RE: Email

G'day,

> >Preliminary concept sketches of newfound allies...

Look pretty cool, he may want to get hold of an invertebrate biology
text
and have a flick through some of the weirder phyla for further
inspiration.

>> Inverted-triangle cross-section provides stability in windy 
>> conditions.	

Assuming they remain dorso-ventrally flattened and close to the ground
right?

>> Flat dorsal surface provided ancestors with protection 
>> against airborne predators.

Truish - assuming they don't get a wide enough grip to use the shape to
actually hook in (broad top and tapering sides so if can get across top
then
shut hold then harder to dislodge). They'd have to watch out for
burrowing
preds though (which I'd expect more of in dense atmospheres as if
underground then free from wind effects etc)

>> Metal-based biochemistry. 

Sounds cool and Mercury blood isn't too weird.

>> Exoskeleton...

This may well limit their size unless, for instance, they've come up
with
some tricks for their equivalent of respiration that the arthropods on
Earth
have missed.

>> Possible biological ramifications to consider:
>>1) their unique technologies, 

Like what?

> combined with the overwhelming difficulty of 
> going from a high-pressure environment into a vacuum, 

You may be surprised how resilient some animals can be about this. While
many deep ocean animals do "pop" if brought to the surface, others can
survive and thrive at the surface as long as they're brought up slowly
in
the first place. It may well be more a case of not being able to make
fast
transitions rather than no transitions.

>> Wood all be done with energy fields.

Not a bad idea though.

>>3)slow thinkers:

OK this one I don't understand... not saying its not just fine, just
don't
understand the logic of it ;)

Cheers

Beth