Hello again,
Many of you may be familiar with my speculative alien project "Exobiology 101", which explored the hypothetical biology of animal-like complex organisms on different earth-like and not-so-earth-like planets. It has been criticized for being to brief in the scope of each planet, but as is indicated by the title, it's only a brief introduction, in the style of a high-school textbook.
Here is the original project again, for those who are not familiar:
https://xenobiology.weebly.com/
I had developed 4 other planets to be added to this project at a later date, but the work going in to writing the establishing material or each biome became way to complicated for me to commit to, more complicated in fact than the rest of the project. Writing summaries of plants and invertebrates was all well and good, but the specific statistics of the nature of heavenly bodies, orbit, gravity, gaseous atmospheres and most of all the alien biochemistry, was just too tiresome for me.
Anyhow, I will present these 4 planets here with a brief introduction to how and why I designed them, and their planetary setting.
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The designs of the first planet were to be summarized as generally earth-like vertebrate-style animals, many of which were warm blooded and bore filamentous integument. The main difference is that their bodies consist of more than 2 pairs of limbs, attached to 2 parallel vertebral columns, reminiscent of the gastralia or sternebrae of living vertebrates.
And so we see the different pairs of limbs take on many different configurations, none of which precisely resemble earth animals very much. Here is a 4-winged bird-like creature.
A bipedal, Jerboa-like runner which has co-opted its foremost limbs into signalling devices.
The rear-most pair of limbs, in most vertebrates has become a tail-like balancing array, as with this cat-like apex predator.
Aquatic "vertebrate predators" have a vaguely earth-y look, as they should on all planets. where hydrodynamic shapes work best.
Many forms bear supportive/defensive plating along their dual backbones, taken to relative extremes in this one.
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The next planet was to be characterized by extremely high gravity, which would necessitate all macroscopic animals to have dense flesh and flattened, low bodies. Locomotion would require extra muscle power. We can assume the chemical constituents of these animals would render their flesh and internal skeletons into very strong structures to bear such great forces.
Most creatures must resort to dragging or slithering along, as walking or running with ones underside clear of the ground is rather impossible. Some lost their limbs in favor of crawling and slithering.
Mouths are horizontal and slit-like, bearing protruding jaws that do not have to strain against gravity in order to open in a typical gnathostome-like lever fashion, more resembling clippers or tongs. This one is a relatively powerful predator.
Although many grazing herbivores are small, the largest is no longer in our measurements than a small dog. Slit-like, chewing shear-jaws crop the low-lichen-like crusty plants constantly, and sideways-swinging arm-clubs serve as devastating defense and deterrent.
While crawling on many limbs is the most powerful, and slithering exists too, dragging with powerful forelimbs may be the fastest way to get around. This beaked quadrupedal predator is a veritable "cheetah" that can outpace any prey it comes across, but would be hard pressed to keep up with a walking human.
This large-bottomed dragger is perhaps the equivalent of a Bovid here. Efficient feeder, relatively fast, and having a large gut in order to digest in bulk. No animal life here is large or fast by our standards, and most plants are low-growing moss-like forms or splayed lichen-shaped crusts, microbial slime and algal mats are also common.
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This next planet was devised as a way of legitimizing the sci-fi trope of giant, monster insect aliens. Here, the gravity is quite low, and the structural constituents of exoskeletons are both dense and very strong. Most macro animal life here resembles strange giant arthropods, some of which are almost as tall as a house, but relatively lanky.
While basic body-form resembles arthropods, configuration and differentiation of limbs is somewhat unfamiliar. This is a bipedal herbivore whose foremost limbs aid in feeding, followed by a colorful pair of signalling limbs. Most forms use the second-last two pairs of limbs as brooding aids.
Perhaps best called "Them", this large browser stands almost 4 meters tall at the head. The visage of its face, its feeding claws, and its jointed limbs give the impression of a giant insect.
Many aquatic forms resemble huge shrimp or lobster, with paddling, grasping and crawling limb-pairs. It is unclear why carcinization has not yet revolutionized the niches here.
The large flying animals resemble an odd sort of mix between dragonfly, bird and shrimp. In these low-gravity skies, some of them rival the biggest pterosaurs in size.
This mantis-like predator is taller than a horse, and would quickly make mincemeat of of a human astronaut. Apart from its raptorial forelimbs and trenchant mandibles, it is adept at chasing and pouncing.
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For the final in this little set, I had envisioned a Jovian-style planet that was not in fact Jovian, but rather a gaseous ocean. The gravity is very low, but the atmosphere is vapor-filled and quite dense. As a result, the animals have evolved to move within a 3-dimensional gaseous medium that in many ways resembles water in its physical properties. The gas-sea clings to the lower surfaces, and fills canyons and trenches, whose walls are covered in filamentous algae and epifauna. Swimming (or flying??) amongst this bounty are fish-like animals that are adept at maneuverability.
A large, swimming "vertebrate" predator, that hawks after prey which it catches with its hook-tipped arms and consumes with its radially symmetrical beak.
A grazer of algae and epifauna, part elephant, part cuttlefish, part manatee. Food can be manipulated by its single tentacular trunk, crushed and ground by its large mouth-parts.
A small, swift shoaling predator, something akin to a mackerel or trout. It is distantly related to the larger swimming predators.
Much of the epifauna are differently descended than the core group of "fish", but one group that appear like anemones or sea-pens, are in fact primitive vertebrates that opted for a sedentary lifestyle, much like what happened with Echinoderms on Earth. This one is a moderately-sized filter-feeder.
This sessile predator is bigger than a human fist, and preys actively on passing vertebrates.
Great! It feels good to display these concepts after so long dithering on what I should do about them. I hope you enjoyed them, and stay tuned as always until next time...
All
images, designs and writing on this blog are the property of Timothy
Donald Morris, do not use, reproduce, or copy them without my
permission.
© Timothy Donald Morris 2023
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