0
$\begingroup$

Description

An Opticoid is an alien species from the tv series Ben 10 and is named and known for having green eyes with slits all over its body except for its head where there are two large bat-like ears. It is a bit taller than the average human and has a bulky physique. Its skeleton is made of cartilage and it has abilities such as eye beams that can be combined to create different effects.

picture of Opticoid

Question

Just out of sheer curiosity I was wondering how such a creature could (mostly about how the skeleton would look) function and what a more realistic look for it might be? (I am not so worried about the eye beams but an explanation would be much appreciated.)

Improve this question
$\endgroup$
3
  • $\begingroup$ "skeleton is made of cartilage" meaning it has no true skeleton then? $\endgroup$
    – Ash
    May 20, 2018 at 17:37
  • $\begingroup$ @Ash maybe not, but I'm just re-stating what the website says. $\endgroup$
    – Amoeba
    May 20, 2018 at 17:44
  • 3
    $\begingroup$ Sharks share it's pure cartalige skeleton, so there is president there (although none for land based creatures that I know of). Eyebeams are probably advanced bioluminescence/organic laser. As for eye placement... I would say that's probably the least scientifically viable part. Visual processing is like really hard and you aren't doing yourself any favours by having umpteen eyes that move relative to each other and are nowhere near the brain. (Possibly points to a distributed brain like octopuses?) $\endgroup$
    – Ummdustry
    May 20, 2018 at 18:00

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
6
$\begingroup$

The skeleton is easy - it is like a shark skeleton, but with a humanoid form. Shark skeletons are made of cartilage and they work fine.

The eyes are actually commensal organisms. This scheme is covered here:
Could a disease make a creature begin to 'sprout' new eyes around its body?

fly with many eyes

Organisms have "homeotic" genes which kick off the development of organs. If you cause expression of one of these genes at a site, it kicks off development of the organ at that site. Your Opticoid is infected with eye commensal creatures that have the homeobox genes for their special eyes. Each commensal organism earns its keep by expressing the genes that cause an eye to form - useful for the Opticoid which is otherwise blind. In the depicted fly the extra eyes are functional and so too the Opticoid.

This means no two Opticoid will have the same arrangement of eyes. Some Opticoids might get overgrown with eyes and have to deal with the excess somehow. Eye organisms might compete with other eye organisms for space on there Opticoid. How they compete is left to the author.

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
7
  • $\begingroup$ Also any explanation on why such a large creature would had slits for eyes? $\endgroup$
    – Amoeba
    May 20, 2018 at 18:05
  • $\begingroup$ Where does it say it has slits for eyes? $\endgroup$
    – Willk
    May 20, 2018 at 19:29
  • $\begingroup$ in the picture of it $\endgroup$
    – Amoeba
    May 20, 2018 at 19:55
  • $\begingroup$ I think those "slits" are folds in its batlike ears. It does not have eyes on its head. $\endgroup$
    – Willk
    May 20, 2018 at 20:37
  • $\begingroup$ the eyes on the arms and back have have slits not the ears? $\endgroup$
    – Amoeba
    May 20, 2018 at 20:40

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .