Re: Conspecies Biology

On Sun, 8 Aug 2004 14:22:22 -0700, Arthaey Angosii <arthaey@...>
wrote:

>Thus, I've hit upon a rather sticky problem: as a conlanger with
>nothing more than basic training in biology, how should I design
>Cresaean's bodies? I've known what their outer forms look like for a
>while (cross jaguar, lion, wolf, and greyhound for a rough idea), but
>I've never thought about the details of their internal organs, their
>nervous system, their sight or hearing, or anything like that.
>
>On the one hand, it's improbable that a species on another planet
>would have similar physiology to us. On the other hand, it just may
>not be worth it for me to try to devise something non-Earth-like. Does
>anyone else feel guilty for their non-humanoid species to have brains,
>nerves, blood vessels, eyes, ears, and the like?
Since my conspecies is mute, I felt it important to make them biologically
different from life on earth. One thing I came up with is that their bodies
consist of more than one germ line (they grow from two specialized,
genetically unrelated cells, each of which develops into different organs).
Following the consequences of a single decision such as this can give you
lots of material for a novel biology.

If your conspecies looks like mammals, and acts like mammals
(hunting/foraging/farming, mating rituals, social hierarchy, goes to
bathroom, breathes, talks, etc.), then it makes sense for them to be
physiologically similar to mammals. The differences would not be so big.

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