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| Multipoda; A planet with tripods, quintapods, and hexapods. | |
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| Topic Started: Mar 28 2010, 02:10 AM (2,567 Views) | |
| Pando | Mar 28 2010, 02:10 AM Post #1 |
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Obey or I'll send you to the moon
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On multipoda there are 3 continents that are isolated. On these continents life could not be more different. There are 3 phyla of land animals, the tripods, quintapods, and hexapods. What kind of life could exist on Multipoda? The creatures have a carbon composition, the star is a K star slightly smaller than Sol, multipoda is covered in water and there are no ice caps. Multipoda: Size: 90% Earth radius. Gravity: 95% Earth gravity. Atmospheric composition: Methane, oxygen, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, argon, nitrous oxide (laughing gas), nitrogen, water vapor, and ammonia. Atmospheric composition by percent: 30% Nitrous oxide, 15% oxygen, 15% nitrogen, 20% chlorine, 5% chlorine dioxide, 5% nitrogen dioxide, 5% carbon dioxide, 2.5% xenon, and 2.5% water vapor. Atmospheric pressure: 130% Earth. Distance from star: 1 AU. Temperature: 6 degrees hotter than Earth. Keeps hot because of the nitrous oxide (over 200 times as effective as carbon dioxide) and carbon dioxide. Star: Orange dwarf star 0.8 solar radius and 0.6 solar luminosity. Because of the the high amount of xenon (make up 2.5% of the atmosphere) spectacular lightning storms exist on Multipoda. The creatures mainly breathe nitrous oxide (N2O) and ammonia (NH3) (but they can use any mixture of nitrous oxide, ammonia, oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen) to use the oxygen and hydrogen they breathe and combine it with the carbon they eat to form glucose and the nitrogen they use for the electron transport system (because the 2nd shell has only 5 electrons in it, it can take 3 electrons in the electron transport system instead of the 2 as in oxygen, so that 2 transports of nitrogen forms 3 glucose, while oxygen would form 2 glucose, making nitrogen more effective) (knowing biology rocks). They breathe through holes on the top of their bodies, have 4 eyes (1 pair seeing in infrared, the other pair seeing in visible light) and reproduce by holes usually at the base of the tail or neck that can close with a hard covering so that they're protected. Who likes the idea? Edited by Pando, Mar 29 2010, 01:50 AM.
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| Empyreon | Apr 2 2010, 11:52 AM Post #31 |
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Are you plausible?
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I'm just trying to make sense of the picture. Which is it? |
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Take a look at my exobiology subforum of the planet Nereus! COM Contributions food for thought
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| Pando | Apr 2 2010, 11:55 AM Post #32 |
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Obey or I'll send you to the moon
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I drew it to be in the middle. |
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| Empyreon | Apr 2 2010, 12:05 PM Post #33 |
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Are you plausible?
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Okay. That works great for the tripedal alien, but I'm having a hard time seeing how the pentaped will incorporate that into its locomotion, or how the skeletal structure works out. |
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Take a look at my exobiology subforum of the planet Nereus! COM Contributions food for thought
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| Pando | Apr 2 2010, 12:08 PM Post #34 |
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Obey or I'll send you to the moon
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For the quintapods the 5th leg can be in the back, and maybe some of them can walk on three legs and walk upright.
Edited by Pando, Apr 2 2010, 12:08 PM.
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| Margaret Pye | Apr 2 2010, 09:38 PM Post #35 |
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Adult
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So... hang on, your quintapeds (heh heh are they unplottable? :-) ) have four legs in conventional HE positions and a fifth leg in the middle, attached to the abdomen? That's a really interesting idea, I don't think I've ever seen anything like it before. Hmm, how would that work with gaits? How do the limb girdles work? |
| My speculative dinosaur project. With lots of fluff, parental care and mammalian-level intelligence, and the odd sophont. | |
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| Pando | Apr 2 2010, 09:51 PM Post #36 |
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Obey or I'll send you to the moon
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I'm not sure where the fifth leg will be for them to be as fast as possible. Abdomen or back of the body can work. And then there can be quintapeds with quintalateral symmetry. |
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| Empyreon | Apr 2 2010, 09:58 PM Post #37 |
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Are you plausible?
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If speed is key, I'd think that the fifth leg would likely be as out of the way as possible. Four feet does great for speed, as Earth can attest, and that fifth limb could be adapted into some kind of manipulator. Edit: Just because they have five limbs doesn't mean they all have to be on the ground... Edited by Empyreon, Apr 2 2010, 09:58 PM.
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Take a look at my exobiology subforum of the planet Nereus! COM Contributions food for thought
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| colddigger | Apr 2 2010, 10:01 PM Post #38 |
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Joke's over! Love, Parasky
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it could be curled in for last resort leaping. like leaf hoppers... |
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Oh Fine. Oh hi you! Why don't you go check out the finery that is SGP?? v Don't click v Spoiler: click to toggle | |
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| Pando | Apr 2 2010, 10:05 PM Post #39 |
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Obey or I'll send you to the moon
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The fifth limb being used as a grasper is possible, but where would it be located so that every bilateral quintapod won't be a centauroid? |
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| Empyreon | Apr 2 2010, 10:10 PM Post #40 |
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Are you plausible?
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Some where along the bilateral plane, IMO. It would have two on either side and one in the front or back. Personally, I'd make these ones the radially symmetrical land animals instead of the tripeds, but that's just me. |
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Take a look at my exobiology subforum of the planet Nereus! COM Contributions food for thought
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| Pando | Apr 2 2010, 10:13 PM Post #41 |
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Obey or I'll send you to the moon
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Maybe they could be 4 legged 4 eyed versions of the willosaurs. Edited by Pando, Apr 2 2010, 10:14 PM.
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| Empyreon | Apr 9 2010, 01:42 AM Post #42 |
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Are you plausible?
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Where's the fun in just ripping off another creature? ![]() Seriously though, I'm interested to see some more. Do the different limb sets give any unique advantages or challenges to the different life forms? |
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Take a look at my exobiology subforum of the planet Nereus! COM Contributions food for thought
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| Pando | Apr 9 2010, 02:14 AM Post #43 |
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Obey or I'll send you to the moon
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I've been thinking of splitting this project into 2 planets of tripods and quintapeds and avoid the hexapods because they've been done so many times. |
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| Margaret Pye | Apr 9 2010, 07:09 AM Post #44 |
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Adult
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Who's done hexapods? Furaha has a few, but Furaha, while brilliantly done (the guy understands physics as well as biology!!!) doesn't have much up yet. I can't think of any other well-done hexapods off the top of my head. There are a lot of crappy hexapods out there, but crap isn't competition. I mean, Pandoran wildlife is awfully pretty and I'm not really knocking it (only the plot and characters), but the gaits make no sense. They walk completely improbably. Also it's easy to beat them in terms of creativity - apart from the toruk and ikran, everything's very, very analogous. |
| My speculative dinosaur project. With lots of fluff, parental care and mammalian-level intelligence, and the odd sophont. | |
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| Pando | Apr 9 2010, 11:37 AM Post #45 |
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Obey or I'll send you to the moon
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Furaha doesn't have only a few, if you read his blog he takes out a species when he introduces a new one because he's going to do an encyclopedia of Furahan life. And hexapods are the Multipodans that appeal to me the least. So I'm probably going to cut them out. If I can cut them out, then I could make the world similar to Earth in the Jurassic. neo Laurasia and Gondwana, one continent holding tripods, the other one quintapods. |
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