| Speculative biology is simultaneously a science and form of art in which one speculates on the possibilities of life and evolution. What could the world look like if dinosaurs had never gone extinct? What could alien lifeforms look like? What kinds of plants and animals might exist in the far future? These questions and more are tackled by speculative biologists, and the Speculative Evolution welcomes all relevant ideas, inquiries, and world-building projects alike. With a member base comprising users from across the world, our community is the largest and longest-running place of gathering for speculative biologists on the web. While unregistered users are able to browse the forum on a basic level, registering an account provides additional forum access not visible to guests as well as the ability to join in discussions and contribute yourself! Registration is free and instantaneous. Join our community today! |
| The Moon, Pandora, from the film "Avatar" | |
|---|---|
| Topic Started: Dec 20 2009, 02:13 PM (8,072 Views) | |
| Yorick | Dec 20 2009, 02:13 PM Post #1 |
|
Adult
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
I took someone's suggestion and created another topic to speculate on the moon's inhabitants' evolution. So...speculate! |
|
"I believe, that whatever doesn't kill you, simply makes you...stranger" -The Dark Knight (2008) | |
![]() |
|
| Replies: | |
|---|---|
| Cynovolans | Jan 1 2010, 12:57 AM Post #91 |
|
Servant to Empress Min
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
I'm wondering now if there is life on Pandora that has a nervous system that can't connect with others. I mean there are numerous different types of nervous systems on the life on Earth, but I don't think any were shown on Pandora. I also don't like how Pandoran nervous systems are too similar to bilaterian animals. I think most life on Pandora has central nervous and peripheral nervous systems, but I can't decide if the nerves that connect with other life is another system or just part of either of the two existing systems. I'd assume part of the central nervous system because it appears to be directly attached to the brain. Edited by Cynovolans, Jan 1 2010, 12:58 AM.
|
|
I wish I could give the public a true picture of the queen as she appeared at her best, but this would be impossible, even had she permitted a photograph to be taken, for her charming play of expression while in conversation, the character and intellect which were then revealed, were only half seen when the face was in repose. -Lilias Underwood when speaking of Empress Myeongseong "I was born in the dark. I went out into the light, and your Majesty, it is my displeasure to inform you that I have returned to the dark. I envision a Seoul of towering buildings filled with Western establishments that will place herself back above the Japanese barbarians. Great things lie ahead for the Kingdom, great things. We must take action, your Majesty, without hesitation, to further modernize this still ancient kingdom."-Min Young-ik to Empress Myeongseong | |
![]() |
|
| TheCoon | Jan 1 2010, 01:42 AM Post #92 |
![]()
Happy merry Jesusmas inhabitants of the Spec Forums!
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
This is what I think: As we probably all know, the macroscopic life on Earth evolved taking the following way: ![]() But probably Pandoran macroscopic life evolved taking the following way: ![]() At first, Pandora had plants only. For a long period of time (Enought for plants to evolve that brain-like system), there was only plants in the world. One day, plants started to evolve a primitive way of locomotion in search for richer soil. This plants evolved untill they became animal-like. Then most of the animal-plants somehow lost their plant attribute and became just animals. Why am I telling you this? Because of those connectors that animal and plant life evolved in Pandora. Animals in Pandora lost most of their plant characteristics except the connector organ, so that they would still be able to download and upload information to the gigant brain that Pandora became. Having this connectors is clearly an evolutionary advantage in Pandora, so animal life in the world kept the trait. Actually, if you look at some animals in Pandora, they still have some plant-like characteristics in their back. The only ones that seemed to loose this plant characteristics are the Banshee and the Toruk. |
Greetings young life form! Procyon Lotor at your service.
| |
![]() |
|
| Ànraich | Jan 1 2010, 02:24 AM Post #93 |
![]()
L'évolution Spéculative est moi
![]()
|
I bought the book Avatar: A Confidential Report on the Biological and Social History of Pandora and it may be of some help. First of all, the Na'vi are blue simply because they are blue. The book states that their blood is red despite them being blue, so it really doesn't help explain why it's blue, but it's not because of the blood. Secondly, the Na'vi do not choose to be primitive. It is explained that they are primitive because they are more connected with nature, and as such they view themselves as part of nature. This seems like a cheap cop-out, but if you think about it, this makes sense. Humans think they're better than nature, that they can improve it or modify it to better suit their purposes and desires. We are not well connected with nature, we do not see ourselves as part of the food chain (or when we do, we like to think we're on top). The Na'vi also lack technology and civilization because Pandora is wealthy in natural resources, and as such there is no need to improve or fight over them. This keeps their population in equilibrium, and thus there is no poverty, homelessness, or overpopulation (natural selection also plays a big role in this). This lack of population means they do not strive to invent new ways of obtaining more food, which means they have no extra food to support new social classes like scholars or artists, which means they come up with new ideas very slowly (much more slowly than neolithic humans, even). It has some interesting explanations about some of the plants and animals, but it's not worth buying for people like us. It isn't like a field journal for exobiologists (which it calls xenobiologists, or mostly xenobotanist) it's like a "this is what they don't want to you to know" book made to help show how civilization has destroyed Earth and how learning from the primitive peoples of Pandora would help heal us. It's mostly garbage, but some of it is interesting. And it has some good ideas on how to fix the Earth of the movie, like importing octoshrooms, a plant capable of purifying toxic soil and absorbing radiation, to help repair the "Dead Zones" on Earth. |
|
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 Tree That Owns Itself
| |
![]() |
|
| Ddraig Goch | Jan 1 2010, 06:42 AM Post #94 |
|
Ar hyd y nos
![]()
|
The same book explains that the Direhorse gets at least some protein intake from insects trapped in the nectar. |
| Save the Blibbering Humdinger from extinction! | |
![]() |
|
| lamna | Jan 1 2010, 08:47 AM Post #95 |
![]() ![]()
|
Wow that's a lot of posts, are the LOTR extended editions really that long? First of all, the monkey cat thing is a Treecat from the Honor Harrington novels. ![]() http://honorverse.wikia.com/wiki/Treecat Well the fact they are primitive is not that odd really. I mean for the majority of time humans have been around we have been hunter-gatherers, and their are still places with people who live stone age lives on earth. Also when I said they chose a primitive life I did not mean the individuals alive at the time. I meant long, long ago the world was engineered for the Na'vi. They gave up their other technology and forgot about it and now are primitive. They don't know the animals were created to be easy to tame, or that they were given a huge self maintaining super computer and trees that can house villages are not natural. At least that's what I reckon, it also explains why the Na'vi look so different to everything else. Their ancestors decided to make them like that. |
|
Living Fossils Fósseis Vibos: Reserva Natural 34 MYH, 4 tonne dinosaur. [flash=500,450] Video Magic! [/flash] | |
![]() |
|
| Yorick | Jan 1 2010, 03:41 PM Post #96 |
|
Adult
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
The what animals? |
|
"I believe, that whatever doesn't kill you, simply makes you...stranger" -The Dark Knight (2008) | |
![]() |
|
| lamna | Jan 1 2010, 03:58 PM Post #97 |
![]() ![]()
|
Animals that you can cut in half down the middle and they are the same. |
|
Living Fossils Fósseis Vibos: Reserva Natural 34 MYH, 4 tonne dinosaur. [flash=500,450] Video Magic! [/flash] | |
![]() |
|
| Canis Lupis | Jan 1 2010, 05:10 PM Post #98 |
![]()
Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.
![]()
|
Who doesn't enjoy bioluminescence?! I've been trying to get that into my aliens for years. Personally, I think the reason that animals of Pandora have a central nervous and peripheral nervous system is that it is one of the more common ways for bilatteran animals to their nervous systmes arranged. Think about it: animals throughout the history of Earth have been striving for cephalization (I know evolution has no goal. But it seems that animals are on the path to bigger and better brains, which usually results from cephalization (concentration of sensory organs into the anterior portion of the animal i.e. head)). As aforementioned, cephalization is the process of evolving most of your sense organs into your head (which is why, in most dominant animals, your mouth, eyes, nose, and ears are located on the head). The most efficient method for controlling these senses is a brain, stored up in the head so it can feed directly into those sense organs. In the case of vertebrates (the dominant animals on Earth (they have been since the Carboniferous, to the best of my knowledge)), a nerve chord extends out of the brain. Seperate nerves branch off of this central chord to attach to different parts of the body (limbs, eternal organs, etc). This nervous system organization has allowed the wide range of forms we see in vertebrate. It makes sense that a group of creatures who dominate the ecosystems on their planet would evolve something similar to a vertebrate nervous system organization. Snaiadi "verts" have even done this. Just look here: http://www.nemoramjet.com/sndanatomy.html |
![]() |
|
| Cynovolans | Jan 1 2010, 11:24 PM Post #99 |
|
Servant to Empress Min
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
But I want to see an animal on Pandora that has a different type of nervous system, maybe something similar to cephalopods or jelly fish. |
|
I wish I could give the public a true picture of the queen as she appeared at her best, but this would be impossible, even had she permitted a photograph to be taken, for her charming play of expression while in conversation, the character and intellect which were then revealed, were only half seen when the face was in repose. -Lilias Underwood when speaking of Empress Myeongseong "I was born in the dark. I went out into the light, and your Majesty, it is my displeasure to inform you that I have returned to the dark. I envision a Seoul of towering buildings filled with Western establishments that will place herself back above the Japanese barbarians. Great things lie ahead for the Kingdom, great things. We must take action, your Majesty, without hesitation, to further modernize this still ancient kingdom."-Min Young-ik to Empress Myeongseong | |
![]() |
|
| agatharights | Jan 2 2010, 12:16 AM Post #100 |
|
Prime Specimen
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
There very well might be. I mean, we don't see the whole planet, just a small selection of it, in the movie. I'd like to imagine the world is far more diverse, we jsut didn't get a chance to see so. |
![]() Everything is Transformers and Dungeons & Dragons and nothing hurts. | |
![]() |
|
| lamna | Jan 2 2010, 05:44 AM Post #101 |
![]() ![]()
|
Indeed, all we get is a rainforest and a glimpse of the plains and the seaside. I read the planet has no landmasses encircling or on the poles, and so has no real ice caps. Also, I wonder where the Na'vi get the fletching for their arrows? I did not see a single feathered creature in the film. Edited by lamna, Jan 2 2010, 05:54 AM.
|
|
Living Fossils Fósseis Vibos: Reserva Natural 34 MYH, 4 tonne dinosaur. [flash=500,450] Video Magic! [/flash] | |
![]() |
|
| Holben | Jan 2 2010, 08:12 AM Post #102 |
![]()
Rumbo a la Victoria
![]()
|
Maybe it's just a plot hole. |
|
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." | |
![]() |
|
| lamna | Jan 2 2010, 08:20 AM Post #103 |
![]() ![]()
|
That's what all this retcon is for. |
|
Living Fossils Fósseis Vibos: Reserva Natural 34 MYH, 4 tonne dinosaur. [flash=500,450] Video Magic! [/flash] | |
![]() |
|
| Ddraig Goch | Jan 2 2010, 08:21 AM Post #104 |
|
Ar hyd y nos
![]()
|
Well, there is the Medusa, part of a group known as the Aerocoelenterates. The Medusa doesn't appear to have any form of queue, or link appendage - it's just basically a zeppelin-sized floating jellyfish, that uses really long tentacles that capture prey. |
| Save the Blibbering Humdinger from extinction! | |
![]() |
|
| Holben | Jan 2 2010, 08:21 AM Post #105 |
![]()
Rumbo a la Victoria
![]()
|
Well, you can't expect all films to be exactly right. It's a trade off between realism and story. |
|
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." | |
![]() |
|
| 1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous) | |
| Go to Next Page | |
| « Previous Topic · The Habitable Zone · Next Topic » |



















9:33 AM Jul 11