Evolving Your Alien Species
When writing a sci-fi story involving aliens, I like to think through how that aliens could have evolved. In my opinion, this is especially important if the species has some form of novel characteristic. What is this characteristic for? And is there anything on Earth that is in anyway similar that you could compare it too?
A simple example would be one of my alien species - the Gharonis. The most notable aspect of them is that their flesh is constantly decaying, clogging the air with filthy particles. This naturally gives the reader a rather disgusting image. However, I want to ask ‘why do they have this?’. It’s a simple enough question for me to answer - the decaying flesh is a deterrent for predators, much like the spray of a skunk. Of course, it may not work on all predators (and may even attract scavengers), but it’s still a useful enough ability.
You may not always need to explain what the adaptations are for. However, if you are able to put it in, you will be able to create a more believable world, and thus will help your reader to suspend their disbelief.
If you’re able too, you may also wish to give a quick explanation of how the adaptation evolved. This is a bit more complex, as it requires knowledge of how evolution works (natural selection, sexual selection, genetic drift, mutations, etc. etc.). The easiest way to do this would be to - once again - compare the aliens to animals on Earth. Evolution says that some features will evolve repeatedly in independent communities; a good example would be the wing, which has evolved a number of different times (birds, insects, bats), has the same function - or nearly the same function - but operates differently.
Let’s look a common alien archetype: the alien that takes over human minds. This isn’t actually a complete fantasy; there are a number of parasites on good ol’ Earth that control the minds of animals. For example, the toxoplasma gondii that lives in the guts of cats. T.gondii lays its eggs, that are then eaten by rats. The infected rats will then behave differently - instead of avoiding areas that smell like cat urine, they will actively seek it out, so that they are eaten by cats, and the T.gondii gets into its favourite habitat: cat guts.
There are many other examples of parasites that ‘control the mind’ of their victims. And they’re not all toxoplasmas - there are fungi and worms (the later of the two is notable, as many aliens in sci-fi that take over their hosts’ minds are worms).
And these parasites can also affect humans. Toxoplasmas (like T.gondii) also affect humans - indeed, they seem to be connected to schizophrenia. (And you know what’s actually quite scary? Half of all humans have toxoplasmas in their brain…)
Simply by comparing your mind controlling aliens to the parasites that can be found on Earth, you are making your world more real. Your story becomes more scientific, and thus more believable to the reader, helping to suck them into the fictional world you are creating.
And you don’t even need to limit this to aliens. Want to give a scientific explanation for your zombies, but don’t want to say ‘radiation did it’? Go back to toxoplasmas, and suggest that a species of toxoplasma has evolved that affects humans in this way. Give them a fancy name (T.mortis, for example - by the way, the ‘T’ at the beginning stands for ‘toxoplasma’) and all of a sudden you’ve created zombies that can be believed in.
If you’ve got some sort of non-human life-form that you’ve created in your sci-fi story, be they aliens or not, you could see how science - and evolution - can aid you in fleshing out your story.
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