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Gyrosprinter / Thar; my new musings on aliens
Topic Started: Feb 24 2010, 03:55 PM (2,650 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.

Basically, imagine a cetacean skeleton. We know they are tetrapods, but you can't tell by looking at the skeleton, seeing as the back legs have evolved away.

This is similar to the delphiser and its kin. The back limb has elongated, looking almost like a tail. The front limb in the "whale" group ha completely atrophied and there are no traces left. However, in the "seal" group, the front limb has also atrophied, but you can still tell that there was once a limb there. Bone from this atrophied limb is what forms the spike.




And yes, the spike is mainly for tuna-sized prey. Though it is able to deliver nasty scratches to any creature that threatens the delphiser.
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