Richard's Animorphs Forum
Animorphs Section => Animorphs Forum Classic => Topic started by: Terenia on December 21, 2009, 07:39:06 PM
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Most everyone here, with maybe a few exceptions, does believe in the existence of aliens. Or at least in the possibility of the existence of aliens. Over the years, many different concepts of 'alien' have come into existence. There's the typical E.T. or Close Encounter's type of alien, the putty-faced Star Trek aliens, the fuzzy Chewbaca's...and of course the aliens introduced in Animorphs. Yeerks. Hork-Bajir. Taxxons. Andalites. Skrit Na. Leerans. A plethora of others...
What I find myself wondering is whether or not, with a galaxy as large as it is and a universe with so many galaxies within it, alien species such as those in Animorphs could exist. Is it even possible for a parasite with sentience to exist and to control other beings in the way Yeerks do? Does it make sense, evolutionarily speaking, for a race to develop with centaur-like features that eat through their hooves? What about Taxxons, who are so fragile that they make up for it in sheer size and number? Or Leeran's? Can amphibious telepath's truly exist?
I am, of course, most interested in the Andalite and Yeerk development, and the Yeerks most of all. So, what do you think? Pick your favorite species...could they actually exist, somewhere out there? Do you think that they would have similar lifestyles and instincts to that portrayed in the series? For example, does it make sense that the Taxxons are a hive species? Does it make sense that Yeerks felt such a desire for conquest? Was that desire a result of instinct or politics?
I know it's a lot of questions, a large amount of stuff to consider, but I'd be interested in hearing what everyone thinks.
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*whistle* Okay, but for I start let me lay out my ground plan here. The creation of the universe is random, the development of life even more random, and the evolution of true sentience incredibly more random: no creators, no original designer. Each of these events has an infinitesimally small chance of happening, each even more so than the last. All of it is statistically impossible, including and especially us.
That being said, no. The odds of them existing as KA describes are beyond numerical comprehension. However, hope springs eternal ;)
Now from a biological stand point, which has no regards for me or my math, each species may have something to it. So here's my break down of some of them
Taxxons: Maybe. Large numbers make sense if you are killed pretty readily, especially by your own kind, and I can also see the hunger thing develop. The body is iffy to me however. It seems like they have an exoskeleton, and that type of body plan is hard to come by in large terrestrial creatures. For locomotion and where they live I'd say sure, but if it's that big an exoskeleton shouldn't support it well. Although perhaps they're skeleton would be comprised of a protein strong than arthropod exoskeletons, which given my ground rules, is probably more likely than them being the same.
Hork-Bajir: Yes. Obviously designed to be perfectly adapted to their niche. Reproduction concerns me, but I don't know enough about theirs to say more. And of course, everything is depends on the environment. So long as the right type of trees can exist, the Hork-Bajir should be okay, not the case if they only have the trees like the one in your living room this week.
Andalite: No. A large warmblooded creature that feeds by absorbing grass nutrients by merely crushing it seems far-fetched to me. A creature that size with fur, muscle, bone and whatever the tail is made of regulated by I think two hearts; that's a lot to sustain if you consider that Andalites aren't constantly feeding. Most grazers spend most of the day everyday eating and even if they eat while just normally walking around (which doesn't seem to be the case from what we've read), no metabolic process is 100% efficient, you spend all that energy walking around to crush new food with hooves of only so large a surface area, to me that's a push. Plus, maybe I'm looking at it the wrong way, but walking over grass seems to do more harm that just eating it. You can mow a lawn once a week and it'll be fine, but you walk a path over it x times every so often it suffers, and since they no longer migrate, that seems like Andalites should all be starving to me.
Yeerks: Yes: It's known that some parasites can control their host via hormones, to control the nerve center is a obviously a bit different, but probably more complete. And assuming it has a capable host, the mortality rate is probably much better in the host than out, plus you could set up host for future generations. So parasite brain slug yes, but for the sentience thing, see below.
All of the above was just some general physiological stuff. When it comes to any species being sentient, well that's harder. Under my ground rules, it has to be a developed character, and the odds of that are slim on it's own, I belief, in any and everything. However, once there it should be a highly valuable, self perpetuating trait. It's getting there that is problem, and when it would occur, before, during or after the aliens as we know them is indeterminable.
I probably over and under did it all I once, but yeah. Odds of any particular thing are between slim and none, and probably closer to none. The thing to keep in mind for all of it though is that while natural selection for a trait is not random, the mutations that bring about the good or bad variation more or less is.
For being like yeerks, the odds of becoming a neural parasite over millions of years is probably small, but if you do, and it works, than it's good reason to suspect they could very well exist. Seriously, even with the quadrillions of stars and planets out there, the odds of any of these things out there should be dismal, but you could say the same thing about life on earth, the human race, and each of us individually. There's some other points in this to hit one but I'm drawing a blank for now, but yeah. Fun question
That ends my senior thesis for biology- I mean my post ::)
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Naturally they all sound unrealistic (probably because they're fictional) but if you know about some of the truly bizarre animals on good old planet Earth you might find that start to believe anything is possible.
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We have some weird stuff on our planet, but science tells us that insects just can't grow very big. I believe a species of Tarantula is supposed to be about as big as a crawly can get. Taxxons are described as bags of goo, which means they don't have bones. So they aren't realistic. Andalites and Hork-Bajir seem a bit more realistic, but Andalite eating habits owuldn't be as efficient as using a big mouth to gobble up bales of grass. So they'd have to be constantly eating all the time. I don't know what to say about Horks. They're not even products of evolution, so there you go.
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If you take the Evolutionary side, I doubt it. The odds for life evolving from nothing on its own is well over a trillion to one, So know. I also think the galaxy has a small sector in it which is the habitable sector. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitable_zone. So evolutionary no. I believe in God, and I do believe in alien life. Not spacemen in saucers, but just some sort of life, no matter how basic. But I don't believe in separate alien sentient beings.
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RYTX brings up an excellent point about the Andalites being grazers. Given their large bodies and active lifestyles, they'd probably have to absorb a lot of grass to maintain active and healthy. It seems difficult for what's basically a modified ruminant to develop an organized society, just because of the sheer amount of time most grazing animals spend eating. But that's basing our assumptions on the metabolisms of Earth animals, and also figuring that the way Andalite hooves crush grass and absorb nutrients isn't like, a thousand times more effective than chewing (and rechewing) tough Earth grasses and leaves.
I could see large invertebrate "centipedes" evolving, much like the Taxxons; in fact in Earth's history there were giant centipedes, almost four feet long. Maybe not nearly as big and ravenous as Taxxons, but still pretty big compared to today. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphoberia
And come on...Starship Troopers and Men In Black are just too fun to imagine giant insectoids not existing xD
As for Yeerks, I think the likelihood of brain parasitism in the universe is probably just as likely as it is here on Earth (as RYTX pointed out there are a number of single-celled organic brain parasites here on Earth already; protists like toxoplasma; and there is a parasitic worm that infests snails and forces them to be eaten by the birds that are used in the next step of the worm's lifecycle o_O)
However I think the mechanism of Yeerk infestation is pretty unlikely; the probability that one alien species can infest a variety of other aliens without causing brain damage, or alerting the host's immune system, or simply puncturing the eardrum or having to dig through bone and tissue to get to the brain (as would in reality be the case in humans)...it doesn't sound like the host would survive in many more cases than we'd all like to think. Unless a Yeerk somehow travels through the nerve conduit that carries the auditory nerve to the brain...without damaging it...it would still have to screw around with delicate tin ear bones (which is mentioned in Visser as Edriss basically juggling them around as she explored the human ear canal. Hmmm...yeah that would've made the poor Iraqi soldier deaf, I think...-___-
It is interesting though that a few parasitic protists have evolved on Earth, I think the closest things we can compare Yeerks to on Earth are multicellular photosynthetic protists, sort of like sentient seaweed, or a clump of sentient algae cells that are more amboeboid. And of course with a neural network and a high level of sentience.
Oh god...I thought about this crap way too much as a bio major and uber nerd XD
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You guys do realize that we have absolutely no idea how likely it is for sentient life to form, right? The simple version of Drakes Equation goes like this:
The Drake equation states that:
N = R*fp*ne*f?*fi*fc*L
where:
N is the number of civilizations in our galaxy with which communication might be possible;
and
R* is the average rate of star formation per year in our galaxy
fp is the fraction of those stars that have planets
ne is the average number of planets that can potentially support life per star that has planets
f? is the fraction of the above that actually go on to develop life at some point
fi is the fraction of the above that actually go on to develop intelligent life
fc is the fraction of civilizations that develop a technology that releases detectable signs of their existence into space
L is the length of time such civilizations release detectable signals into space.
Yes, I know that's not exactly what we're talking about here, but I just wanted to use it to point out literally every single variable in this equation is an unknown. You can't definitely say one way or the other what the odds of intelligent life having evolved on a planet near us at approximately this time in the universe are. We might be the only sentient race in the history of the universe, or there might be one in every other star system. Interstellar sci-fi tends to split the difference :P
Early unicellular life had no mouths- I can see it as entirely plausible that a multicellular species could evolve all the way to sentience based entirely on the absorption of food into their system. I think I've got to agree, however, that the mechanism by which the Andalites do this seems like it would be frighteningly inefficient compared to the energy their bodies need to survive. On the other hand, evolution has come up with much stranger things right here on good ol' Earth, and with the right design on the microscopic level I suppose enough of the nutrients from the grass could be absorbed. As for their centaur-like appearance... it seems astonishingly unlikely to me, but again, stranger things have happened.
Yeerks' ability to control the Gedds seems... possible, I guess. How that would work out evolutionarily with them developing intelligence, and with the Gedds not evolving some sort of defense, I'm not sure. I guess the Gedds could start to develop a sort of symbiosis with the more-intelligent Yeerks; a Gedd-Controller is more likely to survive than a regular Gedd. But, yeah, like Myitt was saying, the odds of the Yeerks being able to infest alien species who all happen to have ear canals structured such that they can be used to enter a centralized brain located in the head... very unlikely. Haha... oh, wild speculation, you are my friend. Stranger things have happened ;D I guess that's why there's a "fiction" in "science fiction."
The Taxxon size might make sense. If they evolved on a planet with lower gravity than Earth, they may well have been able to grow to a larger size. More importantly, if the oxygen supply was higher (assuming they breathe oxygen), larger creatures are more advantageous. The reason dinosaurs were able to grow to such immense sizes is due in part to the higher levels of atmospheric oxygen at the time. Who's to say that creatures like that couldn't evolve in a lower gravity/higher oxygen environment?
The Hork-Bajir obviously didn't evolve at all in the series, but they're another species that seems reasonable, like RYTX was saying. Perfectly adapted to do exactly what they were designed to do. Assuming trees managed to evolve on other planets, but when you get plants beginning to compete for sunlight, growing upward seems like a pretty logical adaptation.
This is actually a really fun question to think about
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Here are a couple of neat videos on the immensity of the universe. Even if we can never get in touch with other life forms, or even if the only other life forms out there are bacteria, it seems utterly impossible that there isn't something...somewhe re...in some galaxy far, far away ;D
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1R9U5b_YV0Y&feature=related[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17jymDn0W6U[/youtube]
Assuming trees managed to evolve on other planets, but when you get plants beginning to compete for sunlight, growing upward seems like a pretty logical adaptation.
This is actually a really fun question to think about
It is a lot of fun to mull over the possibilities of alien evolution :D I love it...I totally want the biologists' job in Avatar or Dune or the Ender's Game series x3
Anyway I wanted to mention about trees, according to the Andalite Chronicles at least one species of "tree" on the Yeerk homeworld grows only a foot or so tall and then branches out for many feet or many miles or whatever it was. That's an interesting idea. Then again, I always pictured the Yeerk homeworld as kind of flat and barren, so maybe that would work for Yeerk trees?
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Yeah, I reckon its 50/50. Its not impossible for such things to exist. I mean, we don't even now for sure yet whether there actually is or isn't any other life out there in the universe. So I say that before we make our definite conclusions, we should wait until we know for sure first that if theirs actually life on other planets or not. But, since the answers to this may not come within our lifetime, all we can make for now I guess are our assumptions based on our logic and educations.
But, in regards to that, we are making our cases against these creatures from animorphs or ones similar to them from existing based on our own thinking, logic and knowledge of evolution and biology of living organisms of/on earth, and only earth. Whose to say that we are 100% correct? what if we are wrong all about these stuff which we think we know, like how we were wrong a few centuries ago? its certainly not impossible for us to be wrong again. History proves this.
And so, before we decide to close off our minds to the possibilities, I reckon leave it open, at least until we know all the facts. But its highly likely that all the facts won't come around in our lifetime. So in my opinion, I say leave the possibility open. Why not? right?
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If you take the Evolutionary side, I doubt it. The odds for life evolving from nothing on its own is well over a trillion to one, So know. I also think the galaxy has a small sector in it which is the habitable sector. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitable_zone. So evolutionary no. I believe in God, and I do believe in alien life. Not spacemen in saucers, but just some sort of life, no matter how basic. But I don't believe in separate alien sentient beings.
that doesnt really make sense... firstly "habitable sector" is for habitable to us, whose to say there arent aliens on neptune going "well theres no way life can exist on earth, its too hot and theres too much oxygen"
also, if you believe life exists on other planets, why is it impossible that any of them, even one, evolved intelligence like we did? or is free will simply an earth based experiment for GOD, and all other planets are more like zoos?
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I think that there's no reason why intelligent life on other planets couldn't exist, and I think that that is a fascinating and awesome possibility... But it is my opinion that there isn't any, and that until we become a heck of a lot more advanced, we'll never know, even if there is...
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I do think there could intelligent life out there but probably not the andalite kind. Take a look at andalite's head shape; similar to ours what with two main eyes and a nose and also ears...It's the no mouth thing I don't get. Their heads are exactly the same as humans right down to the jaw line. Does that strike anybody else as odd? They have jawlines but NO jaws :-\ ? If evolution has taught us anything it is to weed out unnecessary body parts. Shouldn't andalite's skulls be perfectly round and end right under their nose slit thingies? They only logical explanation is that andalites once had mouths and evolved them away and still have a vestigial jawline...or...they are in the process of evolving mouths right now as a species...I could be wrong considering I don't know that much about biology other than basic comm. col. courses but it still seems odd to me. what do you think?
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iirc didnt elfangor mention andalites having mouths at some point in andalite chronicles? but then that seemed to be contradicted in elimmist chronicles... and evolution doesnt weed out the useless, otherwise no new body parts would ever evolve, it weeds out the harmful. there is nother harmful about a jawline, so there is nothing selecting against it. besides, maybe it houses some other organ for them?
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Good call, I didn't think about that. It would be cool if their whole brain was the size of their head :-]. Might explain why andalites are so smart.
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Thing about that is, even human brains are obscenely large in the animal kingdom. They take a huge amount of nutrition to keep alive and functioning (30% of everything we take in goes to the brain, if I'm thinking correctly). The Andalites take in their nutrients through their hooves, which, as we discussed earlier, seems like a fairly inefficient system. If anything, their brains are probably smaller than ours- though possibly more effective.
Maybe the jawline/chin is where they keep their stuck up gland...
By the way, Cory, you should totally go to http://animorphsforum.com/forum/index.php?board=7.0 and make an intro thread ^_^
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I was thinking about this the other day. I find it funny that the Yeerks are photosynthetic, yet they live in brains where they can't have direct sunlight (or Kandrona light).
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Yeah sure why not..anything is possible,and who knows..we might be under attack from the yeerks right now.. :shrug:
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i def think aliens exist. I mean, if the universe never ends, how are we the ONLY life forms in existence? Earth can't be alone! i refuse to believe it!
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I don't know if other sentient creatures exist (I want them to but am not sure), but I believe that other life-in-general exists; there are too many worlds, too many stars.
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The Chee might exist. :))
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To those interested in this topic I recommend also checking out Asmodeus' thread "Could Yeerks Really Evolve?".
That said, it seems Yeerks and Andalites are the most debatable here. A very valid point was made to the possible metabolism of the Andalites. Their bodies could be adapted to simply be more efficient than what we're comparing to. Also, the nutrition itself needs to be taken into account. The plant life itself on the Andalite home world could be much more energy rich, thus making less food necessary. Finally, even assuming Andalites must feed constantly to sustain themselves, they can presumably do it while standing around doing just about anything. So, what's to prevent them from doing so?
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Thing is, you're comparing their hooves, which directly absorb nutrients from their food, to our small intestine. The small intestine is absorbing nutrients from anything you've eaten for a long time after you eat it. There's a reason human small intestines are more than twenty feet long- absorbing enough nutrients to keep a human body running isn't an easy thing to do. The food has to be ground up, dissolved and liquefied, and even then, it has to pass through twenty feet of intestine in order for our bodies to absorb enough to keep running. Since the Andalites only have their four small hooves, and since the only "digestion" they have is stepping on the grass, they'd better have an incredibly efficient system for absorbing it, even if their bodies use next to no energy.
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Well, as far as I recall, the books do not explicitly state that Andalites have no digestive system. For all we know they can have one in conjunction with the job their hooves do. The hooves could be the equivalent of an esophagus.
All that aside though, there's still the possibility of all day eating and food with a nutrient level far beyond what we're accustomed to. These attributes combined with what you mentioned, incredibly efficient bodies, provide a feasible explanation.
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I should say more but right now I'm just putting out that they also eat earth grass; obviously we aren't getting the most out of that type of food, but even for an organism that is, it's still probably isn't a 5-hr energy ::)
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I should say more but right now I'm just putting out that they also eat earth grass; obviously we aren't getting the most out of that type of food, but even for an organism that is, it's still probably isn't a 5-hr energy ::)
Touche. This invalidates the theory of the plants providing extra energy. Point well made.
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*whistle* Okay, but for I start let me lay out my ground plan here. The creation of the universe is random, the development of life even more random, and the evolution of true sentience incredibly more random: no creators, no original designer. Each of these events has an infinitesimally small chance of happening, each even more so than the last. All of it is statistically impossible, including and especially us.
Is it weird that I agree that all of your reasoning makes sense except for the groundwork you based it upon? I don't know what to base the 'creation of the universe is random' part on, meaning the spontaneous existence of mass and energy is something that is possible, but subject to a random chance with low odds? I would say that, if you assume there is no omnipotent creator or designer then, as far as we can conclude, energy cannot be created or destroyed, but can merely change forms, and since we are made of matter (a form of energy) and are able to observe plenty of examples of energy then we must conclude that that energy has always existed in one form or another, its existence isn't subject to random chance (This doesn't tell us why it exists, but that it does).
Also, we know that there is lots of observable energy... and a lot of space between the various sized concentrations of it. We can infer that there may be more energy beyond what we are capable of seeing, which is no conclusion but makes it possible. Our universe may be unlimited, or simply to vast for us to comprehend, containing an infinite (or so vast as to be infinite from our perspective) amount of energy (again there is not an answer as 'why' there would be infinite energy, but just as it is eternal, it can be infinite).
In any case, what I am getting at is that if the universe, in this case meaning all existing energy in whatever form it happens to be, is both eternal and infinite, then it is completely irrelevant how unlikely a random event is, or how unlikely a series of unlikely events are. There is no "statistically impossible" it is either impossible given a universal set of laws that govern all energy (lets not even get into why all energy may or may not be subject to some unknown, arbitrary set of laws), in which case it doesn't happen, or else it is possible and it does happen... if it is possible that it does happen, you could say that it is 'statistically improbable' but that doesn't mean that it doesn't happen, it just isn't likely to happen anywhere near you, but given an infinite amount of energy and time it will happen... an infinite number of times... just, you know, a lesser infinite amount of times than the more probable infinite number of events (if that is worth trying to comprehend in anything more than an academic sense :)).
Furthermore, even if we don't assume that energy is both infinite and eternal (because it may not be), but that it is still possible that there is still the possibility that it is incomprehensibly old and incomprehensibly vast then even if you still can't call something that is possible 'statistically impossible' because a vast enough number of events will make an unlikely event occur eventually anyways.
Which isn't to say the cliche "Anything's possible" (Because it is certainly possible that not everything is possible :)) but that, if it is possible through random chance, then given enough chances you don't have to worry about 'statistically impossible' because it'll eventually happen anyways.
Beyond this, I won't go to the trouble with each species of saying of saying "Well, it is theoretically possible that an Andalite exists, but it would have to be beyond our limited knowledge of what physiologically impossible. But while it is theoretically possible it is unlikely because its energy absorption of crushed grass through the hooves is unlikely to be able to provide enough energy for what we know to be required for a creature of roughly its size and nature; so it is either impossible, or simply far beyond what we know to be physiologically possible... but if it is physiologically possible then given a big enough universe it has happened." Suffice it to say that I agree with a lot of the general ideas that RYTX and most others have shared on which creatures we are more likely to come across if we find a faster-than-light method of travel that makes distance irrelevant in the search for extra-terrestrial life.
Following the discussion on "Habitable Zones" and the make-ups of various creatures in the Ani-verse (such as the assumption that a Taxxon is physiologically similar to Earth insects because its outer appearance is similar in shape to a particular Earth insect), I think the larger problem that is too easily overlooked is the likely-hood life exists in the sameway across various planets... all animals have the same structure to their DNA, are carbon-based and require the exact same limited set of nutrients and can survive in environments providing very similar proportions of atmospheric components and pressures: If there was life on the planet you discovered then their food was nutritious to you, or at least safe (you might not be able to consume it, but it wasn't poisonous) the air was breathable, ect. There were never intelligent species of such a different atomic make-up that they simply couldn't exist in our world (other than the water-air barrier), a drug that worked on one specie might be more or less effective than another (unless like the oatmeal it was a single, isolated plot device) but would never simply not work or have a completely different effect. Andalites never wondered "Can we eat this, it sure looks like our grass but is it at all the same" it just simply worked. Ultimately, the biggest problem with the various aliens in the Ani-verse may not be that they are too fantastically alien to be possible, but that they are too not-alien to be probable (Although yes, before you spit my words at me, given a vast enough universe, then eventually a few dozen species that all look very alien but have identical living conditions will eventually develop in relatively near locations).
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Excellently said. The universe is vast beyond our comprehension- what we are capable of observing may only be an infinitesimal portion of the universe in its entirety. Statistically, even the (probably) near-nonexistent probability of sentient life evolving is bound to repeat a couple of times.
Quick note, though, on your comment about Animorphs life being too Earth-like. I fully agree for the most part, but odds are in favor of any alien life sharing some fairly distinct properties with Earth life. Life, as we define it (a molecule or collection of molecules capable of reproducing, for the sake of my argument here), is by necessity a fairly complex system. This is likely to require life to be Carbon-based, for starters. If you look at the sci-fi standard for making life seem alien, Silicon, you find that there's a lot more Silicon in the Earth's crust than there is Carbon, and yet for the most part, life on Earth is centered around Carbon, because unlike Silicon, Carbon is excellent for forming long, complex molecular chains capable of changing and re-forming. Life on Earth requires liquid water as well, and there's a reason interplanetary scientists are so interested in finding liquid water as a potential starting point for life- in the general temperature range at which life exists on Earth, there is no other liquid as suited to maintaining life, if only because of the wide temperature range at which water does remain a liquid.
Anyway, point I'm trying to make is that it's not... entirely unreasonable to expect alien life, if we do run across it, to share similarities such as DNA, a need for water, and, for non-photosynthetic life, a need to take in other Carbon-centered organic components to run. It's a long shot, but I feel this does make, say, Taxxon life seem a bit more likely in the grand scheme of things.
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maybe andalite hooves usse fission to get energy?
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Badass. I'm all for that theory ;)
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That's a good point Kit, certainly here on Earth life-forms are all carbon based and really all the billions of different types of organic molecules are basically composed of only eight or nine different atoms in various arrangements. And while we would expect that if all of the life on our planet has a common original source then they would follow the same general pattern, it isn't unreasonable to hypothesis that either:
A. Life on Earth started based on a particular set of atoms with a various sets of properties in their interactions that allow life , but there are other possible sets of building blocks so alien life-forms could be completely different in their basic compositions.
OR
B. The set of atoms that all of life on Earth is based on is the ideal set, and all life arising on any planet will be of this nature because it is somehow necessary based on the laws of physics that govern our universe.
It is fair to say that the Ani-verse operates on B, so even when creatures from various planets are biologically different, they will all be built from the same basic set of building blocks.
To be more specific, my problem isn't so much that the similarities in the inter-planetary life-forms are there, but that none of the highly advanced species wondered at it. That is to say, a sci-fi author doesn't have to actually create all of the science in their universe, but part of sci-fi is establishing that it is there and that the universe is governed by it. Occasional comments from Ax like:
<It is amazing that the Escafil device works on humans. It is known to be capable of giving animals from the Andalite home-world the ability to morph, but that it works on humans as well suggests a basic universal similarity to all life-forms. I suspect that that many Andalite biologists would be very interested in studying the implications of this>
or maybe:
<In the past few of your decades, Andalites have begun to study what is now known as the Ideal Mass Theory. You see, Earth and many other planets have shown that life can exist in scales both extremely large and extremely small relative to Humans and Andalites. But, with only a few exceptions, the majority of truly intelligent life-forms seem to have a relatively similar mass, with 90% of known species falling between 1-3 times the average fully-grown human's mass. The theory is that there is an average mass that is ideal for the development of higher intelligence, and that larger and smaller scale examples of intelligence are the results of statically improbable developments. Andalite biologists are attempting to find physiological explanations for this phenomenon.>
OK, so maybe Ax doesn't have to be as long winded as I am, there's certainly a good reason why I'm not a popular author :). But what I am saying is that it's those occasional details being slipped in that lend a real verisimilitude to the universe you've created, an author's: "Yes, I'm aware that most of the intelligent life-forms encountered are surprisingly similar in scale to humans when for all we know about intelligence it is just as likely to develop in much smaller life-forms (like the Helmacrons) or life-forms that are literally thousands of times larger. I've thought of this, and justified it in my universe by noting having characters note this and suggest reasons for it."
Again, I really wasn't clear clear initially. My problem isn't in the similarities, but in the lack of awareness of it. Though I do understand, of course, the difficulty an author has when creating an entire universe to step back and objectively notice "what assumptions am I taking for granted from my perspective as a human?"
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I'll take this species by species.
Hork-Bajir: Since they were created, they don't really fit in this category, but the only problem I see with them is the reproduction thing. I seem to remember in one of the books that they only live about 6 years. I can't find the reference but it was likely either in the Hork-Bajir Chronicles or #34 - The Prophecy. They mature incredibly fast, but they would have to have a near 0% mortality rate. Too many babies dying means the species doesn't get the unique genetics it needs.
Taxxon: Many thoughts on the taxxons, as they're the most interesting to me. Why would a species develop a hunger so consuming that it would willingly eat itself given the chance. My theory is that long ago, as the taxxon were developing, there was an enormous drought (or whatever passes for a drought in a desert planet) and the taxxon began to starve. One taxxon, in desperation, turned on one of it's species and ate it. I can assume they have some sort of hive mind, a collective consciousness (not as developed as howlers, but still powerful) and the others realized that there own could be made food. I say this due to book 43: The Test. Ax and Tobias were able to call on the memory of the Taxxon nesting grounds (where they would be surrounded by food) to calm the hunger. Since it should have simply been DNA they absorbed, the memory would have been imbeded into the creature on either a cellular or instinctual level. This says something of a collective conscious (Like Jake when he morphed a howler, but not the same clarity and detail). The hunger could come from the memories of the drought (or whatever) existing in the subconscious.
Yeerk: These species make no sense start to finish. They aren't true parasites, as a parasite exists to use another body to fulfill biological needs. These creatures developed the ability to enter another creature and take complete control of it, but there is no biological need to do so, since it actually inhibits the absorption of Kandrona rays. On another note, they are extremely resilient. Three yeerks can re-create the entire species given enough time. This means they either have natural predators (salmon lay a huge amount of eggs because the likelihood of each individual one surviving is slim, but overall, the species will survive.) or they have some reason to fear extinction, but I can't think of one. The Yeerk home world is well inhabited, and repetitively safe for them (except for the andalites, of course). The only thing I can think of is they reproduced so rapidly that they overextended the planet's resources, so they had to have a way to adapt. All very sketchy.
Andalites: Again, these creatures are built like predators (natural weapons, ability to see multiple directions at once) but they eat plants. Maybe on the home world grass is different from Earth, but a species that large could not survive when the act of eating requires energy (running) in itself. To have a weapon like that on your tail would mean that you aim to kill or you have a good reason to defend yourself. (in the Andalite chronicles, Elfangor says that the creatures on the andalite home world are mostly non-threatening, so that's unlikely.) Their bodies can process meat and (likely) bone. (Ax mentions stepping on a snail once and absorbing it, shell and all, he then says that all the protien will keep him awake. This means that his body is capable of processing the food as well as ingesting it. A snails shell is tough, so if he can absorb that, he can likely absorb bone as well, but just a theory. Maybe some small mammals on the planet can be stunned or killed and then absorbed through the hoof (rat size or lower, most likely).
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Hork-Bajir: Since they were created, they don't really fit in this category, but the only problem I see with them is the reproduction thing. I seem to remember in one of the books that they only live about 6 years. I can't find the reference but it was likely either in the Hork-Bajir Chronicles or #34 - The Prophecy. They mature incredibly fast, but they would have to have a near 0% mortality rate. Too many babies dying means the species doesn't get the unique genetics it needs.
I don't think it was ever quite specific on their lifespan. Maybe you read it in a fan fiction, or maybe you caught some things and extrapolated a 6 year lifespan then. For example, maybe you noticed that Toby was born in the free colony and was "pushing seven feet [tall]" by The Resistance, which could have been only a few months apart but certainly was less than even two years so you figured "Well if she's fully adult in less than two years she couldn't have a lifespan of more than 6 or so."
Though the lifespan is never specified, it is certainly more than about 6 years, because Jara Hamee lived in the late '90s ('present day' Animorphs timeline) and Dak Hamee, his father-father (or grandfather) was a child in 1968, being only two generations apart they span 30 years time.
I extrapolated my approximation of the Hork-Bajir average lifespan as being about 25-26 years considering that, unlike Yeerks, the Hork-Bajir do not die upon their child's birth but upbring their young in the manner that humans and similar mammals do and continue living well into their child's adulthood. Jara and Ket are even shown to have another young child in The Resistance, so the time it took for Toby to grow to a height that was noted to be almost as tall as a fully grown male was not enough time for Jara and Ket to pass beyond an age capable of producing offspring (though they may be Elders by Hork-Bajir standards, they are never shown to be infirm in any way, so this is another piece of evidence that their lifespan isn't too ridiculously short).
Still, even this has its share of innate assumptions, because comparing it to Human development is only the roughest of estimates with a completely different species. Knowing nothing about Hork-Bajir growth and development, they could just as easily reach full adulthood in only a few months then live an adulthood of the majority of their lifespan. For example, the common conversion for a dog's lifespan is seven 'dog years' to one 'people year' because an average dog's lifespan is approximately 1/7th of a human's, but dogs reach full adulthood and sexual maturity in a much smaller fraction of their lifespan than humans do, so a more accurate comparison is to say that a dog's first year is about 18 'people years' then each year after that is approximately five 'people years' in terms of its continued aging.
Of course, another important note is that the two Hork-Bajir we know the most are the worst representation of average for their species, because the biological and physiological needs of high intelligence may also mean that Dak Hamee and Toby develop completely differently than the average Hork-Bajir due to their rare combination of DNA (Jake's noting that Toby's size is comparable to a fully grown male of her species may well indicate that she is outside of the norm). So not too much specifically can be pinned down, but their lifespan is certainly longer than six years be well under a human's (or maybe not, maybe they just have children during a much earlier section of their lifespan than humans do).
In any case, I'm not sure I understand what you see as a problem in the Hork-Bajir from an evolutionary perspective, even if their lifespan was only six years why would that be a problem in the way that the Hork-Bajir live, provided that they are still capable of having a few (2+ children) and raising them to full adulthood; why do they have to have a lower mortality rate when they would essentially just be doing the same thing humans do but in fast-forward? Could you clarify that?
Taxxon: Many thoughts on the taxxons, as they're the most interesting to me. Why would a species develop a hunger so consuming that it would willingly eat itself given the chance. My theory is that long ago, as the taxxon were developing, there was an enormous drought (or whatever passes for a drought in a desert planet) and the taxxon began to starve. One taxxon, in desperation, turned on one of it's species and ate it. I can assume they have some sort of hive mind, a collective consciousness (not as developed as howlers, but still powerful) and the others realized that there own could be made food. I say this due to book 43: The Test. Ax and Tobias were able to call on the memory of the Taxxon nesting grounds (where they would be surrounded by food) to calm the hunger. Since it should have simply been DNA they absorbed, the memory would have been imbeded into the creature on either a cellular or instinctual level. This says something of a collective conscious (Like Jake when he morphed a howler, but not the same clarity and detail). The hunger could come from the memories of the drought (or whatever) existing in the subconscious.
I don't think that the cannibalism of this species is a big stretch at all, it's common enough on Earth. The 'all consuming hunger' is a strong evolutionary drive in itself, and the attacking of other wounded of its own species is survival of the fittest at its strongest. As far as evolving a self-control not to take a bit of your own yummy tail when it is oozing blood-goo, it doesn't negatively affect survival-to-reproduction since the Taxxon that's unable to restrain himself from eating himself is just going to be eaten by his neighbors anyways; really this isn't different from sharks at all. You're thinking from the perspective of an intelligent creature causing a social change for future generations, but an 'act of desperation' or a single 'time of drought/famine' isn't necessary, it's just a simple intra-species competition trait that can evolve in a functioning capacity just as much as many others.
I'm not sure that the collective conscious was present in the Taxxons in the same manner it was in the Howlers (though, it's never so explicitly laid out as to be undeniable, I suppose), I though the Hive better fit its portrayal in the book as being is own, separate biological structure that was symbiotic with the Taxxon species, not that it was a collective consciousness of the Taxxon minds. The images that came to Tobias and Ax's minds may not have been actual images imprinted in DNA or brought through a collective psychic link, it may just be that the biological processes being directed by a Taxxon brain going into hibernation was interpreted in their minds with this mental image. They certainly didn't recieve clear, direct mental thoughts from other local Taxxons and the ability for free Taxxons and enslaved Taxxons of The Andalite Chronicles to have separate factions and wage wars shows individual minds, not able to access a common collective conscious.
Yeerk: These species make no sense start to finish. They aren't true parasites, as a parasite exists to use another body to fulfill biological needs. These creatures developed the ability to enter another creature and take complete control of it, but there is no biological need to do so, since it actually inhibits the absorption of Kandrona rays. On another note, they are extremely resilient. Three yeerks can re-create the entire species given enough time. This means they either have natural predators (salmon lay a huge amount of eggs because the likelihood of each individual one surviving is slim, but overall, the species will survive.) or they have some reason to fear extinction, but I can't think of one. The Yeerk home world is well inhabited, and repetitively safe for them (except for the andalites, of course). The only thing I can think of is they reproduced so rapidly that they overextended the planet's resources, so they had to have a way to adapt. All very sketchy.
I really don't see any of these as being a problem evolutionarily speaking. Sure, they aren't true parasites but that is just a name that is used by other species to describe what the Empire is doing, the main characters aren't biologists attempting to find a correct classification for the Yeerks, so their wording doesn't have to be technically precise. Their evolution alongside the Gedds would be best described as facultative mutualistic symbiosis (mutualistic meaning that they can mutually benefit from each other, the facultaive meaning not necessary for survival but able to be more benificial than alone as opposed to obligate when it is necessary for one or both species to survive).
And you can't say that there is no biological need to gain the ability to infest or that it is a negative trait because it makes them unable to absorb Kandrona, because even if this is true on their present day home world there isn't enough detail on the home world's evolutionary history, it's certainly likely that they did infest to escape predators (there is a lot of discussion in the http://animorphsforum.com/forum/index.php?topic=5243.0 thread, as well as some other threads I believe) and that this was a very successful survival trait: Becoming amphibious on Earth is a trait that allows a specie to temporarily flee the medium where their prey exist (water) to escape predators, then return when the predators are not present to hunt for prey.
As far as the reproduction goes, three adults make 'many' offspring (though it's never clear exactly how many) but they die in the process, so three individual adults cannot, in a single generation, reproduce the entire species (though this wouldn't be a bad trait, it's a very positive selection trait). The ability to populate or repopulate an area in relatively few generations is a very strong survival trait, when their predators are few and their food supply is plenty it allows them to multiply quickly, when they over-produce starvation limits the increase and more predators (being able to increase due to this over-abundance of this prey) brings about a balance. The Yeerks are known to have ancestral predators, a recent extinction may not have allowed for a change in Yeerk reproduction and again, if they are living at the full capacity of their home-planet then that just means that only a few of the dozens of offspring will survive from one generation to the next, more intra-species competition is just a positive selector for the aggressive behavior Yeerks are known to have and an expansive biological imperative explains the behavior of this species as it became intergalactically capable due to Andalite interference.
Andalites: Again, these creatures are built like predators (natural weapons, ability to see multiple directions at once) but they eat plants. Maybe on the home world grass is different from Earth, but a species that large could not survive when the act of eating requires energy (running) in itself. To have a weapon like that on your tail would mean that you aim to kill or you have a good reason to defend yourself. (in the Andalite chronicles, Elfangor says that the creatures on the andalite home world are mostly non-threatening, so that's unlikely.) Their bodies can process meat and (likely) bone. (Ax mentions stepping on a snail once and absorbing it, shell and all, he then says that all the protien will keep him awake. This means that his body is capable of processing the food as well as ingesting it. A snails shell is tough, so if he can absorb that, he can likely absorb bone as well, but just a theory. Maybe some small mammals on the planet can be stunned or killed and then absorbed through the hoof (rat size or lower, most likely).
Yeah, they are pretty much agreed to be most implausible biologically, but if instead of crushing grass and absorbing nutrients at the hoof-tip like we all tend to be assuming, they instead are cutting off and 'sucking up' larger chunks of vegetation and going further breaking down throughout the length of the legs and into the torso region in stages they become more likely, the 'crushing and absorbing' description that Andalites offer may just be a colloquial simplification. Add to this the ability of the hooves to crush and separate chunks of meat from small creatures and digest them and Andalite plausibility much greater. Maybe they evolved omnivorously in this method and the shift to herbivorism was a social change allowed by their controlled expansion over their planet once they were the dominant species (they would then need to spend the majority of their time grazing while they went about other various activities, which it sounds like is exactly what they do, and they would still be needing to take in larger amounts of food and absorbing throughout the inner length of their hooves rather than just the surface area that the bottom of their hooves allows). A recent (evolutionarily speaking) change to herbivorism is a likely explaination for Ax's capability to digest non-plants but a gradually growing intolerance to non-plants throughout the species. Still, the ability for that large of an animal to create all of its own protein in the manner that small mammals do is a problem.
As far as the tails go, that offensive of a weapon is unlikely as a defensive weapon, but it is possible and that is exactly the explanation offered: Elfangor's reference to the home world as being harmless is a result of their intelligence bringing about a technological dominance, the Ellimist's encounter with Andalites well before humans had begun to evolve showed that they had quite formidable predators and that their then less flexible tails were use to allow backwards thrusts as they faced away from enemies prepared to flee when necessary.