Posted on 12/28/2009 9:44:19 AM PST by asimshah
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(Excerpt) Read more at environmentpk.com ...
You can blame Nick Park for the WereRabbits. I had nothing to do with it.
I'm trying to put together Dragons.
This is not an easy task, like inserting the luciferase gene into tobacco plants so that you get a cigarette that lights itself.
No, my project is much more ambitious. I want to create a docile but capable creature which eats grass, ferments it into alcohol, and uses that alcohol in a biological internal combustion engine to fly!
So we need genes and gene sequences from goats, bats, crocodiles, electric eels, Gila monsters, dinosaurs, eagles, giraffes, spitting cobras, wallabies, sharks, elephants, geese, and a few odd ones as well.
I think I'm going to need a really big cauldron too, and some help with stirring it ...
(Happy New Year, everybody! "Peculiar Humor" projects getting under way without delay.)
Placemarker, hungover Bump...
Morning, ‘Face! I’ve got breakfast cleaned up just in time for people to start nagging about lunch ;-).
Now I need to vacuum. Frank gets all dirty on the carpet when the pets have been lying around and people walking in and out with their shoes on.
Cranberry juice and 7-up.
I’m feeling just fine this morning, aside from the mental trauma of getting on the scale ...
I really need to scan my sketch of Cthulhu Bunny...
Darn, I forgot squid.
The ink squirting abilities are not to be missed.
Good suggestion. I had actually considered that might have been an early adaptation, if you're looking for a natural development sequence.
The little lizard, in seeking to avoid predation, would squirt out a fog of combustible chemicals and ignite them. In the flash and bang that would result, the lizard would disappear like a stage magician.
I was thinking of the squid also for its flexible tentacles. I want my dragon to have a usefully flexible tail, perhaps with some as-yet unnamed capabilities.
Like the bombardier beetle.
Adding it to the list.
Bubble, bubble ...
Hypergolics, first a nasty smelling combustible fog into which the lizard hawcks a lurgy that sets it off.
Kinda like a spitting cobra.
Electric hopping zombunnies.
I'll pass on the fruit juice this AM, but thanks for the suggestion.
Somewhat more elegant.
You’re familiar with the lizard species that sacrifices its tail to avoid predation. This one would put out a fog of burning chemicals that simulate motion, to capture the attention of a predator while the lizard skedaddles.
Variable burn rates and colors, like fireworks. Remember that it has to be biological in origin and multipurpose.
Eventually, these lizards manage to harness this propensity, to make their membrane wings pulse in a power-stroke, which propels them rapidly away. The connection between evasion and escape is a close one. In my story, the fully grown and developed dragon makes a frightful noise when it takes off.
(Its landing approach can be somewhat more stealthy ...)
Gaining the ability to fly, they reverse their former position on the food chain and become predators.
It is only then that they grow to greater size and in intelligence. A natural development progression is a difficult choreography. I mean, what if you wanted to create an intelligent creature, and all you had to work with was monkeys?
I dunno, the face exploding spitblob could develop into further progressions of more cunning visual displays.
Perhaps with a threat display similar to the frilled lizard, only with the not quite fully developed wings?
(Spread wings, hiss, exploding fog, grow larger, make more visually confusing fog that burns. “It Burns! It Burns!” Eventually leading to “Now I eat you”?)
Makes sense to me.
If the lizard could eat its attacker, the display would be unnecessary.
On the other hand, if a sophisticated display could be developed, it might turn into a mating ritual. That could make for a very interesting display. Consider bower birds and peacocks.
It could even become a mesmerizing display to confuse and ensnare prey. That would be an interesting development.
Happy New Year!
I’m thinking that he gets bigger, making the display unnecessary.
But as he gets bigger, his “show” changes.
It becomes more of a tool to confuse prey with.
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