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Vabmojer; Dinosaurimimidae now online. Go to Vabmojer to find out more!
Topic Started: Sep 27 2009, 03:37 PM (4,951 Views)
Ddraig Goch
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Ar hyd y nos

First of all... hi! This is my first post on this forum (wow). Um, yeah. So anyway, about Vabmojer...

Vabmojer is an alien world which I have made with several of my friends. It is an earthlike planet, but we have done our best to make the animals as un-earthlike as possible. We are working on a website, although right now it is not complete. Still, feel free to have a look! (And I apologise in advance for the artwork - I'm not the best drawer ever)

Type this in the address box;

www.vabmojer.bravehost.com

See what you think!
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Holben
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More primitive?
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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Ddraig Goch
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What are, the Novu's? Yeah.
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Holben
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Okay.
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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Ddraig Goch
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Okay then. :ermm:
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Holben
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Alright. Ok... ^_^
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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Ddraig Goch
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Moving on...

I wonder where Empyreon is. I go to all the bother of answering his questions with more questions, and he doesn't turn up! HONESTLY! ^_^
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Holben
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How about answering them all with 'gewoorgl'?
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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Empyreon
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Are you plausible?

So not only am I supposed to have shorter posts, now I'm supposed to be around 24/7? ;)

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Taking away two of the Trophille's hydraulic hind legs?


This is where I'd put my vote. It's generally accepted that the less limbs something has the easier it is for the the brain to coordinate them. There are of course exceptions to this rule (centipedes, etc.), but you don't see large animals with that many legs. So I think this is an example of where less is more.

As far as balance goes, you can always make the legs thicker to help weigh down the back end. Also, if you're looking at a redraw any way I'd suggest spreading the positions of the feet out so that they better support the trophille's center of gravity. Look at leg distribution of insects and spiders for inspiration.

But the legs aren't my only concern with the trophille. What about those clawed limbs around the head? The droph has two, and the trophille has three? Four? In the first place, how many are there (it's not clear from the picture), and secondly, why does it have more of those too?

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I like the idea of the membrane - a bit like the Deathbottle plant from TFIW. How could I make it work, though?


Um, what do you mean? Why not just make it work like the deathbottle? A thick membrane of skin that regrows after each use isn't that difficult to develop, especially if the sandmaw has a fresh source of food as fuel for the regeneration.
Take a look at my exobiology subforum of the planet Nereus!

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food for thought
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Holben
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Beware the deadly donkey,
falling slowly from the sky,
you can choose the way you live, my friend,
but not the way you die.
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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Ddraig Goch
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Oh I love that card! It's by Edward Monkton, isn't it? "These cards would like to be your friends..." Great stuff.

Quote:
 
But the legs aren't my only concern with the trophille. What about those clawed limbs around the head? The droph has two, and the trophille has three? Four? In the first place, how many are there (it's not clear from the picture), and secondly, why does it have more of those too?


It has three "arms". As to why it has the extra one, it's just the way we initially designed it. I suppose the idea was that when the trophille leapt from the sparse undergrowth at a hapless rock-sprinter, one arm would grab it underneath, and the other two from above. I know that it doesn't sound very convincing.

Quote:
 
Um, what do you mean? Why not just make it work like the deathbottle? A thick membrane of skin that regrows after each use isn't that difficult to develop, especially if the sandmaw has a fresh source of food as fuel for the regeneration.


My concern with that is that when a creature breaks the membrane, it will inevitably bring down with it the sand that had collected on the membrane - bringing us back to the original argument.

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So not only am I supposed to have shorter posts, now I'm supposed to be around 24/7?



Well, it would help.... :lol:



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Empyreon
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It has three "arms".


Ah, that's what I thought. Well, there's nothing wrong with how the trophille uses those three to catch food, but why doesn't the droph have a third arm?

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My concern with that is that when a creature breaks the membrane, it will inevitably bring down with it the sand that had collected on the membrane - bringing us back to the original argument.


A very good point. I guess it brings us back to some of the other suggestions I made (which were apparently lost in the shuffle of tiny random posts):

- A large pouch below the mouth designed to collect sand and periodically expel it, either through the mouth or through some sort of peripheral blowhole. Food would be redirected into the digestive system with a structure not unlike our epiglottis.

- Similar to the other, except that the 'sandpouch' also functions as a gizzard, with the sand inside grinding away at swallowed food. Some of the sand would probably be swallowed in this scenario, in which case the digestive tract would have to have some kind of protection against all that rough silicon running through it.
Take a look at my exobiology subforum of the planet Nereus!

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food for thought
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Ddraig Goch
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Quote:
 
Ah, that's what I thought. Well, there's nothing wrong with how the trophille uses those three to catch food, but why doesn't the droph have a third arm?



Simply because it doesn't. Okay, not the best reason ever...

Quote:
 
A large pouch below the mouth designed to collect sand and periodically expel it, either through the mouth or through some sort of peripheral blowhole. Food would be redirected into the digestive system with a structure not unlike our epiglottis.



This is the one I'd go for. I think it would work best if the sand was expelled through a "blow hole". In fact, if it was expelled with force into the air, it could act as a mating aid (helping the creatures find each other).
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Holben
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And get a glob of sand in their faces. Or is the sand turned to spice, which is expelled? Sorry, Dune.

Anyway, if there was an error that repated the genes for the limbs and arms, maybe that would explain it?
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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Empyreon
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Simply because it doesn't. Okay, not the best reason ever...


Yeah... The secret to this game is, when such discrepancies arise, to come up with an explanation to explain it. Unless you don't like that game, in which case you get to redesign one, the other, or both! :)

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I think it would work best if the sand was expelled through a "blow hole". In fact, if it was expelled with force into the air, it could act as a mating aid (helping the creatures find each other).


See, there you go! What started out as a problem with one aspect of the creature turns out to have positive repercussions you don't anticipate! That's the fun of all this stuff!

Quote:
 
Anyway, if there was an error that repated the genes for the limbs and arms, maybe that would explain it?


It's a longshot, but in time I can see that. If the droph and the trophille are that distantly related I can see it happening, but that much divergence would show a lot more difference between the two than is apparent.
Take a look at my exobiology subforum of the planet Nereus!

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food for thought
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Holben
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Hmm.
Food for thought, certainly.
positive repercussions? Not if i have anything to do with it...
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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