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Gyrosprinter / Thar; my new musings on aliens
Topic Started: Feb 24 2010, 03:55 PM (2,654 Views)
Canis Lupis
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

We all know that Earth and Snaiadi animals are quadropeds. Nereid animals are tripeds whereas Pandoran and Furahan animals are hexopods. Creatures from "Alien Planet" are, for the most part, bipeds. With one variation.

It's still a biped, yes. But not the familiar bipeds.

Posted Image

This is a gyrosprinter, presumably descended from a quadroped. Each pair of limbs has merged into one limb so that it has only two limbs: on the front and one on the back.

First, I'd like to know how plausible the gyrosprinter actually is.







But now for the meat of the topic. After watching "Alien Planet" again, I started thinking about a world with a gyrosprinter-like sapient. From there, I started thinking about a world ruled by various gyrosprinter-like creatures. Antelope, lion, whale, mole, and monkey-like animals seem the most plausible creatures for this limb structure. Obviously, flying niches would be out of the question unless they evolve what the flying lizards of Borneo have evolved.




So, how plausible does a world dominated by vertical bipeds (bipeds with a limb structure like a gyrosprinter) sound?




BTW, I'll be adding random creature descriptions here and there on this topic. I'll see if I can add a picture of each.
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Canis Lupis
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

Well, I don't have access to the book. Otherwise, I'd obsess over that.

I think it all started with imagining a gyrosprinter on a completely different planet, then figuring out what forms the gyrosprinter could take. Then figuring out a different way the gyrosprinter could originally evolve. Then writing an evolutionary history based on that. From there, the classes are easy to come up with.




EDIT: I'll get to the class description tomorrow. "District 9" is calling my name.
Edited by Canis Lupis, Feb 27 2010, 09:10 PM.
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TheBioBassist
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Naked Man (who fears no pick pockets)
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awesome job with the Dikephala. so what senses are located where on this animal? I have thought of lifeforms very similar to this myself that would have the eyes and chemoreceptors placed on the opposite end of the mouthparts (but with the senses on a tail like limb to facilitate vision).
"The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not "eureka" ( I found it) but "that's funny......""
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zypher
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... shall there be need for images?

if I have time, I would be happy to provide some sketches...
because there are an infinite number of alternate realities, withen them an infinite ammount of infinite things are possible... infinitly.

two samples of my artwork
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj74/zaraquexon/img016-1.jpg
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj74/zaraquexon/img018.jpg

<embed width="384" height="206" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" src="http://www.spore.com/flash/csa_widget.swf?userid=2263016807&username=zaraquex&host=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.spore.com%2Fview%2Fuser-thumbnail" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" scale="showall" name="latest-creatures" /></embed>
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Canis Lupis
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

Yeah, there might be a need for pictures, yes.



BioBassist: interesting with the tail senses thing, but I'm not sure how effective it would be. Senses tend to be located more anteriorly than posteriorly so as to give the creature an early warning system. Now, if the creature walked with its posterior forward, then the tail senses thing would work. But usually, senses are located on the part of the body that comes into contact with the world first.

I'm thinking that, in the dikephs at least, that there would be two sets of eyes, one set for each brain. At the "shoulder", I'm thinking they'd have to breathing holes (for inhalation), then at the "hip" they'd also have breathing holes (for exhalation). Under the inhalation hole, they could be some sort of guitar string-like organ that, when incoming air hits it, it vibrates so that the creature can actually hear what is going on in the world. Smell is also located around the inhalation hole.
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Empyreon
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Are you plausible?

Sense organs that aren't located at the front are usually omnidirectional (lateral lines, electrical sense, etc) or are responsible for secondary senses. Also note that they are placed close to whatever brain or central nervous processor is present, so that's a factor to consider as well.
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colddigger
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i think that the organism moves forward thus senses are at the front thus the ganglia translating their info are in the front and get bigger and more sophisticated.

if they have eyes on both ends then they should be able to move both directions, or rather, if they move both directions and are capable then they should have eyes on both ends.
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Are you plausible?

Or display radial symmetry and place their eyes toward the top.
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colddigger
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actually i would imagine that if they were capable and did equally move in all directions they would develop a ring of sensory all the way around their body, eyes and feelers all the way around, since the most important thing would be what they run into or what they are moving towards.

unless, that is, that the push to have eyes on top is so great that they can't afford to not have them, say a whirling beasty of death causes a fast and steady population drop of all critters without eyes facing upward. but then they couldn't see where they are going and maybe having clusters of eyestalks would become the best, each layer of eyes are aimed at a different angle. might look a bit like a flower cluster.
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Are you plausible?

Quote:
 
actually i would imagine that if they were capable and did equally move in all directions they would develop a ring of sensory all the way around their body, eyes and feelers all the way around, since the most important thing would be what they run into or what they are moving towards.

A lot of that would probably depend on the creature's shape as well. A radially symmetrical critter that is pretty slender already has their eyes set pretty close to the "front". It would also depend on the creature's neurology. That's a lot of optic nerve to have to run to some central brain, for example.

My question is do the critters for this project have eyes all the way around, or do they have a definite front?
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colddigger
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hum, when i think of radial symmetry i think of a pancake, or no definite front. i forget about worms and such, they obviously have two ends for senses to cluster at...

a pancake critter i figure would have lots of ganglia running rings through it's body, or a network of nerves like an anemone or something, a central brain doesn't sound likely...

it sounds like these critters have a definite front, but then i guess we have to wait for the project maker to answer.
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Are you plausible?

A pancake certainly wouldn't benefit from having eyes far away from it's edges, but a creature built more or less like a cylindrical column with legs could potentially have an option of "faces". And even though worms have radial symmetry they also have a clear front and back, so they don't count. ;)

And if a creature was complex enough to need some high speed coordination, I can see a central brain forming. Cephalopods have a pretty centralized system, and some of their body plans aren't too far removed from radial symmetry.

Perhaps Canis Lupis' critters have two fronts, kind of like a push-me-pull-you, only without the two brains.
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Canis Lupis
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

I was waiting for someone to call.

For the most part, the dikephs are bilateral (otherwise, their limb configuration would cause them to be clumsy and fall over). They do have a definant front, not two heads. When your thinking of the second brain, don't think of it as being a posterior head. You know the muscle hump in Earth bison? Think of something similar to that as being the storage place for the second brain. Protected under a layer of shock absorbing fat and muscle.

Of course, only two classes (of the seven) are radial symetrical, due to the fact that they possess no ossified bone or bone-like structures. These classes are the malanokets (class name malanokineto) and the nonakoks (class name nonakokalo).

The first set of eyes are on anterior, which does look like a head. The second set of eyes is located on the back of the second brain hump. The ear and nose holes (not very advanced mind you) are located on the front. I've noticed that, at least on Earth, evolution has given organisms senses they can use to survey behind themselves. For humans, those are primarily the ears. For other mammals, it is primarily the nose.

However, since the ear and nose holes in the dikephs only work when the creature breathes and only work to capture the frontal environment, a second pair of eyes has evolved on the back of the second brain hump.


Hope that clears it up.
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Are you plausible?

Quote:
 
You know the muscle hump in Earth bison? Think of something similar to that as being the storage place for the second brain. Protected under a layer of shock absorbing fat and muscle.

I totally get that. It's pretty much where you find the nereid brain as well (though in the nereids with two definite brains, that is where the primary brain is located).

It's all cleared up now. I can't wait to see how this project develops!
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Canis Lupis
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

Thanks, especially coming from you. :)

Well, I guess I'm borrowing more than just "Expedition" then. :)



So, quick question:

Do you guys want me to get to class descriptions, or would you prefer me to just get to individual species?
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Are you plausible?

Hmm... That's a tough call. On the one hand, I'd like a "big picture" view with all of the class descriptions, but on the other hand it would be interesting to see how the planet's unique life features are put into specific practice.

*Flips a coin.*

Go with the class descriptions. Unless you don't want to, in which case disregard everything I've said. ;)
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