At the end of each group of nereids I put together a little page about their common habitat. I've finally done so with the ballerina forest, an environment that shares traits with to both temperate and boreal forests, along with its own unique features.
There is precedent on Earth for rapidly moving plants, whether it's to trap insect prey or to protect leaves. There is also precedent on Nereus for rapid movement, given the tension-based methods of seed dispersal among many ballistaflor clades. However, nothing on Earth or nereus matches the scale or versatility of that exhibited by coryphee trees. Vascular chambers that run the length of the branches control their turgor, or overall rigidity, and tensile fibers help to support their extended weight and to return back to a neutral closed position. Mechanically, the concept seems to make sense, and nothing too obvious seems to contradict it, so I ran with the idea.
But my research into this feature was not extensive, and at some future point I may have to refine or completely remove this life form from the nereophyte cladogram, a disorganized jumble of clades that aren't nearly as ironed out as the nereozoans. Plant research for this project hasn't been nearly as extensive, mostly because I've mostly only used them as unique (and possibly fantastic) backdrops for my aliens. Any experts out there are welcome to analyze the coryphee as I've described them to help me understand how they work... or how they don't. ;)
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Ballerina Forest 3: Making Things Different
When I come up with ideas for nereid species there are several goals I try to reach:
- Each species is reasonably plausible given current scientific understanding. Given my limited knowledge of biology I think I've had varying degrees of success in this category, but I leave it to you, the reader, to make your own judgment on that account.
- Each species is conceptually unique. While I occasionally explore incidents of convergent evolution I also want to reflect the diversity of both ecological niches and the strategies that life can use to fill them. If every nereid I drew was basically a super-cool apex predator that could kick the butt of all others then Nereus just wouldn't be that believable or interesting.
- Each species is visually unique. There will always be resemblance based on evolutionary relations and convergent similarities, but I hope that each nereid can be a visually engaging addition to the list. I mean, who wants to look at a dozen pages of artwork that are essentially the same thing.
Sometimes these three criteria work against each other, and I have to make decisions that fulfill one at the expense of another. This post talks about two nereids that have given me such challenges.
The snow kytta is a heliavian: radially symmetrical flyer. I already have two heliavians (the spur and cliff whistler) that exhibit wildly different methods of powered flight; I knew this one would be like the spur, using two of its wings while the third is held behind as a stabilizing tail. The question I then had was how to make this flyer different. Apart from the habitat, which is much colder than that of the spur, I wanted to show an example of specialization that could make the snow kytta stand out from the crowd; given the carnivorous nature of its clade I looked to vultures, hawks, and other birds of prey as inspiration for behavior, but it turned out that the cold setting would prove to be a familiar obstacle.
Almost a year ago I faced a similar problem, putting hair on several nereids that were previously bare. I chose another route with the snow kytta, setting aside the opportunity to make nereid hair an even more paraphyletic feature in favor of a more nebulous explanation for an ectothermic creature's survival in a high altitude climate. A goal may suffer for the sake of others, but I still think it's an interesting enough nereid.
The other nereid of this post, and the featured apex predator of the ballerina forest is the manticore. I had come up with the basic concept of this creature long ago, so the manticore has a relatively old vintage. At least the idea of the manticore has been around for a while; there were two major changes that came about in the process of its inception.
The first change was one of habitat. I had originally placed the creature in the savanna biome, a clear reflection of its lion inspiration, but when I was looking for a place to put my flag raptor I realized that two apex predators would be too much for that group, at least for the first 100 nereids (the "expansion pack" will see additions to that biome). So I shifted the manticore to the ballerina forest to fill the apex slot here.
The other change was the name. I may still use the original name for another nereid, so I'm not going to go around blabbing it here. ;) But as I started looking around for images of Earth animals I could use as visual reference I came across the manticore. Not only is it visually close to my nereid but it has an interesting set of mythological luggage that I can mine for my own creature. The discovery of a catchy Greek name for the mythological creature (baricos) was the clincher, so I started shuffling around the names, details, and concocted a scenario of xenobiologists making a connection between a fascinating new predator and a mythological template.
And that's it for the ballerina forest nereids. I really didn't expect to write that much about two nereids that only have about 600 words of "official" explanation between them. Next time I'll cover the biome itself so I'll see you next time! Same Nereus-time, same Nereus-channel!
- Each species is reasonably plausible given current scientific understanding. Given my limited knowledge of biology I think I've had varying degrees of success in this category, but I leave it to you, the reader, to make your own judgment on that account.
- Each species is conceptually unique. While I occasionally explore incidents of convergent evolution I also want to reflect the diversity of both ecological niches and the strategies that life can use to fill them. If every nereid I drew was basically a super-cool apex predator that could kick the butt of all others then Nereus just wouldn't be that believable or interesting.
- Each species is visually unique. There will always be resemblance based on evolutionary relations and convergent similarities, but I hope that each nereid can be a visually engaging addition to the list. I mean, who wants to look at a dozen pages of artwork that are essentially the same thing.
Sometimes these three criteria work against each other, and I have to make decisions that fulfill one at the expense of another. This post talks about two nereids that have given me such challenges.
The snow kytta is a heliavian: radially symmetrical flyer. I already have two heliavians (the spur and cliff whistler) that exhibit wildly different methods of powered flight; I knew this one would be like the spur, using two of its wings while the third is held behind as a stabilizing tail. The question I then had was how to make this flyer different. Apart from the habitat, which is much colder than that of the spur, I wanted to show an example of specialization that could make the snow kytta stand out from the crowd; given the carnivorous nature of its clade I looked to vultures, hawks, and other birds of prey as inspiration for behavior, but it turned out that the cold setting would prove to be a familiar obstacle.
Almost a year ago I faced a similar problem, putting hair on several nereids that were previously bare. I chose another route with the snow kytta, setting aside the opportunity to make nereid hair an even more paraphyletic feature in favor of a more nebulous explanation for an ectothermic creature's survival in a high altitude climate. A goal may suffer for the sake of others, but I still think it's an interesting enough nereid.
The other nereid of this post, and the featured apex predator of the ballerina forest is the manticore. I had come up with the basic concept of this creature long ago, so the manticore has a relatively old vintage. At least the idea of the manticore has been around for a while; there were two major changes that came about in the process of its inception.
The first change was one of habitat. I had originally placed the creature in the savanna biome, a clear reflection of its lion inspiration, but when I was looking for a place to put my flag raptor I realized that two apex predators would be too much for that group, at least for the first 100 nereids (the "expansion pack" will see additions to that biome). So I shifted the manticore to the ballerina forest to fill the apex slot here.
The other change was the name. I may still use the original name for another nereid, so I'm not going to go around blabbing it here. ;) But as I started looking around for images of Earth animals I could use as visual reference I came across the manticore. Not only is it visually close to my nereid but it has an interesting set of mythological luggage that I can mine for my own creature. The discovery of a catchy Greek name for the mythological creature (baricos) was the clincher, so I started shuffling around the names, details, and concocted a scenario of xenobiologists making a connection between a fascinating new predator and a mythological template.
And that's it for the ballerina forest nereids. I really didn't expect to write that much about two nereids that only have about 600 words of "official" explanation between them. Next time I'll cover the biome itself so I'll see you next time! Same Nereus-time, same Nereus-channel!
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Ballerina Forest 2: Motherly Love
The latest two updates complete my current list of order Eumaia of the vehoprolians. I may add more to the list at some future point, but for the time being I can put the lid on this clade.
I didn't realize this when I first put together the species lineup for the ballerina forest biome, but these updates share a strong maternal instinct. While that made this post easy to title it also meant that I had to put some extra work into making sure these two species had traits that set themselves apart.
The basket carm is a pachyfronsid, and since I've already featured two of those it only compounded my goals for a conceptually unique nereid. When I run into this problem I usually consider the niche I'm trying to fill and look at creatures from Earth that have similar ecological roles. While the colossus carm was inspired by mastodons and the emperor carm emulates savanna herd beasts, the basket carm is a temperate forest browser, much like deer and elk, so I drew upon them for inspiration. I also thought that, unlike the other carms who only have one or two offspring at a time, basket carms should have large litters. That led to thoughts about where all those weak-legged young could be carried and voila! A new and different nereid!
The other species, the tempered chuck, is an idea I'd had for some time. It's a common assertion in circles that aspire to plausible xenobiology that aliens with mammaries can't exist; all those apparent mammals we see in Star Wars, Star Trek, Avatar, and almost all other sci-fi just couldn't happen. Given the endless evolutionary possibilities on alien worlds I can accept this assertion, but I feel that most who make it leave out a very important qualifier: it may be true that an alien with obvious mammalian features isn't likely, but an alien who gives birth to live young which it then suckles through convergent means, to me at least, doesn't seem like it's outside the realm of possibility. The tempered chuck is my attempt to explore this convergence; I'll leave it up to you, the reader, to determine my success.
I didn't realize this when I first put together the species lineup for the ballerina forest biome, but these updates share a strong maternal instinct. While that made this post easy to title it also meant that I had to put some extra work into making sure these two species had traits that set themselves apart.
The basket carm is a pachyfronsid, and since I've already featured two of those it only compounded my goals for a conceptually unique nereid. When I run into this problem I usually consider the niche I'm trying to fill and look at creatures from Earth that have similar ecological roles. While the colossus carm was inspired by mastodons and the emperor carm emulates savanna herd beasts, the basket carm is a temperate forest browser, much like deer and elk, so I drew upon them for inspiration. I also thought that, unlike the other carms who only have one or two offspring at a time, basket carms should have large litters. That led to thoughts about where all those weak-legged young could be carried and voila! A new and different nereid!
The other species, the tempered chuck, is an idea I'd had for some time. It's a common assertion in circles that aspire to plausible xenobiology that aliens with mammaries can't exist; all those apparent mammals we see in Star Wars, Star Trek, Avatar, and almost all other sci-fi just couldn't happen. Given the endless evolutionary possibilities on alien worlds I can accept this assertion, but I feel that most who make it leave out a very important qualifier: it may be true that an alien with obvious mammalian features isn't likely, but an alien who gives birth to live young which it then suckles through convergent means, to me at least, doesn't seem like it's outside the realm of possibility. The tempered chuck is my attempt to explore this convergence; I'll leave it up to you, the reader, to determine my success.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Ballerina Forest 1: Shifting Gears
I've decided, for the time being, to use this space as something of a "creator's commentary." I'll talk about the latest updates on the project, what's inspired them, and some noteworthy decisions I made in the creative process. This is kind of what I've been doing with the blog any way, but I'm going to be more proactive with it.
With that said, I've started work on the second to last biome: the ballerina forest. Details about local flora are still in early development, but the general idea is a forest of lithe trees that twist and pose to maximize their exposure to sunlight. I imagine them resembling graceful dancers, but that may change as the design refines somewhat.
The first nereid of the group is the fulgie. It's the last nidovalve of my first batch of species, and is also closely related to another nereid, the flashbulb. I'm noticing now that I approach my 100 species benchmark that a lot of the species are in the same genus as-- or at least very closely related to-- previously featured nereids. This introduces some interesting challenges, such as how I can develop a species that closely resembles others while making them unique, interesting, and worth giving attention within the project.
What sets the fulgie apart from the crowd is its resemblance to flowers. I came up with this feature before I decided nereid plants should be flowerless-- at least as we know flowers on Earth. The concept sat as I worked on other species, but now that I came to it again it occurred to me that resembling a flower would be a useless adaptation in a world without flowers! Undaunted, I switched gears with the concept: now the flowery appearance isn't to hide, but to be seen; that they resembles flowers on a bush is more a result of terrestrial eyes than nereid evolutionary pressures.
The jester chaparro is the other new nereid of the batch. From the beginning I imagined it being the laughing hyena of the family, and drew on the mischief of corvids for inspiration. As the reader you'll have to make your own judgment on how I did with it. After I posted it, the folks at SE pointed out to me that kritocauds appear to have no pupil in their eyes. Well, that's a very good thing to point out. If I can't figure out a way to justify the apparent lack (a pupil so small it's not easily noticed, multiple tiny pupils in a compound-like eye, or some strange reflection of light that makes the pupils always seem red) then I might just have to chalk it up to artistic license and/or think about inserting pupils at some point in the future.
That's all I have right for right now. I have two more nereids in pencilwork and written outlines at this point, so keep a lookout for 'em!
With that said, I've started work on the second to last biome: the ballerina forest. Details about local flora are still in early development, but the general idea is a forest of lithe trees that twist and pose to maximize their exposure to sunlight. I imagine them resembling graceful dancers, but that may change as the design refines somewhat.
The first nereid of the group is the fulgie. It's the last nidovalve of my first batch of species, and is also closely related to another nereid, the flashbulb. I'm noticing now that I approach my 100 species benchmark that a lot of the species are in the same genus as-- or at least very closely related to-- previously featured nereids. This introduces some interesting challenges, such as how I can develop a species that closely resembles others while making them unique, interesting, and worth giving attention within the project.
What sets the fulgie apart from the crowd is its resemblance to flowers. I came up with this feature before I decided nereid plants should be flowerless-- at least as we know flowers on Earth. The concept sat as I worked on other species, but now that I came to it again it occurred to me that resembling a flower would be a useless adaptation in a world without flowers! Undaunted, I switched gears with the concept: now the flowery appearance isn't to hide, but to be seen; that they resembles flowers on a bush is more a result of terrestrial eyes than nereid evolutionary pressures.
The jester chaparro is the other new nereid of the batch. From the beginning I imagined it being the laughing hyena of the family, and drew on the mischief of corvids for inspiration. As the reader you'll have to make your own judgment on how I did with it. After I posted it, the folks at SE pointed out to me that kritocauds appear to have no pupil in their eyes. Well, that's a very good thing to point out. If I can't figure out a way to justify the apparent lack (a pupil so small it's not easily noticed, multiple tiny pupils in a compound-like eye, or some strange reflection of light that makes the pupils always seem red) then I might just have to chalk it up to artistic license and/or think about inserting pupils at some point in the future.
That's all I have right for right now. I have two more nereids in pencilwork and written outlines at this point, so keep a lookout for 'em!
Sunday, October 17, 2010
A Bit of a Funk...
Well, the demands of college, work, and life in general are combining with a general lack of muse, and I'm having difficulty generating energy or ideas to put together my next batch of nereids. As usual, this will likely pass before too long, but I just thought I'd take advantage of the creative downtime to post here and just air out my Nereus-related thoughts...
First thing I should probably mention is that my ambitious goal of 100 nereozoans has expanded to a somewhat more ambitious 150. This was done mostly to better reflect the biodiversity of the different biomes (the savanna in particular, which currently has only five representative species), but it gives me an opportunity to round out the different phyla and classes. Factoring landmass percentage with an arbitrary but relatively informed biodiversity factor, I determined how many nereids should be in each biome. I discovered at this point that in some biomes I have more nereids than should proportionally be present, but I'm not about to get rid of any of them, so I had to just subtract those slots from other biomes. As usual, I pored over these numbers to a point that is probably beyond the interest of anyone else, so I'll just conclude with saying that the Lantern Forest will be getting 11 more nereids in it, the Sog Basin a whopping 19, the oceans will be increased by 15, and the savanna (the biome which clinched my decision to add more nereids to the list) will be getting five more. New representatives from most if not all nereozoan classes will be present.
I'm currently working on the "tide pool" biome, which may be given a more unique name as it develops. You can expect to see life that's similar to what's found in the terrestrial equivalent, but I hope I can at least present some ideas that are unique to nereid life. I also hope, as always, that they will be plausible enough to pass the scrutiny of those who view it...
...which I guess leads me to the other topic on my mind. Whenever I go through these perennial funks my mind often focuses on the negative, and the smallest things can fan the flames, as it were. The folks over at SE, bless their hearts, aren't completely responsible for my dissatisfaction with the site, but so often I feel like people are wasting time on irrelevant material, arguing for the sake of argument, and practicing internet behavior that I have a hard time condoning. Not for the first time, and perhaps not the last, I have inclinations to part company. Of course, every time I say that something keeps me around, so I doubt I'll be leaving any time soon, but there may come a day in the reasonable future when I move on from that site.
First thing I should probably mention is that my ambitious goal of 100 nereozoans has expanded to a somewhat more ambitious 150. This was done mostly to better reflect the biodiversity of the different biomes (the savanna in particular, which currently has only five representative species), but it gives me an opportunity to round out the different phyla and classes. Factoring landmass percentage with an arbitrary but relatively informed biodiversity factor, I determined how many nereids should be in each biome. I discovered at this point that in some biomes I have more nereids than should proportionally be present, but I'm not about to get rid of any of them, so I had to just subtract those slots from other biomes. As usual, I pored over these numbers to a point that is probably beyond the interest of anyone else, so I'll just conclude with saying that the Lantern Forest will be getting 11 more nereids in it, the Sog Basin a whopping 19, the oceans will be increased by 15, and the savanna (the biome which clinched my decision to add more nereids to the list) will be getting five more. New representatives from most if not all nereozoan classes will be present.
I'm currently working on the "tide pool" biome, which may be given a more unique name as it develops. You can expect to see life that's similar to what's found in the terrestrial equivalent, but I hope I can at least present some ideas that are unique to nereid life. I also hope, as always, that they will be plausible enough to pass the scrutiny of those who view it...
...which I guess leads me to the other topic on my mind. Whenever I go through these perennial funks my mind often focuses on the negative, and the smallest things can fan the flames, as it were. The folks over at SE, bless their hearts, aren't completely responsible for my dissatisfaction with the site, but so often I feel like people are wasting time on irrelevant material, arguing for the sake of argument, and practicing internet behavior that I have a hard time condoning. Not for the first time, and perhaps not the last, I have inclinations to part company. Of course, every time I say that something keeps me around, so I doubt I'll be leaving any time soon, but there may come a day in the reasonable future when I move on from that site.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Good Hair Day?
After much deliberation, and a lengthy hiatus due to college finals, I finally set out to rescue several chilly nereids. If it isn't apparent at this point, I'm trying to maintain a certain degree of plausibility with these creatures, which means that sometimes my aesthetic preferences for the project have to take a back seat to believability. Try as I have, I just couldn't justify a completely hairless Nereus, so many of the species in the colder biomes will now sport fur.
Since several of these species have already been drawn some reworking was called for. I balked at some of these at first, mostly because I was so pleased with the originals, but my muse took over and some truly spectacular fur patterns started to form in my mind. I'll get to them all one day, but in the meantime enjoy the six redrawn species:
Banded Conker. This is the one I least wanted to redraw. Thanks to feedback from the Speculative Evolution community it was made clear to me that even with their hyperactive metabolism the conkers would probably still freeze. The community also suggested a bison-like mantle pattern for the fur, but I felt that a 'mohawk' style of mane would be more artistically interesting for the species. If it still doesn't seem like there is enough fur on the conkers, then consider the individual strands of fur to be hollow, much like the polar bear, which gives even more insulation for the amount of fur grown.
Barmanou. I had some difficulty coming up with a pattern for these predators, and ended up turning to the barmanou's inspirational earth animals-- the gorilla and mountain lion-- for ideas. I also took the opportunity to correct what I always felt was a major flaw in the barmanou's design: its hind limb, stout and muscular as it is, was propped on top of a foot that rested on its knuckles. I conceived of this design to reflect genetic heritage with other europsids, but the more I thought about it the more I was convinced those digits would collapse under the barmanou's weight. So in the redraw I replaced the rear foot with a more traditional appendage.
Blueback Chaparro. This was another redraw I struggled with, and consequently left it for last. Even though this is a flying species I wanted to avoid feathers; draconiforms are already bird-like enough. So I turned to bats for inspiration of the fur design. I hope that it still retains the sleek aerodynamic design of the original as well as able to survive the cold continental highlands of Altai.
Colossus Carm. The obvious inspiration for this species' coat of fur is the wooly mammoth. There was concern expressed regarding exactly how the fur would lay along the body, but I think it all turned out surprisingly well. I left the head and feet relatively glabrous, but counter-current blood circulation can take care of extremities, and I felt that the area surrounding the nostrils would be somewhat hairless, especially in females; hair around these orifices would likely just get clogged and filthy.
Kitsune. Named after the mythical Japanese fox, this nereid always looked a little strange to me without fur. That's been remedied now, but there are still nothing that can be described as tails, something the namesake is known for. Oh well.
Pom. Ironically, this was the first nereid I redrew. I always knew it could benefit from a coat of mousy fur, but was maintaining a hairless aesthetics for nereids at the time. I used the pom as a sort of test subject (or guinea pig, if you're into puns) for a method of drawing fur in a Photoshop tutorial I found, and was so pleased with the results that I gave the redrawing project the full go-ahead.
In general I'm pleased with how the new images turned out, but you can draw your own conclusions. Have I solved the problem of giving subarctic species sufficient insulation? Are the redrawn nereids still artistically interesting? Or have my efforts for this little subproject been in vain?
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Long Silence and Hairless Insulation
Blogs have always been a tricky thing for me to keep updated. Thankfully, my site hasn't been so neglected. Content continues to accumulate, as if in some adamant protest against everything else going on in my life. I'm not going to give an itemized annotation for everything, as that would be a lot, so I'll just settle with saying I've had a lot of fun with this project so far, and hope to continue developing it to the best of my abilities.
One thing I will mention at this point, however. When I began the project, there were several design parameters I established to guide my creativity: tripedalism, mouths located somewhere other than near the brain and senses, and no hair. In their development and publication, two of these three criteria have had a certain degree of critical approval, but the third, hairlessness, has been regarded as one of the project's points of implausibility. The argument is that hair is such a simple structure to evolve that it would likely be present on extraterrestrials for insulation. I don't disagree with the probability, but it means going back and rethinking/redrawing several species I've already taken care of.
So I guess I've been trying to think up different ways that my endothermic nereids can combat loss of heat in environments where that's an issue. One idea I have cooking up is adapting a pair of lung-hearts (hey, they have six of them, who's going to miss two?) into some novel organs specialized for thermogenesis. In a nutshell, when things get cold they will kick into gear and pump hot blood into parts of the body to keep temperatures up. I'm not sure what kind of side effects or challenges there are for such an idea, but that's the idea I'm working with right now.
One thing I will mention at this point, however. When I began the project, there were several design parameters I established to guide my creativity: tripedalism, mouths located somewhere other than near the brain and senses, and no hair. In their development and publication, two of these three criteria have had a certain degree of critical approval, but the third, hairlessness, has been regarded as one of the project's points of implausibility. The argument is that hair is such a simple structure to evolve that it would likely be present on extraterrestrials for insulation. I don't disagree with the probability, but it means going back and rethinking/redrawing several species I've already taken care of.
So I guess I've been trying to think up different ways that my endothermic nereids can combat loss of heat in environments where that's an issue. One idea I have cooking up is adapting a pair of lung-hearts (hey, they have six of them, who's going to miss two?) into some novel organs specialized for thermogenesis. In a nutshell, when things get cold they will kick into gear and pump hot blood into parts of the body to keep temperatures up. I'm not sure what kind of side effects or challenges there are for such an idea, but that's the idea I'm working with right now.
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