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Venusian Wildlife
Topic Started: Sep 7 2008, 12:18 PM (1,823 Views)
Yorick
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It's been pretty much agreed upon that our sister planet Venus once was a habitable place before the greenhouse gases turned it into a toxic wasteland.

I wonder what was there before and what changed Venus so dramatically?

An intelligent civilization like ours that neglected to heed warnings about global warming and then it was too late. The damage was irreversible and could only get worse and worse as time passed by.

Before the event, there were no ice caps but it was a tropical planet where it was filled with marshes and jungles and more masrhes and jungles. (Think South America-like continents and islands all over and South-America-like weather all year-round.)

The oceans were vast and deep and teemed with life.

I don't imagine mammals evolved but certainly fish, mollusks and crustraceans and insects and arachnids and echnioderms and annelids. Perhaps some toucan-like birds with beautiful plumage evolved as well?
Edited by Yorick, Sep 7 2008, 06:42 PM.
"I believe, that whatever doesn't kill you, simply makes you...stranger"

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Ànraich
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L'évolution Spéculative est moi

JohnFaa
Sep 7 2008, 03:26 PM
Plus, Venus was NEVER inhabited (except perhaps by bacteria); it was always too hot for multicellular life to evolve decently
Perhaps not Earth cells, but we can't say that cells are the same in every life form. I'm sure that cells on other worlds adapt to that world's conditions. I've heard that somwhere before, in some theory I believe. Evolution I think it was called.

If it was hot, the cells would adapt to the heat. And I'm getting just about tired of people saying they know for a fact that this or that was true. You DO NOT know that Venus was NEVER inhabited. You have never been to Venus, especially not millions of years ago.

There are creatures on Earth that live in both the "too hot" conditions of Venus and "too acidic" conditions of Mars. At once. Go look up some things on bacteria living in hot springs. If you really want to speculate on life, you need to get out of that stupid bubble of believing that all life in the universe is the same as Earth life. We know only of cells, of DNA, of carbon-water based organisms. There are near infinite other elements out there in the universe, most of which we don't know about (or can even speculate about). Life can take many forms you wouldn't expect or believe possible.
We should all aspire to die surrounded by our dearest friends. Just like Julius Caesar.

"The Lord Universe said: 'The same fate I have given to all things from stones to stars, that one day they shall become naught but memories aloft upon the winds of time. From dust all was born, and to dust all shall return.' He then looked upon His greatest creation, life, and pitied them, for unlike stars and stones they would soon learn of this fate and despair in the futility of their own existence. And so the Lord Universe decided to give life two gifts to save them from this despair. The first of these gifts was the soul, that life might more readily accept their fate, and the second was fear, that they might in time learn to avoid it altogether." - Excerpt from a Chanagwan creation myth, Legends and Folklore of the Planet Ghar, collected and published by Yieju Bai'an, explorer from the Celestial Commonwealth of Qonming

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Canis Lupis
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

If Venus does or did have any life, it probably is or was not carbon-based. Under such intense heat and pressure, this carbon would form diamonds, which would cause the life forms to be immobile and chemical reactions (necessary for life) would cease.

If Venus is or did have life, it would most likely be made of silicon or sulfer.
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Vultur-10


I rather like the idea of Venus as once having a civilization that went wrong, and global warming destroyed them - it's creepy. I don't think it's likely to be true, but it's an interesting thought nonetheless.

Just as a thought, though - if Venus *had* been livable till "recently" - say a billion years ago or so - how would we tell? What about Venus lets us know that it's been in its current condition for a long time? (Obviously it's the more parsimonious option, but is there actual *evidence*?)
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Yorick
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Perhaps if we ever terraformed Venus and sent geological excavations, we'd find remnants of Venusian structures or unnaturally forming metals created by an ancient civilization?

Or simply, albeit badly preserved, fossils?
Edited by Yorick, Nov 28 2008, 11:00 PM.
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Xenophile
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In the history of life on Earth humans have only existed for 100,000 years, a blink in the history of life on Earth. Venus's climate was burning hot and acidic for a long time. Although intelligent life could not have evolved, simple lifeforms could have existed before the climate went haywire.
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Genesis
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Venusian life had a one in a seventy quadrillion (actually, a much smaller chance) of looking or acting anything like earth life forms. But remember, it is a desert, not a jungle. (Which is formed by Terran creatures, so, if there was a jungle, it was as likely to be full of giant birds as trees.) Scientists USED to believe it to be a jungle, and now agree that it is a wasteland.

However, the atmosphere is extremely thick, acidic, and hot, destroying even the strongest probes sent to its surface after a few hours, if not sooner. For this reason, any mineral-based life (as I believe) may still exist on the planet, if it ever did.
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Canis Lupis
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

Actually, the Venusian atmosphere is quite hospitible. It's atmosphere is full of water vapor and it's atmosphere has the same pressure Earth has. Plus, with Venus hoarding a lot of solar radiation, the evolution of plant-like creatures is extremely likely.
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colddigger
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i do believe this settles things? *poshface*
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ATEK Azul
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If venus had life it might have been silicon based, the temperature and unstable structures could liquify it in the right conditions possibly leading to easier formation of complex systems and cells.
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Iowanic
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Please tell me you're joking, Canis Lupis?

Venus' atomosphere contains only a small % of water vapor(It's clouds are acid) and the surface pressure in something in the order of 1300 pounds per square inch. With a surface temp better then 700 degrees.

Those would have to be some mighty tough plants to withstand that.

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sam999
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Life may have enught time to get to something fishlike if it ever was there befor it all cooked.
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Iowanic
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Yeah. there's a lot of guesswork involving Venus's early history.

There are still a few hold-outs for simple life-forms living in the atmosphere.



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Holben
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Rumbo a la Victoria

Gaseous organisms are unlikely, but possible. With a thick atmosphere, they could be in bubbles containing a primordial soup and helium/hydrogen for lift. These could even be sentient, and live in 400' environs. At a stretch.
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.

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