>> I get that, it's just that I usually see folks assuming that larger/smaller sizes are the same. Very rarely do we see the giant complaining that his feet keep going numb, or the Lilliputian who has to eat 2x their weight in food per day. <<
That's because most people aren't into the science underpinning the fiction. Me, I was sketching out centaur digestive systems in junior high.
>> And more than biology: how would intelligent shrews cook food without burning themselves, even if they could avoid starving to death while cooking? <<
My first thought was along the lines of slow-cooking with coals rather than flame, but then I remembered there's a much easier method: solar cooking. You can do it with lenses or mirrors. \o/
A more serious limitation would be brain size. Sapient shrews might need to be communal rather than individual creatures for purposes of generating enough mindmass.
>> Probably, but it would take a long time.<<
So? The biosphere has billions of years to play around.
>> And I'd wonder how a 'jellybrate' would rearrange the muscles/muscle attachments; and how it would protect its spinal cord. I'd also wonder what (if anything) they'd use for a skeletal system - keratin fibres? Hydroskeleton? <<
I suspect that the skull and spine might stay. However, there are soft-bodied creatures, some fairly complex, that get alone fine without bones. Some of them are quite muscular, too. Check out velvet worms:
>> I doubt it would work in real life, but imagine in a fantasy setting, the teensiest tiniest of frogs, that uses a hydroskeleton, and can freeze-unfreeze parts of its skeleton at will. Instant spines! Can squeeze through small spaces! I bet they'd be fascinating tank pets - but probably not without some very good insulation... <<
It's not that farfetched. Mammals learned how to generate and control heat. Some amphibians already have antifreeze that keeps them from freezing, or other chemicals that allow them to freeze and then revive. Freezing could work -- although it would probably work better at small frog than nano-frog sizes.
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dancing_serpent
Re: Yes ...
Date: 2021-02-10 06:03 am (UTC)That's because most people aren't into the science underpinning the fiction. Me, I was sketching out centaur digestive systems in junior high.
>> And more than biology: how would intelligent shrews cook food without burning themselves, even if they could avoid starving to death while cooking? <<
My first thought was along the lines of slow-cooking with coals rather than flame, but then I remembered there's a much easier method: solar cooking. You can do it with lenses or mirrors. \o/
A more serious limitation would be brain size. Sapient shrews might need to be communal rather than individual creatures for purposes of generating enough mindmass.
>> Probably, but it would take a long time.<<
So? The biosphere has billions of years to play around.
>> And I'd wonder how a 'jellybrate' would rearrange the muscles/muscle attachments; and how it would protect its spinal cord. I'd also wonder what (if anything) they'd use for a skeletal system - keratin fibres? Hydroskeleton? <<
I suspect that the skull and spine might stay. However, there are soft-bodied creatures, some fairly complex, that get alone fine without bones. Some of them are quite muscular, too. Check out velvet worms:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onychophora
https://www.doc.govt.nz/nature/native-animals/invertebrates/peripatus-ngaokeoke/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=do9YivjrAFk
>> I doubt it would work in real life, but imagine in a fantasy setting, the teensiest tiniest of frogs, that uses a hydroskeleton, and can freeze-unfreeze parts of its skeleton at will. Instant spines! Can squeeze through small spaces! I bet they'd be fascinating tank pets - but probably not without some very good insulation... <<
It's not that farfetched. Mammals learned how to generate and control heat. Some amphibians already have antifreeze that keeps them from freezing, or other chemicals that allow them to freeze and then revive. Freezing could work -- although it would probably work better at small frog than nano-frog sizes.