Questions tagged [anatomy]
For questions about the physical structure of an organism.
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How would a species without optical vision navigate a spaceship? [duplicate]
I wanted to create an alien species with an interstellar civilization, but the twist is that they never developed eyes, due to evolving on a planet far enough away from its star that it’s shrouded in ...
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Eyes that aren’t spheres: possibilities? [duplicate]
I have a sci-fi-like universe and one of the species has long, vertical eyes.
But would this be anatomically possible without a sphere-like structure? I know that compound eyes are a thing, but how &...
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Is there a maximum number of fingers a species can have in each hand? [closed]
We have 5 fingers in each hand (10 fingers in both hands). So we count in a base of 10 (decimal base) which has the accepted digits of 0 to 9. Higher bases have more accepted digits; for example ...
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Does this Non-Hausdorff winged quadruped anatomy actually work? [closed]
The design features two non-contacting 'branches', one for the wings and another for the forelegs
The ribcage is roughly avian, and exists on both branches. Attached are a pair of feline-type forelegs ...
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How horny can humans get before it's too horny
Trying to create horns which are both ornamental and defensive, I've read somewhere that beards evolved in humans because we punch each other so much that even just a minuscule amount of hair cushion ...
user104995
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What would a potion that increases resistance to damage actually do to the body?
Alright, we are in a medieval fantasy setting. In this setting, northern warriors (basically vikings or typical fantasy barbarians) have berserkers that use certain potions that make themselves ...
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Harness for soft-bodied animal
There is a soft-bodied animal approximately 1m in length. It has a worm-like body with a hydrostatic skeleton, and several pairs of legs that function as muscular hydrostats. Its anatomy has a rather ...
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Biped species with trunk evolved to use for locomotion
So currently in my speculative evolution scenario, I have a creature with an elongated trunk that it uses for rock climbing. This species transitions to a savannah like lifestyle and I was wondering ...
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Are mouthparts best placed on the head or the mouth? [closed]
Let there be a creature with mammalian dentition, with three types of teeth among its jaws. Its mouth, however, is in its stomach.
Should this creature have its jaws on its head, or on its mouth? Or ...
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What would a lizardly phonetic alphabet be?
The international phonetic alphabet system contains all sounds that a human can make. However, humans are not lizards, but mammals, and hence have many features that let us make more complex sounds
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How would "barbie doll" anatomy work?
A fairly common trope in fantasy is "barbie doll anatomy". Effectively, a species completely lacks any visible orifices besides their mouth and nose. This brings up two major questions. ...
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Which limbs should be retained or lost to turn this land animal into a swimmer? [closed]
The form of large swimming animals is fairly consistent across distantly related groups. As example, all aquatic mammals, save the quadrupedal semiaquatic forms, have adapted for a fish-like shape ...
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Why won't Venusians just explode in our own atmosphere when they're not even wearing protective suits?
So "Venusians" are these Star Trek-y humanoid aliens that evolved on a planet with more than 75 times Earth's atmosphere. In a lot of ways this makes them not too dissimilar from deep sea ...
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Coherence of Facial Features in an Antarctic Race
I am currently thinking of an Asian-descended race/type of humans who want from the Americas then were expulsed to an agriculturally viable Antarctica by what we know today as the Native Americans, I ...
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How would the biological ability to generate electricity to fight work in terrestrial animals? [closed]
In a series I'm writing, there are seven categories of species of intelligent, human-like creatures with magical abilities that vary by species. One of them is a revamp of mermaids, or as I call them, ...
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What thickness of human flesh would have the same protective value as 100mm of RHA?
I'm trying to judge how much damage modern anti-tank weapons would deal to giants and I'm looking for a rough, order of magnitude estimate on how much protection layers of flesh would provide.
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Are humanoid hind legs compatible with reptilian tails?
Unlike mammals, reptiles lack gluteal muscles and instead have enlarged caudofemoralis muscles to extend the hindlegs. The humanoid legs, on the other hand, rely on the mammalian gluteals in order to ...
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Can a canine/human hybrid balance without a tail?
I am writing a book about a humanoid wolf (named Wolf. See what I did there?). Wolf lost most of his tail in an accident when he was younger. He hides the stump under his jacket to avoid being ...
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Could clawed fingers (without fingertips) work as well as nailed fingers?
The hand and arm are exactly human from the shoulder to the intermediate phalanges. The distal phalanges are conical, as in clawed animals, and is entirely surrounded by a keratinous claw. There is no ...
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Could a paleopteran without a complete exoskeleton fly?
Unlike most insects, paleopterans have wing muscles that connect directly with the wing. Could this musculature be used to let a soft, maggot-like insect fly?
The insect is relatively large (around ...
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What would have to be considered when designing a humanoid species with extra limbs? [closed]
My dad was talking about some book where these humans had one big arm and two smaller arms, and it got me thinking. What if humans had two extra arms? And not big ones like the Ben 10 alien, but ...
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Dragon people with colorful horns
Dragonfolk have skin that looks like rock, but sometimes, some of them turn colorful with very bright horns for the same reason salmon turn from grey to red, while others are always bright and colored....
user100394
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Are there anatomically good proportions for different dragon-like creatures? [duplicate]
I am unsure of what I can add here to make my question more well defined as my question is intended to be general. Answers can vary based on type of dragon-types (Asian vs European) or even (as the ...
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How to calculate the strength of fictional creatures when creating them or at least be precise and believable?
Strength sports and world records seem to not be relieable measurments for upper limits of humanoid strength since in most sports what was back then a world record level amount of strength and ...
user99879
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Two sets of fins, two different functions?
Let's say you had a fish analogy organism in the oceans of an alien world. Assuming it's ancestry allows for more the number of limbs, would it be possible for it to have one set of fins for swimming ...
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Does prey necessarily have to be bigger than predator when it comes to larger animals?
I am trying to create various fictional animals and monsters to inhabit my world. Many of the animals I am creating are huge, and some are even bigger than elephants. Some of these include the ...
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Anatomic design of a 10m tall humanoid that procreates by "splitting"
I'm currently trying to work out how a newly discovered species would work anatomically. It is extremely tall (10 to 15 meters) and has humanoid shape (head with eyes, arms, legs), but it is not a ...
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Is an "catfish-like" armored skeleton system still practical at larger sizes?
Essentially, I've been trying to make a world of arthropod-like creatures, but as a result of that, the more I researched arthropods, the more I understand the limits their structure has on size.
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Could a creature adjust its height using this system?
So I had an idea for a vaguely humanoid creature called Krah (which I will post more questions about in time), and one of its many horrifying bodily functions is an ability I call “loathsome limbs”. ...
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Lateral bipedal centaur [closed]
I keep finding createures that are centaurs but with only two legs one behind the other.
How or why would this evolve? A low gravity environment is the first thing to come to mind, but also the only ...
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How would pronogrades build embattlements?
While there have been a lot of designs for embattlements across times and cultures, there is onee constant I have noticed: They all share similar proportions. This appears to be related to the erect ...
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What anatomical features would enable tree climbing in someone with feet for hands and no opposable thumbs?
Short version: A given person’s arms are now legs. But somehow they are able to climb trees despite having no opposable thumbs or big toes. How is the anatomy of their arm-legs designed to make this ...
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Sea serpent evolved into dragon anatomy?
In my story there are scary monstrous sea serpent like creatures of all shapes and sizes. What the people don’t know, is (reverse whale evolution theory) they came to shore and turned into something ...
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Could a creature with nonhuman anatomy still have a regenerative healing factor? [closed]
Normally in fiction users of regenerative healing factor have human or mostly human physiology. My question is whether a creature with a nonhuman body could have a regenerative healing factor. Could, ...
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Can a Pterosaur-style wing membrane attach directly to the exoskeleton?
art by ticklemecthulhu
In my world of arthropod-like creatures (in that most of the creatures have an exoskeleton rather than an endoskeleton), I wished for a group of my aliens to convergely evolve ...
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Could a person survive a high temperature environment by only cooling the blood supply or will parts of the body eventually overheat?
Obviously not temperatures above the boiling point, but could you theoretically survive in an environment hotter than a normal human could thermoregulate in if you attached a blood-cooler and if so ...
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Anatomy for a head in the middle of the neck
In all animals with a neck, the head is always the end of the line. But what if it were otherwise? Specifically, what anatomy would you need to change to get a head in the middle of the neck, while ...
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Giant mole-like creatures. Are more limbs for digging worth it?
The following creatures, in order, are a sandgroper, a mole cricket and a mole, all creatures that are well adapted for life underground:
All of them converged into a similar bodyplan, with powerful, ...
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How large does a dragon have to be for a hunter to enter its stomach through its throat?
In a world inhabited by primitive hunter-gatherer humans and dragons, one of the most respected trial by fires is to hunt a dragon by jumping through their mouth and killing it from inside the stomach....
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What are the distinct functions a body orifice could have? [closed]
Different types of animal have different sorts of orifice with different functions. One commonality between them is that multiple different functions (often the same functions across multiple animals) ...
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On a planet with 99% humidity all of the time, how would human skin evolve?
This world has an incredibly high humidity rate all year round and I'm curious as to what - if any - evolutional changes might occur in human skin. Would it just be less porous or would there be a ...
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How can I tie an individual's general appearance with the season they're born in?
So basically the elves of the setting have varying appearances depending on the season they're born in, but they're entirely biological and while the setting does have magic I don't want there to be a ...
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Would communicating through an external, circular "larynx" be viable?
These aliens live on a planet with a thick atmosphere and light gravity, and spend most of their life in the air.
They communicate through a series of piercing whistles and sound-wave vibrations, and ...
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What would this animal's stool be like?
The animal is small, around the size of a rat or pigeon. Its activity level is on par with a rat, but it can fly and is rather more intelligent, and thus uses more energy. Their excretory system ...
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Could a human metamorphosis work?
I was playing Resident Evil 6 and I was wondering if it could be possible with the help of a virus to make humans metamorphose.
The girl in the videogame basically turns into a chrysalis and by the ...
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Flora of Radiotroph-Dominated World
After the Great Nuclear Apocalypse, the skies clouded over with dust and the world froze. Expectedly, most plants died out, and were then replaced with radiotrophic fungi, originating from all sorts ...
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Doing Makeup with your Mouth
The tricrurals are humanoid creatures without arms or feet. Their jaws are replaced by a set of tentacles. These tentacles are around 10cm long and are as flexible as human fingers, though they can ...
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If a very hot blade were used to cut off a limb, would it cauterize, and if so, would it be less lethal than a regular wound? [duplicate]
Okay, so first post here, howdy, nice to meet you!
I’m working on a story that involves a woman on a vendetta who decides that she will begin trying to avoid killing people, however mutilation is fine,...
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Methods to transport CO2 through HCl-rich blood to the lungs?
Situation:
The extraterrestrial vertebrate lifeforms have milky white blood rich in aqueous HCl, using an enzyme centered on aluminum oxychloride nanoparticles to transport oxygen, releasing chlorine ...
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What are the possible attributes of aluminum-based blood?
Situation:
The vertebrate life of a distant planet uses biogenic silica for structural support. However, biogenic silica is soluble in water, but (according to this article) its solubility decreases ...
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