tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58210987193408520652024-03-18T16:45:39.449+01:00Furahan Biology and Allied MattersPlease visit the accompanying website: <a href="http://www.planetfuraha.org">Life on Nu Phoenicis IV, the planet Furaha.</a>
This blog is about speculative biology. Recurrent themes are biomechanics, the works of other world builders, and, of course, the planet Furaha.Sigmund Nastrazzurrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16449461215427527447noreply@blogger.comBlogger297125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-52406466338912742922024-02-25T11:10:00.004+01:002024-02-25T11:10:35.883+01:00No Fish in the gutter!<p>The realisation that publishers were probably <a href="http://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2024/01/new-directions-for-book.html" target="_blank">not interested in my book </a>forced me to reconsider several aspects of producing The Book in spite of that, which is one of the reasons I haven't written a post in some time. Another one is that I now also devote part of my creative time to a completely different type of art (I draw city views in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligne_claire" target="_blank">'ligne claire' / 'klare lijn'</a> style). <br /><br />The things I need to reconsider are those that an author would normally leave to publishing professionals: content and language editing, typesetting, lay-out, public relations and perhaps more. <br /><br />I started with the language aspect. Even though the book is about images the text still counts some 45,000 words, so it pays to get that part right. I asked <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@Biblaridion" target="_blank">Biblaridion</a>, who produces a very thorough YouTube series on designing an alien biospheres, whether my English would be good enough for a UK context. He was kind enough to have a look at the Furaha <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2023/08/a-sample-of-book-and-new-painting.html" target="_blank">Book Sample</a> (thank you!) and had only a few remarks, which was encouraging. Thinking matters through, I still decided to ask for professional writing advice. As most readers of this blog come from the USA, I will switch to US English, or I might produce more than one version. Next on the list is improving the layout; I have now looked at various self-published books on Amazon, and many of them looked wrong in one or more respects. The problems could have to do with character spacing, titles that did not seem to be on the right spot, columns with too many characters, wrong use of white space, or a too narrow page gutter. The more worrying ones were where I could not put my finger on a specific problem, which indicates I am not proficient enough to pinpoint what is wrong. There may be matters that I do not even spot as wrong but that a professional would identify immediately. <br /><br />I also realised that using two-page illustrations may not be wise: while they can look gorgeous, there is a chance that the most interesting part of the painting will disappear in the gutter, which is where the two pages meet. I used several such paintings and made the mistake of putting the centre of attention on the centre of the painting. That has to be corrected, and this post is about one such spread. </p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz-lasx16N0C_cUh_D4Xsf8x0TEi9n7HAeayB9l_R4dtjxo29apLKQhJr1QXqMB2thqpiaLlsOBfpT4QOtIIyYuIsRXmXeYFCDA8586poIOqYXcT_oGEPaFp128qwZTroQHj88R9tv-z6Qj0rFPa4KPi6a7Jc_CAeRsbqJJa8rM1Uj9xKnTj89c4mm5bU/s1000/oudfish.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="682" data-original-width="1000" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz-lasx16N0C_cUh_D4Xsf8x0TEi9n7HAeayB9l_R4dtjxo29apLKQhJr1QXqMB2thqpiaLlsOBfpT4QOtIIyYuIsRXmXeYFCDA8586poIOqYXcT_oGEPaFp128qwZTroQHj88R9tv-z6Qj0rFPa4KPi6a7Jc_CAeRsbqJJa8rM1Uj9xKnTj89c4mm5bU/s320/oudfish.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright Gert van Dijk<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />The image above shows how the spread introducing the 'Fishes-IV' group looked a few years ago. I know the text on the image says 'Fishes V', not 'IV', but that is due to a cladistic revision). As two-page illustrations go, it was not too bad, because there was nothing of great interest in the gutter. But this painting predated the 'Great Hexapod Revolution', meaning their head anatomy changed completely. </p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0s8fvzL1aS1XBb1UTYkI_Rf8h-SzN1M3Gap0f8sVebhRFONLvFS9yPhN6raRQFg9xdGo7-XXAd56YQwDtgOcNmaJQbk8FBpGezB7VcKIG2EeaaZkn5xEE9bxXPeIe-_6dIDecpMn9aDRkZOVXq5bmvyqQcO2V-qElxMI__RPxXXkeQfCQ78qrF5IwXfA/s1000/fishesspread.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="676" data-original-width="1000" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0s8fvzL1aS1XBb1UTYkI_Rf8h-SzN1M3Gap0f8sVebhRFONLvFS9yPhN6raRQFg9xdGo7-XXAd56YQwDtgOcNmaJQbk8FBpGezB7VcKIG2EeaaZkn5xEE9bxXPeIe-_6dIDecpMn9aDRkZOVXq5bmvyqQcO2V-qElxMI__RPxXXkeQfCQ78qrF5IwXfA/s320/fishesspread.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright Gert van Dijk<br /></td></tr></tbody></table> </p><p>This was the succeeding stage. The animals, now 'Fishes-IV', have evolved and have an updated head anatomy, with proximal and distal necks and <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2023/09/whats-head-or-neck.html" target="_blank">complete separation of the neurocranium and the gnathocranium</a>. The background animal now is a filter feeder, using much modified lateral jaws as sieves. The 'cheek opening' allows water to leave the mouth when the mouth cavity is put under pressure by closing of the upper and low jaws. I must revisit that design one day, but I am not satisfied with it. And there is the gutter matter... <br /><br />I will need a new spread page to introduce the Fishes-IV clade. Above are four results of playing with the design, done in ZBrush. They generally look like plesiosaurs, don't they? Well, if you have a swimming animal propelled by flippers and teeth at the end of a long neck, evolution is going to smooth streamline it, so it will end up looking like a plesiosaur. Can't be helped...</p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhqbJn-qHnXkiUeDPEgOyFYnv6vPHZgBq-AP57sDC9zK3b7zumbxr_9zjCISZAV-bdvHKZ7ZgKeXDZbAvdWVzVmzy9FGNYivMnAhHK8rnnI2xzdaSzyJ5fPwd20rjPsXi1NQ9I_gtOr0-L4q3eDb8JHXIQY92AGUdo3IpDCXk_ZmYIvpt147_xlrrvXes/s1200/Vierples.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="889" data-original-width="1200" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhqbJn-qHnXkiUeDPEgOyFYnv6vPHZgBq-AP57sDC9zK3b7zumbxr_9zjCISZAV-bdvHKZ7ZgKeXDZbAvdWVzVmzy9FGNYivMnAhHK8rnnI2xzdaSzyJ5fPwd20rjPsXi1NQ9I_gtOr0-L4q3eDb8JHXIQY92AGUdo3IpDCXk_ZmYIvpt147_xlrrvXes/s320/Vierples.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright Gert van Dijk<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>Variant A is fairly general. Note I did not work on the jaws; these 3D designs are merely aids to help painting, not goals in themselves. The three pairs of flippers are arranged in 'ascending staircase' fashion, with the first pair place lower and the last pair higher than the middle pair. In this species, the middle pair provides most thrust. <br /><br />Variant B is a fast swimmer with much-elongated necke. The lateral jaws are elongated but flattened and help to catch or cage prey, then chopped into coarse pieces by the short upper and lower jaws.<br /><br />Variant C has an unusual body shape with lengthwise 'shoulders' supporting the fins. The shoulders do not make the frontal cross section much larger than the general rounded shape, and should not offer much more drag, but I must check that before I commit the design. The fins are arranged in 'descending staircase' fashion. <br /><br />Variant D is a big blob sitting on the sea floor. It eats armoured shelled prey and has heavy upper and lower jaws to crunch the shells. It has no need for speed at all and is itself armoured. <br /><br />As you can see, work on The Book continues. While distracted by layout matters, I can't help thinking about new and interesting creature designs. How about marine wadudu, that could grow much larger than terrestrial ones; with a mesoskeleton they could in fact compete with all those 'Fishes'. I have also been thinking about plants that would thrive in shallow seas, making empty beaches on Furaha rarer than they are on Earth. Or plants that <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2023/03/avatar-2-way-of-water-ii-whales-gill.html" target="_blank">actually form nets</a>, not just branching structures.<br /><br />But before I start dreaming about The Book Volume II, I had better finish 'The Book' itself. <br /><br /></p>Sigmund Nastrazzurrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16449461215427527447noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-61556787892105355822024-01-08T13:33:00.011+01:002024-01-08T17:09:07.374+01:00New directions for The Book<p><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">This is the first
post of 2024. It has been too long since the previous one. The explanation for the long delay consists
in part of various things that have absolutely nothing to do with the Furaha
project, but some other things were relevant. Quite relevant, in fact.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">I visited TetZooCon
in the beginning of December. It was great fun as usual: have a look at Darren's report <a href="https://tetzoo.com/blog/2023/12/15/tetzoocon-2023-the-report" target="_blank">here</a>. I went there in part to speak with publishers or other
knowledgeable people who might tell me more about my chances were of getting a publisher interested. I was lucky
enough to speak such people, including a publisher. The discussions were open,
and everyone was friendly, but the message was that there was hardly any chance
of getting the book published by a large publishing house. That was disappointing,
mostly because I had felt that getting a publisher to commit would be a sign that
the work was good enough for that. Then again, as
someone explained to me, even if you do get a publisher to print the book things
can still go wrong: for instance, if those responsible for distribution put in
little effort, nothing much will happen. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">What it all boiled
down to was that I might as well go for self-publishing. As one person said
after seeing my sample part of The Book, now that I have already done most of
the work, I should consider doing the rest as well. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">I ruminated on that
for a while, and finally decided that this is probably the way to go. At present
I am thinking of Amazon, having seen an example of their quite acceptable print
quality. Another advantage is that Amazon is accessible to most of my audience.
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">There are disadvantages
too: a professional publisher should be able to prevent me making basic
mistakes in book design, writing style or any other aspect of publishing.Without one, I am free to make all those mistakes! A major hurdle may be advertising: I
will need a way to tell the wider world, once the time is there, that The Book is out. But those should be surmountable obstacles. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">At present I think
that The Book can, in principle, be available one year from
now. I plan to have it published as actual physical books, not as e-books. </span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Among the things you
may expect in the coming months is a much-needed update of the Furaha main site,
as well as posts about reworking some paintings for The Book' publication. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">I'll be back... <br /></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> </span></p>
Sigmund Nastrazzurrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16449461215427527447noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-5929031828674339612023-11-12T11:00:00.000+01:002023-11-12T11:00:22.212+01:00Shaping hexapod shapes: high browsers<p> First of all, I apologise for taking so long to post something. I have been much too busy writing large reviews. Some of you probably hoped that I was busy dealing with publishers to shape The Book. If only! At present it seems that sending manuscripts to publishers in the way they want you to has as much apparent effect as shouting in a vacuum. Do you remember the slogan 'In space no-one can hear you scream?' It's like that. If you didn't know the slogan, it's from the first Alien film (1979). Rather like that particular alien I intend to keep coming back, though.<br /><br />Nevertheless, I did toy with the directions evolution might take the hexapod design into. The fun of doing something like this is that you must follow the rules, and these state that the basic anatomy is a given, exactly like in real biological evolution. In this case, the challenge was to evolve a high-browsing animal, something like a giraffe or possibly a sauropod. One way to get an animal's mouth high up into the air is of course to enlarge the entire animal but that is rather boring. Other solutions would be to stretch all animal parts vertically, or to only stretch parts close to the mouth, such as the mouth parts themselves, the skull and and the neck. I chose somewhere in between the last two choices: legs are elongated, but not as much as the neck. Or necks. <br /><br />Hexapods do not have vertebral columns in the sense of one chain made out of a large number of short bones. Instead, they have two parallel chains together forming a 'scala' (ladder). In the neck the original two series of bones forming the stiles of the ladder merged into one structure while the rungs disappeared altogether. This happened early on, when hexapods were sea dwellers, as an obvious way to expand the range of the mouth at little cost. With a long mobile neck you can increase the 'feeding envelope', which is the volume the mouth can reach while the body stays still. The same idea applies to sauropod necks and rusp mouthparts (see <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2013/12/influence-of-rostrum-linkage-system-on.html" target="_blank">here</a>). As you may have noticed from earlier sketches (<a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2023/02/a-hexapod-muscle-study.html" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2023/09/whats-head-or-neck.html" target="_blank">here</a>), hexapods first have a proximal neck of two segments, then a sensocranium, a distal neck of two segments and finally the jaw apparatus. </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQIH6aP8k9ngB9Os6iDcWsrT2sD2lLwN3u72ufgoHu5zy8eZIFBQx35epyz7kE0wUNasIWQeAaYC6EeG9UG3DJ1mvBW7INuODqAVTbqfa40PMSMWSyN0qCy5vMTx_O6YMFNNPuypnJYSFgz5lfEeUa8GbrYKV-h971hYFOXlKuyELqJ88Yel_ocoOkDyI/s4653/beest1.bmp" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4653" data-original-width="3712" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQIH6aP8k9ngB9Os6iDcWsrT2sD2lLwN3u72ufgoHu5zy8eZIFBQx35epyz7kE0wUNasIWQeAaYC6EeG9UG3DJ1mvBW7INuODqAVTbqfa40PMSMWSyN0qCy5vMTx_O6YMFNNPuypnJYSFgz5lfEeUa8GbrYKV-h971hYFOXlKuyELqJ88Yel_ocoOkDyI/s320/beest1.bmp" width="255" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright Gert van Dijk<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6kcO_xxAJko0I-AdXR8pkea8a8yANLVhfbrpgpJg9suJ3t4yRRscLGtXDi64lGIk-MHuOahPn1faDAEKczq-MLBAkBbo_l6AyAvWPO6oT2maAuKxtmFSQV24LH2juvwVF2RvbGOQwvqPHPouZ3W1oomPH-el86qBammeGbdv_vFGVfJo53D71H6d-Nrc/s5239/beest2.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="5239" data-original-width="4527" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6kcO_xxAJko0I-AdXR8pkea8a8yANLVhfbrpgpJg9suJ3t4yRRscLGtXDi64lGIk-MHuOahPn1faDAEKczq-MLBAkBbo_l6AyAvWPO6oT2maAuKxtmFSQV24LH2juvwVF2RvbGOQwvqPHPouZ3W1oomPH-el86qBammeGbdv_vFGVfJo53D71H6d-Nrc/s320/beest2.bmp" width="277" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright Gert van Dijk<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><p>Here are two sketches in which I played with such a high browsing hexapod scheme. I also stretched the sensocranium. Normally that is just a bulb sitting above where proximal and distal necks approximate one another. Here the neurocranium is truly a part of the chain of segments. If you look closely, you will see some curved lines gradually following the angled neck bones. That is the asymmetrical oesophagus, situated on one side of the animal, not in the middle below the bones. See here for more on that odd feature. <br /><br />Elongating the neck in this way involves elongating the individual bones. I felt that such animals should be able to hold their necks horizontally, not just vertically. Such a horizontal posture will stress such long bones though. Here's why: take one such long bone and assume that the proximal end (near the body) is fixed. All bones attached at the distal end then act as a weight to pull that distal end down. This weight tends to bend the bone down, which stretches the top margin of the bone while simultaneously compressing the bottom margin of the bone. Bone tissue is usually better at withstanding compression than tension, while tendons have opposite characteristics. A typical vertebrate trick to solve these stresses is to string strong tendons along the upper surface of the backbone to take care of those tensile forces, leaving the bones themselves to deal with compression. The trick works better when the tendons are at some distance from the centres of the vertebrae, and that is what neural spines, the bone projections sticking out of the top of vertebrae are for: they keep the tendons at a distance.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4VHAMfkONN_MmdSaUREe0BpQP_VuPS8rJ5eBvUOMr3AZecvdGGqdtEhquTa42wHjCXskIP9QwOyrIRrVZ2-dnjWHyH1UPRuRQ4N34-zS_iIZ5OyEwMGic6l1rGgGYJM_NrokgKuUlKrrG05UbF2DillfEZpv504QBbQEKFhz7cnd77Am-K1PEgR68K3o/s1253/Preuschoft.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="951" data-original-width="1253" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4VHAMfkONN_MmdSaUREe0BpQP_VuPS8rJ5eBvUOMr3AZecvdGGqdtEhquTa42wHjCXskIP9QwOyrIRrVZ2-dnjWHyH1UPRuRQ4N34-zS_iIZ5OyEwMGic6l1rGgGYJM_NrokgKuUlKrrG05UbF2DillfEZpv504QBbQEKFhz7cnd77Am-K1PEgR68K3o/s320/Preuschoft.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; from<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258351435_Torsion_and_Bending_in_the_Neck_and_Tail_of_Sauropod_Dinosaurs_and_the_Function_of_Cervical_Ribs_Insights_from_Functional_Morphology_and_Biomechanics" target="_blank"> Preuschoft & Klein 2013</a><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p>The image above shows a scheme with vertebrae, spines and a big tendon in place for a sauropod. In the drawing, the neck vertebrae are fairly long, so we are getting close to hexapod anatomy. But do extra-long bones pose additional problems? </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMmmaD7Oi1cW6E2NUK0C53M0wXalTdmdtYDX3xA3UFNT5mm9x9nbYXuObuFwoqXdScsstCXD1H-BWnrmfCd5mRiaDQH24u3yGOd5u5rZeUk7Zxx66JrN7tcGxr2ky0u9p8h58xR2t6GwBYmcd9-pCT_avCFFsT9PYkfog8HAu7IysIgH0oBod7mURvUa4/s5000/scala.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3750" data-original-width="5000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMmmaD7Oi1cW6E2NUK0C53M0wXalTdmdtYDX3xA3UFNT5mm9x9nbYXuObuFwoqXdScsstCXD1H-BWnrmfCd5mRiaDQH24u3yGOd5u5rZeUk7Zxx66JrN7tcGxr2ky0u9p8h58xR2t6GwBYmcd9-pCT_avCFFsT9PYkfog8HAu7IysIgH0oBod7mURvUa4/s320/scala.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright Gert van Dijk<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p>I am still considering that and can at present only offer some thoughts. Let's start with one spine on each bone; there are tendons running from the spine that bridge the joint on either side (A). That means the tendon is attached at a sharp angle to the bone, whereas it would work better if the attachment were nearly vertically. That can be done by making the spine longer, or, in this case, by placing it near a joint (B). That works well for the closest joint but worse for the farther one, so that tendon now attaches to the bone itself and no longer crosses a joint. It still looks as if the bones would have to withstand lots of bending forces, which we do not want. Very well, let's duplicate the 'spine & tendon structure' so we have a spine at each end of the bone (C). But just to be safe we may add an additional ligament crossing all elements (D). So there we are.</p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzWh5LBeXSqEp_d13AqtlhunaMHd8UKWnHCBpIdyN2SAwNk8Ax28or-QO2DiFBUb2rM2N-qRFiEXoUXqO-zBy0e4Hwkzo03jrJ9rcpriqtwMYDQuuGo0VV68ii4gKrdXEB7pUEr85f-gsL-mkCPbgo1lSHCdGVK1tZ26pD28Bsq7f_hGe4Q6D41lrtqvw/s1600/scala.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzWh5LBeXSqEp_d13AqtlhunaMHd8UKWnHCBpIdyN2SAwNk8Ax28or-QO2DiFBUb2rM2N-qRFiEXoUXqO-zBy0e4Hwkzo03jrJ9rcpriqtwMYDQuuGo0VV68ii4gKrdXEB7pUEr85f-gsL-mkCPbgo1lSHCdGVK1tZ26pD28Bsq7f_hGe4Q6D41lrtqvw/s320/scala.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright Gert van Dijk <br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p>A new problem now may be that flexing the neck might bring one spine into contact with the other, preventing the movement. That can be solved by moving the spine away from the joint again, but there is another solution. We already allowed the oesophagus to be asymmetrically placed to one side of the animal. Could we also place the distal and proximal spines off-centre, so one is displaced towards the right and the other towards the left? That is shown in the image above. <br /><br />Do the rules allow that? We are all used to the fact that vertebrate skeletons are nicely symmetrical when our intestines are not all that symmetrical. I wonder why; anyway, there are skeletal exceptions, such as narwal teeth and crabs that have one big and one small claw. My guess is that large anatomical asymmetries between walking legs would make both the mechanics and the neurological control of walking extremely difficult, without offering any advantages whatsoever. (Mind you, quite a few neurological functions are already asymmetrical even when the underlying anatomy is nicely symmetrical. Humans have handedness, but also 'footedness' and 'eyeness'; bees have 'antennaness', and I could continue). Anyway, anatomical asymmetry in a nonlocomotory part should not cause any major problems. So perhaps we can add a new rule stating that skeletal asymmetry occur in Hexapods. I must think some more about that and will try to find out whether anyone has already solved the riddle why vertebrate innards are more asymmetrical than their skeletons. <br /><br /></p><br /><br /><br /><br />Sigmund Nastrazzurrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16449461215427527447noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-60235543750736987022023-09-10T15:48:00.000+02:002023-09-10T15:48:27.614+02:00What's a head? Or a neck...<p>Yes, it's a silly title. Isn't a head, rather obviously, that part of an animal where vision and hearing are gathered, along with their associated neural processing units, as well as air and food intakes, along with whichever specialised organs that takes? For air intake, you could read 'nose', and for 'food intake' there is the whole complex assembly of jaws, teeth, a tongue as well as an oesophagus. </p><p>That seems right for humans and other terrestrial vertebrates, but a few moments' thought reveals that 'obviously' does not belong in this 'definition'. Fish have heads but take in water, not air, so the 'air intake' should become an 'inlet for gas exchange'. The hearing organs of many arthropods are not in their heads, and so the associated bits of brain need not be in the head either. The description supposes that the rest of the animal is distinct from the head. But in octopuses there is no distinction between head and body, with the limbs ('arms' that are not accompanied by 'legs') attached directly to the head/body unit. For spiders a similar point can be made that the head is merged with part of the body. </p><p>I could go on, but the point is that a 'head' is not as clear an entity as you might think. A 'head' is the result of 'cephalisation', described by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cephalization" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a> as 'an evolutionary trend in which... the mouth, sense organs, and nerve ganglia become concentrated at the front end of an animal, producing a head region.' I like 'head region': it provides the looseness we apparently need to describe what a head is. </p><p>Furahan <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2023/02/a-hexapod-muscle-study.html" target="_blank">'Scalates' </a>certainly underwent cephalisation, and their heads definitely contain eyes (four of them) and ears, in terrestrial forms (also four) along with enough brain to do the heavy duty processing these organs require. But the 'intake for gas exchange' is not in the head at all. The intake for food is there, with jaws (originally six, later four) at the front of the animal, so clearly these are in the head. Well, that depends... </p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN16V14yRWx0XD2PG5mipdgX9YuXRPfMkQT3Hv8pIEIg6ooN1kMKB79rh83_oEI9hDnX8aOkbeIBVWGs5CfjbeqrcVjAQEov2svpZCb9T48jwh1k5m2-LkQuSx5f77Q0tOrwS_4rflD7CYtOLXrb5DcsXY73N07fa9greXFDm2FFRmTTaghbmEYphsdhA/s1200/boekvisFrag.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="591" data-original-width="1200" height="158" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN16V14yRWx0XD2PG5mipdgX9YuXRPfMkQT3Hv8pIEIg6ooN1kMKB79rh83_oEI9hDnX8aOkbeIBVWGs5CfjbeqrcVjAQEov2svpZCb9T48jwh1k5m2-LkQuSx5f77Q0tOrwS_4rflD7CYtOLXrb5DcsXY73N07fa9greXFDm2FFRmTTaghbmEYphsdhA/s320/boekvisFrag.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright Gert van Dijk<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />A clade of Furahan Fishes ('Fishes V') developed a 'neck' in the form of a two-bone articulated connection between the body and the 'head region', allowing the latter considerable freedom of movement relative to the body. The thing is that a similar 'neck' also evolved between the 'head part' housing eyes and ears, and the mouth region. Are there then two heads, or is the entire region one head? </p><p>The two necks, usually called the proximal (closest to the body) and distal (farthest from the body) neck, each consist of two long bones with a joint in between. The two 'heads' are the 'sensocranium' and the 'orocranium'. The image above shows a fragment of a painting showing a species of Fishes V with just that arrangement. You cannot see the joints in the necks clearly in these streamlined Fishes, but they are there. Those long neck bones form a big difference from the kind of vertebral columns we are used to, with their string of many small bones. Early Scalates never had a central string of small bones for evolution to play with; instead, they had a 'ladder'. The resulting neck movements look rather like those of a vertebrate arm or leg, with sharp angles, not at all like the curves of a lizard tail or a giraffe or sauropod neck. But that ungainly look need not be a functional handicap; despite the sticklike nature of human arms, baseball and darts players manage to land small objects with incredible precision quite a distance away. Of course, the trick is having a good brain in control.</p><p></p><p>We now only need to discuss bending of other organs in those necks, such as the oesophagus. An oesophagus relies on peristalsis making it flexible and elastic, so the structure itself should be able to withstand folding for a while. The nerves and arteries in our shoulders and elbows have to withstand bending too and usually do so fine. (Admittedly, if you spend too long in one position local pressure may pinch blood vessels, so people occasionally find that an arm or a leg, or just one nerve, has 'gone to sleep'.) If the oesophagus would be folded, it would probably be incapable of propelling food. If so, the distal neck has to be straightened between bites to allow the animal to swallow which is not a problem and looks interesting. Perhaps a different problem is that the length of the oesophagus may have to vary with neck position. If the oesophagus lies in front of or below the neck bones, as it does in humans, bending the neck backwards and upwards requires the oesophagus to lengthen. It has to be elastic anyway, so some degree of lengthening should not be a problem. </p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5Yws3nrszm-NvCgs3MNvcSSTA4U8luVLWLf4lfgjiKIy8qbLiI-CFmFqH9ycn3g7wjzwzppmZEAS7pPSc4bSUsSfbz0NSlRXFsvtFYwlR_uhFnmFXqer8H1SiljNUH6FVfs8Y-55vA1vqs0360fIh0lzT9_9NEVML5lgcRt0NpWrBfWcArPOmHeNKfpo/s1200/unfeathered.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="536" data-original-width="1200" height="143" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5Yws3nrszm-NvCgs3MNvcSSTA4U8luVLWLf4lfgjiKIy8qbLiI-CFmFqH9ycn3g7wjzwzppmZEAS7pPSc4bSUsSfbz0NSlRXFsvtFYwlR_uhFnmFXqer8H1SiljNUH6FVfs8Y-55vA1vqs0360fIh0lzT9_9NEVML5lgcRt0NpWrBfWcArPOmHeNKfpo/s320/unfeathered.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright Katrina van Grauw<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />There is another solution though. In birds, the trachea (windpipe) and oesophagus do not commonly lie in front of the neck vertebrae, but to one side. This is not the exception but the rule, in fact, as shown by <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308389527_On_the_Morphological_Description_of_Tracheal_and_Esophageal_Displacement_and_Its_Phylogenetic_Distribution_in_Avialae#fullTextFileContent" target="_blank">this paper.</a> Most often the trachea and oesophagus lie toon the right side, but that can differ between individuals, with recorded examples on the trachea on one side and the oesophagus on the other. If birds bending their generally long necks, the oesophagus does not have to follow the bones. The oesophagus literally cuts corners. </p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYiWZEyrW1zFNezwoU1vI5LPoZn0qNb5Ut5PtNhrmXiQnFK7vyRUqJuKgY-VnLqbLoRqE8EAKq3tJ5zry5Nv7rR-fqc3qMjJagkDBgVJNKxQvJI3-4PKoovT-KNn0up7mf5G7bfRtrO3QnCExY95klt__eoDTsQVN1rExPWavFOlNNn36V-0Lc1DIJStk/s1550/Ardea.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1550" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYiWZEyrW1zFNezwoU1vI5LPoZn0qNb5Ut5PtNhrmXiQnFK7vyRUqJuKgY-VnLqbLoRqE8EAKq3tJ5zry5Nv7rR-fqc3qMjJagkDBgVJNKxQvJI3-4PKoovT-KNn0up7mf5G7bfRtrO3QnCExY95klt__eoDTsQVN1rExPWavFOlNNn36V-0Lc1DIJStk/s320/Ardea.png" width="248" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge;<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308389527_On_the_Morphological_Description_of_Tracheal_and_Esophageal_Displacement_and_Its_Phylogenetic_Distribution_in_Avialae#fullTextFileContent" target="_blank"> source here</a><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><p>The two images above show this odd anatomy very clearly, with a heron as an example. One is from the excellent work <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/ebook/9781400844890/the-unfeathered-bird" target="_blank">'The unfeathered bird' by Katrina van Grauw</a>, and the other is from the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308389527_On_the_Morphological_Description_of_Tracheal_and_Esophageal_Displacement_and_Its_Phylogenetic_Distribution_in_Avialae#fullTextFileContent">paper mentioned above.</a> The oesophagus runs almost in a straight line when the neck is curved, which also means that the oesophagus is then much shorter than when the neck is fully extended. It has to be very elastic. The explanation for this arrangement is that the trachea and oesophagus can move so freely because they are not restrained by muscles as is the case in mammals. Some birds can swallow enormous prey (herons again) which also requires that the oesophagus has freedom of movement. </p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHNjAWf1lRg1f3LFCRhBW7-3PsDyBoxe_2WZXUGk3qrZhYVqjCUJJufc87Uc955yBngb0AHsdwIptINjz1hhdz8MRjdEnFVpV9luDlBGrMAhvvX3UjlGwpq6_JulBP09XrFPT68UANtAS1UZQHMckj13XFnoAaoxtPpig6a4p9TR33mOznyv3b-uJ55Ck/s1500/latifrons_003.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="739" data-original-width="1500" height="158" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHNjAWf1lRg1f3LFCRhBW7-3PsDyBoxe_2WZXUGk3qrZhYVqjCUJJufc87Uc955yBngb0AHsdwIptINjz1hhdz8MRjdEnFVpV9luDlBGrMAhvvX3UjlGwpq6_JulBP09XrFPT68UANtAS1UZQHMckj13XFnoAaoxtPpig6a4p9TR33mOznyv3b-uJ55Ck/s320/latifrons_003.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright Gert van Dijk<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />I am revising an older image of a herd of large hexapods thundering into view. To get a better idea of their heads, I sculpted one in Zbrush. </p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvN1WzcHfQX7sZKZNKceZHtt_OulyFIhGEN56ye37N2ne_NJgPhs_mUtOOEA-8uhePt2yYC7310HztUjD6Y9n2kw06iWMHY783qf8P0jgXiv-scg8ltYo-UkuvIl9W1Ptxk20imFIyn1LxpxRHEwz3GX30nQFf0G25Opl5OFKG5hofDB05NFRItJ-UQtg/s1200/lati1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="890" data-original-width="1200" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvN1WzcHfQX7sZKZNKceZHtt_OulyFIhGEN56ye37N2ne_NJgPhs_mUtOOEA-8uhePt2yYC7310HztUjD6Y9n2kw06iWMHY783qf8P0jgXiv-scg8ltYo-UkuvIl9W1Ptxk20imFIyn1LxpxRHEwz3GX30nQFf0G25Opl5OFKG5hofDB05NFRItJ-UQtg/s320/lati1.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright Gert van Dijk<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlmVnAtZgCb6lKYo4GCca2CaFsEAI3lf3kcxSPcKMNhPMC6_oura5u1WfNKaAK0mgpd0osVpVhpTooaoCzuUrmCTL6IaKt1UAX84iW13J9FehL1rfDs55CDh4oIxsTofHl8qQtOjR7RrIEslwjzXDIcJ1nxaJH_ID-JWsFFZG7gdenxAKmPQEx-RJqkOI/s1200/lati2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="881" data-original-width="1200" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlmVnAtZgCb6lKYo4GCca2CaFsEAI3lf3kcxSPcKMNhPMC6_oura5u1WfNKaAK0mgpd0osVpVhpTooaoCzuUrmCTL6IaKt1UAX84iW13J9FehL1rfDs55CDh4oIxsTofHl8qQtOjR7RrIEslwjzXDIcJ1nxaJH_ID-JWsFFZG7gdenxAKmPQEx-RJqkOI/s320/lati2.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright Gert van Dijk<br /></td></tr></tbody></table> </p><p>As you can see, I played with a lateral position of the oesophagus. The oesophagus forms a distinct bulge on the left side of the distal neck, cutting corners in bird fashion. The <i>sensocranium</i> sports shields and horns to impress others of its own species. When the animals start bashing one another's heads and necks, the necks should be protected too, so the middle joint of the proximal neck also bears some shields. So here is the somewhat baroque <i>Latifrons augustus</i> ('elevated broad-brow').
</p>Sigmund Nastrazzurrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16449461215427527447noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-65305665569770172142023-08-03T12:40:00.000+02:002023-08-03T12:40:56.332+02:00A sample of The Book (and a new painting)<p>It's time for a quick update. As you may know, The Book is ready to find a home with a publisher. Unfortunately, one or two of the publishers I would be very happy with warn aspiring authors away by saying that they pick their own candidates and have plenty of those to choose from, thank you very much. Others say they want submissions on paper, not digital, which might be a way to reduce the number of proposals they receive. If so, good, as perhaps my proposal may then have fewer others to compete with. Anyway, I had a few samples printed on good quality paper. Here is a quick view of the sample of The Book.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwHVIeFtO1bsObELgX4E2SqxokF7_E-ftZeyejfDC_Yapl8DFl3opMMl23IwI7-yiHN1k8Df_hG-qZnACgmeA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /><p></p><p>Some of you may have spotted that the name on the sample reads 'Nastrarruzzo', not 'Nastrazzurro'. I had to start an official business to market The Book, (and perhaps sell prints too), and wanted to avoid possible problems with companies with similar names. That's why my firm is called the 'Nastrarruzzo Compagnie'. </p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC0CGd1JxLn1ISnUVLd0wdDEMoNmQwGLxPrsLSh8Pfov8K6Zz9Bi8GevEId_F2Qh3NQze81gderwrWza18djHZQOtFPLzQwQMPP-ac8gn5ITZ1EFPDH1RAXHZ7Dx__Nsmb4vXJrPDD2YRZg6w03GWgXG1lWA_Un-ev5PbRU8mTNKdu9K3tJtwQCyhIC-c/s1000/swobblerFragment.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="794" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC0CGd1JxLn1ISnUVLd0wdDEMoNmQwGLxPrsLSh8Pfov8K6Zz9Bi8GevEId_F2Qh3NQze81gderwrWza18djHZQOtFPLzQwQMPP-ac8gn5ITZ1EFPDH1RAXHZ7Dx__Nsmb4vXJrPDD2YRZg6w03GWgXG1lWA_Un-ev5PbRU8mTNKdu9K3tJtwQCyhIC-c/s320/swobblerFragment.png" width="254" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright Gert van Dijk<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />While all this is going on, I do work on the occasional new painting. Actually, there are about four in various stages of completion, but that is usual for me. Here is a fragment of one I just completed. The animal is a hexapod arboreal species, a swobbler (it was originally a 'wobbler', but I made a typo while storing the file, and the unintended 's' made the name more interesting, so I kept it. The animal is not entirely serious...<br /></p><p>You may be wondering what the things on its back are. Well, hexapod skins vary a lot, and part of their basic integument is a sort of hair, but hair that is flattened, and often with multiple filaments, so it can range from feather-like structures, but decidedly heavier than true feathers, to a fur-like covering. The structure lends itself well to leaf-like excrescences. As hexapods are not at all restricted to the restricted palette of Earth's mammals, there is room for weird and colourful protuberances. </p><p>The fruit is a baignac, of course. Don’t eat them if you are a human. </p>Sigmund Nastrazzurrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16449461215427527447noreply@blogger.com27tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-54141947509348890602023-06-18T12:36:00.003+02:002023-06-18T12:36:29.059+02:00A work in progress: the pied stickler<p>It has been a while since I last posted something here. There were multiple reasons for that: the realisation that there are more than enough paintings for The Book lessened my enthusiasm to start new Furaha paintings. An interesting side effect of that is that I started painting a series of paintings completely unrelated to speculative biology, which was refreshing. So much so, in fact, that having finished three such paintings I became eager to do some more Furahan creatures.</p><p>Another factor is that the number of views and replies has been fairly low lately. Is a blog like this one too old-fashioned, or perhaps too complex? No longer interesting? Or is it too difficult to leave a reply? I thought so when I wanted to write something on someone else's blog. Ideas and thoughts are welcome.</p><p> </p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_a117Lr5MKdbB4sMIvcjOKU6aYoxyfD3saMtYinU6vbuUQOWXikUlCwzq8o-THt0BuOl1OBRMOzitJkvmxv55pe23KxppHsM1k5s4tg9THelQl9a0JyLWAfoWjus53GpCfckkydW4SPzOex-6rjrhYZNzO4orkbN5ycl53SglJHyTD-SbaxMEeJaO/s1695/eksters.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1695" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_a117Lr5MKdbB4sMIvcjOKU6aYoxyfD3saMtYinU6vbuUQOWXikUlCwzq8o-THt0BuOl1OBRMOzitJkvmxv55pe23KxppHsM1k5s4tg9THelQl9a0JyLWAfoWjus53GpCfckkydW4SPzOex-6rjrhYZNzO4orkbN5ycl53SglJHyTD-SbaxMEeJaO/s320/eksters.png" width="302" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright Gert van Dijk<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br />Anyway, here is a detail of a work in progress showing a 'pied stickler' (Perfixor artifex). The name means 'cunning impaler'. A part of the accompanying text follows.<br /><br />Katarzyna Altanero, who devoted her life to the study of hexapod carnivores, described sticklers as ‘prototypical gregarious piluferentic centauraptors’. This statement shows that doctissimus Altanero was one of those people who, once they have learned something, think that people are born with that knowledge already in place. But the cumbersome jargon is correct. </p><p><b>'Centauraptors’</b><br />These animals are obviously hexapods, but they have freed their front legs from all locomotion duties, a principle known on Furaha as ‘centaurism’. Here, the limbs have become weapons. <br />Centaurism probably involves very quick evolution. The front limbs, liberated from walking, were free to quickly evolve suitable shapes for their new roles. At the same time the balance and locomotion of the animal changed drastically. The front part of the trunk became shorter and was tilted upwards, while the former middle legs increased in size and moved forwards. <br /> These changes must have evolved hand in hand with specialisation to a specific way of catching prey. For instance, predators relying on speed should not carry massive heavy clubs, and those aiming to bring down armoured prey must have adequate weaponry and need only be faster than their prey. Scavenging centauraptors can be slow , allowing some of the heaviest weaponry of all. </p><p><b>‘Piluferentic’</b><br />Centauraptor weapons betray an interesting array of forms. Some are pure clubs, others function only as ‘pointy end’ weapons, and in yet others the limb has more than one purpose. The limb type known as ‘axes’ have a sharp edge on the underside, useful to hack open a carcass, but the same weapon usually has a heavy bulge too, allowing it to double as a club to knock prey off their feet or to bludgeon the prey's head, blinding it.<br /> The stickler’s weapons are no exception to this ‘Swiss army knife’ approach. While its weapon is primarily shaped like a club, the former foot has become a sharp protrusion that can be swung into action. This sting explains the word ‘piluferens’, meaning 'lance carrying’. </p><p><b>‘Gregarious’</b><br />As the word suggests, sticklers live in groups. In this species’ case, tasks differ between group members, allowing a fairly complex society that must run on advanced cognitive capacity. Do not underestimate sticklers; one may appear to study you with open curiosity, but its pack members may well be behind you, on their way to encircle you. They cannot digest humans but that makes little difference to the human involved. <br /> <br /><br /></p>Sigmund Nastrazzurrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16449461215427527447noreply@blogger.com31tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-54208194879964779402023-04-09T11:00:00.000+02:002023-04-09T11:00:23.972+02:00More alternate evolution in Japan: "What if extinct organisms continued to evolve?"<p>I am always interested in speculative biology projects, in particular those with well-done art. For some reason I was looking at the Japanese website of Amazon; I think I was looking at the <a href="https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/%E3%83%9E%E3%83%AB%E3%82%AF%E3%83%BB%E3%83%96%E3%83%AC%E3%83%BC/dp/4422430254/ref=sr_1_2?crid=14HF065SR4MW9&keywords=marc+boulay&qid=1680963112&s=books&sprefix=marc+boulay%2Cstripbooks%2C248&sr=1-2" target="_blank">Japanese edition of 'Demain; les animaux du futur</a>', a French book I wrote about <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2015/05/future-evolution-from-france-demain-les.html" target="_blank">here </a>and <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2015/06/second-part-of-review-of-demain-les.html" target="_blank">here</a>. It is about life on Earth some 10 million in the future. As you may know, Amazon shows you lots of other books they hope you will buy. In this case it worked: one caught my attention, so I copied parts of the text into Google Translate so I would get a better idea what it was about. The translated title was: <a href="https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/%E5%9C%9F%E5%B1%8B-%E5%81%A5/dp/429711920X/ref=pd_bxgy_img_sccl_1/358-8140311-2667466?pd_rd_w=yChOB&content-id=amzn1.sym.918446e7-72f4-48c7-a672-af3b6ace2b19&pf_rd_p=918446e7-72f4-48c7-a672-af3b6ace2b19&pf_rd_r=CXH8YD6XHECJAXMA7VMQ&pd_rd_wg=Bvf1C&pd_rd_r=f6e9066b-aa59-40a5-b8ad-e65b1945394d&pd_rd_i=429711920X&psc=1" target="_blank">"What if extinct organisms continued to evolve?"</a></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoAGAQ81KrtFrFYgx4mRblPvSXvTDZFnRVar7C5bUO3Id8oiD2HRNzw1d8DA5KSJ_TuF8Ko8PIP8YpCVZXpRnSpZUiDpJLjO8XrBATmyPIq4Od4XsOHObRsuWZdrCGNaRsc-m6LR-aaMhWTbFY-26U1eNEw-aVndwQWtJD0vMtOzImCk8XTMCWPZHI/s1000/JAP001.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="745" data-original-width="1000" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoAGAQ81KrtFrFYgx4mRblPvSXvTDZFnRVar7C5bUO3Id8oiD2HRNzw1d8DA5KSJ_TuF8Ko8PIP8YpCVZXpRnSpZUiDpJLjO8XrBATmyPIq4Od4XsOHObRsuWZdrCGNaRsc-m6LR-aaMhWTbFY-26U1eNEw-aVndwQWtJD0vMtOzImCk8XTMCWPZHI/s320/JAP001.bmp" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright Ken Tsuchiya, Masato Hattori<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />After looking at it a few times I gave in to temptation and bought it. The book was not that expensive, but postage from Japan to Europe more or less doubled the price, so check that first if you are interested. Thanks to Google Lens, I could point my phone at the pages and received an overlaid English translation. I you try that several times, you get different translations, so there is a 'Lost in Translation' sense here. I tried to contact the main author, Ken Tschuchiya, who is a geologist and palaeontologist as well as a science writer but was unable to reach him. However, the illustrator, Masato Hattori did respond, so I asked him a few questions. Unfortunately, but understandably, he redirected any enquiries regarding the reasoning behind the beasties to the writer. That left me to think of possibilities for myself, which is less certain but fun. I had a very similar experience looking at Dougal Dixon's <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2010/03/greenworld-ii.html" target="_blank">Greenworld in Japanese</a>. </p><p>I asked Mr. Hattori how he made the images, guessing that he used ZBrush and Photoshop, which indeed he did. He modelled and rendered the animals in ZBrush and used Photoshop to blend the images into photographs. It is tricky to get the lighting, angles and contrast right, but Mr. Hattori certainly knows his business. Have a look <a href=" http://masahatto2.p2.bindsite.jp/index.html " target="_blank">at his own website here</a>; there is more alternate evolution to see, in the form of dinosaurs running alongside present-day humans. </p><p>Mr. Hattori was familiar with other works of speculative evolution, such as '<i>After Man'</i> by Dougal Dixon and '<i>Demain, les animaux du futur'</i> by Jean-Sébastien Steyer and Marc Boulay. The latter work is still not available in English, I think, but there is a Japanese version (among other translations). Mr. Hattori said he has a collection of such works and was in no small way influenced by them. </p><p>-------------------------------- <br /></p><p>Let’s have a look at the book. Mr. Hattori said that the setting examines how archaic organisms would have evolved if they had not become extinct and had survived to the present day. In that respect it differs from '<i>After Man</i>' and '<i>Demain</i>', both of which describe Earth in the future. </p><p>The cover of the book is shown at the top of this post; I like the composition and lighting very much. We are obviously looking at ammonites. I wonder if they differ much from their ancestors. Should we expect them to have diverged in shape given the very long time since their demise? Or would there be present-day ammonites that look just like their ancestors, as these seem to do? </p><p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJp6n_Xda1vLSwjrB6-oCoQYrPTYj1L2A5a78KB3RQBE47Ki9Mrl9ISuLT_t-mlMXDwLnT-TYVnZwr0XN61TMreNXEolEZO5SB0Oc24TEs0nw-infplKG7_lZgv-zMQOuuUtMqCqNguY7O4zydERNznpl9Z1MmY3L9XE4tPWJ6G38JmhEsZB_2I5xT/s1000/JAP002.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="777" data-original-width="1000" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJp6n_Xda1vLSwjrB6-oCoQYrPTYj1L2A5a78KB3RQBE47Ki9Mrl9ISuLT_t-mlMXDwLnT-TYVnZwr0XN61TMreNXEolEZO5SB0Oc24TEs0nw-infplKG7_lZgv-zMQOuuUtMqCqNguY7O4zydERNznpl9Z1MmY3L9XE4tPWJ6G38JmhEsZB_2I5xT/s320/JAP002.bmp" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright Ken Tsuchiya, Masato Hattori</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p>This is an obvious sea scorpion, again not looking that different from its ancestors. The world really needs more very large arthropods (I know, I know; they’re difficult...). I wonder whether such animals would have managed to compete successfully with sharks or bony fish for a long time. They don;y seem to have done so in our timeline. Such thoughts led me to think at first that the theme of the book was that the animals lived for a while beyond their extinction time, without necessarily making it all the way to the present. I also do not think that the authors meant for all animals to be alive at the same time. The book is arranged by geological era, with for some animals a point of departure at the end of the Permian. Later in the book we see alternate mammal evolution starting from recent ancestors, that would not have been there if the Permian extinction had not occurred.
Each animal seems to be its own alternate history project. Anyway, I really like the energy of the image and the skilful use of iridescence. That is not an easy effect to achieve, I can tell you from experience. </p><p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIU5vmW6DDTUadTiCcgrOwaP7VSqs4_4zpKzosBDgUop9HOYSG4D8Y04SdmSvZCspwHNBqLlA-ZcEDqsrdlNYE6yZZsyHj5ubc932nwnezzb9yE3VgCfNMEw1byLLj2sbMYSHG29lkJgKmRdENM3GjyXEHzt1EXrLuMLiX1sh0CxZbtyiOpP6Dluys/s1000/JAP003.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="772" data-original-width="1000" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIU5vmW6DDTUadTiCcgrOwaP7VSqs4_4zpKzosBDgUop9HOYSG4D8Y04SdmSvZCspwHNBqLlA-ZcEDqsrdlNYE6yZZsyHj5ubc932nwnezzb9yE3VgCfNMEw1byLLj2sbMYSHG29lkJgKmRdENM3GjyXEHzt1EXrLuMLiX1sh0CxZbtyiOpP6Dluys/s320/JAP003.bmp" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright Ken Tsuchiya, Masato Hattori</td></tr></tbody></table><br />This one is decidedly funny. It is a caricature of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diplocaulus" target="_blank">Diplocaulus</a>, the famous Carboniferous/Permian amphibian with a very odd 'boomerang' skull. I wondered how broad the lower jaw of Diplocaulus was, so I tried to find accurate anatomical drawings or photographs of Diplocaulus' mandible but couldn’t find high-quality images. The mouth seemed to be small though. According to the book, the extinction at the end of the Permian allowed a descendent to develop in a different manner. Young diplocaulids had no broad 'horns', but these developed as the animal grew. In this descendent, the moth broadened with growth too, resulting in a mouth that is as wide as the skull. It also seems to have gone for complete flattening of the body. Another image shows it lying on a lake floor, opening its mouth. I guess it might suck in prey that way. </p><p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV4AV6wdGmFtDC9Y4ZBs46xbdytgMWuHAOl9wgq72SlpDtEgFDKxoL9GbgpsZSoIQytWEoh1IXpfgJFXt0oeh923Hl9M-Rwle8sCR9R9ux2JcYyCtpYpBThgQrWQJyNwBcjdt77Txlp1ph7UaQasJ31jbGKMhJzhg7fYtXdiV9vbDxJdsElufA1zY_/s1000/JAP004.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="784" data-original-width="1000" height="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV4AV6wdGmFtDC9Y4ZBs46xbdytgMWuHAOl9wgq72SlpDtEgFDKxoL9GbgpsZSoIQytWEoh1IXpfgJFXt0oeh923Hl9M-Rwle8sCR9R9ux2JcYyCtpYpBThgQrWQJyNwBcjdt77Txlp1ph7UaQasJ31jbGKMhJzhg7fYtXdiV9vbDxJdsElufA1zY_/s320/JAP004.bmp" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright Ken Tsuchiya, Masato Hattori</td></tr></tbody></table><br />Here we have an animal looking very much like a river dolphin; it even has a 'melon', that bulge on the forehead that apparently helps whales produce sonar. But this is no whale: it's got scales! What is this animal descended form? </p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh17_w8HrdubRYmimZ_gnKIr_4-MZxm4XH6Yy6M6tTZ3Vy2AoRjNihByLYeUxCXkz0tJ6xnlerx039KxI3i4EUWoYAGzSJnCCn0adJ-pJgHLqjbS3WVtGBDQndwFFe96siBQ8ZR_1T6HfdqBiou7heO4TqwqIGuXtebbcVSuOLCoVfZk1f7E7KIBk9W/s1000/JAP005.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="756" data-original-width="1000" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh17_w8HrdubRYmimZ_gnKIr_4-MZxm4XH6Yy6M6tTZ3Vy2AoRjNihByLYeUxCXkz0tJ6xnlerx039KxI3i4EUWoYAGzSJnCCn0adJ-pJgHLqjbS3WVtGBDQndwFFe96siBQ8ZR_1T6HfdqBiou7heO4TqwqIGuXtebbcVSuOLCoVfZk1f7E7KIBk9W/s320/JAP005.bmp" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright Ken Tsuchiya, Masato Hattori</td></tr></tbody></table><br />Turning over the page reveals its ancestral line: it’s a spinosaur descendent! You may be familiar with the<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinosaurus" target="_blank"> recent discussion</a> about how well spinosaurs were adapted to swimming: some said they are, countered by some who say they aren’t. The authors of the If-book decided to let it take to the water. I wonder about the melon: could, and would, spinosaurs have developed sonar? I do not know enough about the starting point of hearing in mammals and dinosaurs to have an opinion on that, but it is a nice idea. So here we are: a 'river spinophin'. </p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2CuSbynKocCm0TeXjnwptp4NuyAq4gzF8NjSD7fOP5Ejkv6CTOsXXEiuKTeZum9p5M07gg3mWWMcdKd-fKd5Couk145Pf8jBtFTLnYl5rcQet_2Xu2P7NKBVLNb_yNG4POLpBoZ6XuFz5owGSJbzv2Jn1SB48Z74WMyQwlKPAuf1MJCmCYTZ-qXBa/s1000/JAP007.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="773" data-original-width="1000" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2CuSbynKocCm0TeXjnwptp4NuyAq4gzF8NjSD7fOP5Ejkv6CTOsXXEiuKTeZum9p5M07gg3mWWMcdKd-fKd5Couk145Pf8jBtFTLnYl5rcQet_2Xu2P7NKBVLNb_yNG4POLpBoZ6XuFz5owGSJbzv2Jn1SB48Z74WMyQwlKPAuf1MJCmCYTZ-qXBa/s320/JAP007.bmp" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright Ken Tsuchiya, Masato Hattori</td></tr></tbody></table><br />Here is the last example of what the book has to offer: this is obviously a predatory dinosaur, but not an agile one at all. Its genus name '<i>Megapubis</i>' means you should take a good look at what it has between its legs: yes, that is a massive pubic bone, and it is sitting on it. Also look at the nearly columnar legs, only a bit longer than the pubis. This beast must spend its days resting and doing not much. It can’t even scratch itself, as its arms have atrophied completely: the species name '<i>acheirus</i>' means 'no hands'. The animal is a scavenger, happy to wait until some animal has the decency to keel over dead. </p><p>I will leave the rest of the book to buyers. There are 25 species in all, with quite a few reconstructions and additional images. The book is great fun, and the images are well worth looking at closely. The text seems quite interesting too; a pity I can't speak Japanese. Will there be an English version? Mr. Hattori would like that, and so would I, but he wasn't aware of translation projects at present.
</p>Sigmund Nastrazzurrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16449461215427527447noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-63769932160624342142023-03-11T15:20:00.000+01:002023-03-11T15:20:10.059+01:00Avatar 2: The Way of Water II: whales, gill mantles, corals...<p>In the previous post on 'The Way of Water (TWOW) I discussed the skimwing, and had to conclude that it couldn’t work as an enlarged flying fish because of scaling effects. Simply said, they overdid it and made it impossibly large. Making animals too large is a recurring theme on his blog. The underlying reason is probably that the effects of scaling on mass and weight are not intuitive at all. Speaking for myself, even after years of considering animal size, I still sit back often and think that 'That is too much and can’t be right…'. For example, would you have guessed than making a man twice his original height of 1.75 meter would increase his weight f<a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2018/08/is-it-cruel-for-giants-to-ride-mammoths.html" target="_blank">rom 80 kg to a staggering 1440 kg</a>? <br /> </p><p>But anyway, today's species will not involve any calculations at all. Let's have a look. </p><p> </p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWME-6Pjzy7dMdPSGp0Ej9BFDNVam_NQsWmj0aQwQU6GbNPLDiP5c7xp_ejSQmWjfvY_Xpz1DTQIuoLi3iqFZrhRsbTSlDUoB74IauDr4S2a9pkuckJ0HN0-BpBywnmZSRs99nVJcxVqJZvQsLgPWZJ2f-dTrItrg2zDjniXhjR-m3Gzy937wFqAIe/s3231/tulkun1.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1842" data-original-width="3231" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWME-6Pjzy7dMdPSGp0Ej9BFDNVam_NQsWmj0aQwQU6GbNPLDiP5c7xp_ejSQmWjfvY_Xpz1DTQIuoLi3iqFZrhRsbTSlDUoB74IauDr4S2a9pkuckJ0HN0-BpBywnmZSRs99nVJcxVqJZvQsLgPWZJ2f-dTrItrg2zDjniXhjR-m3Gzy937wFqAIe/s320/tulkun1.bmp" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright 20th century studios</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><b>The tulkun</b><br />The tulkun looks so much like a whale that we will just call it that here. To quote from the book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Art-Avatar-Way-Water/dp/0744028736/ref=sr_1_3?" target="_blank">‘The Art of Avatar TWOW' by Tara Bennett: </a>“… it’s very much written like a whale and functions like a whale. But how whalelike do you make it?” </p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikMaOr2YH_T1cu4tMBeHqi8WKhZipU_WV4nAQL9zN-T_FJkSw76ee7GFio8pU1W3nOnnKwUVzv8y54LqC8CH6PAata-NRV9C2C3epV_U5cLZqPIB1OcvSKiJoNJt4OCuFROJyzqNeGcm5Vl_qK0VEvte9cqF4HGzE2mycrfoA7CyqHUC_ppQ1hBFnq/s1524/Tulkiunschets1.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1044" data-original-width="1524" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikMaOr2YH_T1cu4tMBeHqi8WKhZipU_WV4nAQL9zN-T_FJkSw76ee7GFio8pU1W3nOnnKwUVzv8y54LqC8CH6PAata-NRV9C2C3epV_U5cLZqPIB1OcvSKiJoNJt4OCuFROJyzqNeGcm5Vl_qK0VEvte9cqF4HGzE2mycrfoA7CyqHUC_ppQ1hBFnq/s320/Tulkiunschets1.bmp" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright 20th century studios</td></tr></tbody></table><br />Well, apparently some early designs were not whale-like enough, and the book offers some glimpses what might have been. Here's one. I would have preferred something more alien, but the audience would probably not have connected the resulting much more alien shapes with the emotions associated with whales on Earth (I am referring to the sympathy and enthusiasm for whales in most of the West, not the sentiment "Let's have a big whale steak!"). The Avatar film makers obviously intended to evoke whale enthusiasm. I like whales too, but felt that the film makers overdid it when tapping into sympathy towards whales. This particular whale species happens to have a clear yellow fluid in its head that stops human ageing, serving as background to have a scene in which villains enthusiastically harpoon the whales to get that mystery substance. <br /><br />Do we need to discuss the plausibility of an alien biochemistry producing a substance for its own good that by an apparent coincidence also just happens to stop human ageing? Human ageing does not appear to be a process depending on just one simple biochemical trigger (although that cannot be dismissed with complete certainty). If there would be one, you can expect a massive effort to identify the substance, and shortly afterwards it could be manufactured on Earth simply and cheaply. Let's also not discuss how you would find out that some fluid inside an alien animal's head stops human ageing. Did someone stumble upon this liquid and thought "Let's just see what happens if I inject myself with this"?<br /><br />The tulkun is supposed to be extremely intelligent: it appears capable of understanding the spoken language of a completely different species. That's quite something! Humans take a very long time to learn another human language, but maybe we are just more stupid than Pandoran whales. But even the brightest whale could only extract meaning from spoken words after gathering a massive amount of data to correlate specific sounds with objects, questions, tenses, nouns, verbs, etc. etc. Another big question is how and why intelligence would evolve in such a being. I personally do not think that you need hands or something similar to develop intelligence. I always rather liked the view that social interactions played an important role in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_of_human_intelligence" target="_blank">evolving human intelligence</a> (including gossiping), and perhaps such interactions were important for these whales too. <br /><br />Anyway, the tulkun looks like an Earth whale. So much so that I do not doubt it would function well as an organism, except for one thing: why is it not streamlined? It can obviously move fast, so streamlining is not a luxury, but a necessity. The animal has a rough texture with grooves and ridges. There is also its headgear that doesn’t help streamlining either. Are these details there only there to make us think that it’s a whale, but not one of ours? If so, I am a bit disappointed. Streamlining fast aquatic animals should be compulsory to achieve some biological believability.</p><p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdSIDDQHHwbcPdFDnNYNd37rv4XRUC-O6I8pBucY-RNdLSTV_knahfpAUZX_q5d7oTkby0yVCJcDVEs4uipmil3sRhCSiQnl6rpfE_85aR7NNn3HNu3FJi6TNhtbYZzmJEtcDdKdrVNCxRrROSYPN3yY0AmtpfzzO6DRx7TGOsDi6N3EZ3d2pKKOS3/s1978/gillmask1.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1978" data-original-width="1618" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdSIDDQHHwbcPdFDnNYNd37rv4XRUC-O6I8pBucY-RNdLSTV_knahfpAUZX_q5d7oTkby0yVCJcDVEs4uipmil3sRhCSiQnl6rpfE_85aR7NNn3HNu3FJi6TNhtbYZzmJEtcDdKdrVNCxRrROSYPN3yY0AmtpfzzO6DRx7TGOsDi6N3EZ3d2pKKOS3/s320/gillmask1.bmp" width="262" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright 20th century studios</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><b>The gill mantle</b><br />The gill mantle is an animal that latches onto the Metkayina (partially aquatic Na’avi), meaning Pandora’s native humanoids. The gill mantle allows them to breathe underwater. That is quite a feat. If the Matkayina’s metabolism is like that of Earth mammals, they need lots of oxygen and a way to get rid of CO<span style="font-size: xx-small;">2</span> (and, seeing they can dive deeply, ways to deal with pressure to avoid the bends). The gill mantle can do all that, it seems, which is quite a feat. The problem here is that gas exchange needs a very large area, usually obtained by folding the gas exchange surfaces right down to the microscopic level. For instance, estimates of the total area of human lungs amount to 100 square meters. But the mantle looks smooth; I don’t see any kind of subdivision offering the requested area, nor does it transparent nature suggest that the mantle houses the rather considerable blood flow needed: in humans, the same amount of blood flows through the lungs as through the rest of the body, meaning some 4 litres per minute. <br />But the real tricky question is why any animal would evolve such a feature? How does it benefit from this ability and how did its evolution start? </p><br /><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpiCyvv7zw4VfxdvqpEfyTZ0aLn0YOgmTomjomd1DiMA1POnigG7h8uULLEqvEa7i7oxuN2PiVmneKK4VxA34vZ7U8Azw5BngDX5rEwCR5IL1rBcftO5W-IMa8S4P-IjFU356m6d4IKNAF4Z2doWGFh4nxFxMrPOIVhaCahPETjbXE9OEn7LsLORWA/s3186/coral.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3186" data-original-width="1922" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpiCyvv7zw4VfxdvqpEfyTZ0aLn0YOgmTomjomd1DiMA1POnigG7h8uULLEqvEa7i7oxuN2PiVmneKK4VxA34vZ7U8Azw5BngDX5rEwCR5IL1rBcftO5W-IMa8S4P-IjFU356m6d4IKNAF4Z2doWGFh4nxFxMrPOIVhaCahPETjbXE9OEn7LsLORWA/s320/coral.bmp" width="193" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright 20th century studios</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><b>Coral</b><br />You might be surprised at my choice, but the image in the TWOW book that caught my attention longer than all other ones was not one showing a big spectacular animal, but a coral fan concept by Jonathan Bach. Here it is (page 191). It is very well wrought. The connections between its branches caught my eye. The ends of the arches are merged, forming a complete connected structure. This means that the arches do not form the typical branching structure familiar to Earth life, from lungs to corals and oak trees, but a net. The easiest way to form a biological net is probably to start with a sheet, or a series of planes in 3D space, and then to make holes in it, leaving just the arches. However, plants and Earth corals grow branches with ends, and branch ends do not typically merge if they touch one another. There is some evidence that Earth trees can do that though, and I designed Furahan thorn shrubs that did so, resulting in a truly impregnable wall of thorns. I have not used that design yet, because I felt that little hooks would work just as well and would not require an organism to open its tissues to the outside world. </p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJt8HnrIQw3D4s0Qxuf7cu-zVipBHY7jLnpJ9Fl2-RRuJcwzMRR09MMFcYFLz1yzldTKeDEnhGVOT2Do1jETLc7AACXQ7f2IS9u4a_Elo3RP88EXvwmihDBRWi5xxd7duHzZrOSXYJMYPOlKw8JePt3ViErISkegATLRy0XFRPGbXdpLpHL0rESwKG/s2440/ilu.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1828" data-original-width="2440" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJt8HnrIQw3D4s0Qxuf7cu-zVipBHY7jLnpJ9Fl2-RRuJcwzMRR09MMFcYFLz1yzldTKeDEnhGVOT2Do1jETLc7AACXQ7f2IS9u4a_Elo3RP88EXvwmihDBRWi5xxd7duHzZrOSXYJMYPOlKw8JePt3ViErISkegATLRy0XFRPGbXdpLpHL0rESwKG/s320/ilu.bmp" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright 20th century studios</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><b>The ilu</b><br />I am not yet certain what to think about the ilu yet. It looks a bit like a plesiosaur with a small head and a long neck. But whereas plesiosaurs have slender fairly stiff fins with rounded narrow tips, as do turtles, seals, and mosasaurs, the ilu has very long somewhat floppy fins that appear to get broader towards their ends. Are there Earth analogues for such a design? If not, is there a good reason for that? I'll have to think more on that, so perhaps there will be third post on TWOW.<br /><br />So, what did I think of the animals in TWOW? I felt the same as I did about the first film in the series: the images were very pretty. I will watch the film several times and enjoy it every time. Still, I again felt a bit disappointed about the lack of biological plausibility. Would the audience really object to more plausible or more alien shapes? <br /><br /> <br /><br /><br /></p><br />Sigmund Nastrazzurrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16449461215427527447noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-41854654373334346922023-02-25T11:09:00.007+01:002023-02-25T11:17:08.178+01:00A hexapod muscle study<p>Some time ago I wrote about the <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2021/07/the-great-hexapod-revolution-and.html" target="_blank">Great Hexapod Revolution</a>, which I might also have called the Quite Considerable Hexapod Revision. At any rate, that particular revolution or revision has conceptually been completed for quite some time, so I am busy revising old paintings as well as coming up with new ones. The latter are not really necessary as The Book is basically done. <br /><br />Yes, The Book is done. <br /><br />Basically. <br /><br />The 'done' part means that there are easily enough double pages to fill a book, so rather than producing more I am shifting emphasis towards finding a publisher. I do not expect immediate success, which explains 'basically': I might meanwhile just as well keep on thinking about Furahan creatures. <br /><br />Let's review the hexapod revision. Their skeleton still reflects that of early representatives of the clade. There is no vertebral column, here defined as many short similar bones placed end to end running from front to back in the vertical plane dividing left and right halves of the animal (technically, the sagittal plane). The most bare bones version of that skeleton (sorry for that one) would remind you of a foldable ladder. As the clade started with animals without legs, it would be strange to use the name Hexapods ('six-leggers') for all of them. I chose the new name 'Scalata' instead, based on the Latin word 'scala': ladder. The word 'Scalata' is technically correct while 'scalates' is suitable for colloquial use. Hexapods then become a subgroup, consisting of scalates with legs. </p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkZckNHY3yx4I6el9SBHkeT4qFG637SYYhIWXeaF9z21Z6_aFXJNTwgQXB1mlWKMgJZNvS1vpuqMJBaTyq4CQj6EJG7FG-ItKOUvARiogRiQ9SNB7r_SLpzN7uyX1DEyFjstezmJhVS7zUq-PB5uxnbqsvKxfEc-UBweW_2jonDLgIu_sABSJVgKfs/s800/zigzag.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="800" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkZckNHY3yx4I6el9SBHkeT4qFG637SYYhIWXeaF9z21Z6_aFXJNTwgQXB1mlWKMgJZNvS1vpuqMJBaTyq4CQj6EJG7FG-ItKOUvARiogRiQ9SNB7r_SLpzN7uyX1DEyFjstezmJhVS7zUq-PB5uxnbqsvKxfEc-UBweW_2jonDLgIu_sABSJVgKfs/s320/zigzag.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright Gert van Dijk<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br />The next big step was deciding the shape of the legs. I built on the zigzag principle, in which successive major leg segments bend one way at the topmost joint, the other way at the second joint, and so on. By reversing direction, no joint is ever really far away from a line perpendicular from the hip down. Being close to that line reduces the force needed to keep the joints in those positions, meaning muscle power. have a look at these posts <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2010/09/legs-to-stand-on.html" target="_blank">here </a>and <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2010/10/these-legs-are-made-for-walking-legs-ii.html" target="_blank">here</a>. The image above was taken from these earlier posts and explains that principle. <br /><br />The least force to keep the segments in place is needed when all segments are stacked vertically, making the leg into a column. That is a fine way to conserve energy but does not produce athletic animals. Vertical leg bones are typically found in large non-athletic animals: think of elephants and sauropods. In smaller animals all segments can be closer to the horizontal than the vertical position, because fighting gravity costs relatively much less (for scaling effects, see <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2010/06/scaling-or-size-matters-but-so-does.html" target="_blank">here </a>and <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2010/07/size-matters-but-so-does-gravity-ii.html" target="_blank">here</a>). The actual position of the leg bones will depend on mass and athleticism. <br /> <br />I suggested in earlier posts (here and here) that it wouldn’t really make a difference whether the legs started by being angled forwards ('zig') or backwards ('zag') at the hip joint. Mammals are peculiar in having their front legs start with a zag and hind legs with a zig. This is a consequence of how they re-engineered their original sprawling posture: front legs rotated backwards, with elbows pointing back, and hind legs forwards, with knees pointing forwards.<br /><br />Should that reversal be seen as a natural 'law' or as an evolutionary coincidence that became locked in place? I could not think of any physical reason for this pattern and so had freedom to decide what to do with scalate legs. All three pairs of legs underwent the same rotation, which is simple and keeps them out of each other's way. The top segments all point backwards. </p><p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQlQFk4DBQKOuu3Ryek-ON2ZDeLQxExr1FeRV6osx3rABg8gV1yfUB3v5gKM2P2_k08Vn_CNrG3cqWPckdYeY-jBH5LYDX1k4jLQtt-J-hcpwRpEJ7jpVtvTYh8ZGGUEbS2f6b20iiPcbNFWYxzrtn4FgnEEXXUcym1ZrHRsfV4TfItDJ9ZgLjDcWW/s1600/botten.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQlQFk4DBQKOuu3Ryek-ON2ZDeLQxExr1FeRV6osx3rABg8gV1yfUB3v5gKM2P2_k08Vn_CNrG3cqWPckdYeY-jBH5LYDX1k4jLQtt-J-hcpwRpEJ7jpVtvTYh8ZGGUEbS2f6b20iiPcbNFWYxzrtn4FgnEEXXUcym1ZrHRsfV4TfItDJ9ZgLjDcWW/s320/botten.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright Gert van Dijk<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br />Another decision was how to join the legs to the scala. Should the hip joint allow movements in all directions, or should they restrict movement in one or more directions? Should the joint be so 'open' that all positions need to be controlled by expensive muscle activity, or do we let bones and ligaments take up some of the stresses? I decided to give the joint surface a 'roof' in the hip to push against, transferring weight. The image above shows three possible patterns: in A, the bone sits directly underneath the spherical joint, allowing three-axial rotations and simple weight-bearing. In B, the joint does the same, but the shaft of the bone is shifted a bit to the side, allowing room for gut, eggs, or whatever. In C, the joint restricts rotations around the axis running down the bone and the bone extends a bit past the joint. That sturdy upwards spur can be used to attach muscles to; that's the hexapod hip joint. <br /><br />The main propulsion force involves swinging the upper leg segments thighs backwards: retroflexion. The thigh has a limited range of motion, from an angled pointing just a bit forwards to a much larger backwards angle. To work over that range, hexapods have one large muscle starting behind the joint and attaching to the hip bone below the joint, exactly like human buttock muscles. But another big muscle originates in front of the hip and inserts on the spur above the joint. These two muscles act in concert to pull the leg back: they are 'agonists'. <br /><br />That range of motion has consequences for where muscles can produce the most force. The force exerted by muscle fibres is most effective if these fibres make a right angle with a line from the insertion site to the axis. If that angle is not 90 degrees, only the component of the force that is at a right angle is useful to rotate the bone; the remainder just presses the bone into the joint or pulls it out of it. When the bone rotates, the effective force component changes with the rotation angle. You would want to place a muscle in such a way that most muscle fibres do useful work over most of the movement range. </p><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dy2j8a80xGH_vbeJCVYIOhtgdDi-zvJMYjjXJ2NQnZt5cNCe1VExU5nuSXeeUdMY_vhgXfH4KNWdbXQLyZ9oA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /> <p>This animation shows a muscle placed to the front (at left) of the bone, inserting at the spur above the axis of rotation. The bone rotates through its working range, which is shown three times. The four panels show fibres at different sites of origin. The red lines show the parts of the force that do the actual rotation. It is obvious that fibres starting high above the spur are not much use and can even pull in the wrong direction. The most useful fibres start at the level of the joint or lower, so this is where the muscle should be. I have not shown the other muscle, the one pulling on the thigh below the axis while starting behind the joint (at right). The principle is the same, but now the most useful part lies at the top. <br /><br />As I like Latin anatomical nomenclature for its simplicity, I named these muscles ('simple' is here based on the premise that the names are in another language you have to learn anyway). For the front legs, the front muscle is the <i>musculus retractor artus primi anterior</i>, and the hind one is the <i>m. retractor artus primi posterior</i>. For the middle and hind legs, replace <i>primi</i> with <i>secundi</i> or <i>tertii</i>. <br /> <br />There are of course muscles that work in the other direction, the 'antagonists', but these are weaker and run the other way, lying underneath the big 'retroflexion' muscles.</p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlHVfBQwA50MiZU6inurfclZeCX5Zn_h9o0HVCRNCiUIyORM0PxW7_P-RfyxeIHTURWCnzOBV3leyklHRL3EanEprqZTexBhxLh6mrHKXQO5bIHCxzgRoqDqPdfidDb9vBx8hi7jo13RF6FjvIr6Ic8NPxq5YDnlkJ3t2zspFCktCOEZmGW3Elpu0s/s1500/sch1.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="844" data-original-width="1500" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlHVfBQwA50MiZU6inurfclZeCX5Zn_h9o0HVCRNCiUIyORM0PxW7_P-RfyxeIHTURWCnzOBV3leyklHRL3EanEprqZTexBhxLh6mrHKXQO5bIHCxzgRoqDqPdfidDb9vBx8hi7jo13RF6FjvIr6Ic8NPxq5YDnlkJ3t2zspFCktCOEZmGW3Elpu0s/s320/sch1.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright Gert van Dijk<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXJQnmJLSuoHopOOPgRhtUCnkxNh_tGgrkQQsYCKyiTC_NOoa7VyGA27_Ihu4bREfWxmBC4ODvGJTBijfRGx_p0UaYu_xc9ysHLvB0lcqovOTMo_dIo51ZoptbS5qA79b9Vp4vxvDGwDnTT_sB9weAIHJyqnp-y5UcVjCV3db4YPRgIvrQ0OwbSU2M/s1500/beest_004.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="983" data-original-width="1500" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXJQnmJLSuoHopOOPgRhtUCnkxNh_tGgrkQQsYCKyiTC_NOoa7VyGA27_Ihu4bREfWxmBC4ODvGJTBijfRGx_p0UaYu_xc9ysHLvB0lcqovOTMo_dIo51ZoptbS5qA79b9Vp4vxvDGwDnTT_sB9weAIHJyqnp-y5UcVjCV3db4YPRgIvrQ0OwbSU2M/s320/beest_004.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright Gert van Dijk<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />The two images above shows the result of some experimental ZBrush sculpting. Here you see a general hexapod with some main muscles shown. I still find ZBrush extremely non-intuitive, but am very slowly feeling my way around it. <br /><br />This animal is probably the size of a horse. Note that the middle legs are sturdier than the others. That is because that is where most of the mass is! The middle legs are also wider apart, to allow room for a possibly sizeable gut and also for the front and hind legs. Of course, the scheme underwent substantial changes in particular with those predators that freed their front limbs from locomotion ('centaurism') and turned them into weapons. maybe I’ll show those anatomical changes too, one day. <br /><p></p>Sigmund Nastrazzurrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16449461215427527447noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-65210804388903663162023-02-11T10:53:00.003+01:002023-02-16T14:39:03.319+01:00Avatar 2 The Way Of Water, or do skimwings tip the scale?<p>Many readers will by now have seen the second film in the Avatar series, 'The Way of Water' (TWOW). I felt that the story of the film resembled that of the first film a bit too much, but never mind that; this is not a blog about cinema, but about speculative biology. Luckily, TWOW offers new species to enjoy, to watch again and to think about. I used <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Art-Avatar-Way-Water/dp/0744028736/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3867ZWY4LVJAY&keywords=avatar+the+art+of+the+way+of+water&qid=1675606800&sprefix=avatar+the+art+of+the+ay+of+water%2Caps%2C143&sr=8-3" target="_blank">the book ‘The Art of Avatar TWOW'</a> by Tara Bennett to write this post. There will probably be two posts on TWOW; this one will be about the
skimwing, chosen because it has a lot to offer from a biomechanical
point of view. It will be a long post and there are equations at the end, so you have been warned...<br /><br />That book contains quotes and explanations that confirm a conclusion I had drawn from viewing the first film, and that is that the shapes and form of the life forms on Pandora are primarily governed by audience appeal, with biological plausibility taking a definite second place. I deplored that second place when I wrote <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2010/02/avatars-walking-with-hexapods-dont-walk.html" target="_blank">my post about the first film</a>, posted 13 years ago to the day. I still do, but now accept that the people in charge of making films think this is what the audience wants. They may be right; but I, and I guess many readers of this blog, are not typical in this regard. We like our science well-done, not rare. Relegating plausibility to second place is acceptable as long as film makers do not claim that the life forms they present are biologically sound. I got the impression that they did make that claim for the first film, but for TWOW the book acknowledges that the director's opinion of audience appeal came first. </p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitDP7RYn3Qj8oF2Ry5V9bOxYp9VVy8eEG3VlNSjpCJHKT4dTlr2r_FAIEQqs-Lww2_iqrjMZG2yyOVeMNzGyo2WeEoMRUZWs1g4dmszYzUQLLfGsOyz5CzXCTW-mHpwYpGQdZp2mCHxLL5_caYmLKi9VWommgWGdrVXG3e4GeKf4AZlwLQAUEWBIKA/s3390/skimwingAction.bmp" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1946" data-original-width="3390" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitDP7RYn3Qj8oF2Ry5V9bOxYp9VVy8eEG3VlNSjpCJHKT4dTlr2r_FAIEQqs-Lww2_iqrjMZG2yyOVeMNzGyo2WeEoMRUZWs1g4dmszYzUQLLfGsOyz5CzXCTW-mHpwYpGQdZp2mCHxLL5_caYmLKi9VWommgWGdrVXG3e4GeKf4AZlwLQAUEWBIKA/s320/skimwingAction.bmp" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright 20th century studios<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><b>The goal: can we answer the question whether skimwings can 'taxi' as shown? </b><br /><br /> The skimwing is basically a gigantic <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_fish" target="_blank">flying fish:</a> it has a long slender body and two fins that double as wings. Like flying fish, the skimwing is fast enough to partially leave the water, with just the tail in the water to propel it. Flying fish use this stage to accelerate and leave the water altogether, but skimwings do not do that; they just taxi along. <br /> Could the skimwing as shown really taxi in the way flying fish do? That is not an easy question because of all the factors that are involved. Let's consider the problems.<br /> <br /><p></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;">1. While taxiing, the animal's tail provides thrust propelling the animal forwards, but the tail may also produce some upwards force. If so, the wings need to provide less lift than if all the upwards force is due to lift. In this post, I will assume that the tail only provides forward thrust, so the wings are responsible for all the upwards force. But I will get back to this matter in the end. </p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><br />2. As for lift, we will use conventional equations. See <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2017/08/flying-animals-or-true-weight-lifting.html" target="_blank">this post </a>for an introduction. We are not on Earth, so lift is altered by the higher atmospheric density on Pandora, where the story takes place (1.2 times that of Earth).</p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><br />3. The animal's weight is also other than it would be on Earth because the gravity constant of Pandora is lower than the one of Earth (it is said to be 0.8 of that of Earth). </p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><br />4. A more difficult effect to deal with is the 'ground effect', which means that flying objects (animals and aircraft) experience extra lift if they fly close to the ground. The literature makes it clear that flying fish use the ground effect, and the book states that skimwings do so too. </p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"> </p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzGDt--WhP49dQbS1JH7_d00GIT4IR19XvOPDYfx4W6VcT2IeL7DsKePjquI4KglYNGj-sRDPvc3ShJJwBThl9zABxUoheEXqp-RZWq6eEANY2RO2s9uHwuDW_7gM4BmvslxFHWF0bOPucdLjSt4kDMscJymszfkTIpOkRD0i66J-CY7mxSY9OxCTn/s3381/skimwingSize.bmp" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="997" data-original-width="3381" height="94" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzGDt--WhP49dQbS1JH7_d00GIT4IR19XvOPDYfx4W6VcT2IeL7DsKePjquI4KglYNGj-sRDPvc3ShJJwBThl9zABxUoheEXqp-RZWq6eEANY2RO2s9uHwuDW_7gM4BmvslxFHWF0bOPucdLjSt4kDMscJymszfkTIpOkRD0i66J-CY7mxSY9OxCTn/s320/skimwingSize.bmp" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright 20th century studios<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />5. Finally, there is a literally enormous difference between skimwings and flying fish: flying fish are only about 35 cm long and I estimate skimwing length to be 12.2 to 13.5 meter. I derived that estimate using the image above, in which the skimwing appears to be 4.5 times as long as an adult Na'vi. The internet tells me that Na’vi are 2.7 to 3 meters tall. I used a skimwing length of 12.5 m as a reasonable estimate. <br /><p></p><p>I am not an aeronautical engineer, so what follows should be seen as nothing more than a layperson's attempt to understand how all the above factors might work together. But first, what do we know about flying fish? </p><p> </p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha2dc2-TI4j-k-Z7J6GLSBmsEhbKRpKvMYnitjsnWO9IC1JcjgOUCr2pPjJOdyxQDtMzcRosmULkBIdOQQi0S2go9TeXhQ6PAVB6MwjSeY2gfgzM5yKGzrz2_DLThyacwhvIqBbtz9Zlz7QiqMtxYIICvg18RZwWOf6uyhTsSXd6QdIxeeV4iVmcfZ/s1864/WikipediaFF.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1864" data-original-width="1440" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha2dc2-TI4j-k-Z7J6GLSBmsEhbKRpKvMYnitjsnWO9IC1JcjgOUCr2pPjJOdyxQDtMzcRosmULkBIdOQQi0S2go9TeXhQ6PAVB6MwjSeY2gfgzM5yKGzrz2_DLThyacwhvIqBbtz9Zlz7QiqMtxYIICvg18RZwWOf6uyhTsSXd6QdIxeeV4iVmcfZ/s320/WikipediaFF.png" width="247" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_fish" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><b>Flying fish can swim, 'taxi' and glide</b><br /> <br />Flying fish are often said to take to the air to escape predators (Socha 2015). That may well be true but has not been proven; other animals jump out of the water for a variety of reasons. <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2011/09/its-bird-its-plane-its-flying-squid.html" target="_blank">Squid may glide above water </a>to escape predators too but also to catch prey (Socha 2015); whales apparently breach to impress other whales, while dolphins may do so to achieve greater overall speed. As jumping out of the water must take a lot of energy this seems a strange way to save energy, but moving through air obviously offers less resistance than through water, so that gain may offset the additional energy needed to leave the water. <p></p><p>There is another odd effect going on here, and that is that swimming just below the surface of the water costs more than swimming in deeper water. Why? Well, all swimmers push water out of the way to make room for themselves, but in shallow water some of that displaced water moves upwards, which costs more energy than if the water only moves sideways. That additional energy cost may just tip the balance, making leaving the water more efficient than pushing all that water up (Socha 2015). <br /> <br /><i>Taxiing</i><br />Flying fish accelerate under water, break though the water's surface, and then accelerate some more with only their tail underwater, from 10 to 20 meters per second (Socha 2015). That's from 36 to 72 km/h. Calculations show that they need 350 Watt to swim underwater at 10 m/s, but only 36 Watts while taxiing; taxiing is therefore quite efficient (Deng 2019). So far so good! <br /> Flying fish then leave the water and glide, held aloft by their two or four wings (some species use both pectoral and pelvic wings, others just the pectoral wings). Although some papers describe the flight path as relatively flat (Fish 1989, Socha 2015), meaning at a constant height above the surface, this can only be an approximation. The reason is that flying fish have no propulsion while in the air, so the glide is either completely passive or else lift is helped in some way. In a true passive glide losing height is physically unavoidable (Socha 2015). <br /> This suggests that their lift is indeed helped. Updraughts can help (Fish 1989) and so can the ground effect. In fact, the relatively flat trajectory itself suggests that the ground effect does help (Socha 2015). Wind tunnel experiments with stuffed flying fish (Really? Yes, really) showed that the ground effect reduced drag (let's say that ‘drag’ is the force impeding forwards motion) by 14%. As lift stayed the same, the so-called lift-to-drag ratio was improved, which is not bad at all (Park 2010). Remember that number of 14%, because we will need it later. <br /> As flying fish know their physics they do come down to the water and may repeat the procedure: taxi, glide, land, etc. They may cover distances of some 400 meters in 30 seconds (Park 2010), suggesting a mean speed of 48 km/h. <br /> <br /><i>Gliding</i><br />The wings proved to be like bird wings, in particular as regards wing loading. 'Wing loading' is calculated as the area of the wings divided by weight of the animal, so it tells you how much kg a square m of wing carries. A low value makes flying easier. The wings of flying fish are designed for high lift and low drag (Fish 1989). The four-winged species have lower wing loading, pointing to increased lift at low speeds, than the two-winged species. <br /><br /><b>Scaling flying animals</b></p><p>Now it gets more complicated. But not that much, so hang on! I have discussed scaling winged animals before, but I will repeat the main thoughts here. What we will do is to take Earth’s flying fish, scale them up, export them to Pandora to accommodate the different atmosphere and gravity, calculate their weight there, and then see whether they can produce enough lift to keep that weight aloft in Pandoran air. <br /> <br />Lift is proportional to just three relevant parameters (there are two more: angle of attack and a constant, but if we keep these the same throughout we can ignore them).<br /></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>density of the air (D), in kg per cubic meter</li><li>area (A) of the wing, in square meters</li><li>square of speed (S^2), in meter per second (I cannot use superscript, which is why I used '^2' to indicate a squared speed)</li></ul><p></p><p style="text-align: left;">LIFT = D x A x S^2<br /></p><p>If a flying animal flies at a stable height and does not sink, the amount of lift it generates must equal its weight. We can calculate weight W as the product of the gravity constant G and the mass of the animal M. <br /><br />WEIGHT = G x M</p><p>So remember this for stable flight:</p><p>LIFT = WEIGHT<br /><br />Now we need another look at scaling; (see <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2017/08/flying-animals-or-true-weight-lifting.html" target="_blank">here for flying</a> and <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2010/06/scaling-or-size-matters-but-so-does.html" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2010/07/size-matters-but-so-does-gravity-ii.html" target="_blank">here </a>for an introduction). Suppose we take an animal with length L and make its length, height and width all twice as large as before (that's called 'isometric scaling'). Its length becomes 2L. However, the area of the wings is the product of length and width of the wings, and as each became twice as long, the area becomes four times (2x2) as large. However, the volume of the animal has three dimensions, so that becomes eight times (2x2x2) as large. The mass corresponds to the volume and also becomes eight times as large. The lesson here is that mass increases more than area, and that is a problem. </p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbeBvAuXTHVJTDdSGw0P_GHbRtLvtbcoS1DsQYYmpUpTo40YREnBeVqW6LTRsmF6l-zql_bhCJaqu4dK5pigE_pmy6FIyaWWvH191i_xjQe0k4j_wXdbcjK33RFcDEFVwYSQAxAD4FJ_TFyNyyp00cKXe-vDEoFUBzde9a1o7V0sG1hji3HeUjQd5K/s5000/flying%20fish.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3750" data-original-width="5000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbeBvAuXTHVJTDdSGw0P_GHbRtLvtbcoS1DsQYYmpUpTo40YREnBeVqW6LTRsmF6l-zql_bhCJaqu4dK5pigE_pmy6FIyaWWvH191i_xjQe0k4j_wXdbcjK33RFcDEFVwYSQAxAD4FJ_TFyNyyp00cKXe-vDEoFUBzde9a1o7V0sG1hji3HeUjQd5K/s320/flying%20fish.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright Gert van Dijk<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br />Weight becomes eight times as large, but the four times larger wing area will only get you four times the lift. To fly stably, lift must equal weight, so we must find a way to achieve eight times the original amount of lift. In the scheme, above, the first way to do so is labelled '<i>Enlarged flying fish 1'</i>. In that option, squared velocity was made twice its original value. To do that, velocity itself needs to become 1.4 times larger (1.4 is about the square root of 2). Hence, the larger animal has to fly faster if its wings stay in proportion with the body. But to land and take off, the animal needs to be able to fly at low speeds too: you cannot fly fast all the time. <br /><br />Is flying faster the only solution? No, we can also choose to have the enlarged animal fly at the same speed as its predecessor (<i>'Enlarged flying fish 2')</i>. We still need to achieve eight times the lift, so we need to make the wing area eight times larger. If we make the length and width of the wing each 2.83 times larger (2.83 is about the square root of 8) we get that. Mind you, this solution will reach a dead end at some point because the enlarged wings will also add weight, which needs to be lifted, etc. I discussed how much weight such larger wings will add to the animal in an earlier post (<a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2011/09/its-bird-its-plane-its-flying-squid.html" target="_blank">here</a>); it is dramatic! <br /> <br />To conclude, we have a choice of achieving more lift for the larger animal by either enlarging wing area or flying faster; either solution will reach a limit at some point. On Earth, larger birds combine larger wing area as well as higher speed to achieve that higher lift. That combination can only be an evolutionary compromise between the costs of high speed (difficulty in taking off and landing) and large wings (more weight). There must be a physical limit where flight is no longer feasible for an animal. Does scaling up the skimwing tip the scales? (Sorry for that one, but I could not help myself) <br /><br /><b>The case of the skimwing </b><br /><br />The length of a skimwing is at 12.5 meter 35.7 times larger than that of a flying fish. If we multiply the dimensions of a flying fish by 37.5, its wing area becomes 1275 times larger and its mass becomes about 45,500 times larger. Wow!<br /><br />We now need to do an analysis as explained above, but the animal gets to be not twice the size, but 37.5 times. The results of this thought experiment are in the appendix, for those who want numbers. If we choose to scale the animal isometrically, meaning that the proportions of the animal stay the same, then it must taxi not at 20 m/s (72 km/h) as the flying fish manages to do, but at a staggering 351 km/h. That is wholly unrealistic; for one, the Na'vi sitting on top would be blown off…<br /><br />How about the other approach, meaning making the wings larger? Well, isometric scaling made the wing length and width each 35.7 times larger. It turns out that we need to make each 174 times larger instead! I did not bother calculating how much weight that would add<i>. <br /></i></p><p><i>Save the skimwing!</i></p><p>But the animal might derive part of the upwards force from beating its tail. True, but there is a good reason why tail walking dolphins are not large. It is, once again, scaling: the force needed to push against the water depends on the cross section of the muscles, meaning area, and needs to equal the animal's weight. It is the exact same problem as before: force increases with the square of length and weight with the third power. Turning to tail walking instead of gliding trades one unsurmountable scaling effect for another. <br /><br />But how about the ground effect? Well, in flying fish that reduced drag by 14%. While that is not the same as increasing lift, it may be treated that way. The appendix shows that a gratis 14% increase in lift still do not result in a viable animal, and neither did halving the mass of the skimwing: that won’t fly (sorry for that one too).</p><p><b>Conclusion</b><br /> <br />What a pity. It seems that the designers did not realise how much that third power puts a brake on scaling up animals. Admittedly, those effects are not immediately obvious, but it's not rocket science either. The simple conclusion is that 12.5-meter-long taxiing flying fish are too large to work, even under Pandora's favourable gravity and atmosphere. <br /><br />Does it matter? The science in TWOW seems fairly typical for how Hollywood treats science, meaning with rather limited respect for plausibility or accuracy. That's not good news; actually, it's not news at all. However, there is good news: the film shows a very profound love for the natural world. If that helps make people care about nature, I'm all for it. </p><p>As far as that love for nature is concerned, consider this: the skimwing differs in only one important aspect from flying fish: its size, and it is exactly that difference that makes the skimwing impossible. But everything else that makes Pandoran skimwings fascinating was already fascinating about flying fish, right here on Earth. </p><p><br /></p><p><i>Acknowledgement</i></p><p></p><p><a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2020/09/ballonts-viii-blue-sky-thinking-part-1.html" target="_blank">Abbydon</a> made insightful comments on a first draft of this post. He also added remarks about wave effects that would make using skimwings as public transportation rather unreliable. <br /></p><p> <br /><i>Selected references</i><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">FE Fish. Wing design and scaling of flying fish with regard to flight performance. J Zool Lond 1990; 221: 391-403<br />Park H, Choi H. Aerodynamic characteristics of flying fish in gliding flight. J Exp Biol 2010; 213: 3269-3279<br />Deng J, Wang S, Zhang L. Why does a flying fish taxi on sea surface before taking off? A hydrodynamic interpretation. https://doi.org/10.1101/765560<br />Socha JJ, Jafari F, Munk Y, Vyrnes G. How animals glide: form trajectory to morphology. Can J Zool 93: 901–924 (2015) dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjz-2014-0013 <br />Sullivan TN, Meyers MA, Arzt E. Scaling of bird wings and feathers for efficient flight. Sci. Adv. 2019;5: eaat4269 </span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;">----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- <br /></span></p><div style="text-align: left;">
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</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">Appendix </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"> <br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">Abbreviations
and parameters</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>FF <span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>Flying
Fish</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>SW <span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>SkimWing</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Length <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>L</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Area (wings)<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Volume <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>V</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Mass <span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>M </span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Weight <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>W </span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Speed <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>S</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Density of air <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>D </span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>(local values for Pandoran SW and Earth
FF)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>D<sub>SW</sub> = 1.2 </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙ </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">D<sub>FF</sub></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Gravity
constant G (local values for SW and FF)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>G<sub>SW</sub> = 0.8 </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙ G</span><sub><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">FF</span></sub><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Lift <span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>LIFT</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">----------------------------------------------------------------------</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">Take the length
of the animal of the FF as base value of 1; the SW is 35.7 times longer.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>L<sub>FF </sub>= 1 </span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>L<sub>SW </sub>= 35.7 </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"> L<sub>FF</sub></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">This results in
the following for area and volume for SW:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A<sub>SW </sub>= (35.7)<sup>2</sup> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙ </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">A<sub>FF </sub><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>or <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A<sub>SW </sub>=
1275 </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">A<sub>FF</sub></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>V<sub>SW </sub>= (35.7)<sup>3</sup> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙ V</span><sub><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">FF</span></sub><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>or <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>V<sub>SW </sub>= 45500 </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙ </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">V<sub>FF</sub></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">For weight we
get:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>W<sub>SW </sub>= V<sub>SW </sub></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙ G</span><sub><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">SW <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></sub><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">Pandoran values</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>W<sub>FF </sub>= V<sub>FF </sub></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙ G</span><sub><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">FF<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span></span></sub><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">Earth values</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">For lift we get:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>LIFT<sub>FF </sub>= D<sub>FF</sub> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙ </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">S<sub>FF</sub><sup>2</sup> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙ </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">A<sub>FF</sub></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>LIFT<sub>SW </sub>= D<sub>SW</sub> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙ </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">S<sub>SW</sub><sup>2</sup> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙ </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">A<sub>SW</sub></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">We can now
start filling in values for Pandora using Earth parameters, not altering wing area
A and speed S on Pandora yet:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>for lift:<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>LIFT<sub>SW </sub>= (1.2 </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"> D<sub>FF</sub>) </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙ </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">S<sub>SW</sub><sup>2</sup> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙ </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">A<sub>SW<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></sub></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>for weight<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>W<sub>SW </sub>= V<sub>SW </sub></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙ G</span><sub><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">SW</span></sub><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>W<sub>SW </sub>=
V<sub>SW </sub></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙ (0.8 ∙ G</span><sub><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">FF</span></sub><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>W<sub>SW </sub>=
(45500 </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙ </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">V<sub>FF </sub>)</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙ (0.8
∙ G</span><sub><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">FF</span></sub><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>W<sub>SW </sub>=
36400 </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙ </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">V<sub>FF </sub></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙ G</span><sub><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">FF</span></sub></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>W<sub>SW </sub>=
36400 </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙W</span><sub><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">FF</span></sub></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">If the flight
is stable, weight must equal lift, so it follows that:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>LIFT<sub>SW</sub> <span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>= <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>36400 </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙ </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">LIFT<sub>FF</sub> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>(1.2 </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"> D<sub>FF</sub>) </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙ </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">S<sub>SW</sub><sup>2</sup> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙ </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">A<sub>SW<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></sub>=
<sub><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></sub>36400
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>D<sub>FF</sub>
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">S<sub>FF</sub><sup>2</sup> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙ </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">A<sub>FF </sub></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>S<sub>SW</sub><sup>2</sup> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙ </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">A<sub>SW<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></sub>= <sub><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></sub>30333
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>S<sub>FF</sub><sup>2</sup>
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">A<sub>FF </sub></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">We have SW
parameters on the left and Earth FF parameters on the right and can play with
this relationship.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">Variant 1</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"> assumes isometric scaling, making<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A<sub>SW </sub>= 1275 </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙ </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">A<sub>FF</sub></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>S<sub>SW</sub><sup>2</sup> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙ </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">1275 </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙ </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">A<sub>FF<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></sub>=
<sub><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></sub>30333
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>S<sub>FF</sub><sup>2</sup>
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">A<sub>FF</sub></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>S<sub>SW</sub><sup>2</sup> <sub><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span></sub>=
<sub><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></sub>23.8
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>S<sub>FF</sub><sup>2</sup>
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">We know that
the speed of FF = 20 m/s, so</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>S<sub>SW</sub><sup>2</sup> <sub><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span></sub>=
<sub><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></sub>23.8
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>400<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>= 9516</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>S<sub>SW</sub><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>=<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>97.6 m/s or 351 km/h<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">This is
obviously a ridiculous speed and cannot work. Perhaps larger wings may do the
trick if we abandon isometric scaling. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">Variant 2</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"> starts a few steps back.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>S<sub>SW</sub><sup>2</sup> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙ </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">A<sub>FF<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span></sub>=
<sub><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></sub>30333
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>S<sub>FF</sub><sup>2</sup>
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">A<sub>FF </sub></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">If we assume
that the skimwing has the same speed as Flying fish, then<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>S<sub>SW</sub><sup>2 </sup>= S<sub>FF</sub><sup>2</sup></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A<sub>FF<span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span></sub>= <sub><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></sub>30333
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"> A<sub>FF</sub></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">This means that
the width and lengtn of the wing have to increase by the square root of 30333,
meaning they become 174 times larger instead of the original 35.7 times. This
is ridiculous, and the real situation would be worse because the arger windg
wopuld weigh a lot more, which he haven’t accounted for yet!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">Are there
ways out?</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">The ground
effect seems to reduce drag by 14%. That is not the same as increasing lift by 14%
but assume that lift is indeed increased by this amount.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>S<sub>SW</sub><sup>2</sup> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙ </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">1275 </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙ </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">A<sub>FF<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></sub>=
<sub><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></sub>0.86<sub><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></sub></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙ </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">30333 </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>S<sub>FF</sub><sup>2</sup>
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">A<sub>FF</sub></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>S<sub>SW</sub><sup>2</sup> <sub><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span></sub>=
<sub><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></sub>20.5
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>S<sub>FF</sub><sup>2</sup><sub></sub></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>S<sub>SW</sub><sup>2</sup> <sub><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span></sub>=
<sub><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></sub>20.5
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>400<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>= 8200</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>S<sub>SW</sub><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>=<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>90.6 m/s or 326 km/h<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">or</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A<sub>FF<span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span></sub>= <sub><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></sub>26086
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"> A<sub>FF</sub></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">The wing's length
and width have to become 161 times larger. Ground effect does not save the
skimwing, and that holds for an isometric as well as for a non-isometruc
approach. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">What if we make
the skimwing relatively more slender than the FF, by halving the volume of its
body? This results in: </span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>S<sub>SW</sub><sup>2</sup> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙ </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">A<sub>SW<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span></sub>=
<sub><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></sub>15167
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>S<sub>FF</sub><sup>2</sup>
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">A<sub>FF </sub></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>S<sub>SW</sub><sup>2</sup> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙ </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">1275 </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙ </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">A<sub>FF<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></sub>=
<sub><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></sub>15167</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>S<sub>FF</sub><sup>2</sup>
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">A<sub>FF</sub></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>S<sub>SW</sub><sup>2</sup> <sub><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span></sub>=
<sub><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></sub>11.9
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>S<sub>FF</sub><sup>2</sup>
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">We know that
the speed of FF = 20 m/s</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>S<sub>SW</sub><sup>2</sup> <sub><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span></sub>=
<sub><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></sub>11.9
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>400<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>= 4758</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>S<sub>SW</sub><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>=<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>69.0 m/s or 248.3 km/h<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">If we assume
that the skimwing has the same speed as Flying fish, then<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>S<sub>SW</sub><sup>2 </sup>= S<sub>FF</sub><sup>2</sup></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A<sub>FF<span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span></sub>= <sub><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></sub>15167
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">∙</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"> A<sub>FF</sub></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">This means that
the length and width of the wing must become 123 times larger instead of the
original 35.7 times. This is still preposterous. </span></p>
<p></p></div><br />Sigmund Nastrazzurrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16449461215427527447noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-46111571314382607052023-01-27T14:51:00.003+01:002023-01-27T14:58:03.305+01:00The RETURN Of The NIGHTSTALKER!! <p>The Nightstalker is, as most readers will know, one of Dougal Dixon’s creations presented in his 1981 book <i>'After Man'</i>, a book that proved fundamental for speculative biology. In that book, he presented completely novel themes, such as penguin whales and terrestrial cephalopods or bats; for more on the 1981 setting, see <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2018/09/after-man-by-dougal-dixon-review-with.html" target="_blank">an earlier post here</a>. <br /><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeCKCu4fcYMrTpiiZxw-ReySeqaUSIyFE0v1FYSBHkfYe1Fy7hIQGm-xX-uevAP3FuUSkDdvv9sE1W9YSJfnyZVPn2s9DEsD_D6qFnAS2gAF3VsYNfsaWw3QlgnWU3tpcU44VZ4v8WsWoqvIQSQHqtI7n6QNizOW5KlyCSRFkcU57SfViNuBjIByow/s1000/RevisedStalkerKlein.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="878" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeCKCu4fcYMrTpiiZxw-ReySeqaUSIyFE0v1FYSBHkfYe1Fy7hIQGm-xX-uevAP3FuUSkDdvv9sE1W9YSJfnyZVPn2s9DEsD_D6qFnAS2gAF3VsYNfsaWw3QlgnWU3tpcU44VZ4v8WsWoqvIQSQHqtI7n6QNizOW5KlyCSRFkcU57SfViNuBjIByow/s320/RevisedStalkerKlein.png" width="281" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Click to enlarge; copyright Dougal Dixon</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p>The image of the nightstalker in the 1981 version of After Man was later changed by Dixon, who did not like the original one very much. The new version is shown above and is published in recent editions of 'After Man', such as the '40th anniversary edition' (which has new information too!). <br /><br />The nightstalker descended from bats that were among the first animals to arrive on the newly emerged volcanic Batavian Islands in the Pacific. Facing no serious terrestrial competition, the bats lost the ability to fly, became fully terrestrial and diversified. Once other mammals arrived as well, a bat species started to hunt them and evolved into the nightstalker, a formidable bipedal predator of one meter and a half in height, or as tall as an 11-year old child. <br /><br />Nightstalkers are blind and use echolocation to find their prey in the night, ‘screaching and screaming through the Batavian forest’. This may mean that the nightstalker uses echolocation at sound frequencies we can hear too, although the text does not literally say so. The screeches might also be used for communication within the pack, leaving ultrasonic sound for echolocation. In either case I wondered whether its prey can hear the echolocation sounds too, which would make life more difficult for the nightstalker. I have compared the relative merits of vision and echolocation in three posts (<a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2012/07/echolocation-sound-choice.html" target="_blank">one</a>, <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2012/08/why-sight-is-superior-to-echolocation.html" target="_blank">two</a>, and <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2012/10/big-bad-flashy-fish-bbff-final-answer.html" target="_blank">three</a>). It turned out that echolocation is like someone shouting at the top of their voice ‘WHERE ARE YOU!?’. Provided the prey can hear the sounds used in echolocation, echolocation is the opposite of stealth.<br /><br />The nightstalker is bipedal, with the interesting twist of walking on its front legs. That makes sense in that the wings of bats are much larger and stronger than their hind legs. The animal uses claws on its hind legs to help overcome it prey, to which end the hind legs pass the front legs on the outside. In my 'review with hindsight' of After Man, <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2018/09/after-man-by-dougal-dixon-review-with.html " target="_blank">posted in 2018</a>, I wondered whether it would make more sense if the hind legs moved forwards between the front legs. I asked Dougal at the recent <a href="http://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2022/12/back-from-tetzoocon-2022.html" target="_blank">2022 TetZooCon</a> if he would mind me writing a blog post about this particular revision of the nightstalker. He did not, so here it is. I could not help myself thinking some more about terrestrial bats. I do not doubt that bats could evolve to walk efficiently again, as there are bats alive today that not only walk, but run too. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxQeFdV2dudV4j8VFAIRuXugAn42F582EA2ElYpm5kwZA30vKlrZ-dXxn7o9NpbbJfj0iLJOhlCdwH-F1cQFQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />Researchers managed to get vampire bats to <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/434292a" target="_blank">run on a treadmill</a>, and the animals obliged by using a unique hopping run. That is the video above. That odd gait must be due to the extreme difference in size between front and hind legs, which poses an unusual problem. During walking, legs that are on the ground at the same time must all propel the body over the same distance in the same time, or else the shoulder would walk faster or slower than the hip. From this it follows that the shorter leg will be on the ground for a shorter period than the longer leg, so the shorter leg only supports the body for a short time. That may be impractical, which suggests three different evolutionary solutions.<p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzbBaex6UYpyWaSa9nWsnpr-ZLSGA67nBl3fPK7g7pd2JYsePGRURUmt6O_X3q0TA8nvZt4mz-1bZRCq_o89A' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />The first and weirdest solution is to have the hind legs move twice in the time the front legs move once. That is definitely possible, at least in theory. I know that because I was once requested to program such a gait to help visualise a terrestrial shark, <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2010/06/odd-walkers-ii.html" target="_blank">posted here</a>. The videos above show the result. This solution does not seem the most likely one though...<p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE0SE8griw8doT3qghFrB2cE2E44qDE5yA29zzT9cgLoZyhdzzCQL58M6FHkobdLaHseU21HwLEz-Ei9MrIc80NggHiYYd-_YGp3c9silZkzuQ8q_Epc6-34qACXqvFW_w1B8VPv9rGPyzPJ_J1R0zanHuMBkL71AenDLWRBABFQYnQaPq9i3T_Inw/s1000/nosferapoda.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="715" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE0SE8griw8doT3qghFrB2cE2E44qDE5yA29zzT9cgLoZyhdzzCQL58M6FHkobdLaHseU21HwLEz-Ei9MrIc80NggHiYYd-_YGp3c9silZkzuQ8q_Epc6-34qACXqvFW_w1B8VPv9rGPyzPJ_J1R0zanHuMBkL71AenDLWRBABFQYnQaPq9i3T_Inw/s320/nosferapoda.png" width="229" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Click to enlarge; copyright Marc Boulay / Jean-Sébastien Steyer</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /> The second adaptation would involve quick enlargement of the hind legs, which appears altogether sensible and straightforward. the result would be very similar to the Steyer/Boulay terrestrial bat shown in ‘<i>Demain. Les animaux du futur</i>’ (and discussed on this blog <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2015/05/future-evolution-from-france-demain-les.html" target="_blank">here </a>and <a href=" Https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2015/06/second-part-of-review-of-demain-les.html" target="_blank">here</a>).<br /> <br />The third possibility means the animal no longer uses its hind legs for locomotion, so they can be used for something else, such as being weapons. If front limbs are liberated from their walking role, I would call that ‘centaurism’ (see here for the first mention of the principle). But the nightstalker freed its hind legs, so we probably need another name than centaurism; 'reverse centaurism'?<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihYGTyFbRwd7xRsR8rQiSIGshbib5SysXkiug6Z79-_FaeQDdoT8AbgH0B3HjvSQM9oLjg3c8d-5vCHC-pAnj8SmJRwyuJdaPvhLR9P7ZvrbuMwouXQiHhH3ZdJyayR-o4xgBLeIzu6I8OuhzsTsy-ZQwqoZm2Y40JV8T8ola1CJsOA-b90rel1JJn/s4000/nightstalker_013.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihYGTyFbRwd7xRsR8rQiSIGshbib5SysXkiug6Z79-_FaeQDdoT8AbgH0B3HjvSQM9oLjg3c8d-5vCHC-pAnj8SmJRwyuJdaPvhLR9P7ZvrbuMwouXQiHhH3ZdJyayR-o4xgBLeIzu6I8OuhzsTsy-ZQwqoZm2Y40JV8T8ola1CJsOA-b90rel1JJn/s320/nightstalker_013.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Click to enlarge; copyright Gert van Dijk</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Of the three, the second option seemed the most straightforward one, and I considered stopping alternate evolution right there. Then again, the result wouldn’t be a proper nightstalker! I suppose a bipedal animal can still evolve from the enlarged hind limb version, so there you are: a bipedal terrestrial erstwhile bat with reverse centaurism.<br /><br />What else did I change?<br /></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>I made the ears smaller than in the original. When animals species increase in size, organs do not necessarily scale linearly with body size. Eyes, for instance, are relatively small in large animals. Beyond a certain size an organ's function may not improve noticeably, so there is no point in making the organ larger than necessary to do its job. I am not certain this also holds for echolocating ears but assumed this to be the case.</li><li>The skull and face are less bat-like than the original, because I assumed that the larger size would require a sturdier build. Bats have many pointy needle-like teeth, useful to catch insects. But an animal the size of a large dog would need teeth that can handle larger stresses. </li><li>I kept the leaf-based nose because it is part of the basic package of vampire bats. However, it seems very vulnerable.</li><li>The eyes are still there because eyes seemed much too useful to abolish altogether. They are still small though, but useful for unforeseen circumstances.</li><li>There are no fingers, just thumbs. Bats fold their fingers, that support a large part of the wing membrane, out of the way when roosting and walking. They use their big thumbs to hang from. What will happen to the fingers if the wing atrophies during evolution? I foresee the fingers disappearing completely, and not coming back as toes. The thumb has grown and now extends towards the midline to support the body underneath the centre of gravity. Normally animals place their feet close to the midline for that purpose, but the nightstalker needs room under the body for the hind legs. The thumb could help support the body directly under the centre of gravity by extending towards the midline. The two stubs you see on each hand do not have nails or claws, because they are not fingers! They are pseudo-fingers, supported by former wrist bones. <br /></li></ul><p>So here we are: an alternate nightstalker with its hind legs between the front legs. When I look at the result, it looks much less like a bat then the original, which may not be good from a didactic point of view. The image serves to illustrate an evolved bat, so people who see it should immediately associate it with bats. My revised version probably does that less well than the original. Mind you, my first version had smaller ears, no leaf nose, a longer snout and sturdier teeth, so it looked even less like a bat than the one you see now. The version shown above was 'batified' on purpose, but it still doesn't shout 'bat'. That raises the interesting question of balance between presumed biological underpinning and what the image is supposed to evoke. It is fun to play with both aspects, and adds another layer of speculation to speculative biology. <br /><br /><b>Epilogue</b><br /><br />The above was all seen by Dougal. His response to reading the text was this: <br /><br /><i>"I claim it is an example of speciation in the Batavian archipelago! A new species on one of the newer volcanic islands in the "hot-spot" conveyor belt island chain. Shared ancestor with Manambulus perhorridus rafted across from the Big Island at a time of its early appearance along with its potential prey species."</i><br /><br />And so it shall be; the new species deserves a new name though, and I think the differences are too large to use the same genus. I therefore present <i>Condylovador terriloquus</i>! (from <i>condylus</i>: knuckle; <i>vadere</i>; to go or to walk; <i>terriloquus</i>: uttering frightening words)<br /><br /></p>Sigmund Nastrazzurrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16449461215427527447noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-76993397292825573042022-12-15T11:20:00.002+01:002022-12-15T11:21:39.015+01:00Astrovitae: a magazine about speculative biology <p>Once upon a time there was so little material about speculative biology that I used to search the internet for speculative biology works. I was looking for works with a fair number of creations, a biology that made sense, and artwork that was a pleasure to look at. Sometimes I found nothing of interest, and at other times I found one or two projects. When I liked the project enough, I contacted the author which usually resulted in a blog post. <br /><br />As time passed, speculative biology more or less exploded, and my searches began to reveal so many projects that I did not know which ones to pick. Later I gave up, or otherwise I would never get to work on Furaha.<br /><br />But now, someone had the nice idea to produce a magazine about speculative biology. You will not find printed copies on your local newsstand, but it exists all the same, as an online pdf magazine. I am talking about 'Astrovitae'. The four issues that have been produced so far look very professional, and it wouldn’t hurt to see them in print. You can find those issues <a href="https://www.astrovitae.com/" target="_blank">here, on the magazine's website.</a> As mentioned on the website, the magazine aims to connect speculative biology artists around the globe. It is produced by the founder and chief editor of the magazine, Domenic Pennetta, whom I asked a few questions. </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQcnTHXzdereV8jaxLX_jXAhq84C5oGaP-G7CLcUkq_UM3xEOH9lY0T1PSRb0Hu1Ems-jjhwQS_6-cvk9ga3BsgdcV4zLLvVt4446EeHNqzhyHqkVFX1eh3jdCu2s3frARi7oaWeYNP2ZBHV93TpEQmibZRMgUBGUMtdqMDm8Jgiw6Zl3g9xVux99O/s2366/AV1lettersfromSaturn.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1462" data-original-width="2366" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQcnTHXzdereV8jaxLX_jXAhq84C5oGaP-G7CLcUkq_UM3xEOH9lY0T1PSRb0Hu1Ems-jjhwQS_6-cvk9ga3BsgdcV4zLLvVt4446EeHNqzhyHqkVFX1eh3jdCu2s3frARi7oaWeYNP2ZBHV93TpEQmibZRMgUBGUMtdqMDm8Jgiw6Zl3g9xVux99O/s320/AV1lettersfromSaturn.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; from #1; Copyright <a href="https://johnmeszarosart.com/" target="_blank">John Meszaros</a><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Because the magazine looked so good, I began by asking Domenic why it was free; I thought it was because you can download the issues without any bother from the site. Domenic was quick to correct me that hosting the site does cost money, and there is also his own time to consider. Right now, there are enough readers and contributors who care enough to help fund web hosting. Domenic points out that he wasn't initially sure how well the magazine would be received, and that played a role in deciding to ask for voluntary contributions only. <p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGdr1dPcrRa2M_ROoY5UPzWXWWqgwwG5RjTX2YQCG2zGid25dnPy5e4MDczDLKMbJoB1sdDZmwOtNQCN19quSHV-cQ9cxAHLim0hfGe9P9Tcjo5hwEdjYbkvSXRGNoREREMxSyvzilj2JRe5iDeLnSghZobGRxQEyRHa03sqXmZc4I8rIOCx4ThPfQ/s2367/AV2nijin-konai.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1451" data-original-width="2367" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGdr1dPcrRa2M_ROoY5UPzWXWWqgwwG5RjTX2YQCG2zGid25dnPy5e4MDczDLKMbJoB1sdDZmwOtNQCN19quSHV-cQ9cxAHLim0hfGe9P9Tcjo5hwEdjYbkvSXRGNoREREMxSyvzilj2JRe5iDeLnSghZobGRxQEyRHa03sqXmZc4I8rIOCx4ThPfQ/s320/AV2nijin-konai.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; from #2. copyright <a href="https://www.deviantart.com/blackfrog96" target="_blank">Lorenzo Battilani</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br />My next question was also inspired by the professional look of the magazine: is Domenic a graphic designer by profession? He did not consider himself to be one at the time, but the project helped him hone his designing skills, and he eventually got a job as an assistant designer because Astrovitae looked so good! Domenic added that he hopes to help other artists by publishing their work in Astrovitae. <br /> <br />I wondered whether publishing Astrovitae was just a hobby or the start of something bigger? Domenic wrote:<p><i>"I think this is a great question! It may help to briefly explain the origin of the magazine to fully answer this. When I first became involved in the genre and started my own speculative biology project, I quickly met other artists online who were interested in the same topics. We began forming small gatherings over social media, like Instagram groups or discord servers. All of us would periodically meet to discuss the genre, critique each other's art, and explain or explore scientific concepts with each other. I saw a lot of interaction going on, but despite so many like-minded artists in one space, no one was really collaborating to our fullest extent when it came to art. So, I had an idea to start some sort of publication, likely something small, that would feature work from all amateur artists interested in the genre. I felt that by doing this, I could inspire my fellow artists to work together more closely."</i></p><p><i></i></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUuhtcKFeH84bpUY8zTiOL4R1ySC0RjY74xOUS4K1Gt5GnD0dIQVtW-S-aNVsQzA2JgPpHalWAVCGpxczHsbUbXC8PyH1IrKTnier0F2dGDfTJ9S2PFSm253kn1rN2JjOBRuil_xmwx1sFRhUFUy5wwSaFnbYIkS5BBP5WfufTA3Lp7NWUbDOzw5XN/s2362/AV3Astareus.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1449" data-original-width="2362" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUuhtcKFeH84bpUY8zTiOL4R1ySC0RjY74xOUS4K1Gt5GnD0dIQVtW-S-aNVsQzA2JgPpHalWAVCGpxczHsbUbXC8PyH1IrKTnier0F2dGDfTJ9S2PFSm253kn1rN2JjOBRuil_xmwx1sFRhUFUy5wwSaFnbYIkS5BBP5WfufTA3Lp7NWUbDOzw5XN/s320/AV3Astareus.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; from #3. copyright <a href="https://www.artnaomic.com/" target="_blank">ND Cebula</a></td></tr></tbody></table><i><br /></i>For Domenic, Astrovitae is a way to bridge a gap between different social media, hoping that artists from every corner of the internet could become familiar with each other’s work. He adds:<br /><br /><i>"I also have a background in scientific illustration. I love the natural world and learning about the biology of living organisms, depicting how they work or what drives them to behave, and also taking obscure organisms and bringing them alive through art. To me, even though speculative biology is heavily analytical and aligned with science, it is also associated with art. I think most scientific illustrators feel the same as me and believe art and science are indistinguishable from one another—they go hand in hand. Art is a form of communication that is useful in explaining complex ideas, like the concepts found in biology and other sciences. Starting a magazine would allow me to further influence the genre into an art-affiliated direction. This would allow the community to further explore and convey the speculative animals and biology we imagine.<br /><br />So, in conclusion, I do believe that Astrovitae is something bigger. It is a tool to connect creative minds, facilitate collaboration, get artists published and seen, and better communicate speculative concepts we explore within the genre."</i><p></p><p><i></i></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGMISy1lWXVr1HgUY0Qdd8_ionYJmSSGFKMaG3b3NX3T2_FGvF6ibRw8-3NMyulHFmqKVSLHoYHFye2mbPUqUGdCDLDoulWFv8Wz_gSosvCKbTct5GttdPPjXXssGlOrlftDEo9C4y_oz6PwB23C6X-yxOifaINOI1AxdUvUCpGWm-ACtN6Hxe8qMi/s2385/AV4PhtanumB.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1454" data-original-width="2385" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGMISy1lWXVr1HgUY0Qdd8_ionYJmSSGFKMaG3b3NX3T2_FGvF6ibRw8-3NMyulHFmqKVSLHoYHFye2mbPUqUGdCDLDoulWFv8Wz_gSosvCKbTct5GttdPPjXXssGlOrlftDEo9C4y_oz6PwB23C6X-yxOifaINOI1AxdUvUCpGWm-ACtN6Hxe8qMi/s320/AV4PhtanumB.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; from #4. Copyright <a href=" https://www.instagram.com/phtanum_b_official/" target="_blank">Paul Drenckhahn </a></td></tr></tbody></table><i><br /></i><p></p><p>Well said! As someone with a very similar interest in science and art I can only agree, and I hope that Astrovitae magazine will grow to become what Domenic envisioned. </p><p>You can read Astrovitae magazine <a href=" https://www.astrovitae.com/" target="_blank">online here.</a> Additionally , if you are interested in participating in the magazine, feel free to contact Domenic at <a href="mailto:astrovitae@gmail.com">astrovitae@gmail.com</a> or see <a href="http://www.astrovitae.com/submissions">www.astrovitae.com/submissions</a> for details. <br /><br />I hope I whetted readers' appetites enough to go and have a look at the four issues available at present. To help you decide (and make this post more exciting) I used a double page spread from each of the four issues to illustrate this post. I will not discuss the creations on these pages at any length; that's what the magazine is for!</p>Sigmund Nastrazzurrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16449461215427527447noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-65123437747639657942022-12-08T12:02:00.000+01:002022-12-08T12:02:54.926+01:00Back from TetZooCon 2022<p> TetZooCon is over. It lasted two whole days instead of one and could have lasted longer as far as I am concerned. From what I heard people say, they felt it was a big success. <br /><br />There were interesting talks or events about a wide variety of subjects, covering zoology, palaeontology, palaeoart, and last, but not least, speculative evolution. Perhaps the most rewarding aspect of TetZooCon is that hard science and art are received with equal enthusiasm and humour. For me, that is not only a defining characteristic of TetZooCon but also my main reason for going. <br /><br />To give you an idea about the zoology content, we were treated to talks about platypuses ('the best animal ever') by Jack Ashby, and a talk by Jennifer Colbourne about tool use and intelligence in birds, touching on the question whether theropod dinosaurs might have been capable of tool use. Probably not. <br /><br />Palaeontology was of course well represented, with Dean Lomax showing examples of his book 'Locked in Time' and an excellent pterosaur session with items such as dealing with how to CT-scan a pterosaurs, how to describe a species scientifically, and an insightful roundtable discussion.</p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiusNNFl3IMpjZXt0BgjK1jxbGCC8iKgd5nHeTz27muvxppqZ0TSCcNFynC2QlhPijldjZfMr3Hx7Ty7Qc1Rp494hqET4_bcZaN8peBXweD3yla10QpNJB9eza7-M38V4dXpMmQ0UqO_lrPy3pIP-VpUVWSAZykT8gm9uKBW3WtA56hIk4OYGL1tV7v/s2191/conway.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1502" data-original-width="2191" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiusNNFl3IMpjZXt0BgjK1jxbGCC8iKgd5nHeTz27muvxppqZ0TSCcNFynC2QlhPijldjZfMr3Hx7Ty7Qc1Rp494hqET4_bcZaN8peBXweD3yla10QpNJB9eza7-M38V4dXpMmQ0UqO_lrPy3pIP-VpUVWSAZykT8gm9uKBW3WtA56hIk4OYGL1tV7v/s320/conway.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">John Conway showing how Paolo Uccello painted dinosaurs around 1450</span></i><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Palaeoart was very well represented, with a talk by Steve White on how to publish a palaeoart book and as well as an extra talk by John Conway about his new tongue-in-cheek book illustrating the history of Western art through selected dinosaur paintings by famous painters. Or at least how John imagined the old masters might have done if they had only bothered to paint the occasional dinosaur. It is a fun book; I showed it to my wife, who is much better at telling painters apart than dinosaurs, and she attributed most paintings correctly at once; recommended! <br /><br />John, Darren Naish and Memo Kösemen also talked about their book 'All Yesterdays' on the occasion of its tenth birthday. In that book they had fun with the idea that someone (or something) in the far future would come upon remnants of present-day animals, without knowing that mammals had fur or that birds had wings. The resulting 'reconstructions' were deliberately wrong in many ways, making the reader wonder about the accuracy of our present-day reconstructions. That is of course a fair point; you only have to look at how much images of Tyrannosaurus changed over the years to realise how much guesswork they contain. 'All Yesterdays' had fun with exploring shaggy pelts or unexpected behaviour, such as Protoceratops climbing trees. Apparently, the book seems to have led people to conclude for a while that anything goes in reconstructing dinosaur appearance or behaviour. <br /><br />Speculative biology was represented by a one-hour roundtable discussion, with Darren Naish, Jennifer Colbourne, Joschua Knüppe, Dougal Dixon, Adrian Tschaikovsky and me. I do not think the session was recorded, at least not officially. The discussion could easily have lasted another hour. </p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGxbKv459-wGJQeAWs_mUZqllXAlpvqDNjHtWOpB_m0IkxVGKHGg3LVfVwy7NFYNXs1tslxC-DWUwue-TFM8YZUsPswSjNMm5L7FXHLOxUxNvhSW05ac7T5og0IgnY3AZpuZgsgEwgwgx5fEeA6k4K6tCR-YAL_rYOvOBmtMYb_VWl5Ckai61zd4tw/s2925/Dougal.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1795" data-original-width="2925" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGxbKv459-wGJQeAWs_mUZqllXAlpvqDNjHtWOpB_m0IkxVGKHGg3LVfVwy7NFYNXs1tslxC-DWUwue-TFM8YZUsPswSjNMm5L7FXHLOxUxNvhSW05ac7T5og0IgnY3AZpuZgsgEwgwgx5fEeA6k4K6tCR-YAL_rYOvOBmtMYb_VWl5Ckai61zd4tw/s320/Dougal.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Dougal showing a Greenworld model. Adrian and Joschua are looking on</span></i>. <br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br />Here is Dougal, showing a model of '<i>Greenworld'</i>, still only available in Japanese. Read more about Greenworld <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2010/01/anatomy-of-alien-v-greenworld-i_30.html" target="_blank">here</a>, <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2010/03/greenworld-ii.html" target="_blank">here </a>and <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2010/04/g-is-for-greenworld-greenworld-iii.html" target="_blank">here</a>. There may be a new version of the book with higher production quality, but that one will still be available in Japanese only, I'm afraid. <br /><br />I spoke with Adrian before the session. It turns out that he was present at the speculative biology sessions<a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2014/08/back-from-loncon3.html" target="_blank"> at LonCon3 in 2014</a>. Actually, he said that those sessions made him include more speculative evolution in his science fiction novels. That makes me very happy, as I had proposed those sessions, in which Darren, Dougal, Memo, Lewis Dartnell and I spoke about speculative biology. If you do not yet know Adrian's work, but you do like SF with biology in it, have a look. In his 'Children of…' series you will find intelligent cephalopods and spiders. Their biology is not a simple prop to make them look nonhuman, but it shines through in their senses, thought patterns, and even in the way they are aware of self. The books are called <i>Children of Time</i>, <i>Children of Ruin</i>, and <i>Children of Memory</i> is just out. </p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgAOQBg7EiCncW1s25c8ZeLn5dYSzvGM_AiPW6isgseFirltWX_XE-aW3vzqmzXkRdPEF5kcniA6ux8L-ruSukNLVr8WIv5fNCcxqoejEv3wm6Kw90ClV-lM2XXFV0DHZgyMPTb198UL6bAfmJeG_QKmweg4nloghGnQoRmLxgjifSxzfK9yYqVt4l/s4032/ArtExib.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1960" data-original-width="4032" height="156" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgAOQBg7EiCncW1s25c8ZeLn5dYSzvGM_AiPW6isgseFirltWX_XE-aW3vzqmzXkRdPEF5kcniA6ux8L-ruSukNLVr8WIv5fNCcxqoejEv3wm6Kw90ClV-lM2XXFV0DHZgyMPTb198UL6bAfmJeG_QKmweg4nloghGnQoRmLxgjifSxzfK9yYqVt4l/s320/ArtExib.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">A few of my prints at the Art Exhibition</span></i><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Finally, the Art Exhibition. Many artists participated, and I hope that an Art Exhibition will return in future TetZooCons. I had brought 12 prints of 40x60cm and sold five, even though they were not advertised as being for sale. I think people liked them and think I will bring more at next year's TetZooCon. <br /><br /></p><br /><br /><br />Sigmund Nastrazzurrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16449461215427527447noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-72817293765128799592022-11-17T16:35:00.003+01:002022-11-17T16:35:36.024+01:00More on Furaha at TetZooCon 2022 <p>As usual there are many other things going on (nice ones, I'm happy to say!) so I am behind with blogging. But I do have some nice subjects almost ready, of which the one that must take precedence is the upcoming 'TetZooCon'! <br /><br />There will finally be a real live Tetrapod Zoology Convention again: TetZooCon 2022, on 3 & 4 December 2022! Have a look at the <a href="https://tetzoo.com/convention" target="_blank">programme</a>, which looks to be as fascinating, if not more so, than previous versions. If you like your biology mixed with some art and are not afraid to visit the outer regions of biological disciplines, have a look. I have very fond memories of my earlier visits.<br /><br />The art in question is 'palaeoart', meaning 'Palaeontological Art'. I have never written about Palaeoart before (or 'Paleoart'; I'll stick to 'Palaeoart' because I've set my spelling checker to the version of English closest to me, which happens to be British English). The simple reason for me ignoring palaeoart is that this blog is about the part of speculative biology that deals with life elsewhere, as reflected in the title 'Furahan Biology and Allied Matters'. I guess I could stretch the 'Allied matters' some more, and in fact I did when I showed <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2021/09/trying-to-sculpt-dinosaur-sauropelta.html" target="_blank">my attempt at dinosaur sculpture</a>. That doesn't mean I do not like Palaeoart; far from it! I love it. Palaeoart is blossoming these days, thanks to an explosion of interesting new discoveries that need to be depicted, and to a parallel explosion of talent all over the world. If you want to have a look at what is happening, please take a look at the book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Mesozoic-Art-Dinosaurs-Ancient-Animals/dp/139940136X" target="_blank">'Mesozoic Art: Dinosaurs and Other Ancient Animals in Art' </a>by Steve White and Darren Naish.</p><p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsPbkYhbZvNjyMua31YNbV7BuZVUZ1Za8iopxwyqADnWJfNFwcKoIgUCCY8eqCZ76cSmH5JLTZe8JX4sTNdkgth6Exf0TXXLshZkBIppImrGPFsJ5odlBsHSJS6eoOtgHFFicCHnhNMPJQWQtxnc-olJ0IB7Du-oFGObyLrNO701nocaRmVVQBGk9X/s1659/MesArt.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1507" data-original-width="1659" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsPbkYhbZvNjyMua31YNbV7BuZVUZ1Za8iopxwyqADnWJfNFwcKoIgUCCY8eqCZ76cSmH5JLTZe8JX4sTNdkgth6Exf0TXXLshZkBIppImrGPFsJ5odlBsHSJS6eoOtgHFFicCHnhNMPJQWQtxnc-olJ0IB7Du-oFGObyLrNO701nocaRmVVQBGk9X/s320/MesArt.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright White and Naish<br /></td></tr></tbody></table></p><p>I just received my copy and think it is excellent. Mind you, the two earlier books by Steve White on a very similar there are also excellent, with a large format and high printing standards: Dinosaur Art (2012) and Dinosaur Art II (2017).<br /><br />There will be a Palaeoart workshop at TetZooCon, run by <a href="https://johnconway.art/" target="_blank">John Conway</a>, as well as a Palaeoart Exhibition. I will show some Furaha prints there for only the second time ever. Mind you, when I learned about this exhibition, I wasn't aware yet that it was about palaeoart, so I applied, and now I realise that I am a sort of intruder there, showing work that isn’t 'palaeo'. Perhaps I should call it 'AllothenArt' ('Elsewhere') or PlagioArt ('Sideways'), but I don’t think those words will catch on… <br /><br />The prints in question will show works, or versions thereof, that I have never shown in public before, apart for t<a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2022/09/furaha-at-leiden-art-exhibition-24-25.html" target="_blank">he exhibition in the Netherlands</a> two months ago. So, if you are curious, you know where to go.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZCHIaVxTseRFZ4lwicom9-7AL_TZbbW104UZfBMEev4IFlpoVmPscZyfo6CrsEfW5amSGDlI0IeaJp20YIxG1UBOPWFw2zYtOEBwEkA2K73yADVzt0A0sALT30-xm3JrNPOfW9Io49apUIhEVZvlzsIqynWawrmjUvCcwuxDVpIOInkWQPSOoc2QY/s1000/tetrapter_031DrukKlein.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="700" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZCHIaVxTseRFZ4lwicom9-7AL_TZbbW104UZfBMEev4IFlpoVmPscZyfo6CrsEfW5amSGDlI0IeaJp20YIxG1UBOPWFw2zYtOEBwEkA2K73yADVzt0A0sALT30-xm3JrNPOfW9Io49apUIhEVZvlzsIqynWawrmjUvCcwuxDVpIOInkWQPSOoc2QY/s320/tetrapter_031DrukKlein.png" width="224" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright Gert van Dijk<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Here is a painting for those who cannot come to London. It shows a tetrapter, with the common name 'Red Baron' ('Dicella Gampsonyx', meaning 'pitchfork with crooked claws'). As you can see, it is a highly derived Tetrapter with several predatory adaptations. The red wing spots tell you that this is a female: have a look at the illustration <a href=" https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2018/03/from-freezing-anatomy-of-tetropters-to.html" target="_blank">here</a>. By the way, I am learning how to preparing to sell and send prints over the internet, in particular involving selling prints abroad and outside the EU.<br /><br />Back to TetZooCon: there will be a roundtable discussion about 'Designing Aliens', chaired by Darren Naish and me, with Jennifer Colbourne, Joschua Knüppe, Adrian Tchaikovsky and Dougal Dixon. If you like biology, science fiction, speculative biology, or preferably all three, I think you are going to love this. <br /><br />Se you there!<br /></p>Sigmund Nastrazzurrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16449461215427527447noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-3418551120729116782022-09-15T13:47:00.006+02:002022-09-15T13:48:10.394+02:00Furaha at TetZooCon 2022<p>In my previous post I mentioned that there would probably be a TetZooCon again and that Furaha would probably be there, but now I can tell you that it's going to happen. </p><p>TetZooCon 2022 will be on 3 and $ December, 2022, In London. </p><p>For more news, have a look at the following sites:</p><p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
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Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
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mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin-top:0cm;
mso-para-margin-right:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:8.0pt;
mso-para-margin-left:0cm;
line-height:107%;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
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<p></p>Sigmund Nastrazzurrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16449461215427527447noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-68201399809968581262022-09-13T12:42:00.003+02:002022-09-13T12:42:35.081+02:00Furaha at a Leiden Art Exhibition: 24 & 25 September 2022<p> The following will mostly be of interest to Dutch readers: I have been asked to exhibit some paintings of Furahan lifeforms in an art gallery in Leiden, where I live.<br /><br />The occasion is the 'Leiden Art Route', a yearly happening in which art galleries open their doors to present a variety of art. This year, the galleries open their doors on 24 and 25 September. I will be present in person to answer questions and to explain some of the background ideas during the afternoon of both days. <br /><br />I was invited by Charlotte Lemmens, the owner of the <i>Alien Art Gallery</i>. That name tells you that my work should be right at home there. The gallery usually shows the work of Vincent Icke, an astronomer who uses his scientific knowledge to inspire his art. As I try to base my animal creations on biological science, our work has the combination of science with art in common. Personally, I think the two go well together, but I would think that, wouldn’t I, being a scientist. <br /> <br />The Leiden Art Route is organised by <i>Museum De Lakenhal</i>. Although the museum does have <a href=" https://www.lakenhal.nl/en" target="_blank">a website in English</a>, the pages about the Art Route ('Kunstroute') are <a href="https://www.lakenhal.nl/kunstroute. " target="_blank">in Dutch</a> only. Here is the page of the Art Route devoted to the <a href="https://www.lakenhal.nl/kunstroute/alien-artgallery?locale=nl">Alien Art Gallery</a>. Here is a specific page in the context of the Art Route <a href="https://www.lakenhal.nl/nl/verhaal/interview-met-kunstroute-deelnemer-alien-art-gallery " target="_blank">about my work</a>, in Dutch again. <br /><br />The Alien Art Gallery has <a href="https://alien-artgallery.nl/" target="_blank">its own page, also in Dutch</a>, but you can see the work of Vincent Icke on its English page<a href="http://www.alien-art.nl/ " target="_blank"> here</a>. <br /><br />So there you are. The exposition represents a departure from my earlier stance on showing recent work. I had chosen to keep that mostly under wraps, wishing to keep the work fresh until the publication of The Book. However, perhaps a limited exposure will in fact help prepare the ground. I have produced high-quality prints of about 12 paintings; such prints will be for sale and can be ordered during the exhibition. There will also be a 36-page booklet, showing these paintings along with some of the additional illustrations and text written for The Book. This booklet is a much-abbreviated version of The Book, serving serves as a catalogue to the exhibition. It will also be for sale. But, as this is a local Dutch affair, 'The Booklet' is in Dutch, in contrast to The Book. </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgreQvI9BlrV8Gr0Px9dhSABnU2TuKV4vHBhJMZjrd7bAenCLjPemn4AhH4WtGnfN_0zD_bF1SrJaDm04vdnN3bQbd8Y55RDznU-NHWft5nLwaENyVxTruN9mj9qs3Q2x_RY7EUSM1ESghXIzvwrtBo9JJnAueGQgGCNeP3VlZ-6euWnvDPDaObXwvO/s817/postcards.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="817" data-original-width="701" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgreQvI9BlrV8Gr0Px9dhSABnU2TuKV4vHBhJMZjrd7bAenCLjPemn4AhH4WtGnfN_0zD_bF1SrJaDm04vdnN3bQbd8Y55RDznU-NHWft5nLwaENyVxTruN9mj9qs3Q2x_RY7EUSM1ESghXIzvwrtBo9JJnAueGQgGCNeP3VlZ-6euWnvDPDaObXwvO/s320/postcards.png" width="275" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright Gert van Dijk<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p>As part of the PR process postcards were produced of four paintings. I added a text 'Greetings from Furaha', but in Dutch ('Groeten van Furaha'). You can see a stack of them above. The postcards are at present available free of charge in several book shops and at museum <i>De Lakenhal </i>in Leiden. <br /><br />Finally, to have something for speakers of English too, some other news. As things stand, there is a chance of a Furaha presence in London, next December. That would be the Tetrapod Zoology Convention (TetZooCon), but nothing is final yet! I will certainly announce any news about that here, but you may also read about it on the<a href="https://tetzoo.com/" target="_blank"> TetZoo blog</a>. <br /><br /></p>Sigmund Nastrazzurrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16449461215427527447noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-16098754325014011462022-07-24T13:08:00.004+02:002022-07-24T13:08:36.252+02:00The Dragons of Wales<div class="separator"><p style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">Dragons have featured a few times on this blog already, even though I have no particularly strong interest in them; well, no more than in other fantastical or unusual animals. Earlier posts are <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2021/11/are-there-dragons-on-furaha.html" target="_blank">here</a>, <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2020/12/the-evolutionary-origin-of-dragon-flight.html" target="_blank">here</a> and also <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2022/04/14-years-on-and-one-million-views-later.html" target="_blank">here</a>. The last times 'dragons' popped up in this blog had to do with how the prototypical dragon has two wings as well as four legs, not exactly typical for Earth animals. The most common Earth 'wing plus legs' combinations must be 'six legs plus four wings' (insects) and 'two legs plus two wings' (vertebrates: birds, bats, pterosaurs). As dragons are typically large, let’s forget about insects as dragons; even 'dragonflies' are dragon-like 'flies', not fly-like dragons, so they don’t count. Adding extra limbs to vertebrates to form dragons is not at all likely to happen naturally. Of course, three pairs of limbs are the norm for large Furahan animals, so dragon-type flying animals merely requires turning one or two pairs of limbs into wings, which is exactly what happened on Furaha. </p></div><div class="separator"><div class="separator" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiHcxi-GdHymXuD6j89AiK090iTghzWYG1htAIdsqPCNrKG8avogIUgW5ycoGsFAlEIZ0OcAE7sb9SQN0bKiI1Phc1C_oGMe_53xNNFSecE4-DNQjF82ZwlWTCsQk-XY-DlZ-mmIrM_d9ziMIUOTK92g6hmLgJxpBdULCUpD4kTMfykpdbZV_hHhBl/s1823/NorthWalesB.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"></a><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgbl5t7jK1ANZjNqiXdc_Uh9KS37UwukbKNEz_Dyp34l7hM2XhHXxCRzIAswKBOz559QODinsZoNG6VR05QwhdPHzbMki4Bs_E4D9bnAhDNNfEZaIJQBJZ2kIUTDaQEDP5fBcwqGK8nytimCiM7GUqvByp19lUB8mSMY6X1piVG0bmUicQuMmnOfYU/s1829/NorthWalesA.png" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1368" data-original-width="1829" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgbl5t7jK1ANZjNqiXdc_Uh9KS37UwukbKNEz_Dyp34l7hM2XhHXxCRzIAswKBOz559QODinsZoNG6VR05QwhdPHzbMki4Bs_E4D9bnAhDNNfEZaIJQBJZ2kIUTDaQEDP5fBcwqGK8nytimCiM7GUqvByp19lUB8mSMY6X1piVG0bmUicQuMmnOfYU/s320/NorthWalesA.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Copyright Andy Frazer; click to enlarge<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiHcxi-GdHymXuD6j89AiK090iTghzWYG1htAIdsqPCNrKG8avogIUgW5ycoGsFAlEIZ0OcAE7sb9SQN0bKiI1Phc1C_oGMe_53xNNFSecE4-DNQjF82ZwlWTCsQk-XY-DlZ-mmIrM_d9ziMIUOTK92g6hmLgJxpBdULCUpD4kTMfykpdbZV_hHhBl/s1823/NorthWalesB.png" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1374" data-original-width="1823" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiHcxi-GdHymXuD6j89AiK090iTghzWYG1htAIdsqPCNrKG8avogIUgW5ycoGsFAlEIZ0OcAE7sb9SQN0bKiI1Phc1C_oGMe_53xNNFSecE4-DNQjF82ZwlWTCsQk-XY-DlZ-mmIrM_d9ziMIUOTK92g6hmLgJxpBdULCUpD4kTMfykpdbZV_hHhBl/s320/NorthWalesB.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Copyright Andy Frazer; click to enlarge</td></tr></tbody></table></div></div><p></p><p>Back to the dragons of today's post; they live on Earth, in Wales to be precise, and have two wings and two wings. They do therefore not need magic at all, or perhaps it is best to say they did not at first. Just read on… </p><p>The 'Dragons of Wales' are called that because their creator lives in Wales, where dragons are part of national mythology: the Welsh flag even has a nice red dragon on it. I came across these Welsh dragons by accident and immediately liked them. I am surprised I had not seen them earlier, as Andy Frazer, their creator, does his best to make them visible. Andy has produced several books on dragons already, using Kickstarter to get the funds to do so. </p><p>So, what kind of animal are these dragons? The book cover above provides a clue; the animal is small, covered with fuzz and has two wings and two legs. The skeleton drawing reveals that the wing is supported by just one finger, so it definitely a pterosaur. Andy confirmed that his dragons were from the start indeed small evolved pterosaurs, descendants of a group that luckily did not die out at the end of the Cretaceous. Andy speculates that their ancestors survived because of their small size and because their specialisation allowed them not to be outperformed by birds, and, much later, by bats. </p><p></p><p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZmfOrXlvYHVK3iPLio8aiSCeePO-5Q0koNjyErF-aJD3xUTnS1ruW4aOH8IPveqoRH-TuZ8mSNmKo84wrmkQ5_L3kgHC_H52tvkKZqfHLZRne8456FXMCcf3OMnCq1C3bRZ9lV9gV_Pviu4VbJc5O_bH9fb251YPE2bPBAxbWnMFaqNn3dkX6QOl5/s2241/dr3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1488" data-original-width="2241" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZmfOrXlvYHVK3iPLio8aiSCeePO-5Q0koNjyErF-aJD3xUTnS1ruW4aOH8IPveqoRH-TuZ8mSNmKo84wrmkQ5_L3kgHC_H52tvkKZqfHLZRne8456FXMCcf3OMnCq1C3bRZ9lV9gV_Pviu4VbJc5O_bH9fb251YPE2bPBAxbWnMFaqNn3dkX6QOl5/s320/dr3.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Copyright Andy Frazer; click to enlarge</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdSI96MVJAfLLPXWLgfMZecMAwdDg_qApgegQwFVKDp9lBFNNoNZvXV3PsDpj3IKkRLVdnv9cMNOR3yXqoNgHLy--oCwCGMsRsGTY1p_XUxsLH_d0wLx0_TScKhqCquiPb8xsGoFhBuCZSINQ7sieISxr-EZBdEHGFa-yOa-XfiD6ZSvl1KDm1nfig/s2463/dr1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1550" data-original-width="2463" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdSI96MVJAfLLPXWLgfMZecMAwdDg_qApgegQwFVKDp9lBFNNoNZvXV3PsDpj3IKkRLVdnv9cMNOR3yXqoNgHLy--oCwCGMsRsGTY1p_XUxsLH_d0wLx0_TScKhqCquiPb8xsGoFhBuCZSINQ7sieISxr-EZBdEHGFa-yOa-XfiD6ZSvl1KDm1nfig/s320/dr1.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Copyright Andy Frazer; click to enlarge</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><p>These two magnificent specimens show that Andy manages to produce very attractive and also realistic minidragons. Both sport interesting crests. Before you object that no flying animal should have such ridiculously large crests, have a look at some real-life pterosaurs, such as Nyctosaurus. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyctosaurus" target="_blank">Nyctosaurs</a> are the kind of real animal that no designer of fantasy animals would dare produce because no-one would believe that such animals could exist. I like the way the colours are used to associate the animals with real animals. Here, the images evoke butterflies and bats. Parts of the animal are not standard pterosaur stock, though; the grasping tail is a nice original development, even though a flying animal might not need an anchor, as falling out of a tree won’t harm a flying animal much. </p><p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYX20286AiRyhCY1l15UcV_6jrE2UOPubEa64mnFt3H-vZWFK85Jwv0ASxwG17OJuFlz7vU26ljEhw-Ke7tR171_5bCMWtHUFZ0Qtjnm10WY61z5gnqzypr-H-90PqLm4UHim8OI31P93KgY7lnHYbYIJBcHMdlnSJXXWngSp6ENACchHiKNDkgf4l/s2496/dr5.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1771" data-original-width="2496" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYX20286AiRyhCY1l15UcV_6jrE2UOPubEa64mnFt3H-vZWFK85Jwv0ASxwG17OJuFlz7vU26ljEhw-Ke7tR171_5bCMWtHUFZ0Qtjnm10WY61z5gnqzypr-H-90PqLm4UHim8OI31P93KgY7lnHYbYIJBcHMdlnSJXXWngSp6ENACchHiKNDkgf4l/s320/dr5.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Copyright Andy Frazer; click to enlarge</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguln7Pb5_NCj9Fn4Hk2GHDrnoBlYjwkScXjQstoZa1vsx-38FwxG3LL9p_85PzcrHD3TlhkkGOfaMMT7K8Wa-qk3_b9MFuiZGE56ZkbJhdLs7tCjNo7BTRBA8afRNPAEFQ-K_3CFs9FdfDRCB5qeLQQA27rWtzmvJZxKK3QmwVV40-AxjbOvmxiLWm/s1920/dr2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1358" data-original-width="1920" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguln7Pb5_NCj9Fn4Hk2GHDrnoBlYjwkScXjQstoZa1vsx-38FwxG3LL9p_85PzcrHD3TlhkkGOfaMMT7K8Wa-qk3_b9MFuiZGE56ZkbJhdLs7tCjNo7BTRBA8afRNPAEFQ-K_3CFs9FdfDRCB5qeLQQA27rWtzmvJZxKK3QmwVV40-AxjbOvmxiLWm/s320/dr2.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Copyright Andy Frazer; click to enlarge</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><p>Andy is definitely not afraid to use colour. The red-banded dragon looks like a poisonous snake, with its high-contrast bands shouting 'danger'. The green one uses colour in the exact opposite way, to hide itself. It probably does not do so to hide from its predators, but from its prey, making it a nice example of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aggressive_mimicry" target="_blank">aggressive mimicry</a>. I love its toad-like demeanour, and wonder whether it is filled with air, as a massive animal would have difficulty becoming airborne. </p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7rKL7KKlEzWnphfDrRwpdI0ASzI1annqpJ9L7VKEqHZu1nCikYE53a76Vjf2wB98sBUcbvR1E2vN_oJD1cCEGhjyZJogy4w5mn2tLuiOty9ZZS9g-Hc5ahPrx2a2VooGNOcCVADYJ9wGGWMezAJiyBNIwGY4eFw1hgQosPHHIlxlCxesC0O_sO-EG/s2494/dr4.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1762" data-original-width="2494" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7rKL7KKlEzWnphfDrRwpdI0ASzI1annqpJ9L7VKEqHZu1nCikYE53a76Vjf2wB98sBUcbvR1E2vN_oJD1cCEGhjyZJogy4w5mn2tLuiOty9ZZS9g-Hc5ahPrx2a2VooGNOcCVADYJ9wGGWMezAJiyBNIwGY4eFw1hgQosPHHIlxlCxesC0O_sO-EG/s320/dr4.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Copyright Andy Frazer; click to enlarge</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP9AYMnxHb2hpleHxBjrxBVvy-D7qx4JbSxrcDTTRo83ZofRjYNfff4hdTqhmjqdEJ0v1FmuZOsakbw0cnpNsfYwlutTGmhketDEEEHvF24am76EsfUwneKv3NcMdEkBEkgf6Cuvg99-2ZN5-Tos2ZnwhBpfyLcHEB4Z592tCn8v6A7s53kDsRMOBh/s2495/dr7.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1768" data-original-width="2495" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP9AYMnxHb2hpleHxBjrxBVvy-D7qx4JbSxrcDTTRo83ZofRjYNfff4hdTqhmjqdEJ0v1FmuZOsakbw0cnpNsfYwlutTGmhketDEEEHvF24am76EsfUwneKv3NcMdEkBEkgf6Cuvg99-2ZN5-Tos2ZnwhBpfyLcHEB4Z592tCn8v6A7s53kDsRMOBh/s320/dr7.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Copyright Andy Frazer; click to enlarge</td></tr></tbody></table><br />These dragons look a bit menacing. They occur in the book 'Dragons of the Dark Woods'. The darker atmosphere is by design and is most obvious in the other example above. This dragon bears sticky worm-like tentacles on its face, something no pterosaur is likely to have ever had. It is here we see that Andy is abandoning the pterosaur ancestry to a degree. I asked him why, and he replied that the change was deliberate. He wished to increase appeal by producing darker designs. His project is, after all, not a pure artistic scientific endeavour but a commercial project too. In fact, quite a few of the dragons originated as suggestions by backers of the Kickstarter campaigns, which necessitated a degree of compromise. One day, Andy wrote, he would like to take things in the opposite direction and produce a book of wholly believable creatures with accurate pterosaur anatomy, probably based on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anurognathus" target="_blank">Anurognathes</a> (I'll buy it!). </p><p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdHBM0p_3M1b_yr6zKqWWGt9pD5Ria59IjQwtFDhL2lHGWplt5mrGESA2wwbgsorA-MxdvxxigPOmI19wHxoKBFxMxw6HkMb3DS2H4ttEVpJeFEjSpH0sEc2CmFajJrgXeVKMbLb26ZH50z1xHmms9Kt4kOCTTem4gDyLPmOD9svx5EIK8LDZ2vEXX/s680/deeptime.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="454" data-original-width="680" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdHBM0p_3M1b_yr6zKqWWGt9pD5Ria59IjQwtFDhL2lHGWplt5mrGESA2wwbgsorA-MxdvxxigPOmI19wHxoKBFxMxw6HkMb3DS2H4ttEVpJeFEjSpH0sEc2CmFajJrgXeVKMbLb26ZH50z1xHmms9Kt4kOCTTem4gDyLPmOD9svx5EIK8LDZ2vEXX/s320/deeptime.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Copyright Andy Frazer; click to enlarge</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><p>Andy has recently started a new Kickstarter campaign: Dragons of Deep Time. The overall theme is again moving away from palaeontology, but in another, more mystical, direction: these dragons live so long that they gradually blend with rock and wood. </p><p>The illustrations in these books are excellent. Andy told me he starts with a pencil drawing, which he then photographs. He draws over the photograph digitally, using Procreate for iPad. He adds photographic textures to add detail to key areas. The backgrounds are likewise produced using photographs. Many people, including well-known dinosaur illustrators, also mixing paintings with photographs. While that sounds easy, it really isn’t, as you often see a visual clash between the various parts of an image. Andy obviously manages to avoid such clashes. He uses a final layer of digital painting to bring the dragon and its environment together, including cast shadows etc. </p><p>I hope that readers will like the Dragons of Wales as much as I do. Many images are readily visible on social media, so if you want to see more Dragons of Wales, simply copy and follow the various leads below. You will not be disappointed. </p><p>https://twitter.com/dragonsofwales<br />https://www.patreon.com/dragonsofwales<br />https://www.instagram.com/dragonsofwales/<br />https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dragonsofwales/dragons-of-deep-time?ref=project_link<br />https://www.facebook.com/dragonsofwales<br />https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/DragonsofWales<br />https://web.marcelforart.com/dragonsofwales/<br />https://www.artstation.com/dragonsofwales<br />https://www.behance.net/gallery/125113787/Portfolio </p><p style="text-align: center;">------------------------------<br /></p><p> <i>PS 1. I apologise for being late with this post. The reason is that I am preparing to move house, which takes a lot of time. </i></p><p><i>PS 2. A selection of Furahan paintings will feature in the Art Route Leiden ('Kunstroute Leiden'), 24-25 September 2022, Leiden, The Netherlands. Many have never been seen outside my home. The plans include me being there to explain some of the ideas behind the work, and there will be a chance to buy high-quality prints for the first time too. More news is to follow. </i></p><p><i> </i></p><p><i> </i></p>Sigmund Nastrazzurrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16449461215427527447noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-1054710798334418532022-05-27T11:35:00.000+02:002022-05-27T11:35:32.469+02:00Playing it by Ears (Hearing 3)<p>This post builds upon the previous two about the sense of hearing, <a href="http://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2022/01/hear-hear-sense-of-hearing-1.html" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2022/03/lend-me-your-ears-hearing-2.html" target="_blank">here</a>. It is probably best to read at least the previous one, because some understanding is required about the 'cone of confusion'. That is a key concept to understand why combining information from two ears is not enough to determine the direction of a sound source accurately. <br /><br />To summarise, sound from a given source will take longer to arrive at the ear farthest from the source than at the nearest ear; it will also arrive less loud at the farthest ear. The brain measures the differences in arrival time and in loudness between the ears and computes an angle between two lines; the first runs from the nearest ear to the source of the sound, and the second is the axis connecting the two ears. <br /><br />If you know something about how to indicate a direction in 3D space, you will realise that you cannot do that with just one angle. If you wish to indicate the position of the sun in the sky from a point on the Earth's surface, you need two angles: one tells you the compass direction, and the other indicates elevation above the ground. With hearing with tow ears, the one angle you get is relative to the axis between the ears. The sound can come from all directions obtained by sweeping that angle around that axis. The result is the 'cone of confusion'. Do not worry, an image may help.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjU4EcXTybiKecxQ4_opT5jOPaaLPrJ-saftaG349GJ2POlvj-J2wiUnaXcddtoMJsSVNvtViaOmYIf79iFKFIGx2WANALYX3alQ67AJzI0yi7M4hAYPjLWbo9qZYRcWQGCARIGwcjmtZwqQcuVomYZtE1IYlZrWUgMW2a4fXGhoqGgC9ZQvOw-gXV/s1600/FrontEars.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjU4EcXTybiKecxQ4_opT5jOPaaLPrJ-saftaG349GJ2POlvj-J2wiUnaXcddtoMJsSVNvtViaOmYIf79iFKFIGx2WANALYX3alQ67AJzI0yi7M4hAYPjLWbo9qZYRcWQGCARIGwcjmtZwqQcuVomYZtE1IYlZrWUgMW2a4fXGhoqGgC9ZQvOw-gXV/s320/FrontEars.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright Gert van Dijk<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Here is a new animal, one whose head is elongated enough to accommodate two pairs of ears: the front and hind pairs. Let's explore whether having more than two ears helps. The small golden globe represents a sound source. To start with, consider just the front pair of ears. I have drawn the line from the source to the nearest ear, the axis between the ears, and the angle between them. Rotating the around the axis results in the specific 'cone of confusion' for this particular sound source for the front ears. Let's call it the 'front CoC'. By the way, the cone is drawn as if it stops at the sound source; in reality it extends into space.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE7tw6sjYefuanGsSGCODqN9jQix22jW47nL-wEetv_lzMOjSOtDIk8G5PimFrKLyuG88v0n8jVxkvaWFTl_wtU5XGlxPKTV1lEkYM94BuUq9vk8MIuTpZcAI7ENUh-iv6jYQkbDwVtkbK_l9tmcWp9oAlLmLmJSIFSosMLsdrGXfk1UmdM5n9oNT_/s1600/HindEars.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE7tw6sjYefuanGsSGCODqN9jQix22jW47nL-wEetv_lzMOjSOtDIk8G5PimFrKLyuG88v0n8jVxkvaWFTl_wtU5XGlxPKTV1lEkYM94BuUq9vk8MIuTpZcAI7ENUh-iv6jYQkbDwVtkbK_l9tmcWp9oAlLmLmJSIFSosMLsdrGXfk1UmdM5n9oNT_/s320/HindEars.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright Gert van Dijk<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p>The sound will also be picked up by the hind ears, and we will assume that the animal’s brain performs a similar analysis for the hind ears. There is therefore a new angle, now between the source and the axis through the hind ears, and also a new cone: the ‘hind CoC’.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMgtNM60T-N0swLwhAs1PE_u2yhtSPoUdvEEGSJYy8WrLOO2WOy-f3BiIFtG8NU-tuFD632Er2OSDhBmvcr73r99S3plnI6zqYJn6giFIM-z4WVi3qDPS76DvDB2Gr7EuolYTgAW3i7nID9z27VmzE3H3Rqhy5ijdNnFrlF_9hKDAYYhqBDfyf9Kz4/s1600/FrontAndHindEars.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMgtNM60T-N0swLwhAs1PE_u2yhtSPoUdvEEGSJYy8WrLOO2WOy-f3BiIFtG8NU-tuFD632Er2OSDhBmvcr73r99S3plnI6zqYJn6giFIM-z4WVi3qDPS76DvDB2Gr7EuolYTgAW3i7nID9z27VmzE3H3Rqhy5ijdNnFrlF_9hKDAYYhqBDfyf9Kz4/s320/FrontAndHindEars.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright Gert van Dijk<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p>There would be no point in having four ears if the two localisation systems could not be combined. The source of the sound must lie on both cones, so we need to find the parts that the two cones have in common: their intersection. That intersection is, in this case, a nice parabola. It is shown as stopping at the end of the cones but should again extend into space along with the cones. Does this improve localisation? Yes: the possible source of the sound is reduced from the surface of a cone to a line in 3D. </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWKIGgeTRYKq2IvszRd3BC-zRNntnL-4jUDOFkgdioC-FA94BZyCmvQzLINz4grBKM-IYEzeO6lzkpHXOkKY5Pxh3UmxeStsLwyo5z_od2dneZIy0pgQTNSKiT7rEmmF3tu7c7isIilcF9qZ-1yG3Q6S_nwHzXAaaIjf3VO_3RnOL001Tkko_J64ze/s1600/FrontHindRightEars.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWKIGgeTRYKq2IvszRd3BC-zRNntnL-4jUDOFkgdioC-FA94BZyCmvQzLINz4grBKM-IYEzeO6lzkpHXOkKY5Pxh3UmxeStsLwyo5z_od2dneZIy0pgQTNSKiT7rEmmF3tu7c7isIilcF9qZ-1yG3Q6S_nwHzXAaaIjf3VO_3RnOL001Tkko_J64ze/s320/FrontHindRightEars.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright Gert van Dijk <br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p>But the brain can do more with the information already available. We can also combine left ears and right ears. In the drawings, the sound source was placed at the right side of the animal, so let’s use the right ears, with the sound nearer the front than the hind ear. The principles are exactly the same: we draw the axis running through the ears, determine the angle between the source and the axis and rotate it around the axis: the ‘right CoC’. In this example the cone is a bit more difficult to visualise because the source lies between the two ears involved, but the principle remains the same. If we combine the new cone with the parabola we already had, we find that the only solution now consists of two points. <br /><br />I stopped here, even though the ‘left CoC’ could still be added. You could also form two diagonal combinations, meaning the left front with right hind ear, and the right front with the left hind ear. With four ears, there are therefore six possible CoCs, and together that should be enough to solve the problem. However, I doubt that the animal’s brain would perform all the calculations after one another; there is probably a smarter way to get the correct answer.<br /><br />The position of the ears could be more creative too. In the example above, the four ears all lied on a plane, but that is not necessary. Suppose that the front ears lie on a horizontal line, so there would be a front left and a front right ear, like in the example. But the hind ears might lie on a vertical line, yielding an upper hind ear and a lower hind ear. The four ears would lie on the corners of a tetrahedron. There may also be other ways to improve the location of sounds, so perhaps this will not be the last post of sound localisation. <br /></p>Sigmund Nastrazzurrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16449461215427527447noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-89142649383116498722022-04-24T17:11:00.008+02:002022-04-25T08:57:10.235+02:0014 Years on (and one million views later)<p>The first post of this blog was published on 22 April 2008. It was an experiment, and I had no idea how long I would continue to keep writing posts. I still don't, but the fact that the blog is still here after 14 years, was not something I foresaw at the time and for now I shall continue. Let's start this post update with an overview of past results, as per 23 April 2022:<br /><br />Number of posts: 278 (not counting this one) <br />Number of comments: 2485<br />Number of followers at present: 220<br />Number of views: 1,001,012<br /><br />This means that each posts generates an average of 9.8 comments. I like the idea that the number of views surpassed 1 million but have no idea how many of these views represent people taking an active interest, and how many 'views' in fact represent bots. <br /><br /><b>Which posts attracted the most interest?</b><br /><br />Swimming in sand 1: the sandworms of Dune <span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>10,100 <br />The anatomy of giants in 'Game of Thrones'; did they get it right? <span> </span><span> </span>9,500<br />A future book on future evolution from France <span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>6,470<br />Avatar's "Walking with hexapods" or "Don't walk this way" <span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>6,380<br />Warren Fahy's "Fragment" <span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span> <span> </span><span> </span>4,340<br />More future evolution in Japan <span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span> <span> </span><span> </span>4,250<br />Alternate future evolution in Japan <span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>3,890<br />Future evolution from France: "Demain, les animaux du futur" Review I 3,340<br />A century of thoats <span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>3,070<br />The future is wild... and it is Manga! <span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>3,030<br /><br />Comparing the list with earlier ones show that the top 10 hasn't really changed that much. The lesson is the same as before: if I would want to maximise the number of views, I should write about popular films, TV series and books. I largely stopped doing that, which explains why the top 10 is stable.</p><p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQzi2F1oQx8quQi7j40VDLi6GBmWsuRNR2RjX8GKHNTXsZRxNTck4Q87EQ1iQuM3qhMDuE8Ml4Rt18zpLfKhgRD3C-zDjptkC8IElxP9LJ1WNwHZJmcYSW8HV2QuGIviee9LGz3X7srSqKSntZoIzaAyZRMm3rFtmLdI8Ue3Yguk0rylYWfFEUHPxU/s1000/stand.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="689" data-original-width="1000" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQzi2F1oQx8quQi7j40VDLi6GBmWsuRNR2RjX8GKHNTXsZRxNTck4Q87EQ1iQuM3qhMDuE8Ml4Rt18zpLfKhgRD3C-zDjptkC8IElxP9LJ1WNwHZJmcYSW8HV2QuGIviee9LGz3X7srSqKSntZoIzaAyZRMm3rFtmLdI8Ue3Yguk0rylYWfFEUHPxU/s320/stand.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />It is interesting that the attraction of posts can differ much over time. For instance, the sandworm post attracted a great deal of interest in the beginning, followed by a steady trickle of about 20 to 100 views per day. In contrast, the two posts with Japan in the title showed a comeback in 2020 and 2021. <br /><br /><b>Just another dragon</b><br /><br />A post without any new material or thoughts is at best mildly interesting, so here is a minor illustration showing a schamtic view of a 'Megadraco' taking off. This is a species of the clade <a href="http://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2021/11/are-there-dragons-on-furaha.html" target="_blank">Dialata, discussed here. </a><br /><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGxZhdCrNYi8A_ZNbm-nABZt6oQ51C5OKTYsOoAcczFC9-dyrMNfShUa1MSbmjY9mzd_KXoI33qtW8suZujhwNn9BPgVYv6t_x8TLNwEggsaAuDd37zbi5o4mYlfQas4oLz-ArBwHJD_LUndaHjm-5QntvAN6DOX1CE-XANag751LI1513Vj5PNQQy/s1221/quadrup.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1221" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGxZhdCrNYi8A_ZNbm-nABZt6oQ51C5OKTYsOoAcczFC9-dyrMNfShUa1MSbmjY9mzd_KXoI33qtW8suZujhwNn9BPgVYv6t_x8TLNwEggsaAuDd37zbi5o4mYlfQas4oLz-ArBwHJD_LUndaHjm-5QntvAN6DOX1CE-XANag751LI1513Vj5PNQQy/s320/quadrup.png" width="314" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright Gert van Dijk<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p>This animal is much larger than Earth's birds, so how does it fly? Well, readers will realise that pterosaurs grew much larger than birds. pterosaurs definitely flew, so how did they outsmart birds in this respect? Well, <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2017/08/flying-animals-or-true-weight-lifting.html" target="_blank">you may remember </a>that lift is proportional not only to wing area but also to the square of air velocity. In other words, doubling velocity has the same effect on lift as a fourfold increase in wing area. Speed pays to remain airborne. The problem is how to get to such a speed from a start on the ground (jumping off a branch or a cliff is a much easier way to achieve speed) . The problem is more difficult for larger animals; if you have seen a swan or heavy goose take off, you may realise just how difficult it can be for a heavy bird to achieve that all-important speed. <br /><br />The idea is that pterosaurs achieved high starting speed in a radically different way: they <a href="https://pterosaur.net/flight.php" target="_blank">jumped into the air, </a>powered not just by their hind legs, but also by their much more powerful front legs: the wings! That quadrupedal launch should be enough to get them high enough in the air for a first powerful downwards wing stroke, and from then on, they were in business. </p><p>I like that idea and thought that evolution might well do its familiar 'parallel' trick again. If your basic body plan involves six limbs, of which the middle pair are wings, you have four legs left to propel yourself up into the air. That should help! Of course, once in the air, those four limbs weigh something but do not contribute to flight, so perhaps the resulting animals do not grow as large as the biggest pterosaurs. But even so, with a quadrupedal launch and a <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2009/06/more-on-tetropter-flight.html" target="_blank">clap-and-fling</a> first wing beat, these Furahan dragons get up fast enough to fly, large as they are. <br /><b><br />The future</b><br /><br />The <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2021/07/the-great-hexapod-revolution-and.html" target="_blank">'Great Hexapod Revolution' </a>means that the anatomy of various animals in various already finished paintings was no longer correct. Sadly, these paintings were therefore instantly no longer 'finished'. I am working my way through them, changing legs and heads left and right. I have only about 5 more of such reviews to do, and after that I will make only two or three completely new paintings. Meanwhile, I will work on some additional material such as a Glossary, and then the manuscript of The Book is all done. I expect to achieve that goal this year, but will also move from one house to another, which always takes more time than you think, even if you take that into consideration.<br /><br />And then there is the matter of finding a publisher. That is an open question. I wonder what the post '15 years on' will have to say on that subject... <br /></p>Sigmund Nastrazzurrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16449461215427527447noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-74941241500327468342022-03-06T18:49:00.001+01:002022-03-06T18:49:10.964+01:00Lend me your ears! (Hearing 2)<p>In nature, localising the source of a sound has obvious survival value, to localise prey, predators, mates, competitors, etc. The <a href="http://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2022/01/hear-hear-sense-of-hearing-1.html" target="_blank">previous post</a> started the subject, but this one deals with how mammals, humans in particular, try to solve that problem. As we shall see, localising sounds is not all that easy. Of course, some animals are much better at this than others, but there are some fundamental problems. Humans make use of no less than three different mechanisms. This post might be a bit technical, but I left the mathematics to a nice free <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S187972961830067X" target="_blank">good review, here</a>. <br /><br />The main problem is that sound can bend around obstacles, and so change direction. A sound reaching your ear can therefore come from just about anywhere. You can therefore hear things you cannot see, which is good news in the dark or in a jungle. Of course, you do not know where it is coming from. Sound provides a good alerting but a poor localising system, whereas a well-developed eye is a localising organ (<a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2012/08/why-sight-is-superior-to-echolocation.html" target="_blank">see here </a>for a comparison of echolocation with vision). </p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh_zdKC1Q9NUii8bM0CNi0zVrl87c2t9JGIti5PIhNjg9MPj_9U8qfFLWOP4Uw-VhTa9ExX6evD5RoLGHcRClUawPqM2uF0Nrn-mwSoXbg-_f62DSVH_d2WQf373xNRghNreTGYOEWb7kpYzDCC49QRcOMZF-LrXonAYTTIxKdURdW6SP7VsGpXkfrg=s1000" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="904" data-original-width="1000" height="289" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh_zdKC1Q9NUii8bM0CNi0zVrl87c2t9JGIti5PIhNjg9MPj_9U8qfFLWOP4Uw-VhTa9ExX6evD5RoLGHcRClUawPqM2uF0Nrn-mwSoXbg-_f62DSVH_d2WQf373xNRghNreTGYOEWb7kpYzDCC49QRcOMZF-LrXonAYTTIxKdURdW6SP7VsGpXkfrg=s320" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright Gert van Dijk<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p>If we would have just one simple ear of the hole-in-the head variety, but with an eardrum and vibration sensors, we would be stuck at that level. But bilateral symmetry provides us with two ears, and evolution made clever use of that. The image above shows that the waves from a sound source travel directly to the nearest ear but must travel further to reach the farthest ear. The sound arrives at the ears with a time difference: the 'interaural time difference (ITD)'. The difference in arrival time depends on the extra distance the sound has to travel, shown in red. That difference depends on where the sound comes from, relative to the axis between the two ears. The maximum arrival distance occurs with sources placed on that axis, because the sound must travel farthest around the head. The minimum is no difference at all: this occurs when the source is placed on the plane of symmetry. You could make a table telling you which difference corresponds to which angle, and that is basically what the nervous system does for you. </p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEikQTv94EMompvAumu6ruPb0ezIHCq-ADZJL1Txq3CPkRsr53gDOk72vE1PRVeFk4NBZLRioTl0OoxTtaZIcGBSPRalYL0MihDngv55J5Sy74SLEN4NGZz3H5B4rgmyreWKa4Zpb7Gy5jJgRNzZiyqTB6WWhbXYc7qnU0nHVdMhZJGGOiiTTZXc5QpR=s1200" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="902" data-original-width="1200" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEikQTv94EMompvAumu6ruPb0ezIHCq-ADZJL1Txq3CPkRsr53gDOk72vE1PRVeFk4NBZLRioTl0OoxTtaZIcGBSPRalYL0MihDngv55J5Sy74SLEN4NGZz3H5B4rgmyreWKa4Zpb7Gy5jJgRNzZiyqTB6WWhbXYc7qnU0nHVdMhZJGGOiiTTZXc5QpR=s320" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright Gert van Dijk<br /></td></tr></tbody></table> </p><p>Unfortunately, this is not a perfect solution. The arrival difference tells you what that angle is, but not whether the source is up, down, to the front, the back, or anywhere in between. The image above tries to explain that. The source could be anywhere on the brilliantly named ‘cone of confusion’; that is the surface you get if you rotate the angle around the ‘hearing axis’. One way to get around this problem is to rotate your head and listen again, because then you get a different cone of confusion, giving you an additional clue where the sound comes from. <br /><br />Mammalian ears make use of a second trick. When sound bends around an object, its volume decreases. Your head provides a ‘sound shadow’: The volume of sound in the nearest ear is louder than that in the farthest ear, in the sound shadow, so there is an 'interaural level difference (ILD)'. The difference in volume depends on the angle, and again the brain constructs a table telling you which difference in sound level corresponds to which angle. But that irritating cone of confusion is still there...<br /><br />Mammal evolution came up with a third trick: the external ear! The complex shape of the external ear alters the spectrum of the sound, and how it is altered depends on the location of the source of the sound: the 'head-related transfer function ('HRTF)'. This works to an extent with just one ear. When I first read this, I wondered how that could work, because people have such differently shaped ears. Well, the solution is brain learns to live with the filtering characteristics of the ears you happen to have. This has been put to the test by altering people's ears by placing a mould on the ear, and that indeed that fooled the brain to make mistakes in sound location. </p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjCtJBemTc1xWkNPQ1N6A1ojn5Gc62kTrtO_HNOHn-h149G1v65yODPtmgB1ywqdrtYtiERNdZ8du91FoO2nLS-52zOZDrzX0bYKW20Ht5HVy4FbthSyFP6ZHkVKe7d-tzVkfgKSW6inKuNILiJ4lVelKdhrI_agCatIXfWqV8Cv-WDbaTJIyi-WTY7=s1000" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="396" data-original-width="1000" height="127" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjCtJBemTc1xWkNPQ1N6A1ojn5Gc62kTrtO_HNOHn-h149G1v65yODPtmgB1ywqdrtYtiERNdZ8du91FoO2nLS-52zOZDrzX0bYKW20Ht5HVy4FbthSyFP6ZHkVKe7d-tzVkfgKSW6inKuNILiJ4lVelKdhrI_agCatIXfWqV8Cv-WDbaTJIyi-WTY7=s320" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; source and rights <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S187972961830067X" target="_blank">here </a><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />You may wonder why you would have three systems for the same purpose. One part of the answer is that the efficacy of each system depends on sound frequency. The figure above shows the frequency: ITD ('arrival time') works best at low frequencies, and ILD ('loudness') and HRTF ('external ear') work best at high frequencies. Together, they do a nice job for all frequencies. But there are strong clues that the situation still is not optimal, and that is behaviour. Many animals can move their ears, and people can tilt and turn their head to locate the source of a sound: that shrinks the cone of confusion. But we still start a visual search of the general area of the sound, hoping that vision will provide the ultimate localisation. Of course, that is in part because we are diurnal mammals with very good vision; but part of the explanation is that localising sounds is inherently difficult. <br /><br />Could animals on other planets do better? I think so, but that speculation will have to wait for another post. <br /></p><br /><br />Sigmund Nastrazzurrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16449461215427527447noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-34996247167087690652022-02-26T14:23:00.003+01:002022-02-26T14:23:55.442+01:00Tabulae Mortuae V (Archives XV): Digital paintings die too...<p> Every now and again I show an image from the Creature Vaults, those hidden domains where old sketches, failed paintings and discarded designs find their final resting place. 'Final', unless they are dragged out to be presented to the world, usually for the first time.</p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEibDWIGxlyGzngMBud10SLlcOZdTXwi0TR-rc-ZX6RUU_Sw1qg1WXZPyqwSiwRePeBn66Y4ZMiuoI34N50kzkSuLeNLo1Nsp4yOl8d0dh-awn0n8HBWnB6vQTXgIh4zPZlWKoInwLt08MqNDhXOftAonegCW_jRUChnda2znqiTOO26xCg2_zKrB8LY=s1000" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="698" data-original-width="1000" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEibDWIGxlyGzngMBud10SLlcOZdTXwi0TR-rc-ZX6RUU_Sw1qg1WXZPyqwSiwRePeBn66Y4ZMiuoI34N50kzkSuLeNLo1Nsp4yOl8d0dh-awn0n8HBWnB6vQTXgIh4zPZlWKoInwLt08MqNDhXOftAonegCW_jRUChnda2znqiTOO26xCg2_zKrB8LY=s320" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright Gert van Dijk<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />This image is one such, and it is the first to come from a vault without physical form. Other vaults consist of large cardboard folders, or of stacks of oil paintings carelessly stacked against the back wall of a closet. This vault is digital. <br /><br />I started the conversion of the Furaha project from oil paintings to digital art <a href="http://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2011/01/its-fish.html" target="_blank">some 11 years ago</a>. The project, now nearly done, changes as time passes. <a href="http://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2021/07/the-great-hexapod-revolution-and.html " target="_blank">The Great Hexapod Revolution</a> had as a result that legs, heads and jaws or earlier hexapods no longer followed my self-imposed rules. The changes were too large to be solved with moderate cosmetic changes (I tried), so many paintings are now seeing a 'Mark II". In fact, some started as oil paintings (MkI), were later redone as digital paintings (MkII), and are now revisited to become MkIII. Mind you, most paintings these days are entirely new.</p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiuyP03XZrxbbf_ZppaFGW7Gy_Ad1GUou4A-xWocO0Uhuby7KbuDRlQnmeiiwWIoXqTi2D6BBb04Tlt4V1DWQC3xXu3x2tTXK8JxfOzgilVs5p8_qO1isew_kSStKFRi-1vUNOY2x2JoZwscoP3xM8QXNNppu9GwYF2NiJyYoPOEYmEphC89Zzwe7vG=s746" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="593" data-original-width="746" height="254" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiuyP03XZrxbbf_ZppaFGW7Gy_Ad1GUou4A-xWocO0Uhuby7KbuDRlQnmeiiwWIoXqTi2D6BBb04Tlt4V1DWQC3xXu3x2tTXK8JxfOzgilVs5p8_qO1isew_kSStKFRi-1vUNOY2x2JoZwscoP3xM8QXNNppu9GwYF2NiJyYoPOEYmEphC89Zzwe7vG=s320" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright Gert van Dijk<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Here is some more detail of the head of this now defunct animal. It is a pity that I had to discard it, as I rather like the painting. But I kept the overall design and colour scheme for the MkIII version, which is nearly finished, and looks just as well or better, I think. <br /><br />The animal is a 'thresher', with the Latin name 'Ira tarda'. That means 'slow anger', a name that was inspired by memories of an old teacher of mine. Threshers are solitary, grumpy and are best left to their own devices. They do have to meet from time to time, in view of the perpetuation of the species, but their behaviour at such times gives little indication of a mood upswing. Best not talk about it, really. <br /></p><br /><br />Sigmund Nastrazzurrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16449461215427527447noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-84752893501862167362022-01-29T15:48:00.001+01:002022-02-04T10:56:17.482+01:00Hear, hear! (The sense of hearing 1)<p>There have been many attempts to design interesting sensory systems for alien
animals. Some tried to equip animals with radio or radar, which poses the
difficulty that such radiation passes easily through biological tissues, making
them hard to detect. There have been attempts to do away with vision altogether
and replace it with something else, such as echolocation. The most famous
example is probably Barlowe's Expedition. Although his artistic prowess made the
result look spectacular, life without vision on a planet with light seems very
unlikely. The echolocation was explored in four posts: <a href="http://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2012/01/eyes-have-it.html" target="_blank">one</a>, <a href="http://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2012/07/echolocation-sound-choice.html" target="_blank">two</a>, <a href="http://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2012/08/why-sight-is-superior-to-echolocation.html" target="_blank">three </a>and <a href="http://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2012/10/big-bad-flashy-fish-bbff-final-answer.html" target="_blank">four</a>. </p><p>I cannot remember a fictional world in which the total absence of hearing is
presented as an interesting twist. That absence suggests that hearing is
accepted as a simple given. Are there environments in which hearing cannot work?
Yes, there are. If we define hearing as the ability to pick up mechanical
vibrations in a surrounding medium, close to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearing" target="_blank">Wikipedia definition</a>, then the
absence of that medium will abolish hearing. The resulting environment coins the
nice phrase 'In space no-one can hear you scream'. True, but you cannot breathe
there either, and that is definitely a bigger problem than not being able to
scream. I intend to write two posts about hearing in a terrestrial environment
with an Earth-like atmospheres. The present one will have a look at evolution of
hearing on Earth, to see if that helps designing alien hearing. </p><p>Picking up
mechanical vibrations from the air is not fundamentally different from doing so
in another medium, such as water. The medium could be expanded to include
touching an object, such as the ground. Picking up ground vibrations is so close
to hearing that you could arguably include that in the 'hearing' concept. The
ability to register vibrations lies at the heart of our kind of 'air hearing'.
Where it is easy to evolve 'air hearing' for animals that once came out of water
will depend on their starting point. Here is <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2021.667218/full" target="_blank">a very nice paper comparing vertebrate and insect hearing</a>. The basic problem has to do with being surrounded
by air. Bodies are mostly water, so vibrations in water will readily pass into
watery bodies, where they can be picked up. But picking up air vibrations in a
watery body requires a signal transformation. The main way to do that, in
vertebrates and insects, is to use a taut membrane to pick up air vibrations. </p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh4pkIq69MgSjvGXe_xJ2hYKSbPE9AX3f6BsnDAlpusOewP2w5lkc5k7XNk2KbDCGV4vImFH_exa_NrWAxaH6Hg4-mssx0I0duA6_mIIr3eXFxiacs9SyQnxPr2D0m_S2kUK7TClFM3zqmIF_dsbdqsH0TwTJ2P9FJZzv6xM0Dq60bpNcUJzheQTWYl=s2114" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1063" data-original-width="2114" height="161" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh4pkIq69MgSjvGXe_xJ2hYKSbPE9AX3f6BsnDAlpusOewP2w5lkc5k7XNk2KbDCGV4vImFH_exa_NrWAxaH6Hg4-mssx0I0duA6_mIIr3eXFxiacs9SyQnxPr2D0m_S2kUK7TClFM3zqmIF_dsbdqsH0TwTJ2P9FJZzv6xM0Dq60bpNcUJzheQTWYl=s320" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; source and copyright: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2021.667218/full<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /> <b>Vertebrates </b><p></p><p>Vertebrates apparently evolved their eardrum, or tympanic
membrane, from skin. Making an eardrum work means the drum must be open to the air on one
end, but there also must be air on the other side of the drum, inside the
animal. Having bubbles of air in the body is not a standard part of animal
anatomy though, so the middle ear had to evolve from scratch too. The
illustration above shows that eardrums were present at the start of the
Mesozoic, not earlier. As if that was not difficult enough, the system also
needed pressure transducers, for which rearranged jaw bones were press-ganged. </p><p>It seems that hearing was not really an easy process for Earth vertebrates, so
perhaps 'air hearing' is not an automatic given. The paper suggests that
vertebrates, before they evolved proper 'air hearing', may have picked up
vibrations through the ground, perhaps to sense predators. That makes me wonder
whether predators at the time would have been under evolutionary pressure to
walk softly. </p><p><b>Insects </b></p><p>The paper also goes into insect hearing and makes the point
that insects had it much easier: forming an eardrum was a matter of thinning the
exoskeleton, and the insects' exoskeleton, right at the air-body interface,
already carried lots of mechanoreceptors that could easily be given a new job.
Insects have air-filled tracheae (breathing tubes) everywhere, so forming the
equivalent of a middle ear was not difficult either. Apparently, hearing evolved
in insects independently at least 19 times, resulting in a great variety of ear
designs, found all over insect bodies. </p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj59s7VJfGl_stl_OiSP1S_vVxvanW2DbYWFqf0uMnhlMNIIBPm1Ti3QU_I0ecad1AyNGsN2DAGkpK2PmP9ZWJpjh2PzpEn_oP30WAyIFuIThovdaiVOMlAwnWcJ8Jtp09GeeL-NAKJZurniJGEzXq-WDxgalIsvbSP97vrPPL5RuXBqLJX8OY8QYci=s2155" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1052" data-original-width="2155" height="156" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj59s7VJfGl_stl_OiSP1S_vVxvanW2DbYWFqf0uMnhlMNIIBPm1Ti3QU_I0ecad1AyNGsN2DAGkpK2PmP9ZWJpjh2PzpEn_oP30WAyIFuIThovdaiVOMlAwnWcJ8Jtp09GeeL-NAKJZurniJGEzXq-WDxgalIsvbSP97vrPPL5RuXBqLJX8OY8QYci=s320" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; <a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.608.8703&rep=rep1&type=pdf" target="_blank">source</a> here <br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.608.8703&rep=rep1&type=pdf" target="_blank">Another paper provided details of such insect ears</a>. A few examples are shown above the arrows indicate ears. The
authors write that about the only place where you will not find insect ears is
on the sides of their heads. Instead, insect ears are most often found on the
body itself, but they can also be situated on the legs, mouth parts and even on
wings. As for the number of legs, many insects have just two ears, but some
grasshoppers have no less than 6 paired 'functional auditory organs in their
abdomen', giving them 12 ears. Some insects have two ears per leg, giving them
four ears. Mantids are perhaps the oddest, with just one ear in a groove on the
midline of the thorax. Although there is a tympanic membrane on each side of a
narrow grove, these are so close together that they function as one ear. Mantids
are 'the only known terrestrial animal with a single ear'. The figure above
shows an exception: some mantids do have two ears, but both are in the midline,
and they are sensitive to different frequencies. <p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiZkQ8YBwzi6jrtyzOykrnnGG-YS9YpT1okpdzIxUbhLEdpTv7oWGlvCbbRztc6GY9qcaj8DTzwbhmTpU4kXMkD9_fUs6oZFzt9BVKNrNszTfYM0j8Ad7UD47_3LU_KKmVLy2Wjd-Ql0Ud3oXS3YhPSSsLGcjF9dle2gYqqJNFw0ypylV7YjK2NEZy4=s900" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="478" data-original-width="900" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiZkQ8YBwzi6jrtyzOykrnnGG-YS9YpT1okpdzIxUbhLEdpTv7oWGlvCbbRztc6GY9qcaj8DTzwbhmTpU4kXMkD9_fUs6oZFzt9BVKNrNszTfYM0j8Ad7UD47_3LU_KKmVLy2Wjd-Ql0Ud3oXS3YhPSSsLGcjF9dle2gYqqJNFw0ypylV7YjK2NEZy4=s320" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">click to enlarge; <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096098221630985X" target="_blank">source here</a> <br /></td></tr></tbody></table> <b>Spiders </b><p></p><p>There are no tympanic
membranes to be found in spiders at all, so for a long time it was thought that
they were deaf. However, they are apparently able to pick up sounds with hairs
on the tip of their legs. This was only <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096098221630985X" target="_blank">published in 2016</a>, so there will be
probably more discoveries in the field of spider hearing. </p><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxrF3lVgUpxZhARRLJrf3sFFVVEyseVJcc7QY1NfvY96IerJVoPoWrM1N2sevoSzkmC1DcTTbV5mmKMT1LCrQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /><p></p><p>The investigators made
a very nice video of their somewhat accidental findings, that you can find on
their website (they allow downloading, and the quality there is better than shown here; I just enclosed it for ease of use). If you need more, the authors went
on to study hearing in <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982220314184 " target="_blank">'ogre-faced spiders' later, also with a nice video</a>). </p><p><b>What
does it all mean for speculative biology? </b></p><p>As usual, there are various solutions
to the problem (and we haven't even touched upon frequency ranges and other intricacies!). People who
design vertebrate analogues might do well to think about how Earth vertebrates
and insects developed eardrum-based hearing: you need some suitable tissue with easy access to outside air, so that tissue can be
thinned to form a membrane. You also need a way to have air on the inside of the membrane
too. That alone would suggest a place near the mouth. It will also help if that
place is already equipped with the ability to sense movement, of jaws, hairs,
scales, etc. But the spider example shows, as usual, that there are other ways
too, and hairs seem to excellent starting material to evolve hearing. </p><p>The next
post will be about sound localisation. Sound does not travel in neat straight lines, which is just one of the things that complicate that particular problem.
</p>Sigmund Nastrazzurrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16449461215427527447noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-11193664585099584542021-12-22T11:29:00.002+01:002021-12-22T11:29:35.957+01:00What does it take to make a reindeer fly?<p>This blog is about 'Furahan Biology and Allied Matters', and today we will stretch the 'allied matters' a bit, to produce this special Christmas post. Somewhere in Speculative Biology there must be a place to think about re-engineering mythological life forms, which is what this post is about. <br /><br />The starting condition is simple. Thanks to globalisation, a most unusual subspecies of reindeer (<i>Rangifer tarandus</i>) has spread widely from its original area, so it can now be observed in skies over many parts of the world. In the skies? Yes, because these reindeer fly. <br /><br />It is not clear whether these reindeer can fly in their natural state, as they are only observed to do so when tethered to sleighs. This is slightly worrying, but even so, the force that keeps them in the air must be magic, as the reindeer lack any observable physical means to provide lift. While magic is a potent force in the imagination, in the real world it is noticeably difficult to acquire, so we need a more pragmatic approach. </p><p>What would it take to make a reindeer fly in the real world? And I mean 'fly', not hurtling it through the air by strapping a jetpack to its back or using a large catapult. No, it must fly though biological means. The first problem is that reindeer have no wings, so we will have to use advanced creative bioengineering and splice in some wings. Done! That was quick...<br /><br />Reindeer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reindeer" target="_blank">weigh around 100 kg</a>, if we average estimates of male and female weight. But even these brand-new wings won’t make a 100-kg reindeer fly. And don't you start objecting that some <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pterosaur_size" target="_blank">pterosaurs weighed more than 100 kg </a>and could still fly. We could in fact probably re-engineer the flying reindeer to achieve pterosaur-like mass, but the result would definitely look a lot like a pterosaur, and it should look like a reindeer, right?<br /> <br />Where was I? Oh yes, the 100 kg mass is a problem. Why? Well, take a 0.6 kg pigeon with a 70 cm wingspan. If you double its length, width and height, you get a wingspan of 140 cm and it will weigh 8 times the original weight. That factor 8 represents doubling of all three of length, width and height, so it is doubling to the third power (2 to the power of 3). By the way, for more on basic scaling of animals, see these posts <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2010/06/scaling-or-size-matters-but-so-does.html" target="_blank">here </a>and <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2010/07/size-matters-but-so-does-gravity-ii.html" target="_blank">here</a>. <br /><br />The problem is that lift is proportional to wing area, and area is proportional to the square of length. Doubling the pigeon's size makes the wing area four times larger, but that four times larger wing must carry eight times the weight. That won’t fly. (Sorry for that one.) We can make the wings extra large to compensate for the larger weight, but that will also increase weight. As explained <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2017/08/flying-animals-or-true-weight-lifting.html" target="_blank">in another post,</a> at some point of increasing body size the wings can no longer carry the body. <br /><br />The obvious solution is to shrink the reindeer until it weighs as much as something that can fly. Say a rather massive goose at about 5 kg. Some calculations reveal that the reindeer's length should then be 25-30% of the original length of 180 cm. <br /><br />To allow room for massive wing muscles, everything else must be reduced in weight: to decrease gut size it needs a new diet, mostly sugar; we can then also abolish the teeth, because it doesn't need them and won't get caries. We'll give it slender legs, tiny light hooves and fluffy hair. You will probably insist on antlers, so antlers can stay, but they will be much reduced. We can splice some red bioluminescence into its nose, to put the cherry on the cake. <br /><br />Done! A realistic flying reindeer! </p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhch1eAUYEM2okDlJBDD3LlPHMbLQkF-SqCX84hfnRW5oudNGr4r9uoBNlswr5jmMbZZwtvIgCwmGP3YPG9qlyxjacJ8UF55OBN7c1wX8Px6FGgG9JpwdSb2vVVe-QmIFUi3IC02GGfRe74PpXPUYn8XRx2TvPGck3LaVjxPw762raEWOhAiYgl0sRC=s2957" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2268" data-original-width="2957" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhch1eAUYEM2okDlJBDD3LlPHMbLQkF-SqCX84hfnRW5oudNGr4r9uoBNlswr5jmMbZZwtvIgCwmGP3YPG9qlyxjacJ8UF55OBN7c1wX8Px6FGgG9JpwdSb2vVVe-QmIFUi3IC02GGfRe74PpXPUYn8XRx2TvPGck3LaVjxPw762raEWOhAiYgl0sRC=s320" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright Gert van Dijk & Roelien Bastiaanse<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /> </p><p>Happy holidays!<br /></p>Sigmund Nastrazzurrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16449461215427527447noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-48311683326917363732021-12-16T16:12:00.209+01:002021-12-17T09:19:33.442+01:00The aliens of the TV-series ‘Invasion’ (also: ‘Inversion Fish II’)<p>All episodes of the first season of the TV series ‘Invasion’, from Apple, are now available for viewing. If you are still planning to see the series later, stop reading now, because there are spoilers ahead.<br /></p><p style="text-align: center;">--------------------------<br /></p><p>The series shows an alien invasion of Earth from the viewpoint of a few individual people, here and there on the globe. The protagonists at first seem to be people randomly caught up in the events, but some later wind up playing more important parts. I wouldn’t be surprised if all of the remaining apparent bystanders will end up being close to the centre of things, but that will have to wait for future series (a second series has been ordered). <br /><br />In the early episodes no-one has a clue what is going on, an that includes the protagonists as well as the viewers. That uncertain state lasts quite a while, because the series is no hurry at all to speed up the story or to explain where it is going. This may be a reason why the ratings haven’t been very high. Personally, I do not mind that the story unfolds slowly. This ‘strategy of keeping the viewer in the dark also means that the makers do not explain much, and so did not have to insert the kind of technobabble that is often used in science fiction series to explain alien technology or biology. In fact, there was almost no explanation of how anything works, which was fine with me. </p><p>There was one instance of an irritating wilful neglect of knowledge in the series: a child lies shaking in an apparent MRI machine with an EEG cap on, resulting in an apparent MRI image with overlaids spots of colour, prompting a passing neurologist to say that the EEG was flat. That's not how MRIs or EEGs work; I guess that a real EEG wasn’t considered impressive enough. <br /><br />Anyway, it takes quite a while before you see the actual aliens. When you finally do, they are just dark blobs from which spikes shoot out towards a nearby floor, wall or ceiling. You typically do not see them moving in great detail, but it is clear at one point that they more or less ‘invert’ themselves. That is not easy to explain in words, so it is good that the producers posted a short video on YouTube about how they designed the aliens. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dy7fy6We_qM9rDjAP48815HVAkmShuuX7oeKhqZ6C5-g2xcbk0_jmmLHQx1gdarelbQkcs1O78T16bSMrOkcQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><p><br /><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxNjrI9pJAY" target="_blank">Here it is</a>. The commentary at one point includes the following: <i>‘A biological entity that we cannot even begin to understand’.</i> Well, I am not going to take that at face value... </p><p>In science, it is always time begin doing just that. Of course, here we do not have have to deal with real alien biology, but just with a human design, and what one human can design, another can understand.<br /> <br />You may have to watch the video a few times to see exactly what happens. I still found that difficult, so I made a slow-motion version of part of the video.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzpWzS2F3kOYgAtd164MgMaNmc3AUjhIdtRdZA_1cXRJO-dImW89GoYZZ6jrm_CfwxES6HJX3vn6KBqWhgvjg' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe><br /><br />And here is that version. Aha. Let’s analyse what we have seen. </p><p>The aliens are roughly cylindrical, about 60-80 cm in length, with a diameter about half that. If they would be solid cylinders they would have a volume of 42 to 100 L, but they must be hollow, so I estimate their volume to be 30 to 60 L. If their density is the same of that of Earth animals, their mass would be 30 to 60 kg. If they would be denser, say with a density of 1.4 kg/L, their mass would be 40-80 kg. That makes them quite hefty. <br /><br /><b>‘Inversion fish’</b><br />The animation shows rings coming in from the centre, moving forwards and outwards, after which the rings move backwards again, where they no doubt move back inwards and forwards again. The spikes on the rings can be seen to point forwards at first. Then they move backwards over the surface of the rings. I do not think that the rings are separate objects. It seems to me that they form a contiguous surface instead, one that moves over the substance of the animal. You could say that they invert themselves. <br /><br />Believe it or not, but inverting animals, consisting of a torus with exactly such a gliding surface, has already been discussed <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2013/05/inversion-fish-i.html " target="_blank">on this blog, back in 2013</a>. That discussion was inspired by Thomastapir’s ‘Moebius fish’. I called the resulting type of animal ‘Inversion Fish’, assuming such animals would be small and simple sea creatures, like jellyfish. With all the inversion going on, it would be difficult for them to form brains or guts, so such animals might have non-invertible parts. I meant to follow that first post later with a second one on the same subject, but I never did, for a variety of reasons. The good news is that I can label this post ‘Inversion Fish II’, bringing closure to that long-open end. <br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwcLsXwNus4RlpXYWwSFuCXvDJzOKeZP0XnhXWN3-dq2fYAo_Ubztp9vF_fSQ4uONGGu4ZGfoppG5XotFRjnA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /><br />I now resurrected some old Matlab routines to animate the inversion fish and pimped them a bit. Here is the result of that; the Inversion Fish is still a simple ring, but it is now rotated to make it swim horizontally. The lines sticking out represent hairs that will help propel it through the sea. The animal was supposed to be at most a few mm in size. <p></p><p></p><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwAoqKinSVCuEm1lGaDchwfzst6gGMZTCHIqlk64Gb_xVSz14lBTuV2xu1r3Tu8L5ZUnff3wAz1couQ68M-6w' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /><br /><br />Here is a second animation: I stretched the animal to give it a cylindrical appearance, so it begins to resemble the aliens. <p></p><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dx4e5ppJqGXYN9UVrDcJwEnywgNqWB_Nzm4vaMfIdm9KILyd0P7w3EeSKOjo1iyTgEwyrAPnj_SXLtwJo9IKg' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /><br />And a third one Inversion Fish, cut in half. The cut surfaces help to visualise the movement of the surface. Note that the surface moves forwards on the inside of the animal, while it is moving backwards on the outside, with not much distance between the two. There is no way to attach the surface to the inner substance of the body, in the way our skin stays close to the underlying tissues. In essence, something like this can only work if the surface is essentially loose from the subsurface. The easiest way to achieve that is with a fluid between the surfaces. That is why I compared the Inversion Fish to jellyfish: jellyfish are essentially also membranes with jelly in between. But in their case, the membranes do not move in opposite directions. <br /> <br /><b>The spikes</b><br />The spikes appear at various points on the bodies, shoot out quickly and in doing so vary in length. They are always straight, never curved, and their width tapers to a pointy end. These ends apparently attach themselves to walls, ceilings or the ground. I did not see anything in the way of suckers, feet, hooks, nails or anything else that could help to attach a fairly large mass to a ceiling or wall. The spikes do not leave any marks either, as far as I could see. What also struck me is that I did not see the spikes sagging in any way. If you use a rope to suspend a weight from a wall or ceiling, the rope will sag a bit. These spikes are also used as rigid legs, and so must be very rigid. All in all, they must be able to withstand compression as well as tension easily, even while they are being formed. <br /><br />Now making such a material presents quite a design challenge. Which material can be extruded and absorbed at will and can remain very rigid and strong while it also behaves as a fluid? The commentary says <i>‘It’s made of ferrofluids, so it can be hard, but when you touch it, it moves like mercury.</i>’ I cannot say I know much about ferrofluids, but my short foray into the subject suggest that the term 'fluid' should be taken quite literally. I did not see examples of hard ferrofluids. <br /><br />Could you evolve animals using ferrofluids biologically? Obviously, evolution has no preset aim and cannot set out to evolve a ferrofluid. Evolution could start with a readily available source of ferrofluids, or there should be a reasonable reason for an animal to produce them, and after that it can evolve in a different direction. In other words, how do you wind up with tiny magnetic particles permanently suspended in a fluid? And how would you wind up with a handy biological way to acquire and control magnetism? Those are extremely tough challenges, and I doubt they can be met. <br /><p></p><p><b>Conclusion</b><br />Are these aliens original? Yes, very much so, unless you feel that ‘original’ may only be used for something that that has never been proposed anywhere. That would not be the case here, as witnessed by Thomastapir’s Moebius Fish and the later Inversion Fish. But that is asking too much: I really like the inventiveness shown here. <br /><br />Are they realistic as products of biological evolution? I very much doubt it. It will not be easy for biological evolution to come up with an animal whose living matter is essentially the fluid surface of a torus, and in which that living matter can become strong and rigid at will. We should probably add some additional problems here: the animals have no recognisable sense organs, and their brain and other relevant organs would have to be malleable and able to continue working while being inverted (but perhaps you could actually do something like that to an octopus brain, while it would continue working; don't try it!). At the end of the series, the aliens all collapse when the mother ship is destroyed, which is in Earth orbit. The aliens must therefore have a means of constant communication that functions immediately over large distances; should we add radio to their list of improbable biological feats? </p><p>Perhaps it makes more sense to treat them not as the product of biological evolution, but as the result of engineering? Are they in fact bio-inspired robots? I guess we'll see in future series.</p>Sigmund Nastrazzurrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16449461215427527447noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-21708008934083013832021-11-21T11:57:00.001+01:002021-11-21T11:57:06.593+01:00What does a Hexapod gallop sound like? (1)<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtTM6F7cQw2IMjEz8rtrnU7s85I-3IhWuYo05bMRGwZBoLWViisB9f-vg5BKDsWp4T-w1rCFm_Sf_4LyMUMDguOjXAGwlmoHsE1AFXqG_kjbvNMSm-c5W_QM7bd4_WW57SBt5GiW6qy5U/s2000/handlebarHerd.png" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1006" data-original-width="2000" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtTM6F7cQw2IMjEz8rtrnU7s85I-3IhWuYo05bMRGwZBoLWViisB9f-vg5BKDsWp4T-w1rCFm_Sf_4LyMUMDguOjXAGwlmoHsE1AFXqG_kjbvNMSm-c5W_QM7bd4_WW57SBt5GiW6qy5U/w400-h201/handlebarHerd.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright Gert van Dijk</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p> The image above represents one of the very first Furaha images ever, painted way back in the previous century. The planet did not even have a name yet, and I certainly had not thought much about biomechanics. I just tried to paint an interesting and pleasing picture. These primal hexapods were fairly insect-like, with a stiff-looking body. The details where the legs join the body suggest exoskeletal parts as much as they could represent skin flaps. I can show the painting here, as it will not feature in The Book: it doesn't fit anymore. </p><p>But I still like the scene very much. In my minds' eye, I can see a large herd of these impressive animals ('handlebars' or 'handlebar-horns') enter the scene from the left, advancing towards the right, until they turn towards the camera, wheeling like cavalry. That scene deserves to be done again, with new and updated handlebars. The update does not only require revising their anatomy, as part of the Great Hexapod Revision, but their gait as well. After all, if you paint a fast-moving hexapod, you should have an idea how its legs should be positioned. Imagining six-legged walks is apparently not something that comes naturally to all illustrators: many, including brilliant artists, fell back on on four-legged locomotion patterns, and simply added additional pairs of identical hind legs until the required number of legs was reached (see <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2010/02/avatars-walking-with-hexapods-dont-walk.html" target="_blank">here</a>, <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2011/05/wildlife-in-star-wars-universe.html">here</a>, <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2012/05/century-of-thoats.html">here </a>and <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2016/05/terryl-whitlatchs-creature-design.html">here</a>). I never liked that, even though I realise that doing otherwise asks a lot of an artist who may not be familiar with the gaits of insects and other invertebrates. </p><p>Perhaps I am being too difficult about this; after all, the viewers are likely to accept the result anyway. When you looked at the handlebar painting, did you think 'I wonder whether that gait is correct?' My guess is you did not, but I still wanted to do better. I like to think that a fairly thorough biomechanical background is a selling point of Furahan fauna; I also do not think I could let it slip anyway... </p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIFAFzFcU-VtBEatY3g8w-kW_z2eBumqFKNLruAqopF6XEjrnhGlbDD_27RSpvQ6k-BTPcuLrDV2WyBjEk-McxYo2NSQZzf-GZC5wbYscPQr6wJzw7NwWF_nL9eyJFWLEhAAMxdFdRqTU/s1489/anatontwerper.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1188" data-original-width="1489" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIFAFzFcU-VtBEatY3g8w-kW_z2eBumqFKNLruAqopF6XEjrnhGlbDD_27RSpvQ6k-BTPcuLrDV2WyBjEk-McxYo2NSQZzf-GZC5wbYscPQr6wJzw7NwWF_nL9eyJFWLEhAAMxdFdRqTU/s320/anatontwerper.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright Gert van Dijk<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />I therefore wrote a suite of programmes to help me design decent hexapod gaits. In fact, I wrote them again, as I had done so once before, in 'BBC Basic' on an Acorn Archimedes. There are still a few animations on the main Furaha website that survived the transition to other operating systems. The programmes did not. This time, I wanted to do better, meaning that the programme should find out how to fold a leg by itself, rather than requiring me to control each minute limb movement by hand. I thought that that would be tricky, and it was... I had to settle for limbs with three main segments, as I could not yet add a fourth one the position of which looked convincing enough. You will just have to imagine the feet. I will use the program as background material to design paintings, and I can add details myself. The programme does allow body position to adapt to the chosen gait, so that part works. </p><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxSYRA9B82bh-fDHZrY8xPe8Wzq7UngP1MXhPDLDZXST5glNnSDk9Uwwpj9b1Aks6S4IexR8CCFf6dRW7X23w' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /><p></p><p>Here is an example of such a three-segment limb. The programme uses segment length, built-in movement restrictions of the joints, and the phase of the movement cycle to control the thigh angle. The other bit of information is where the foot should end up on its motion path. Together, that is enough. The movement is a bit uneven, because the programme chooses from an array of possibilities, and I should have increased the number of possible solutions. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxgZ894pE9Ec9nCnllr-Pf-j1CGJN-4N7RZoXt30uL4BK5bRZrAR2amkQyBqQ4JHHf2xPxFwmotqcvYDbCr9w' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /> <p></p><p>This shows what happens when you vary the choice which joint should 'stick out' the most. The further a joint is from the vertical, the more energy is needed to keep it in that position. You can see here that making life easier for one joint makes it more difficult for another. The middle position looks like it provides a nice middle ground in that respect. In biology, an optimum usually represents a compromise that minimises the overall energy required. </p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhspJuaHKQGO_Ch1t_NdckvEwWivww8EY2dbjQ4CjVNX_772uA-c8fmyP60DCzD59VQk6vTUC9t552GN7GHsJOg4L7MEeRvCqSn8ZwGxisIPH5beEve30SVa7byXhG5NKAffx2Hk6TdcoM/s1577/animator.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1188" data-original-width="1577" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhspJuaHKQGO_Ch1t_NdckvEwWivww8EY2dbjQ4CjVNX_772uA-c8fmyP60DCzD59VQk6vTUC9t552GN7GHsJOg4L7MEeRvCqSn8ZwGxisIPH5beEve30SVa7byXhG5NKAffx2Hk6TdcoM/s320/animator.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge; copyright Gert van Dijk<br /></td></tr></tbody></table> </p><p>The basic hexapod anatomy these days consists of six fairly similar legs that all have 'zagzigzag' pattern, (see <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2010/09/legs-to-stand-on.html" target="_blank">here </a>, <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2010/10/these-legs-are-made-for-walking-legs-ii.html" target="_blank">here </a>and <a href="https://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2013/11/zigzag-zagzig-and-zagzig-zagzig-robots.html" target="_blank">here</a>), meaning the most proximal segment ('coxae' or thighs) generally point backwards. I chose that as I could not find a convincing argument to state whether zigzagzig or zagzigzag was better. The legs are not identical, though, and future hexapods will see more pronounced differences. In the pattern shown here, the middle pair of legs is stouter than the front and hind pairs, and their feet are placed wider apart. That latter bit of information is only visible if you look at the 'support diagram' under the beastie. Placing some feet wider apart is a trick to avoid leg collisions, although it is not strictly necessary: Earth tetrapods manage to avoid collisions just fine with similar distances between pairs of limbs. </p><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzDfxCW8UGvqxPkN_B-2bqP3KW7JSB6WkKyqgp-v_eLK83LCJ4sS6c-CvbvMxGKS6orVp5PBymyB1Pwhkh4CA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /><p></p><p>And here is one complete hexapod in a slow walk. The sounds were taken from sound recordings of horse hoof beats, because I had to use something; it doesn't mean the animal has hooves! Keen observers may well deduce some as yet undescribed anatomical information from the animation. </p><p>So how about the gallop sound? Next post!</p>Sigmund Nastrazzurrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16449461215427527447noreply@blogger.com4