# Inventing Flora and Fauna



## Stormcat (Feb 17, 2016)

My story takes place in a world like our own, but different. Species that have gone extinct here (Like the Dodo and Passenger pigeon) are alive and thriving there (No Dinosaurs, thankfully). There are also Plant and animal species that have never existed here, but can be found there. But I have only been able to come up with one animal species (Miniature elephant) and one plant species (Sea Hemp) so far for this world. I need to list a come up with a couple of new ones to make this planet stand out.

I suppose I could take the "Last Airbender" approach to this and just put "Animal 1 + Animal 2 = Animal 3" but that seems lazy. These have to at least be probable in our world, so no Saber-tooth Mooselion. A big theme in my story is that there exist a human sub-species that was mistaken for witch/vampire/werewolf in the old days, so I guess I could use mythology as a stepping stone.

Does anyone have any ideas for new lifeforms? :-k


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## Bishop (Feb 17, 2016)

Stormcat said:


> Does anyone have any ideas for new lifeforms? :-k



After studying evolutionary theory, I've come up with about two dozen sentient species in my world building whose features, abilities, physiology, and personalities are heavily dictated by a potential evolutionary path relating to the proposed climates of their home worlds, and thereby their adaptive structure as a species to make them what they are. I've done the same for many "animal" species, where the conditions of the planet they live on dictate their evolutionary path and place in their respective food chains, and I've constructed a lot of fauna (especially for my latest novel) and environments for my human and alien characters to navigate. Paradises, hells, and everything in between with all kinds of life.

I can help you with the process of creating your own, but those that I create or have ideas for, those are mine. I'll use them in my novels, trust me. I'm always chomping at the bit for more species to put in--kind of a sad fetish of mine in my work.

My advice: Don't immediately jump to "they're like [animal from Earth] but different because...". You're working backwards if you do that. Think of the niche you need filled. In my case, I had an alien race that needed a form of livestock that's native to their world. The immediate jump is "COWS! But with six legs!" or something like that. But what's to say this species doesn't value massive underground slugs for their cheeseburgers, over beef? Thinking of it from a niche perspective lets you explore a much more creative mindset. Then, think about the living conditions of the area the animal will be from. Southern Africa has very different wildlife than the Mojave Desert. Niche + Climate, within the perspective of an evolutionary line will get you a much better basis for a creature and will force you to explore beyond what we see in our own world everyday. Think about what the world needs, not what your mind jumps to.


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## bdcharles (Feb 17, 2016)

In a discussion with another writer once, we created a new species of migratory megafauna called a _fomeated landiped_. Seussian in aspect, it possesses large hairy feet though is more like a giant wingless bird, and can travel long distances. It lives in desert-type areas.

We got the name and pretty much the whole thing, I am thrilled to be able to tell you, from the "Magnificent Soybomb Nonsense Generator"


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## Stormcat (Feb 17, 2016)

Well, for the plants especially, I'll need to derive a source of medicinal properties. 

The idea for the miniature elephants came from my own experiences with the animals. Elephants of normal size are extremely intelligent and useful, but they do require a lot of space. Shrinking them down would cut down on space required, food consumption, and waste production.


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## Terry D (Feb 17, 2016)

Species evolve to fill niches in the environment. They adapt to specific conditions. Look at your story world and consider what environmental factors could impact that adaptation, then design your flora and fauna around that. What temperature extremes do they need to survive in? Is the area temperate? Arid? Tropical? Are there large areas of fresh water, or great salt seas? Did your planet ever undergo a severe comet strike, or meteor bombardment? What overall climate changes have taken place? All of these things will affect what sort of animals and plants evolve. There should be nothing on your planet which is an exact copy of anything on Earth (no Dodos or passenger pigeons). The chances of two identical species evolving on separate worlds are so remote that they could be considered impossible. Similar yes. The same? No.


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## Stormcat (Feb 17, 2016)

Terry D said:


> Species evolve to fill niches in the environment. They adapt to specific conditions. Look at your story world and consider what environmental factors could impact that adaptation, then design your flora and fauna around that. What temperature extremes do they need to survive in? Is the area temperate? Arid? Tropical? Are there large areas of fresh water, or great salt seas? Did your planet ever undergo a severe comet strike, or meteor bombardment? What overall climate changes have taken place? All of these things will affect what sort of animals and plants evolve. There should be nothing on your planet which is an exact copy of anything on Earth (no Dodos or passenger pigeons). The chances of two identical species evolving on separate worlds are so remote that they could be considered impossible. Similar yes. The same? No.



But humans have been living here for at least 400 years, so species like Cow and Wheat are also found here. Albeit, they were brought here by the colonists.


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## Bishop (Feb 17, 2016)

Stormcat said:


> But humans have been living here for at least 400 years, so species like Cow and Wheat are also found here. Albeit, they were brought here by the colonists.



Human migration and what they bring with them alters evolutionary paths and environments greatly. You're looking at this the wrong way. Think of it from a global level. Also, species who are displaced, or put in a different environment, will change based on the new environment over time.


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## Stormcat (Feb 17, 2016)

Bishop said:


> Human migration and what they bring with them alters evolutionary paths and environments greatly. You're looking at this the wrong way. Think of it from a global level. Also, species who are displaced, or put in a different environment, will change based on the new environment over time.



True, but I really don't think 400 years is enough time for any species (Except maybe bacteria) to evolve with this new entity present.


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## Schrody (Feb 17, 2016)

I got the perfect fauna I come up with the other day. The only thing I ask is, whether it will be you Storm, or somebody else, to do it justice. And you'll do that if you write it the way I imagined it (not because of my ego or something, but because I feel it needs to be that way, and, it gives a dose or plausibility). 

Okay, so, I have a fish who have a spike-like fins on the bottom (it can be spikes, it can be fins - you decide, I'm just saying how I got it in my head), and on the head. Its body is mostly fish like - but, it has transparent stripes in the middle of the body, and, to a predator, it looks severely wounded so they won't attack. Of course, it's not wounded, but thanks to the transparent parts, it looks like it misses parts of the body. What do you think?


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## Stormcat (Feb 17, 2016)

Schrody said:


> I got the perfect fauna I come up with the other day. The only thing I ask is, whether it will be you Storm, or somebody else, to do it justice. And you'll do that if you write it the way I imagined it (not because of my ego or something, but because I feel it needs to be that way, and, it gives a dose or plausibility).
> 
> Okay, so, I have a fish who have a spike-like fins on the bottom (it can be spikes, it can be fins - you decide, I'm just saying how I got it in my head), and on the head. Its body is mostly fish like - but, it has transparent stripes in the middle of the body, and, to a predator, it looks severely wounded so they won't attack. Of course, it's not wounded, but thanks to the transparent parts, it looks like it misses parts of the body. What do you think?



so... Like a lionfish but partially invisible?


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## Bishop (Feb 17, 2016)

Stormcat said:


> True, but I really don't think 400 years is enough time for any species (Except maybe bacteria) to evolve with this new entity present.



It depends on a LOT of factors. 400 years won't see new arms and legs growing, but species can evolve in a lot of subtle, and sometimes essential ways. Humans today are very different than humans even 100 years ago. We're taller on average, and more genetically diverse thanks to globalization. While we didn't grow any new organs, our bodies have changed in measurable ways to what we were a short time ago.


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## Bishop (Feb 17, 2016)

Stormcat said:


> so... Like a lionfish but partially invisible?



This is the exact reasoning you should avoid, especially if you're creating an entirely different world.


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## Terry D (Feb 17, 2016)

Stormcat said:


> But humans have been living here for at least 400 years, so species like Cow and Wheat are also found here. Albeit, they were brought here by the colonists.



Injected species -- those brought by humans -- aren't what your OP was asking about. At least I thought you were asking about indigenous species.


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## Stormcat (Feb 17, 2016)

Oh, I dug up the brief write-up I did for new plant "Sea Hemp"



> Since Vudnia's creation, the citizens have been using the seaweed that has washed up on the shores of capital island. Typically burned for fuel, added to foods, or just straight up fed to animals, no one had any idea the potential the weeds could produce.
> 
> The first individual to chronicle the varieties of seaweed was Edward Haanrath. He noted over thirty varieties unique to this new world, and some that could be found in both worlds like kelp and Irish moss. It wasn't until inventor John Filsteen tested these new varieties for their fuel efficiency did he discover one particular strain with twentyfold the power of all the others.
> Filsteen originally called the strain "Filsteenium" but his wife, Sarah, noticed that the weed also produced fibers she could spin. The name was then changed to "sea hemp". The Imperial university became extremely interested with the Filsteens' work, and placed them both in their own laboratory to try and uncover the mysteries of this weed.
> ...



Am I missing anything? Does this sound like a probable seaweed?


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## Stormcat (Feb 17, 2016)

Terry D said:


> Injected species -- those brought by humans -- aren't what your OP was asking about. At least I thought you were asking about indigenous species.



The point I was trying to make is that Humans and their animals shared the land with the native species. Some hybridization could've occurred, but maybe not.

EDIT: I probably should've mentioned this in the opening post, but this story isn't Hard Sci-fi. I call it a "Gaslamp fantasy", and as such, I feel the animals and plants should at least sort of resemble something found in real life. Even ancient mythical creatures resembled creatures that the people knew. Wether it was "freakin' huge fish" or "Lion with head and breasts of a woman", it did have some basis in known creatures.


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## Bishop (Feb 17, 2016)

Myths had those basis because they had no understanding of evolution. You, as a modern adult, have access to that information and can make a more informed world, if you so choose. I say this simply because if your world is "like Earth, but..." then that's one thing. But if you're looking to create a new world, a new ecosystem, and something truly unique, then you'll need to dig deeper into how this stuff works.


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## Terry D (Feb 17, 2016)

Stormcat said:


> The point I was trying to make is that Humans and their animals shared the land with the native species. Some hybridization could've occurred, but maybe not.
> 
> EDIT: I probably should've mentioned this in the opening post, but this story isn't Hard Sci-fi. I call it a "Gaslamp fantasy", and as such, I feel the animals and plants should at least sort of resemble something found in real life. Even ancient mythical creatures resembled creatures that the people knew. Wether it was "freakin' huge fish" or "Lion with head and breasts of a woman", it did have some basis in known creatures.



Hybridization is possible, but any hybridized off-spring would be sterile ( the off-spring of different species like lion-tiger, and wolf-dog can not reproduce). But, since you are writing a fantasy, you don't need to worry about the science.


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## Stormcat (Feb 17, 2016)

Bishop said:


> Myths had those basis because they had no understanding of evolution. You, as a modern adult, have access to that information and can make a more informed world, if you so choose. I say this simply because if your world is "like Earth, but..." then that's one thing. But if you're looking to create a new world, a new ecosystem, and something truly unique, then you'll need to dig deeper into how this stuff works.



I am creating "Earth but different" because quite frankly, I'm no scientist. To create a new ecosystem would take years of research into theoretical environments, and anything that intense makes my head swell. 

Plus, people like to read what they know. If I make it too unique folks won't know what to do with it. I just take the tropes that potential reader know and arrange them in a different way.


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## Jack of all trades (Feb 17, 2016)

Stormcat said:


> Well, for the plants especially, I'll need to derive a source of medicinal properties.
> 
> The idea for the miniature elephants came from my own experiences with the animals. Elephants of normal size are extremely intelligent and useful, but they do require a lot of space. Shrinking them down would cut down on space required, food consumption, and waste production.



There's a difference between evolution and breeding.

Elephants evolved to fulfill a certain function in nature.

They can be bred, over time, to a smaller size by the humans who use them. Breeding, though, often has unexpected results. Infertility, lower intelligence, brittle bones, and other issues all plague animals humans have bred. 

Maybe start with the planet itself. How does it differ? What different types of animals would be needed to fit that environment? Or start with the humanoids. How are they different from us? Why? What animals would they need on that world? 

Unless the world is radically different, the plants would be pretty much what we have. New names, slight differences in appearance, but plants are probably not going to stand out in a story of a similar world.


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## Schrody (Feb 17, 2016)

Stormcat said:


> so... Like a lionfish but partially invisible?



Similar, but with less "spikes". Or not, your call. Just a thought.


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## Stormcat (Feb 17, 2016)

Maybe because I got hungry, but I've been thinking about food. Which got me thinking about the plants and animals humans eat, which spawned some ideas. These are just some random thoughts of mine:

-There's been a big hubub about Genetically-modified Golden Rice. Might look into more information about GMOs to "create" a theoretical Frankenfood of my own. Except in my world, it'll be an all-natural product.

-A lot of fruits Americans eat year round (Apples, Oranges, Bananas, Strawberries, etc.) can only be grown in certain climates. Since most of my story takes place in a temperate climate, maybe create versions of "exotic" fruits that grown in a more fickle climate. 

-Meat and dairy production are both resource-intensive industries. Maybe create an animal that can be milked and eaten, but requires fewer resources than cows do.

-It sure would be nice to have a fur coat, but there's that whole debate about fur farming and animal cruelty. Surely there must be an animal that not only give gorgeous fur/leather, but tastes good as well! If we ate the animals our fur comes from, maybe the debate wouldn't exist, except among those who think killing an animal for ANY reason is wrong. 

-Leather tanning is also a stinky, resource-intensive process. Yet all but the most loyal PETA members can agree that leather is a wonderful material. Maybe make a tree whose bark yields something similar to leather.

-I decided a long time ago that the bad guys of the story love the color white. Maybe make a plant or part of a plant that they love for it's paleness.

-Similarly, the good guys need some sort of rallying symbol. Maybe a flower with medicinal properties, one not found in our world and whose shape is distinctive.

-Looking over this list, I see I have neglected the "wild" animals. In particular, Bugs.

Yup. Just me trying to think like a farmer. Maybe put my Ag. Degree to good use.


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## LeeC (Feb 17, 2016)

Bishop said:


> It depends on a LOT of factors. 400 years won't see new arms and legs growing, but species can evolve in a lot of subtle, and sometimes essential ways. Humans today are very different than humans even 100 years ago. We're taller on average, and more genetically diverse thanks to globalization. While we didn't grow any new organs, our bodies have changed in measurable ways to what we were a short time ago.


Bishop made a very good point. In less than a hundred years some "weeds" have developed resistance/immunity to our herbicides (showing once again who's in charge). On the other hand adaptive morphological changes usually take tens of thousands of years or longer because Nature works on a different time scale than we think in. Even so, strange mutations aside from adaptive can occur in a species due to some excessive change in their habitat -- take the case of malformed frogs due to our pollution.


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## Stormcat (Feb 17, 2016)

LeeC said:


> Bishop made a very good point. In less than a hundred years some "weeds" have developed resistance/immunity to our herbicides (showing once again who's in charge). On the other hand adaptive morphological changes usually take tens of thousands of years or longer because Nature works on a different time scale than we think in. Even so, strange mutations aside from adaptive can occur in a species due to some excessive change in their habitat -- take the case of malformed frogs due to our pollution.



There is no excessive change in Habitat in this world, because the heavy pollution, which has been going on in our world since the industrial revolution, never occurred in the world I'm creating. In fact, the industrial revolution is just starting in this world. It has been hampered for years due to lack of fossil fuels.

Look, I'm not interested in all the heavy science behind plant and animal mutations, evolution, and whatnot. I just want to create flora and fauna for the Fantasy* world I'm creating that go on the more conservative end of the imagination scale. Think "Game of Thrones"-level fantasy. I'll rule out thing like a man-eating rosebush, but I'm not opposed to say, a new kind of fish.




*Fantasy here meaning "I made the origins of this planet and all on it deliberately murky because magic is possibly involved"


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## Bishop (Feb 17, 2016)

Stormcat said:


> There is no excessive change in Habitat in this world, because the heavy pollution, which has been going on in our world since the industrial revolution, never occurred in the world I'm creating. In fact, the industrial revolution is just starting in this world. It has been hampered for years due to lack of fossil fuels.
> 
> Look, I'm not interested in all the heavy science behind plant and animal mutations, evolution, and whatnot. I just want to create flora and fauna for the Fantasy* world I'm creating that go on the more conservative end of the imagination scale. Think "Game of Thrones"-level fantasy. I'll rule out thing like a man-eating rosebush, but I'm not opposed to say, a new kind of fish.
> 
> ...



Ironic that you mention George R.R. Martin as an example, because his world is _meticulously _researched to match political structures and living conditions of the middle ages era his world emulates. _Magic gets thrown on top of the logic_. What I mean by that is there's a deep understanding of what the world was like in reality before anyone ever adds in dragons. The reason is because world-building demands a level of consistency and connection that "just winging it" never truly captures. Everything affects everything, like ripples in a pond. Let's say you never had an industrial revolution. Awesome, that's a great twist. But now you have a world where colonization still reigns as one of the major forms of financial expansion. See, Britain went to India not because they wanted a vacation home, but because they could utilize the land, its resources, and its people for economic gain. You have a world where corporate entities and companies never rose out of automation, meaning that goods and services are highly specialized, and therefore more expensive. That in turn trickles to a world where the division between rich and poor is much greater--if you can't afford a bathtub because the guy who makes them only makes one a week and demands a very large price for it, you're not going to be showering much.

That's how large implications of your world will tumble down and affect your main characters. Because there's no industrial revolution, your main character might be a poor girl whose daily dream is a good scrubbing, and the local news she hears about talks about the far away lands that her government just "liberated" from the savages that live there. So your planet's origins possibly involve magic. Okay. What does that mean for the characters I'm going to read about? How does it affect the local flora and fauna? What kind of creatures would be a fusion of magic and nature? "Deliberately murky" does not mean you as a writer should just shrug your shoulders. I find it strange that you're wanting to plan out details down to mapping the homes/buildings of the characters, but things that could have massive repercussions for all the characters are just glossed over.

I'm not advocating for hard sci-fi. Believe me, if you've read any of my work, you know I'm FAR from hard sci-fi. But if you don't have some logic to back up what's happening, don't show the reader the effects of your world, they're not going to hold deep interest. It'll just be another setting. But if it goes deep, deeper than the text even, people will feel a part of the world and wish they could live in it instead of our own. Look at how many people go to Hogwarts in Disney Land. They want to live in the wizard world not just as an escape from their own lives but because every element of it fascinates them, and every element works in harmony with the rest. We read and sit through the minutia of George R.R. Martin's page after page descriptions of banquets and castles and forests because it makes it breathe with an authenticity that we don't see even in real life sometimes.

All that said, do what you will with your work. I just feel that if you're putting as much effort as you've displayed into this story, throughout all of your posts, you would want to give this greater consideration. After all, this world is _reality _for your characters, and it's the only one they'll get.


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## Schrody (Feb 18, 2016)

LeeC said:


> Bishop made a very good point. In less than a hundred years some "weeds" have developed resistance/immunity to our herbicides (showing once again who's in charge). On the other hand adaptive morphological changes usually take tens of thousands of years or longer because Nature works on a different time scale than we think in. Even so, strange mutations aside from adaptive can occur in a species due to some excessive change in their habitat -- take the case of malformed frogs due to our pollution.



Or radiation (yes, yes, we're all been bombarded by the space radiation - I meant power plants, etc.)


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## Stormcat (Feb 18, 2016)

Perhaps I've been too schooled in the Lawyer's "Only give them the information they need to know". I admit, I've been skimpy on details here. This is still my first draft and there's no way I could possibly reveal all my notes here. Far too messy and data-intensive.

But, that being said, I know I want a semi-realistic fantasy world. One where the citizens utilize magic, but an industrial revolution is starting so they can produce more than one bathtub a day. (Side note: this gives me an idea for public bathhouses in this world...) I guess I got frustrated with all this talk of environmental factors and no talk of possible flora and fauna.

Perhaps I don't need an entirely new plant, I just need a new cultivar. I know how they make new apple breeds, so perhaps I should put my nose to the grindstone and research individual plants and animals for possible mutations that could spawn unique versions of already well-known flora and fauna. Why have a silly man-eating rosebush when I should really be looking at Purple-skinned apples.


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## UtopiasCult (Feb 18, 2016)

... Bishop is quite correct with their summary. 

First evolution can be quick. London Underground Mosquito appeared during the Blitz, is now a completely different species. Tuskless African elephants, a mutation that has found footing due to poaching / forced evolution in a way, appeared about 50 years ago maybe a bit longer - give them another half century and they'll be at the very least a new subspecies if not a whole new species due to poaching killing off the "normal" tusked version. 

Selective breeding can be quite quick if done properly. Different breeds of animals/plants / or versions can arise in just a few generations due to very selective breeding. Watermelons for example [something I loved as a child] were just what 10 - 15 years ago dark green & red, had seeds, and actually had some taste - nowadays you get watermelons in a variety of shades, without seeds, and by and large little to no taste. They are just one of the fruits & vegetables that have changed drastically in the last 10 - 100 - 200 years due to selective breeding. 

Then there's splicing, aka genetic modification, that allows for plants mostly that could never crossbreed in nature to be crossbred. You say your people arrived on this planet 400 years ago - so by spaceship? If so unless they crash landed & lost all their technology something such as splicing should be as easy as baking a cake to them. 


It's not quite as simple as saying blue leafed plant with crimson flower that grows upside down and which the giant worm ButNut eats, I will call it Helluva. Okay, so what do we do with this helluva and the butnut? 




Stormcat said:


> Perhaps I don't need an entirely new plant, I just need a new cultivar. I know how they make new apple breeds, so perhaps I should put my nose to the grindstone and research individual plants and animals for possible mutations that could spawn unique versions of already well-known flora and fauna. Why have a silly man-eating rosebush when I should really be looking at Purple-skinned apples.



A parallel earth. 

I was going to suggest that actually seeing as prior to this you were attempting to make a new planet that *wasn't* earth, yet was just *like* earth. So instead of trying to carbon copy earth onto an alien world - keep it simple and make a parallel earth. 

That way you can warp your parallel earth a bit without having to do the "years" of ecosystem research needed to create a new world - and for the record, you wouldn't need years nor encyclopedia like brackets of "world" in your book. Unless you are pitching the book to people who have studied ecosystems 90% of your audience would know nothing beyond what they learned in school & if they did know more, they are reading a fantasy book not a school textbook. 


In the most simple sense, what Bishop was getting at is you don't necessarily need to write a glossary worthy book with enough footnotes and subsections to turn 500 pages into 1,500 pages.  You just need to connect the dots. 

Plant A feeds Animal B, Animal B is used by your people as mounts. When in the wild Animal Bs are dinner for Predator F. Your villagers tend to Plant H & maybe even fields of Plant A [or make them the same plant just harvested different times - on earth people prefer sweet corn; generally, no one likes eating what serves as cow/pig corn]. This would be your a mini "ecosystem"; so using that information if one of your characters takes a joyride in the mountains on Animal B not only do they have to watch out for rebels but also keep an eye out for Predator F looking for an easy meal. 

Horses, for example, are prey to wolves; there have been reports decades / centuries back of wolves actually attacking horses either pulling sleds or mounted - why, because to the predator's mind the human is nothing more than an appetizer atop their regular dinner.


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## Stormcat (Feb 18, 2016)

UtopiasCult said:


> A parallel earth.
> 
> I was going to suggest that actually seeing as prior to this you were attempting to make a new planet that *wasn't* earth, yet was just *like* earth. So instead of trying to carbon copy earth onto an alien world - keep it simple and make a parallel earth.
> 
> ...



I had some ideas for possible, domesticated plants and animals, at the top of the page, but no one seems to have read them.


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## UtopiasCult (Feb 18, 2016)

Stormcat said:


> I had some ideas for possible, domesticated plants and animals, at the top of the page, but no one seems to have read them.



Yes, I saw. The dodo & the passenger pigeon - all earthern species. So why make another world if you are going to put obvious earth-based species on it? Make a parallel earth. 

As it is, I've followed this post from the start. I just decided to let Bishop handle the responses because they've hit the nail on the head. 


The spineless lionfish that was suggested, for example, how are you going to describe it in your book -- the BlowGlow, the remarkable lionfish without spines? Again what do we do with the BlowGlow - use it like a hacky sack and play some very _*odd*_ water game? 


You can't just sort of... splat... creatures - animals / plants - in a book without giving it a purpose just because it sounds cool. Even if the purpose has nothing to do with humans it fits in the ecosystem somewhere. 

The mud dauber wasp for example on Earth. "Annoying". It is apparently responsible for actually "crashing" a plane due to a series of nests built in the engine. To the human eye, they serve little purpose. Yet, without them, certain areas would have problems with the daubers' prey, which includes a number of venomous spider species. The dauber itself is dinner for a number of bird & frog species. 





Stormcat said:


> Maybe because I got hungry, but I've been thinking about food. Which got me thinking about the plants and animals humans eat, which spawned some ideas. These are just some random thoughts of mine:



-There's been a big hubub about Genetically-modified Golden Rice. Might look into more information about GMOs to "create" a theoretical Frankenfood of my own. Except in my world, it'll be an all-natural product. Why create some freak food? You are on an alien world, yes? Make something ... the SuperGlob, a grain that glows in the dark & makes you grow hair on your chest. 

-A lot of fruits Americans eat year round (Apples, Oranges, Bananas, Strawberries, etc.) can only be grown in certain climates. Since most of my story takes place in a temperate climate, maybe create versions of "exotic" fruits that grown in a more fickle climate. Okay. How do you describe an alien apple - the Mansua; it tastes like an apple, grows like an apple tree, yet it is *not* an apple. 

-Meat and dairy production are both resource-intensive industries. Maybe create an animal that can be milked and eaten, but requires fewer resources than cows do. There's an old saying if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck... it is a duck. Dairy cows, for example are actually quite modern, the oldest cattle breeds on earth actually produce barely enough milk for their offspring. Why have an animal that gives you milk, why not a milk-like substance from a plant such as what you get with certain cactus species or you know coconuts. 

-It sure would be nice to have a fur coat, but there's that whole debate about fur farming and animal cruelty. Surely there must be an animal that not only give gorgeous fur/leather, but tastes good as well! If we ate the animals our fur comes from, maybe the debate wouldn't exist, except among those who think killing an animal for ANY reason is wrong. In all actuality a lot of cultures still make use of everything on an animal, even european cultures - pig hooves & snouts make interesting dinners. Aboriginals made use of fat, bones, and everything in between before Europeans came. You can get sheep/lamb heads for Christmas? Rooster bits anyone? Peacocks give gorgeous feathers & people eat them. Cattle, horses, sheep, all give you this - and you eat them. Unless, you know, it is like Star Trek and dinner comes from who knows what ... thin air ... something has to be dealt with & eaten. 

-Leather tanning is also a stinky, resource-intensive process. Yet all but the most loyal PETA members can agree that leather is a wonderful material. Maybe make a tree whose bark yields something similar to leather. Okay, why? Are they wearing leather jerkins? Furniture? Housing materials? Leather once had a purpose beyond looking snazzy. 

-I decided a long time ago that the bad guys of the story love the color white. Maybe make a plant or part of a plant that they love for it's paleness. Is that the only reason for a pale flower? Why would they even notice it among the dozens of other flowers? 

-Similarly, the good guys need some sort of rallying symbol. Maybe a flower with medicinal properties, one not found in our world and whose shape is distinctive. Distinctive how? And what is this bizarre medicinal property - most plants were kept, years and years ago, for their purpose. Not simply to spruce up the garden. Foxglove, for example, was probably once kept to be used as a poison; a child or pet nibbles on it and they are definitely not going to be happy campers [if they are lucky]. 

-Looking over this list, I see I have neglected the "wild" animals. In particular, Bugs.



Stormcat said:


> Yup. Just me trying to think like a farmer. Maybe put my Ag. Degree to good use.




You keep saying you don't want to do the research. Then don't. 

Make yourself a parallel world, call it Arret [the reverse of the latin Terra], and change a few things. The Romans never dealt with Jesus - so Christianity never came to the fore, no Crusades. That'd result in a heck of a change on "earth". The Renaissance never came to pass due to severe censorship of ideas - people that sought to change things hung in Trafalgar Square or similar on a daily basis ... no Renaissance would change a lot too. 

That way you can keep your cattle & sheep & horses - and call them cattle, sheep & horses instead of the non-cattle that is a cow.


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## Stormcat (Feb 18, 2016)

Somehow the idea I'm trying to convey is getting lost. 

This planet is "The planet of lost things" Because due to wormholes of various sizes, any item, animal, plant, or person you think is lost forever actually ends up here. The years are the same, but humans only started arriving here about 400 years ago. Think Bermuda triangle, and other mysterious disappearances. Those people and missing objects actually end up here. Jimmy Hoffa? He's here but has been dead for ages. Roanoke colony? We've got descendants of those people. The Mary Celeste? Whole crew was transported here all those years ago. It was only 400 years ago that there were enough humans to build a civilization.

Passenger pigeons and Dodos, which were once plentiful in their respective locales, are seen here because specimens of the species got transported here long before their species on Earth went extinct. No one knows exactly why these portals between earth and TPOLT occur, but they only go one way, Things from TPOLT can't escape back to Earth. 

Sometimes like here on earth, a species over there will have a mutation. This may be inconsequential, like an apple that has purple skin instead of red. But the human population has learned to use genetic manipulation to their advantage through selective breeding (and genetic splicing, which is a really recent invention for these people). Some plants and animals over there aren't found here thanks to those pesky one-way portals and whatever the minds of the farmers could concoct. So they have the purple apples, we do not.


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## Stormcat (Feb 19, 2016)

I'm not asking for full-blown new creatures, just possible "Cultivars" that might differ from our worldly produce and animals.


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## Terry D (Feb 19, 2016)

Stormcat said:


> I'm not asking for full-blown new creatures, just possible "Cultivars" that might differ from our worldly produce and animals.



If you know what you want, just create them. In the time you've spent here arguing with the suggestions you've been given, you could have filled an ark.


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## UtopiasCult (Feb 19, 2016)

Stormcat said:


> Somehow the idea I'm trying to convey is getting lost.
> 
> This planet is "The planet of lost things" Because due to wormholes of various sizes, any item, animal, plant, or person you think is lost forever actually ends up here. The years are the same, but humans only started arriving here about 400 years ago. Think Bermuda triangle, and other mysterious disappearances. Those people and missing objects actually end up here. Jimmy Hoffa? He's here but has been dead for ages. Roanoke colony? We've got descendants of those people. The Mary Celeste? Whole crew was transported here all those years ago. It was only 400 years ago that there were enough humans to build a civilization.
> 
> ...




No, it is not getting "lost" at all. 

I think you think parallel means - exact carbon copy. It doesn't. 

This Earth had Hitler, to many a madman. Earth B had Hitler, a genius philosopher who united the nations. Earth C is where Hitler is a factory foreman. Earth D has Hitler die as a toddler. 


Okay so now you want portals popping up all over the place sucking people, creatures, plants into alternative worlds. Is that not like that movie, Another Earth? I can think of a few Twilight Zone series running the same idea. Any number of beam me up Scotty and put me somewhere else movies, books, etc. 

Similarly, if you have what a few thousand people populating this single world - those that disappeared - you are going to have a lot of inbreeding in a 400-year time frame. Google the "clan" found in Australia a couple years ago - or better yet The Hills Have Eyes. What is keeping these people from been severely inbred if their numbers are limited - and inbreeding causes all sorts of issues [the cheetah for example bottlenecked severely in the past, to such a degree they are so inbred if any severe feline disease got loose amongst them they'd all pretty much die due to lacking genetic varation]. 

And what "decides" what gets sucked into this alternative world. You say dodo & passenger pigeon. Why not the moa? Wooly mammoth? Sabre-tooth? Cave lion / cave bear? West African black rhinos? Siberian tigers? They say, in the past 500 years, we've caused the extinction of 330 odd identified species and we can only wildly guess at species which we have driven to extinction but never knew existed. 


errr...




Stormcat said:


> I'm not asking for full-blown new creatures, just possible "Cultivars" that might differ from our worldly produce and animals.



Anything, everything can vary. Darwin's finches - one island, 15 separate species. The deciding factor - what each bird ate & where. 

As Bishop said, as I said, small mutations / changes can happen very, very, very quickly. Genetic modification makes it snapping one's fingers easy. 


As for purple apples - red delicious can get incredibly dark, sometimes nearly black. The star apple, milk fruit, or as it is known the cainito is not an apple but at a glance ripe ones *are* a purple-skinned "apple". 

For odd things just research what we have here. Exotic animals, exotic fruits/vegetables. 


For example, the average person wouldn't have a clue what this is.


 This is a Jabuticaba, brazilian grape tree. And yeah, I found they do taste *sort of* like your average store grape.


Image link http://didyouknowblog.com/post/40738988143/brazilian-grape-tree-also-known-as-jabuticaba


Or how about the "witch finger" grape.


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## Stormcat (Feb 19, 2016)

UtopiasCult said:


> N
> This Earth had Hitler, to many a madman. Earth B had Hitler, a genius philosopher who united the nations. Earth C is where Hitler is a factory foreman. Earth D has Hitler die as a toddler.



The Planet of Lost things never had a Hitler. Adolf Hitler was born, lived and died without even the notion of the planet of lost things ever crossing his mind. TPOLT is not an alternate timeline. It's a planet with a weird knack for collecting junk from this planet. There is no Earth A, B, C, D, or even E. There was only one Hitler, he lived and died on the Earth we currently share.




> Okay so now you want portals popping up all over the place sucking people, creatures, plants into alternative worlds. Is that not like that movie, Another Earth? I can think of a few Twilight Zone series running the same idea. Any number of beam me up Scotty and put me somewhere else movies, books, etc.



Never seen that movie, no idea what you're talking about. Even if the idea of "The other side of the bermuda triangle" has been done before, It's just a trope. Tropes can be re-used.



> Similarly, if you have what a few thousand people populating this single world - those that disappeared - you are going to have a lot of inbreeding in a 400-year time frame. Google the "clan" found in Australia a couple years ago - or better yet The Hills Have Eyes. What is keeping these people from been severely inbred if their numbers are limited - and inbreeding causes all sorts of issues [the cheetah for example bottlenecked severely in the past, to such a degree they are so inbred if any severe feline disease got loose amongst them they'd all pretty much die due to lacking genetic varation].



Actually, There was a mass migration to TPLOT around 400 years ago. Only seven individuals knew the exact details of how this worked, and they died without divulging this information. There were around 80,000 individuals who took this journey, all of various European, Asiatic, and African descent.



> And what "decides" what gets sucked into this alternative world. You say dodo & passenger pigeon. Why not the moa? Wooly mammoth? Sabre-tooth? Cave lion / cave bear? West African black rhinos? Siberian tigers? They say, in the past 500 years, we've caused the extinction of 330 odd identified species and we can only wildly guess at species which we have driven to extinction but never knew existed.



Those ice-age creatures are all here too! 

No one is certain what "decides" to open or close the portals (Save those seven individuals mentioned previously, but they never wrote anything down), It's all perfectly random. In keeping with the chaotic nature of the universe.


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