is an incredibly succ... (more)	—	about 4 years ago
Question	—	What Prevents Gigantic Monotremes From Evolving? Monotremes are the oddballs of the mammal family, the echidnas and especially the platypus are absolutely absurd creatures with their bizarre anatomical features and mishmash of reptilian and mammalian traits. Of particular note is that they lay eggs and run a much lower core body temperature than ot... (more)	—	about 4 years ago
Question	—	Could Vocal Mimicry be a Viable Tactic for a Predator? Vocal mimicry for this question refers to the ability to imitate the sounds of other animals, exemplified in this video of a lyrebird mimicking several species of birds, a chainsaw and even a camera shutter. The idea of a predator imitating the sound of a human voice is by no means mine, Pliny the ... (more)	—	about 4 years ago
Question	—	Could Volcanism Provide a Large "Heat Oasis" in a Polar Desert? So there is an Antarctic like continent in my setting; and just like Antarctica it is the largest and most inhospitable desert in the planet due to how absolutely cold it is. But what if there was a hotspot? Now it's not just a single volcano with exposed lava like Mt Erebus in real life Antarctica... (more)	—	about 4 years ago
Question	—	Biological Features Necessary for a Humanoid to Have a Much Higher Rate of Reproduction? So for this question there's a Mad Scientist/Dark Lord that wants to engineer a race that can out breed mankind and carry him to victory. He has access to sufficiently advanced genetic engineering/plot contrivances to get the job done, but what anatomical features does he actually have to give to hi... (more)	—	about 4 years ago
Question	—	Could a Greater Relative Abundance of Tin Extend a Bronze Age? Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin, and copper is a significantly more abundant metal in the Earth's Crust, at about 70 PPM compared to tin at 2 PPM. Because tin was the limiting factor in bronze production; archaeologists and historians believe that the Bronze Age ended not because iron was sud... (more)	—	about 4 years ago
Question	—	Feasibility of Giant Rodents as Food In my setting there is a civilization that has a decisive advantage in a fundamentally agrarian world; it is consistently more efficient in its choices of crops and livestock. Rodents reproduce faster than any other mammal order, and some of them can get quite large, such as the beavers, muskrat and... (more)	—	about 4 years ago
Question	—	Could Megapodes be a Superior Food Source than Chicken? The Megapodes are a family of birds in the galliformes order. They live primarily in Australia and are notable in being extremely precocial and laying more eggs than any other bird. They build large mounds to lay their eggs in and the largest of these birds are about the size of a turkey, hence the c... (more)	—	about 4 years ago
Question	—	Feasibility of a Super Crop In my setting there is a civilization that has a decisive advantage in a fundamentally agrarian world; a crop of exceptional yield and nutritional value. Would it be feasible for a plant to have edible and nutritionally valuable tuber roots (or corm, whatever's more botanically feasible), stems, le... (more)	—	about 4 years ago
Question	—	Anatomical Feasibility of a Humanoid Derived from Orangutans? Of the living great apes, humans are most closely related to the chimpanzees and bonobos. We retain quite a few features from that side of the simian family, and it got me thinking about what a humanoid derived from the Orangutan family would be like. So for my project there is a race that is as re... (more)	—	about 4 years ago
Question	—	How long would it take to dig a 10 km canal with Bronze Age technology? There's a a decent sized kingdom that is situated between the ocean and a gigantic dried out seabed. The Priest-King and his lackeys want to flood the useless desert because who wouldn't want more water access and bragging rights. The only issue is that they live in a world that's in the Bronze Age.... (more)	—	about 4 years ago
Question	—	Human uses for megafauna besides food or traction? Ancient Man feasted on megafauna. From mammoths to every variety of deer and flightless bird humans have made the most of large wildlife, to the point of tragic excess. So what happens when the animal provides no good meat, no fine furs, and is unsuited for domestication? How would pre-industrial hu... (more)	—	about 4 years ago
Question	—	Would a large gliding predator be viable? Most animals that glide are rather light and small. Flying squirrels, Colugos, and sugar gliders all weigh but a few ounces. The largest gliding predators are snakes of the Chrysopelea genus. Again, they weigh but a few ounces. But could it be possible for a larger animal to glide? After all, there ... (more)	—	about 4 years ago
Question	—	Would Game Driving be a viable strategy for dragons? The Game Drive system, perhaps best exemplified by the "Buffalo Jump" of the North American Plains Indians is a hunting strategy in which large animals are chased into a preselected kill zone, such as being chased off a cliff. Animals were scared with fire, loud noise, and the simple presence of ... (more)	—	about 4 years ago
Question	—	Would a large and venomous mammalian predator be viable? There are several mammals that are actually venomous. Several species of shrews, Solenodon and the Platypus are all venomous. While the platypus is the largest of these, it uses it in self defense and really isn't that big. Shrews on the other hand are voracious predators that use venom injected via... (more)	—	about 4 years ago
Question	—	Is my fire resistant megafauna plausible? For my project there is an environment with a very rapid fire regime due to the usual stuff like a dry seasonal climate and dragons. While most animals escape the flames by running, burrowing, or flying away; there is one that simply takes the heat. It's a massive Xenarthian that looks like the lov... (more)	—	about 4 years ago
Question	—	Neurotoxic Bioaccumulation in Land Vertebrates Bioaccumulation and Biomagnification are common concerns in marine environments, with natural examples like Ciguatera being a well known example caused by an algae that grows on coral that is then concentrated in the bodies of predatory fish like barracudas. My world building question is can suc... (more)	—	about 4 years ago