Questions tagged [creature-design]
For questions regarding the viability of a life-form design. These questions should focus on biologically plausible creatures.
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How could dragons be explained without magic?
Dragons are a grand classic of fantasy. For this question, let's assume we're talking about the following stereotype:
hatches from an ostrich-sized egg and can grow to mountain size if nothing limits ...
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Can you simply scale up animals?
There have been a number of questions focusing on mythical creatures where the logical approach to answering has been to scale up an existing animal. For example dragon's wings can be extrapolated ...
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Anatomically Correct Angels
As part II of anatomically correct myths here we have the Angel. Angels appear in many cultures and are most commonly seen as simply winged humans. Is there a realistic way that angels could evolve? ...
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How to make a realistic 'giant'
Imagine a race of what we would call 'giants', each of them possibly around 8 to 10 feet (2.40-3.00 meters) tall. What differences would they need compared to us regular humans in order to function? I ...
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Is there a maximum size an ocean bound creature could grow to?
Assuming the ocean is deep enough and not overcrowded is there any upper limits to the size a "sea monster" can grow?
On land creatures are limited by gravity, they have to be able to generate the ...
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Could a creature evolve a biological "bulletproof vest"?
A variety of Earth species have hard, more or less rigid shells covering parts of or their entire bodies as a defense against predators. These work to a varying degree depending on the specific ...
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Plausibility of Floating Whales
Ignoring the plausibility of their evolution and sources of food, could a whale-like creature which internally consists largely of hydrogen bladders/gasbags realistically stay aloft?
If these ...
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Maximum size of an exoskeletal creature
On a world I am building, I have a species of creatures that evolved from crustaceans. The problem is that while they have an exoskeleton, they also live on a world with the same gravity as Earth. I ...
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Is the Idea of a Collective Consciousness Realistic?
In how smart can I make ants, an idea was suggested, to instead of making each ant individually sapient, make the 'anthill' as a whole sapient; a kind of unconventional hive mind. Just as a familiar ...
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Creating a scientifically semi-valid super-soldier, part 1: Skeleton [closed]
Sometimes you just want to have a dragon, giant scorpion or a superhuman that has a bit more realism behind it than "it's strong, fast, can jump extreme distances despite it's weight and it's smart, ...
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Multiple DNA, one creature
Suppose a species possessed different sets of DNA for different parts of its anatomy. I'm not suggesting one set for every function in the body; that would result in hundreds of thousands of unique ...
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Anatomically Correct Griffins
As a series of anatomically correct myths, here we have the griffin. Is there a realistic way that griffins could evolve? Using Earth or near-Earth biology, how close could I get to the classic ...
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Evolution of giant floating mammals
Whales are majestic creatures of the sea, as they glide more gracefully through the water than their size should seemingly allow.
What kind of evolutionary path would it take for whales to glide ...
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How often must carnivorous grassland eat?
Don't go into the bonegrass. Seriously, unless you want to be dead. You go in there, brush the grass with your clothes, start to feel sleepy...
Before too long your limbs will go numb, then you're on ...
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Anatomically correct multiarmed humanoids
Humanoids with more than 2 pairs of arms weren't an unknown concept in human culture. From ancient mythology, there are the hundred-armed Hekatoncheires (who have their own thread here) and six-armed ...
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Creating a scientifically semi-valid super-soldier, part 3: Physical shock resistance
Part 1 here: Creating a scientifically semi-valid super-soldier, part 1: Skeleton
Part 2 here: Creating a scientifically semi-valid super-soldier, part 2: nervous system
In most movies, comics and ...
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Creating a scientifically semi-valid super-soldier, part 2: nervous system
Part 1 here:
Creating a scientifically semi-valid super-soldier, part 1: Skeleton
This question is about a complete rebuild of the nervous system. The question as proposed here: Improving human ...
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Efficiency required of a photosynthetic system to support human level activities
Chlorophyll as we know it on earth is estimated to be between 3% and 6% efficient in converting light energy to useable biomass. This support slow growth and no movement of plants like that observed ...
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Anatomically correct Giants [duplicate]
What genetic traits would be needed to have a human that is "normal" in all aspects, but roughly 50 to 80 feet tall?
This doesn't seem completely out of the realm of possibility considering some ...
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Is it possible for a species to have more than two sexes?
Every species I'm aware of on earth has two sexes (with the possible exception of species which change their sexes to allow self fertilization).
Is it possible for a species to evolve which could ...
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How do I prevent my turtle from collapsing under its own gravity?
Suppose the universe contained a species of planet sized turtles1 that can travers at least interstellar space. How can I explain (without invoking magic) that these turtles are not spherical?
If ...
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Humanoids with digitigrade legs?
I've designed an alien race of bipedal humanoids with digitigrade legs.
This race's advanced scientific progress means that they use traditionally human-associated technology, or similar (such as ...
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What would a Collective Consciousness look like?
The idea of a collective consciousness (Or Anthill) is pretty simple: instead of cells you have small sentient animal that make up a larger creature. This is different from a hive mind in that the ...
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Creating a scientifically semi-valid super-soldier, part 6: Radiation protection
Previous parts here:
Creating a scientifically semi-valid super-soldier, part 1: Skeleton
Creating a scientifically semi-valid super-soldier, part 2: nervous system
Creating a scientifically semi-...
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How could a species survive on just luring in and eating humans?
In a question about mermaids, it was proposed that they might have evolved to look like humans to lure them in and prey on them.
How could a creature survive on a diet of nothing but lured-in humans?
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How big could a living thing be?
Simply put is there an upper bound for the largest possible living creature in a scientifically rational world without incorporating anti-gravity, magic, the force, or other physical concepts we are ...
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What else is involved in "silicon based" life?
Silicon is often brought up in science fiction as being very similar to carbon, just below it on the periodic table. The silicon-based "organic" molecules are more tightly bound and thus would find a ...
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Anatomically Correct Pegasus
This is part of the Anatomically Correct Series. I've been wondering how an anatomically correct pegasus could evolve.
Pegasus characteristics
They are pretty obvious, but just in case:
Horse size ...
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How CAN we scale up living creatures to be giant sized?
Piggybacking on this question: Can you simply scale up animals? how CAN we scale up living creatures to be giant sized? What would need to done to make truly giant animals (Dragons, Kong, Godzilla, ...
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How could water breathing animals have a warm-blooded level of metabolism?
In the popular merfolk topic, I always use the model of marine mammals, not water-breathing fish-like animals. They breathe air, that turbo-charged 20% oxygen fluid that enables the scale of ...
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Creating a scientifically semi-valid super-soldier, part 4: respiratory system
Previous parts here:
Creating a scientificly semi-valid super-soldier, part 1: Skeleton
Creating a scientificly semi-valid super-soldier, part 2: nervous system
Creating a scientificly semi-valid ...
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How to make chocolate safe for Keidran? (Basically Dog-people)
Backstory (skip if desired)
Let's take our cute and self-conscious protagonist, Jayden! (For the people that read and responded to the post about the genetics behind keidran and the colonization of ...
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What are the conditions in which a creature would evolve more than one brain?
Would any creature ever need to evolve a second (or multiple) brain(s)? If so, under what conditions, why, and what implications would it have on the creature's intelligence?
Note that while an ...
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How do creatures with a hive mind communicate?
Suppose we have a civilisation which is made up of many creatures sharing a single hive mind. Each creature can see, hear and remember what each other member of the species (or possibly hive) has seen ...
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Anatomically Correct Medusa
Medusa is a legendary myth about a woman with snakes for hair that turns anything she looks at into stone. How can I achieve both of those features in an animal realistically? And how would these ...
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Anatomically Correct Werewolves
Could werewolves exist in a realistic world?
All that is required for an accepted answer is the ability to change shape over night. Bonus points will be awarded if you can explain a bite spreading ...
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Anatomically Correct Cyclops
As a series of anatomically correct myths, here we have the Cyclops. One of the most similar creatures to man but with 'one' noticeable difference, one eye. It seems that land animals love their two ...
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Anatomically Correct: 4-legged sapient creatures (“centaurs” etc.)
This is a part of the Anatomically Correct series.
If a magic-free fantasy/SF world were to have naturally evolved hexapods as humanoid as possible, living among bipedal humanoids, how would they ...
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Anatomically Correct Naga
Nagas are a half-human half-snake hybrid, similar to centaurs in that the beast has a human torso and a snake lower body. This question provides an overview of probable physical characteristics of ...
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Science behind a naturally invisible creature
Suppose a planet developed a peculiar form of life that was naturally invisible, but only within a 15-ft. (4.57 m) radius, by bending or refracting the majority of light around its body due to its ...
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Is it possible to ride a carnivore species?
Humans have been domesticating carnivores for over 10 000 years. And there are certainly carnivores big enough to ride. The former is the biggest feline ever to exist. They certainly can carry a human ...
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What evolutionary factors can contribute to large sexual dimorphism in large mammals?
On Earth, the polar bear is among the most sexually dimorphic animals, with males being on average almost twice as heavy as females (Wikipedia claims average weights of 450 kg for males versus 260 kg ...
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Anatomically Correct Phoenix
The Phoenix appears in Greek mythology and are most commonly seen as beautiful golden birds that burst into flame and are reborn from the ashes. Is there a realistic way that they could evolve? Using ...
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Anatomically Correct Gods
This question may seem like an impossible challenge. What I'm talking about here is a biological explanation for limited (or, for bonus marks, unlimited) form shifting, immortality (at least in age) ...
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How to defend when attacked by an avian species?
Bird people are humanoid creatures with a wingspan of 4 meters, they are as tall as humans and the fittest of them weight 72 kilograms or slightly less, so they are quite lighter than the average ...
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How would you design a dragon-like creature so it could sew?
I've been working on the setting for a science fiction novel where one of the questions that came up was: “How would you design a dragon-like creature so it could sew?”. Although I worked out a ...
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Plausibility of the Japanese Nekomimi
So I'm creating a world in which humans have a close sister species very similar to the Japanese Nekomimi seen in anime and manga. Eventually, the humans turn on Nekomimis, perceiving themselves as ...
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A Human Hunter with Sonic Powers?
As part of Fortnightly topic challenge #3: Creature Design
I am looking for a realistic way to create a particularly nasty creature.
What I would like:
A creature that is capable of emitting a ...
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Vertebrate-like creatures with more than four limbs
On Earth, land vertebrates generally have four limbs. Other creatures such as insects can have more limbs, but those creatures tend to be small. I'm thinking of creating an alien ecosystem with ...
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Napalm-Breathing Dragon
The Leopard dragon is one of the fastest and smartest dragons out there. With four eyes, external ears, four legs, two wings, a long tail, and sleek black scales, this dragon is quiet and nearly ...
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