Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Speculative biology is simultaneously a science and form of art in which one speculates on the possibilities of life and evolution. What could the world look like if dinosaurs had never gone extinct? What could alien lifeforms look like? What kinds of plants and animals might exist in the far future? These questions and more are tackled by speculative biologists, and the Speculative Evolution welcomes all relevant ideas, inquiries, and world-building projects alike. With a member base comprising users from across the world, our community is the largest and longest-running place of gathering for speculative biologists on the web.

While unregistered users are able to browse the forum on a basic level, registering an account provides additional forum access not visible to guests as well as the ability to join in discussions and contribute yourself! Registration is free and instantaneous.

Join our community today!

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
My exobiological project; Discussion for my project.
Topic Started: Jun 28 2008, 08:25 PM (2,043 Views)
Saxophlutist
Member Avatar
Adult
 *  *  *  *  *  *
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.

Posted Image
A Sagittazoon attacking an Aspichordate
Edited by Saxophlutist, Aug 5 2008, 07:57 PM.
Posted Image Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Replies:
Iowanic
Adult
 *  *  *  *  *  *
Well; hostile settings sometimes yell out 'prove me wrong': let's see....

Why couldn't creatures at least briefly breach the ice and slid/crawl along out in the 'air'? A creature that learned to do that would have a way of avoiding predators.

Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Holben
Member Avatar
Rumbo a la Victoria

There wouldn't be anything to breathe though, and even animals which hold their breath, are impervious to pressure and radiation, and are covered in reinforced chitin would have a hard time.
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."
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Iowanic
Adult
 *  *  *  *  *  *
I hadn't thought of the radition.

Are ther creatures on earth that are highly resistent to radioactivity? Coardroachs come to mind, of course....

Perhaps the ability to consume minerals that offer shielding would be useful?

Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Iowanic
Adult
 *  *  *  *  *  *
Here's a twist......

Cannot radiation be used as a power source? I recall deep-space probes use some manner of such to provide power.
Could a creature improvise a natural way of doing so?

Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Iowanic
Adult
 *  *  *  *  *  *
I guess in the case of satalites; they use the decay of a radioactive material to produce electicity. I guess.

Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Canis Lupis
Member Avatar
Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

Next time, try editing your previous post instead of triple-posting.


But, while radiation could be used as a powersource and any possible land critters would be away from predators, you need to think that any creature of that sort would have to burrow through six miles of ice.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Iowanic
Adult
 *  *  *  *  *  *
At least we're getting a list of functions these critters would need. Ice-burrowing will have to be one.
If it'd keep them from predators, I can see it granting a feature that would evolvelily useful.

Of course, with the passage of time, the predators would find a way of going after them....

Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Canis Lupis
Member Avatar
Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

But again: why go on land when the creature could defend itself from marine predators in the ocean much much easier?
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Iowanic
Adult
 *  *  *  *  *  *
Hmmm.....Okay.

Why did critters in earth's past move unto land; if there was so much neato stuff in the seas? Or into the air, for that matter? (Or onto land and then BACK into the sea?)

Perhaps similar forces could be at work?

Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Canis Lupis
Member Avatar
Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

Perhaps. But the land wasn't seperated from the water by six miles of solid ice.

Life will adapt to what's given to it. If the sea was seperated from the land on Earth in a major way, land life wouldn't have evolved. But the land had easy access to it (sloping shores).



For Earth, imagine a ramp. the seas exist from the lowest point on this ramp to halfway up the ramp while the land exists from there onto the top of the ramp.

On Europa, it's more like a column. You got the seas at the base, then you've got a lifeless void stretching for about a a third of the column, then land.

Plus, how could a creature, adapted for the immense pressures of Europa's seas, exist on the considerably low-pressure surface?
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Iowanic
Adult
 *  *  *  *  *  *
Practice? :geek:

Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Canis Lupis
Member Avatar
Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

You mean we should practice speculating a creature like that or are you suggesting a reason why the creature would do that?
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Empyreon
Member Avatar
Are you plausible?

"Practice" is one way to look at the mechanism of evolution. So Europan 'mudskippers' have to learn how to dig through this ice. One generation might think, "Oh, if I learn to dig up into this ceiling and hide out in my little burrow then nothing will get me." So Generation 1 only has to be good enough to dig, say, six feet up into the ice (or higher if its a really big critter). Generation 2 (note: this is just a handy nickname, not Generation 1's direct offspring) then says, "Oh no! Predators are starting to follow me up into my hidey-hole! I'd better dig higher so I can stay far away from them!" Generation 3 then starts building complex ice-labyrinths to avoid, confuse, and otherwise deter predation. At this point I'd imagine it's pretty likely that some specialized digging apparatus would be well developed, and subsequent life forms would look pretty distinct. Maybe they'd even live a completely different life, and not even need to return to the water, living off psychrophillic microorganisms in the ice or something. Eventually, given appropriate and persistent stimulus, future generations will have some reason to go to the surface itself.

In conclusion, I don't think that 'Europan Mudskippers' would do something as extreme as boring through six miles of ice just to stay away from predators. Unless it could do so quickly and with minimal expense to its energy supply (like if it had a frickin' laser beam on its head that it used to melt the ice and swim through the new tunnel) it would find another way to avoid predators, like laying flat against and ice chunk and camouflaging itself from whatever senses its predator has.
Take a look at my exobiology subforum of the planet Nereus!

COM Contributions


food for thought
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Iowanic
Adult
 *  *  *  *  *  *
I was being silly. :")

Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Holben
Member Avatar
Rumbo a la Victoria

Cockroaches aren't immune to radiation! They wouldn't survive a nuking! Waaaaaa!

Why do people spread this myth?
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."
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
« Previous Topic · The Habitable Zone · Next Topic »
Add Reply