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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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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What pressures would force most life to possess external stomachs, and how would they avoid losing moisture on an Arid planet?
The zoology of my setting takes place on a mostly dry planet - it's certainly got rainfall, seas, and wetlands in certain ecoregions, and life exists there mostly, but some things still live in more ...
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Biologically what kind of feet would make the least amount of noise?
I'm designing creatures on my made up planet where animals evolved exceptional hearing and I'm wondering what kind of feet they might evolve to produce the least amount of sound when walking to avoid ...
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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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Desert planet with high humidity percentage [closed]
I create a desert world, but I would like to give it slightly different properties, above all, to turn it from a dry environment into a humid one.
Unfortunately, for some time I have been looking for ...
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What carbon-based alternative biochemistries would work in high-temperature, high-pressure water?
For a while now, I've been wanting to design a world where the average temperature is very high (compared to Earth, but nowhere near as high as Venus) but the water does not boil because the ...
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Are there any glaring problems in my alternate biochemistry?
I have been putting together an alternate biochemistry, one that is suited for an environment with lots of fluorine. I have a "model" of sorts for how it works, and I would like to know if ...
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Can my cyborg idea work? [closed]
I'm writing a book where the main character is a cyborg, it's going to be a hard-science book and my idea is like a brain in a jar with the intact brain within a structure that pumps artificial blood ...
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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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Could we create an artificial metamorphosis on humans with genetic engineering? [duplicate]
I'm writting a hard-science book where adult humans with the help of genetic engineering can undergo metamorphosis, could it be possible?
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Fire heat organism [closed]
My organism produce cooled plasma for defense .It lives in planet with very exotic flora and fauna which have super powers . It preys big whales and trex like organism. My question is that how my ...
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Most ''Logical'' location for gills on a humanoid [duplicate]
Whenever people design aquatic humanoids (be they mermaids or other ''mer-folk'' type creatures) that do not breath water with lungs but through gills i often see those gills placed either on the neck ...
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What organelles(parts of a cell) did early cells most likely have?
I am trying to make fluorine-breathing life, starting from the cells and building my way up.
I first am going to make very early and primitive cells, and for this I need to know what organelles were ...
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How could creatures in a zero-G but otherwise Earthlike environment move around?
Humanity has just discovered a massive, derelict space ark containing its own ecosystem. Its artificial gravity has long since failed, and it's been drifting undisturbed for millennia.
Assume that:
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Can my optic nerve work?
I'm writing a cyberpunk book and I'm trying to make it as hard-science as possible, my cyborgs have artificial eyes and an artificial optic nerve made of cyanobacteria inside a cable that transmit the ...
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How would humanity react to Intelligent animal life? [closed]
I know the title is misleading, but hear me out.
Let's say mankind has evolved past the frontiers of the Oort cloud, something like in the Avatar or Alien Universes. Enough to have jumping from stars ...
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Robot reproduction [closed]
For the planet(s) I'm working on I have designed a robot ecosystem, there are 'plants', 'herbivores', 'carnivores'. The only (major) problem I still have is how they could reproduce.
Here's how I ...
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Can my organism retain its memories?
In my world there is an organism that goes through a phase where its brain melts like goo and re-forms but not within the same structure, could my organism remember its past memories?
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How plausible is an alive atmosphere? [duplicate]
We know there are microorganisms living some good kms above our heads --- bacteria, fungi, even algae were detected in meteorological samples. What if the unstable mixing of gases that happens in the ...
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What would the terrain be like along the migratory track for a species of gigafauna?
What would the terrain look like when you have city-sized creatures regularly passing over it?
The best real life analogue I could think of would be the Canadian Shield where the glaciers scraped back ...
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Can bones made of carbon exist?
I'm looking for an alternative way for creatures of an alien planet to evolve bones without using calcium, so I thought an easy(?) way would be to have their bones made out of a carbon polymer, as ...
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Balancing a flying creature: tail lift
Essentially, I am making a species of flying creature with pterosaur-like membranous wings. Problem: the creature is insectoid in many ways, and so I also wanted it to have a long, but still ...
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Viable alternatives to lignin and cellulose for cell walls and wood?
I want to design alien plants in which wood and cell walls are not made of the lignin/cellulose mixture wood and plant cell walls on Earth are made from, but I don't actually know what materials would ...
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Are current electrodes as good and fast as optic nerves transmiting information?
I'm writing a cyberpunk book where people can regain their vision by connecting an artifical eye and the optic nerve would be replaced by a electrode, is it possible? Ignoring the rejection and ...
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Can my organism see? [closed]
The aliens on my book have two human like eyes but instead of a retina they have a layer of bacteria with the proteins that cones and rods produce! Could my aliens see?
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Universal Phonetic Alphabet
In the story I am developing, there is an intergalactic community with a plethora of different sentient species, each with its own languages that vary depending own its vocal anatomy.
There are ...
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Photosynthesis with Microwave or Radio Wave
In short, please provide me with a scientifically plausible biochemical scheme for how an organism can harness the energy of long-wavelength electromagnetic radiation to produce food for itself. Thank ...
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Would a non-round eye, one that doesn't look like a circle from the outside, be possible and functional?
Could an eye that is triangular-looking from the outside have any sort of advantage over a round eye?
I'm interested in any nonconventional eye form discourse so anything on the subject is appreciated....
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Any fluorine alternatives to the phosphate chain of ATP?
From what I know, the energy in ATP comes from the phosphate chain, which can be cleaved for energy using water(more specifically the energy comes the from the formation of new molecules upon cleaving ...
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Abiogenesis of solid-state organisms that reproduce through rock melting and magnetism [closed]
When looking for alternatives to the classic carbon-based life I often found replies on why carbon is still the most likely element to base life on because it can create complex molecules, it can ...
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Alternatives for Phospholipid bilayer
What kind of inorganic materials might be used instead of phospholipid bilayer? It should be able to function in ammonia-environment. I had an idea of using phosphotungsic acid's anions based on this ...
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Explosive biology
My organism live in planet full of water . It has only small percent of land about 5% only. It is big as gorilla. It eats metal ores and gains sustenance from it. My organism developed an powerful ...
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How can Metamorphosis evolve in alien vertebrates?
For an alien planet I'm making I thought of some creatures which are descendants of non-metamorphosing creatures with solid bones. These creatures however have a very diffrent life cycle than their ...
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Can aliens evolve to communicate through X- or Gamma-rays?
My alien life started out inside deep caves on a dark and icy planet. Over millions of years, a strand evolved into a mighty, technologically-advanced civilization. To have achieved all that they have,...
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Hypothetically, can early humans have an alliance with giant ants? Maybe even assist humans in the agricultural revolution?
Any ant-keeping geeks out there? I know what it's like to keep ants and they are quite fascinating, I was wondering if there were giant ants (their gigantism is due to high O2 levels) could they be ...
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Compressible satellite ears?
Essentially, I have a flying predatory creature in my world which is roughly the size of a raven and hunts at night, relying quite a bit on sound for echolocation in tighter spaces, hearing for both ...
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In an alternate world, can giant bugs and humanoids be in the same planet?
There must be a rise in oxygen, but too much O2 might poison humans so I thought the increase was a gradual change and both invertebrates and humans evolve the necessary respiratory systems and other ...
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Super powerful dragon biology
The lower jaw is hollow, to support the breath weapon, but the upper also has a weapon pocket. Each gland secretes a chemical that reacts with the other - the upper secretes a magnesium-rich oil that ...
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Idea for rapid healing? [closed]
I'll keep this a short as I can. For a biological worldbuilding exercise where humans possess far greater biological abilities. I imagined a pancreas-sized organ that contained a huge reserve cache of ...
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Organic metallic compound [closed]
My organism have a weight of 270 kilograms. It have height of 2.49 metres. My organism is reptile and it lived in animals with metallic shells . My organism has bite force enough to crush car in ...
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Idea for a more "efficient" brain?
So if my incredibly basic understanding of how brains across animal species work is that the brain is compartmentalised into a bunch of different sectors that handle things like sight, language, fight ...
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Superheating furnace stomach
My organism lives near volcano. It consumes large quantities of rock and digests specific minerals, expelling the remaining rock, super heated by his furnace like stomach, as lava. What mechanism ...
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Hypothetical animal material part 1 [closed]
My animal was in another world . It had bones, teeth made of tungsten. It lives in shallow environment. What would the bite force of my tungsten reinforced animal teeth ( assuming it is plausible)?
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Can an organism have body structure materials that crumble upon being injured?
I'm working on building a species of wild animal, and I have several criteria in mind, and I'm looking for any glaring issues I may have missed that makes such a creature entirely infeasible ...
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Plausible evolutionary pressure for an organism to evolve space flight?
A recent question asked for a natural mechanism for a creature to escape one planet and go to another. The answers prompted me to this question.
Given any answer to this, is there any plausible case ...
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Alien biochemistry [closed]
My creature was alien which home was destroyed . It got into another planet similar to earth . Its organs are not like humans. It sustains itself with by passively drawing in body heat and the ...
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A planet in which Natural elements , emits heat energy - Is Inhabitable?
On my alien planet, many natural elements (Soil, some plants, a certain type of stones...) emit a kind of heat energy.
Will this affect flora and fauna of my planet? Since the natural elements emit ...
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Scientifically plausible powers : part 1 [closed]
My creature was capable of creating plasmoid flames from thin air not requiring oxygen and combustible objects similar to this "The user can create, shape, and manipulate plasma fire or fiery ...
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biochemistry of a silicon based sulfuric acid planet?
Im thinking about starting a speculative evolution project about this becauze i really like the idea of exotic biochemistry, ive looked at a few other posts and i have the gases that are breathed and ...
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Cold-blooded intelligent race: Is it possible?
I need my race to be highly affected by climate and nature changes. And they are more like a reptile - Humanoid. So making them Cold blood seems good for me.
But they are an intelligent race too. They ...
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