Posts by cobaltduck
I request some help with the design of one particular denizen of my fantasy world, tentatively named Boar Troll. It needs to be an ungulate or closely related creature with emerging sentience, and...
As far as we are currently aware, the most intelligent things in the oceans are the cetaceans (dolphins and whales) and the pinnipeds (seals, walrus, sea lions). Further, it is more tempting to wa...
I decided to try to extrapolate from some known data. I used various sources to find that: The Harpy Eagle at 6 to 9 kg can lift a Three-Toed Sloth of 3.5 to 4.5 kg A Peregrine Falcon of 0.3 to ...
I think evolution could handle this, given enough time and the right pressures. Here are the steps, in brief: Start with an existing carnivorous plant like a butterwort or bladderwort. Increase ...
The aliens know some mathematics that we don't. In the question, there is mention of a particular rectangular projection, best known as the Mercator projection. However, there are many other ways...
Real World (TM) sea turtles might not have teeth, but they do have esophageal papillae that are quite gruesome to look at, but help the turtle snare and consume jelly fish. These hard, spiky proj...
Schmell gets the snow. Man, does it get the snow. You think it snows where you live? You should see the snow in Schmell! To walk around on all the deep, white, frozen precipitation, it helps to...
Like the comments already state several times, your whole idea is a long-shot. But given that, perhaps your planet can have some set of conditions that provide the Mother of All El Niño - La Niña ...
I'm going to go add a fourth possibility to your crocodilian, amphibian, mammalian choice list: dinosaurid. First, the hair could be explained as pycnofibers, " hair-like filaments ... similar to,...
Let's take inspiration from the claws of mantis shrimp. Their club- or spear-like claws are deployed by flexing and releasing bands of chitin. In the same way, your creature's tail would need suc...
Have you tried this thing as a kid, when you are swimming in a pool or at a lake, where you take a small bucket, turn it upside down, and competed for who could push it down the farthest? It is ha...
Go backwards just a few small steps in our evolutionary tree, and you will encounter the primate sub-order strepsirrhini, consisting of lemurs, galagos, and lorises. These are perhaps not our fier...
Allow me to introduce you to the Cosmological Principle. According to this, the universe looks the same everywhere, from wherever one stands, and in whatever direction one looks. After all, our p...
You need to take advantage of Lagrangian Points. Whenever one massive body orbits another, there are five points surrounding them where other massive bodies will be in equilibrium, in terms of gra...
Reptilian with multiple opposing digits? Sounds like chameleons: photo source Yes, our little Madagascan color-changing friends already have the arrangement you are looking for. Why? Because...
You need to make their anatomies, societies, means of communication, nature of technology, and other seemingly small details so radically different from each other, that even when they see each oth...
Your own question, a prior answer, and a comment collective already give us several parameters: The human body must be able to produce the sound. The sound must not attract the notice of others. ...
Welcome to the "Big Island" of Hawaii Using your own list: A Forest: the island is dominated by Tropical Rainforest A lake: Lake Waiau A snowy mountaintop: Mauna Kea A desert: Ka'u A bustling mo...
Your creature needs to accomplish two things: 1) escape velocity and 2) survive the harshness of space, all without the benefit of so much as a sharpened stick or flake of rock. This is going to b...
You've heard the expression whatever doesn't kill us makes us stronger? Well, in some cases, what does kill a few of us, leaves the average of what's left of us stronger. Consider a couple real-l...
This exists. In Botswana, the Okavango River branches out to create a wide, swampy area called, appropriately enough, the Okavango Delta. To quote the first line from the Wikipedia entry (emphasi...
I think the result will be very similar to what happens here on this Earth during a solar eclipse. I like this quote from http://www.eclipse2017.org/2017/what_you_see.htm: You'll get the shrin...
Based on an answer of mine from a few months ago, I've been inspired to adapt the concept to my own Life Ball. Fair warning- this question and some of its links are not for the squeamish. May con...
On the Life Ball of my fantasy stories, a particular species of delphinidae- I call them black dolphins- have evolved and advanced at least as much as humans and other intelligent races. A prior q...
The core idea you have is very similar to that of an air well, and these have been around since ancient times. You are simply talking about building yours higher up in the atmosphere. The air wel...
