Racial differences in aliens

[Blocky97]

They don't realize humans have a constant urge for progress... that helps

[DinosaurNothlit]

It seems the Andalites and Yeerks are pretty amazed by the fact humans exist in the billions, too, so it would seem their populations are drastically smaller overall.  Obviously the Hork-Bajir being even fewer again.

But it would definitely seem we're unique in that department, Ax making that comment about humans covering such a vast spectrum it was hard to consider them a single species at all, at least in the same sense as whatever he's used to.  They're probably all pretty homogeneous.

That's a very good point.  The books do often mention the fact that earth is unique among the planets for its diversity of life, not just among humans, but all its species.  So I guess maybe evolution happens differently on earth than it does everywhere else?

You're probably right about population size being smaller for the alien races, too.  I recall in Visser, when they're talking about the ranking of species according to their suitability as hosts, population size was a big factor.  And they all seemed totally stunned when they found that a class 5 species (ie, one with a really big population) actually existed.

Hmm.  Perhaps most other life-supporting planets are simply smaller in size?  That would a) drastically limit population size and b) force populations of creatures together, impeding evolutionary divergence.

[Blocky97]

well maybe they came to a point where it was just not neccesary to reproduce... with long lifespans and all

[Dameg]

About smaller size... I don't think the planets are smaller, but look: they don't understand Humans live in every places of their planet, so we can suppose they live only where they feel good, not in the too hot, too cold, too dangerous places.
So the planets don't needa be smaller to "stop" them, just the places are smaller because they don't go in every places of their planet.

[tta269]

About smaller size... I don't think the planets are smaller, but look: they don't understand Humans live in every places of their planet, so we can suppose they live only where they feel good, not in the too hot, too cold, too dangerous places.
So the planets don't needa be smaller to "stop" them, just the places are smaller because they don't go in every places of their planet.

Exactly my point.

[JFalcon]

The long lifespan thing also makes sense for the andalites, fewer generations means less opportunity for rapid evolution, compared to them we humans are pretty short lived.

I'm not sure how long yeerks live though, was that ever mentioned?

[wildweathel]

It's implied that the history of the Yeerk/Andalite war is fairly short (by Andalite standards).  The invasion of the Hork-Bajir world starts in AD 1966, and Esplin is rising through the ranks at that point.  Call it a 40-50 year military career, then and he's not even thinking about retirement.  So, yeerks probably don't live shorter than humans--and possibly much longer.

[Yarin]

i read somewhere that andalites have a very long lifespan

[DinosaurNothlit]

Long lifespan makes sense, as that would slow down evolution.  However, that explanation backfires a bit when you consider that it would also make them more competitive (longer life-spans = more resources needed to support each individual), which would force them to spread out even more.  Thus pushing them into new environments, where they should begin to diverge.

I'm still not really sure I buy the 'they won't go to places not suited for them' explanation, but I guess it's possible.  I'm just such a stickler for details that part of my brain just keeps asking "well, why not?"  Why do alien species behave so much differently than species on earth?  I guess maybe alien evolution just works differently than evolution on earth, but again, why would that be?  We all have the same basic DNA molecules, don't we?  At least, I'm fairly certain Ax said so in one of the books.

. . . It's official.  I am overanalyzing this.

[ChimichangaChupacabra]

Well, it's kind of implied the Andalite's world and the Yeerk's world are so impossibly far away that without Z-Space one could never hope to travel there.  Maybe the balances and checks of the way life operates were slightly different, skewed a certain way, more of certain types of atoms/elements/whatever (I know nothing of science, how did you tell? ) and less of others?

The Yeerk ecosystem, as described, doesn't really seem like something that could ever exist on Earth.

[Blocky97]

exactly

[DinosaurNothlit]

Well, it's kind of implied the Andalite's world and the Yeerk's world are so impossibly far away that without Z-Space one could never hope to travel there.  Maybe the balances and checks of the way life operates were slightly different, skewed a certain way, more of certain types of atoms/elements/whatever (I know nothing of science, how did you tell? ) and less of others?

The Yeerk ecosystem, as described, doesn't really seem like something that could ever exist on Earth.

I . . . suppose that's possible.  Still, it strikes me as odd that earth would be the outlier, if that were the case.  It seems to me, based on our discussion before now, that almost all planets in the Animorphs universe function one way, and earth functions in another.

But it could be.  All the other Animorphs planets might be in a similar region of space, and thus have similar rules.  Who knows?

[JFalcon]

Actually I got to thinking about this at work (don't ask why, it just popped in there) and I realized the Andalites live for a very long time but reach maturity very quickly. If an Andalite year is like 6 earth years and Ax expects to live 200 andalite yers (when he says that he could live to be 200 years old he doesnt say "earth years" so I figure he means Andalite years) simple math says that's about 1200 years. Now given that Ax is born not so long before Tobias, who was 13 at the start of the series Ax would be about 2 or 3 Andalite years old, yet is already an adolescent.

If Andalites reached sexual maturity at, heck lets say 5 years the've got 195 more years to keep on reproducing and reproducing, their birthrate might be slow and their term long but didn't the Ellimist have 3 surviving Andalite children, and others who didn't? That was the prehistoric andalites, they would have technology by now that would better keep most infants from dying at birth or later from illnesses, and while this might explain why present-day Andalites had restrictions on how many children were allowed to be born outside of war (As stated in the Andalite chronicles) in the thousands of years before they reached that point in time with their natural predators wiped out they'd overrun their grazing areas and have to live in the harsher areas or die of stavation.

So in short, Andalites might have a small controlled population now, but you'd think at some point sheer numbers would have forced their ancestors to explore more of their world . . . then again, maybe they fought a lot of wars, they have a proud warrior tradition after all. Even so I think they'd have to have migrated to various parts of their planet early on, so they should have evolved at least some differences . . .

So yeah, this is what came to me at work . . . you can tell how much I love my job when I start considering the lifespans and evolution of alien species -_-

[wildweathel]

I can't remember where it was (Andalite or Hork-Bajir Chronicles, probably), but I do recall one of the Andalites mentioning that they had intentionally de-urbanized, that is, they only kept a few large cities and moved (back) out into the country.  That can only happen if they have clean and cheap transportation technology--which would cause subspecies to merge if they existed in the first place.

Also, Andalites don't have much, if any clothing and a strong preference for open spaces.  Clothing and shelter is essential to our survival across a broad range of climates.  H sapiens is originally a tropical species, after all.  (So what the heck am I doing here with a -11C wind chill?)

[Dameg]

JFalcon, where do you see this explanation about Andalite years?
I never saw that. I always thought Andalites live about 150 years, that Aximili was about 20~25 Human years old (few years after the beginning of war... so they grow up more slowly)...