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New animals

Venquia said:
Megaluirrel

With a different bone and muscle structure this design would allow for the quick agility described.

I'd like to see a different bone structure design, if possible, to show the viability of the 6-legs/8-legs trait. This might not be possible though. Here's why:

Even with 8 of them, the legs of the Bovinor needs to be massive (elephant-like). Remember that mass increases as the cube of the animal's length, while the strength of a leg is determined by the area of its cross section, which only grows as the square of the diameter. This is why you see ridiculously thick legs on the giant herbivorous dinosaurs. This is why the ant can get around on wire-thin legs, not because it has 6 of them.

If you go to 8 legs in stead of 4, this means the diameters of the legs can be divided by sqrt(2), which is only around 1.4. This is still quite thick, and will look much more like an elephant's leg than, say, a horse's leg.

I believe Vesper has explained why it takes more energy to grow 8 legs rather than 4.

I guess what I'm saying is, there's a lot of math behind why animals evolved on Earth the way they did. Four legs is probably the minimum number that mammals can use before the legs start losing functionality.


I'd like to see the source for this, as I haven't been able to find anything other than sources that suggest the contrary.

The rule of thumb is, of course, the herbivores have mostly flat, molar teeth, for the grinding of plant matter.

Thomas, I do realize that I might be being a little too harsh on this. You may, of course, have these creatures be genetically designed for some purpose. But I don't see how they could've evolved in a diverse, carbon-based, Earth-like ecosystem.
 
Well, if the animals are genetically engineered to be raised for food, I could see why they had many legs. For example, if chicken thighs were popular in Yamataian restaurants, why not grow 8-legged chickens? *giggles*
 
I'm not going to get in to the leg thing right now because my mind hasn't woken up. Using google to find sharp camel teeth however was in my capacity:

http://touregypt.net/featurestories/camel.htm


http://www.arab.net/camels/


Yangfan, I don't mind, I just delays these further and means I have to write more rebutal's *sighs*.
 
Megaluirrel:

This creature is in appearance much like a large squirrel, albeit with a few differences. One is that it has gecko-like pads on its legs. Much like a squirrel it has a large bushy tail, the same basic shape, and much of the same nervous behaviour patterns, although its head is more elongated and its ears are far larger. It eyes in particular are very large, and adapted for nocturnal activity as well as feeding during the day. It is a vegetarian, lurking in the forests mainly, and eating the fruit of some of the largest trees, and also eating the trees themselves, usually the smaller or dead ones. It does this by spitting out a stream of specialised enzymes and acid to dissolve and weakening the wood, before using its specialised tongue to partially suck up the resulting mush, and partially shovel.

The Megaluirrel is not a creature to be taken lightly, its spit can burn through flesh as easily as it does through wood, and it has sharp teeth, sharper claws (which are serrated) and senses sharper even than that. A cornered Megaluirrel can main, or even kill, many a would-be-killer, scurrying up the trees using its agility, and climbing ability to usually easily escape into the canopy.

It is not easy to tell between a male or a female Megaluirrel, until the female has given birth, at which point she will be accompanied everywhere by her litter (2-4 cubs), which hang on to her fur when very young, as she goes hunting for food, regurgitating it to the younglings until they are able to gather food themselves. The father is an active, but distant, parent, as it defends its mate from afar, attacking any creature that enters its territory with unusual ferocity. This lasts 5 months, after which the mother runs away very fast and leaves the cubs, now self sufficient, by themselves. The father similarly sneaks off. Through most of their lives Megaluirrel lives alone.

However the rewards for capture are quite high, due to the reclusive nature of the creature. The skin of a Megaluirrel is extremely soft, and keeps the wearer wonderfully warm. It is thus, a popular material for extremely expensive ladies clothes, for those people who wish to show that they can rise above fabricated garments. The fur color and decorations change greatly from Megaluirrel to Megaluirrel, from a deep red, to grey, to black, to the rather rarer green (it was very popular at one point and almost hunted to extinction).

Other than that, and the other various parts of the body that can be sold simply for being part of a Megaluirrel (the body stuffed for example, or the teeth and claws on a thread) the flesh of the Megaluirrel is a delicacy, and features in some of the more expensive recipes. The taste is meant to be like that of stake, but with a far greater sophistication in flavour, and said by some to be the most exquisite steak meat, above all other animals. The more cynical say that it should be for the prices that are paid for it, and at times can be used as an example of the divide between the lower and higher echelons of society. It is served in a vast array of forms.

Bovinor:

On the planet of Yamatai, the niche filled by cows on earth is filled by the animals that the colonists decided to called ‘Bovinors', stemming from the term Bovine. They are harvested in much the same way, although the resemblance to them is actually not all the much.

The typical Bovinor is three metres tall, and twice that long, heavily built, stocky, and with a long thick coat, which not only protects it from the elements, but effectively deadens blows. Sticking through the fur are long bony spikes, protruding from the back at regular intervals, and at the joints, as well as a series of especially long ones (normally 4-5 foot) horns on the head, which can be used in defence, as well as the mating fights which occur yearly. The four legs of the Bovinors are massive, and the amount of power they can exert in a charge, or pulling an object, is enormous. It is a rather strange custom of the Bovinor that the males not only fight each other for females, but also push large heavy object to show how strong they are, and their huge legs aid them in this. Hooves which are excessively large even for their legs help them to have a more efficient surface area on the ground which is especially a boon for those in the north on the ice fields. Bovinor are very strong, and can be used to pull great weights, but despite this are actually relatively gentle grazers, animals that gather in huge herds of many hundreds of individuals, eating grass and low leaves. To eat it uses a long powerful tongue to wrap around the plant, ripping it out of the ground, or of its branch, and devouring it with a set of horrifying looking teeth, which serve to liquidise the food in the mouth. The Bovinor have very sensitive central legs, which allow them to sense vibrations in the ground, a useful ability for sensing predators. And also by stamping with their legs they can create vibrations in the ground that can communicate over great distances. For shorter range communication they use there extremely loud calls, which sound like that of a grasshopper amplified several hundred times, combined with a blender (the gnashing of teeth). The sound of a herd communicating is a strange, wonderful, and deafening experience.

Bovinors are mainly kept for their meat, for they grow fast, and have a lot of high quality meat on them, which actually tastes like a strange (yet delicious) combination between beef and lamb. They can (and did before the arrival of the colonists), live almost anywhere on land, from the cold North to the temperate fields, and even the forests, each herd (they don't move climate), having its own technique for survival. Bovinors are capable of eating for themselves from their day of birth, and thus need nothing but protection from their mother (the father has very little to do with them). Males are actually smaller than the females, but not by much, and have longer horns, and a more violent temperament. That being said Bovinor's are extremely passive animals unless attacked, or in the mating season.

I deleted the extra legs and made some other cosmetic changes. That said - what about now?
 
New animals?! TOTALLY!

The Cloupphin is what looks to be a typical cat, aside from two long tendrils that seem to float on nothing. And ever present breeze if you will. It is about as intelligent as your typical cat, the same size, and has many breeds like a cat, but one special difference. It is a psionic animal, allowing to to send basic telepathic messages to those around it.

Imagine that! All you hear wakeing up is "Food... Food.. Feed me... Food... Food... I shit in the sandbox... Food... I brought you a dead bird... Food... Feed me... Go away I hate you... Feed me first." in your mind. Ahhh... The joys of having a cat!

If people are actually interested in this, I will elaborate more on it. What are other animal idea's you folks have?
 
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