History Main / SpeculativeBiology

[[folder: FanWorks]]

[[folder: {{Literature}}]]

[[folder: LiveActionTV]]

[[folder: TabletopGames]]

[[folder: VideoGames]]

[[folder: WebOriginal]]

[[AC: FanWorks]]

[[AC: {{Literature}}]]

[[AC: LiveActionTV]]

[[AC: TabletopGames]]

[[AC: VideoGames]]

[[AC: WebOriginal]]

* ''Sagan 4'' was a web project about creating an entire alien ecosystem that evolved from a single unicellular life form, inspired by discussions of the game ''VideoGame/{{Spore}}'' which was then in production.

"Speculative biology" (also referred to as "speculative zoology") refers to when people speculate how a species could evolve under certain circumstances.

* ''Film/MermaidsTheBodyFound'' is a 2012 mockumentary and is the SpiritualSuccessor to ''Dragons: A Fantasy Made Real''. It describes how a species of ape could have evolved into an aquatic animal, eventually becoming mermaids. Unlike its predecessor it is a {{Found Footage Film|s}}.

* The plot of the ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' games is to go into the world and find and catalog the various specimens of Pokemon. The Pokedex entries give bits and pieces of how Pokemon work, with ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'''s Pokedex entries focusing on the Pokemon's diets and how they hunt.

* ThisVeryWiki has a JustForFun series, JustForFun/ThePokedexExtendedFanonEdition, that takes the premise of ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' UpTo11 and documents the creatures as if writing a scientific article about real-world animals, dealing their biology, behavior, reproductive habits, diet and depiction in human culture.

This goes on until one day the descendent of the space-faring humans come back, colonize the planet, engineer the human animals into various forms of OrganicTechnology and wreck the Earth even worse than before. On the whole book is heavy on BodyHorror and the unsustainability of technological civilization, and uses a lot of ArtisticLicenseBiology.

* The Youtuber TREY The Explainer usually focuses on actual paleontology; however, he has dabbled with this:

** ''Literature/ManAfterManAnAnthropologyOfTheFuture'' is a 1990 speculative fiction book that focuses on individual characters rather than whole species. It starts AfterTheEnd in the 22nd century, when the Earth has been ruined by human overpopulation and destruction of the environment and the humans decide to launch spaceships to find other livable planets. Scientists created two humanoid species -- the frog-like "aquamorph", and the "vaccuumorph" that only can survive in the airless voids of space -- in order to help build the ships.\\

Over five million years the Earth recovers, and the descendants of the humans who stayed behind genetically engineer a variety of apes from human stock to replace the by then long-extinct megafauna -- yeti-like tundra dwellers, ''Australopithecus''-like dwellers of temperate forests, long-legged grazers to replace antelope and buffalo, and apelike arboreal inhabitants of tropical forests. Over millions and millions of years, these speciate into even more forms -- the temperate forest-dwellers, for instance, give rise to spindly, sharp-toothed parasites of bigger humans, a people with GeneticMemory, sloth-like colossi and saber-toothed hunters, while the grazers evolve into desert-dwellers who inhabit insect-like hives.\\

This goes on until one day the descendent of the space-faring humans come back, colonize the planet, engineer the human animals into various forms of OrganicTechnology and wreck it even worse than before. On the whole book is heavy on BodyHorror and uses a lot of ArtisticLicenseBiology.

Over five million years the Earth recovers, and the descendants of the humans who stayed behind genetically engineer a variety of apes from human stock to replace the by then long-extinct megafauna -- yeti-like tundra dwellers, ''Australopithecus''-like dwellers of temperate forests, long-legged tropical grazers to replace antelope and buffalo, and apelike arboreal humans to inhabit tropical forests. Over millions and millions of years, these speciate into even more forms -- the temperate forest-dwellers, for instance, give rise to spindly, sharp-toothed parasites of bigger humans, a people with GeneticMemory, sloth-like colossi and saber-toothed hunters, while the grazers evolve into desert-dwellers who inhabit insect-like hives.\\

Over five million years the Earth recovers, and the descendants of the humans who stayed behind genetically engineer a variety of apes from human stock to replace the by then long-extinct megafauna -- yeti-like tundra dwellers, lithe ''Australopithecus''-like apes to inhabit temperate forests, long-legged tropical grazers to replace antelope and buffalo, and apelike arboreal humans to inhabit tropical forests. Over millions and millions of years, these speciate into even more forms -- the temperate forest-dwellers, for instance, give rise to spindly, sharp-toothed parasites of bigger humans, a people with GeneticMemory, sloth-like colossi and saber-toothed hunters, while the grazers evolve into desert-dwellers who inhabit insect-like hives.\\

** ''Literature/ManAfterManAnAnthropologyOfTheFuture'' is a 1990 speculative fiction book that focuses on individual characters rather than whole species. It starts AfterTheEnd in the 22nd century. The Earth has been ruined by human overpopulation and destruction of the environment. The humans decide to leave on spaceships to find other livable planets. Scientists created two humanoid species -- the frog-like "aquamorph" and the "vaccuumorph", who only can survive in the airless voids of space -- in order to help build the ships. Over five million years the Earth recovers and the genetically modified apes evolve into various forms, until one day the descendent of humans come back and fuse them together. The book is heavy on BodyHorror and uses a lot of ArtisticLicenseBiology.

** ''Literature/ManAfterManAnAnthropologyOfTheFuture'' is a 1990 speculative fiction book that focuses on individual characters rather than whole species. It starts AfterTheEnd in the 22nd century. The Earth has been ruined by human overpopulation and destruction of the environment. The humans decide to leave on spaceships to find other livable planets. Scientists created two humanoid species - the frog-like "aquamorph" and the "vaccuumorph", who only can survive in the airless voids of space - in order to help build the ships. Over 5 million years the Earth recovers and the genetically modified apes evolve into various forms, until one day the descendent of humans come back and fuse them together. The book is heavy on BodyHorror and uses a lot of ArtisticLicenseBiology.
* The literary mockumentary ''Literature/TheSnoutersFormAndLifeOfTheRhinogrades'' by German zoologist Gerolf Steiner in 1957, may be one of the earliest semi-serious examples, as the book documents the bizarre endemic inhabitants of a fictional island chain, cartoonish shrew-like creatures that have evolved to do every conceivable activity with their noses (walking, eating, jumping, swimming, reproducing etc.). Despite the absurdity of the subject, the snouters are treated with absolute seriousness and strict scientific rigour.

** ''Literature/AfterMan'' is a 1981 book on how Earth could evolve in the 50 million years after humans go extinct, and one of the most famous and influential examples.

* [[http://jayrockin.tumblr.com/tagged/tiny-sapient-ungulates Tiny Sapient Ungulates]] is a realistic take on ''My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic'':

* Creator/DougalDixon:
** ''Literature/ManAfterManAnAnthropologyOfTheFuture'' is a 1990 speculative fiction book by the popular speculative biology writer Creator/DougalDixon. It focuses on individual characters rather than whole species. It starts AfterTheEnd in the 22nd century. The Earth has been ruined by human overpopulation and destruction of the environment. The humans decide to leave on spaceships to find other livable planets. Scientists created two humanoid species - the frog-like "aquamorph" and the "vaccuumorph", who only can survive in the airless voids of space - in order to help build the ships. Over 5 million years the Earth recovers and the genetically modified apes evolve into various forms, until one day the descendent of humans come back and fuse them together. The book is heavy on BodyHorror and uses a lot of ArtisticLicenseBiology.
** ''Literature/TheNewDinosaursAnAlternativeEvolution'' is a 1988 book by Creator/DougalDixon. It's about how dinosaurs could have evolved over 68 million years if the mass extinction had not happened. Due to being made in the 1980s, the book is [[ScienceMarchesOn very outdated]] in many respects.
** ''Literature/AfterMan'' is a 1981 book written by Creator/DougalDixon on how Earth could evolve in the 50 million years after humans go extinct.

Speculative biology is very popular online amongst wannabe biologists and animal fans, especially on sites like Website/{{Deviantart}}, and SturgeonsLaw applies here. This sort of work is common in fandoms that feature fantastical animals such as ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' or ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''; artists will invoke RealityEnsues and try to revamp the characters in a way that makes more biological sense. However it's also a topic that gets professionally discussed. Several books and a few documentaries have also been created on the topic of speculative biology.

* One episode of the documentary series ''Through the Wormhole'' was about aliens could realistically look like depending on the planets they are from.

* The plot of the ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' games is to go into the world and find and catalog the various specimens of Pokemon. The Pokedex entries give bits and pieces of how Pokemon work, with ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon''s Pokedex entries focusing on the Pokemon's diets and how they hunt.

* [[http://jayrockin.tumblr.com/tagged/tiny-sapient-ungulates Tiny Sapient Ungulates]] is a realistic take on ''My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic''. The ponies themselves are a species of basal ungulates with short muzzles and big ears, as well as legs still ending in five digits tipped with hoof-like nails and with some limited mobility (explaining their in-show ability to hold objects with their hooves). Pegasus wings are reimagined as lobed wings of skin supported by elongated fingers like a bat's. Other creatures get a redesign, too:

** In his videos on debunking cryptids, he discusses near the end what he believes they hypothetically would realistically be. For example, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHGecqSk53Y in his video]] on the [[StockNessMonster Loch Ness Monster]] he speculated that it wouldn't be a ''plesiosaur'' but instead would be a giant leech.

Speculative biology is very popular online amongst wannabe biologists and animal fans, especially on sites like Website/{{Deviantart}}, and SturgeonsLaw applies here. However it's also a topic that gets professionally discussed. Several books and a few documentaries have also been created on the topic of speculative biology.

* This sort of work is common in fandoms that feature fantastical animals such as ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' or ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''. Artists will invoke RealityEnsues and try to revamp the characters in a way that makes more biological sense.
** ''Fanfic/RealisticPokemon'' is a series of fanarts depicting interpretations of Pokémon as if they were, or had evolved from, real-life animals. Some, like Zapdos and the Eeveelutions, remain largely what they are in canon, albeit with more realistic anatomy. Others get more drastic redesigns -- Giratina is interpreted as [[BigCreepyCrawlies a giant insect]] native to extremely deep caverns (the Distortion World) where the air pressure is high enough for its larval form (Giratina's Origin Forme) to "swim" through the air. Likewise, Voltorbs are drawn as red-and-white armadillos that "explode" by violently uncoiling.
** [[http://jayrockin.tumblr.com/tagged/tiny-sapient-ungulates Tiny Sapient Ungulates]] is a realistic take on ''My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic''. The ponies themselves are a species of basal ungulates with short muzzles and big ears, as well as legs still ending in five digits tipped with hoof-like nails and with some limited mobility (explaining their in-show ability to hold objects with their hooves). Pegasus wings are reimagined as lobed wings of skin supported by elongated fingers like a bat's. Other creatures get a redesign, too:
*** Griffons become hexapodal birds that evolved from solitary predators. As such, they only typically interact for territorial posturing or trade and are mentally predisposed to see all forms of interaction as one of these two, explaining their aggressive and greedy behaviors.
*** Changelings become enormous four-legged insects who evolved to mimic ponies (their food source) and that feed on both emotional energy and solid matter. Their transformation in "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS6E26ToWhereAndBackAgainPart2 To Where and Back Again]]" is interpreted as Chrysalis essentially starving her hive by denying it both physical food (as she wrongly believed they didn't need it) and the social interaction they need for optimal feeding, only allowing them to grow into stunted neotenic forms. Thorax's takeover allowed them to start feeding properly again and morph into their true adult shapes.
** ThisVeryWiki has a JustForFun series, JustForFun/ThePokedexExtendedFanonEdition, that takes the premise of ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' UpTo11 and documents the creatures as if writing a scientific article about real-world animals, dealing their biology, behavior, reproductive habits, diet and depiction in human culture.

* The Youtuber TREY The Explainer usually focuses on actual paleontology; however he has dabbled with this:

* The Youtuber TREY The Explainer usually focuses on actual paleontology however he has dabbled with this:

** [[http://jayrockin.tumblr.com/tagged/tiny-sapient-ungulates Tiny Sapient Ungulates]] is a realistic take on ''My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic''. The ponies themselves are a species of basal ungulates with short muzzles and big ears, as well as legs still ending in five digits tipped with hoof-like nails and with some limited mobility (explaining their in-show ability to hold objects with their hooves). Pegasus wings are reimagined as lobed wings of skin supported by elongated fingers, like a bat's. Other creatures get a redesign, too:

*** Changelings become enormous six-legged insects who evolved to mimic ponies (their food source) and that feed on both emotional energy and solid matter. Their transformation in "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS6E26ToWhereAndBackAgainPart2 To Where and Back Again]]" is interpreted as Chrysalis essentially starving her hive by denying it both physical food (as she wrongly believed they didn't need it) and the social interaction they need for optimal feeding, only allowing them to grow into stunted neotenic forms. Thorax's takeover allowed them to start feeding properly again and morph into their true adult shapes.

* ThisVeryWiki has a JustForFun series that takes the premise of ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' UpTo11 and documents the creatures as if writing a scientific article about a real world animal.