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Tartarus; A fledgeling concept of an alien world.
Topic Started: Feb 24 2010, 09:19 PM (1,183 Views)
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Hello, lady and gentleman speculative zoologists! The following concept is one I've been working on ever since I read of so-called "carbon" planets.

Tartarus is located in the Persephone star system, located about 500 light years away from Earth. It is a planet about 2/3 the size of Earth, with a small moon, Cerberus, orbiting it at a 60-degree angle with the planet's own orbit. Tartarus is a planet whose material is not based on silicon-oxygen metals, but rather pure carbon; its rock and sand are composed of solid carbon, its oceans are more like tar than saltwater, and there is little oxygen in Tartarus's atmosphere.
The organisms did not begin their existence in the planet's thick, sloppy seas. Instead, the upper atmosphere of Tartarus is as diverse as any ocean. Big, jellyfish-like floaters are the major producers, absorbing sunlight and producing glucose; feather-like, dart-like, or flatworm-like flyers eat these "plantimals" and one another.
Land life, meanwhile, is a little different. All of these stem from a land-based common ancestor; an inchworm-like creature with 2 bodily segments, connected by a spine and each sporting 4 claws. This creature later evolved into 4 groups of Tartarus ground vertebrate:
Cyclopedes: One-legged exotherms. Their "foot" evolved from the lower bodily segment of the Tartaran Inchworm. 7 of its spinal vertebrae are heavily adapted into a "leg".
Caudikorians: 4-legged exotherms (several endotherm species). Their 4 frontal claws are now legs, allowing them to crawl around. The back portion has either degenerated into a grasping surface, a scorpion-like hook, or just disappeared altogether.
Peddopterygians: 4-legged exotherms (many endotherm species). The 4 frontal claws provide support and movement. The upper bodily portion has become a head, the 4 claws becoming mandibles; in some, these are jaws.
Impaformes: Bizarre 2-legged endotherms. Possibly developed from a sort of sideways-crawling Tartaran Inchworm, the entire spine has evolved into a pair of "arms" joined to a bump for a "head". Most are still bilaterally symmetrical; which "hand" contains the mouth, left of right, depends from species to species.

May add more later, if all of this so far sounds at all plausible.
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colddigger
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i take it these things are all anaerobic? having little available oxygen sounds like there would be arms races to get the precious element.
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Well, I've been fiddling over various concepts for exactly how photosynthesis and respiration work on this planet. One would involve the plantimals breathing methane, and the animals hydrogen, while the other involved an exchange between carbon monoxide and oxygen.
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Are you plausible?

If oxygen remains with such scarcity I doubt the life would adapt to find it so precious. It would probably remain a highly reactive substance they avoid until they develop an immunity to it.

Or would it become aerobic of necessity?
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food for thought
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I'd probably wouldn't go so far, though. I'm a little partial to the methane-hydrogen exchange, all things considered.
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what i meant was that it would be a precious building material, he mentioned glucose which has oxygen.
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If there is little oxygen in the atmosphere then you would have to find an alternative to glucose, as it is O6H12C6. Also, how would aerial plants do photosynthesis? They need water to do photosynthesis.
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maybe instead of sugar they can use fat or oil as their usual thing, less oxygen and more energy?

maybe the photosynthesis process can be sort of different... not sure how though, maybe have it energize some kind of huge molecule that acts sort of like a giant zipper or something to stick the fat molecules together... you know, something goofy like that.
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Are you plausible?

Quote:
 
what i meant was that it would be a precious building material

My mistake.
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I've actually figured out the equation itself for how photosynthesis/respiration works.
6(CH3)+6(H2O)<->(C6H12O6)+9(H2)
The oxygen would be obtained in plants by diffusing as much water as they would the methane.

EDIT: But I figure that this is a problem for another day. For now, I'd like to take some time to focus on the heart and soul of Tartarus; the creepy monsters. :P
For starters, I figure that the general morphology of life on Tartarus is in order.

There are 2 major subkingdoms of animal life on Tartarus: animals and "planimals". Planimals, or "jellythings", are largely photosynthetic, phonosynthetic, or otherwise autrotrophic organisms (save for a few wayward land-stalkers). Similar to the Earthly man-of-war jelly, each individual is a massive system of microscopic polyps, growing in a radial symmetry based on multiples of 6. Most airborne specimens possess polpys filled with [whatever light gas they will produce in their photosynthesis], allowing them to stay afloat and giving them an almost scaly appearance. Ground specimens have a superficial resemblance to plants, albeit plants that gather energy using feathery filaments
Tartaran animals developed in a similar manner, only instead of huge radial creatures, the animals aligned themselves into a series of segments, each one complete with a pair of simple eyes and a pair of sporacles. In the exoskeletal "feather-bugs", each segment also sports a pair of long, fibrous appendages, allowing them to float in the air. Meanwhile, the "flyworms" (the precursors to Tartaran vertebrates) fly with means superficially similar to the Rods of cryptozoological legend: a membrane extending from the flyworm's sides, supported and moved by way of a pair of cartiligenous spines extending from each segment into the membrane. Ground vertebrates have lost all but the furthermost and farthermost of these spines, instead adapting them into bony limbs.
Edited by Practically Uninformed, Feb 25 2010, 01:49 PM.
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Are you plausible?

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The oxygen would be obtained in plants by diffusing as much water as they would the methane.

So would they be exclusively aquatic in nature? Would they ever be able to survive in anything dryer than coasts or swamps?

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Empyreon, I don't really know anymore. I've decided to pick up on the whole photosynthetic-respiratory exchange some other day. For now, I'm focusing on the biology of Tartarus.
Besides, Tartarus's oceans have the consistency of tar. They'd have to be like lilly-pads to even survive there.
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Are you plausible?

So where do they get the water from?
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Rain, mostly. The tar oceans are the equivalent of saltwater; several reservoirs of freshwater lakes, streams, and ponds accumulate.
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that's a lot of water for a place with little water.

water is rare here right?

i mean, when you said oxygen is rare you meant the atom itself, not the gaseous gas that we all know and love? if the atom is common here in the form of water then by all means, photosynthesis is an easy thing to accomplish.
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