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The Exobiology and Creatures of Ouranos; from a sci-fi universe I am working on
Topic Started: Jul 1 2008, 07:47 PM (878 Views)
Crembaw
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Current photographic data is unavailable due to compatibility issues (my damned new printer/scanner won't connect to this thing).

Slight Background: The war between the Corporate Defense Initiative and the forces of Octavos had ravaged hundreds of colonies and killed trillions of local lifeforms, nevermind humans. Among those worlds that survived, Ouranos was the most devastated. The debris, fallout and intentional strikes on the planet which occurred in the battle for Beta Centauri destroyed at least 10% of its native flora and fauna within six weeks. Now that the war has ended, multiple organizations from both empires have banded together to bring this planet back to its former beauty and fame.

Ouranos
Mean Radius: 4,069 km
Distance From Beta Centauri: 9 AU
Atmosphere: 33% CO2, 34% N2, 21% O2, 10% Methane
Mass: Unknown; considerably less than Earth's despite its larger size
Gravity: 0.529841G
Composition: Most certainly retains very earth-like plates; could have a hollow or nebulous layer between the surface and the core; Polar landmasses riddled with immense underground tunnels

Ouranos gained its name in a most unfortunate way: when the first science teams were analyzing seismic data from the polar regions and discovered the tunnels, a comical assistant known as Jeffry Dotts remarked that the caps were "like big, rocky testicular tube clusters." While innocent in-and-of itself, it led the expedition leader, a personal fan of mythology, connected this comment with the Greek Creation story, in which Ouranos loses his testicles.

All jokes aside, at the time of its discovery it had the greatest range of macrozoology in the galaxy, and still maintains that title. This has made it a famed tourist resort for naturalists and animal lovers, and arguably created the funds with which the CDI won the war.

Ouranos' distance from its star offers its sky some interesting characteristics. For half of the year, the planet's night sky would be made a medium-dark blue due to the partial illumination from Alpha Centauri. The rest of the time it experiences the expected day-night characteristics. An Ouranian day lasts 56 hours during winter, when it is furthest in its orbit from the star, and 42 hours in the summer, when it is closer and moving faster. A year is 248 Ouranian days.

Life on the Planet:
Ouranos' lighter gravity has allowed its fauna to grow taller than one would expect; the same can be said somewhat for the flora, however their growth is more attributed to the amazing amount of carbon dioxide in the air. Nearly all plant cells are hexagonal, creating plants with sharper angles than on Earth.

Vertebrates can be divided into two categories: chordates and bichordates. Bichordates actually share more with Earth creatures than chordates do; they have standard musculature, they have a single head mounted on a neck (in some rare cases on two necks), and have developed manipulative appendages growing on their rear ends (whether they are attached to a tail is entirely dependent on the species). Chordates, on the other hand, have only one enormous bundle of muscles in the central portion of their body, though on long-necked creatures the bundle will extend from the top of the neck to the waist. These muscles are connected to metal connectors which progress in a series to every limb, digit, joint, and vertebra. This system is quite energy consuming (in fact the largest group of chordates are autotrophes) but centralizes the most important parts of itself into one spot, making it much less of a hassle to regrow lost limbs. Their skeletons are copper or aluminum based, so their bone structure is also quite malleable and flexible, with the right application of force and heat.

Invertebrates have had a much easier time adapting to the skies than vertebrates have. The most prominent fliers are the 'Suborbital Jellies,' creatures more akin to weather balloons than anything else. They spend the majority of their lives (10-20 years) as white, corpulent worm-like animals which act as the planet's primary decomposers and detrivores. After this period they spend three months underground, transforming into their sky-fairing forms. When they reach the sky they spend a year swapping gametes, creating baby worms and distributing, before deflating and falling to their deaths in the ocean.

A relative of the Suborbital Jelly, the Pack Jelly, lives as a worm for eight to nine years before becoming a rucksack-shaped floater, with tentacles thousands of yards long, floating above forests and capturing prey. They then mate ten years later, and die.

Vertebrate Groups of Note:

Chromatopticidae (Color Eyes):
Large bichordates whose most prominent features are deep, black 'eye' pits, which are really chromatophores that emit ultraviolet signals for others of their kind, and colorful throat sacs which contain their actual visual organs. These organs detect both the UV signals of their herds and the infra red emissions of living things. Although overwhelmingly herbivores, the pseudorhynchids, which are bipedal instead of hexapodal, are avid pack hunters which have transformed their throat sacs into fluorescent crests.

Gandalfiformes (Resembles Gandalf): Chordates which 'graze' on Plains Hole-Pines, large twisting plants riddled with holes, in which lie seeds, fruit, and pollen. Their humorous name is a result of how they feed off these plants: they have forsaken a mouth with jaws for a large 'beard' of spine-covered tenticles, each of which digs into a hole on the plant to retrieve food, which is then shoved directly into the stomach. The beard is also a potent defense mechanism, as the spines are covered in a poisonous adhesive, originally adapted to maintain a hold on food.

Spezzipoda (Hunters): multi-legged (varied in number from group to group, the most being four) chordate carnivores evolved from hexapodal ancestors; the other arms have become false jaws to kill prey. The jaws are actually quite fragile, and the precise method which is used is unknown, although many biologists assume it to be a toxin. Hunters are quite intelligent and some species have exhibited pack hunting characteristics, as well as long-term memory. Small hunters are very docile, and have become domestic pets both on Ouranos and other worlds.

Suggestions are always welcome. This is obviously not complete, perhaps not even close to 1/6 done. I do have sketches, but unfortunately my scanner refuses to work at the moment.

EDIT: Disposed of Tripods. They have been replaced with Spezzipods (common name hunters), which are named in honor of Spes because I had neglected to realize that mine were too close for comfort to Flisch's.
Edited by Crembaw, Jul 2 2008, 07:53 PM.
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Saxophlutist
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Sounds interesting, will you be drawing pictures of the life?
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Crembaw
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Saxophlutist
Jul 1 2008, 09:32 PM
Sounds interesting, will you be drawing pictures of the life?
Yes. Like I said, my scanner is broken. I am actually staring at a Beardface picture right now. :)
Edited by Crembaw, Jul 1 2008, 09:38 PM.
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Livyatan


Lots of parallels with Spes's life forms.
The grand Livyatan on deviantArt: link

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Crembaw
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Will
Jul 1 2008, 10:32 PM
Lots of parallels with Spes's life forms.
I hadn't realized it until you brought it up, except for the bichordates.

Well, better get to work on pushing mine away from Spes.
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Crembaw
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Pseudoarborasauridae (False Tree Lizards): Two-limbed moderate sized chordates whose former extra limbs and mouthpieces changed to become plant-and-leaf-looking structures. While many of these creatures are autotrophic beasts, a great majority of them filter-feed small 'floaters,' self propelled plant seeds or gametes. Floaters are quite common - they would have to be to sustain the very short-lived plant populations or feed tree lizards - but become less common the higher up you go. Mountaintop dwelling tree lizards may have enormous filtering appendages (to the point where one species has often been mistaken for small forests), or ones adapted to attracting the attention of floaters. Most species, however, are content to just run towards the green clouds bounding across the desert.

Platycaudae (Scramblers):
four-legged bichordates which have raised their bodies above the ground to avoid being eaten by jelly larvae. To help with this, its legs have been pushed through the former mouth in the armored head. Their bodies stick near vertically up from the head, and is flexible enough to be used as a manipulator. Their true mouths lie on a tentacle between the eyes. In almost all cases the jaws have become crushing tools to use against the nuts they feed upon. Their lives end after three years, when a pair will voluntarily break their hind legs in order to mate. The carcass of the mother then becomes food for the next generation.
Edited by Crembaw, Jul 2 2008, 08:52 PM.
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