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Pandora; Filling in the ecosystems
Topic Started: Jan 4 2010, 02:52 PM (4,180 Views)
Ddraig Goch
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Ar hyd y nos

This topic is for filling in the unfortunately sparse ecosystems of Pandora, the planet from the movie Avatar. To assist, here is a list of current fauna;

FULL LIST OF KNOWN PANDORAN FAUNA


Flyers (Supposedly related)

Banshee- dragon-like carnivore, subspecies in mountains and rainforest
Leonopteryx (Leonopteryx rex) - like an oversized Banshee, but with bright blue vertical head crest
Stingbat (Scorpiobattus volansii) - miniature Banshee, with long, poisonous tail-barb
Tetrapteron - beaked animal with two tails, subspecies found in swamp and rainforest

Herbivores (Supposedly related)

Hammerhead Titanothere (Titanotheris hammercephalis) - huge browser, similar in behavior to Terran Rhinoceras. Herd animal
Sturmbeest (Bovindicum monocerii) - plains dwelling herd beast
Hexapede (Sexcruscervus caeruleus) - gazelle-like creature, with twin membranes on head, used for display

Carnivores (Supposedly related)

Thanator (Thanatora Rex) - mighty, lion-like apex predator. Subspecies in rainforest and sub-arctic biomes
Viperwolf (Caniferratus costatus) - pack hunting, highly intelligent carnivores. Subspecies in rainforest, savannah and sub-arctic habitats

Other


Direhorse (Equidirus hoplites) - nectar drinking, horse-like animal. Possibly forms herds
Fan Lizard (Fanisaurus pennatus) - lizard-like creature, with large, circular flap of brightly coloured skin, used to escape predation
Slinger (Acediacetus xenoterribili) - bizarre predator, whose body is the adult and whose head is the infant
Dinicthoid (Gargoylia macropisceae) - highly aggressive, bottom-dwelling fish. Hunts like Terran crocodiles, dragging prey underwater

Invertebrates


Hellfire Wasp (Magnivespa velox) - swarming, wasp-like insect. Two stingers, agonizing venom
Teylu - larval stage of centipede-like invertebrate. Highly nutritious
Arachnoid (Scorpiosista virosae) - scorpion-like animal, six-legs, two stingers
Glow Worms (Arachnolumera nitidae) - large, bioluminescent worms. Feed off decaying plant material
Medusa-Aerocoelenterates (Aerocnideria aerae) - massive floating jellyfish, uses tentacles to capture prey
Anemenoid (Cataracta anemonica) - lifeforms that float on the surface of the water, uses tentacles to grab prey

Simians

Prolemuris (Prolemuris noctis) - monkey/ lemur-like animal, highly sociable. Odd arm configuration
Na'vi (Homo pandorus) - sentient race



Go speculate! :)
Edited by Ddraig Goch, Jan 31 2010, 06:51 AM.
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Ddraig Goch
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Ar hyd y nos

Quote:
 
BTW, what are Pandoran "arthropods" (like the hellfire wasp) like? Characteristics wise I mean

Well, going off the Arachnoid and the Hellfire Wasp, they have six legs, a hard exoskeleton, a head, thorax and abdomen, and the venomous species have a dual stinger. The Hellfire Wasp only appears to have two wings. They produce eggs, which hatch into larvae, and the metamorphose into the adults.

And I'm afraid there are no examples of a Pandoran Cladogram that I can draw referance from. Although all land vertebrates are presumably derived from the same, six-limbed ancestor.
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Canis Lupis
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

So in other words, Pandoran arthropods are the same as Earth.

That makes it easy.
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Holben
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That's annoying. They worked really hard on the (non Na'vi) vertebrates, and just gave up on the arthropods?

Well, maybe there are a limited number of possible arthropod forms.
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.

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Ddraig Goch
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Here is the Hellfire Wasp (Magnivespa velox);
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Canis Lupis
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

Do you have pic of the arachnoid? Perhaps with pictures of both the hellfire wasp and the arachnoid, we can make comparisons between Earth and Pandoran arthropods.
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Ddraig Goch
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I'm afraid it's not the best picture ever, but;

Also, it's worth mentioning that there is a centipede like species of arthropod, referred to as an insect. The book does not provide any information on it, only on its' larvae (Teylu).
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Canis Lupis
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

Is there a pic of that?

Anyway, it seems the Pandoran arthropods have a split head.

Have you seen that mutated pig? The one with three eyes, two mouths, and two snouts? Here's a pic:
Posted Image

The head of the hellfire wasps and the arachnoids reminds me of that. If there is a pic of that centipede like thing, perhaps it can confirm that this is actually a trait of all Pandoran arthropods. If it doesn't show this head arrangement, it would show an evolutionary relationship between the hellfire wasp and the arachnoids.
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Ddraig Goch
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Well, as I say, it doesn't actually show the "centipede" itself, just its' larvae (which, as far as I can discern, are only mentioned because they are a possible protein source for the near-animal-free Earth). Essentially, it's just like a giant Witchetti Grub;
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Canis Lupis
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

Okay. So two traits we can probably accept as part of all Pandoran arthropods:

1. The pronged head, as mentioned in post 37 on page 3.

2. A dual stinger, though this could just be a trait for venomous ones (but I doubt it. Grubs (and I'm just going by Earth biology) are generally foul-tasting, but not venomous. Yet they possess two stingers (though the adult could be venomous)).



If you all want, I can try to come up with some taxonomy for the Pandoran creatures. Though I may take some creative liberties such as adding phyla not mentioned in the book (AFAIK, only the "arthropods" and the "vertebrates" were mentioned in the book. If there are any phyla besides those two mentioned in the book, please let me know).
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Ddraig Goch
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There are other invertebrates. The Glow Worms are fifteen-centimetre worms, which glow with a purplish bioluminescence. Anemenoids are glowing, jellyfish creatures that attract fish with the light, before capturing them with their tentacles. And, of course, the Medusa, which is essentially a jellyfish-airship.

If needed, I could add the latin names of the lifeforms to the creature list at the start of this topic.

EDIT; Oh, and apparently these grubs aren't foul tasting. They are said to taste like a jumbo-shrimp. The Na'vi make shish-kebabs out of them.
Edited by Ddraig Goch, Jan 10 2010, 11:09 AM.
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Holben
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I think a cladogram top divide the kingdoms would prove useful.

Which derived characteristics would we choose?
'dual prominences on cranium'
'eight-fingered hand'?
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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I'm not sure... possibly diet. We have very little to go on. Having said that, certain species do look similar...

EDIT; Have now included taxonomy to animal list on page one
Edited by Ddraig Goch, Jan 11 2010, 02:49 PM.
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Ddraig Goch
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I've been wondering about the fish on Pandora. There aren't really any examples of Pandoran fish, and yet the book suggests that the Banshee and it's relatives may have evolved from them near-directly, as the Banshees have "very similar jaw structures to those of fish". Is that possible? And if so, how does that tie in with the evolution of the other land-hexapods?
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Empyreon
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Are you plausible?

I finally got the book in the mail (yay!) and from what I can see, the teylu larva doesn't seem to have an obvious split head. Perhaps that's just because it is just a larva featured, and the adult version conforms better to what we've seen in other pandoran arthropoids.

Another feature I find noteworthy, however, is in the arachnoid. As with other specified arthropoids, it has six limbs, but the front pair differ from the other two. First, they have only one joint in them, while the others have two (and maybe three). Second, they are set apart from the other two, much closer to the 'split head'. Third, there are bars that lead from the front legs back to where the other legs emerge. Could this be another example of a limb merging/disappearing?

As far as kingdoms go, I only see three, and maybe only two. An animal analogue, a plant anlogue, and maybe an amoeba analogue. The animal phyla show evidence of arthropoids, a flying molluscoid, and plenty of vertebrates. The 'vertebrate' phylum can probably be divided into reptilianss and mammaloids, with an order of flyers that seem to have fishlike ancestry, carnivores that could be either reptilian or mammaloid (hard to tell just from the pictures), a menagerie of herbivores, and some omnivorous primatoids. I'm sure there are some that I've missed in there, but that's the general outline of pandoran life I see.
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food for thought
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T.Neo
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Perhaps the flyers have a jaw structure similar to fish, and that's where the relations stop? They seem too similar to the other reptiloids/mammaloids.

Also, what kingdom do the helicoradians belong to? Are they animals or plants?
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