Post by mohauk on Feb 14, 2007 9:34:01 GMT
(Sorry to nick your writeup style Storm, but I thought it better to keep them all in the same style for simplicity, and had some ideas for an ocean-going creature.)
The mangwhal is a bipartial bioform, meaning that its lifecycle passes through two major biological kingdoms, that of monotreme and amphibian (monotreme - mammal that lays eggs eg: platypus, echidna). In its longest, monotremic stage (often known as its adolescent phase), the mangwhal is a large, hairless mammal with a heavy, streamlined form not unlike the extinct terran whale, and a narrow head dominated by the chimney-like feeding snout.
Mangwhal eggs are unusual in that they are spherical, due to laying at the floor of high-pressure oceans. They are almost exactly two feet in diameter on average, and comprise of an embryo, yolk and inch-thick shell. On the sea floor they are safe from all predators due to high pressure.
Eventually, the pressure begins to tell. The ablative eggshell loses layers, rather than cracking, and eventually becomes less dense than the lower ocean levels. The stopping of the rising movement caused by this tip in density triggers birth, and the fully formed mammalian juvenile is born into survivable levels of pressure, near enough to the surface for breathing. Its first instinctive action homes in through magnetic particles in parts of its brain to the nearest area of rock breaking the lower levels of the ocean. Here it carefully sifts through the sand with a ruff of long proboscices evolved specifically for the purpose, absorbing particles of manganese, which migrate to the upper dermis layers on the creature's back.
The mangwhal feeds on microorganisms and other small life in the upper layers, filtering them from the water with the feeding-snout, which sucks water through its separation channels in a constant flow, directing biomass to the digestive system, and ejecting the water through flow-valves in the mangwhal's sides.
It grows to an adult size of approximately 30 metres (175 tonnes) in males, and 35 metres (185 tonnes) in the larger females. This process takes fifteen years on average, and the mangwhal remains reproductively inactive. It is protected fom dangerous flare radiation by the layer of manganese (and small deposits of other heavy metals) on its back, thickened by constant collecting journeys.
After this time period, the hormonal system of the mangwhal begins to make a massive change in its system. Both females and males, all with only undeveloped, atrophied, internal reproductive organs. The huge creatures find their way, using their magnetic migrational organs, to the planet's main landmass, or an island, and bury themselves into the soft mudlayers on the shore over a week of digging with their blunt heads.
Over a month, they undergo severe bodily changes. the thick, toughened outer skin sloughs off to reveal slick, delicate ambhibian membrane skin. Flippers atrophy, and previously undetected minute limbs undergo growth bursts. The growth of a muscular membrane known as the deluctiod cuts off a great part of the mangwhal's insulative fat, and the general body shape slims as this weight dies through lack of blood and falls off. Sexual organs and hromonal glands develop.
The feeding snout flattens and hardens into a protective head-plate, and the proboscices widens and develops into barbed feeding tubes. The creature rips through the protective cocoon of its old skin, and emerges from its burrow as an amphibian. It then eats its old skin in order to recreate the protective maganese layers in its upper skin surfaces.
These amphibian mangwhals then migrate into their landmass, looking for those of the opposite sex. The males spend about a year reproducing, and then die of old age. Females are the far more common sex in the species, and each will only reproduce once. The fertilisation of a clutch of eggs (normally including three to five eggs) triggers them to travel away from the landmass, still comfortable in water depite adaptations for land travel. They lay non-amniotic eggs (soft, with little yolk) with a layer of partially dissolved heavy metals for protection from solar flares. These float on the surface of the ocean for about a day, undergoing a transformation back to the egg types more typical of monotremes. As the very thick shell develops, the egg becomes more and more dense, and slowly sinks below the protective layers of the ocean.
Mangwhal populations used to be high and stable, due to their well specialised adaptations in areas rarely populated with predators. However, pirates, free-traders and some of the shore-based continental tribes have hunted these creatures for the bright green colouration of the skin on their backs, creating beautifully soft green leather, and populations are dropping, though still not to the levels of true endangered species. It is also believed by many continental tribes that the mangwhal's bones bear medicinal properties if harvested and ground directly after the metamorphosis process. This is when most mangwhals are killed, as if found, they are utterly defenceless in their comatose state. In their adolescent mammalian phase mangwhals are extremely fast swimmers, and their very thick skins and four huge tri-lobe lungs allow for long, deep sounding.
In their adult, amphibian phase mangwhals are highly dangerous - huge but fast due to the loss of almost all non muscular tissue, and aggressive because of their reproductively active state. They require huge amounts of food to support their energetic states and large bulk, but their digestive systems, previously only required to digest a biological sludge of microorganisms, can only cope with liquid foods, normally blood or decaying bio-matter acquired through the probosces. This means that, though scared of the noise of settlements, the mangwhal will attempt to prey on any humans it encounters, or at least kill them to protect its territory, or a clutch it might be carrying.
Right, before I start concept sketching, I'm just going to get a simple line-diagram of each of our life-forms for easy reference to their appearances. Don't worry, this isn't supposed to be good. Here is the first - the mangwhal, fully grown but still in its watergoing, monotremic form.
The mangwhal is a bipartial bioform, meaning that its lifecycle passes through two major biological kingdoms, that of monotreme and amphibian (monotreme - mammal that lays eggs eg: platypus, echidna). In its longest, monotremic stage (often known as its adolescent phase), the mangwhal is a large, hairless mammal with a heavy, streamlined form not unlike the extinct terran whale, and a narrow head dominated by the chimney-like feeding snout.
Mangwhal eggs are unusual in that they are spherical, due to laying at the floor of high-pressure oceans. They are almost exactly two feet in diameter on average, and comprise of an embryo, yolk and inch-thick shell. On the sea floor they are safe from all predators due to high pressure.
Eventually, the pressure begins to tell. The ablative eggshell loses layers, rather than cracking, and eventually becomes less dense than the lower ocean levels. The stopping of the rising movement caused by this tip in density triggers birth, and the fully formed mammalian juvenile is born into survivable levels of pressure, near enough to the surface for breathing. Its first instinctive action homes in through magnetic particles in parts of its brain to the nearest area of rock breaking the lower levels of the ocean. Here it carefully sifts through the sand with a ruff of long proboscices evolved specifically for the purpose, absorbing particles of manganese, which migrate to the upper dermis layers on the creature's back.
The mangwhal feeds on microorganisms and other small life in the upper layers, filtering them from the water with the feeding-snout, which sucks water through its separation channels in a constant flow, directing biomass to the digestive system, and ejecting the water through flow-valves in the mangwhal's sides.
It grows to an adult size of approximately 30 metres (175 tonnes) in males, and 35 metres (185 tonnes) in the larger females. This process takes fifteen years on average, and the mangwhal remains reproductively inactive. It is protected fom dangerous flare radiation by the layer of manganese (and small deposits of other heavy metals) on its back, thickened by constant collecting journeys.
After this time period, the hormonal system of the mangwhal begins to make a massive change in its system. Both females and males, all with only undeveloped, atrophied, internal reproductive organs. The huge creatures find their way, using their magnetic migrational organs, to the planet's main landmass, or an island, and bury themselves into the soft mudlayers on the shore over a week of digging with their blunt heads.
Over a month, they undergo severe bodily changes. the thick, toughened outer skin sloughs off to reveal slick, delicate ambhibian membrane skin. Flippers atrophy, and previously undetected minute limbs undergo growth bursts. The growth of a muscular membrane known as the deluctiod cuts off a great part of the mangwhal's insulative fat, and the general body shape slims as this weight dies through lack of blood and falls off. Sexual organs and hromonal glands develop.
The feeding snout flattens and hardens into a protective head-plate, and the proboscices widens and develops into barbed feeding tubes. The creature rips through the protective cocoon of its old skin, and emerges from its burrow as an amphibian. It then eats its old skin in order to recreate the protective maganese layers in its upper skin surfaces.
These amphibian mangwhals then migrate into their landmass, looking for those of the opposite sex. The males spend about a year reproducing, and then die of old age. Females are the far more common sex in the species, and each will only reproduce once. The fertilisation of a clutch of eggs (normally including three to five eggs) triggers them to travel away from the landmass, still comfortable in water depite adaptations for land travel. They lay non-amniotic eggs (soft, with little yolk) with a layer of partially dissolved heavy metals for protection from solar flares. These float on the surface of the ocean for about a day, undergoing a transformation back to the egg types more typical of monotremes. As the very thick shell develops, the egg becomes more and more dense, and slowly sinks below the protective layers of the ocean.
Mangwhal populations used to be high and stable, due to their well specialised adaptations in areas rarely populated with predators. However, pirates, free-traders and some of the shore-based continental tribes have hunted these creatures for the bright green colouration of the skin on their backs, creating beautifully soft green leather, and populations are dropping, though still not to the levels of true endangered species. It is also believed by many continental tribes that the mangwhal's bones bear medicinal properties if harvested and ground directly after the metamorphosis process. This is when most mangwhals are killed, as if found, they are utterly defenceless in their comatose state. In their adolescent mammalian phase mangwhals are extremely fast swimmers, and their very thick skins and four huge tri-lobe lungs allow for long, deep sounding.
In their adult, amphibian phase mangwhals are highly dangerous - huge but fast due to the loss of almost all non muscular tissue, and aggressive because of their reproductively active state. They require huge amounts of food to support their energetic states and large bulk, but their digestive systems, previously only required to digest a biological sludge of microorganisms, can only cope with liquid foods, normally blood or decaying bio-matter acquired through the probosces. This means that, though scared of the noise of settlements, the mangwhal will attempt to prey on any humans it encounters, or at least kill them to protect its territory, or a clutch it might be carrying.
Right, before I start concept sketching, I'm just going to get a simple line-diagram of each of our life-forms for easy reference to their appearances. Don't worry, this isn't supposed to be good. Here is the first - the mangwhal, fully grown but still in its watergoing, monotremic form.