#speculative biology

[extrajigs]

NEW ALIEN AGAIN! This one I wanted to stick to being more Earth inspired, connecting with my roots. I'm calling 'em Styraphants cause they're mostly a mix of styracosaurus, elephant, and mollusk of course. Trying to make a quad walking sophont always lends to kind of a centaur-ish body plan, so tried to think outside the box for appendages this go around. They've got a pair of trunk tentacles around their mouth that they use as their hands, which have a fleshy 'zipper' to slot together at rest. They also smell/taste with them so gloves are a very popular purchase.

Oh also! Their eyes are on little stalks that peak out around their frill, they can hide them away if scared. Also all the fellas pictured here are gals! They have a male/female system in keeping with the Earthling megafauna theme.

#art #worldbuilding #speculative biology #spec bio #styraphant #alien #xenobiology #fleshing out existing critters<makin new ones #it is a curse

[john-frog]

My contribution to @simon-roy 's Refugium Bestiary contest

#refugium2024 #refugium #worldbuilding #my art #art #illustration #speculative biology #spec bio #spec evo #speculative zoology #speculative evolution

[simon-roy]

An excerpt from the guidebook section of REFUGIUM, the new graphic novel @jordankwalker, Sergey Nazarov, and myself have been slaving over this past year! Jordan was the main xenobiological art director on this project, and his words and pictures are entwined with the core of the tale...

At a week in, our campaign for the hardcover print version of this story is standing at a whopping 175% funded, with over $44k CAD raised and 570 people backing us! If you're interested, head on over to the page for the kickstarter, here:

And if you're keen on it, we're holding an alien design contest for inclusion in the book - make an alien based on the clades outlined above, and post it with the hashtag #refugium2024 before friday, and you're set up to be included in the hardcover printing (and to get a free copy of the book yourself!)

#simon roy #comics #griz grobus #habitat #kickstarter #sciencefiction #speculative biology #scifi #refugium2024 #pinwheel #alien design #artwork #spec bio #refugium #artists on tumblr

[thedragonitus]

I've had this idea for gryphons for a while so I finally put it together. I'm just saying if anything was a lion-eagle it was dromaeosaurids.

#my art #gryphon #raptor #dromeosaur #paleo art #speculative biology #speculative evolution #griffin

[selkra-souza]

Cutting it close, but here's my entries for the Refugium Creature Design Contest! @simon-roy

The rasparoos are large dog-sized herbivores who leap in family groups along rolling temperate lichenfields, using grazing mandibles to scrape lichens off of rocky surfaces. During the fall season, they fatten up on sugary fermented “honey”-filled pinwheels produced in hives in their territory, obtained by breaking in with their claws and using a long prehensile radula to reach inside, to hibernate in the winter. They fight fiercely to protect these against rival rasparoo family groups. They fight with their clawed forearms, along with their more powerful hind-claws by leaning upright on their stiff tails.

Honey rings are social pinewheels that live in nests as colonies in temperate lichenfields. Their caste system includes workers, the smaller motile form who go out of the colony to collect vegetable matter during warmer seasons to ferment in their stomach acids and store as “honey” in the hive for the snowy seasons. The other caste are the reservoirs, who are blind, sessile and much larger than workers, with characteristic spiral body cavities to store a maximum amount of “honey”. Some of it seeps out of their bodies to stick with one another securely in the hive, aided by their gripping legs clinging to the walls of the hive.

I had a lot of fun with these guys! You can see concept sketches here because I think they're fun.

#refugium2024 #selkra scribbles #my art #speculative biology #spec bio #speculative zoology #astrobiology #xenobiology #alien design #alien #artists on tumblr

[troythecatfish]

#tumblr memes #memes #meme #meme humor #speculative biology #speculative evolution #speculative zoology #art meme #art humor #art shitpost #lol #lol memes #humour #humor #dank memes #dank humor #shitpost #funny #funny memes #ha ha funny #funny shit #funny meme haha #funny meme xd #funny post #funny stuff #dankest memes

[nutspider]

The Crone's Mantle

Traipsing through the marshy lowlands of Western Altamira's south, one may come across an unusual member of the pentapoda, colloquially known as the Crone's Mantle.

This shallow-water specialist, standing 7 feet tall at the peak, spends the warm months similarly to most large pentapods, feeding on water plants and drawing much of its energy from the sun. Come the shorter days of the cold season, however, the Mantle seeks a different source of energy.

Conserving what limited energy it can draw from sunlight during the short days, the Mantle roots itself in place along shallow stretches of rivers and streams. Its unusual downturned sails create shade that attract small squilloids, which, upon sensing the movement with its bristly legs, are snatched out of the water with its anterior appendage and flung into the Mantle's ventral mouth.

The Mantle shares its home with a variety of semiaquatic rasps, wading terrestrial squilloids and - most notably - predatory grapplers. The slow-moving Mantle defends itself with loud trumpeting from two respiratory organs atop its conical back, and if that's not enough, its ventral sails secrete a foul-tasting oil that deters most predators.

#refugium2024 #my art #creature design #griz grobus #refugium #simon roy #speculative biology #xenobiology

[cruisingheightswithdragons]

My spore creature suited up for an extraterrestrial adventure!

Unrelated but now this one won’t shut up about how it’s a great asset great great asset

#spore #spore 2008 #spore creature #speculative biology #spec bio #alien species #mimikosu #my art #I like the spacesuits in lethal company so I wanted to make one for this body plan

[juicyolpickle]

Thought I’d post some art I did for the #refugium2024 of one of my grappler variations. I don’t know much of the world so I went with what felt right.

#spec bio #speculative biology #speculative evolution #spec evo #speculative fiction #xenobiology #alien species #artists on tumblr #speculative ecology #speculative worldbuilding

[wanderingokali]

The Oilwing Rurebe is a species of flying myriapod, like the Bachi, that lives in wetlands. Its bright colors warns potential predators of its very foul taste. If something is still getting too close for its taste despite that, it will begin vibrating its wings; they have shifting, rainbow colors on them, like the slight coat of oil from decomposing leaves on puddles. When they do that, the sudden show of changing colors tends to startle the threat, at least long enough for the Rurebe to fly away.

#okali #fantasy #wandering okali #species #art #graphi's things #worldbuilding #speculative biology #specbio #bugblr #fantasy biology #xenobiology #xenofiction #fantasy creature

[ntls-24722]

Listened to that new femtanyl song and drew the DJs that came from my head. A mysterious shadowy encounter in earthbound is what I got from it instrumentally, for some reason

A visitor.

Debu and Zebrapeople actually were not aware that the other species(es) were sentient for awhile. The Zebraman/elf perspective I think illustrates itself - "this big lumbering thing living in caves is actually smart like us?" but the Debu one is interesting because Debu have been around for much longer than the modern, sapient zebrapeople species(es). Also, it's a funnier perspective: "Those little things we give our food sometimes are sentient?" It's like if we found out ducks were sentient.

Their eyes have a tapetum lucidum that glows orange-red rather than green, like an alligator. Speaking of Debu eyes, they also have 8 photoreceptors in their eyes - but they're not seeing secret colors that no-one else can. Their vision is just tetrachromatic like a bird, the extra photoreceptors are for distinguishing minute differences in color. It's for distinguishing individuals by mouthglow since it has slight variations in color, and being able to tell the difference in those colors along with vibrancy and size can tell you a lot about the individual - age, physical wellness, size, and even ethnicity.

Also, that Debu on the right is a dude, and because there is no hair, you can see his nips. I made it canon that DJMM's back grommets are Debu nipples, and I will be going to hell for that

#ntls-24722 #djmm #dj music man #fnaf dj music man #dj music man fnaf #djmm fnaf #fnaf djmm #comet #homo mousike #(almost) daily music man #speculative biology

[extrajigs]

Didn't think I'd have the time but got my entry for the refugium creature contest done! Down to the wire as usual. More info on the life cycle found below!

I wanted to do a fun Squilloid line, but as fun belly worms! The life cycle is the host eats the eggs which hatch inside the digestive tract, once there the young attack each other and any other parasites they find. They 'eat' through absorption through their tails so their mouth parts are only for clearing out their living space, as a result most hosts generally feel a lot better once they are infected. The fools!

Once the role of top worm has been decided, the individuals morphs into the feeding stage of their lifecycle. Their tail sprouts a multitude of fringes to aid in absorbing food and gas exchange, while the mouth parts remain for dealing with any would be room mates! This stage of their life is by far the longest, lasting decades.

The burrowing phase is where the fun begins, this sub adult form can be brought about by age, stress, or most commonly lack of space within the host. In this phase they begin swelling grotesquely and once they reach maximum size, turn their mouth upon their host. They chew their way out to the surface, sometimes resulting in death, sometimes not! But they only stop once they are able to smell open air and then settle in to begin their final metamorphosis.

The dispersal phase adults only live for a few days, climbing out of the wound created in their host to fly off and find suitable places to lay their eggs. If their host died during the last phase they will generally lay their eggs onto the body, but some are always out looking to lay a trap for the next poor unsuspecting creature.

Hope you enjoy! There are so many fun entries, def go check them out!

#theyre like if a tapeworm was also a fig wasp #refugium2024 #art #speculative biology #spec bio #Squilloid #you KNOW i had to make on that was disgusting

[theantiazdarcho]

The Lancetfish is a species that looks like it comes straight out of a realistic fantasy world building project.

#speculative biology #speculative ecology #speculative evolution #speculative zoology #traditional art #traditional sketch #spectember #specposium #paleontology #fanart #paleo meme #paleo art #paleontologist #paleostream #paleobird #paleomedia #paleoblr #paleoillustration #paleoart #worldbuilding #world #fishing #world building #fantasy #realistic fantasy #fish #lancet fish #lancetfish

[simon-roy]

I've included one of my own critters here- a small heat-seeking predatory squilloid! BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY, Our alien design contest, #refugium2024 closes tomorrow! If you want a chance to get your own critter into the REFUGIUM Hardcover, post it ASAP!

And if you'd like to pre-order the graphic novel that will include all these critters, take a look here!

#simon roy #comics #griz grobus #habitat #scifi #kickstarter #sciencefiction #speculative biology #miramar #spec bio #specbio #speculative evolution #xenobiology #speculative zoology #spec evo #refugium2024

[armadillorollup]

biology of a stapler

#speculative biology #stapler #mine #my art #spent the whole day stapling objects and it gave me ideas #anatomy

[selkra-souza]

Concept sketches for my Refugium creature design contest entry because they're kind of funny.

#selkra scribbles #spec bio #speculative biology #sketchbook