Timeline for Can the fleshmoles breathe?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
25 events
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| Apr 13, 2017 at 12:52 | history | edited | CommunityBot |
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| Mar 23, 2016 at 8:10 | comment | added | Joe Bloggs | @thenate: moles can use vibration sensitivity to track worms over (relatively, if you consider the size of the mole) long distances. Feeling an animal walk into the field and fall over isn't that much of a stretch, and then it doesn't matter that they're blind. :-) | |
| Mar 23, 2016 at 4:01 | comment | added | The Nate | A few points: unless they can smell the surface, they would need to track the surface entirely by sound. That's a bit problematic. Suicidal breathers is silly. Just make them all resistant, just not immune, to the toxin. That's the most realistic (not to mention simplest) thing. (See mongeese and honey badgers. They could surface to do their business and retreat to sleep off the effects. Could have the toxin be an alkaloid and the soil acidic. Filtering through soil could literally cleanse the air. | |
| Mar 22, 2016 at 21:57 | vote | accept | Joe Bloggs | ||
| Mar 22, 2016 at 16:31 | answer | added | Kyle | timeline score: 1 | |
| Mar 22, 2016 at 13:24 | comment | added | SeanR | @JoeBloggs - One interesting thing I saw whilst looking: sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0300962980901541 "Oxygen consumption of individual mole-rats increased more than that of huddled mole-rats at Ta < 34°C." - By huddling together, warmth increases, and oxygen consumption decreases, so send out scouts with big lungs to breath and thermoregulate the remainder of the colony. | |
| Mar 22, 2016 at 11:49 | comment | added | Joe Bloggs | @seanR: That's why I chose them as the base species. Weirdly I can't find any literature on how high those CO2 levels actually are, only references to the pain reception being blocked because of it... | |
| Mar 22, 2016 at 11:47 | comment | added | SeanR | Naked Mole rats already exist in places with CO2 levels that would kill pretty much every other rodent - they are one of the most effective mammals at extracting usable oxygen from anerobic environments. medica-tradefair.com/cipp/md_medica/custom/pub/… | |
| Mar 22, 2016 at 3:45 | answer | added | Xandar The Zenon | timeline score: 1 | |
| Mar 21, 2016 at 20:09 | answer | added | Joel | timeline score: 1 | |
| Mar 21, 2016 at 16:36 | comment | added | Christopher King | "It's not trying to be full of unicorns." Well, technically since the entire ecosystem seems to be parasitic in nature, it seems that it would love to be full of unicorns. Especially if the bone grass likes Keratin. | |
| Mar 21, 2016 at 16:00 | comment | added | Joe Bloggs | @pyrulez: This entire ecosystem is based around 'Bonegrass'. It's not trying to be full of unicorns. Even if it were they'd probably be the kind that gore you to death and wear your skin as a hat.... | |
| Mar 21, 2016 at 15:58 | comment | added | Joe Bloggs | @ckersch: If it's some form of toxic pollen or spore then most of the particles would be captured above the lungs or covered in mucus and already absorbed. If it's a fast acting neurotoxin then the fleshmoles shouldn't have to worry too much about secondary exposure. | |
| Mar 21, 2016 at 15:43 | comment | added | Christopher King | These things seem terrible! | |
| Mar 21, 2016 at 15:32 | comment | added | ckersch | Wouldn't the lungs of creatures in the bonegrass be full of bonegrass toxins, anyways? Plus, if the creatures are paralyzed, their blood will rapidly deplete the oxygen in their lungs, leading to asphyxiation, death, and oxygen poor air for the moles to breathe. It might make more sense if there's some sort of filtration (maybe even the bonegrass roots?) that causes the mole tunnels to be oxygenated, but toxin free. | |
| Mar 21, 2016 at 14:43 | answer | added | Aarthew III | timeline score: 2 | |
| Mar 21, 2016 at 14:40 | answer | added | Murphy | timeline score: 27 | |
| Mar 21, 2016 at 14:22 | history | edited | Tim B |
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| Mar 21, 2016 at 14:22 | answer | added | Tim B | timeline score: 10 | |
| Mar 21, 2016 at 14:18 | answer | added | Separatrix | timeline score: 5 | |
| Mar 21, 2016 at 13:49 | comment | added | Joe Bloggs | @Lacklub: These guys evolved from rodents. They're already immune to pain (seriously, naked mole rats are immune to pain and don't get cancer) because of the high lactic acid buildup from anaerobic respiration, but they're still O2 breathers like the rest of us. | |
| Mar 21, 2016 at 13:48 | comment | added | Joe Bloggs | @DJMethaneMan: not if they'd already evolved to be eusocial subterranean colony dwellers. Plus it's far more of a plot device if their main source of air is eating your lungs from the inside out. :D | |
| Mar 21, 2016 at 13:42 | comment | added | Jax | Why would they not just adapt to the paralytic? Something that has involved to live in such an environment would have taken the path of least resistance; becoming "immune" to the paralytic in the air. | |
| Mar 21, 2016 at 13:40 | comment | added | Lacklub | You might want to read a little bit about anaerobic bacteria, which don't need oxygen to survive. These moles could have evolved from them, but you'll have to rethink things like blood. | |
| Mar 21, 2016 at 13:27 | history | asked | Joe Bloggs | CC BY-SA 3.0 |