Questions tagged [xenobiology]
For questions related to the biology of extra-terrestrial organisms. This tag implies the use of the science-fiction tag. Use the science-based or hard-science tags to impose greater scientific restrictions (see warning in tag wiki). The goal of this tag is to answer the question using known science.
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Leg structure in a shallow sea world [closed]
I am currently building an alien planet that is based around a creative drawing exercise, where I drew an alien with different bug like features. They are bipedal humanoids, but along with other ...
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Minimal-Hydrogen Carbon-Based Biochemistry in a Hydrogen-Free, Non-Oxygen-Reactive, Non-Oxidising solvent (Such as Liquid CO2)
Over the course of my worldbuilding, I have looked into many alternative substances from which oceans could be composed that would serve as a viable solvent for biochemistry, and I often run into the ...
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Supercaviating Aquatic Creature
Ever since I watched this video theorizing about how Aquaman could dislocate in water at supersonic speeds via supercavitation I got interested in implementing this hability in some sort of aquatic ...
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How can a planet remain in algae bloom over millions of years?
I've been developing a planet for an original scifi setting and I'm not sure if it's scientifically plausible. Said planet is in a state of global algae infestation across all major oceans, resulting ...
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How would amphibious cone-aliens have 150 feet of tongue?
The Esuriensi are slick-skinned amphibious cone creatures. They hatch in water and drift on currents for a few days, then hit rock. Once they hit a rock, they anchor to it and live the rest of their ...
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How would a sapient species with two tongues organize their language? [closed]
I created a species of catlike aliens called Raachtunami (singular Raachtun) or Tutoans. They have extremely perceptive ears, a syrinx, and two tongues. This allows them to use several human phonetics ...
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Nibiru hypothesis [duplicate]
Starting from the infamous "Nibiru hypothesis", I'd like to craft a world identical or at least similar to the one described within the works (more SF than Hard Science if you ask me) of ...
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How can my sapient sea-star centaurs have four different sexes?
The Cochlequestrians (from the Latin for “snail horse”). are a sapient species much older than humans. They have much more advanced technology than other sapients. They resemble Pierson’s ...
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How Could Bioluminescence work as a Flashlight?
So I have a Koosh-like organism which uses bioluminescence. I've recently realized that there aren't really any organisms on earth which can direct their bioluminescence into a flashlight-like beam (...
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What compound could life use to get sulfur from to use as an oxidant?
I'm working on a planet which has a biosphere that breathes sulfur as an oxidant. What is the most efficient gaseous (By "gaseous" I mean gaseous at the temperature of my planet, which is on ...
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Can a Biosphere Exist With Sulfur as an Oxidant?
I've been looking a lot at hydrothermal vents recently, because I was making a moon with a subsurface ocean that has life in it, and I found out that Sulfur can be used as an oxidant. My question is: ...
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Can my Deep-Sea Creature use its Bioluminescense as a Flashlight to Find Prey?
My intelligent alien species looks like a Koosh Ball:
Image Source
They use biological "Flashlights" based on bioluminescence which uses sulfur as an oxidizing agent instead of oxygen.
...
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How can a World Produce Oxygen Without Photosynthesis? [duplicate]
My alien species uses bioluminescence for communication. They live at the bottom of an ocean 50km deep. Since there is no light, the ecosphere is based on chemosynthesis. The losest rung of the food ...
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Could this be a plausible way for unicellular organisms to possess intelligence?
Basically, instead of neurons, the "brain" consists of organelles that can transmit information and thus function like neurons. Of course, this organism is gonna be super huge to contain all ...
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Genetically variable cells that through natural selection achieves evolution in a single individual
I posted a question some time ago about how could genetic engineering design people that could adapt to changing conditions beyond what simple acclimatization or activation/deactivation of genes in a ...
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Irrigating the muscles with lubricant blood so it loses less energy to heat
Having a character that has denser tissues means that heat could be a problem, right?
And because I imagine the human body, after millions of years of evolution, already deals with heat through every ...
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Feasibility of genetically engineered human "seismolocation"
So, after watching Because Science's video about spider sensory organs that could enable Spider-Mans' Spider-Sense, where it states that if the slit sensila on the spiders exoskeleton joints were ...
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Would it be possible to have hair/fur that change color quickly (Aka "Chameleon hair/fur")? [duplicate]
I was thinking about replacing melanin with an electrochromic organic material. Basically when you pass a small current in an electrochromic material, it change color depending on the current.
Would ...
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What plants could live on an island in perpetual darkness? [duplicate]
In my book, an island resides in an area called the Scourgesea. The Scourgesea is a place with perpetual storms and almost complete darkness because of the perpetual dark thunderstorms. Altavista is a ...
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Could a microbe draw in dust using electretic quartz?
The microbes reside in the rings around a gas giant, adhering to cosmic dust and feeding on sunlight and carbon minerals. While it seems there should be enough collisions to keep the microbes in ...
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Is there any alternative way to eliminate CO2 buildup than by breathing or even an alternative to cellular respiration that don't produce CO2?
The reason I ask is because I want to create a terrestrial species that hunt fish underwater by holding their breath for hours without having a large lung capacity. In someway they are buffed Bajau ...
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Could biologically generated flux tubes be a thing?
I have a project about organisms that use ammonia as a solvent. The creatures live on such a cold world that chemical reactions are slow and inefficient. Due to the inefficiencies, the organisms move ...
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How does Jimmy Hopkins the giant unicellular organism reproduce?
(Previous Question)
Recap:
Jimmy Hopkins (yes, that's his name) is a extremely weird organism.
For one thing he is extremely large, but on the other hand, he is
extremely weird, because of one thing- ...
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What is the most biological energy-dense fuel for a giant unicellular organism?
Jimmy Hopkins (yes, that's his name) is a extremely weird organism. For one thing he is extremely large, but on the other hand, he is extremely weird, because of one thing- He is an unicellular ...
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Could biological radio be limited to family members?
I have a creature with high-frequency biological radio transmitted via an antenna growing from their heads. However, the creatures can only freely communicate at range with their blood relatives (...
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Can my bacteria survive?
I'm trying to create a hard sci-fi book where the main character uses biophotovoltaic cells to power electricity, my question is: How can I make my cyanobacteria last at least a year inside an ...
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How biologically different would a species that used mercury rather than water be?
I’m currently working on a precursor species who have mercury based blood. They are bipedal reptiloids (similar to the Silurians in Dr. Who) whose skin is covered in iridium/osmium scales. A single ...
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Why would a semi-aquatic creature develop bioluminescence?
Why would a creature with a similar lifestyle as seals, sea-lions and amphibians-living near water and diving for food-evolve bioluminescence?
These creatures are roughly the size of a dolphin or a ...
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Alternative versions of breathing?
(Hoping this isn't another too-broad question...)
I just want a different way for my aliens to breathe that isn't obvious to a human's eyes; it makes them seem like they don't breathe at all, and ...
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Shape and diversity of chemotrophic plants [closed]
I posted a question similar to this but that was about how these plants would work, this is about how they could look like.
So in a tidally locked planet I'm working on there are plants which inhabit ...
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What chemistry other than that on Earth could support life on an alien planet? [closed]
I like designing aliens, similar to how Biblaridion did it on his videos on YT where he establishes the world conditions and chemistry of the world and proceed to create an evolutionary tree from ...
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How would airborne plants work?
For a low gravity planet I'm working on I thought of airborne rootless plants, but there's a problem, how would they get their nutrients?
Plants on earth use their leaves for photosynthesis and their ...
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Reproduction in aeroplankton
I'm working on a low gravity planet, and I've thought that aeroplankton might be able to exist here, floating on wind currents using dandelion-like wings.
I only have one problem:reproduction. The ...
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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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How can a species be fine with digesting poisons and toxins?
I have an alien species of roughly earthlike anatomy and biochemistry (so they can consume earth food, and humans would be able to digest their foods as well)
These species have a trait that allows ...
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What mechanism for the transmission of signals between neurons can be faster than our sodium-potassium?
I decided to describe the evolution of scientifically plausible alien creatures and thought about how alien neurons can transmit signals to each other and is it possible in theory some mechanism that ...
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Can an animal have a body covered with "hearing" hair?
Since our ears have small hair inside which (at least partially) make it possible to hear, is it possible for an animal to have hearing based on hair on its whole body? Like highly specialized small ...
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How to prevent humans from being killed by alien diseases?
Humans build big rockets and fly generation ships to extrasolar planets to settle. There’s already sentient alien life on that planet, but the humans has none of the immunizations and natural ...
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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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Stunted evolution on a tidally locked planet around a Red Dwarf?
I was exploring the trope of a non-evolutionary species, and then I realised that what makes species evolve are differences in their local environment. So I thought if there was a way for a planet to ...
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Can a long retractable neck work with an exoskeleton?
In my world mostly composed of arthropods, I wanted one to fill a niche similar to that of a common snapping turtle (an ambush predator that extends its long neck to strike quickly at prey), and ...
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Would hoofed creatures bother with sails on their ships?
So I am working on a species of large quadrupedal sentient beings at a level of technology similar to 16th century Asia. Specifically I was trying to conjure up an image to what their sailing vessels ...
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How smart would my cyborg be? [closed]
I have created a world where the main character is a cyborg, a petri dish with neurons inside a machine, how smart could a neuron culture in a petri dish be?
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Is it redundant to have both hearing and "sensory hairs"? [closed]
After watching Because Science's video about spider sensory organs that could enable Spider-Mans' Spider-Sense, I got interested in implementing trichobotria -- the sensory hairs you see on tarantulas ...
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Can we "see" through Thermal imaging through the skin?
I've been experimenting with characters with enhanced senses/extra senses and I wonder if it's possible that, through increased sensitivity or special receptors on the skin, someone could perceive ...
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How could my cyborg live longer? [closed]
I have created a world where the main character is a cyborg, a petri dish with neurons inside a machine, the problem is most neuronal cultures only live for weeks, 60 days or up to 5 years, that's ...
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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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Do sulfuric acid plants produce oxygen?
In Biochemistry of a sulfuric acid world, I assumed that autotrophs would strip hydrogen from H2SO4 (which is their biosolvent) to fix carbon, just like plants on Earth strip hydrogen from water (...
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Biological mineral storage in an acidic world?
In a world with acidic oceans, shells and bones made of calcium carbonate or calcium phosphate won't work--they just dissolve. As far as shells or structural bones go, that's not a big deal--there are ...
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Does a digitigrade biped need a tail? [closed]
One of my writing buddies keeps insisting that my biped/digitigrade alien species would need a tail to act as a counterweight and shift their centers of gravity. Would a tail be required?
EDIT:// the ...
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