Spec Evo - Tumblr Posts
Also someone asked me what's up with their horns. My email on the site is all wonky and I'm not verified so I can't respond directly, so I hope this works!
The horns, while looking similar to antlers, actually are more similar to the classic bovine horns. Most dragon horns have a bony core and a keratin sheath, though the size of both vary from type to type. In the case of mountain dragons, the bone is mostly in the main horn, with little nubbins that lead into the tines. The horns above and in front of the eye though are mostly bone.
I totally forgot that I drew this a couple weeks ago and then never shared it so uh….
MOUNTAIN DRAGON BLAST
This male Black-shouldered mountain dragon (Mahannparvatotyrannus nirgahumera- meaning black shouldered great mountain lord) is currently displaying his might, either as an aggressive sign towards a rival or as a defensive sign against a larger dragon.
Mountain dragons are some of the largest dragons in Murrellia, though some true dragons are heavier, and there may be one or two coastal dragons with longer wingspans, and the Tiamat is longer,but a mountain dragon is still massive.
Mountain dragons hunt smaller dragons, large dinosaurs and mammals, and other megafauna. They are highly territorial, with one male and female often sharing a territory.
Nests are made deep in mountain caves and kept warm by their parent’s ambient temperature. Around 20-30 eggs are laid, and once they hatch, adults care for them for about the first year of their lives. By then, the young are about the size of a man and venture out of their parents’ cave to fend for themselves. Young begin life hunting smaller prey than adults, chasing goats across the mountains and stalking deer in the forests and foothills. Young are tolerated in their parents territory until they are a little over half-sized, when they begin to hunt the same prey as adults.
Adults hunt by soaring above and diving upon prey, using the force and speed to knock them over and crush them, and if that doesn’t kill them, a mountain dragon’s powerful jaws will.
While full grown mountain dragons largely ignore people and even large livestock, juvenile and especially sub-adult mountain dragons are especially dangerous, being large and unruly. Mountain dragons living near settlements often have their young culled.
While mountain dragons are fierce and territorial and the means of many myths, they are largely benign and even pleasant to be around if you give them space. Some small towns and settlements have been known to set up in the territories of mountain dragons to defend themselves from other large dragons that hunt them, their livestock, and their food stores. Mountain dragon lairs are also often full of bats and other small cave dwellers that seek their warmth. Even large mammals, such as bears and sloths, have been found to live in the smaller side caverns and tunnels.
The idea that dragons collect treasure in their lairs actually comes from an old form of worship some regions used to perform where they would bring gold and food and other gifts to the mountain dragon they lived under. Dragons can be shocklingly intelligent, and there are several anecdotes of villagers swearing that “their” dragon recognized them and saved them from animal attacks or other dangers. Whether these are true or not has yet to be determined, but the stories are frequent and spread out enough through space and time that they may have some merit. This being said, there are also plenty of stories of people getting in their personal space and being burned to crisp, so perhaps it is best to simply treat these animals with respect.
My elves might be unconventional, but I made them long-nosed/horned bugs. They look mostly human, but are pale, have long noses and ear cannals instead of ears.
Anatomically they have an exoskeleton instead of what we have, so on close inspection you might notice splits on joints of their limbs. They breath through pores on their chest where they also keep their vestigial middle pair of limbs.
I also gave them a culture based in unique identities and their expression. Like many insect species they often communicate in gestures and dances, creating famous elven circles in open fields.
Must also add that my elves are a bit more mythology/folklore based rather then classical fantasy.
Elves (Speculative Biology)
If elves were real, what do you think they’d descend from? Personally I find them being a subspecies to be a little bit boring. Please lmk!! I’m considering for my fantasy world
(Image ID: Four sketches of speculative biology creatures.
The first image is a few sketches of headsplitters and parvae, aka human-imitating aliens.
The second image is sketches of a baby fringid, a bipedal sophont that lives in cold weather. It looks like a mix between a baby chicken and a mammal.
The third image is a baby fringid being held in the arms of a human much like a hen would be. It is slightly bigger than a hen.
The fourth image is of a whistler person (the sophont on the headsplitter's home world) going to work, with its two children trailing behind it and a parva on a leash. End ID)
Headsplitters and Parvae are from one open species creation and Fringids are from another! I know I haven't posted the latter on here since I haven't been working on it actively but if you would like to see more of that, tell me!
astute of you to pick up of the hurdle that firestarting presents! but I promise you, fire is not a universal keystone for tool-using sapience. let’s look at it this way: what did early hominids use fire for?
cooking food - octopi don’t necessarily need to do that. if they really felt like it, they could strategically sun-dry and store fish onshore (octopi can survive out of water for significant periods of time!)
providing light and warmth - octopi have much better low-light vision than we do, so again, they don’t need fire for that.
fending off predators - octopi have the most advanced biological camouflage in the world and lack bones. they can hide extremely effectively, and if worst comes to worst they have ink to provide cover during an escape.
metallurgy - this one is more of an issue, as fire is necessary to produce the vast temperatures that smelting and forging common metals (iron, nickel, copper, etc) require. however, there’s more than one way around this! of course they could just come onto land to do their metallurgy, but there are a few metals/metalloids that are malleable at relatively low temperatures (i.e. underwater); notably, aluminum, zinc, and lead. but who says metals are the only way to make advanced tools...?
two words for you: artificial selection. due to the fact that metallurgy (and, later on, electricity) is a technology that isn’t feasible underwater, it would make much more sense to selectively breed other organisms to be living tools. they might start by carefully cultivating a few generations of clams to produce hatchet-shaped shells, but given time, resources, and the right base stock, the possibilities are virtually endless, especially once they unlock the secrets of direct genetic engineering. as far as we can tell, the psychology of octopi is extremely alien to that of humans, and from what I’ve read they show a remarkable amount of patience, which is needed to achieve significant progress in this toolmaking method. can you imagine it? vast biopunk metropoli sprawling across the ocean floor...!
Octopus filmed changing colours while sleeping.
Wayne Douglas Barlowe
Rebageling again because I found this sketch I did a while back! This is a species of meter-long barracuda-like macropredator which lives in the Europan ocean in the Astra Planeta canon.
Because I included the lithopanspermia hypothesis in this setting, the Europan biosphere is descended from a handful of hardy microbial organisms which originated on Earth in the Carboniferous and were transplanted via impact ejecta.
This particular species and its branch of life are descended from rotifers, tiny animals which suck in food using water vortices! The Europan "rotifish" group have adapted their central trunk cuticle to be a hollow “fuselage” with ciliated coronae lining the interior surface in order to push water through the channels and over the gill surface... and provide propulsion. They are living jet engines.
It wrinkles my brain that Jupiter’s moon Europa has oceans that are sixty miles deep, while Earth’s oceans only reach seven miles deep at most. I’m willing to bet good money that there’s life in Europa’s oceans. Like five bucks. You hear me, NASA? I bet you five bucks that there’s life on Europa… Now that there’s money and reputation on the line, I bet they send a mission there real quick.
Spy's Spec-Bio Essentials
I honestly didn't mean to write a full-on essay, but I couldn't help myself -I love specbio, and the recent revival of interest in it makes me very happy. If you wanna just get right to the meat: normal links are highlighted blue, YouTube links are highlighted red.
Speculative biology has its roots as far back as Pliny the Elder and his Natural History, though most consider H.G. Wells to be the true grandfather of the genre with works such as War of the Worlds, The Time Machine, and Man of the Year Million. However, any speculative biologist worth their salt credits Dougal Dixon as the father of specbio as we know it today –especially since he is the man who coined the term! Dixon's books After Man, Man After Man, and The New Dinosaurs are considered the foundational works of modern specbio. So too is Wayne Barlowe's book Expedition.
While the original printings of these books are very expensive to acquire, After Man recently received a Kindle version, and Expedition has a very good documentary adaptation available in totality on YouTube. Another important work of early speculative biology was the Discovery Channel limited series The Future Is Wild, a documentary show exploring the possible futures of life on Earth in several million years' time.
With the rise of the internet, people interested in speculative biology –those few and far between– could share their thoughts and amateur works with each other. Online specbio hit its first height around the mid-aughts to early tens, featuring many notable works that were very influential to me personally when I joined the scene circa 2014. Unfortunately, right around when I joined there was a notable "mass extinction" –many of the more active and prominent figures of the specbio community left the web behind for various reasons, and thus the golden age ended.
In recent years, partially thanks to certain YouTube video essays on the classic projects, interest in speculative biology seems to have increased dramatically! I've taken to calling the current era the "specbio renaissance," and it makes me so happy to see new, younger people interested in this unique facet of creativity. In light of this I've created this master post of my personal recommendations of essential specbio works for new "speccers" to enjoy!
The specbio community has congregated on forums for decades. I personally joined the community via DeviantArt right around when the old ZetaBoards forum underwent a massive host shift and never participated on the forum all that much, but fortunately the old Speculative Evolution Forum is still up and still active!
For those who'd prefer a simpler way to keep up with current events in the specbio community, Astrovitae is a free e-magazine dedicated to contemporary spec. A product of the recent specbio renaissance, Astrovitae only has a handful of issues thus far but is already becoming a staple publication in the field.
I made this post to provide what I think is key information and important resources, but the SpecBio Wiki is a far more thorough companion to your journey into the world of speculative biology. As always, though: beware ye old Wiki Rabbit Hole!
Biblaridion's Alien Biospheres video series is an excellent entry point for anyone looking to learn the basics of specbio. It's a demo xenobiology project, with a heavy focus on the scientific concepts used in building up the world and its ecology.
Curious Archive's Alien Worlds video series is an excellent collection of bite-size examinations of various specbio projects, including several on this list!
Nemo Ramjet (C. M. Kösemen)'s Life on Snaiad is universally considered a classic work of speculative biology, started in the early days of the golden age of internet specbio. Snaiad is an alien planet, in its early days of human habitation, filled with strange lifeforms bearing two "heads."
Kösemen's other well-known classic work is Alltomorrows, a short ebook exploring hundreds of millions of years' worth of possible human evolution. Readers, be advised: this work contains extensive body horror and discussion of human extinction, both circumstantial and deliberate.
Sagan IV, originally created by Hydromancerx, is one of the oldest and most extensive specbio projects. Started as a simple artistic exercise on a forum in 2006, Sagan IV has evolved into a large, highly collaborative vision of an alien world inspired by the works of Carl Sagan. It is still ongoing today, and you can participate in their regular contests and activities!
Gert van Dijk's Furaha is another of the well-known classic specbio projects, and one of the few from the golden age that is still fully active. Furaha itself is an alien world orbiting Nu Phoenicis which harbors a fascinating native biosphere, built upon carefully-researched biomechanics. The site itself is laid out much like an encyclopedia, and the accompanying blog is a treasure trove of specbio know-how and community history!
Sunrise on Ilion, a xenobiology project by @supermalmoworld, is a personal favorite of mine. Ilion is a planet tidally locked to a red dwarf star, and its endemic lifeforms often challenge our expectations for Earth-like ecology. The website boasts extremely detailed information on the setting and its inhabitants, as well as in-universe articles and logs of the various human expeditions to this fascinating world. The project is still active on a very sporadic basis, at least as per blog entries.
Nereus is a xenobiology project created by Evan Black; another reasonably well-known golden age work but one that is unfortunately no longer active. The world of Nereus, orbiting the star Achird, teems with life unfamiliar to the humans which seek to adopt it as their home. Like many specbio projects it adopts a documentarian style, but there are plenty of nuggets of story tucked in the articles.
Serina is a contemporary speculative evolution project created by the legendary Sheather; it is what I would consider the holotype of the "seed-world" branch of specbio. Serina is a planet populated only by the descendants of the domestic canary (and a few other organisms like guppies, snails, ants, sunflowers, bamboo, algae, etc). The project digs deeply into the various unique niches of the world and the organisms that evolve to fill them, and in doing so mixes nature-documentarian style with some of the most compelling and emotionally engaging storytelling I have read in years.
These are just what I think are the essentials. There are numerous other fantastic projects, both contemporary and from years ago, that I would highly suggest investigating! Contemporary honorable mentions that personally inspire me include @alexriesart's birrin, @iguanodont's birgs, @jayrockin's Runaway to the Stars, Christian Cline's Teeming Universe, Keenan Taylor's Kaimere, and my friend Mičkin's Temere!
Some bovids of Lishel.
The western savanna is home to Keerso, Vans impala and, Tapper impalas. Keerso are one of the most populous animals in the area, leading to herds being domesticated for meat. Vans impala are seen as blessed animals, and killing them is looked down on.
The mountainous eastern coast is home Guinin, and Tapin. Both have been domesticated, wild populations still exist naturally. Guinin are often used in hauling due to their hefty builds. Tapin are fast, and sure footed. They can jump along tough terrain with ease and are often used for general transport. These species as historically important to the area.
This was meant to be a warmup sketch anyway I really like this game.
So... My first actual post on this account! This is Rilicai, a Kerilone (race of vaguely equine sophonts) that I've been designing recently. She lives on a swampy planet orbiting a M-Class star.
Four Kerilone outfits for various occasions. Dyes are not very common and quite hard to make, so most everyday clothes are undyed as in the winter outfit. However, red and blue dye - red from a plant, blue from various shellfish - are available. Kerilone courting takes place in the summer. The Kerilone are protandrous hermaphrodites, which means they all hatch male and gain the ability to become female upon reaching maturity. Females are larger than males, with darker colouring, and are less agile but stronger than males. Every year in winter the Kerilone shed their summer coats and grow new, white and fluffy winter coats (not shown in the picture), as well as losing their sexual characteristics as well as their ability to reproduce - the winters are very harsh, so all of their energy is needed simply to survive. After the winter, young adults can become either male or female: they have a modicum of choice in the matter, but it is largely down to environmental influences. However, as they age they lose the ability to become male and remain female for the rest of their lives. Like most Earth species they do not go through a menopause, however the average amount of chicks a Kerilone will rear in their lifetime is only about ten.
Rilicai in the rain. Inspired by how rainy it is where I live at the moment. Rain is pretty common where she lives as well, but she doesn’t normally go to the forest - most of her species live in or on mountains.
This little guys part of that world building project i mentioned, in the same family as the parrog. I think im gonna call it something like a “finchster” some kind of combo of finch and hamster.
Spec Evo Project: Maya 1b
Part 1: The Sophonts
Some background Info:
My spec evo world Maya 1b or Halahal, it's a planet a bit smaller than earth but with a much higher eccentricity and axial tilt than ours that leads to a relatively cold, dry world with extreme seasonal shifts, this project is about exploring how the biology of the creatures and subsequently the culture of the sophont species would work in such an environment
Enough about the world, here we go
These guys are my main sophont species, one that I've tentatively named "Butterfly Hawks", part of the Artiopoditheria (transl. Even-Legged Beast) phylum that contains creatures having 12,6 or 2 legs
The Butterfly-Hawks are a group of dodecapods that have developed powered flight and hunt in packs among the grassy plains of their planet and are starting to display the first signs of sapience
Alright onto anatomy
1) Eyestalks
They possess one pair of retractable eyestalks on the anterior part of the head covered in "fuzz" that serve the fuction of both mechanoreceptors and to protect the eyes
This feature grants them a wide range of vision, a characteristic of their phylum
The head is a bit smaller than pictured here, the fuzz accounts for about 40℅ of its size
2) Antennae
Instead of an ear, they have four feathery antennae-like structures present near the eye stalks
These mainly serve the function of mechanoreceptors, picking up vibrations, auditory & pheromone signals and could be moved around and adjusted like the pinnae of cats or dogs
The antennae are also moved around to help communicate with other members of the species
They are mainly dark in colour covered with spot like designs to facilitate communication by making the it easier to identify and read the movements
3) Feeding Appendages
All Artiopods possess a pair of feeding appendages to capture and ensnare prey and which also often aid in defense often situated above or surrounding the opening to the proboscis
The Butterfly-Hawks possess quite a robust pair of feeding appendages with long inward curved spikes(not pictured here) to quickly kill and tear apart prey
As past of the body it is also covered with picnofibres to help insulate the body
4) Forewings
The first pair of limbs in hexapods is modified to form the first wing in Butterfly-Hawks and their relatives
These are the secondary wings and are slightly rounded to help steer and maneuver the body while flying
Each wing also possesses three fingers
Thus, when not flying, the fore wings are also used to grasp and to manipulate tools
The fore wings surround the opening to the proboscis and also sometimes help in further breaking down food to "swallow"
5) Midwings
The midwings are formed by the fusion of the 2nd, 3rd & the 4th pair of limbs in the dodecapods, three fingers curl inwards to form the wing and the other three are used for griping and standing when not in flight
These are the primary set of wings, broad, muscular and used to generate flight
The Butterfly-Hawks have an average wingspan of about 7 feet
These wings possess an splotchy pattern that is dark at the extremities and yellow or whitish near the centre
This splotchy pattern helps members of a pack to identify one another like seen in the multicolored coats of Painted dogs, and like human fingerprints the pattern on each Butterfly-Hawk is specific to that individual only
6) Hindwings
The hindwings are formed by fusion of the 5th & 6th pair of limbs in dodecapods
Longer and pointer in shape than the forewings this set of secondary wings play a greater part in balancing and steering analogous to the tails of earth birds
While similar in function to bird tails, they have a greater range of mobility and could be unfurled and adjusted to make flight easier
The hindwings are held up in most situations while flying or walking as the large midwings provide a stable enough surface but the could be extended down to provide extra stability to the body while perching or walking
7) Spiracles
Butterfly-Hawks like other artiopods, possess two pairs of spiracles in the upper side of their body, one pair near the forewings and the other near the hindwings
Work alternatively to inhale and exhale air
As such the respiratory system of all Artiopods is distinct from the digestive system making it a more efficient method of respiration than the one humans possess
Aaaaaand we're done for now
This was a very general overview of the physiology of the Butterfly-Hawks, the next part I'll probably upload will shown the other major phylum on this planet, the Perissopoditheria (or the Odd-Legged Beast) in the meantime enjoy this Butterfly-Hawk sitting and thanks for reading
SPEC EVO
Maya 1b Part 2: General Anatomy
1) Artiopodithera
A) The 3 Artiopod Classes
(Sizes not actually upto scale but kinda relative)
B) i) Adult Anatomy
ii) Nymph Anatomy
2) Perissopodithera
A) The 3 Perissopod Classes
B) Perissopod Anatomy
Some concepts of "trees"on Maya1b
Essentially, all "trees" on this world are structures formed by symbiotic association between algae and a mass of colonial organisms, which has the added benefit of giving them a lot of these "plants" (especially smaller ones) nifty mixotrophic mode of nutrition, a trait pretty beneficial in the ever changing climate of this world
In essence this means, if things get really tough, the "plants" may in fact start becoming mobile and actively start hunting animals, blurring the lines between what constitutes a plant or not
How much of this behavior a plant shows varies from time to time & species to species
Oh this is how they're coloured btw
There's also a whole other story about their reproduction which is modelled after cnidarians and mosses buuuut thats a story for another time
MAYA 1b:
Updated Perissopod Body Plans
Here are the new ones
Vs the old ones
The old ones looked a bit samey not really justifying why I was calling them "classes" so I decided to make the body plans of each class more distinct
Since they come from a squid-like ancestor with a radially symmetric body I've made it so that you can gradually see it transition to being more bilateral
Also a few changes to their general anatomy but I'll post updated ref sheets some time later
MAYA 1b:
The Planet
The planet that the aliens in this project inhabit is an Uncapped Cryoplanet, it could be understood as an inversion of Earth, a Capped Aquaplanet ie ice on its poles and oceans in the middle
Therefore an Uncapped Cryoplanet has ice along it's equator and frost free oceans & "jungles" at the poles
Such an arrangement is a result of mainly 3 things:
Obliquity: Beyond 54° of axial tilt, the poles receive greater solar input than the equators, Maya 1b has an axial tilt of 70°, such a extreme tilt leads to the formation of permanent ice sheets around the equator
Rotation Rate: The planets rotates slightly faster than Earth (average day around ~ 20 hrs) , which causes a more oblong shape, with higher elevations at the equator and the poles closer to the crust
Continents: The continental arrangement is such that multiple long mountain chains exist along the equator further leading to ice formation
All these things combined together give rise to the odd arrangement of this world
The planet also has much higher eccentricity than Earth, which gives it a more elliptical orbit, that combined with the high axial tilt leads to some extreme seasonal variation across the year
Given the geography of Maya 1b, sophont groups from both Perissopodithera & Artiopodithera evolved separately and independent of one another, each pole is it's own unique biosphere, for long, each pole wasn't even aware of the other's existence and the unique life that it hosted but that would change soon when two brothers venture out from the North Pole to the South, changing the course of history and initiating contact between the two biospheres & their inhabitants......for better or worse
MAYA 1b:
North Pole
Heres a map of the North pole/northern supercontinent (or what remains free of the ice actually) where the Artiopods evolved
The specifics might be subject to change but I'm happy with it as of rn