#hemocyanin

[fourphoenixfeathers]

Disaster lesbians.

[garblegarden]

Aaaand my part of this thing! @quimiri and I made a list of media we're both aware of, had our friends vote on characters to draw, and then do this challenge with the winners. What fun!

[revunant]

the big sheep is getting a proper redesign. i.e. he's got four legs now. and a slightly more appealing colour palette. posting a wip cuz i think it'll be a while before the whole thing is done

[dogtoling]

Would the inkfish still have hemocyanin (blue blood due to copper) or would it be hemoglobin? I just really like learning about squid biology so this stuff is very interesting for me

i like to think they do, even though the game and art heavily imply that they have red blood (human lite) which i think is really boring. frankly if a squid can evolve to do total metamorphosis in 0.5 seconds and die in contact with water, i don't think them still having hemocyanin-based blood is too unrealistic or unsustainable to happen

[clumsysprings]

Who else is excited for Pokemon Hemoglobin and Pokemon Hemocyanin?

[teethands]

by the fucking way i though i would HATE boring spec-bio work like sifting through old worldbuilding forums to find specifically blue pigmented oxygen-transporting molecules that would be efficient for the skirl lifestyle or developing an entirely seperate and functioning society disconnected from our own in a believable way but i am adoring this work. their blood is cobalt based by the way. i made it the fuck up

[whatudottu]

Me, remembering that pill bugs can filter heavy metals from soil:

My brain: You know what this means, don’t you?

Me: What-

My brain: You can make talpaedans part pill bug-

Me, working on amperi headcanons: Wait LET ME FINI-

I’ve gone over a few times that I like to think that talpaedans are techno-organic, less so being silicon or silicone based beings but being an integration of organic carbon materials and the more industrialised physiology of being a walking talking construction equipment. I have also previously made use of the whole ‘machine’ aspect of their natural biology to not only consider them as burrowers, but also as ant-like burrowers with haplodiplody, this form of sex-determination system being used to expand the combinations of construction equipment that an individual talpaedan might have, but also as a basis of which I form the sociopolitical building of talpaedan cities, in which case we have large city state colonies of ant inspired pangolins recreating feudalism Europe of the 10th-13th century.

But up - until this point - there was not quite a lot of circumstances that would allow for actual metallic components to not only present itself biologically but also do so naturally, so with the heavy metal eating pill bug there’s a source of extra inspiration. Oniscidae (apparently the more accurate name for pill bugs/rollie pollies and literally any name under the sun) can remove arsenic (which is actually a metalloid), cadmium, lead, and depending on sources also mercury from the soil; additional metals that can be extracted from soil are copper and zinc. The pill bug in question would crystallise these ions in their gut and create spherical deposits within them, but since we are not talking about the isopod alone surely it isn’t too much of a stretch to the idea that perhaps talpaedans can use these deposits within themselves to feed into the development of their most notable features, their built in equipment?

Assuming that Poiana Lüncas has these metals and that talpaedans would in fact filter for them, in real world human employed Earth uses of these metals can indeed be of fine use. Both arsenic and cadmium can be used as alloys and zinc specifically can galvanise other metals such as iron to prevent rusting, very significant indeed in industry, notably especially with large amounts of zinc can be used in hardware industries. Copper has a very notable use in electronics and wiring of which motors are included, let alone more refined wiring in TVs and radio. And argueably the more infamous of these metals (at least to a standard ‘basic’ level of understanding) we have mercury and lead, the former being used in many different industries for it’s ability to measure the change in temperature and pressure, and the latter for some solders, gasoline/petroleum and wonderfully hazardous cosmetic items that uninformed humanity has come to be harmed by.

ngl, spent a bit of time trying to find an oxygen-carrier of these metals that can feasibly make black blood but i literally do not know if the colour of oxides is in any way relevant to how oxygen-carrier bloodcells would actually be coloured as i’m not a chemist

But in highlighting these metals, I am not simply looking to see if a techno-organic talpaedan can have galvanised armour nor if they come built in with blood pressure monitors. No no no, I am saying more than what talpaedans eat but also what metals can talpaedans have easy access to in the development of technology, and how one might say that actually interacts with the ant-psychology of utterly fucking despising other colony.

Well-

Let’s say that google might be a little concerned about me learning about elements used in the construction of ammunition and radiation protection ehek-!

With the earth tilling that many developing talpaedans need to incorporate necessary metals into their diet, depending on the availabilty of said metals they may be an over abundance for food alone; especially with the pressure of competition of resources in combination with a general disdain for anything extracolonial, a factor that may lead to an escalation of tech development. There is an inherent baseline for technology in talpaedans that would already give their industrialisation a boost, in addition to the materials that may vary on quantity based on the region, colony size, and general population needs. Before long there are city states reinforcing their own barriers and expanding their borders for more and more materials - to consume and to create - to in fact increase and increase the tension between colonies so loud to the point pressure spills like a broken thermometer spills mercury and conflicts arise.

And when everything boils over do they realise that many have to balance the act of raising young and building more weapons, the factor that may in fact be the tipping point to realise that the colonies with the most resources are not only a threat but a threat that can overwhelm on the technological scale and the population number. In spite of how many colonies may indeed hate each other, it is more than worth it to them to compromise and in fact LIVE rather than be caught between the suddenly unveiling superpowers of the world that had previously lay unknown thanks to willful ignorance. Decimation of land is significantly reduced from cataclysmic to catastrophic as entire colonies are rased and in fact dug out into craters, many war-era alliances held to the modern day of Poiana Lüncas. A tithing - remnants of the treaties formed at the peak of desperation - of the youngest generation of adult men stands as both tradition and of appeasement, a colony trade and marriage across many different colonial alliances as a symbol of what had to be done before, sharing resources and rearing while the soldiers fought to live.

And all of this because they got a pill bug diet see this is why ants aren’t allowed to have materials for megaton bombs smh 😞

[tysonfurybattlepass]

doing my part to keep rent down around here by posting cringe

[once-was-muses]

Astonian blood is purplish blue because of a metalloprotein containing both iron and copper. While it is intracellular like hemoglobin (which utilizes red blood cells in Earth vertebrates), these cells can expand to bind more oxygen to them, allowing Astonians to breathe in extreme environments like high altitudes and deep seas.

Additionally, the blood is highly toxic, causing vomiting and diarrhea. Meaning, if too much is consumed by a predator, they're liable to succumb to dehydration. This was evolved as a last ditch deterrent, but Astonians have developed the ability to rupture blood vessels in the back of their necks and forcefully expel the blood through their gills. Needless to say this is reserved for worst case scenarios, as the user will require some medical attention and monitoring while they heal.

[fourphoenixfeathers]

Two posts in one day? It’s a turkey week miracle! A bit too early for a christmas miracle, not that the radio stations would agree with me.

(I say as i send mariah carey all i want for christmas to all my friends)

I asked some buddies a week back for some monsters to draw some ocs as based on an ask meme. I had so much fun with it i went a bit beyond doodles…

Top right (deer) is Copper, an oc belonging to @serotoninisheldinkiwis ! Copper my beloved…

Top left is NoOne as a dragon and Mess as a funky many-eyed formless something or other. Bottom left is Crown, also a formless something-or-other! The drawing meme that I drew on looked kind of like a couple of assorted elementals, but since those two are eldritch, I decided to take some liberties.

Bottom right is McReady. She’s fine. Definitely not experiencing the consequences of her actions in the form of unspeakable horrors /s. Maybe i’ll talk about her a bit later, i just gotta. Kill cringe with a big stick real quick.

[iliterallydecepticanteven]

Please do go on and on about this, it brings me so much joy to discover new ways in which Mac is fucked up. Ontolaryngologists are tearing their hair out because something happened to her throat that lets her produce Vosian clicks and various other sounds. She's still kinda radioactive. Their best guess is that she generates a mini-EMP field when accessing Cybertronian information because she keeps knocking out equipment and machines. There's a fairly high chance that her spit is toxic. Hospitals hold staff-wide hazardous waste disposal training strictly because of her.

So I was thinking about this and there's two more Fucked Up things going on:

First, that EMP field that Mac is making could be connected to her brain trauma. The human brain (when not full of Cybertronian knowledge) produces a little bit of electricity. It could be possible that the areas of the brain that are showing up as damaged aren't technically damaged but changed. Neurons and dendrites and axons got rearranged in that area to produce more electricity, hence the detectable EMP field and fried EEG machine.

Second, the issue of Mac's toxic blood. Blue blood has been seen in certain animals, like horseshoe crabs and spiders. Their blood is blue because instead of having iron, they have copper, which makes the blood blue instead of red. Unfortunately, copper is not something you want to ingest large amounts of nor do you want going into the soil or water system.

And the otolaryngologists would absolutely drag the speech pathologists into the room to be like "hey come listen to this" without giving them context before.

[seastarlily]

Shoutout to artists who make Squidward blush a deeper shade of blue instead of red. Y’all are awesome.✨✨✨

[who-is-muses]

Astonian blood is purplish blue because of a metalloprotein containing both iron and copper. While it is intracellular like hemoglobin (which utilizes red blood cells in Earth vertebrates), these cells can expand to bind more oxygen to them, allowing Astonians to breathe in extreme environments like high altitudes and deep seas.

Additionally, the blood is highly toxic, causing vomiting and diarrhea. Meaning, if too much is consumed by a predator, they're liable to succumb to dehydration. This was evolved as a last ditch deterrent, but Astonians have developed the ability to rupture blood vessels in the back of their necks and forcefully expel the blood through their gills. Needless to say this is reserved for worst case scenarios, as the user will require some medical attention and monitoring while they heal.

[foone]

So sometimes vampires can get blood from non-humans, right? If they don't want to harm humans or whatever, they can suck farm animals or rats or something.

Are there limitations on that? Do they need to be mammals?

What about lobsters, or any other Hemocyanin-based animals? Their blood uses copper where our's uses iron (to severely simplify the biology). The vamp ends up drinking blue blood.

Some sea worms have Erythrocruorin, which is this giant protein that results in green blood.

Hey do you ever notice you can tell exactly when, in one of my posts, I stop talking out of my own knowledge and go to Wikipedia? I clearly spent 10 minutes reading about alternative oxygen-binding proteins and lost track about what I was originally saying, and just abruptly jams in some obscure scientific fact I just learned?

Or is that just me?

[b1asho]

Huzzahh, it's species number 3! (There's a total of 6, including humans. 7 if you count artificial intelligences, 8 if you count the uhh other intelligences).

An official up to date visual for everyone's favorite communist amphibians, the Kixeli.

Kixeli are a small sentient species hailing from a planet covered mostly in ocean. They are amphibious, and originally evolved to switch between swimming and climbing using their webbed hands and powerful arms.

Their skin is permeable, allowing them to extend their time underwater to hunt and gather as well as reproduce, but due to their larger body and brain size/oxygen needs this isn’t sustainable and they must return to the surface.

Alongside their frequent trips outside the water, they also have a mucus layer and several specialized glands (including in their face by their eyes) to help remove excess salt and change levels of urea in their body to help make sure they dont lose resources when in the ocean.

Kixeli are omnivorous, with a focus on fruits and sealife. many cultures have a preference against eating anything that lives above water, including birds and the like, because they see themselves as spiritual equals to those animals as fellow air breathers.

They are oviparous, and have a specific mating season.

Most Kixeli have multiple variable spawn partners and see it as strange to be nailed down to one. Anyone who participated lays their eggs in a communal tide pool carved out in their communities.

Hatchlings are entirely aquatic wirh gills until later months of age, where they will begin to poke their head above water for air and start interacting more with the adults around them, who feed them a nutritive crop milk as they have already absorbed most of their tail by now.

This period is also the beginning of their understanding of language.

Once they lose their tail and grow in their limbs, they are still mostly helpless until those fully develop and myst cling to a caretaker adult in the community (blood parents don’t necessarily always raise their own children, but as someone who laid eggs they are responsible for children as a caretaker so anyone who didn’t want eggs gets left alone).

During their puberty, they will develop adult skin markings, and some can even end up changing sexes (much for the same reason some of them grow gliding membranes, as the result of population and resources balance in their surroundings).

Speakijg of that, there are two categories of Kixeli in their communities: Kel (swimmer) and Arasit (flier).

Arasit are just a rare continuation of their life cycle, since most Kixeli kids end up growing into Kel adults.

Sometimes, though, an Arasit will develop in case the community strongly needs to seek out new territory over long distance (triggered by close proximity to many other Kixeli and a variety of other unknown gactors, like grasshoppers turnkng into locusts.) They can’t truly fly, but they can use the powerful ocean winds and even some launching technology to glide very far to scout new resources and other communities).

Arasit are highly celebrated as voyagers, but Kel are also valued as providers for their existing community and even accompany voyages on ships to help their Arasit stay alive.

Some Arasit will cut and cauterize their membranes to make it easier for them to swim to symbolize they are staying in the community, though usually, they just poke small holes in there so they can wear clothes and be sanitary.

Their blood uses the hemocyanin molecule to carry oxygen, making their blood a bright blue when oxygenated and a thin blue/clear when unoxygenated (so you can see the other warmish colored pigments in there when it’s inside them, that yellowish stuff)

Their ancestors dwelled in deeper, cooler water where this blood type was most advantageous, but a global warming period brought them up to warm waters and eventually above the surface to capitalize on resources.

During this process, they developed some ways to improve the molecule’s lower efficiency in the heat. For one, they kept a small body size so there’s less to deal with. Another thing is that they get oxygen (albeit a small amount) from all over their body constantly through their skin, also somewhat making up for it.

The main mechanism, though, is their metabolism/temperature. They can quickly adjust their metabolism depending on the oxygen conditions in their surroundings to prevent immediate failure if they don’t have access to the right conditions to otherwise cope (this, and along with hemocyanin’s natural ability to handle low oxygen and their skin breathing, means they can tolerate very low oxygen areas that would cause a human to faint, though they’ll typically be pretty out of commission too, and this can have longer lasting effects on their health from the whiplash.)

they use their surroundings for heat when they aren’t doing anything too strenuous, and because they aren’t really producing much of their own they can tolerate even higher temperatures that would normally put them out of commission (and they actually heavily rely on that heat for ease in a lot of other processes), to do anything that has bigger oxygen needs, they can dip into cooler water/shade for periods of higher activity (but can’t stay too cold for too long or else aforementioned other processes will shut down, though it does increase the effectiveness to the point where they can do a whole lot and allows them to swim/navigate cooler areas where their early competitors couldn’t return to, it only as long as they got back quickly and warmed up)

they basically swing between these two extremes but tend to stay at a warmish middle-ground, wearing heating pads on part of their body while still letting larger areas cool off, if that makes sense.

Hemocyanin’s other properties don’t automatically give them a longer life, in fact theirs is very short compared to other species, but it does make them resistant to cancers (a common threat on their sunny planet) and the spread of diseases in their dense communities

Being cold-blooded wasn’t a problem on their mostly tropical planet. It is a considerable problem once they left it, though, hence the heating pads most wear to warm up.

many also live in areas without a large body of water nearby (or an easy way to access said body of water) but still need to stay damp to maintain their music layer and trap oxygen, so many also carry spray bottles or wet rags with them to always stay damp.

Kixeli are highly social (with their name even roughly translating to "belonging together"). they rarely live in groups of less than 5.

They experience severe negative side effects from isolation. Their naturally intense empathy also makes it extremely damaging for them to see other Kixeli injured or dead, sometimes leading to their own death from shock if they were the one that did it (though this has not stopped wars over their scarce resources in the past, typically because that intense sense of kinship was naturally strongest towards those among their own community, and if Their community was suffering then they had to get rid of the source of it by any means. )

This period nearly drove them to extinction, and led to a Global Community movement that argued for intercommunity cooperation and the end of 'us and them thinking'.

Due to their sliminess, Kixeli normally keep clothing to a minimum and overall don’t have a need for it beyond temperature control and ornamentation.

They have none of their own social taboos about nakedness, having no external genitalia, but still often clothe themselves to the standards of others due to the pressure/need to be polite from other species.

They also have few class divides within their own communities, with everyone working for the good of the whole, and no sex/gender roles beyond squirter and egg layer since everyone cares for the eggs.

To humans, their language sounds like birdsong, with lots of repetitive noises and subtle shifts in pattern and tone.

Their unique vocalization makes their languages hard to learn and even harder to speak, but they themselves are incredible mimics (only surpassed in some ways by humans because lips and teeth).

The fin on their forehead is similar to eyebrows in communicating emotion or tone. They can see a similar color spectrum to humans and love bright contrasting colors similar to their own skin patterns.

They favor “fast food”, or anything that can be carried easily as you swing around in a tree or on a boat.

Payment/restaurants doesn’t really exist for them, they just have areas where food brought in by providers is available to the community (or people just eat what they catch and then bring extra to the community.)

They also don’t chew their food, though some dishes are meant to be squished to the roof of the mouth with the tongue to experience the flavor

Their clothing is often “readable” in that many individuals wear clothing that represents a certain story, event in their life, event in their community, or mythical hero that can be derived from looking at their clothing from the head down.

In the two guys up there, the Arasit is wearing the equivalent of booty shorts cut scantily close to their Hole depicting one version about the founding of the first community (though a simplified one, so it’s actually more like the equivalent of wearing a crop top tee with a little monochrome dog on it or something).

This kind of imagery is common among Arasit, even modern ones, because founding/birth/life are their associations in religious cultures.

The Kel alongside them is wearing a more complex getup meant to show the inciting incident of one of the nomadic communities mythic hero’s journey, when he was cast from the star sea by the wicked Long Arms into the deep sea.

This would be seen as all most goth since this part of the story is seen as eerie and it depicts their underworld along the hem and bracelets.

By wearing clothing associated with a specific figure//story, they can also show gender identity based on whether that figure or hod was male, female, neuther, etc(helping people draw the right conclusions despite the visible evidence of their sex written on all their skin. The clothing and any makeup done on the fin is usually their main reference point for judging how to address someone. )