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alien anatomy help
Topic Started: Aug 9 2008, 10:39 PM (1,420 Views)
ChumZar
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When I make alien species, I want them to look as alien as possible, but I can only think of four different types of movement wich all exist already on earth: legs(humans, insects), pure muscle(snakes, octopuses, snails), flapping(fish, birds), and propulsion(squids). I also cant think of any other form of body frame other than endoskeleton, exoskeleton, and no skeleton. And also, even though I haven't gotten thinking as deeply about this one as the other two, brain structure, what kinds of brains could exist on other worlds, like ones that are distributed throughout the body, or even inside of another body, or mabe something way out of this world that I can't think of. I'd like some input.
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lamna
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Well legs have evolved separately several times, as have wings. Many things about aliens, if they live in environments similar to earth with be the same earth life.
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Ànraich
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Think unorthodox. Don't stick to what you see on Earth. Think of what is different about the alien's environment. In low gravity, why walk when you could have some kind of spring like leg and glide around? Ever see a cartoon in which an armadillo forms into a ball and rolls away? Why can't that be a real way of moving? As for the body structure, it can be similar to Earth's without being too similar. My aliens from Forge, for instance, have a hydraulic muscular system and their skeletons are made of tubes filled with fluid; a hydraulic muscular system. Try looking at not just living things for inspiration, look at machines humans have made. Inspiration is everywhere, just look around!
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Livyatan


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Aug 10 2008, 04:09 PM
Ever see a cartoon in which an armadillo forms into a ball and rolls away? Why can't that be a real way of moving?
It already is, but only three-banded armadillos actually roll up. Plus rolling is a form of locomotion in other species, such as salamanders and newts. XD
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Saxophlutist
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You can also take the Nemo Ramjet approach. Create a simple creature, the define its anatomy. Then evolve it until you have many lineages derived from it.
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Livyatan


Exactly. For instance with the rolling idea. The rolling could start as a defensive mechanism of small, terrestrial worm-like creatures but eventually develop into full locomotive rolling. Then as they speciate, some might stop rolling or some might take it even further. XD
Edited by Livyatan, Aug 10 2008, 06:34 PM.
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Cynovolans
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Oh my! A planet with creatures that roll around all the time, think of some sort of way they can keep their food in their stomachs.
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seadrinker
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If you want to read about a rolling creature, there was a James White(?) novel that included a creature that had to keep rolling to work its circulatory system .. no heart!

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Also, I'd encourage you to be really unconventional. Abandon the biological evolution approach ... that's pretty extreme, but do it!

Think of crazy stuff and work backwards. Imagine, for example, a creature that has a static buoyancy property (by that I mean that it naturally floats at a certain height above the terrain or planetary core). This is not too far-fetched, only somewhat taken out of an underwater context.

Not only do you have to figure out why this makes sense, but also how it would be able to move? Does it gulp air? Does it pull itself down toward the earth and use the buoyancy property like a slingshot effect to pull itself forward? Does it eat rocks and vomit them out to achieve a similar effect? Hurling rocks could also be used as a defense. Does it have a hard carapace with which it bludgeons other creatures? Etc. etc.



Edited by seadrinker, Aug 11 2008, 01:43 PM.
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mnidjm
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Or a creature that walks with it's mouth:

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pygidium
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Like the emperor sea strider.
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Canis Lupis
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

Actually, they don't walk with their mouths. Rather, their mouths are on the feet.
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dacmat22
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Go to Furaha and look at some of his locomotion animations. especially the tube and membrain ones. these under water locomotions could both very easily be used as a way of locomotion on land or in air.
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help them or else they might die.
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Flisch
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Nov 3 2008, 08:46 PM
Actually, they don't walk with their mouths. Rather, their mouths are on the feet.
Uhh... Which is...actually...the same. o0
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Sliver Slave
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I'm going back to basics.

Flisch
Nov 4 2008, 10:17 AM
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Nov 3 2008, 08:46 PM
Actually, they don't walk with their mouths. Rather, their mouths are on the feet.
Uhh... Which is...actually...the same. o0
We'll leave that question to the philosophers.
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Rodlox
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Nov 3 2008, 08:46 PM
Actually, they don't walk with their mouths. Rather, their mouths are on the feet.
like those centaurs in Animorphs, yes?
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