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Evolving Your Alien Species



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Thu Dec 28, 2006 3:50 pm
Sureal says...



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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Thu Dec 28, 2006 3:59 pm
Swires says...



Nice tips, you could apply the same techniques to fantastical creatures - like different types of dragons etc... and how they evolved differently to each other.

For example Dragon species X may have smaller wings and a smaller frame than Dragon species y because its home is in a plains area and slithering is more useful than flying (bad example).

Nice tips again.
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Thu Dec 28, 2006 4:30 pm
Sureal says...



Yup. And in regards to dragons, you could mention them having hollow bones to make them lighter.

Or make a mention of the location they live in having more oxygen in the atmosphere (a denser atmosphere allows larger creatures to fly. Millions of years ago, for example, there were giant dragonflies that could no longer fly in the modern world, due to a less dense atmosphere).

You could even say that dragons are a descendant of dinosaurs, like birds - thus making them relatives of birds (although your dragsons would have to demonstrate some bird-like attributes).

You could compare the ability to breathe fire to the bombardier beetle, which mix a group of chemicals within themselves and then eject the chemicals explosively.

Although it's probably worth mentioning that adding science into your stories is like salt: it can add flavour to your food, but you don't want too much of it. After all, you don't want your story turning into a scientific lecture ;).
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Tue Jan 02, 2007 1:31 am
Unrecompensed says...




Yup. And in regards to dragons, you could mention them having hollow bones to make them lighter.



There's a reason bones aren't hollow...
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Tue Jan 02, 2007 10:35 am
Elelel says...



There's a reason bones aren't hollow...


*confusion*

... but some bones are hollow. Bird bones are, to make the birds lighter to help with flying and stuff.

EDIT: Evolution is definitely fun! And definitely worth thinking about in any story that incorperates new species of anything!
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Tue Jan 02, 2007 11:39 am
Sureal says...



Unrecompensed wrote:There's a reason bones aren't hollow...


'Pterosaur bones were hollow and air filled, like the bones of birds.'
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pterosaur :)

The Pterosaur are probably as close to dragons as you're going to get in the real world (they were, after all, flying reptiles 8)).

Quetzalcoatlus (a type of Pterosaur) had a wingspan that reached 40 feet (and may even have got as large as 60 feet). To help put that into perspective, a very large Bald Eagle would have a wing span of 8 feet. Quetzalcoatlus were giant.
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Tue Jan 02, 2007 12:11 pm
Swires says...



Yes, birds have hollow bones, human bones arnt hollow because evolution and adaptation dictates that we need stronger bones to survive.
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Wed Jan 03, 2007 2:22 am
Elelel says...



I'd swear that some human bones are hollow ... wait up ... please excuse me for a sec ...

What's bone marrow?
Many bones are hollow. Their hollowness makes bones strong and light. It's in the center of many bones that bone marrow makes new red and white blood cells. Red blood cells ensure that oxygen is distributed to all parts of your body and white blood cells ensure you are able to fight germs and disease. Who would have thought that bones make blood!?!


http://yucky.discovery.com/flash/body/pg000124.html

Ahem. Excuse the site being for little kids.

Hang on ... what about good old wikipedia?

Long bones are longer than they are wide, consisting of a long shaft (the diaphysis) plus two articular (joint) surfaces, called epiphyses. They are comprised mostly of compact bone, but are generally thick enough to contain considerable spongy bone and marrow in the hollow centre (the medullary cavity). Most bones of the limbs (including the three bones of the fingers) are long bones, except for the kneecap (patella), and the carpal, metacarpal, tarsal and metatarsal bones of the wrist and ankle. The classification refers to shape rather than the size.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone
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Wed Jan 03, 2007 10:47 am
Swires says...



Ive never been a science man anyway lol.
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Wed Jan 03, 2007 4:19 pm
Sureal says...



Ah, but those bones are filled with bone marrow (so aren't truly hollow), whereas bird bones are filled only with air :).
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Wed Jan 03, 2007 4:27 pm
Swires says...



Yes, thats what I thought.

But is anything other than a vacuum truly hollow?
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Wed Jan 03, 2007 4:33 pm
Sureal says...



Not in the conventional sense of the term ;).


Random thought: it'd be quite cool if the bones could be filled with not air, but a gas that is less dense than air (eg. helium), as this would probably help the animal to fly.
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Wed Jan 03, 2007 6:16 pm
Swires says...



Sureal wrote:Not in the conventional sense of the term ;).


Random thought: it'd be quite cool if the bones could be filled with not air, but a gas that is less dense than air (eg. helium), as this would probably help the animal to fly.


That would be a cool idea.
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Thu Jan 04, 2007 8:17 am
Elelel says...



Ah, but those bones are filled with bone marrow (so aren't truly hollow), whereas bird bones are filled only with air .


Good point. Hadn't noticed that. Whoops!

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.

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…)


I heard about that thing! Apparently many car crash victims have it. It makes them more reckless.

That would be a pretty cool thing for aliens to do. If the aliens weren't the sort to want to live in guts, but did want to make their prey seek them out. Like if their saliva had stuff, or maybe even a slightly different toxoplasma could infect it for some reason of it's own, in it and they drooled in the drinking water then anything that drank the water would go towards the scent of the aliens.

Yeah, I'm not so good at this stuff really.
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