Some old work I found in my DeviantArt gallery. Not fully satisfied with the text anymore, and the artwork is honestly kinda crappy, but eh. Reposting it here with only minor edits.
Contact: The Ktykkryt were the first extrasolar civilization to meet mankind, in the late 21st century. Despite the 20 light years that separate Delta Pavonis from the Sun, Ktykkryt have devised a technology to transmit messages faster than the speed of light (though still not at infinite speed), allowing a faster communication, if not travel; currently, human engineers are trying to replicate it from their instructions.
The world: The world of the Ktykkryt is slightly smaller than Earth, and its gravity is little more than half as Earth’s due to a much lower metal content (and thus lower density). Because of this, the tectonic activity is weak, and over 90% of the planet is covered in water; only a few volcanic peaks emerge from the global ocean. The magnetic field is also weak, and the few lifeforms that reached dry land are covered by thick shells or carapaces to protect themselves from dehydration and radiations. These islands, small and far apart, host highly divergent biotas, usually dominated by thin, spiraling trees and invertebrate quadrupeds, some of them giraffe-like with spindly legs and necks.
The species: Body structure: On the whole, Ktykkryt look more like arthropods than any other terran organism. Their back is covered by a flat shell, and the rest of the body is protected by a flexible exoskeleton. Despite having evolved by centipede-like organisms, they have only four walking limbs (each of them ending in a claw and a soft pad); the other limbs either disappeared or clustered on the head. Some of these have been adapted into jaws, other in chelipeds (pincers) and one pair in tactile feelers. Their overall weight ranges between 10 and 20 kg, and even with their neck raised they rarely stand more than 60 cm high. Metabolism: Ktykkryt’s ancestors used to live in large colonies to be protected by predators, reminiscent of bait fish schools, with little cooperative behavior; as a result, cannibalism was common whenever food supply became scarce. Today, the need for cooperation within a society has made it untenable, though ritual cannibalism is still widespread in most Ktykkryt cultures. They prefer hard foods, such as nut-like seedpods and armoured invertebrates, which they crush between multiple jaws and break down with powerful gastric juices. Perception: As they descend from burrowing ancestors (re-adapted to life on the surface in the last 15 million years), Ktykkryt’s main sense is touch, supplied by long whiskers on each major joint and by a pair of feathery appendages on the head; to communicate, two Ktykkryt touch each other’s feelers and transmit slight movements and vibrations. Sight and hearing are less developed (in fact, eyes lack a fovea or pupil and see only blurry shadows), though there is a minor vocal component of communication. The word “Ktykkryt” is a rough human approximation of the chirping sound they make when referring to themselves, overlooking the tactile component. Reproduction: Every Ktykkryt is born as a soft-bodied, barely sentient larva, given birth to through a thoracic cloaca and raised until puberty in a nest of slime (usually synthetical in modern times). At this point, the two sexes diverge: while females grow a strong exoskeleton, a large brain, a refined digestive system, etc., males develop only their sexual organs and reabsorb most other organs. The last act of a female Ktykkryt before leaving the nest is choosing a male sibling to implant in her cloaca, where it will be fed with the lymph of a specialized thoracic patch and continuously fecundating the female’s eggs.
Culture: The approach to the males varies from culture to culture: some peoples treat them as if they were sapient beings capable of communication (there is indeed some limited exchange of chemical signals between the two bodies), while others consider their sight shameful and hide them under elaborate garments. Ktykkryt society is based on strong and fluid hierarchies, being born almost entirely from forced cooperation rather than pro-social instincts, and adults try to spend as much time alone as possible; in recent times, telecommunication have almost entirely replaced personal interactions.
View of humans: The first impression Ktykkryt can have of humans is intimidating: over three times as high and five times as heavy, typical humans tower over them, and could easily kill them with their bare hands. Humans also live in impossibly huge crowds, and appear to have a nearly psychotic obsession with interactions with their kin, most notably sexual relations, whose nature is entirely alien to Ktykkryts. When talking to one, a human should keep distance and communicate obliquely unless explicit permission otherwise is given. Many Ktykkryt also have reported to be deeply unnerved by how human larvae can already think and speak almost like adults; thus, interaction between them and Ktykkryt is discouraged, with case-by-case exceptions.
Contact: Yuulaana were contacted by humans soon after the Ktykkryt, which had already known both species for a few decades, although sharing little information. They were also the first exosolar species to accept the physical presence of humans on their planet.
The world: The planet inhabited by Yuulaana is a lush super-Earth, about twice as massive as the human homeworld. Most of its landmasses are islands ranging in size between Madagascar and Australia, kept warm and humid by a lucky combination of wind and sea currents. Most of these islands, except for rare inland deserts and uplands, are covered by thick rainforests with orange-red plants; the air is dense and rich in carbon dioxide and water vapor, the resulting greenhouse effect more than compensating for a somewhat colder sun. The biomass is astonishingly high, and at least three different phyla represented in the megafauna.
The species: Body structure: Yuulaana are mid-sized quadrupeds roughly equine in shape, with robust legs apt to run and leap; the body is built around a series of circular ribs connected by two spines. The head is very large and round, with two pair of dark eyes and a short, smooth snout that vaguely recalls a dolphin. A wide, leaf-shaped tail covers the pelvic genital area. A gular pouch stores a large muscular tongue, extremely sensitive to touch, that equals in length the rest of the body when fully extended; this tongue is also the main organ of manipulation, thanks to a hand-shaped structure. Metabolism: Having evolved in a rainforest, Yuulaana are omnivores, with a strong preference for sugar-rich “plant” matter. Fruit-like food is usually swallowed whole, or grossly cut with a knife, and digested in twin stomachs. Alcoholic beverages, prepared with the fermentation of these fruits, are also appreciated. On occasion, Yuulaana consume “animal” tissue, usually enriched with many types of sauces and spices. Several cultures extract undigested seeds from their own waste and grind them into a sort of flour, though this custom is not very widespread. Perception: Yuulaana’s sight is at least on par with humans, thanks to quadricromic eyes with lens and pupil, but they especially excel in hearing; their vocalizations, ranging from infrasonic to ultrasonic and competing in complexity with dolphins and songbirds, are reported to be very pleasant for humans. As with Ktykkryt, “Yuulaana” is an attempt to replicate the word for themselves in the most widespread language. Reproduction: Like humans, Yuulaana are a disexual species, with haploid gametes that are fused in a diploid zygote via internal fecundation; however, the zygote divides through meiosis into several haploid embryos, resulting always in multi-gemellary pregnancies. The embryos are stored in the thorax for roughly a local year, and then given birth through a posterior genital opening. Since haploid organisms cannot carry recessive pathologies, inbreeding poses no danger to Yuulaana lineages, and is in fact common, especially in early years of life.
The culture: As a general rule, Yuulaana appreciate greatly art, music and body ornamentation, taking great pride in their athletic performance and/or in their esthetical appeal. Elaborate sexual intercourse is very frequent in Yuulaana society, as social binding agent, entertainment, or exhibition. As the hand-tongue - along with the sets of actual genitals and various artificial implements - features heavily in their sexual customs, the first Yuulaana ambassadors took great interest in the discovery that a handshake is a common human greeting. Note that specialized contraception has never been developed, as pregnancy and childbirth are part of the sexual experience in all known cultures. As a result, combined with the multi-gemellary nature of all pregnancies, most Yuulaana have several hundreds of children, only about 2% of which reach one local year of age. The rest is usually consumed by parents and older siblings.
View of humans: The reluctance of humans to take part in local sexual customs is often puzzling and distressing to the Yuulaana, which consider it a crucial part of social relations. The extreme attachment of human parents to a very small number of children, despite their ability of producing many more in replacement, can be outright disturbing. However, they appreciate human company, especially sharing their interest for music, visual arts, and athletic competition. Several forms and styles of human music are highly popular.
Once again, @draconesmundi and I will be hosting an information online conference focused on speculative biology. The Specposium hosts presentations on any topic relating to speculative biology: showcases of your own projects, reviews of existing projects, history of the field, fundamentals of biology and earth science that can be applied to speculative scenarios, and more. It’s open to anyone with an interest in speculative biology.
The Specposium will be held on the weekend of June 25th and 26th, 2022. Submission closes May 31st, and registration closes June 24th.
« For each of you We have made laws, and a structure; and had God willed, He would have made you all one nation, but He tests you with what He has given you; so strive to do good. » – Quran 5:48
« … I think the end result is that the closer you come to true freedom of association, the closer you get to a world where everyone is a member of more or less the community they deserve. That would be a pretty unprecedented bit of progress. » – Scott Alexander, Archipelago and Atomic Communitarianism, 2014
Three hundred years have passed since we’ve last heard of Earth.
We don’t know where to look or listen in the night sky, and all our radiotelescopes haven’t caught so much as a whisper from any direction. As far as we can tell, every single human that lives, lives here on Ea, where the starship brought us so many generations ago. And when one considers the state of our former planet at the time of our departure, this statement is likely to be true in the most literal sense.
We don’t even know how far it traveled, or in what direction. How many centuries did it spend cruising through the void with its irreplaceable cargo, before its thousand sensors told it of the presence of an Earth-like planet in this corner of the galaxy? The navigation centers, consumed by the rigors of space, were of little use; and once the pods descended on the parched surface, quickly sacrificed by the travellers to survive those first terrible years, the starship was a distant concern. For centuries it hovered silently over Ea, burning red at dawn and sunset, shining with reflected light in the night-time, watching over us as it had during our long sleep.
But this is no cause for sadness; as much as our ancestors loved their green world, we have found reason to love our own red one.
We know much about Earth, of course – we saved the records, the documents, the encyclopedias, the art catalogues. We know about the Sun, the Moon, and Mars. We know about the Sahara, the Amazon, and the Great Barrier Reef. We know about elephants, whale sharks, and hummingbirds. We know about Jesus, Buddha, and Muhammad. We know about Napoleon, Hitler, and Genghis Khan. But few of us know Earth, the world that was. Very few, those ten thousand who first stumbled out on the yellow sands of Ea, still dazed from cryopreservation – or the even fewer who remain, some living quietly in unknown corners of the planet, some guiding our societies with their peerless wisdom.
We had hoped that none of the tragedies of Earth would repeat. Yet before the pod shields had cooled we began to argue about the best way to live, and words quickly gave way to weapons. The most honorable solution we found was to part ways with each other: there was a whole planet to fill, beautiful and untouched, and we were few, then. People were allowed to pick what sort of society they would rather join, and eventually great nations formed. Some built themselves a paradise of earthly pleasures, others find fulfillment in industry and creation; some placed their trust in the Creator of all worlds, others sharpen their minds to carve truth out of confusion; some find comfort in the protection of a wise leader or in the provisions of bountiful nature, others take pride in tracing their own path in the world.
Most of us, sitting here, remember well the horrors of the Planetary War. But a greater number of us, I hope, remember the promise we’ve all made afterward. Seven powers shall share this world as equals, each managing its domain after its own conscience, each agreeing to let the others do the same.
We may not know Earth anymore, but we have begun knowing Ea. Much of it we have lost, replaced with what we remember of Earth. This was a cold and arid place, we were told; so we blasted apart the polar caps, drilled boreholes through the crust, and scattered to the wind all sorts of seeds, spores, and eggs, to make it more like the world that was. We were anxious to overcome the new challenges, from the ruthless global winter to the marine eruptions that troubled our fleets. We were adrift and alone, and we clung to whatever reminded us most of home. Only recently we’ve started truly to appreciate the world that is. The world of red forests and blue flesh, the world of floating jungles and living stones that once baffled us so much. This too was a mistake of our forefathers; this too is a pledge to do better.
Here we are on Ea, second planet from Utu, our second chance, perhaps not yet definitively wasted. We have all made a leap of faith through the unknown, searching for the deepest unity of our species, for a responsible place in the universe, for a deeper understanding of the cosmos we share, to pursue growth and excellence, to experience happiness without compromise, to exercise our capacity to live and create, to honor the memory of our ancestors; any of these things, and all together, depending on what is in our heart and our mind.
Let us toast these three centuries of life, then, and let the next ones be better still.
– First Speaker Irene Järvinen, address to the Planetary Assembly, Landing Point; opening toast for the Third Centenary (300 AL)
I recently finished a really fun private commission! These are speculative hybrids - Cedar Waxwing crossed with Scarlet and Western tanagers. This could probably never happen in reality, but it’s so fun to imagine what the resulting bird could look like if it ever did!
I can finally plug the project that I’ve had to shut up about! I was fortunate enough to be part of the Almost Real Zine, a speculative biology anthology of different mythical beings, but described by modern science. Here’s a sneak peak at my entry, the unicorn.
There’s some neat perks for backers and some cool stretch goals too, check it out HERE
Approaching the halfway point! If you cant/don’t wanna pledge, you can still help us out by reblogging, sharing or otherwise cross posting to get the word out. Much appreciated!
a selection of the megafaunal birds and rodents endemic to the Red Rock archipelago, homeland of the sole remaining archin (giant sapient bees lol) people.
the descendents of seabirds and castaway rats fill most vertebrate niches, with a few unique families developing here seen nowhere else. two of these translate to “groundbirds” and “hoofrats”, the former being flightless birds with vestigial/absent wings, the latter being large rodents who have developed hooves.
the biggest examples are shown here. descriptions under the cut
(youll notice most of the names here seem very literal- archin language is a visual sign language and thus the unique signs for specific words are either untranslatable into phonetic languages or must be translated literally like such)
left to right:
‘assassin moundbuilder’: large solitary ambush predator groundbirds who kick prey to death with their enlongated middle claws. males build and compete over mounds which females lay their eggs in. there are a few (much smaller) moundbuilder species.
‘birdmouth’:midsized predatory hoofrats whose incisors have taken on a self-sharpening, beaklike shape to better tear open the flesh of its prey. they live in colonies and show great behavioral plasticity depending on the environment- some clans will hunt alone or in loose groups for small prey, some are specialists of large animals.
’nightwalker’:this one isnt a groundbird at all but a species of heron and a relatively recent addition to the ecosystem. they are nocturnal (likely to minimize competition with comparable birds, mostly diurnal) and hunt both on land and in water, as well as scavenge. they are one of the more dangerous species to archin with the least adaptive fear of their guns, and will occasionally prey on them
middle: archin (and mrinitialman default human silhouette) for reference.
‘reinbird’ ‘reined shrieker’: a mid-large omnivorous groundbird that has been widely domesticated as mounts for archin. domestic populations have very long wattles regardless of sex, which may be used or augmented as reins for a rider.
‘twilight shrieker’: a very large, mostly frugivorous groundbird closely related to the reinbird. its named for its resemblance to an evening sky (sunset on one end, starry in the others) and the haunting territorial calls of the male.
‘mudleg rat’ the smallest hoofrat, this is an omnivore that fills a similar niche to pigs, and will opportunistically eat almost anything. these are occasionally kept as livestock.
‘maned leaper’: a group of mid-sized highly cursorial hoofrats, who fill a very similar niche to deer. they are a favored prey of birdmouths, and will leap and kick high in the air while fleeing to confuse predators
‘the ground shakes’: a massive herbivorous hoofrat who could be considered somewhat analogous to a hippo. while they are exclusive herbivores, they are very aggressive and can do tremendous damage to archin settlements with their mere presence. a naming taboo has developed as a result- there is no specific sign for this animal and it is referred to in the abstract (in hopes of not attracting them). ‘the ground shakes’ is a common phrase, or occasionally the slightly more specific ‘giant’.
This year’s issue of Almost Real: A Speculative Biology Zine is mythology themed, so I wanted the cover critter to be a weird take on an extremely recognizable legendary beast.
The marsupial griffin is my shot at that, a large flying carnivore with a rear-facing pouch like a thylacine. Its unusual front incisors are continuously growing like rodent teeth, but exposed like a beak— nursing young have a gap in between them, but as they wean into sub-adults the gap closes and the teeth grow to a sharp hook for tearing into meat and carrion. Their thumbed hind feet somewhat resemble a primate’s, but with a set of sharp talons for capturing and gripping prey.
Our cover for this volume was illustrated by @ibenkrutt, who really knocked this design out of the park. If you’d like to support our contributing artists and acquire the zine, you can check out the campaign over here!
The main cast of Runaway to the Stars walks to the left. Members of my Patreon will know I’ve been hammering on this one for quite a while, maybe in 10 years I’ll have a whole anime opening.
Non-layered gifs below, if you want a better look at the walk cycles:
Idrisah, Gillie, Shyam, and Talita. Talita can be seen breathing from the nostrils on her face and sides.
Turii and Sirawit (bonus nudity, so you get to see what the hell is going on under their clothes).
Brownie and Pinkie. Bug ferrets generally prefer to walk on all sixes unless their arms are occupied.
Gonçalo’s banded wyrm, a marine wyvern from the central Atlantic island of Antillia. It occupies an ecological niche similar to that of seals and was well-known to sailors and sea captains who often observed them basking in the sun on the rocky Antillian coast.
I recently fell down the rabbit hole of “redesigning Star Trek’s Cardassians to look more like aliens and less like guys in makeup”, looked up to see how far down I was, and realized I liked what I’d made too much to let them be copyrighted space fascists.
These are some of the drawings I did before I got to that point.
Been wanting to do a wing-walking dragon for a while, but could never decide on why something would need to hold its front legs off the ground in the first place. I kind of like this attempt at a predatory species that hunts by tearing other dragons’ wing membranes. Its very edgy and cool claws are held off the ground to keep them sharp, a la velociraptor style.
This post is a reminder to all intergalactic citizens but especially those within the fixed universe to please be extremely critical of any “cute” videos that involve humans (bipedal hominid organisms from Earth, Milky Way, Laniakea)
I have noticed a significant uptick in viral content containing this species (probably thanks to Xarqrets Kain’s recent “Universe’s Cutest Aliens: Sol” series ) and I am very concerned with how humans are treated to produce such content. We all love seeing cute human videos, so let’s break down how we can ensure the content we’re consuming is ethical!
Red Flag Human videos to watch out for:
ANY video featuring a human on a planet other than their native home of Earth.
These videos are particularly concerning considering the increasingly pervasive (and highly illegal) human pet trade. Humans are a remarkably adaptable species, but even those who appear well-adjusted to life on another planet are in great danger. Exposure to novel pathogens in humans are not well-studied and any human placed in a new environment could be at risk of death or corruption. These creatures are also highly gregarious and removal from their established social group on Earth can be detrimental to health and well-being. Responsible scientists will only remove humans from their planet as a last resort.
Be cautious of videos that show humans inside their homes
Access inside human domiciles is highly restricted to legitimate research studies only, and bootleg streams from illegally placed monitoring systems are highly unethical. If you are curious about how humans behave in their homes, please seek out streams from accredited research organizations that have collected footage by methods undetectable to humans!
Beware of content that shows captive humans engaged in dangerous situations
Humans are illegal to own for many reasons, but one of the most crucial is that this species has a dangerous tendency to get into things they should not. Humans are pathologically curious, and captive humans (especially bored ones) WILL find the most dangerous place in their environment to “explore”. I recently saw a video circulating of someone’s pet human approaching a field of Termakhan, solely because it wanted to get a better look at them. I shouldn’t have to tell you how dangerous that situation was.
This one should really be a no-brainer by now but please do NOT share videos where humans are curled into a ball on the ground or producing excessively intense acoustic waves. These are signs of extreme distress in humans!!
The unfortunate reality of most encounters with humans (by non-trained individuals) is that they are highly frightening to the humans involved. That “adorable” video of a human vibrating the air molecules around it to an extraordinary degree when touched is actually an example of a behavior that is now well documented as an extreme stress response called “screaming”. Just because humans display fear in a way we don’t immediately recognize does not mean they’re not distressed by contact with us.
There is plenty of safe and ethical human content you can find if you look, and there is really no reason to support videos that put this amazing species at risk! Instead, seek out videos of adorable humans exhibiting normal behavior in their natural habitat on their planet- walking along coastlines, interacting with other species’ on their planet, playing with their young (so cute!), sharing meals with one another, and so on. Do your part to limit the human pet trade and avoid media that endangers or distresses these creatures just to make a “cute” video!
Tiny, colorful dragons native to the Arabian Peninsula are known to swarm around Frankincense trees in early spring, possibly attracted by the scent to form mating swarms. The males die shortly after mating, and may be fed on by the females as they prepare to migrate to their nesting sites. The Egyptian ibis is said to have a particular taste for these tiny creatures, which often die of exhaustion after laying their eggs near the Nile.
These strange beast were first documented by the Greek historian Heredotus, who wrote of Arabians burning “smoke of the storax” (another aromatic plant) to disperse their swarms in order to harvest resin from the trees.
A rush of air, a shadow, and suddenly, a sickening WHACK
Such is the method of ehkusuiit Ik, the Cliff Striker. Long spurs on its forelegs are a formidable weapon for dispatching prey. Before the target can regain its footing, the cliffstriker will land to finish the job..
Its usual prey are flagdeer, but they have earned a formidable reputation among herders for knocking mounted birgs right off their trunkhorses. All the more reason not to venture alone into backcountry!
Cliffstrikers have symmetrical feeding arms (unlike Zhuuwhip), and the ability to rotate their eye plate to remain level with the ground. Their young can fly within a few days of hatching, but lack spurs. Instead, they cling to the back of their mother and scavenge her kills for the first few months of life, until they they grow large enough to hunt rat sized animals on their own.
Coupla nude birg sketches, still working on drawing their anatomy consistently
Some notes: most of the mid-arm rotation ability is in the shoulder, but they might have some extra flexibility of the wrist too. Nowhere near the range of human arms though.
Birgs tend to look a bit walleyed from the front; their evolutionary history as prey animals favors a wider scope of vision. They can look directly forward, but it takes conscious effort.
Revised birdbug skeleton, for anyone interested. The ancestral animal had an exoskeleton, which became heavily reduced in later forms. As a result, many of the muscle attachments are still internal. Birgs and their kin have convergently developed vertebrae to support the neck region, but the abdomen does not require this level of mobility and is instead surrounded by a cage of free floating ribs.
One of the most ubiquitous food crops in Twowi cuisine is this tuber-like “fungus” known as tsa-tsuúsh. These organisms serve as the roots of a host feathervane; collecting and storing nutrients, feeding the growing sprouts in the spring, and consuming dead hosts in the fall. The nodules are typically harvested in late fall, when the ground is not yet frozen but the tsa-tsuúsh are primed for overwintering. The example shown above is but one cultivar of hundreds observed across the Twowi empire.
A single nodule can connect to multiple individual plants; if no established nodules are nearby, spores within the body of the feathervane’s “walking seed” will still develop into roots for the sprouting plant and begin to form a new nodule over the course of several months.
Our guide rests in the shade of the Vherr-osh, the great sunspires. These glittering towers are composed of thousands of tiny chambers like the units of a compound eye, the inside of each lined with a photosynthetic “retina” protected from the extremes of the subarctic winters and summers.
The units are capped by a convex silica lens that refracts light into the chamber to maximize surface area for photosynthesis, while protecting the delicate living cells inside. The reflective lining beneath the lens thickens at the height of summer to prevent overexposure, and is also responsible creates a striking violet iridescence. The lenses are likely derived from silica spicules in the ancestral species; extant relatives still bear these spicules for anti-predation and structure.
These strange trees grow slowly, taking centuries to reach even 5 feet in height. Accounts from the nomads of the region suggest they can live for thousands of years beyond that. A Tuin clan legend attests that they first grew from the shed scales of a primordial bird as it circled the newly formed world. Mature forests such as this were already vanishingly rare by the time I was lucky enough to lay eyes on one. The inhospitable region where they grow is seldom visited by birgs, though just a few centuries before, these lenses were scraped away by the hundreds of thousands to make all manner of decorative windows, sun catchers, even primitive spectacles and telescopes. To this day, some Twowi nobility covet the iridescent crystals as an exotic and expensive jewelry.
A trunkhorse mare keeps a watchful eye on her foals as she grazes. One of her foals is larger and more colorful than the others, but she guards it just as fiercely.
A Noumi clan child proudly displays their prized pets. These colorful scalebugs spend their larval stage in the bark of certain feathervane trees, where they are collected by local kids and raised to their adult stage. Their scales are prized for jewelry, but the living animals are also fashionable pets for kids and adults alike.
Some sketches of some creatures for @iguanodont’s Birgworld. includes: that big old fossil dude a larger, more wolf-like kin of the jaubja, that’s specialized for bringing down flagdeer and other “ungulates” a bizarre, distant kin of the the birgs that’s got big ‘ol pinnae and a long, extended abdominal segment that’s like a dinosaurian balancing tail some “ungulates” and a “whale”.
Media that does the “ooh, the cave/dungeon/building/whatever is alive” bit always goes straight for exposed bone and viscera. Like, let’s get some integument in here – I wanna see a creepy living dungeon where the walls are furry.
But- but you’re *inside* the cave-
yeah it’s to keep the poor dungeon warm when the adventurers leAVE THE DAMN DOOR OPEN AGAIN
I mean, if your living dungeon has large, permanently open interior spaces that freely exchange atmosphere with the outside world and are intended to accommodate other creatures, those interior surfaces would need to have some sort of protective covering, if only to control moisture loss and prevent infection, and maintaining a mucus coating for that purpose just isn’t practicable at that scale. We’re talking skin of some description; while thick fur probably wouldn’t be necessary due to the surfaces in question being interior (and thus amply insulated), one can easily imagine that skin being fuzzy.
Ok so, here’s a funky fact: in the early evolution of fish, the claspers (reproductive organs still present in modern sharks) actually began as a genuine third pair of limbs. Sooo what if instead of becoming purely reproductive, the claspers instead developed into full on legs.
Basically what I’m saying here is six-finned fish -> hexapedal early tetrapods -> hexapedal temnospondyls -> hexapodal tiny weirdo arboreal dendrerpetids that develop membranes to glide -> amphibian dragons
they have little grabby hands and spurt venom out of their mouths and they are my precious new babies
Speaking of the arboreal proto-dragons, here’s the little guys!
My entire design aesthetic with these fellows is “little dudes I want to hold” and I for one think it’s working!
Ok so, here’s a funky fact: in the early evolution of fish, the claspers (reproductive organs still present in modern sharks) actually began as a genuine third pair of limbs. Sooo what if instead of becoming purely reproductive, the claspers instead developed into full on legs.
Basically what I’m saying here is six-finned fish -> hexapedal early tetrapods -> hexapedal temnospondyls -> hexapodal tiny weirdo arboreal dendrerpetids that develop membranes to glide -> amphibian dragons
they have little grabby hands and spurt venom out of their mouths and they are my precious new babies
Once again, @draconesmundi and I will be hosting an information online conference focused on speculative biology. The Specposium hosts presentations on any topic relating to speculative biology: showcases of your own projects, reviews of existing projects, history of the field, fundamentals of biology and earth science that can be applied to speculative scenarios, and more. It’s open to anyone with an interest in speculative biology.
The Specposium will be held on the weekend of June 25th and 26th, 2022. Submission closes May 31st, and registration closes June 24th.
Revisiting fairies/pixies. Their family includes all the smallest members of the wyvern clade. These lil’ cuties build communal nests in a sheltered site such a tree hollow or the walls of an old house. The warmth and humidity of so many little bodies combined with the grass bedding and guano creates the perfect conditions for the growth of a toxic fungus related to ergot. Consumption by most other animals causes confusion and hallucinations, but the pixies themselves are immune. It readily grows among their winter stores of grain and berries, making it a nice symbiotic deterrent to thievery by other animals, particularly rodents and some insects. The spores collect as “pixie dust” in their fluff to be spread to future nest sites.
Long story short: do not eat the fairy fruits.
A wonderful reimagining of a mythological creature. The inclusion of a believable symbiosis with ergot really brings this concept to life. Ergotism (A.K.A. St. Anthony’s Fire) was a big problem in the middle ages and has been linked to witchcraft paranoia.
Although they don’t state it, it looks like they have zygodactyl feet like parrots too, which is a nice touch since it allows a lot of object manipulation.
Revisiting fairies/pixies. Their family includes all the smallest members of the wyvern clade. These lil’ cuties build communal nests in a sheltered site such a tree hollow or the walls of an old house. The warmth and humidity of so many little bodies combined with the grass bedding and guano creates the perfect conditions for the growth of a toxic fungus related to ergot. Consumption by most other animals causes confusion and hallucinations, but the pixies themselves are immune. It readily grows among their winter stores of grain and berries, making it a nice symbiotic deterrent to thievery by other animals, particularly rodents and some insects. The spores collect as “pixie dust” in their fluff to be spread to future nest sites.
Long story short: do not eat the fairy fruits.
A wonderful reimagining of a mythological creature. The inclusion of a believable symbiosis with ergot really brings this concept to life. Ergotism (A.K.A. St. Anthony’s Fire) was a big problem in the middle ages and has been linked to witchcraft paranoia.
Although they don’t state it, it looks like they have zygodactyl feet like parrots too, which is a nice touch since it allows a lot of object manipulation.
I got a couple of asks regarding the Ziz Bird as a potential relative of the griffin, so here’s my 2 cents: (Also please keep in mind that none of the original descriptions actually specify a griffin-like creature; I’m not even sure where that came about) The Ziz, also known as the roc (and some have argued the Thunderbird, but this is highly debatable) is the largest of all flying dragons, with a wingspan averaging at around 45 feet, but large individuals reaching upwards of 50. Almost nothing was known of their distribution, habits, or reproduction for millennia; for, understandably, this is a creature adapted so completely to life on the wing that it has lost the ability to take off from level ground entirely. Even today they are difficult to find and study, as most of their near-endless flight is spent over open ocean. They are primarily piscivores, and follow the movements of schooling fish, which they skim from the surface of the water. Interestingly, certain individuals have also been observed to target large bird colonies, where they pick out birds from the massive flocks as if hunting fish. One of the most famous places to observe this incredible sight is in Israel, a massive stopover for migrating birds and a Mecca for birdwatchers and dragonologists alike. Every summer they converge from all over the world at their breeding ground in the mountains of Northern Pakistan, though other roosting sites (of subspecies) are known at the Faroe Islands and in parts of Canada. What do these places have in common? Only among the tallest, sheerest cliffs in the world. Only at such steep inclines do these creatures ever roost, hooking onto the rock with strong claws to wait for their mate. Research suggests that they are monogamous; though they only meet once a year, mated pairs find each other with distinctive calls. They may also renew their mating ritual, which consists of a tandem dance of circling and divebombs. The male then clambers over the female as she hangs from the vertical rock face for intercourse. The mated pair remain at their roost for about a month, wherein they take leave shortly after the female gives birth. Ziz are among the only viviparous dragons, wherein the female carefully deposits her single chick on the back of the male and takes off. It is the male’s duty to carry the chick safely to the sea, so it may set out on its own from a safe altitude and close to food. Chicks will remain at sea until they are grown at 6 years. They can live as long as 50 years. As with many of earth’s wonders, the Ziz has experienced a steady decline over recent decades due to overfishing and climate change.
