tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post1171104511427010600..comments2024-03-25T09:31:36.926+01:00Comments on Furahan Biology and Allied Matters: Ballonts IISigmund Nastrazzurrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16449461215427527447noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-10534041336899675922014-01-24T12:13:59.069+01:002014-01-24T12:13:59.069+01:00Heh! After seeing Ymedron's comment I might as...Heh! After seeing Ymedron's comment I might as well ad my own, naturally with the same disclaimer.One way for life to develop with the ballont strategy would be if it developed its very multicellularism in atmosphere. I don't know how exactly that should work out, but there are plenty of bacteria and other life forms living in Earth's upper atmosphere. It would have make a little sense for them to gather together as other life has; and even in the smallest clusters, they probably immediately need to worry about staying lighter than air. So they could begin trapping hydrogen on a very small scale, and eventually create full-fledged multicellular ballonts.Daniel Demskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08714941811085673416noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-85350458527680414042013-03-28T16:23:35.054+01:002013-03-28T16:23:35.054+01:00I'd imagine a ballont might start out with an ...I'd imagine a ballont might start out with an inflatable pouch for the purposes of intimidation or sexual selection, and with escalation these pouches would grow larger and more dramatic, with an additional coincidence of the material being something lighter than the atmosphere. :o Sexual selection is a fairly easy cop out for difficult situations like this.<br />*yes I am going through your old posts, sorry if you already solved this later on*Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16585856136211458727noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-67774919730923376322012-12-05T23:34:08.575+01:002012-12-05T23:34:08.575+01:00No- I don't get a message when you reply to my...No- I don't get a message when you reply to my comments, but I check back here occasionally. So you didn't answer for nothing. (:<br /><br />I read about the difficulty with ballont breeding, but it seems pretty solvable. The ballonts may have a sessile life stage in which "medusas" bud off after growing large enough. Dougal Dixen's Sulfuria ballonts bud off small ones when the young have grown large enough to fly- this approach could work, too. The key is that the baby ballonts need a little time to grow large enough to fly before they and the parent go their separate ways. I will look into the life cycles of jellyfish etc.- they have a sessile life stage, if I recall correctly.<br /><br />The ballont evolution problems seem somewhat less tractable. My biggest concern is the big gap between the swim bladder and any sort of balloon that can fly in a light atmosphere- it makes a jump from water to air seem quite unlikely, or at least more unlikely than the jump from water to land. After all, many organisms float in water, from fish to kelp, but we haven't seen any atmospheric beasts or balloon plants evolve on Earth. <br /><br />As I asked before, a primitive eye that can only detect light and dark is useful, but a balloon to small to float in an atmosphere is not- so how do these beasties jump from, say, a sea jelly to a hydrogen exhaling flying beastie? A convincing answer to this question would make a great detail in a SF 'verse!!Christopher Phoenixnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-44555793653123540852012-12-05T09:08:04.012+01:002012-12-05T09:08:04.012+01:00Hello Christopher,
A new comment on an old post.....Hello Christopher,<br /><br />A new comment on an old post... Now I get a message for every comment that is posted, but do you too? If not, I am answering this for nothing. Anyway, your thoughts came up in later posts and discussions, to the effect that it would be very difficult to have small ballonts. This raises problems for raising young, but those can be solved. How to get ballont evolution going is still problematic though. Sigmund Nastrazzurrohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16449461215427527447noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-10133667432618016042012-12-03T22:36:04.860+01:002012-12-03T22:36:04.860+01:00Fascinating!! I never really thought of a fish...Fascinating!! I never really thought of a fish's swim bladders as being equivalent to an atmospheric beast's balloon. This makes me wonder- is there any plausible evolutionary path that might cause an aquatic animal to eventually take to the air, or is the gap between fluid and gas just too big? What other way might a ballooning creature develop? <br /><br />Half a balloon isn't useful, or even a smaller one in a light atmosphere like Earth's- unlike say, an eye. A more primitive eye might only be able to detect light and dark, but it is <i>useful</i>- and successive generations of organisms develop still more complex and useful eyes to gain still more of an advantage. But you can't imagine a ballont starting out with a smaller, less capable balloon- it needs a full fledged one from the outset just to float in an a terrestrial style atmosphere. Could this be why we don't see any real life ballonts on Earth? Or is there a plausible line of evolution for these beasties, which simply hasn't happened on Earth by chance?Christopher Phoenixnoreply@blogger.com