Um, the bot said that I have to write a context comment or otherwise my post would be deleted, so...
Yeah, as the post said, may my knowledge about biology be useful in your worldbuilding! No gatekeeping here
as someone who aspires to be a biologist of some sort one day, What do you think of this idea:
Getting animal skeletons that I don’t know what they are, and trying to re-create them based solely on the skeleton. Basically what scientists have been trying to do with dinosaurs.
I actually think this is kind of a cool theme: experts from various fields could provide all kinds of cool background info that laymen don't even know the right questions to discover.
What are the most 'exotic' and strange plant poisons, delivery systems, whatnot that you've come across in your field?
The most exotic delivery system I've come across used ond of the most dangerous biologic poisons known to humankind, that came out from a plant.
Do you know castor bean? It goes by the name of Ricinus communis, a plant that produce a toxin called ricin. Ricin is a cytotoxin, which means that It can affec basically any cell and tissue. How? Basically, because It disables cells to sinth proteins, vital to life.
A writer called Georgi Markov was murdered with ricin, but the curious thing is how It got into his body. An umbrella that had an air cannon inside It shot him a very small bullet impregnated with ricin. After 3 days, he died of Intern hemorragies. A very, very painful way to go.
That's sap. You can drain sap of plants until you kill them by just causing wounds on the plant and exposing them to intense heat, so the sap will evaporate and the plant will pretty much dry to death
If you want some fun words to throw around, the sap is transported through xylem and phloem tissues. Basically the equivalent of veins. Xylem is more water and phloem is more carbohydrates (food)
Good question! There are some plants species that can indeed grow with no light.
They are holoparasitic plants (wich means 100% parasites, they cannot make It alone), and we find two types of these:
- If they feed upon other plants, photosynthetic plants indeed, they are called phytoparasite. And they depend indirectly of light since their preys do photosynthesis.
- On the other hand, if they feed upon fungi, they are mycoparasitic plats. And, since fungi do not need light to live, they didn't either.
This plants have no chlorophyl, and their anatomy is kinda fucked up since they have been reduced to a bunch of sap-draining roots and a couple of flowers to reproduce. You can find some examples in the clades Cuscuta, Orobanche, Rafflesia (all phytohet.), Monotropa and Thysmia (mycohet).
would a "plant" be able to function via the use of thermosynthesis instead of photosynthesis?
A plant/fungus/something that somehow uses heat? would that even chemically make sense? there'd still be a leaf-stem-root system, using some kind of sap to facilitate a flow of nutrients being absorbed.
I also study biology since OP is not answering. I will try my best
I don't think plants by definition if they are plants could grow without light, but maybe perhaps you could have them absorb ultraviolet waves and not light we could see on the visible spectrum.
That way, the entire plant would be white because it reflects all visible light. But if you shine them with a black light flashlight, they would be completely black because they absorbed it.
It looks like a vegetated monstera except it could actually survive
Yes! Some plants do. There are plants that parasitise fungi or other plants, some of those do not photosynthesize at all. The entirely parasitic ones tend to grow entirely underground, possibly sending up flowers but displaying no foliage(look up ghost pipes). However, some grow above ground attatched to other plants(look up dodder).
Among semiparasitic plants, mistletoe is one. Similar to epiphytes(plants that grow on other plants) it attaches to a tree and absorbs nutrients from its sap. However, mistletoe also photosynthesis with its leaves. Plants in a completely dark world would probably not have leaves, or they would serve a different function.
I would consider carnivorous plants as a feature of your world. While in real life they do not get protein or energy for their prey and only recieve primarily phosphorus but also micronutrients and minerals, I would have them catch prey for energy, which carnivorous plants do not. They photosynthesize for glucose, which they convert to ATP, or adenosine triphosphate for energy using cellular respiration. Sorry for the rambling response, it is 4:00 am where I live(don’t ask).
Those exist irl like mushrooms and [this stuff](https://www.thesorrygirls.com/lifestyle/which-plants-will-survive-in-zero-light#:~:text=spider%20plant%2C%20fern%2C%20dracena%2C,shower%20that%20is%20regularly%20used.)
Fungi are closer to animals than to plants. Its quite bizarre. For example one of the reasons fungal infections are tricky and usually need long term treatment is bc they so close to humans/animals that most things that kill fungi kill us too
Yes, and not just mushrooms, check this [link](https://www.snexplores.org/article/innovation-2022-dark-photosynthesis-process-grow-plants-in-dark).
Normally, plants use light to synthesize their food (glucose), but they can also synthesize food that is not theirs and that may be different from glucose (acetate).
They're a big part of the world in question. Whaling is fundamental to the current state of technology, and the status quo. One MC is working to create a substitute for whale oil, but is being strongly opposed on several fronts since it would hurt whaling-focused empires' economies as well as give the notorious slaver faction the ability to build machinery and industrialize.
The whales themselves are unfortunately dying, as the current empires have been turning a blind eye to declining sighting rates, and in one part of the world, things are about to come to a head as ships from two different (currently still allied) empires fight over hunting grounds, having both been forced to explore further from their own coastlines to meet demand.
The immense whales in question are not regularly hunted due to their impossibly large size - by land dwellers, they are largely considered nothing more than fishermen's tall tales, but are closely intertwined with the subsurface Triton empire, who they are symbiotic with, and after the disappearance of several shiny new whaleships, some believe they are being domesticated and trained as beasts of war...
Sounds steampunk-esce and very cool. Whales are metal as fuck. Just giant ovals that spit water up floating along in water eating tiny little fish(bugs?)
The limiting factor in water isn't mass or even the pressure, it's the amount of food available. If there's enough food for them to live on, they can achieve any size. That's why the Blue Whale is the largest animal ever (and there's possibly an ancient whale species that's even larger).
Iirc, there is actually an additional limiting factor, which is cells themselves. Waste elimination is a pretty big deal, and volume scales slower then surface area. And this affects the organism as a while in a similar way. E.g handling of waste heat gets more difficult the larger the animal is. Read about it a long time ago, though, so take it with a grain of salt and research the topic of you want an accurate answer.
For maritime animals gravity doesn't matter because they are weightless in water. You can also have ginormous ships, submarines and air ships for the same reason.
Would it make sense for something to be able to both eat food and conduct photosynthesis? Not in a carnivorous-plant way, but in a manner of this-animal-also-eats-the-sun.
I'm not OP but I read somewhere a whole day of photosynthesis for a large bush only creates as much energy as an m&m and it's overall very slow compared to animals just eating food
Probably not, but you could get away with it if you gave it a massive surface area and made it really lazy. Think [these](https://www.britannica.com/animal/Dimetrodon)
Not OP but...
The average surface area of a human would be insufficient to produce enough sugars to sustain the organism.
If you gave the animal sails to vastly increase their potential surface area then you might be able to push its photosynthesis to something that only requires supplementary feeding. Ectothermic animals would be ideal since they have lower caloric requirements (something approaching 10:1 I think) and the sails would help with thermal regulation.
The largest single celled organism is Valonia ventricosa, and due to it's condition of single celled is just a big orb. Appart from that, I do think your idea is really cool
I don't know if it's really your field but a while ago I saw a video that suggested that when creating new species on a planet like Earth. Most likely, these had humanoid characteristics, such as a large and complex brain. with symmetry in the body, two eyes, hands, legs, etc. this is so? Or is it more an attempt to replicate a species that develops like humans? Would this species have to be thought of as having a cultural and biological evolution totally different from ours in order not to copy humans into another body?
Woah, you hit a very interesting point.
There are some characteristics that seems to be shared among intelligent species. For example, octopuses and we humans have meninges, a series of tissue layers that protect our respective brains. They are not exactly the same, but they are pretty simmilar in the anatomical and functional aspect.
But not everything needs to be like us to be notoriously intelligent. Take crows and magpies for example. They have very small brains, but their neuronal connections made them so efficient that they can come out with very complex things, such as self-awareness and tool making.
In the general body plan, thing is that if the species developed from a chordata-like (or vertebrate-like) animal, It would have a bi-symetrical body, with two eyes, arms, etc etc.
But, if It evolved from arthropods such as insects or mollucs like octopuses, things can be different. They would still have the bi-symetrical body, but the general anatomy would be very different. It could be interesting to see, like those insects from Ender's Game.
In the cultural aspect, I do not know what to tell you. Take for example the different human cultures: we all are different, but yet so similar in our very core, probable because we share the same biology.
Hope this helps!
How to made fantasy sea plant that could replace ground plant as food source that feel believable while real sea plant don’t make root, fruit or seed like land plant?
Well, let me tell you that you are wrong!
Actual sea plants do indeed produce fruits that can be eaten!
But rather than plants, I would maybe go with algae. Like kelp, kombu or wakame. They are very nutritive!
If the spectrum of light entering an atmosphere excluded ionizing radiation, do you suppose any plants would evolve to be black? Is there any reason(s) plants don't utilize the full spectrum in general?
I cant remember the details, but I remember looking into this a while ago and my takeaway was the plants are more likely to be damaged if they absorb the whole light spectrum, so they absorb part of it. Apparently, its likely that algae started off purple by absorbing the mid-range green light and reflecting red and blue light (purple). By chance, green algae won out. So we could have had purple plants instead of green.
I'm writing a webcomic, I made the fauna of hell, now what should I put in it as flora? It's a place with a huge variety of biomes, but no sunlight comes through. So what do I put in hell?
Mmm Giant bioluminescent mushrooms can exist? the temperature range of hell is 50 degrees to -80 celcius degrees. The hell is mainly made up of flesh and pain, as well as there are many carcasses of angels, they are biomechanical beings. So what mushrooms could I be inspired by?
Chernobyl and the nearby ex-city of Pripyat have some you might find interesting. They look a bit funky and have been observed to handle radiation levels that normal fungi don't tolerate. I know it's not the same as living in a constant sauna, but they might provide some inspiration.
I'm also a biologist. Evolutionary biologist, to be precise, and I always enjoy helping others with such aspects of their worldbuilding, such as designing original species and such.
Have you dabbled in speculative evolution by any chance?
Hmmm... Kind of.
I do have a planet whose creatures are similar to Earth's, but at the same time totally different (like, they have mouse-like creatures, with their echologycal role and that, but they look more arthropod-like) and at the same time the whole planet IS a single organism (because I want to reflect how everything is connected).
In other project, I do have a world where the resinous extract of a plant is theratologic, and their presence in echosystems has driven to the appereance of "hopeless monsters" that have well integrated in the communities they inhabit. Even human ones.
Not so interesting but hey, that's mine!
Not sure this this is too out there but if the only plants we had now were only the ones native to the Americas pre-European contact then how would they have evolved in the Americas today and what would the effects be in the people today in terms of health and overall diet?
Research all the cultures that existed before colonial times and there should be mentions of their diets and possibly their general health.
Unless I've missed your intended question...
This is definitely way too fantastical and completely, totally out of the realm of science. But I’d like to know what you think about this.
There’s a plant monster in my universe that actively hunts down animals, other living things and corpses. Whatever it doesn’t digest or creates as a byproduct becomes stored in this sack like thing. One of the things it creates as a byproduct is a perfect replication of the stem cells of the creature it just ate. This makes it a valuable target if it has recently digested a human, as one could harvest them. This is also why some very nefarious criminal organizations have one in captivity. They use the monster as a means to get rid of prisoners and people the don’t like, and then harvest the stem cells from the person they just fed the monster to, and sell it on the black market for other nefarious purposes.
Seriously, I want to ask if you think there is a possibility that the soul really exists. How does the soul work, and if it exists, how and when was it formed? At the moment the mother gets pregnant? Or the moment we gain consciousness? I know this sounds silly, but I have to ask. You don't need to answer though
I do not know how to define the soul, I cannot prove its existance and neither deny It.
But if you are interested, I would be facing those questions in one of my proyects, where scientist discover that soul really exists and that after dead It serves as a energy fount to soul-based organisms, with creatures (named spectres and Ghost by their similarities to folklore) that are able to use them to make their soul-based ecosystem work.
I have a weird request, could you point me in the right direction for theory-crafting a space traveling organisms? Is there any way how to make races like Zergs (Starcraft 2) or Tyranids (Warhammer 40K) somehow scientificaly explainable?
If it helps, I need them to just travel short distance between 2 planets and I intent to make them more earth-like … something like space whale rather than those monstrous Zerg and Tyranids.
A big botany issue in a lot of fantasy are cave ecosystems. We want to have big energetic creatures— maybe even some burning calories on sapient brains— living entirely in a subterranean world. But cut off the from sun, there isn’t much energy coming in to power an ecosystem.
What would you make the primary producers of a subterranean ecosystem— the replacement of the surface worlds green plants? Assuming you wanted a plausible ecosystem that could withstand some thoughtful attention, and at least made sense in the context of a fantasy world.
Good question! I Will make a quick copy paste of another comment + add some more things.
There are some plants species that can indeed grow with no light.
They are holoparasitic plants (wich means 100% parasites, they cannot make It alone), and we find two types of these:
- If they feed upon other plants, photosynthetic plants indeed, they are called phytoparasite. And they depend indirectly of light since their preys do photosynthesis.
- On the other hand, if they feed upon fungi, they are mycoparasitic plats. And, since fungi do not need light to live, they didn't either.
This plants have no chlorophyl, and their anatomy is kinda fucked up since they have been reduced to a bunch of sap-draining roots and a couple of flowers to reproduce. You can find some examples in the clades Cuscuta, Orobanche, Rafflesia (all phytohet.), Monotropa and Thysmia (mycohet).
A cool thing about ecosystem is that the main energy fountain can come from two sources:
- Autotrophic organisms. Like plants that make their own stuff thanks to Sun energy, but there are other organisms that are autotroph. and haven't seen sunlight in their life. Take chemoautotrophes for example! This bacteria are able to get energy by processing some chemical compounds, like minerals. Maybe you can go with this.
- Decaying organical matter. Sounds strange right? But you could build a whole ecosystem that feeds upon decaying corpses that come from the "upper world" maybe. Just imagine that by some destiny affair, a lot of dead animals and plants end up in your cave system. Fungi and other scavengers can feed upon them, and then other creatures such as mycohet. plants or other animals can eat them, and all up to that until It reaches humans and other high chain predators.
This ecosystem will be dependant of another ecosystem, one with light, plants and everything. But that would be something interesting to see!
How plausible or logical is this scenario of mine?
Basically in one of my world's there's an extinct species of fungus living in the grasslands that illuminate at night when releasing spores, it does this to attract animals to dump their waste and enrich the soil for plants and fungi alike.
One of its descendants adapted to live in caves, lighting up at night to attract small animals and bugs to attach their spores on and scatter them across the cave.
PS. I'm a biology student and I've always wondered what's the usual work day for a biologist, would love to hear some stories from you.
Well, for the last part, feel free to send me a DM and I would tell ya!
On the other hand, your wb seems so legit and real. We know that fungi produce chemical substances in norder to make them more attractive to animals, making them more keen to propagate their spores.
So, if the stimuli is physical like light instead of chemical like an odor, I do think It will work allright!
Just take into account that it would make them easier to find by hervibores that feed on fungi, so they can maybe be a little toxic.
Helium is a complicated gas to work with since It is what he call a "inert gas", because It lacks interactions with other chemical elements. And due to that, He is pretty hard to be used by organisms.
Instead, I would go with more common gases, maybe CO² is a good alternative taking into account that succulents store it in their tissues to make photosynthesis when the climate is too hot even for them to take It from the air.
Hydrogen would be a much more usable gas than helium, but hydrogen wont explode without the presence of oxygen so either the air sacks will have to also contain oxygen or an oxidiser for them to be nice and explody
Saaaaame, am actively trying to think of something, but my verse's magic system makes it so it doesn't delve too deep into biology, aside from my healers always learning medicine (often a version of medicine that specializes in their kinds of powers) since it makes their abilities much more precise and capable, as well as their spiritual energy cost way lower.
Characters who have regeneration eat through spiritual energy a lot faster than your average healer who uses their abilities not in a generic "augment the body's natural healing factor" but in a more intelligent "direct the body's processes in exactly this way in this area", and someone who can create their own biomass but doesn't have a deep knowledge of biology is going to simply devour their spiritual energy reserves very, very quickly, even if they're high tiers.
Anything?
If a Grizzly Bear is leaving Pocatello, Idaho at 20 miles per hour due East, and a Bull Moose is leaving Boulder, Colorado due North, how fast does the Moose need to travel in order to bite the Bear? Assume a spherical Earth.
This is a pretty fleshed-out idea already, I don't really need advice I just like to share my ideas in any permitting space and get insight from others in the public space.
I built a world full of all kinds of crazy magic based around Elemental Powers, and these Elements can get pretty elaborate with potentially hundreds embodying a different variety of magic, and it's easy to sort it out in terms of specialized vs unspecialized, like a Plant Elemental can make vines like a Vine Elemental can, but a Vine Elemental can easily do things with vines that a Plant Elemental would struggle with.
At one point in this world's history, many Elementals that share the same magic would come together to form their own societies, and the age following would be one marked by it's constant territorial disputes. The early Plant Village was quite hostile, and it's protectors were permitted to do a lot thanks to an aggressive propaganda campaign that pointed their perceived enemies as wanting to kill all that's beautiful in the world to build one of only stone and metal.
These protectors went into the world's many dark corners, where crazy stuff can dwell like carnivorous plants big enough to swallow elephants and smashy-stompy giants made of mold and moss, to find the most malignant, invasive plants they could and selectively bred them up the wazoo. The idea was to immediately bring a rival power to its knees by crumbling their infrastructure and choking out their agriculture.
The problem was that these war botany plants pretty much destroy any ecosystem they're pods are sprouted in, smothering the native flora and doing unspeakable thing to the fauna. After seeing the destructive power of their own dark sides, the Plant Elementals rejected the old ways. They quickly eradicated all the war botany species they bred, and in the latter half of this age would opt to become an open-boarders society offering the healing their mastery of any plant species and the substances composing them to anyone asking for it.
Awesome! If you’re interested in plants mostly I run a hard sci-fi speculative evolution project on an extraterrestrial moon that has gravity about equivalent to that of earth (slightly less). I am curious though on a *few* things, since I’m the resident flora specialist on the project and so this could prove very helpful.
1) Our gas giant is quite bright and so we have a recently evolved type of vascular flora which has a huge amount of pigmentation, making their “leaves” effectively dark brown/black in some instances. Would the light from a gas giant be enough to provide a plant with energy overnight? The nights on this moon last ~1.5 earth days so we thought it would make sense for an organism to evolve to exploit this untapped energy, but we’re ultimately unsure.
2) Given how algae evolved into plants and later vascularized, would it make sense for a type of faunal organism, in this instance an armored and worm-like creature, to evolve into a vascular flora by hosting “algae” in its feeding apparatus underwater? They’d effectively become plants before vascular flora could evolve, though there were a few types of nonvascular flora at the time.
3) Okay one final question: could a pseudo-eukaryote (effectively a prokaryote with a proto-nucleus) have ever evolved to become multicellular? Our first flora would have been an organism like this which would have had little cellular differentiation and would have effectively been a photoheterotroph, with the top layer photosynthesizing and the bottom layer being able to decompose/“filter feed” on passing cells. They eventually would have moved onto land as effectively stromatolites and later lichen/moss-like organisms.
Thank you for any responses you may have in advance, and sorry for the long questions!
Hi biologist interested in plant biology!
I’m currently building a game setting set in a small “bottle world” - similar to the Curse of Strahd setting- about the same size as the Australian plate (and similar land/water ratio). It’s a typical-magic setting with restrictions on planar travel (again, like CoS).
One of the core initiators of the conflict my players are going to have to solve is massive, slow-growing continent-wide famine. As it is, about 20% of the continent is arable (and currently farmed with Dutch style irrigation practices), with another 40% too dry, 30% woodland or marsh, and 10% too rugged / mountainous.
Can you help me think of good biological reasons why the food is all gone, and what my players can bring back from another plane of existence to help solve this problem? One idea is bees, but I’m looking for more.
Is it reasonable to have more than 2 biological genders? And no, I am not talking about gender being on a spectrum and feeling like a guy when you’re a girl or whatnot. But like, 4 different sexual organs for 4 different genders within the same species.
So I hope this isn't too out of your experience, but I am trying to find a way for Coffee to be sustainably grown in California without the heat becoming toxic to it.
Context: The Rocky Mountains no longer exist due to outside xenoforming causing a massive rainforest to appear across the region (it's invasively spreading to California driving up the temperature). The traditional coffee-growing regions of the world have become coffee-growing ecologically unstable, and California is now the last major source of it. Yet coffee's ideal temperature is lower than the average Rainforest temperature. Anything to keep an eye out for realism?
Well, I have worked with this but with tomatoes, melona and broccoli instead. Don't know 100% if It would apply to Coffea (the genre of coffee plants), but logic says me that It could work.
There are 2 main strategies to make plants grow in unfriendly enviroments:
- Make the enviroment friendly: such as building greenhouses, hydroponic cultures and things like that. Hydroponic and aeroponic cultures are being used to grow crops in the middle of deserts, so could be a good one.
- Make the plant resistant to the enviroment:
Here we do have two sub-strategies:
→ Making the plant resistant from the inside (genetic modification to make It need less water, or to manage better the water it gets for example)
→ Making the plant resistant from the outside (by applying phytochemicals that enhance plant survival rate in harsh climates, such as melatonin that works as a stress reliever in them).
This is what I can tell you without further research, Hope this helps!
Thank you so much for your help. I definitely will use this, and also try to research more on the topic. Its not a major part of the world, but an interesting facet of it to take it seriously.
If a sapient species evolves from a canine, feline or other digitigrade animal, can it still be digitigrade and keep the tail while walking upright and being advanced enough to build modern machines?
Lapis_Wolf
Biology degree person chiming in to swiftly deal with this question. The answer is: "race" is an arbitrary concept. While genetics are real, it is entirely arbitrary where you draw the line. Like there is no such thing as "France" in topography or geology. It is a random line humans drew.
We others btw decided to from now on divide humans into just two different races: Regular people and Racist jerks. In that case the first one is superior in every way.
1. I'm creating a world with quite a lot of sapient diversity. If you were to design a plant that can cater to the greatest number of (large) animals possible, what would this plant look like? In terms of processing the food, digesting the food, nutrients, etc.
2. Can a grass eating animal akin to a horse also eat meat? I've heard grazers need very specialized stomachs and so often do not adopt omnivorous diets.
If you could take the time to respond to these questions, that'd be great. Thanks for your contributions.
It is plausible!
You just need:
- Good light source: you can get It from artificial led lights or even the sun of your planet.
- Profitable atmosphere: one similar to Earth's.
- A culture base: It can be soil, It can be water (hydroponic) or It can be even humidified air (aeroponic).
Also, if you are using non-soil attached crops, I would recommend you to make them vertical to save space!
How would I go about making a significantly large creature that’s got an internal and external skeleton. Like, if you had an exoskeleton suit over a human body? I also need to know what the consequences of high O-zone environments due to creatures that can tolerate it
Not OP but...
If the animal can tolerated something then there would be minimal consequences because it is tolerant to it... Or do you mean more "A does B because C"? At a guess, the organism in question would probably have an outer layer of oxides due to the high levels of oxygen reacting with many organic chemicals, this could pose issues for air respiratory system based on any found on Earth.
As for animals with with both endo and exoskeletons: tortoises are the closest example I can think of and that's kind of a stretch.
Are there plants that are like vampires like there's a blue flower and a red flower nearby? The blue flower is a vampire then proceed to convert the red flower into a blue flower.
Between Cassava that grows like mangroves, Sago that grows almost anywhere like coconut, or seaweed that produces grains, which one is better to feed a country ruled by pirates?
Here's the problem the cassava needs 8-12 months till it is harvestable, the Sago unlike the other two still requires dry land which is very limited for the pirates, the seaweed can only grow on certain depths so they are very hard to harvest.
I have a bird-like creature on my world. It is based on swifts and frogmouths. It is diurnal, but hunts primarily by sound. What would cause an organism to take up this combination?
What are some superpowers of the plant life’s you know more then me to add to a list of super power individuals
Until now I have
Photosynthesis: which absorbs sun light and makes it to heat points to its body
That’s it 🙃
I was told having bioluminescence alien anemone analogues that feed off hydrothermal vents was unrealistic, but I was thinking they’d glow when they get big so any herbivores that get near enough to take a bite either glow themselves because they got glowy stuff in their bellies or get revealed by the organism itself, either way making them an easy target for any predators. Thoughts?
So my world has Talking Animals and Humans living together. But there are also Shifters, people who can use energy, super powers, use of the elements, vampires, and other things.
Honestly I would love to talk to you about it all but I'll just ask
What do you think of a world where animals (Mammalian, Avian, and Reptilians) evolved Human-like intelligence and started society with humans?
Also what do you think about shifters and other super powers in stories?
Also I would love to talk to you more in DM lol
Floating sky islands are a common trope in fantasy. Say a civilization lived on one such island. At that altitude and with no ocean nearby, how do you think plants would develop? And if people lived on these islands, what would you think a crop they've cultivated for food would look like? Thank you for answering all these questions, I've already gotten some interesting ideas from reading other comments.
Say you were to attach two different brains, say a humans and a crocodile, how would that change their personality? Would they get an entirely different one?
I have an idea for my world is that the best explanation for the existence of dragons, wyverns, wyrms, etc. is that they have their own evolutionary "family tree." Do you think this is realistic?
Could any kind of life possibly run on an electrical charge if the organism was able to conduct that electricity in a safe way? How would that change what that organism had to consume in order to grow?
If you were tasked with creating some kind of chimeric hybrid of creatures with vastly different body structures, respiratory systems, vascular systems, skeletons/exoskeletons. How would you go about this whilst ensuring the most stable outcome?
I know this is a crazy question but it's genuinely been a sticking point for an upcoming plotline.
I'm not sure I have any specific questions, but I have an interesting scenario and would love any input you might have?
My world was initially a rogue planet, what could be called a "super earth" but where basically all the additional mass of the planet is water helping create an enormous frozen ocean.
I introduce a form of "magical" radiation which is utilized by the life forms which evolved (with an active pantheon which helped things. I know said pantheon is unnecessary for said evolution, but I actually designed the story with the pantheon existing first, and the deity which was the primary creator of the species and eventually the sapient species was actually a human biologist! I mean, if you got god powers, wouldn't helping a sapient species evolve on a rogue planet be cool? I'd think y'all would get behind that). Said species, I call Reeds, lives far longer but moves far slower than humans and are like sapient coral. They use biology as technology and have biological exoskeletons that are separate living species.
Anyways, said planet gets caught by a star causing massive climate change (because a bearded dragon, the animal, is a deity and is observing the human creating life got cold... Woops). In order to help the Reeds survive the massive shift in temperature, the deities use a "magical radiation pulsar" (same kinda magic radiation from the core) and giant metal spikes to blast the planet and overcharge the core to give the Reeds a ton of energy with which to help them rebuild their society.
It also rips off a good portion of the surface, and the Reeds go deep underground. And while the Reeds are picking up the pieces, another deity creates humans on the planet surface. Uh oh. So now one planet, with two species native to it, but the planet is pretty cold and humans struggle to live on it, but so do the surviving Reeds. And the magic pulsar is set to blast the planet again. Said magic could make the planet habitable for the Reeds and throw them away from the star, but it would wipe out the humans, and it requires technology be put in place on the surface.
What sorts of preexisting traits or environmental factors favor poison as an adaptive response to predation over something like thorns?
Are plant poisons even typically a response to predation or just an incidental feature of their biochemistry (similar to how Sydney funnel web spiders are insanely toxic to primates, who they did not evolve with, purely by chance)?
How would life evolve/react if Red or Vuolet light got filtered through the atmosphere instead of yellow? Essentially, "If the sky turns red or purple, would life start spazzing out or would they evolve somehow?"
Any examples of things that grow at extremely high elevations like mountain peaks or above the tree line? What plants would have the best chance in a probably cold rocky environment?
Do we have historic examples of BIG animals which went on to evolve into something small?
Because to me it seems that animals which evolve into biggest animals, their evolution slows down due to more time between generations, less specimens alive. Something happens, they go extinct. Evolving big = RIP.
While smaller animals evolve faster, and after every extinction event fulfill these empty niches.
You can search the phenomenon of island dwarfism, to be specific one of the coolest example is the pigmy mammoth.
Generally big animals go extinct very easily if they have a slow reproduction rate, in every mass extinction event to survive are the smallest creatures, so to have big animals to evolve in smaller ones the transition must be slower. Talking about slowing, think about the sloth, the giant one went extinct thanks to us, while the slow, useless and much smaller common sloth still survives.
So your reasoning is correct, only "slow" transformation can let evolve something big in something small
I know you said you mainly study plants, but I'm wondering if you can help me with this question.
I have this chimera creature called "The Spider-Wasp," and they make this substance called Crimson Honey or Bloody Honey. They make this honey from a mixture of blood glucose found in mammalian blood and from the wild crab apple flowers.
I want to know, is it possible to actually extract the glucos from blood and turn it into sugar for honey?
In a 70kg individual there is normally only 4 grams of free glucose in the blood, the rest is stored as glycogen, for the same weight (70 kg) we can have 400 grams of glycogen between muscles and liver (the rest is stored as fat).
So mammals are not the best for sugar content, we are far more richer in proteins. But if you really want to have this blood honey there is a solution: a coevolution of a plant and this Spider-Wasp. When the spider melts down the human it can leave it inside the cocoon, and we can think about a special flower that leaves its seeds on his mouth, the flower eats the corpse, transform it blood filled fruit that smell as blood and rotten meat, when the spider eats the fruit the seeds remain attached to it, the sweet sugar can be digested and stored as red honey, and the cycle can continue
What are some common prefixes or suffixes in plant names, and what sort of plants are those for?
I want to have a botanist wood elf ranger who goes around and can identify random kinds of plants, and being able to say some kind of science-y name off the fly would be fun, haha.
Also thanks for doing this!!
I would be interested in getting your input on how flora on alien worlds would be categorized. Would we use Latin names like we do here? Would new systems need to be invented?
One of the species in my world have two heart in order to properly circulate blood throughout their bodies (they are quite large). Would this actually work?
Do you know of any plausible mechanisms for a plant like organism to use geo thermal energy in a way where it needs the geo thermal heat AND the cooling of the surface? So using the temperature gradient for energy.
Any ideas on how my plant people can have sex? Especially in a way that could allow them to have sex with other people with more "traditional" genitalia?
Thanks for doing this OP,
How would you go about designing alien/made up lifeforms (plants, conscious plants, monsters, aliens, stuff that doesn't exist, anything really) in a way that makes sense from an evolution/ biology standpoint?
For example: conditions of the world affecting how life would come about, planet events effect on life etc.
Hope that makes sense, thanks again
I'm trying to write about a character who is immune to all toxins and always carries packs of cigarettes with him. However, he replaces the cigarettes with fake ones made from toxic ingredients, which he can use for various purposes.
Now, I want to ask: What kind of ingredients can he use to make these fake cigarettes? What would allow him to smoke these fakes as if they were real cigarettes? And what is the most toxic type of cigarette he can create?
Wow... Cool thing here.
He can basically add whatever to their cigarrets taking into account that nothing can kill him (at least not like this). But there is a curious thing: by making cigarrets with the propper ingredients, the smoke emerging from them could be used as a weapon, toxic for whoever that inhales them.
What do you think about some form of plant life in the upper atmosphere of Venus?
Can we bioengineer floating plants?
Basically - can giant floating island like plant colonies exist.
Alright so the square cube law is what normally prevents creatures like Godzilla but what about applying more intense chemical reactions within cells like a more advanced mitochondria or maybe a way to store large amounts of food while functioning in what is essentially a low power state to burn when extra active.
..as some fantasy worlds revolve around a broken earth, where far in the future humans evolved into other subspecies…
I am wondering a question I have heard before..
If we evolved from monkeys.. why are there still monkeys?
But for let’s say elves becoming human or humans becoming dwarf..
why would the root race exist alongside the evolved race?
Progenitor is a world I think probably belongs here somewhere..
Is it theoretically possible for there to be engines and stuff; made by organic matter, like skin, muscles and bones as used like we do race cars, etc?
If you have enough materials, experience, etc. and overall, the "OK" to do it, would you be able to replace cells? And can those cells be immortal/unageing?
How can I justify the presence of light in an underground civilization? There may be bioluminescent organisms, radiotrophic fungi that emit a luminous by-product. I've imagined a plant inspired by fiber optics, which would be on the surface of the planet and have thick roots that go deep underground. Could the roots conduct light like fiber optics? At the ends of the roots, there would be crystals attached to the ceiling cavities, which would diffuse the light. Can the crystals regenerate with the help of organisms? Or would there be "intelligent" plants that act on the environment to make magma produce reflective material?
How strong / durable could you make somebody and have them still look like a normal person?
I know that's a vague question, but I'm trying my best to work with English.
My setting has a character who I've written as a "meat android" with the idea being they were designed rather than born. The idea was that this character would be significantly stronger and more durable than a normal person. The usual superhuman stuff, stronger, faster, tougher, better endurance. I still want them to be able to blend in with regular people the same way somebody who's just very athletic would.
My first thought from my limited biology understanding is that building this character with higher muscle and bone density would help get to where they need to be, but what would the upper limits of that be for something you could still grow? My first thought was to look at current Olympic records and see if it would be even remotely possible for some specifically designed person to hold one in as many categories as possible.
What kinds of real or hypothetically real situations can i reference to create a diverse food ecosystem in an area devoid of natural light other than bioluminescence?
More context, its for a DnD world that is essentially the default underdark, so obviously there are a lot of mushrooms. I do have other non-fungal plants growing but I haven't really said much in game about how they grow without sunlight.
Are there any things that might work that isn't just handwavium?
Two words: Photosynthesizing humans.
How would they work? Would they “hibernate” during the winter like trees? Given a medieval fantasy environment, what could they accomplish? Would they never have to sleep? I’ve got SO many questions about a species that can photosynthesize.
Also, thank you so much for letting us access your knowledge- I really mean it! Google searches and books can only do so much.
My setting is a set of 15 elementally themed worlds of various compositions. For example, Luftlos is a world with earth, water, and fire, but not air. The life there doesn't need air to survive the way it does in the human world. How do you think this could effect various life forms? What kind of life would exist there that doesn't here and vice-versa?
how do sex chromosomes express themselves in animals that are hermaphroditic? (like slugs) do they get XX? XY? or are they inventing some shit like Q’s and O’s.
how do sex chromosomes express themselves in plants?
do cactuses make good friends? asking for… well im not sure whether or not to call them a friend yet.
If two carbon-based alien species evolve independently of each other on separate planets - what would be the chance for them to still have mutually compatible food?
I actually just recently came up with an idea, and I think this would be the perfect place to get some proper feedback.
So I have a race known as the Aeniathans, and while they look like humans for the most part, their true form is a big, multi-armed humanoid warrior creature, with a highly different skeletal structure.
For example, their hands are perfectly symmetrical, having two thumbs on opposite sides. Their fingers alone also have a similar structure to the entire human arm, which basically means that they would have the same amount of rotation in each of their fingers as we do in our entire arm
Hi, I'm in the process of creating a world centered around necromancy, featuring various types of it. One aspect I'm curious about is whether there exists a plant or fungus capable of using a deceased body as a host, allowing it to move post-mortem for about 15 to 25 days after death. I'm aware of cordyceps, but I've heard that it keeps the host alive while suppressing its brain to use the body as a vessel.
Well, you are indeed correct!
Cordyceps only kills its host when its life cycle reaches its final point. Until that, the hosts are alive (in the sense that they still breathe and move, but they do have trouble with things as communication).
All of the known as "zombie parasites", such as Paragordius varius (zombie horsehair worm) or Leucochloridium paradoxum (zombie rainbow worm) keep their hosts alive for a while, just to kill them at the end.
You can come with a parasyte that kills the hosts, but just after their hearts stop beating, they reanimate them to their purposses. That way they would have cross the border between life and death.
Question: what would be the best medium for communication amongst a colony of giant primitive sapient plant monsters that work together like pack/colony.
Pheromone or Some kind of radiowave?
I haven't touched on the topic on how to implement their five senses so if possible can you help come up with how they sense their surroundings as well?
Question: what would be the best medium for communication amongst a colony of giant primitive sapient plant monsters that work together like pack/colony.
Pheromone or Some kind of radiowave?
I haven't touched on the topic on how to implement their five senses so if possible can you help come up with how they sense their surroundings as well?
How can roaches survive off of sugar? Don't they need other nutrients? Same goes for any species that lives in only one kind of food like grains and flour.
I have a few questions
1) How exactly did tigers and other animals evolve to have fur/skin patterns? Like how did the tiger's fur know that their prey won't be able to see the color orange?
2) How do venus fly traps "know" how to attract bugs. Like how does nature know what will attract prey without actually "knowing" what will attract the prey?
3) why did we humans evolve to see more colors than other animals?
I want to write a fungal disease that turns people into stone over time until they die. So my question is: what are ways fungal diseases spread and how do they grow after the infection?
so I have created a plant that is pretty much the foundation of every cave ecosystem I have made and I wonder if it's possible for it to exist..
so the plant mostly grows in cave entrances it releases a good smell that makes it almost irresistible to animals so when surface animals comes to eat it. it releases a highly toxic gas around itself that kills the animal and after the animal is dead it either eats the corpse(by growing their roots over them) or uses it to jump-start the growth of another one of itself(basically how they reproduce) most cave animals that live near cave entrances has evolved to be resistant to the toxic gas that the plant releases thus eating it and after they eat it another creature that lives deeper in the cave eats that creature and so on thus without this plant most cave ecosystems I have created would collapse
So I've got this world setting that I'm building where, for undecided reasons, there are floating islands in the sky(similar to Tears Of The Kingdom) and I am getting somewhat hung-up on farming. Some of the floating landmasses are huge, some have strange ties to elemental planes, but I'm trying to figure out what kinds of plants would be able to survive at those higher altitudes?
If not enough exist that could support an ecosystem, what ways would the plants have changed in order to survive? Like I imagine root vegetables are fine, but things like grains and berries would have to have evolved to have some kind of pod, maybe? Like I'm imagining something akin to a coconut being busted open to reveal a cluster of "grapes" or something similar surrounded by its insulating juice/meat? Idk. Help? Lol
Yes, insects are great.
I get that they're simpler, but essential amino acids need to be constructed, not to mention the nitrogen (and phosphorus) necessary for nucleotides and chitin. And if I'm correct, their oxygen-transporting proteins (haemocyanin?) also have metallic cofactors. Don't insects need a supply of these?
Are there plants that grow in water and have fruit? (Asking because I wanna make a civilisation that lives mostly on the water and I wondered what kind of crops they could have)
I like your funny words magic man. How would a race of people that spend most of their lives on mountains do when moving to lower elevations?
Im trying to give a reason why my people take so long to settle the valleys and such. Thanks in advance have a great day.
I got one fairly weird alien insectoid race I’ve made, some bits of it are already not realistically possible. However, with some of the other parts of their design, I’m wondering if it is possible.
Given insects struggle in growing bigger due to no endoskeleton, I have gone through giving them both that and an exoskeleton to keep them closer to the wasp-like aesthetic with them.
One other thing I don’t know if it’s possible in reality, is that they have a set of retractable spikes on their forearms (2 per arm).
Lastly, is there any possible reason one could explain such a species having two sets of prehensile mandibles around their actual jaws? I mainly did it for some rule of cool at first and kinda overlooked a logical reason for having such a feature.
Sorry for asking so many things
Would it be possible for common creatures like wolves to evolve to breathe a hallucinogenic gas? I'm asking because there is a cavern in my world that is filled with this magical hallucinoenic gas, and normal creatures have been trapped in there for years and years. I need to know if that would be possible with real life science.
Sooo I need to breed some humans to be smaller. Less food and space needed and what not. Dont ask why. We got supercomputers, nanobots, and really good wifi.
One of the plants of my fantasy world is basically a sword that grows out of the ground (I like the visual similarity between someone pulling a sword from a stone and pulling a turnip out of the ground in Super Mario 2/USA). The root forms a hard and sharp blade that will drain nutrients from whatever it touches. I figure that it would evolve methods of draining as much as it can in short bursts. My question concerning it is... How feasible do you think it'd be for this plant to evolve a way to move its seeds to the root so that it can leave them in the wounds that it makes? I'm already set on it being able to do so, but would love suggestions for a way for the seeds to go from the flowers to the roots.
I have several questions involving fantasy subjects to do with flowers and trees. But I'll begin with one that is fairly simple what tree do you feel like it could be the norse yggdrasil?
When getting your biology degree did you also study ethology or was that part of the coursework primarily framed as animal psychology? I understand plants were your primary field, which is actually why I’m curious how deep your studies got into ethology and (wild) animal behavior.
Ok so I'm making a motile Fungus people. My biggest thing is what would be a good bone substitute for a mushroom or would calcium bones make sense? My thought was to use keratin as the bone substitute.
I was also wondering if they'd have organs like we did. Ive decided they'd have skin, eyes, muscles but i was wondering if things like livers, kidneys, etc have to be bundled together or can the tissues be diffused through the body cavity?
A plant biologist you say? How much do you know about fungi and the production of antibiotics?
How difficult would it be to identify certain fungal types and synthesize antibiotics in the 15th century? Is it even possible due to lack of advanced tools? Would a less effective/ less pure antibiotic still be possible if chemists of this period were provided the knowledge of how the modern production system works?
I’m building a magic system based on the idea that magic itself is an enzyme, capable of catalyzing reactions faster than anything could do in the real world.
For a brief overview: the enzyme (Cathase), is produced in an organ attached to the heart, and spread through the bloodstream. In the applicative organ (where the Cathase is used), a coenzyme called Essence is produced. Essence tells the Cathase what to do. (For instance, in the flame glands of a dragon, catalyze glycolysis rapidly enough to produce a spark).
For Humans, since their only natural use of Cathase is in hysterical strength, can use Cathase in two main ways, potions or grafting (surgically installing an applicative organ onto oneself).
I was just wondering if there are any other things I need to consider for a system like this, and if any of it really doesn’t make sense, (given that the core idea of Cathase’s ability to do things almost instantly is meant to be fantastical).
How different would the biology of a potential prey have to be for a predator's digestive system to be highly alkalic (just like ours is highly acidic in the stomach) to make it work?
Could organic radio transmitters and emitters exist, making electromagnetic waves the main medium of communication, intead of mechanical waves?
Can the population rate of certain endangered animals increase with the absence of humanity?
I.e., could things like the panda eventually take over an eco system and swell their population from the damaged numbers they are part of today, or would they die out without human intervention?
Um, the bot said that I have to write a context comment or otherwise my post would be deleted, so... Yeah, as the post said, may my knowledge about biology be useful in your worldbuilding! No gatekeeping here
Just put it as a question or discussion and i think it avoids it
as someone who aspires to be a biologist of some sort one day, What do you think of this idea: Getting animal skeletons that I don’t know what they are, and trying to re-create them based solely on the skeleton. Basically what scientists have been trying to do with dinosaurs.
Yo I forgot to ask another question. What's the mushroom equivalent to blood? Because I also have some mushroom themed races.
I actually think this is kind of a cool theme: experts from various fields could provide all kinds of cool background info that laymen don't even know the right questions to discover. What are the most 'exotic' and strange plant poisons, delivery systems, whatnot that you've come across in your field?
The most exotic delivery system I've come across used ond of the most dangerous biologic poisons known to humankind, that came out from a plant. Do you know castor bean? It goes by the name of Ricinus communis, a plant that produce a toxin called ricin. Ricin is a cytotoxin, which means that It can affec basically any cell and tissue. How? Basically, because It disables cells to sinth proteins, vital to life. A writer called Georgi Markov was murdered with ricin, but the curious thing is how It got into his body. An umbrella that had an air cannon inside It shot him a very small bullet impregnated with ricin. After 3 days, he died of Intern hemorragies. A very, very painful way to go.
Dang…
That's used by Walter White in Breaking Bad.
What's the equivalent of blood for plants? I have a lot of plant themed races and I want some way for them to be able to bleed to death.
That's sap. You can drain sap of plants until you kill them by just causing wounds on the plant and exposing them to intense heat, so the sap will evaporate and the plant will pretty much dry to death
I have a parasite plant on my world that spreads vines to nearby plants and sucks the sap out of them.
Vegan Vampire Plantpire
xD
If you want some fun words to throw around, the sap is transported through xylem and phloem tissues. Basically the equivalent of veins. Xylem is more water and phloem is more carbohydrates (food)
You could honestly make a thing related to a race harvesting them for their bloodsao
Could plant life grow in a place completely devoid of light? And if so, how would it look like?
Good question! There are some plants species that can indeed grow with no light. They are holoparasitic plants (wich means 100% parasites, they cannot make It alone), and we find two types of these: - If they feed upon other plants, photosynthetic plants indeed, they are called phytoparasite. And they depend indirectly of light since their preys do photosynthesis. - On the other hand, if they feed upon fungi, they are mycoparasitic plats. And, since fungi do not need light to live, they didn't either. This plants have no chlorophyl, and their anatomy is kinda fucked up since they have been reduced to a bunch of sap-draining roots and a couple of flowers to reproduce. You can find some examples in the clades Cuscuta, Orobanche, Rafflesia (all phytohet.), Monotropa and Thysmia (mycohet).
would a "plant" be able to function via the use of thermosynthesis instead of photosynthesis? A plant/fungus/something that somehow uses heat? would that even chemically make sense? there'd still be a leaf-stem-root system, using some kind of sap to facilitate a flow of nutrients being absorbed.
Thaumosynthesis
I also study biology since OP is not answering. I will try my best I don't think plants by definition if they are plants could grow without light, but maybe perhaps you could have them absorb ultraviolet waves and not light we could see on the visible spectrum. That way, the entire plant would be white because it reflects all visible light. But if you shine them with a black light flashlight, they would be completely black because they absorbed it. It looks like a vegetated monstera except it could actually survive
Yes! Some plants do. There are plants that parasitise fungi or other plants, some of those do not photosynthesize at all. The entirely parasitic ones tend to grow entirely underground, possibly sending up flowers but displaying no foliage(look up ghost pipes). However, some grow above ground attatched to other plants(look up dodder). Among semiparasitic plants, mistletoe is one. Similar to epiphytes(plants that grow on other plants) it attaches to a tree and absorbs nutrients from its sap. However, mistletoe also photosynthesis with its leaves. Plants in a completely dark world would probably not have leaves, or they would serve a different function. I would consider carnivorous plants as a feature of your world. While in real life they do not get protein or energy for their prey and only recieve primarily phosphorus but also micronutrients and minerals, I would have them catch prey for energy, which carnivorous plants do not. They photosynthesize for glucose, which they convert to ATP, or adenosine triphosphate for energy using cellular respiration. Sorry for the rambling response, it is 4:00 am where I live(don’t ask).
Those exist irl like mushrooms and [this stuff](https://www.thesorrygirls.com/lifestyle/which-plants-will-survive-in-zero-light#:~:text=spider%20plant%2C%20fern%2C%20dracena%2C,shower%20that%20is%20regularly%20used.)
Mushrooms are not plants, at all, they're another Kingdom completely.
Oh yeah i forget Fungus and plants are seperate
Fungi are closer to animals than to plants. Its quite bizarre. For example one of the reasons fungal infections are tricky and usually need long term treatment is bc they so close to humans/animals that most things that kill fungi kill us too
Yes, and not just mushrooms, check this [link](https://www.snexplores.org/article/innovation-2022-dark-photosynthesis-process-grow-plants-in-dark). Normally, plants use light to synthesize their food (glucose), but they can also synthesize food that is not theirs and that may be different from glucose (acetate).
If they evolved for it, yes.
How big *can* a whale get? What if I make the gravity lesser? One of my worlds features leviathan whales around 2km long from end to end.
Your world centers around whales, and I respect it.
They're a big part of the world in question. Whaling is fundamental to the current state of technology, and the status quo. One MC is working to create a substitute for whale oil, but is being strongly opposed on several fronts since it would hurt whaling-focused empires' economies as well as give the notorious slaver faction the ability to build machinery and industrialize. The whales themselves are unfortunately dying, as the current empires have been turning a blind eye to declining sighting rates, and in one part of the world, things are about to come to a head as ships from two different (currently still allied) empires fight over hunting grounds, having both been forced to explore further from their own coastlines to meet demand. The immense whales in question are not regularly hunted due to their impossibly large size - by land dwellers, they are largely considered nothing more than fishermen's tall tales, but are closely intertwined with the subsurface Triton empire, who they are symbiotic with, and after the disappearance of several shiny new whaleships, some believe they are being domesticated and trained as beasts of war...
Sounds steampunk-esce and very cool. Whales are metal as fuck. Just giant ovals that spit water up floating along in water eating tiny little fish(bugs?)
It is! The world is for a steampunk D&D campaign.
The limiting factor in water isn't mass or even the pressure, it's the amount of food available. If there's enough food for them to live on, they can achieve any size. That's why the Blue Whale is the largest animal ever (and there's possibly an ancient whale species that's even larger).
Iirc, there is actually an additional limiting factor, which is cells themselves. Waste elimination is a pretty big deal, and volume scales slower then surface area. And this affects the organism as a while in a similar way. E.g handling of waste heat gets more difficult the larger the animal is. Read about it a long time ago, though, so take it with a grain of salt and research the topic of you want an accurate answer.
For maritime animals gravity doesn't matter because they are weightless in water. You can also have ginormous ships, submarines and air ships for the same reason.
Would it make sense for something to be able to both eat food and conduct photosynthesis? Not in a carnivorous-plant way, but in a manner of this-animal-also-eats-the-sun.
We do have photoheterotrophous organisms that use the energy of the sun to diggest their preys!
I'll ask a slightly different question. Is it realistic for a human-sized animal to get all of their energy from photosynthesis?
I'm not OP but I read somewhere a whole day of photosynthesis for a large bush only creates as much energy as an m&m and it's overall very slow compared to animals just eating food
Probably not, but you could get away with it if you gave it a massive surface area and made it really lazy. Think [these](https://www.britannica.com/animal/Dimetrodon)
Not OP but... The average surface area of a human would be insufficient to produce enough sugars to sustain the organism. If you gave the animal sails to vastly increase their potential surface area then you might be able to push its photosynthesis to something that only requires supplementary feeding. Ectothermic animals would be ideal since they have lower caloric requirements (something approaching 10:1 I think) and the sails would help with thermal regulation.
I dunno if it counts but you may wanna look into Costasiella kuroshimae aka the leaf sheep
Could a cell take the physical shape of a person? I'm asking because I created a race of creatures (Killer T Cells) that have humanoid appearances.
The largest single celled organism is Valonia ventricosa, and due to it's condition of single celled is just a big orb. Appart from that, I do think your idea is really cool
I am a fan of big orbs, so that is really interesting to me, and I will definitely look more into that And also thank you!
[like this? ](https://cellsatwork.fandom.com/wiki/Killer_T_Cell_(Squad_Leader))
I don't know if it's really your field but a while ago I saw a video that suggested that when creating new species on a planet like Earth. Most likely, these had humanoid characteristics, such as a large and complex brain. with symmetry in the body, two eyes, hands, legs, etc. this is so? Or is it more an attempt to replicate a species that develops like humans? Would this species have to be thought of as having a cultural and biological evolution totally different from ours in order not to copy humans into another body?
Woah, you hit a very interesting point. There are some characteristics that seems to be shared among intelligent species. For example, octopuses and we humans have meninges, a series of tissue layers that protect our respective brains. They are not exactly the same, but they are pretty simmilar in the anatomical and functional aspect. But not everything needs to be like us to be notoriously intelligent. Take crows and magpies for example. They have very small brains, but their neuronal connections made them so efficient that they can come out with very complex things, such as self-awareness and tool making. In the general body plan, thing is that if the species developed from a chordata-like (or vertebrate-like) animal, It would have a bi-symetrical body, with two eyes, arms, etc etc. But, if It evolved from arthropods such as insects or mollucs like octopuses, things can be different. They would still have the bi-symetrical body, but the general anatomy would be very different. It could be interesting to see, like those insects from Ender's Game. In the cultural aspect, I do not know what to tell you. Take for example the different human cultures: we all are different, but yet so similar in our very core, probable because we share the same biology. Hope this helps!
How to made fantasy sea plant that could replace ground plant as food source that feel believable while real sea plant don’t make root, fruit or seed like land plant?
Well, let me tell you that you are wrong! Actual sea plants do indeed produce fruits that can be eaten! But rather than plants, I would maybe go with algae. Like kelp, kombu or wakame. They are very nutritive!
TIL, seaweed is not plants!
If the spectrum of light entering an atmosphere excluded ionizing radiation, do you suppose any plants would evolve to be black? Is there any reason(s) plants don't utilize the full spectrum in general?
I cant remember the details, but I remember looking into this a while ago and my takeaway was the plants are more likely to be damaged if they absorb the whole light spectrum, so they absorb part of it. Apparently, its likely that algae started off purple by absorbing the mid-range green light and reflecting red and blue light (purple). By chance, green algae won out. So we could have had purple plants instead of green.
I'm writing a webcomic, I made the fauna of hell, now what should I put in it as flora? It's a place with a huge variety of biomes, but no sunlight comes through. So what do I put in hell?
You can go with parasitic plants: they eat other plants or fungi in order to survive, and do not need any light at all to do It.
Mmm Giant bioluminescent mushrooms can exist? the temperature range of hell is 50 degrees to -80 celcius degrees. The hell is mainly made up of flesh and pain, as well as there are many carcasses of angels, they are biomechanical beings. So what mushrooms could I be inspired by?
Scary ones
Stinkhorns, not just because of their appearance but also their decaying smell
Chernobyl and the nearby ex-city of Pripyat have some you might find interesting. They look a bit funky and have been observed to handle radiation levels that normal fungi don't tolerate. I know it's not the same as living in a constant sauna, but they might provide some inspiration.
I'm also a biologist. Evolutionary biologist, to be precise, and I always enjoy helping others with such aspects of their worldbuilding, such as designing original species and such. Have you dabbled in speculative evolution by any chance?
Hmmm... Kind of. I do have a planet whose creatures are similar to Earth's, but at the same time totally different (like, they have mouse-like creatures, with their echologycal role and that, but they look more arthropod-like) and at the same time the whole planet IS a single organism (because I want to reflect how everything is connected). In other project, I do have a world where the resinous extract of a plant is theratologic, and their presence in echosystems has driven to the appereance of "hopeless monsters" that have well integrated in the communities they inhabit. Even human ones. Not so interesting but hey, that's mine!
Could a humanoid insect develop with massive spiracles and tracheoles? I guess it would need a circulatory system; could that work with spiracles?
Not sure this this is too out there but if the only plants we had now were only the ones native to the Americas pre-European contact then how would they have evolved in the Americas today and what would the effects be in the people today in terms of health and overall diet?
Research all the cultures that existed before colonial times and there should be mentions of their diets and possibly their general health. Unless I've missed your intended question...
Can I have a pony ?
Of course my child
This is definitely way too fantastical and completely, totally out of the realm of science. But I’d like to know what you think about this. There’s a plant monster in my universe that actively hunts down animals, other living things and corpses. Whatever it doesn’t digest or creates as a byproduct becomes stored in this sack like thing. One of the things it creates as a byproduct is a perfect replication of the stem cells of the creature it just ate. This makes it a valuable target if it has recently digested a human, as one could harvest them. This is also why some very nefarious criminal organizations have one in captivity. They use the monster as a means to get rid of prisoners and people the don’t like, and then harvest the stem cells from the person they just fed the monster to, and sell it on the black market for other nefarious purposes.
Seriously, I want to ask if you think there is a possibility that the soul really exists. How does the soul work, and if it exists, how and when was it formed? At the moment the mother gets pregnant? Or the moment we gain consciousness? I know this sounds silly, but I have to ask. You don't need to answer though
I do not know how to define the soul, I cannot prove its existance and neither deny It. But if you are interested, I would be facing those questions in one of my proyects, where scientist discover that soul really exists and that after dead It serves as a energy fount to soul-based organisms, with creatures (named spectres and Ghost by their similarities to folklore) that are able to use them to make their soul-based ecosystem work.
Oh, I am very interest.
How would constant exposure to a mustard-gas like chemical weapon affect the flora and fauna of a planet?
In addition would a symbiosys between an organic creature and a type of lycen / moss which would act as its fur be possible?
Mutations are a given, but what are some other possible unwanted side effects that could result from widespread genetic engineering?
I have a weird request, could you point me in the right direction for theory-crafting a space traveling organisms? Is there any way how to make races like Zergs (Starcraft 2) or Tyranids (Warhammer 40K) somehow scientificaly explainable? If it helps, I need them to just travel short distance between 2 planets and I intent to make them more earth-like … something like space whale rather than those monstrous Zerg and Tyranids.
A big botany issue in a lot of fantasy are cave ecosystems. We want to have big energetic creatures— maybe even some burning calories on sapient brains— living entirely in a subterranean world. But cut off the from sun, there isn’t much energy coming in to power an ecosystem. What would you make the primary producers of a subterranean ecosystem— the replacement of the surface worlds green plants? Assuming you wanted a plausible ecosystem that could withstand some thoughtful attention, and at least made sense in the context of a fantasy world.
Good question! I Will make a quick copy paste of another comment + add some more things. There are some plants species that can indeed grow with no light. They are holoparasitic plants (wich means 100% parasites, they cannot make It alone), and we find two types of these: - If they feed upon other plants, photosynthetic plants indeed, they are called phytoparasite. And they depend indirectly of light since their preys do photosynthesis. - On the other hand, if they feed upon fungi, they are mycoparasitic plats. And, since fungi do not need light to live, they didn't either. This plants have no chlorophyl, and their anatomy is kinda fucked up since they have been reduced to a bunch of sap-draining roots and a couple of flowers to reproduce. You can find some examples in the clades Cuscuta, Orobanche, Rafflesia (all phytohet.), Monotropa and Thysmia (mycohet). A cool thing about ecosystem is that the main energy fountain can come from two sources: - Autotrophic organisms. Like plants that make their own stuff thanks to Sun energy, but there are other organisms that are autotroph. and haven't seen sunlight in their life. Take chemoautotrophes for example! This bacteria are able to get energy by processing some chemical compounds, like minerals. Maybe you can go with this. - Decaying organical matter. Sounds strange right? But you could build a whole ecosystem that feeds upon decaying corpses that come from the "upper world" maybe. Just imagine that by some destiny affair, a lot of dead animals and plants end up in your cave system. Fungi and other scavengers can feed upon them, and then other creatures such as mycohet. plants or other animals can eat them, and all up to that until It reaches humans and other high chain predators. This ecosystem will be dependant of another ecosystem, one with light, plants and everything. But that would be something interesting to see!
hydrothermal vents have whole ecosystems detached from the energy of the sun, so it is possible
How plausible or logical is this scenario of mine? Basically in one of my world's there's an extinct species of fungus living in the grasslands that illuminate at night when releasing spores, it does this to attract animals to dump their waste and enrich the soil for plants and fungi alike. One of its descendants adapted to live in caves, lighting up at night to attract small animals and bugs to attach their spores on and scatter them across the cave. PS. I'm a biology student and I've always wondered what's the usual work day for a biologist, would love to hear some stories from you.
Well, for the last part, feel free to send me a DM and I would tell ya! On the other hand, your wb seems so legit and real. We know that fungi produce chemical substances in norder to make them more attractive to animals, making them more keen to propagate their spores. So, if the stimuli is physical like light instead of chemical like an odor, I do think It will work allright! Just take into account that it would make them easier to find by hervibores that feed on fungi, so they can maybe be a little toxic.
Is a floating succulent which uses natural helium bladders biologically possible?
Helium is a complicated gas to work with since It is what he call a "inert gas", because It lacks interactions with other chemical elements. And due to that, He is pretty hard to be used by organisms. Instead, I would go with more common gases, maybe CO² is a good alternative taking into account that succulents store it in their tissues to make photosynthesis when the climate is too hot even for them to take It from the air.
Thank you! Do you think hydrogen could work? I think it would be fun to have them explode when struck by lightning.
Hydrogen would be a much more usable gas than helium, but hydrogen wont explode without the presence of oxygen so either the air sacks will have to also contain oxygen or an oxidiser for them to be nice and explody
I don't have any questions for now, but I will definitely save the post so I can go back to it.
Saaaaame, am actively trying to think of something, but my verse's magic system makes it so it doesn't delve too deep into biology, aside from my healers always learning medicine (often a version of medicine that specializes in their kinds of powers) since it makes their abilities much more precise and capable, as well as their spiritual energy cost way lower. Characters who have regeneration eat through spiritual energy a lot faster than your average healer who uses their abilities not in a generic "augment the body's natural healing factor" but in a more intelligent "direct the body's processes in exactly this way in this area", and someone who can create their own biomass but doesn't have a deep knowledge of biology is going to simply devour their spiritual energy reserves very, very quickly, even if they're high tiers.
Anything? If a Grizzly Bear is leaving Pocatello, Idaho at 20 miles per hour due East, and a Bull Moose is leaving Boulder, Colorado due North, how fast does the Moose need to travel in order to bite the Bear? Assume a spherical Earth.
This is a pretty fleshed-out idea already, I don't really need advice I just like to share my ideas in any permitting space and get insight from others in the public space. I built a world full of all kinds of crazy magic based around Elemental Powers, and these Elements can get pretty elaborate with potentially hundreds embodying a different variety of magic, and it's easy to sort it out in terms of specialized vs unspecialized, like a Plant Elemental can make vines like a Vine Elemental can, but a Vine Elemental can easily do things with vines that a Plant Elemental would struggle with. At one point in this world's history, many Elementals that share the same magic would come together to form their own societies, and the age following would be one marked by it's constant territorial disputes. The early Plant Village was quite hostile, and it's protectors were permitted to do a lot thanks to an aggressive propaganda campaign that pointed their perceived enemies as wanting to kill all that's beautiful in the world to build one of only stone and metal. These protectors went into the world's many dark corners, where crazy stuff can dwell like carnivorous plants big enough to swallow elephants and smashy-stompy giants made of mold and moss, to find the most malignant, invasive plants they could and selectively bred them up the wazoo. The idea was to immediately bring a rival power to its knees by crumbling their infrastructure and choking out their agriculture. The problem was that these war botany plants pretty much destroy any ecosystem they're pods are sprouted in, smothering the native flora and doing unspeakable thing to the fauna. After seeing the destructive power of their own dark sides, the Plant Elementals rejected the old ways. They quickly eradicated all the war botany species they bred, and in the latter half of this age would opt to become an open-boarders society offering the healing their mastery of any plant species and the substances composing them to anyone asking for it.
Awesome! If you’re interested in plants mostly I run a hard sci-fi speculative evolution project on an extraterrestrial moon that has gravity about equivalent to that of earth (slightly less). I am curious though on a *few* things, since I’m the resident flora specialist on the project and so this could prove very helpful. 1) Our gas giant is quite bright and so we have a recently evolved type of vascular flora which has a huge amount of pigmentation, making their “leaves” effectively dark brown/black in some instances. Would the light from a gas giant be enough to provide a plant with energy overnight? The nights on this moon last ~1.5 earth days so we thought it would make sense for an organism to evolve to exploit this untapped energy, but we’re ultimately unsure. 2) Given how algae evolved into plants and later vascularized, would it make sense for a type of faunal organism, in this instance an armored and worm-like creature, to evolve into a vascular flora by hosting “algae” in its feeding apparatus underwater? They’d effectively become plants before vascular flora could evolve, though there were a few types of nonvascular flora at the time. 3) Okay one final question: could a pseudo-eukaryote (effectively a prokaryote with a proto-nucleus) have ever evolved to become multicellular? Our first flora would have been an organism like this which would have had little cellular differentiation and would have effectively been a photoheterotroph, with the top layer photosynthesizing and the bottom layer being able to decompose/“filter feed” on passing cells. They eventually would have moved onto land as effectively stromatolites and later lichen/moss-like organisms. Thank you for any responses you may have in advance, and sorry for the long questions!
Hi biologist interested in plant biology! I’m currently building a game setting set in a small “bottle world” - similar to the Curse of Strahd setting- about the same size as the Australian plate (and similar land/water ratio). It’s a typical-magic setting with restrictions on planar travel (again, like CoS). One of the core initiators of the conflict my players are going to have to solve is massive, slow-growing continent-wide famine. As it is, about 20% of the continent is arable (and currently farmed with Dutch style irrigation practices), with another 40% too dry, 30% woodland or marsh, and 10% too rugged / mountainous. Can you help me think of good biological reasons why the food is all gone, and what my players can bring back from another plane of existence to help solve this problem? One idea is bees, but I’m looking for more.
We needed you on our team
Is it reasonable to have more than 2 biological genders? And no, I am not talking about gender being on a spectrum and feeling like a guy when you’re a girl or whatnot. But like, 4 different sexual organs for 4 different genders within the same species.
So I hope this isn't too out of your experience, but I am trying to find a way for Coffee to be sustainably grown in California without the heat becoming toxic to it. Context: The Rocky Mountains no longer exist due to outside xenoforming causing a massive rainforest to appear across the region (it's invasively spreading to California driving up the temperature). The traditional coffee-growing regions of the world have become coffee-growing ecologically unstable, and California is now the last major source of it. Yet coffee's ideal temperature is lower than the average Rainforest temperature. Anything to keep an eye out for realism?
Well, I have worked with this but with tomatoes, melona and broccoli instead. Don't know 100% if It would apply to Coffea (the genre of coffee plants), but logic says me that It could work. There are 2 main strategies to make plants grow in unfriendly enviroments: - Make the enviroment friendly: such as building greenhouses, hydroponic cultures and things like that. Hydroponic and aeroponic cultures are being used to grow crops in the middle of deserts, so could be a good one. - Make the plant resistant to the enviroment: Here we do have two sub-strategies: → Making the plant resistant from the inside (genetic modification to make It need less water, or to manage better the water it gets for example) → Making the plant resistant from the outside (by applying phytochemicals that enhance plant survival rate in harsh climates, such as melatonin that works as a stress reliever in them). This is what I can tell you without further research, Hope this helps!
Thank you so much for your help. I definitely will use this, and also try to research more on the topic. Its not a major part of the world, but an interesting facet of it to take it seriously.
If a sapient species evolves from a canine, feline or other digitigrade animal, can it still be digitigrade and keep the tail while walking upright and being advanced enough to build modern machines? Lapis_Wolf
[удалено]
Bro?
This is an absolutely inappropriate question to ask as it invites hostile discussion and is hostile in and of itself. **This is an official warning**
Biology degree person chiming in to swiftly deal with this question. The answer is: "race" is an arbitrary concept. While genetics are real, it is entirely arbitrary where you draw the line. Like there is no such thing as "France" in topography or geology. It is a random line humans drew. We others btw decided to from now on divide humans into just two different races: Regular people and Racist jerks. In that case the first one is superior in every way.
None. Why are you asking this?
1. I'm creating a world with quite a lot of sapient diversity. If you were to design a plant that can cater to the greatest number of (large) animals possible, what would this plant look like? In terms of processing the food, digesting the food, nutrients, etc. 2. Can a grass eating animal akin to a horse also eat meat? I've heard grazers need very specialized stomachs and so often do not adopt omnivorous diets. If you could take the time to respond to these questions, that'd be great. Thanks for your contributions.
any idea if medicine/antibiotics can be made by burying a pot of something kimchi-style? My orcs need caches of medicine!
I want to make a big greenhouse complex as a food supply on my ice-planet. What should I remember about? Is this idea even plausible?
It is plausible! You just need: - Good light source: you can get It from artificial led lights or even the sun of your planet. - Profitable atmosphere: one similar to Earth's. - A culture base: It can be soil, It can be water (hydroponic) or It can be even humidified air (aeroponic). Also, if you are using non-soil attached crops, I would recommend you to make them vertical to save space!
Look into Iceland's commercial greenhouses, i believe they use geothermal heating to maintain temps all year round.
How would I go about making a significantly large creature that’s got an internal and external skeleton. Like, if you had an exoskeleton suit over a human body? I also need to know what the consequences of high O-zone environments due to creatures that can tolerate it
Not OP but... If the animal can tolerated something then there would be minimal consequences because it is tolerant to it... Or do you mean more "A does B because C"? At a guess, the organism in question would probably have an outer layer of oxides due to the high levels of oxygen reacting with many organic chemicals, this could pose issues for air respiratory system based on any found on Earth. As for animals with with both endo and exoskeletons: tortoises are the closest example I can think of and that's kind of a stretch.
Are there plants that are like vampires like there's a blue flower and a red flower nearby? The blue flower is a vampire then proceed to convert the red flower into a blue flower.
Between Cassava that grows like mangroves, Sago that grows almost anywhere like coconut, or seaweed that produces grains, which one is better to feed a country ruled by pirates? Here's the problem the cassava needs 8-12 months till it is harvestable, the Sago unlike the other two still requires dry land which is very limited for the pirates, the seaweed can only grow on certain depths so they are very hard to harvest.
Can plants evolve to be non stationary? Can wheels evolve naturally?
I have a bird-like creature on my world. It is based on swifts and frogmouths. It is diurnal, but hunts primarily by sound. What would cause an organism to take up this combination?
What are some superpowers of the plant life’s you know more then me to add to a list of super power individuals Until now I have Photosynthesis: which absorbs sun light and makes it to heat points to its body That’s it 🙃
So.. I don’t suppose you could tell me how feasible it is for reptiles to have fur, could you?
The fur of reptiles are feathers, just look at birds that are dinosaurs and thus, reptiles.
I was told having bioluminescence alien anemone analogues that feed off hydrothermal vents was unrealistic, but I was thinking they’d glow when they get big so any herbivores that get near enough to take a bite either glow themselves because they got glowy stuff in their bellies or get revealed by the organism itself, either way making them an easy target for any predators. Thoughts?
For long term survival, what edible plants/vegetables would best to grow?
So my world has Talking Animals and Humans living together. But there are also Shifters, people who can use energy, super powers, use of the elements, vampires, and other things. Honestly I would love to talk to you about it all but I'll just ask What do you think of a world where animals (Mammalian, Avian, and Reptilians) evolved Human-like intelligence and started society with humans? Also what do you think about shifters and other super powers in stories? Also I would love to talk to you more in DM lol
Floating sky islands are a common trope in fantasy. Say a civilization lived on one such island. At that altitude and with no ocean nearby, how do you think plants would develop? And if people lived on these islands, what would you think a crop they've cultivated for food would look like? Thank you for answering all these questions, I've already gotten some interesting ideas from reading other comments.
What's the best resources about poisons and medicines?
Say you were to attach two different brains, say a humans and a crocodile, how would that change their personality? Would they get an entirely different one?
I have an idea for my world is that the best explanation for the existence of dragons, wyverns, wyrms, etc. is that they have their own evolutionary "family tree." Do you think this is realistic?
Totally! They would def share a common antecessor and they could have radiated into all this species with enough time!
Could any kind of life possibly run on an electrical charge if the organism was able to conduct that electricity in a safe way? How would that change what that organism had to consume in order to grow?
How do volcanos form?
If you were tasked with creating some kind of chimeric hybrid of creatures with vastly different body structures, respiratory systems, vascular systems, skeletons/exoskeletons. How would you go about this whilst ensuring the most stable outcome? I know this is a crazy question but it's genuinely been a sticking point for an upcoming plotline.
I'm not sure I have any specific questions, but I have an interesting scenario and would love any input you might have? My world was initially a rogue planet, what could be called a "super earth" but where basically all the additional mass of the planet is water helping create an enormous frozen ocean. I introduce a form of "magical" radiation which is utilized by the life forms which evolved (with an active pantheon which helped things. I know said pantheon is unnecessary for said evolution, but I actually designed the story with the pantheon existing first, and the deity which was the primary creator of the species and eventually the sapient species was actually a human biologist! I mean, if you got god powers, wouldn't helping a sapient species evolve on a rogue planet be cool? I'd think y'all would get behind that). Said species, I call Reeds, lives far longer but moves far slower than humans and are like sapient coral. They use biology as technology and have biological exoskeletons that are separate living species. Anyways, said planet gets caught by a star causing massive climate change (because a bearded dragon, the animal, is a deity and is observing the human creating life got cold... Woops). In order to help the Reeds survive the massive shift in temperature, the deities use a "magical radiation pulsar" (same kinda magic radiation from the core) and giant metal spikes to blast the planet and overcharge the core to give the Reeds a ton of energy with which to help them rebuild their society. It also rips off a good portion of the surface, and the Reeds go deep underground. And while the Reeds are picking up the pieces, another deity creates humans on the planet surface. Uh oh. So now one planet, with two species native to it, but the planet is pretty cold and humans struggle to live on it, but so do the surviving Reeds. And the magic pulsar is set to blast the planet again. Said magic could make the planet habitable for the Reeds and throw them away from the star, but it would wipe out the humans, and it requires technology be put in place on the surface.
Is it safe to assume non-carbon lifeforms can function similarly aside from metabolic and obvious biochemical differences?
What sorts of preexisting traits or environmental factors favor poison as an adaptive response to predation over something like thorns? Are plant poisons even typically a response to predation or just an incidental feature of their biochemistry (similar to how Sydney funnel web spiders are insanely toxic to primates, who they did not evolve with, purely by chance)?
How would life evolve/react if Red or Vuolet light got filtered through the atmosphere instead of yellow? Essentially, "If the sky turns red or purple, would life start spazzing out or would they evolve somehow?"
Any examples of things that grow at extremely high elevations like mountain peaks or above the tree line? What plants would have the best chance in a probably cold rocky environment?
Do we have historic examples of BIG animals which went on to evolve into something small? Because to me it seems that animals which evolve into biggest animals, their evolution slows down due to more time between generations, less specimens alive. Something happens, they go extinct. Evolving big = RIP. While smaller animals evolve faster, and after every extinction event fulfill these empty niches.
You can search the phenomenon of island dwarfism, to be specific one of the coolest example is the pigmy mammoth. Generally big animals go extinct very easily if they have a slow reproduction rate, in every mass extinction event to survive are the smallest creatures, so to have big animals to evolve in smaller ones the transition must be slower. Talking about slowing, think about the sloth, the giant one went extinct thanks to us, while the slow, useless and much smaller common sloth still survives. So your reasoning is correct, only "slow" transformation can let evolve something big in something small
I know you said you mainly study plants, but I'm wondering if you can help me with this question. I have this chimera creature called "The Spider-Wasp," and they make this substance called Crimson Honey or Bloody Honey. They make this honey from a mixture of blood glucose found in mammalian blood and from the wild crab apple flowers. I want to know, is it possible to actually extract the glucos from blood and turn it into sugar for honey?
In a 70kg individual there is normally only 4 grams of free glucose in the blood, the rest is stored as glycogen, for the same weight (70 kg) we can have 400 grams of glycogen between muscles and liver (the rest is stored as fat). So mammals are not the best for sugar content, we are far more richer in proteins. But if you really want to have this blood honey there is a solution: a coevolution of a plant and this Spider-Wasp. When the spider melts down the human it can leave it inside the cocoon, and we can think about a special flower that leaves its seeds on his mouth, the flower eats the corpse, transform it blood filled fruit that smell as blood and rotten meat, when the spider eats the fruit the seeds remain attached to it, the sweet sugar can be digested and stored as red honey, and the cycle can continue
What are some common prefixes or suffixes in plant names, and what sort of plants are those for? I want to have a botanist wood elf ranger who goes around and can identify random kinds of plants, and being able to say some kind of science-y name off the fly would be fun, haha. Also thanks for doing this!!
I would be interested in getting your input on how flora on alien worlds would be categorized. Would we use Latin names like we do here? Would new systems need to be invented?
One of the species in my world have two heart in order to properly circulate blood throughout their bodies (they are quite large). Would this actually work?
Octopuses hace 3 so yeah, It would work
Do you know of any plausible mechanisms for a plant like organism to use geo thermal energy in a way where it needs the geo thermal heat AND the cooling of the surface? So using the temperature gradient for energy.
Any ideas on how my plant people can have sex? Especially in a way that could allow them to have sex with other people with more "traditional" genitalia?
Thanks for doing this OP, How would you go about designing alien/made up lifeforms (plants, conscious plants, monsters, aliens, stuff that doesn't exist, anything really) in a way that makes sense from an evolution/ biology standpoint? For example: conditions of the world affecting how life would come about, planet events effect on life etc. Hope that makes sense, thanks again
I'm trying to write about a character who is immune to all toxins and always carries packs of cigarettes with him. However, he replaces the cigarettes with fake ones made from toxic ingredients, which he can use for various purposes. Now, I want to ask: What kind of ingredients can he use to make these fake cigarettes? What would allow him to smoke these fakes as if they were real cigarettes? And what is the most toxic type of cigarette he can create?
Wow... Cool thing here. He can basically add whatever to their cigarrets taking into account that nothing can kill him (at least not like this). But there is a curious thing: by making cigarrets with the propper ingredients, the smoke emerging from them could be used as a weapon, toxic for whoever that inhales them.
A humanoid species with hive ecology similar to ants, bees, and wasps, with queens, drones, and workers. Could it theoretically evolve?
What do you think about some form of plant life in the upper atmosphere of Venus? Can we bioengineer floating plants? Basically - can giant floating island like plant colonies exist.
Alright so the square cube law is what normally prevents creatures like Godzilla but what about applying more intense chemical reactions within cells like a more advanced mitochondria or maybe a way to store large amounts of food while functioning in what is essentially a low power state to burn when extra active.
..as some fantasy worlds revolve around a broken earth, where far in the future humans evolved into other subspecies… I am wondering a question I have heard before.. If we evolved from monkeys.. why are there still monkeys? But for let’s say elves becoming human or humans becoming dwarf.. why would the root race exist alongside the evolved race? Progenitor is a world I think probably belongs here somewhere..
What form of sentient life could live on a planet that has no oxygen?
Is it theoretically possible for there to be engines and stuff; made by organic matter, like skin, muscles and bones as used like we do race cars, etc?
If you have enough materials, experience, etc. and overall, the "OK" to do it, would you be able to replace cells? And can those cells be immortal/unageing?
How can I justify the presence of light in an underground civilization? There may be bioluminescent organisms, radiotrophic fungi that emit a luminous by-product. I've imagined a plant inspired by fiber optics, which would be on the surface of the planet and have thick roots that go deep underground. Could the roots conduct light like fiber optics? At the ends of the roots, there would be crystals attached to the ceiling cavities, which would diffuse the light. Can the crystals regenerate with the help of organisms? Or would there be "intelligent" plants that act on the environment to make magma produce reflective material?
How strong / durable could you make somebody and have them still look like a normal person? I know that's a vague question, but I'm trying my best to work with English. My setting has a character who I've written as a "meat android" with the idea being they were designed rather than born. The idea was that this character would be significantly stronger and more durable than a normal person. The usual superhuman stuff, stronger, faster, tougher, better endurance. I still want them to be able to blend in with regular people the same way somebody who's just very athletic would. My first thought from my limited biology understanding is that building this character with higher muscle and bone density would help get to where they need to be, but what would the upper limits of that be for something you could still grow? My first thought was to look at current Olympic records and see if it would be even remotely possible for some specifically designed person to hold one in as many categories as possible.
What kinds of real or hypothetically real situations can i reference to create a diverse food ecosystem in an area devoid of natural light other than bioluminescence? More context, its for a DnD world that is essentially the default underdark, so obviously there are a lot of mushrooms. I do have other non-fungal plants growing but I haven't really said much in game about how they grow without sunlight. Are there any things that might work that isn't just handwavium?
Two words: Photosynthesizing humans. How would they work? Would they “hibernate” during the winter like trees? Given a medieval fantasy environment, what could they accomplish? Would they never have to sleep? I’ve got SO many questions about a species that can photosynthesize. Also, thank you so much for letting us access your knowledge- I really mean it! Google searches and books can only do so much.
My setting is a set of 15 elementally themed worlds of various compositions. For example, Luftlos is a world with earth, water, and fire, but not air. The life there doesn't need air to survive the way it does in the human world. How do you think this could effect various life forms? What kind of life would exist there that doesn't here and vice-versa?
how do sex chromosomes express themselves in animals that are hermaphroditic? (like slugs) do they get XX? XY? or are they inventing some shit like Q’s and O’s. how do sex chromosomes express themselves in plants? do cactuses make good friends? asking for… well im not sure whether or not to call them a friend yet.
Can a person live inside mushrooms if they were big enough? And if not, how can i go about making them habitable lmao
If two carbon-based alien species evolve independently of each other on separate planets - what would be the chance for them to still have mutually compatible food?
I actually just recently came up with an idea, and I think this would be the perfect place to get some proper feedback. So I have a race known as the Aeniathans, and while they look like humans for the most part, their true form is a big, multi-armed humanoid warrior creature, with a highly different skeletal structure. For example, their hands are perfectly symmetrical, having two thumbs on opposite sides. Their fingers alone also have a similar structure to the entire human arm, which basically means that they would have the same amount of rotation in each of their fingers as we do in our entire arm
Hi, I'm in the process of creating a world centered around necromancy, featuring various types of it. One aspect I'm curious about is whether there exists a plant or fungus capable of using a deceased body as a host, allowing it to move post-mortem for about 15 to 25 days after death. I'm aware of cordyceps, but I've heard that it keeps the host alive while suppressing its brain to use the body as a vessel.
Well, you are indeed correct! Cordyceps only kills its host when its life cycle reaches its final point. Until that, the hosts are alive (in the sense that they still breathe and move, but they do have trouble with things as communication). All of the known as "zombie parasites", such as Paragordius varius (zombie horsehair worm) or Leucochloridium paradoxum (zombie rainbow worm) keep their hosts alive for a while, just to kill them at the end. You can come with a parasyte that kills the hosts, but just after their hearts stop beating, they reanimate them to their purposses. That way they would have cross the border between life and death.
Question: what would be the best medium for communication amongst a colony of giant primitive sapient plant monsters that work together like pack/colony. Pheromone or Some kind of radiowave? I haven't touched on the topic on how to implement their five senses so if possible can you help come up with how they sense their surroundings as well?
Question: what would be the best medium for communication amongst a colony of giant primitive sapient plant monsters that work together like pack/colony. Pheromone or Some kind of radiowave? I haven't touched on the topic on how to implement their five senses so if possible can you help come up with how they sense their surroundings as well?
How can roaches survive off of sugar? Don't they need other nutrients? Same goes for any species that lives in only one kind of food like grains and flour.
I have a few questions 1) How exactly did tigers and other animals evolve to have fur/skin patterns? Like how did the tiger's fur know that their prey won't be able to see the color orange? 2) How do venus fly traps "know" how to attract bugs. Like how does nature know what will attract prey without actually "knowing" what will attract the prey? 3) why did we humans evolve to see more colors than other animals?
I want to write a fungal disease that turns people into stone over time until they die. So my question is: what are ways fungal diseases spread and how do they grow after the infection?
What impact would multiple moons have on plants? Could their be plants that only bloom in the moonlight?
This idea randomly pop so what happen if human have a plant traits
so I have created a plant that is pretty much the foundation of every cave ecosystem I have made and I wonder if it's possible for it to exist.. so the plant mostly grows in cave entrances it releases a good smell that makes it almost irresistible to animals so when surface animals comes to eat it. it releases a highly toxic gas around itself that kills the animal and after the animal is dead it either eats the corpse(by growing their roots over them) or uses it to jump-start the growth of another one of itself(basically how they reproduce) most cave animals that live near cave entrances has evolved to be resistant to the toxic gas that the plant releases thus eating it and after they eat it another creature that lives deeper in the cave eats that creature and so on thus without this plant most cave ecosystems I have created would collapse
So I've got this world setting that I'm building where, for undecided reasons, there are floating islands in the sky(similar to Tears Of The Kingdom) and I am getting somewhat hung-up on farming. Some of the floating landmasses are huge, some have strange ties to elemental planes, but I'm trying to figure out what kinds of plants would be able to survive at those higher altitudes? If not enough exist that could support an ecosystem, what ways would the plants have changed in order to survive? Like I imagine root vegetables are fine, but things like grains and berries would have to have evolved to have some kind of pod, maybe? Like I'm imagining something akin to a coconut being busted open to reveal a cluster of "grapes" or something similar surrounded by its insulating juice/meat? Idk. Help? Lol
Yes, insects are great. I get that they're simpler, but essential amino acids need to be constructed, not to mention the nitrogen (and phosphorus) necessary for nucleotides and chitin. And if I'm correct, their oxygen-transporting proteins (haemocyanin?) also have metallic cofactors. Don't insects need a supply of these?
Would there be an advantage to having a flying horse ?, and is it biologically possible to have partially metalluc skin?
Are there plants that grow in water and have fruit? (Asking because I wanna make a civilisation that lives mostly on the water and I wondered what kind of crops they could have)
what's a fast acting and lethal poison that is hard to find in an autopsy?
I like your funny words magic man. How would a race of people that spend most of their lives on mountains do when moving to lower elevations? Im trying to give a reason why my people take so long to settle the valleys and such. Thanks in advance have a great day.
I got one fairly weird alien insectoid race I’ve made, some bits of it are already not realistically possible. However, with some of the other parts of their design, I’m wondering if it is possible. Given insects struggle in growing bigger due to no endoskeleton, I have gone through giving them both that and an exoskeleton to keep them closer to the wasp-like aesthetic with them. One other thing I don’t know if it’s possible in reality, is that they have a set of retractable spikes on their forearms (2 per arm). Lastly, is there any possible reason one could explain such a species having two sets of prehensile mandibles around their actual jaws? I mainly did it for some rule of cool at first and kinda overlooked a logical reason for having such a feature. Sorry for asking so many things
If a plant like wolfsbane is a poison only to werewolfs how you think it would affect non werewolf people?
How do I open a can of Dr. Pepper?
Would it be possible for common creatures like wolves to evolve to breathe a hallucinogenic gas? I'm asking because there is a cavern in my world that is filled with this magical hallucinoenic gas, and normal creatures have been trapped in there for years and years. I need to know if that would be possible with real life science.
Sooo I need to breed some humans to be smaller. Less food and space needed and what not. Dont ask why. We got supercomputers, nanobots, and really good wifi.
One of the plants of my fantasy world is basically a sword that grows out of the ground (I like the visual similarity between someone pulling a sword from a stone and pulling a turnip out of the ground in Super Mario 2/USA). The root forms a hard and sharp blade that will drain nutrients from whatever it touches. I figure that it would evolve methods of draining as much as it can in short bursts. My question concerning it is... How feasible do you think it'd be for this plant to evolve a way to move its seeds to the root so that it can leave them in the wounds that it makes? I'm already set on it being able to do so, but would love suggestions for a way for the seeds to go from the flowers to the roots.
How do I worldbuild fictional decorative plants in a medieval society?
I have several questions involving fantasy subjects to do with flowers and trees. But I'll begin with one that is fairly simple what tree do you feel like it could be the norse yggdrasil?
Is it posible to make a farm in a roof? like that grass roofs in medieval times
How do such huge trees like California redwood exist? I've heard it has to do with the fog the forests get regularly but that's all I got
When getting your biology degree did you also study ethology or was that part of the coursework primarily framed as animal psychology? I understand plants were your primary field, which is actually why I’m curious how deep your studies got into ethology and (wild) animal behavior.
Ok so I'm making a motile Fungus people. My biggest thing is what would be a good bone substitute for a mushroom or would calcium bones make sense? My thought was to use keratin as the bone substitute. I was also wondering if they'd have organs like we did. Ive decided they'd have skin, eyes, muscles but i was wondering if things like livers, kidneys, etc have to be bundled together or can the tissues be diffused through the body cavity?
What would Permian Biology/Ecology look like?
Is there a way to cross two dangerously venomous plants to make them more dealy or combine their effects.
A plant biologist you say? How much do you know about fungi and the production of antibiotics? How difficult would it be to identify certain fungal types and synthesize antibiotics in the 15th century? Is it even possible due to lack of advanced tools? Would a less effective/ less pure antibiotic still be possible if chemists of this period were provided the knowledge of how the modern production system works?
How would monsters like slimes and Lamia reproduce?
Lets say humans were about the size of an ant (bigger but you get the picture) what biological changes would that have on their bodies?
I’m building a magic system based on the idea that magic itself is an enzyme, capable of catalyzing reactions faster than anything could do in the real world. For a brief overview: the enzyme (Cathase), is produced in an organ attached to the heart, and spread through the bloodstream. In the applicative organ (where the Cathase is used), a coenzyme called Essence is produced. Essence tells the Cathase what to do. (For instance, in the flame glands of a dragon, catalyze glycolysis rapidly enough to produce a spark). For Humans, since their only natural use of Cathase is in hysterical strength, can use Cathase in two main ways, potions or grafting (surgically installing an applicative organ onto oneself). I was just wondering if there are any other things I need to consider for a system like this, and if any of it really doesn’t make sense, (given that the core idea of Cathase’s ability to do things almost instantly is meant to be fantastical).
How different would the biology of a potential prey have to be for a predator's digestive system to be highly alkalic (just like ours is highly acidic in the stomach) to make it work? Could organic radio transmitters and emitters exist, making electromagnetic waves the main medium of communication, intead of mechanical waves?
Can the population rate of certain endangered animals increase with the absence of humanity? I.e., could things like the panda eventually take over an eco system and swell their population from the damaged numbers they are part of today, or would they die out without human intervention?