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Let's work out the biology of...; Alian fish
Topic Started: Mar 31 2010, 05:08 PM (487 Views)
sam999
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What do you think?
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Empyreon
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Are you plausible?

I didn't see any details in your link about the alien or its environment. That could just as easily be a carbon-based swimmer in H2O.
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ItHasTeeth
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Ah, something I've puzzled over many times, but also an issue with a vast number of answers. First off, define "fish"? You mean dominant (in diversity) aquatic (or simple any liquid environment) group?
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Seems to me like a sort of aquatic omnivore (maybe deep-sea? I see no eyes) with a vestigial jaw "sheath" and either flamboyant fins or symbiotic plants growing out of its body.
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Looks a little like Machineseadramon.

I really don't see much to discuss. It's a marine swimmer, okay... I don't see anything that really divurges that much from terrestial biology. Unless us you want us to make it diverge more?
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T.Neo
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Alien dominant aquatic organisms could look a lot like fish- you certainly might mistake them for fish for example.

The convergence on a fishlike bodyplan is shown in both icthyosaurs and dolphins, however if the organism were to have a radically different internal structure (like a squid) it would have several differences.

However, "fish" are limited to Earth unless they are introduced into an environment elsehwere. While other planets may have organisms analogous to fish, they won't be fish. The dominant aquatic organisms might not be closely related to the dominant land organisms either.

As for the organism in question, it looks governed more by Rule Of Cool than evolutionary biology.
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Margaret Pye
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What's wrong with the phrase "fish-analogue?"

Hmm, well the eel-like body plan suggests that it lives on the bottom or in rocks, reefs or algae rather then being pelagic. Since it's rather dorsoventrally flattened and has thicker skin on the underside, I'd suspect a benthic crawler. And the dangling tendrils look like camouflage for soething that lives in seaweed.

But why does it have no eyes?
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T.Neo
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What's wrong with the phrase "fish-analogue?"


Nothing, but "fish analogue" is much removed from the term "alien fish".

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But why does it have no eyes?


I'm asking the same thing.
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colddigger
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It could be that eyes were a disadvantage being so fragile, notice the massive plates around the head, whatever it does there must have been a tremendous push for defending the front, If it hunted along the bottom it could just use sense of touch... such short teeth shows that it definitely doesn't eat small fish...
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Margaret Pye
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Well, it can't have lost its eyes due to a lack of light - if it lived in a lightless environment it wouldn't be camouflaged. Hmm, maybe it came from a lineage that just never had eyes in the first place? Touch and taste work really well underwater, or there's always electrosensitivity.

Maybe it's electrosensitive and digs in the sand for food with its head? That'd explain the giant bone plates.

Wonder how big it is?
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