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Post by swankivy on Jul 9, 2010 22:19:41 GMT -5
Underwater Life
Alix looks very human for someone who claims to be functionally amphibious. What modifications to the traditional human biology do you think would be necessary for a person like him to exist?
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Post by SHO! on Jul 9, 2010 23:23:15 GMT -5
Underwater LifeAlix looks very human for someone who claims to be functionally amphibious. What modifications to the traditional human biology do you think would be necessary for a person like him to exist?
- He'd probably need gills to convert the oxygen in water to something breathable or super lung capacity.
- Maybe a second set of eyelids that protect his eyes from the sea water and change the focus enough to sea clearly.
- Webbed fingers and toes would be useful for swimming.
- An extra layer of dense fat under the skin and/or thick skin to protect his body from temperature and depth changes.
- Some sort of claws, modified teeth, or barbed skin to catch and hold slippery fish.
- Depending on how deep he travels, modified blood that wouldn't produce nitrogen bubbles and give him decompression sickness while diving and rising.
I'll leave it at that for now, but if I think anything else then I'll come back.
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Post by synesthesia on Jul 9, 2010 23:46:44 GMT -5
Yeah, pretty much all of that.
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Post by biosparite on Jul 10, 2010 23:21:58 GMT -5
I doubt he could get enough oxygen exchange from water to run the high-energy human brain. Although cephalopods are pretty bright . . . But, then again, cephalopods can't do calculus, or diagram, much less construct, sentences (doesn't seem to bother them, though). Highest-level smarts in the ocean are confined to mammals that returned to the sea from land and that breathe air at intervals by sounding at the surface. I wonder how this sub-arc of the strip would change if we all chipped in to send Swank Ivy to USFL for Biology 101-102 and a follow-up course in marine biology. Perhaps the new character would end up invested with symbiotic algae in his endodermis as a supplemental food and oxygen source. Just messing with you, Swank.
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Post by Corinne on Jul 13, 2010 12:00:04 GMT -5
I don't think I could really add anything to SHO!'s list. It's interesting to think about, though. Thank you for suffering through that last instalment for our sake even though you weren't feeling it!
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Post by customdesigned on Jul 18, 2010 21:14:29 GMT -5
My design would be gills wrapped around the neck, and an additional valve (like the one that directs mouth contents to either stomach or lungs) to direct mouth contents to gills when needed. I would need to do some calculations to see how big the gills need to be - maybe the neck isn't big enough, and he needs a "beer belly" that contains gills instead of fat. (And the additional valve would be just above his stomach.)
Since his lungs need to be kept expanded (or be ruined), he could not go very deep - basically the limitations of a scuba diver. I would expect some kind of webbing on fingers and toes. This sometimes appears on real humans (without the gills).
I note that all known mammals adapted to the sea did *not* develop gills. Instead, they basically hold their breath a long time under water, and have blow holes to allow "snorkelling" (breathing with only the blowhole breaking the surface).
If you will recall what happens to your finger tips when you've been in the bath too long, you will realize that Alix needs special skin as well - probably oilier than normal, or else rubbery. (Which probably doesn't get him far with the girls, and indicates a probable dead end for this hopeful monster's genetic line.)
The mermaids of legend were able to change back and forth between mermaid and human forms (as did the trolls of norse legend), so marrying humans was feasible.
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Post by customdesigned on Jul 23, 2010 14:36:14 GMT -5
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Post by swankivy on Jul 23, 2010 17:26:21 GMT -5
Yeah, I knew about that--saw it the day it came out. (Who would've ever thought I pay so much attention to baby-related news? Yep.) It's an interesting phenomenon, and if there isn't some other explanation for why that baby is so pale and why her hair is like that, it does suggest that the Caucasian sub-race could have easily evolved through very abrupt mutations! I do think the blonde hair on that kid is pretty interesting. Even most traditionally parented blue-eyed, blonde babies don't have hair like that. For instance, me when I was born:  Baby Nmachi:  And they're right that she doesn't look albino.  |
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Post by SHO! on Jul 23, 2010 22:49:13 GMT -5
My design would be gills wrapped around the neck, and an additional valve (like the one that directs mouth contents to either stomach or lungs) to direct mouth contents to gills when needed. I would need to do some calculations to see how big the gills need to be - maybe the neck isn't big enough, and he needs a "beer belly" that contains gills instead of fat. (And the additional valve would be just above his stomach.) |
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Post by SHO! on Jul 23, 2010 23:00:56 GMT -5
But why? Really?Yesterday three-day-old Nmachi's churchgoing mum Angela admitted that she was "speechless" at first seeing her baby girl, who was delivered in a caesarean op.
"She's beautiful and I love her. Her colour doesn't matter. She's a miracle baby.
Or am I just reading something into the article that isn't there (like some of the commentors under the article seem to be doing)?
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