DrP Posted October 26, 2017 Share Posted October 26, 2017 23 minutes ago, Moontanman said: I just think it is a mistake to assume alien life would resemble earth life in anything but the broadest possible definition... It's difficult to imagine how life on other planets might evolve but a good way to understand is to go back to the fossil record and look at what extinct animals who occupied the same niches as modern life looked like. If this one little animal had not made it through the cambrian extinction none of the vertebrate aquatic predators we are familiar with would not be here... I agree Moontanman - I thought I'd conceded that the shark was probably unlikely. If not then I do now. If things did get a back bone though then I think they would converge to similar shapes (not identical and I use similar here broadly.... i.e. a back, a mouth, some teeth, an anus). I'm sure they won't be friendly and they won't be flying spaceships. lol. You are right - without mass extinctions, any one of the other strange early life forms could have gone on to evolve into the variation of dominant species on the planet. Who can fathom what they would have grown into. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Outrider Posted October 26, 2017 Author Share Posted October 26, 2017 On 10/24/2017 at 3:23 AM, DrP said: Yea - but that was less so - at least they were not literally fish people like they were in Star Trek, lol. They lived above the water in cities built on stilts. Who knows if they were native to that planet or not. The Aquatic Xindi had to swim about in fish tanks built into their space ships... it was totally ridiculous. Star Trek Enterprise! You had me searching all over Netflix looking for the original Star Trek episode I somehow missed. I forget why but I didn't really get into Enterprise and so only watched the first few episodes and now (thanks to you) I'm on the 5th episode of season 3 and (knowing me) I'll end up watching all 4 seasons. Thanks. lol. And yes the aquatic Xindi are pretty ridiculous but I am enjoying the show ridiculousness and all. Also an interesting concept 5 highly intelligent species evolving on one planet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dubbelosix Posted October 26, 2017 Share Posted October 26, 2017 On 21/10/2017 at 1:16 AM, Outrider said: http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/10/why-haven-t-we-had-alien-contact-blame-icy-ocean-worlds Just an interesting (to me) thought. enter the X files, specifically film 1, arctic scene. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Outrider Posted October 27, 2017 Author Share Posted October 27, 2017 Moontanman while I respect your opinon because of your extensive knowledge in this area... On 10/24/2017 at 5:49 PM, Moontanman said: Maybe i am just being pedantic 12 hours ago, Moontanman said: this is not just me being pedantic ...I think it's more the former than the latter. If they find a big torpedo shaped toothy carnivore with fins swimming around under the ice of one of Jupiter's moons and people want to call it a Europa shark it really won't bother me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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