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| How large could an animal get? | |
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| Topic Started: Jun 26 2012, 07:44 PM (1,067 Views) | |
| Akurian452 | Jun 29 2012, 02:12 PM Post #31 |
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Adolescent
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that's pretty close LOL. There are some other details but I figured they weren't relevant to the topic. |
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| Alduin | Jun 29 2012, 07:03 PM Post #32 |
Professional Wumbologist
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Here is my idea for a behemoth for my project: It is a large relative of the Flowerworm that buries itself to photosynthesize and suck nutrients out of the soil. It stands upright in the soil, with a large tongue that bolts out of it's mouth to catch flying animals when an animal is near. It has very poor vision, which can only be used to detect light. It has multiple hearts, and multiple ganglia to help control it's body. When an area is depleted in nutrients, they move to another area, because of it's size, it startles animals instantly, even the fierce Octodragon, and even the all time aerial fliers get startled. In the native's legends, it is said the Hevii, the gods (which are in reality aliens that attempted colonization), are scared of it. The natives use emblems of it painted on their armor to startle enemies. It uses eight large legs to help move places. They have hollow bones, methane sacks on the inside, and it gets denser as you get closer to the bottom. Unlike the flowerworms though, both males and females have a flower, so they can transport pollen to each other by flying animals across distances, without ever having to meet. Edited by Alduin, Jun 29 2012, 07:33 PM.
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| Akurian452 | Jun 29 2012, 07:36 PM Post #33 |
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Adolescent
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How big is it? |
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| Alduin | Jun 29 2012, 08:19 PM Post #34 |
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Professional Wumbologist
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50 - 70 feet tall. Also I have an idea for a behemoth that is basically a walking ant hill, but, I don't think that'd work. Edited by Alduin, Jun 29 2012, 08:20 PM.
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| Akurian452 | Jun 30 2012, 12:15 AM Post #35 |
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Adolescent
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I've been brain storming something similar. Its still a work in progress so I'm open to suggestions. In terms of appearance and behavior, it is best described as a cross between a grove-back from Alien Planet and the Zilo beast(Its one of the animal life from my Star traveler Project). Native to the low gravity planet Irum (0.5 earth masses), This seven legged behemoth (using its tail as a seventh limb) is over 350 feet long, stands 150 ft high at the shoulder. when standing on its three hind limbs, it can reach highs of nearly 300 ft. However, it cannot stay in this position for long or its brain would suffocate from lack of oxygen. It has two pairs of forelimbs; one pair in normal tetrapod position and the smaller pair located around the chest area. While the outter forelimbs resemble those of a sauropod, the inner pair have more hand-like features. Its body is elongated with most of the length consisting of the neck and torso. It has several methods for meeting the energy requirements for its size. One is that it spends extended periods partialy submerged in the ground absorbing nutrients from the soil. Also, its has a small grove of trees growing on its back that provided sugars for its body. When moving, it will feed on virtually anything. Most of its diet when on the move are the leaves from trees (which are as tall and tick as the tallest and largest trees on earth respectively). This is the only reason it will stand on its hind limbs. However, it supplements its diet with any form of meat smaller than itself. It even has a special adaptation for catching large groups of flying organisms. Along with its upper and lower jaws, it possesses "Predator"-like mandibles that are webbed. When fully extended, the mandibles and jaws act like a net for catching anything that flies to close. They also give birth to live young (avoiding the limits of egg size). Tell me what you think. BTW Alduin, maybe instead of walking, your mountain creature could move in the same manor as some mollusks do. |
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| Forbiddenparadise64 | Jun 30 2012, 02:49 PM Post #36 |
Adult
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While many people think Sauroposeidon which was 60 feet tall was the biggest, footprints and a hipbone suggest significantly bigger creatures. The icthogenera breviparopus and the hip bone belonging to "brachiosaurus nougerendi" (though it certainly was'nt a brachiosaurus), would probably (based on sauroposeidon) have been as much as 75 feet tall and 70 tonnes in weight for the largest individuals. However, if the Plagne tracks in France (which, if the animal is a brachiosaur, suggests an animal of 113 tonnes) or the Soria tracks in Spain (bigger still-based on my own personal calculations they may belong to something of 130-160 tonnes) are brachiosaurs, then we may have brachiosaurs that are over 80 or even 90 feet tall. Estimates are still very shady given the poor knowledge, but they must have belonged to some truly enormous animals. |
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| Alduin | Jun 30 2012, 06:39 PM Post #37 |
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Professional Wumbologist
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Could a large colonial behemoth work as well? I have an idea for a large animal that is basically a walking ant hill, with the colony being in the shell of the queen. And when the colony needs to move, the queen forces all the workers, soldiers, and others into the shell, and walks on her pair of eight massive legs to a new spot, and they prey on the Flower Behemoth by having the soldiers bring it down with their hydrochloric acid stingers. Basically, anything that moves is on it's menu. The larvae can fly, and feed on a substance produced by the queen's flower, and the queen can reproduce through both Parthenogenesis and sexual reproduction. Sexual reproduction in this organism is performed by this organism when the reproductive males fight over the queen, and the winner gets full right over the queen's reproductive organs, and the losers get killed by the soldiers. The winner then climbs into the flower, and deposits his pollen into the flower, and then fuses to the flower, delievering a constant supply of pollen. The seeds are blown by the wind to find new spots to start a new colony. However, the queen can produce soldiers and workers through Parthenogenesis. She can also blow her own pollen by flying animals to another queen to produce more seeds. The colony does not reside inside the shell for long, they form a large hill where they live in, and when needed, they use the queen to move to new spots. The queen can feed through photosynthesis, and provide the sugars to her offspring. The soldiers and workers are 13 inches long, and the flying larvae are 5 inches long, so the queen can transport many soldiers, workers and larvae at a time. I'm not sure if this would work, but, I had this idea in my head when thinking of a behemoth.
Edited by Alduin, Jun 30 2012, 06:48 PM.
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| Spugpow | Jul 5 2012, 03:03 PM Post #38 |
Adult
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There are scaling effects to consider besides those affecting structural integrity. I can't remember the reasoning behind it, but apparently the larger an animal is, the harder a time it has getting veins to every single one of its cells (probably something to do with volume relative to surface area). This is one reason why giant animals have slower metabolisms than small ones. |
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| Autochton | Jul 11 2012, 04:49 AM Post #39 |
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Fetus
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Spugpow, could a distributed respiratory system work for that, do you think? I.e. having multiple 'sub-hearts', extra lungs or air sacs to oxygenate the blood, etc. A central system taking care of the deep core of the creature, with a large, effective set of lungs (or similar). I couldn't tell you an evolutionary pathway to it, but the thought struck me. 
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| Alduin | Jul 15 2012, 08:08 PM Post #40 |
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Professional Wumbologist
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The Colonial Behemoth I had an idea for had multiple hearts. It could work, Octopi on Earth have multiple hearts. Edited by Alduin, Jul 15 2012, 08:11 PM.
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| Vultur-10 | Jul 15 2012, 10:21 PM Post #41 |
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Adolescent
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The largest dinosaurs with semi decent remains are probably in the 60-100 ton range (Argentinosaurus, Puertasaurus etc.) These titanosaurs were much more massive (though not longer) than the better known big dinosaurs like Supersaurus, "Seismosaurus" (now in Diplodocus), Brachiosaurus, etc. Questionable super-giant ones like Amphicoelias, Bruhathkayosaurus, and some stuff known from giant tracks might have reached well over 100 tons. No other land animal line seems to have gotten much over 20-ish tons (the largest mammoths, maybe indricotheres and the biggest hadrosaurs...) -- maybe it's the lightening air sac system sauropods possessed... In the ocean, blue whales get to 200ish tons... which is not THAT much bigger than the very biggest sauropods. So perhaps food is really the limiting factor --or growth time (*really* big things might take ages to grow to maturity). So really huge aliens should come from a planet with a highly productive ecosystem (more efficient photosynthesis than ours, and maybe more light too -- possibly a cooler star, like a K or even M class, so you can have more photosynthesis-useful radiation without lots of gene-damaging UV and X-rays), and derive from a fast-growing evolutionary line; if on land, multiple legs might be useful, as would lightening adaptations like air sacs. Edited by Vultur-10, Jul 15 2012, 10:30 PM.
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| DNArchitect | Aug 8 2012, 07:42 AM Post #42 |
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Primordial
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Wait so whats the height limit for animals on Earth? |
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| Nanotyranus | Aug 8 2012, 07:54 AM Post #43 |
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He Who Fails
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Don't know, myself. Why can't the largest creature be a super-sponge? I think that a super-sponge would be able to grow into a true titan. |
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| colddigger | Aug 9 2012, 02:22 AM Post #44 |
Joke's over! Love, Parasky
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It can be. But it seems that is not what these people want. |
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| DNArchitect | Aug 9 2012, 07:37 AM Post #45 |
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Primordial
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Yeah. I think they want something like a sauropod or a Sea Strider. I can't think up a behemoth for Xeno Terra. All I know is that either it should be an air sifter or it feeds like a garden worm (fed by symbiotic algae or something) |
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