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Kali; My new exobiology project
Topic Started: May 20 2009, 05:23 PM (1,387 Views)
Ànraich
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L'évolution Spéculative est moi

As you might have seen on Deviantart I recently had an idea for a new exobiology project. My zoology class has introduced me to many new and interesting concepts and creatures and has inspired many new organisms for an exobiology extravaganza, so I figured I might as well start a new project, seeing as my last one kind of dried up and died.

This particular project focuses on the myriad of life found on a planet called Kali, named after a character from Hindu mythology (as all the characters from Greek mythology have already been used in naming celestial bodies). It is a lush world, slightly smaller than Earth, with a single vast ocean on one side of the planet and several lakes and rivers on the other. It is the sixth planet orbiting a red giant and is slightly warmer than Earth, thus it lacks polar ice caps. This is because it has a build-up of greenhouse gases due to overactive vulcanism. It has two small moons, Rama-1 and Rama-2, each of which are simply small asteroids captured by the planet's gravitational pull as they passed by.

I plan on creating creatures starting from the most primitive and working my way up to the most advanced (in other words going from aquatic lifeforms to terrestrial lifeforms) and then building onto each creature; slowly creating a genus and then a phylum from each. They have a genetic structure of their own, based on proteins similar to those that are found in DNA. Instead of forming two strands that twist into a double helix their genetic structure (which we shall call Kalinic Nucleic Acid, or KNA) forms three separate strands that combine into a prism shape. Because of this all sexually reproducing organisms have three different sperm-like gametes which for the sake of simplicity we shall call gamete A, gamete B, and gamete C (or just A, B, and C). Through processes unknown to science at this time the gametes from one organism will not recombine into exactly the same organism in some kind of strange self-cloning phenomenon. Instead the gametes from two organisms (as the lifeforms of Kali do not have different sexes, they are all unisex) will seek out each other. During reproduction gamete A will seek gamete B and form gamete AB, which in turn attracts gamete C. Gamete C combines with an AB gamete to form a complete prism of KNA. Because this form of reproduction guarantees three different combination of KNA all acts of reproduction end in triplets being formed. In order to prevent overpopulation this requires natural processes to be in place to ensure that species will not overpopulate and become extinct due to lack of resources. Creatures lower on the food chain will reproduce more often (perhaps even three times in their life!) but have a significantly shorter lifespan than other organisms. More evolved creatures higher on the food chain will reproduce less often (some as few as once in a lifetime) but live far longer than other organisms.

Three types of reproduction are known on Kali, each one more advanced than the last. The first is found only in aquatic organisms or amphibians. This type of reproduction involves the organisms simply releasing their gametes into the water in proximity of other members of their species. The gametes will gather and form KNA, slowly beginning cell division and the growth of a new organism. In terrestrial animals it is common to find Kali's answer to Earth's egg; the sac. Organisms will produce a sac filled with a fluid containing their gametes and nutrients and then fertilize another sac by releasing a semen-like fluid onto the surface of another sac. The sac absorbs the fluid through pores and from there the process of cell division and grown begins. In some species they will have three separate sacs, each containing one particular gamete, though this is less common as there is less of a chance for successful fertilization of all sacs. And finally, in the most advanced organisms. there is a kind of internal sac that is fertilized by insemination via penis-like structures and oviducts. In order to prevent too much strain from being put on one organisms body from the stress and demands of growing triplets within a womb this type of reproduction involves giving birth to live, larval young that then mature into an adult through metamorphosis.

Those are all the notes I have at the moment, but I can guarantee that once I start putting creatures up there will be more. At the moment I do not have my printer/scanner connected to my computer so I can't scan the one creature I already have completed onto the computer but I can tell you right now that it is not like the creatures in my old projects.
We should all aspire to die surrounded by our dearest friends. Just like Julius Caesar.

"The Lord Universe said: 'The same fate I have given to all things from stones to stars, that one day they shall become naught but memories aloft upon the winds of time. From dust all was born, and to dust all shall return.' He then looked upon His greatest creation, life, and pitied them, for unlike stars and stones they would soon learn of this fate and despair in the futility of their own existence. And so the Lord Universe decided to give life two gifts to save them from this despair. The first of these gifts was the soul, that life might more readily accept their fate, and the second was fear, that they might in time learn to avoid it altogether." - Excerpt from a Chanagwan creation myth, Legends and Folklore of the Planet Ghar, collected and published by Yieju Bai'an, explorer from the Celestial Commonwealth of Qonming

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Ànraich
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L'évolution Spéculative est moi

I'm also thinking of scrapping my current organisms and making new ones; starting with simple ones and working my way up (as I originally intended). That way I have a base on which to build rather than just thinking up things with similar features. That way they'll be more realistic.
We should all aspire to die surrounded by our dearest friends. Just like Julius Caesar.

"The Lord Universe said: 'The same fate I have given to all things from stones to stars, that one day they shall become naught but memories aloft upon the winds of time. From dust all was born, and to dust all shall return.' He then looked upon His greatest creation, life, and pitied them, for unlike stars and stones they would soon learn of this fate and despair in the futility of their own existence. And so the Lord Universe decided to give life two gifts to save them from this despair. The first of these gifts was the soul, that life might more readily accept their fate, and the second was fear, that they might in time learn to avoid it altogether." - Excerpt from a Chanagwan creation myth, Legends and Folklore of the Planet Ghar, collected and published by Yieju Bai'an, explorer from the Celestial Commonwealth of Qonming

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colddigger
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that could work, or you could think up the requirements for the phylums and such and work with those... that's sorta what i did for my tripod project
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Ànraich
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L'évolution Spéculative est moi

Well I was kind of thinking I would make an common ancestor then branch off from it, slowly building up phylums. Then I could add onto them and arrange them into kingdoms and such later.
We should all aspire to die surrounded by our dearest friends. Just like Julius Caesar.

"The Lord Universe said: 'The same fate I have given to all things from stones to stars, that one day they shall become naught but memories aloft upon the winds of time. From dust all was born, and to dust all shall return.' He then looked upon His greatest creation, life, and pitied them, for unlike stars and stones they would soon learn of this fate and despair in the futility of their own existence. And so the Lord Universe decided to give life two gifts to save them from this despair. The first of these gifts was the soul, that life might more readily accept their fate, and the second was fear, that they might in time learn to avoid it altogether." - Excerpt from a Chanagwan creation myth, Legends and Folklore of the Planet Ghar, collected and published by Yieju Bai'an, explorer from the Celestial Commonwealth of Qonming

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ATEK Azul
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Sounds like a plan though you should use your old creatures as a guide when evolving these new ones just to help organise them?
I am dyslexic, please ignore the typo's!
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Ànraich
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L'évolution Spéculative est moi

Well I'm going to try and make them a little more alien than I usually do. I find my organisms come out pretty...Bland.
We should all aspire to die surrounded by our dearest friends. Just like Julius Caesar.

"The Lord Universe said: 'The same fate I have given to all things from stones to stars, that one day they shall become naught but memories aloft upon the winds of time. From dust all was born, and to dust all shall return.' He then looked upon His greatest creation, life, and pitied them, for unlike stars and stones they would soon learn of this fate and despair in the futility of their own existence. And so the Lord Universe decided to give life two gifts to save them from this despair. The first of these gifts was the soul, that life might more readily accept their fate, and the second was fear, that they might in time learn to avoid it altogether." - Excerpt from a Chanagwan creation myth, Legends and Folklore of the Planet Ghar, collected and published by Yieju Bai'an, explorer from the Celestial Commonwealth of Qonming

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Ànraich
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L'évolution Spéculative est moi

http://parasky.deviantart.com/art/Hooded-Furback-138025730

Welcome to the wonderful world of the Furbacks! More to come soon, the second Furback is almost complete...
We should all aspire to die surrounded by our dearest friends. Just like Julius Caesar.

"The Lord Universe said: 'The same fate I have given to all things from stones to stars, that one day they shall become naught but memories aloft upon the winds of time. From dust all was born, and to dust all shall return.' He then looked upon His greatest creation, life, and pitied them, for unlike stars and stones they would soon learn of this fate and despair in the futility of their own existence. And so the Lord Universe decided to give life two gifts to save them from this despair. The first of these gifts was the soul, that life might more readily accept their fate, and the second was fear, that they might in time learn to avoid it altogether." - Excerpt from a Chanagwan creation myth, Legends and Folklore of the Planet Ghar, collected and published by Yieju Bai'an, explorer from the Celestial Commonwealth of Qonming

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Ànraich
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L'évolution Spéculative est moi

So I have another three creatures to upload, one of them a predatory furback, and two more of a new genus, the floaters (Xenonavi). But I wanted to get some help from the community first concerning the floaters.

Basically they're just squid-like animals with big balloon-sacs that let them float around in the atmosphere. The problem is that the system I designed to help them float may or may not be possible. First thing's first; the atmosphere of Kali is much thicker and much more rich in water vapor than Earth's. Secondly, the floaters have a special lung-like organ that takes in this water-rich air and breaks apart the water vapor into oxygen and hydrogen gas. The walls of the lung are resistant to all but oxygen, so the oxygen is absorbed while the hydrogen rises into the sac (which is pretty much part of the head, you'll see when the drawing are up). The lung doesn't exhale, otherwise the hydrogen couldn't into the sac. Instead the inside of the lung is filled with symbiotic bacteria that undergo a kind of "photosynthesis." They take in sunlight, water, and hydrogen and covert it into sugars, which then feeds the floater. That's the part I'm concerned about; can you have a kind of photosynthesis with hydrogen instead of carbon dioxide? This keeps the floater alive as well as keeping the sac from over-filling and bursting. So anybody interesting in helping me out with the floaters, because I'm not too sure how plausible they are.
We should all aspire to die surrounded by our dearest friends. Just like Julius Caesar.

"The Lord Universe said: 'The same fate I have given to all things from stones to stars, that one day they shall become naught but memories aloft upon the winds of time. From dust all was born, and to dust all shall return.' He then looked upon His greatest creation, life, and pitied them, for unlike stars and stones they would soon learn of this fate and despair in the futility of their own existence. And so the Lord Universe decided to give life two gifts to save them from this despair. The first of these gifts was the soul, that life might more readily accept their fate, and the second was fear, that they might in time learn to avoid it altogether." - Excerpt from a Chanagwan creation myth, Legends and Folklore of the Planet Ghar, collected and published by Yieju Bai'an, explorer from the Celestial Commonwealth of Qonming

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Iowanic
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This is weird....I just had a dream about floating critters(Though I think mine were more like a plant). Mine were tethered to the ground, as well.
How to utalize the hydrogen will be interesting to tinker with.



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StinglessBee
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So anybody interesting in helping me out with the floaters, because I'm not too sure how plausible they are.
There is a way to make the bacteria in the floating squids work, but it would involve them being of a completely different biochemistry (specifically a nitrogen and phosphorus based one) and you'd have to change the atmosphere (replacing oxygen with ammonia). Check out this wiki page for more information, specifically the section on nitrogen and phosphorus biochemistry.

As an alternative way, what if the floating squid like creatures use a chemical reaction involving water and something more reactive than hydrogen. The element which is more reactive than hydrogen will take up the water molecule, whilst the hydrogen will float into the sac. Meanwhile, the chemical reaction will be funneled so that it will cause the life form to move.

Either way, or even in a completely different way, I would really love to see floaters. I mean, they may have been done before, but they are so damn cool...
Edited by StinglessBee, Sep 28 2009, 03:56 PM.
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Holben
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Rumbo a la Victoria

I can never work from the cells. I just can't keep concentrating on which elements go where. My life always looks remotely terran, so I'm trying pure alien at the moment.
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Time flows like a river. Which is to say, downhill. We can tell this because everything is going downhill rapidly. It would seem prudent to be somewhere else when we reach the sea.

"It is the old wound my king. It has never healed."
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