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Delta's Abominations; Some of Delta's Artwork
Topic Started: Oct 20 2008, 08:42 AM (2,001 Views)
leptonosoma
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Sliver Slave
Oct 27 2008, 12:10 PM
Actually, most insects have 2 sets of wings.
Thank you Sliver, but that's not the point. I'm saying that these 'rods' are camera tricks and optical illusions. I think an insect would find it difficult to fly with 8 sets of wings.
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Canis Lupis
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

leptonosoma
Oct 29 2008, 01:55 AM
Sliver Slave
Oct 27 2008, 12:10 PM
Actually, most insects have 2 sets of wings.
Thank you Sliver, but that's not the point. I'm saying that these 'rods' are camera tricks and optical illusions. I think an insect would find it difficult to fly with 8 sets of wings.
Agreed
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Spartan Delta
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Hi folks. Sorry, but the school's makin it harder to get online.
I'll upload more stuff after Dec. 25, if that's ok.
Sorry again 4 not being on so much.
See U soon. ^^
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Spartan Delta
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Hey folks! I've been reborn, and now I'm with Sagan 4! WOOHOO!!!
Here's my very first work - the White Obscurpede.


Posted Image

The white obscurpede is a divergent species from the original obscurpede. Unlike its predecessor, it grows slightly larger; it also has skinnier limbs and antennae. It's "hands" do not have any more feelers, and now function primarily as claws, used mainly for grasping rocks. Its antennae have also grown longer, enabling it a farther "view", so to speak. The other main difference is that, as its name suggests, this creature has a pale exoskeleton. The coloring is to blend in with some of the more white regions of the green limestone caves of the Darwin Water Table, where they live. Other than that, it is almost exactly the same as its predecessor.

So, how'd I do? What do ya think?
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leptonosoma
Oct 29 2008, 01:55 AM
Sliver Slave
Oct 27 2008, 12:10 PM
Actually, most insects have 2 sets of wings.
Thank you Sliver, but that's not the point. I'm saying that these 'rods' are camera tricks and optical illusions. I think an insect would find it difficult to fly with 8 sets of wings.
There was a scientific experiment based on how close an insect could look compared to these Rods, there was an exact match. The extra 'wings' are an optical illusion produced by the slowness of the camera and the speed of of the insect as it moves.

Nice camoflauge coloring. It looks a lot like limestone.
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Spartan Delta
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Jun 5 2009, 04:09 PM
leptonosoma
Oct 29 2008, 01:55 AM
Sliver Slave
Oct 27 2008, 12:10 PM
Actually, most insects have 2 sets of wings.
Thank you Sliver, but that's not the point. I'm saying that these 'rods' are camera tricks and optical illusions. I think an insect would find it difficult to fly with 8 sets of wings.
There was a scientific experiment based on how close an insect could look compared to these Rods, there was an exact match. The extra 'wings' are an optical illusion produced by the slowness of the camera and the speed of of the insect as it moves.

Nice camoflauge coloring. It looks a lot like limestone.

Thank you! :) I'm just happy it was taken!

Yeah, that's cuz he lives his entire life in a limestone-like cave. ^^
That's also part of the reason why he's white; if he's white, and lives on white, nobody'd see 'im! ;)
Let's give mother nature a round of applause for inventng camoflage! WHOOO!!! Gooo Mudda Nature!!!!!
Edited by Spartan Delta, Feb 10 2010, 07:05 AM.
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Empyreon
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Are you plausible?

I'm still trying to figure out what's so abominable about them.
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food for thought
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Ddraig Goch
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Well, to the naturalist they are fascinating, to the speculative biologist they are amazing, but to the people who see them and don't like bugs, they are, indeed, abominable.
Save the Blibbering Humdinger from extinction!
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Holben
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But then again, to those people scorpions are abominations. The beautiful scorpions.

I like this topic. Is Spartan Delta still around?
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."
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Ddraig Goch
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Ar hyd y nos

Yes, Spartan Delta is still around, his last post was yesterday.

And I know what you mean - people seem unable to look past the snapping claws and venomous telson, to the pretty side of scorpions - such as their random glowing-under-ultraviolet trick. I mean, they're better looking than dust mites, or tape worms *shudder*.
Save the Blibbering Humdinger from extinction!
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Are you plausible?

I mean, I've seen some really abominable spec creatures, like when evolution books dedicate a page to future evolution with lame attempts, like photo-compositing a tiger's head onto the body of a parrot, or putting a fish tail on a spider.

Now that's an abomination!
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food for thought
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Margaret Pye
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I'm not exactly an aeronautical engineer, but I don't see why a small bug-type animal couldn't fly with sixteen wings. In our world all small flying bugs are insects, and the insect bauplan permits a maximum of four wings: barring spectacular HOX mutations that'd probably create non-viable results, or the independent evolution of wings in... oh... spiders maybe? bugs will always have four, two or zero wings. But this seems like a rather arbitary restriction. Why couldn't an alien centipede-thingy evolve its gills (legs, whatever) into wings with a pair on each segment?

*pictures flying Opabinia*

That claw-trunk would be brilliant on a dragonfly-esque aerial predator. Or it could use it for picking berries...
Edited by Margaret Pye, Feb 12 2010, 05:58 AM.
My speculative dinosaur project. With lots of fluff, parental care and mammalian-level intelligence, and the odd sophont.
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Holben
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Rumbo a la Victoria

Hmmm. My Floorfeeders from Djeres had about four trunks sticking down from thir mouths to grab food. They had pincers like Opabinia's.

Putting it simply, the more surface area and rotation, the easier flight is. While 10,000 wingsof small size and two big ones could have the same SA, the two biggies would be easier to evolve and more resilient. Less muscles and biomass would be used. If you have so many wings, you must have loads of muscles working in unison to rotate the shoulder, so why not just two big ones?
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."
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Empyreon
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Are you plausible?

Preservation of biomass and necessary energy is a good point. Are there any benefits that having 'extra' wings would provide to make it worth the evolutionary cost? Heat generation, perhaps?
Take a look at my exobiology subforum of the planet Nereus!

COM Contributions


food for thought
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Holben
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Rumbo a la Victoria

If you're in a warm environment, they wouldn't be necessary, but large single wings could be used to lose heat.

In a cold place, the energy already lost to keep warm would make flight less likely.
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."
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