Re: Armalligator was: Email

KH.Ranitzsch@t-online.de schrieb:

> > > Mechanically, it would be more efficient if
> > > the legs were vertical rather than spread
> > > out to the sides.
> >
> > However, there may be no need to lift if they develop
> > tech, tools etc that can be used in a dorso ventrally
> > flattened position. Many crabs are good at manipulating
> > stuff with little requirement for lifting up
> > as they do it this and while not analogous to the creature in
> > question octopus are brilliant at using tools without being in
> > a "lifted position".
>
>Here, I am not so much concerned with tool use as with locomotion.
>Unless the athmosphere/fluid where it habitually lives is dense enough
>to provide significant buoyancy, moving with splayed legs implies
>significant energy costs.

If you'll recall my original posting on this issue, these aliens are
native 
to a world with an incredibly dense atmosphere, somewhere on the order
of 
2-4 atmospheres.  Is that dense enough to help?

> > > Sounds pretty weird. If the athmosphere is aggressive,
> > > where do pure metals come from ?
> >
> > They don't need to be pure, just accessible. The metals
> > we use biochemically aren't in pure forms.
>
>Naturally, metals will tend to corrode to the lowest-energy chemical
>state, especially in a high-temperature environment. They may be
>available but will need energy to change to usable forms.
The energy's called metabolism.  Metal for these creatures is food, NOT 
building material.

> > >Are there any "plants" that photosynthesize them ?
>
> > Don't need plants as such, bacterial (sulphur based)
> > chemosynthesis is more than enough for the vent fauna etc
> > of Earth and would be more than likely in
> > a planet (like Venus) where there is little if any direct
> > sunlight.
>
>Would that be sufficient to maintain continent-spanning ecosystems for
>very long time spans ?

I suppose it would if it were the predominant biological system on the 
planet in question.

>Overall, I find the postulated biochemistry the less credible aspect of
>the Oitjuan. Something similar to hot-vent animals operating at 100+
>degrees celsius  and high air pressure requires fewer leaps of faith
>and would be equally plausible for an environment that is uncomfortable
>for humans.

> > >> Musculature is mostly steel cable,
> > >
> > > Hard to see how this could evolve from primitive
> > organisms
> >
> > Well steel maybe, but I could live with analogous
> > structures (seeing some of the stuff really used on earth is
>stronger).
>
>I'm not so much concerned about the material as about the functions.
>First off, cables would not be analogous to muscles as engines for the
>movement, but rather to sinews, which link the muscles and moving limbs
>and that re-direct the movement. In the postulated electro-chemical
>organism, the analoge to muscles would be electric motors or linear
>electromagnetic actuators.

As my friend is not a biologist, some aspects of his original e-mail
will 
NOT be included in the final xenology of the oitjuan. I suspect this
will be 
one of the issues where things change significantly.

Brian B2

"The Irish are the only race of people on Earth for which psychoanalysis
is 
of no use."

				 - S. Freud

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