A worldbuilding resource and general nerd zone focused on the topic of invented creatures as viewed through a scientific lens. Whether you’re a writer looking to turbo-charge your own fantastical fauna or you just want to explore the history of mythical creatures and a bit of basic speculative biology, read on!
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Hybrid Monsters: Chimeras in Taxonomy
In the days before evolutionary theory and modern taxonomy, people were already describing species and their relationships. This helped with identifying and grouping useful or dangerous plants and animals. Early taxonomy was largely focused on broad observations. Scholars often placed species into groups like trees, fish and even invertebrates. But these scholars were still figuring…
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I Wrote a Book!
Announcement time! I have put my money where my mouth is, so to speak, and published a fantasy book. Wyrm: A Story of the Hoizonlands is now available in paperback or ebook format on Amazon. This book is a short novelette, making it a quick read. True to its subtitle, it’s also just the first…
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The Square-Cube Law and Giant Fliers: Part Two
In the last post, we learned a little bit about the square-cube law and how it influences flight mechanics. To recap, the bigger animals get, the harder it is to fly because the effect of weight increases faster than the effect of lift. This makes things tricky for “giant fliers.” Airplanes can overcome the issue…
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The Square-Cube Law and Giant Fliers: Part One
Today, we’re going to start our biology lesson with a little bit of geometry. The square-cube law is one of those deceptively simple fundamentals that can be easy to miss but becomes almost obvious in hindsight. According to Wikipedia, it can be described thus: When an object undergoes a proportional increase in size, its new…
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Cousins and Clades (and Dragons): Taxonomy in Fantasy
Let’s start our journey into fantastical science by talking a little bit about the study of taxonomy, and how it fits into the world of fantasy. If you remember anything from biology class, you probably remember a few things about classic taxonomy. You know, that upside-down pyramid of species that are more and more closely…
- Announcements (2)
- Human Connections (2)
- Let's Make a Monster (1)
- Natural Behavior (2)
- Science Basics (4)
- Special Abilities (1)
- Square-Cube Law (3)
- Taxonomy (2)