tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post1750839453821916946..comments2024-03-25T09:31:36.926+01:00Comments on Furahan Biology and Allied Matters: Influence of the rostrum linkage system on forage volume in Brontorusps (Brontocrambis brucus)Sigmund Nastrazzurrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16449461215427527447noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-58365657532868688352014-01-09T22:15:00.718+01:002014-01-09T22:15:00.718+01:00Spugpow: the 'beak' is not a hard structur...Spugpow: the 'beak' is not a hard structure, so you should see it as a prehensile upper lip rather than as a parakeet beak. I will ad some wrinkles to show that.<br /><br />Spearhafoc: indeed, the image that the Martian fauna is supposed to evoke in Rice Burrough's work differs fundamentally from what biomechanical reasoning suggests. My advice is not to care about scientific accuracy when depicting Burrough's life forms, as it will not work. The best way to solve the issue may be to go a bit over the top with your designs so the question whether the designs are realistic or not will not come up at all. <br /><br />Uncephalized: I had a very quick look at SolidWorks. It looks impressive, but also daunting. Dear me; to do the site and the blog justice I tackled Painter, Photoshop, XFrog, Vue, Sculptris and various odds and ends such as CSS, InDesign and Matlab. I have now begun to take ZBrush seriously. Solidworks looks like a serious job to take on as well... <br /> Sigmund Nastrazzurrohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16449461215427527447noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-45270552912619680182014-01-09T20:58:32.380+01:002014-01-09T20:58:32.380+01:00"Petr and Jan: I was playing with the idea of...<i>"Petr and Jan: I was playing with the idea of doing more detailed studies of the movement of the rusp rostrum, but the is less easy than it might seem. It would be nice to have a program to simulate mechanisms in such a way that you could move them about while each joint has set of rules such as axes it works around with ranges of movement. I have nothing along those lines -unless that can be done in Matlab; I will check-."</i><br /><br />You can do exactly that with SolidWorks, but it's very expensive if you can't get it through a group license (does your university's engineering department use it?).Uncephalizednoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-64800678912079755142014-01-08T20:43:35.427+01:002014-01-08T20:43:35.427+01:00Hmmm. The legs are described as powerful, so I can...Hmmm. The legs are described as powerful, so I can't make them spindly. Maybe I'll just stick to what I have, and accept the differences from reality as part of the same creative license that allows life on Mars in the first place. <br /><br />Oh, and I did see your thoat post from a while ago. It inspired me to unfuse the legs, which I had done in my earlier sketches. Here's what I wound up with...<br /><br />http://spearhafoc.deviantart.com/art/Thoat-size-comparison-384073292<br /><br />And in Zbrush...<br /><br />http://spearhafoc.deviantart.com/art/Thoat-final-colour-425603836<br /><br />Thanks for all your help. Your site has been a great resource for my Mars project. Spearhafochttp://spearhafoc.deviantart.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-45283237279472936782014-01-08T08:21:03.648+01:002014-01-08T08:21:03.648+01:00Excellent post!
It's interesting that this ru...Excellent post!<br /><br />It's interesting that this rusp seems to have a narrow beak for browsing, whereas it seems like the rusps you've depicted so far living on the open plains are grazers.<br /><br />Another method for bringing foliage within reach is to knock down the entire tree, which elephants are adept at. It's fun to imagine an even more battering-ram-like rusp doing the same.Spugpownoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-91147702077386353082014-01-08T07:57:07.669+01:002014-01-08T07:57:07.669+01:00Spearhafoc: Nice Banth! The trouble with such a 10...Spearhafoc: Nice Banth! The trouble with such a 10-legged beast is that it is hard to put legs on the beast in a way that makes sense. I suppose you have found my post on thoats? As Mars has a low gravity, a tetrapod of similar mass as one on Earth could do with thinner legs, and if you then take the number of legs into account, the legs can be even spindlier. Another problems with Martian fauna is that the legs will be very close together on a body with a 'normal' length this forces the legs on one side to move almost in unison. If you extend body length between leg pairs, you will up with a centipede-like animal. Finally legs can be offset sideways to let them move past one another. These seem the only ways to produce a banth or thoat with a believable anatomy and gait. Of course, the result is probably not at all what the casual reader had in mind. Sigmund Nastrazzurrohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16449461215427527447noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-52121067896860350952014-01-08T04:31:12.994+01:002014-01-08T04:31:12.994+01:00Nice work!
I was wondering if anyone had any tips...Nice work!<br /><br />I was wondering if anyone had any tips for 10 legged walk/run patterns? I'm not happy with the way I've designed Barsoomian banths. <br /><br />http://spearhafoc.deviantart.com/art/Banth-size-comparsion-383959350Spearhafochttp://spearhafoc.deviantart.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-34333250639100591612014-01-07T03:34:18.922+01:002014-01-07T03:34:18.922+01:00Phew! I've finally caught up to the latest pos...Phew! I've finally caught up to the latest post.<br /><br />And what's more, the material on this blog inspired me in my own world-building exercises. I have a space saga universe to populate and also a fantasy world to support a novel I'm working on. I am not the visual artist you are, but I've been sketching for days, inspired by your posts, and so far the ideas I'm generating are pretty interesting. So thanks for providing this resource!Uncephalizednoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-16304179844931000082013-12-30T22:45:51.597+01:002013-12-30T22:45:51.597+01:00that's amazing! :)that's amazing! :)Petrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06537642993606964893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-15311858424058144642013-12-29T11:19:54.043+01:002013-12-29T11:19:54.043+01:00Petr and Jan: I was playing with the idea of doing...Petr and Jan: I was playing with the idea of doing more detailed studies of the movement of the rusp rostrum, but the is less easy than it might seem. It would be nice to have a program to simulate mechanisms in such a way that you could move them about while each joint has set of rules such as axes it works around with ranges of movement. I have nothing along those lines -unless that can be done in Matlab; I will check-.<br /><br />On another note, the rostrum can indeed be worked upon to result in a larger range than Brontocrambis has, and so the idea came to me to stretch its leg, make the body narrower, to raise the head and raise the rostrum on the head, pointing upwards a bit; elongate the rostrum while keeping it 'gracile', and before you know it there is something you might call 'Giraffocrambis Janpetrii'... Sigmund Nastrazzurrohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16449461215427527447noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-88904709615699073292013-12-27T19:46:38.117+01:002013-12-27T19:46:38.117+01:00Jan: Yeah, that sounds interesting! :DJan: Yeah, that sounds interesting! :DPetrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06537642993606964893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-19792053195397830282013-12-27T19:12:26.802+01:002013-12-27T19:12:26.802+01:00Petr: Yes, but keeping the eyes at the end of the ...Petr: Yes, but keeping the eyes at the end of the neck has its own benefits (one of the solutions could also be to have two "brain+eyes" complexes, one in the position of the elephants and one (with smaller brain) of the sauropods). <br /><br />Back to the rusps, the evolutionary pressure would probably led to quite a long rostrum when prolongated. And their movement during feeding would not resemble anything known from earth. I hope I would see more pictures in the future :)Jannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-31222060627269902952013-12-27T16:23:26.789+01:002013-12-27T16:23:26.789+01:00Yeah, high blood pressure is not impossible, I was...Yeah, high blood pressure is not impossible, I was just pondering an anatomy not found on earth... :DPetrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06537642993606964893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-89439456939355588992013-12-27T15:38:37.273+01:002013-12-27T15:38:37.273+01:00Jan & Petr: the only long-necked hexapod I eve...Jan & Petr: the only long-necked hexapod I ever painted does not have the enormous bulk of a sauropod and is not nearly as large. No long tail either. In stature it is probably closer to a giraffe than a sauropod. <br /> As for the position of the brain, in many Furahan animals there is a visual nucleus in the head, but the main brain may be elsewhere. I may develop this theme in a post someday. It is linked to something I may have to study more, and that is to which extent never conduction velocity limits information processing. I doubt there are any formal studies on the subject (but have never searched for them).<br /> As for blood pressure: girafes have extraordinary high blood pressure compared to other mammals, in whom pressure hardly scales with mass. Sauropods must have had even higher pressures. Apparently it is possible...<br /><br />Sigmund Nastrazzurrohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16449461215427527447noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-542973429070935262013-12-27T14:31:13.251+01:002013-12-27T14:31:13.251+01:00thbere is also the "elephant" solution. ...thbere is also the "elephant" solution. the brain is close to the heart and the sensory organs are near the brain andf there is this thing sticking out of the animal's head that basically does the same thing - reaches far to get food.<br /><br />if you combine the two ideas, you¨ll get something with a pre-cranial vertebral culomn with just jaws at the end, and with eyes and brain in an actual skull near the main body and heart, you'll have a perfect mix :DPetrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06537642993606964893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-63583139649107681042013-12-27T14:09:30.472+01:002013-12-27T14:09:30.472+01:00So there would be another furahan animals more sim...So there would be another furahan animals more similar to sauropods? <br />I think that for a fast-feeding giant their bodyplan is near the perfection, except one thing - the position of the brain.<br />Ideally brain should not rest on a long slender neck, far from the heart, but every terrestrial animal has brain near the sensory organs and for them it is ideal position. Is there some solution? For example different neural mechanism, one which uses faster signals than ions, I think it would not only lead to faster reflexes, but would allow a different bauplans as well.Jannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-18783343772759973552013-12-27T08:55:03.712+01:002013-12-27T08:55:03.712+01:00Rodlox: thank you. The list of feeding systems is ...Rodlox: thank you. The list of feeding systems is aimed at mobile animals and sesslie food sources, and so does not include filter feeders. The list was as follows:<br />1. move the entire animal to the food<br />2. use a long neck to move the head+mouth to the food independent of the gut<br />3. use an appendage to bring food to the mouth<br />4. make the mouth mobile with respect to the rest of the head Sigmund Nastrazzurrohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16449461215427527447noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-34495392701357071302013-12-26T18:09:46.163+01:002013-12-26T18:09:46.163+01:00May your holidays have been - and continue to be -...May your holidays have been - and continue to be - utterly enjoyable.<br /><br />You said there were 4 feeding strategies.<br />1. Sauropods & swans.<br />3. Elephants.<br />4. Rusps & fishes.<br />...what was #2?<br /><br />all in all, this was a fantastic Christmas present to everyone who follows (and who will come to follow) your blog. kudos!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-48394625886809005372013-12-26T10:59:28.124+01:002013-12-26T10:59:28.124+01:00Petr: I am looking forward to that and have sent y...Petr: I am looking forward to that and have sent you a private email.<br /><br />Jan: Oh dear, I hadn't thought of that! <br />Then again, I needn't worry, as I have made a painting of a long-necked hexapod with a limber body in the past. It is on a permanent loan to a friend of mine, so I will have to ask it back temporarily to scan it.Sigmund Nastrazzurrohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16449461215427527447noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-68789931472685807412013-12-25T16:08:39.534+01:002013-12-25T16:08:39.534+01:00Excellent! This solution sounds both plausible and...Excellent! This solution sounds both plausible and original. Btw, saying that rusps are ground feeders means that there must be some other giant top feeders and that is definitely boost for our imagination (although I think that some specialized type of rusps with the ability to raise the front part of the trunk would be also a solution).Jannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-77632041244534531612013-12-25T01:29:59.906+01:002013-12-25T01:29:59.906+01:00Wonderful post, Gert, thank you very much!
I thin...Wonderful post, Gert, thank you very much!<br /><br />I think I have the rusp model planned out, I made some last minute adjustments to include the extended rostrum, I hope you'll like it.<br /><br />I was thinking I could send the finished model to you as a late Christmas present.<br /><br />Makes me sad I haven't thought of this earlier.<br /><br />If you'd like, you can contact me through e-mail here:<br /><br />monster.p.st@gmail.com<br /><br />Take care!<br /><br />Happy Holidays!<br /><br />Pete.Petrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06537642993606964893noreply@blogger.com