Another one of those weird, long-forgotten Geoterra Project concepts I tried reviving in 2020... a hedgehog/porcupine creature that's actually a cactus.
----- I briefly dabbled in plant-animal hybrid designs back in the day too, but they never really went anywhere. While I was looking at other forgotten designs like the bears and lions, I remembered these guys were a thing too.
this is unique (until now), not just for his/hir/her nature, but also 'cause is the first time you show the reproductive part of a character of yours. and in plain view! :ᴖ)
this is unique (*until now*), not just for his/hir/her nature, but also 'cause is the first time you
I see you are aware of the true function of a flower, although when I designed these guys I didn't take that into account. I suppose you could say that a particularly rude and ignorant one is being a dickhead and the statement would be entirely factual and not an insult!
For these ones, though, the flower is just an aesthetic choice I am now forced to justify... umm... it's bait for prey since these critters can't survive on photosynthesis alone, and/or it may be useful for attracting mates, and/or maybe the flower can launch poisonous spores as a defense mechanism or to incapacitate larger prey.
Of course, maybe they do reproduce by just rubbing their head-flowers together or something wholesome like that, and then deposit seeds like animals lay eggs. The alternative would be sprouting a second flower in the back...
Thanks! I see you are aware of the true function of a flower, although when I designed these guys I
the possibilities are so many, now i'm thinking to it...
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maybe they do reproduce by just rubbing their head-flowers together
depends. the reproduction behaviour can vary for different species. if they live far away from each other, the flower can be inseminated by another critter, like a bird rewarded with some sweet milk-like substance sweated into the flower (milk after all is an evolution od sweat).
then when the fruit is ripe/the offspring is ready to born, the crop falls from the head and opens, and voila! the pokey'S baby sees the world, still colourless (the clorophyll needs light to grow).
and, like there are also plants with dark red leaves, and other that can grow leaves of both colors including shadings, this can also be true for the pokey. (and useful for mimicry, those spikes/quills show that they have enemies )
sorry, long whimsical post. :-)
the possibilities are so many, now i'm thinking to it... ~~~ Quote: maybe they do reproduce by
Hey, I'm fine with long posts, especially world-building stuff! It sometimes just takes me a long time to get back to people.
I'm going to have to go into my archives of ancient hand-drawn art from the mid-2000s to see if I did anything else with the plant/animal hybrid concept, I remembered designing some vaguely canine creature with the same plant aesthetic over 15 years ago, and a fairly unoriginal snake plant, there might be others floating around as well. Like the original Pokey that I thought I had linked to in the description here somewhere. (I sincerely hope these links are correct, as DeviantArt fought me tooth and nail when it came to simply getting links from Stash to share here!) It seems like I was trying to add a Grass-type to this particular world but it just never took root.
I'll likely have to give these other old designs an update too, and I am now liking the possibility of plant/insect hybrids. Butterflies with leaf wings, bees with thorns. A lot of bugs mimic plants in one way or another as it is, why not just take that concept a bit further?
I am thinking that these critters evolved flowers not as a reproductive organ, but for something else, seeing as it's a common feature on three rather dissimilar creatures. Like how birds, bats, and insects all evolved wings independently of each other, it's possible, and likely, these critters just invented the flower for their own purposes. I'm still personally liking the idea of it being used as bait for prey and/or for signaling to others of the same species.
I do like the idea of them reproducing like plants, especially the long-distance methods, so if I don't use that for these ones specifically, I'll likely make that a major part of some other species' life cycle elsewhere in the universe.
Given that Pokey resembles a cactus so strongly, my guess is it's a desert creature, so those thorns serve the same purpose as they do on boring terrestrial cacti--a means of keeping thirsty critters from ripping them open to get at their watery insides! At the very least this gives me an excuse to draw some "evolved" forms that are based off porcupines or maybe armadillos. Mimicry and camouflage do seem like fun ideas to play with as well. I'm sure plenty of the more typical animal types try to eat these plant-type creatures and they'll need plenty of defenses as a result!
Hey, I'm fine with long posts, especially world-building stuff! It sometimes just takes me a long ti
random-ish notes (with a tongue-in-cheek mood) the links are working, but they refuse to let me see pictures, :ᴖ( so i take your word for that. - - - -
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the possibility of plant/insect hybrids
avoiding to be sued for patent infringement by that corporate company, how's called? ah, nature... - - - -
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these critters just invented the flower for their own purposes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humpback_anglerfish first thing that comes to mind, but like in humans, sexual/reproductive behaviours/signals have become important in everyday society, if your species are also at least partially sentient, those can be used in an huge number of ways/symbolic meanings (fantasy is the only limit) - - - -
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the long-distance methods
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutualism_(biology) two species can also interact, the «flower» can be, for example, one of your plant/insect hybrid living in symbiosis (or simply cooperating) with the critter with mutual benefit; - - - -
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camouflage
the pokey is a great example of mimicry turned into parallel evolution. simply as that. standing on the head and hiding the muzzle behind a rock, no-one can see the difference with a real cactus...
random-ish notes (with a tongue-in-cheek mood) the links are working, but they refuse to let me see
"The links are working but nothing on the page is" just so happens to be very on-brand for DeviantArt since Eclipse. They work for me, and for a friend I asked to test, and I shouldn't have them restricted in any way. Oh well. You're not missing much!
One of the great things about my whole "transfer 90% of my gallery to another site" spree was rediscovering a lot of older art and concepts I had forgotten about, like these plant guys. The idea of a whole separate kingdom of life that is both plant and animal existing opens up a ton of possibilities that could be really fun to explore when I get tired of drawing fat animals in underwear.
A lot of what I'm describing here is very similar to Pokemon, as one of my major inspirations when I was first starting out in the mid-2000s was the Magic Fighting Mons. These plant guys come from a world where that sort of thing is just normal somehow, on this particular planet you grow by transforming and some of the animals breathe fire or have metal bits just growing out of them.
I do still like the idea of them using the flowers as a lure for prey, not unlike the anglerfish, but perhaps it could be used for communication with others of their kind as well. Different aromas signalling different moods, perhaps as an indicator of being ready to mate, or a way for the creatures to find each other even when they are hiding from potential threats. The possibilities really are endless! Of course, having beautiful flowers growing on their heads might make them appealing to the very sort of creatures you'd otherwise expect to eat them, providing another unexpected benefit--instead of being eaten, or at the very least chased away, other creatures might actively provide food, water, and shelter for the plantimals.
I do quite like the idea of them burrowing into the sand and/or rolling into a ball and mimicking a normal cactus, not to mention they have a degree of camouflage even when they're not actively hiding, like if they are rooting around for food in the sand or having a drink from a pool of water, where a predator might otherwise catch them off guard.
"The links are working but nothing on the page is" just so happens to be very on-brand for DeviantAr
