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PeteriDish — The new nature of terrestrial hexapods?
Published: 2012-04-23 19:54:01 +0000 UTC; Views: 924; Favourites: 18; Downloads: 9
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Description
"terrestrial" as in "dry-landers," not "earthlings"
This is a major overhaul of the most noticable group of animals from my ongoing project of creating a global ecosystem of an extrasolar planet.
This sketch shows the basic morphology of a head of of a generic predator with jaws and "lips" partially openned.
I tried to clean this up as much as possible, so I hope you'll like it without so much of the grid showing
I know it looks nothing like what I was working around before, but that's the purpose. I hope that this is the point where no one would think this is a terrestrial animal, but it's also recognizable as a large and complex animal. There is no upper and lower jaw, but lateral jaws, and there are two flap- like organs on the head, the lower one works like the "floor" of the mouth or a tongue, it has taste buds on it, and the upper flap houses a feathery bifurcated antenna or tentacle and works like a chemoreceptor.
And then, of course, six eyes which are different in the way they work from what I had pictured previously, which was basically a "cephalopod eye." Now, however, the eyes are not ball-like but rather cylinder-like or cone-like, projecting rather deep inside the skull. To make things as weird as possible, these animals don't have to blink, because they have "dry" eyes, and no eye movement is ever apparent on the outside, even though the rear part of the eye has some ammount of mobility, but all the movements happen on the inside. The individual eyes can't move as much as the eyes of earth's vertebrates, but the greater number of them compensates this drawback. Many herbivores can cover an angle of 270 degrees without moving their head. The "guarding" individuals that look for danger while the rest of the herd eats are almost flawless observatory towers.
Interestingly, the eyes are adapted for detecting different wavelengths of light, many nocturnal animals can see in near-infrared, which allows them to better distinguish outlines of objects to an incredible detail.
What I still have no idea about are the ears. Where should I put them? Should there be any earlobes?
And the second problem are the "nostrills" or, better, spiracles. I think I'll put them on the back of the head or on the neck. Any ideas on whether there should actually be any nostrills on the skull or whether the pathway for air (or water if we're talking about gills) should go only through the soft tissue without ever having a "nasal cavity" (or something similar) in the skull?
Last but not least, what is your opinion on this new concept?
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Comments: 73
I miss youre project......i loved the new head design too
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I'll maybe return to it sooner or later, but not as a replacement for origami. I could do both at the same time, but as for now, my head is full of preparations for an upcoming origami convention
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Okay no rush man i just miss seeing youre drawings i seen youre birth days comming up
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yes, I'll be 21...
10 years of doing origami in a serious manner...
Damn, I feel so old, next year I'll be doing origami for exactly half of my life. Kinda scary, don't you think?
P.S. Now I am older than I've ever been but younger than I'll ever will be... 
Damn, what's wrong with me?
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Nothings wrong with ya! and happy birthday for tommorow its not really that scary ive been drawing sinsce i could crayon a stick man
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Ears don't have to be membranes; many insects detect sound with vibration-sensitive hairs. I suggest a mane of auditory bristles around the alien's head and eyes (perhaps they could be arranged in sound collecting "fans", like the facial disks of an owl).
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Thing is, that an owl has ears just like we do, the feathers only work like "earlobes."
Then, I have to admit, I am not sure if an ear like you're suggesting isn't only present in insects because this "system" only works for tiny creatures. I am against "hair-ears" because wind could effectively disable the animal's ability to hear. "hair-ear" is also not the only way how insects detect sounds - some have a "tympaneous section" on the cuticle which works like a "tympanus," so it's a "membrane-ear" as well.
also, many animals - insects, arachnids, elephants, snakes... - sense vibrations with their feet, or with the bottom surface of the body, but not all feet are suitable for detecting vibrations this way, and not all sounds "shake the ground" so this hearing "accessory" seems to be an additional ability, rather than primary sense, because it's very limited in the frequency it can detect.
Thank you for your suggestion, but I think hairs are better for increasing touch sensitivity.
I will still have to think about it, I was kinda leaning towards "usual ears" but in tandem on the back, or on the tip of the tail... I don't know...
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No more than wind disables our ability to hear. Animals with exposed eardrums like frogs seem to get along alright too.
You could also have a system similar to a dolphin's, i.e. fluid filled channels beneath the skin that channel sound to an internal (invisible) ear. Or perhaps the auditory detectors are in the throat, and the animal focuses sound with its open mouth. That leads to an interesting explanation; maybe the membrane that produces sound evolved from the one that detects sound, or vice versa. The same organ might both produce sound and receive it, which is sort of elegant I think
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Hmmm... Maybe you're right. 
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Wow, great job! 
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Thank you! I am now playing around with this idea, I think I'll keep it and work with this concept, the previous morphology didn't seem "alien" enough.
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Yeah, I really like it, though I also liked the older drawings (especially invertebrate-like creatures!
You should also make more of these: [link] I absolutely love it! Can you teach me once how you did that blending in with the environment? I'm planning to do some new water-aliens for the FAB-Project.
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Thank you! I think invertebrates have been easier to do, from our point of view, many of them are "little aliens" of our own planet, which somewhat helps to make them look "otherwordly," and, of course, they're "critters," and "critters" are always more fun than "animals..."
I'm glad you like the "squid!" To reply to your question, the "blending" is partially because I was lucky to choose similar color of the body and background, and I also used a custom "material" created by , I don't know if I can share it with you without asking Nick first, he's been silent on DA for quite a long time, but I don't know what's going on... But you can "blend" the animal rather well with its background if you use similar colors on the background and on the animal. Hope this helps
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Yes, I agree invertebrates are sometimes extremely alien things! 
But what's actually the difference between critters and animals
Thanks a lot for the help and I've asked him myself. He said he will mail me some material!
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well, this divide is just my own construct, but generally I call critters are animals that are either invertebrates or small in size
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It looks like a mix between an arachnid and a mammal, which is cool
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Very nice! And it looks (and sounds) very creepy to a terrestrial animal like myself - it never blinks, and if this guy is a predator, that would be eerie as all-get-out...
Ears... somewhere out of the way would be best. Small, simple earlobes are advised, but not required. Perhaps directly behind the eyes, or the lower jaw?
The nostrils sound good - my vote's for a small nasal cavity in the skull, supplemented by a more fleshy passage outside the skull.
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Thank you! I'm really glad you like it! I've been busy writing comments until now, but I will soon be free to sketch some more!
The ear is really puzzling, someone above said that mantises have a "cyclopean" single ear between their legs, so I was thinking if they couldn't have two "cyclopean" ears on different parts of their body, and probably in "tandem..." I have been thinking about the tails, I think it would be possible to make at least some "soft-tailed" animals, I think a cheetah would be equally maneuverable with "elephant's trunk" or "tentacle" instead of a tail, and that also leads me to some quite fancy display features as you speak about it, but wouldn't it be possible to have the ears on the tail?
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Ears on the tail would be entirely possible, especially if the tail is a mobile thing that could curl around to investigate any sounds... and perhaps the flaps could double as a signalling device? Just a thought
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Hmmmm.... That's a great idea! Yes, I thought that the tail could be mobile...
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A small one would should be enough, and as for a bony sculpture... perhaps the animal has a bony "club" at the tip of the tail, and it serves as a hearing apparatus and counterbalance at the same time... just an idea. I doubt it'd be an ankylosaur-type club weapon, I don't wanna hit something with my ears!
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Yeah. I think it couldn't even play a "counterweight" role in itself, earbones are really really miniature, so a bone housing two sets of them wouldn't be much bigger than a "normal" vertebra.
Still, there are many unusual areas where I could put the ear. What about three ears on the back between the "shoulder baldes?" of each pair of limbs?
Now comes the problem that I haven't really thought about their skeleton yet... I want something with bones, but I would like to avoid the "traditional" backbone... I don't know how to do it, though.
I just got an idea that the nerve chord could be surrounded or supported by a liquid-filled tube in the primitive ancestral species, and the rest of the skeleton could be composed of jointed plates of variable size that evolved from some cartilaginous structures... I don't know. I still have a lot to think about!
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Hmm... lots of nice ideas here!
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Thanks! Let's see where it leads me!
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well, i seem to have a problem with the "dry-eyes" concept. don't the cells die if they are dehydrated?
you can put the ears close to the eyes, but that is just my idea
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Well, spiders have "dry eyes" too, they don't have tear canals, and their eyes are not "soft" either, but hard, so they hhave to groom their eyes and brush of the dust. That's all they have to do. Geckos have no eyelids, they have a transparent scale covering the eye permanently, so they have to lick their eyes - not to make them wet, but to brush off the dust and dirt. This is basically where the inspiration, either for the "multipple eyes" idea and for their type comes from, and I think the "olphactory tentacle" would work equally well as a brush for grooming, in addition to their sensoric role.
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oh i see, thanks for the info.
never new that :-P
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You learn a new thing every day!
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Cool new concept, and i was thinking why not have the frilly tentacle be able to pick up sound vibrations, like a moth's antenna- sorry if someone said this, I'm not taking the time to read all the comments
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Thank you very much! I am curious to see where this leads me, or what I can come up with, based on this new idea!
I don't know if they could pick up sounds with the "antenna," because it's a chemoreceptor used somewhat like snake's tongue to "taste" the air.
It is funny that you mentionned moths, because as far as I know, that's where their smell organs are located. are their "ears" on the antennae as well?
Thank you for your support and interrest, it seems that some people like it while some don't, but I kinda expected that.
I'm glad you are one of the people who like this new concept.
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Ah, didn't think of that sorry I was wrong. But a frill could still be used to pick vibrations out of the air. And no ones ever said multipurpose organs dont exist, look at all the things out skull does!
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Ah thanks! Multi-purpose organs definitely exist! Just look at all the things elephant can do with its trunk!
With this sorted, i have to own up I am somwhat aginst "hair-ears" on big animals. you know, we have "hairs" in the cochlea, but they are miniature, protected from weather, suspended in a liquid, and there is a complex apparatus that increases the intensity of the sound before the vibration gets into the cochlea. Hair-ears seem to me too simple to be of any use, especially when the slightest wind can make you deaf completely.
I don't want to discourrage you, I really appreciate that you want to help me.
What I meant to ask was where should I put the ears, and how many of them should be there? One "cyclopean" ear? Would it be enough if it could turn around and sense where the sounds are comming from? And would't this lead echolocation out of the game entirely, because echolocating animals need two ears to not only judge the direction of the signal, but also the distnce of the object? (they do so by sensing the time difference when the signal reaches the left and right ear)
Should I "stick with" two then? or even three?
Where should they be? On the head? On the back? On the tail? And with more than one ear, should they be next to each other, in a "rosette" or in "tandem?"
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No problem my first idea was an ear much like ours (congruent evolution) but i i wanted to come up with something that didnt make you change youre current body plan. I wouldn't go with tri/cyclopean ears, Two works plenty well on earth- bats can fly using them!
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Hmmm... I see.
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This is really good! Not only the originality of the design but the quality of the drawing too! Love it
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Wow thank you! You really refuelled me now! I'm gonna sketch some more variants of this concept. I'll try to upgrade the head designs I had, only with more eyes and different jaws, and see what it looks like like that!
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You are very welcome! Glad to have been helpful!
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Head is looking quite interesting, i hope rest of the body is equaly alien. About the strangest ear position, on earth mantises have truly strange ear. Single ("cyclopean"), on their belly, between walking legs. It detects only presence of sounds, not its direction. And works only in frequency of bat radar. And often only flying mantises hear. Flightles species or wingles females of other species, are often deaf .
But I can't agree with your theory that "there is no reason to favor two-eyed lifeforms over multiple-eyed ones". Problem with it is that all creatures on Earth, what have well developed sight, have always two eyes (sometimes only with other small residual eyes), even if they developed it indepedndently. So something must be in it. Evolution is unforgiving in the matter of economy. Maybe 2 eyes is enough to see whole world around and 3 is just wastage? But other way, creature with 3 or 4 eyes should have binocular vision in all direction...
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Thank you! I really hope the resto of the body looks "alien," I didn't want to make "mammals with tentacles on their heads," which is precisely why I decided to change the appearance of these animals to make them as different from vertebrates as possible. They have six legs, which should do the trick, right?
About the eyes... Well, there are animals that combine single and compound eyes, Opabinia had five compound eyes and some Opabinia or Anomalocaris relatives had four compound eyes, I have even seen an extinct shrimp-like animal with three compound eyes, but I don't remember their names, unfortunately, spiders have eight single eyes, horseshoe crabs have many eyes distributed above and under their body, so I think having multiple eyes isn't impossible or unlikely, but I agree that not all of the eyes would be developped to an equal degree, I think the "middle eyes" of the herbivores and "front eyes" of the carnovores would be much bigger than the other two pairs of eyes, I think the other eyes would be there just to broaden their general angle of view, but without much detail, probably just in rough outlines, or they could detect movement in places where their "main eyes" can't see, which would increase the animal's chance of survival.
Thank you for your help with the ear. i didn't know that mantises have only one!
I was also thinking where would be the nostrills in these animals. do you think they could breathe through the "upper flap" that houses the olphactory tentacle/antenna?
I really appreciate your help and interrest, your aliens are pone of the most original ones I have seen so far!
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Hmmmm interesting as for the ears some of my creatures have organs under thair skins that pick up vibrations so maybe a kind of internal ear? Sounds crazy huh? Really like this design!
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Thank you!
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