Questions tagged [anatomy]
For questions about the physical structure of an organism.
306
questions
8
votes
2answers
332 views
Could a species give birth to smaller babies than humans but have larger brains as adults?
I know that brain size is less important than structure and that human babies' brains are 27% the size of an adult's, but humans give birth to large brained babies. As a result, humans can't support ...
3
votes
2answers
76 views
Could a human sized creature with a skeletal structure similar to a gibbon's be bipedal?
Would a creature that's 180 - 210 cm tall walk and run comfortably upright for long distances if they have shorter legs than humans, no lordosis and arms (though shorter than a gibbon's) whose wrists ...
6
votes
2answers
234 views
Why would my race have arms much longer then the legs?
In a world I'm designing, there's a race that look like the picture below, except that the race has heavily hunched bodies. The race's arms and torso are hulking, heavily built, and muscular, but the ...
5
votes
5answers
538 views
What creative use four armed aliens can put their arms to?
The related question about possible weapons for four-armed humans provoked me to ask one of my own.
I have a technologically advanced (to somewhere of the Mass Effect levels of technology) alien ...
2
votes
2answers
109 views
How could “muscular hair” work?
Well, there is already a similar question, but I consider mine to be somewhat different as I am not asking about hair-thin fibers that can act individually. The kind of "hair" that I ...
2
votes
1answer
80 views
How could an eusocial dragon species of elemental castes work?
Well here are constant questions about how control, breath or thrown different "elemental" objects, electricity, fire, ice, water, air and the less common earth (because requieres things ...
3
votes
2answers
131 views
How make look feminine and masculine (non mammalian) animal humanoids?
Well, first clarification, it could sound contradictory "I want a humanoid shape that not looks like a common human", well for this reason I thought necessary say what I consider "...
1
vote
1answer
64 views
How and where would bird-wing fold away if they were mounted on internal turtle shoulders?
If a bird-winged creature had shoulders inside the ribcage like a turtle, how would its wings fold up, and where on the body would they likely be held? The creature has a carapace and turtle-like back,...
15
votes
3answers
2k views
Are 'ambiskeletons' viable?
A recurring problem in trying to create large creatures is the square-cube law as it applies to upscaling familiar animals, particularly those with exoskeletons: if you double an animal's size, its ...
-3
votes
3answers
135 views
How To Liquefy A Human [closed]
Okay, I'm asking this question because in my story, the main bad guy gets killed when he's punched so hard by the heroine that he explodes into bits. His skeleton is broken into many fragments, his ...
3
votes
0answers
76 views
How get functional arthropod-like legs for carry great weights?
"For big sizes and masses arthropod legs are a bad option" is what many people say, but nevertheless, this always looks cool and scary.
So based on the first solution for an Anatomically ...
1
vote
1answer
57 views
How could be useful a long and flexible tail for a living flying mechanism?
Following the answer to my question about an Anatomically correct Quetzalcoatl, is problematic have gravity center positioned so far behind the wings.So in the case of a creature with a snake-like ...
4
votes
1answer
72 views
How could work a functional secondary respiration system (“Universal” respiration/lungs) at terrestrial and active creatures?
Following the path of my super predator, I thought that one interesting characteristic can be breath while is eating or producing sounds, an addition that could be useful for do not lose time during ...
6
votes
1answer
83 views
Are possible funtional limbs from the cobra hood ribs?
Probably this is question is related with things like snakes recovering their limbs or an anatomically correct naga or lamia or medusa.
But now I am thinking other possible form of "snake limbs&...
3
votes
3answers
392 views
What kind of musculature is needed to be able to have each individual tooth to spin like a drill?
As the title says, I want to know is there a musculature way to make spinning individual teeth possible. This is not the same like rotating the jaw like my question here: anatomy or musculature to ...
-6
votes
1answer
99 views
Could My Ku-Klux-Rogue Exist?
The Ku-Klux-Rogue is a successful gigantic monster species with four heads.
The front head that of a Saber-toothed-tiger, the other front head of a fearsome dragon, a wolf's head protruding from the ...
7
votes
1answer
455 views
Anatomically correct Quetzalcoatl
Quetzalcoatl is the main of the cultures from the center of Mexico, like mexicas, toltecas, teotihuacans and the maya equivalent Kukulkan, known by the popular culture as the feathered flying snake or ...
2
votes
1answer
113 views
What body modifications or body adaptations would be needed to be able to make human can sit longer or indefinitelly without affecting their health?
my question is in the title, i want to know what kind of body modifications or body adaptations needed or look like for human to be able to sit in prolonged time without affecting their health. Since ...
-1
votes
1answer
143 views
Most painful/slow way to kill somebody by throwing off a building? [closed]
Let's say that a modern dictatorship wants to publicily execute somebody by repeatedly pushing him off a building. However, as we all know from stories of people jumping off skyscrapers, death might ...
4
votes
3answers
192 views
Composite Organic Armor
So, to lead, I've been developing a sort of faction that is entirely organically based that is capable of producing things such as advanced infrastructure like city level energy production, complex ...
3
votes
1answer
202 views
Would having multiple lungs be a good solution to one of kaiju problems?
If I remember correctly, one of the kaiju problems, especially the bipedal standing one, regards oxygen flow or circulation or respiratory issues (but correct me if I am mistaken regarding the oxygen ...
1
vote
2answers
112 views
Would having multiple hearts be a good solution to one of kaiju problems?
If I remember correctly, one of the kaiju problems, especially the bipedal standing, regards blood flow or circulation (but correct me if I am mistaken, I tried to find it in google regarding square ...
7
votes
4answers
175 views
What brain parts and processes are most plausibly able to a second incorporeal brain-like organ?
One of the conceits of my world is that the brain takes advantage of some physical processes we don't fully understand resulting in an incorporeal brain-like organ called the Yau-body. Fairly early ...
9
votes
2answers
402 views
Where would the best cuts of meat be on a giant insect?
Let's say one had a giant insect the size of a sheep or a cow that some sapient species was raising as meat livestock. These animals would have to be butchered to be eaten and cannot simply be eaten ...
3
votes
2answers
118 views
A humanoid with six arms? [duplicate]
How could a humanoid species evolve to have six arms, all in relatively the same part of the body, the top corners of the torso, like us? It can't be as simple as tree-climbers moving back to the ...
7
votes
4answers
901 views
Tongueless: Are complex sounds possible?
For my current project, I'm trying to design intelligent, sapient organisms that aren't just "Human, but..." To that end, I've been toying with the idea of a tongueless entity and what the ...
7
votes
3answers
416 views
How can a primate-like shoulder structure enable proficiency in BOTH climbing and throwing?
In the project I am working on, the main race in my setting has the body plan similar to a primate, and has somewhere between a moderate, or highly arboreal lifestyle. (Haven't quite settled on this ...
5
votes
1answer
108 views
What would happen if someone got stabbed with this taser sword? [closed]
In my world there is a weapon that's basically a magical high voltage, high current sword.
It accumulates electricity and when it touches a flesh it instantly discharges, the electricity is supposed ...
4
votes
1answer
141 views
What advantages or disadvantages would a bipedal humanoid have if their neck connected at the back of their skull rather than the bottom?
While designing my species of trolls I came to the question of how there heads attach to their bodies.
What I've had in mind was that their necks were horizontal rather than vertical so that their ...
17
votes
12answers
5k views
How devastating is a weapon that can internally and rapidly cool down a section of a human body?
Let's say in a magical world, there exists a basic cooling spell which slightly cools down an area by reducing the heat energy of everything inside it.
In said world there also exists a particularly ...
7
votes
6answers
1k views
Could lips and tongues be used as appendages by a sentient species?
Since I want to experiment with nonhuman shaped species, could a sentient species use its lips or tongue as primary appendages? Giraffes have prehensile tongues and many aquatic species use their lips....
2
votes
3answers
306 views
What kind of organs, anatomy or modifications are needed for my alpha creature to mind control its kin?
I want to make a biological group of creatures where there is an absolute alpha creature that their lower kin cannot ever harm due to a mental prohibition. This would be equivalent to Asimov's first ...
4
votes
1answer
100 views
Hand-bone scanner biometrics
Instead of scanning a user's fingerprint or palm-print to enter my secret lair, I want to scan the sizes and shapes of the bones in their hand. This way people can wear gloves, be dirty, injure their ...
7
votes
6answers
2k views
Grappling hook which attaches to almost any surface and is actually alive, is it feasible?
wondering the mechanism of how a grappling hook would be able grip onto most surfaces without missing the hit or sliding off.
in video games grappling hooks are ropes or chains which when thrown onto ...
1
vote
4answers
162 views
A wing that can switch into a leg posture
I thought of a flying winged animal that when lands switches into a leg posture when landing
I know that vampire bats can walk but i want a animal that can run at high speeds when its wings switch ...
8
votes
3answers
311 views
A biological tourniquet
Is a biological tourniquet plausible and in what scenario would a creature evolve this?
I got an idea for an organism that evolved biological tourniquets.
The way it works is that they are basically ...
4
votes
2answers
258 views
Anatomy of a Female Giant
In many depictions of giants in fantasy, we usually get visual examples of the male of the species, especially in more realistic settings in terms of biology (Game of Thrones Wun-Wun etc.) But as far ...
5
votes
3answers
175 views
Adaptating computers to creatures with 4 fingers
What would be the ideal layout for a 4-fingered usage of a keyboard? I thought about making keyboards square and and have less keys.
Here is the alphabet : 28 characters total. The alphabet is ...
4
votes
6answers
199 views
Is it possible for primates to develop extreme sexual dimorphism?
So, my question is:
Is there any biological barrier that would prevent a species of primate to develop, in a matter of few million years, extreme sexual dimorphism, where females would be size of a ...
3
votes
1answer
138 views
Tentacle fingers
For one of my tentacled alien species designs I was considering tentacle like fingers, even though an intelligent creature with many tentacle appendages could achieve a good level of dexterity and ...
5
votes
4answers
207 views
Water mimicry : ability to turn into liquid
I want a creature capable of going from a solid structure capable of walking to a liquid or slimy substance clear as water or ocean blue.
How can this be accomplished?
3
votes
1answer
123 views
Biological explosives
I want an organism to be capable of producing Diethylzinc or any other similar substance which on contact with external air explodes or ignites.
The creature can be as complex as an animal or it can ...
9
votes
3answers
629 views
Ability to harden skin at will
How can one explain the ability of a creature to harden their skin to a solid strong enough to fend off predator bites?
The skin must go from being elastic and flexible to being a biological shield ...
8
votes
1answer
169 views
How loud of a sound would a human-sized cicada produce?
Cicadas are known to produce very loud sounds which they make by rapidly buckling their tymbals, some of which are loud enough to exceed the threshhold that causes discomfort in humans (110 decibels), ...
1
vote
1answer
90 views
How would wings on the head work? What muscle structure would they need and how flexible could they be?
I've seen many creatures that others have made with wings instead of ears, and the like. And I've always wondered how that would work from an anatomy standpoint?
How would they connect to the head?
...
4
votes
2answers
130 views
What anatomical changes would you need to get 1 ton ride-able rodent?
So, I've decided that in my fantasy fiction, I want to have Megabara riders. Massive Capybaras, being ridden into a battle.
I've done some basic research and I came across this extinct species that ...
2
votes
7answers
918 views
anatomy or musculature to achieve full rotate jaw?
you know a jaw or mouth where the jaw full of teeth fully rotate like a drill or gear to shred their food or prey, usually show often in worm type of monster (my question is not necessary to be worm ...
-1
votes
5answers
240 views
biologically or anatomically is there a problem with this type of double mouth or jaws?
i am not talking about xenomorph or moray eel type of jaws or multiple mouth or lower jaw inside the mouth.
but this type of mouth/jaws or i called it double chin jaws where the chin also work as ...
10
votes
7answers
3k views
Would a sapient being sensitive to polarized light be able to see the angle of polarization in a photograph?
Many animals have the ability to see polarized light (or rather, are sensitive to the direction of polarization), most notably birds and bees but also a wide range of other animals including ...
4
votes
2answers
126 views
Proportions of a giant humanoid?
In a humanoid mammal, say 15-20 feet tall, how would the brain, heart, reproductive organs, facial feature and other attributes scale up? In very large mammals, the brain seems to be comparatively ...
