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My exobiological project; Discussion for my project.
Topic Started: Jun 28 2008, 08:25 PM (2,044 Views)
Saxophlutist
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Europa Exobiological Project

( Main Gallery)

For those who don't know about this project, this is an on-going project of mine. I'm making hypothetical life for Europa (Jupiter's moon), which is suspected to have a sub-glacial ocean created from hydrothermal heating and tidal flexing. Life on Europa is dependant on hydrothermal vents for nutrients and warmth.


Here is the Link to the main "page" of the Project. (Taxon page)
It opens up to the taxonomy page. You can look up what I have planned out for different organism groups. I have it listed from Kingdom to Class so far.
in the comments section, you will find links to everything I have posted online so far about Europa.
Some of them are technical drawings of the organism's biological aspects.

Possibly in the future I may post individual threads for each major clade, but we'll see!
Enjoy!

I have so far, three multicellular kingdoms (One analogous, one semi-analogous, and one non-analogous)
Here is a simple overview: (But you still might wants to take a look at the taxonomy to get good details on them.)

Thalassazoa: The animal analogues of Europa.

Cardiophyta: Semi-analogous to plants on Earth. Used as autotrophic vegetation. Very closely related to Thalassazoa.

Myxcytota: Mostly non-analogous. Superficially like some chromalveolates on Earth.

The taxonomy hasn't been updated in a while, but I will update it soon.

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A Sagittazoon attacking an Aspichordate
Edited by Saxophlutist, Aug 5 2008, 07:57 PM.
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Livyatan


Very good project so far. Thanks for finally posting :D
The grand Livyatan on deviantArt: link

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Saxophlutist
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Your welcome, it's nice to have a page for my stuff again.
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Saxophlutist
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Added some more links, and example images.
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Sliver Slave
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I'm going back to basics.

Woah. I missed the link to the Taxonomy page. You have waaay more done on this than I thought. Superb drawing skills.
Something is upsetting the ostriches.

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Saxophlutist
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Thanks! I'll need to make the links more visible.

I've got a more up to date version of the taxonomy I'll upload once I get around to it.
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Saxophlutist
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W00t! I finally got around to creating a vermiform brachiostomate for Collin! http://fc91.deviantart.com/fs38/f/2008/317/6/4/Serpemimus_by_Saxophlutist.jpg
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Sliver Slave
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I'm going back to basics.

Very good. I like how unique this project is.
Something is upsetting the ostriches.

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Saxophlutist
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Thanks! Any suggestions? I've at the moment run dry on ideas... :D
Edited by Saxophlutist, Nov 13 2008, 09:44 PM.
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Canis Lupis
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

Saxophlutist:
Before I joined these forums, I was working on a Europa project of my own. It kind of died on me, but I've got a list of orders that I had. I'll put them on this post. Feel free to take whichever ideas you want:

SMOKARIA: an anemone-like organism that anchors itself to the side of black smokers
ZERKARIA: an anemone-like organism that anchors itself to the sea bed
UNDRATA: a sponge-like creature that anchors itself the the bottom of the ice layer
FISSUTRA: a sponge-like creature that anchors itself the walls of fissures
HARPAVORA: a worm-like creature that shoots out a harpoon like tongue which it uses to spear prey
CAMOUBENTHETA: a creature that disguises itself like a Fissutra or Undrata with predatory intentions
ARTHROCOONA: a crab-like creature that farms Smokaria and Zerkaria
GLUCAVORA: a worm-like creature that shoots a tongue out at its prey. This tongue secretes a glue-like substance
VESPIKTHUS: a shark-like creature that can accurately shoot teeth out of its mouth
LARGUPHUS: a whale-like creature that swims around with its mouth open and swallows anything in sight
RANIKKODAE: a crab/gecko-like creature that clings to the bottom of the ice layer and eats Undrata
BAVITACEA: a crab/bat-like creature that jumps from wall to wall of the fissures and sifts bacteria with its fins that resemble wings
CEPHARANI: a spider-like creature that parachutes down from the fissure walls and envelopes its prey
SQUATHERIA: a species of "plant" that swims around and directly controls its chemeosynthesis

These may not be realistic, but remember: this is from a time when I did not even know what speculative biology was. Feel free to take any of these ideas and tweak them to make them fit your project.
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Saxophlutist
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Thanks for the considerations!
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Xenophile
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Saxophlutist that is one amazing project you have for the Europan biosphere . I found this site while working on , believe it or not , an astrobiology report for my school . You have given me a great introduction to this website .
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Jurassic-Gothic
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Interesting project. But you should account that also Ganymede and perhaps Callisto could have subglacial oceans. Thin Oxygen-rich atmosphere due to ice's photodissociation driven by Jupiter and solar wind.

Once there was a documentary about extraterrestrial life, speculating about vent-dependin fish-like fins and shark-like predators with Opabinia-like trunks. If I remember correctly...
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Canis Lupis
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

Well, this project is about Europa, and unless there are intelligent beings that can traverse between the three worlds. you really wouldn't need to take Ganymede and Callisto into account for a Europa project.

Thin oxygen atmosphere wouldn't be much help either. Even if surface dwellers could rely on this atmosphere, no surface dwellers would exist, as the surface would be too cold.


You may be thinking of "Alien Faces", which only speculated on two creatures on a Europa-like planet and it was only speculated for about 15 minutes.
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Holben
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Rumbo a la Victoria

Woah thats a lot. You've got to remember that although the seas have lots of soecies, animals migrate and the best competitors take niches from animals on the other side of this (small) moon. The size would be a limit as well. And lots of algae would have to live there.
Time flows like a river. Which is to say, downhill. We can tell this because everything is going downhill rapidly. It would seem prudent to be somewhere else when we reach the sea.

"It is the old wound my king. It has never healed."
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