Andalite Evolution

[MoppingBear]

maybe they naturally arent that strong, but andalite warriors sharpen / strengthen it by some means?

[JFalcon]

If that were the case it'd still have to be fairly strong even without such tempering or Tobias' Andalite morph shouldn't have been able to use his tail blade, though I admit he didn't use it very much so I wont totally count out the posibility.

I could kind of see it being strong enough for self defense normally but warrior tempering making it strong enough to cut through some of the various wonderful things we see Ax cut through. 

[dolphin4077]

If it's not naturally strong, then wouldn't whatever Ax would do to make it stronger be lost every time he morphs?

[MoppingBear]

no moreso than the animorphs haircuts

[Galladerotom]

Okay from what we know Toomin first visited andal (short for andalite homeworld) when earth was still in the Jurassic period so there would have been plenty of time to develop telepathy. As for the mouth's on feet it could be a characteristic inherited from a certain invertebrate ancestor. As the legs became sturdier the proboscuses remained.
Actually andalites are remarkably fit (evolutary term) they could live like herd animals in packs for defense and could strike back. It is important to remember that andal is mostly composed of land therefore the need to become terrestrial would be much more necessary for a lifeform as it would provide a much larger supply of food. Think about the Leerans they remained oceanic but even though they are amphibious they never became pure land dwellers. Why? Because there is much more room out in the ocean.

[voodooqueen126]

not being brachiaters they really don't need hands. my father's theory was that Andalites are insects since they are six limbed which fits in with the whole weird proboscis theory... Centaurs are really hard to evolve.

[Bustercloud]

Well up until they got their thought-speak, they used sign language to communication. Not to mention it would be part of their mating rituals/intimate contacts. So hands probably evolved strictly in favor of communication, and over time became more and more adapt at handling objects and having more uses.
 
I'm more interested in how Thought-speak would be developed. Does that mean their mental power is just that much greater? Does it mean they're only a short step from being able to move things with their minds?

[Yarin]

They probably aren't insects but maybe very early on in thier evolution they were insectoid

[voodooqueen126]

I think it is possible to be six limbed and not an insect, aside andalites lack exoskeloten and all those other weird insect things.
My theory about thoughtspeak is that it is genetically  similar to blue eyes:
for instance every  blue eyed human on earth is descended from one person living near the black sea.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_color#Blue
likewise since andalites before toomin used sign language and he addresses them in thoughtspeak we must conclude that he Toomin introduced thoughtspeak into their gene pool and all thoughtspeaking Andalites are his descendents, this would have been hugely advantageous to them unlike blue eyes which make people more prone to cancer or something called ophthalmological diseases.
This makes for a very interesting fanfiction possibilities: What happens to Andalites who aren't descended from the Ellimist? It also makes a for a more logical version of Korean Pearls' Elemaki.
Remember you heard it first from me.
But the Damn hands with damn opposable thumbs is what gets me. Perhaps the hands are a random mutation the equivalent of a human child being born with a tail or frilly gill things in the case of the andalites this must have been very useful random mutation.

[Yarin]

Perhaps the hands were created out of necessity for holding tools and what not

[voodooqueen126]

They graze with their feet, so they don't need tools.
I reckon the Andalite tail blade is made of teeth.

[MoppingBear]

i am also curious about their technological evolution.  ax mentions several times that andalites developed technology at a much slower pace than humans.  how was the blue box invented?  it is said that necessity is the mother of all inventions, and yet, the andalites are the dominant species on their planet, and pretty much in the galaxy.  aside from visser 3's morphs, which he goes out of his way to find, most of the species we see in the series are nowhere near as dangerous as andalites natural bodies, and in the book with the leerans, an andalite mentions that most warriors dont have anywhere near the number of morphs the animorphs do.  why then did they need to invent the blue box?  was it discovered from another species?

[voodooqueen126]

I"ve been thinking about that as well, a good number of human advancement have been made because we are puny and later for warfare, andalites are neither puny or warlike so why do anything? What is their incentive? Maybe the reason they invent more slowly than is that they are less warlike/driven. Would the atomic bomb have been invented so soon after uranium was discover (remember Ax's conversation in book if humans hadn't been so desperate during world war 2? Would we have landed on the moon if the cold war hadnt driven competition between American and Russia? Notice that the space program slowed down since the end of the cold war? I imagine the Andalite incentive for science is not desperation but optimism and desire for knowledge. Sure Andalites invented the Escafil device, but they probably invented it for fun rather than a need to spy on people (which would be the human motivation for inventing such a device) and it would've taken them 4 times as long as it would have taken humans...