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Would it be possible to create an andalite using gene editing or evolution? An andalite has the following features:

  • A horse-sized deer-like body

  • A muscular tail with a blade at the end

  • Fur in shades of blues, purples, and pink-ish

  • Females have more purplish/pinkish fur, and are smaller than males

  • Seven fingers

  • Two pairs of eyes; one pair of stalk eyes on top of its head, and one pair of human-like eyes in front of its head

  • No mouth; eats by absorbing nutrients from grass with its hooves

  • Genius-level intellect

  • Two hearts

  • Can live up to 250 years old

-Communicate with hand gestures/sign language (because I know telepathy isn't possible)

What an andalite looks like

Christian Martinez
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    Hello Christian. Welcome to [worldbuilding.se]. Please review the Anatomically Correct Meta Page and make sure you've followed all the rules. This series of questions has specific conditions that must be met to avoid closure. Thanks! – JBH Nov 30 '20 at 20:58
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    A hoof seems like a singularly poor interface for absorbing nutrients. – Willk Nov 30 '20 at 21:08
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    Also, I note that the Andelite is from the Animorph series of books by K.A. Applegate. The fan wiki link I included in your post appears to have a fair description of the creature that might answer the question as well or better than we can. What, exactly, are you looking for? Note that "how does X evolve?" is an impossible to answer question. The purpose of the ACS questions is to suggest how the creatures could anatomically exist. Curiously, with 122 entries at this time, no one has ever asked about centaurs.... – JBH Nov 30 '20 at 21:19
  • @JBH https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/75966/anatomically-correct-centaur was created, but closed as a dup of https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/27842/anatomically-correct-4-legged-sapient-creatures-centaurs-etc and https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/55663/the-centaur-lets-get-real-shall-we – Dewi Morgan Nov 30 '20 at 21:50
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    I’m voting to close this question because it's asking about an existing fictional world. – sphennings Nov 30 '20 at 22:31
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    @sphennings I glanced through the ACS questions and it doesn't look like we've consistently rejected 3rd party and/or commercial worlds in that series. If you get a moment, could you glance too and see if I'm right or wrong? I wouldn't object to enhancing the ACS rules to reject 3rd party worlds. – JBH Dec 01 '20 at 00:24
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    @DewiMorgan WHAT! What honking communist asked about all those bjorking centaurs and never added them to the ACS question list! By Glarnak! I invoke the balloon-whales! (If you're feeling kind to the Stack, you could choose the best one and add it to the list, then VTC the others as duplicates of it.) – JBH Dec 01 '20 at 00:25
  • hey, i just wanted to know if this would be possible.... – Christian Martinez Dec 01 '20 at 00:26
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    @sphennings Well there it is... I'll go update the ACS meta page to state that and point to it. Thanks! (Where was I? Oh yeah... still mad at the SE Overlords for firing Monica....) – JBH Dec 01 '20 at 00:29
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    Kudos for unironically proposing blue furred, four eyed, two hearted, genius level Centaurs that osmotically absorb nutrients through their hooves while in the same breath declaring unanimously that telepathy isn't possible. – elemtilas Dec 01 '20 at 02:09
  • @sphennings I don't have enough rep to VTRO, but this isn't asking about facts of an existing fictional world, but rather how to create a new world/creature inspired by an existing fictional world. I thought such questions are on-topic here? – Rand al'Thor Dec 01 '20 at 09:27
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    @Randal'Thor I haven't the time to compare the descriptions again, but it looked to me like the description provided here was identical to the original author's descriptions in the books. That's not "inspired by." Note that rule is: given the rules of my fictional world, how would I have, e.g., a lightsaber? The important part is we must know the rules of the world. Re-creating from scratch a 3rd-party creature still violates the rule. – JBH Dec 01 '20 at 14:54

1 Answers1

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Your creature is very interesting, and mostly plausible.

Items that are problematic:

  • Two hearts: If by this you mean two hearts, offering full redundancy in case of failure of one, that presents some enormous physiological problems. Fluid circulations very much want to NOT work in this way. It is not an impossible conjecture, but very highly unlikely.

  • Eating through their hooves. I have no idea how one can make this work. The contact surface of a hoof is smallish, and absolutely has to be hard (to be a hoof, not a paw).
    How does one make a hard hoof capable of absorbing the amount of nutrients that a creature of that size will need, and transport it through the legs (which have better things to do than be digestive tracts)?

If you really do need to make them mouthless, and absorbing all their nutrients from the environment via contact, may I suggest a large, soft region of the underbelly that serves this purpose? The Andalite would then "eat" by lying down on a nice succulent patch of foliage or grass. This way, they are using a much larger organ for the absorption, one which is not burdened by also being a weight-bearing support, and which can channel the nutrients directly to the abdomen. It also gives them the ability to choose to not "eat" if they are on something distasteful, whereas the eating hooves concept would make them incredibly vulnerable to poison on the ground, etc.

I particularly like the second set of eyes on stalks. Likely to be used for 360-degree surveillance of their environment, praticularly sensitive to movement but not very good for close vision, I assume? This allows the front-facing eyes instead of typical non-hunter side vision, greatly aiding them in becoming tool users.

All the rest of the features described seem plausible and mostly practical, with easy evolutionary pathways to forming them. Well, except the telepathy, but then I'm just a descendant from a tree-climbing ape, so I don't know about telepathy.

PcMan
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  • What you thought minutes ago is now received (potentially) by people all over the Earth, way out of the voice reach (not that you pronounced any sound), and they (well, those interested enough in your thoughts) now have in their minds the concepts you have about Andalites. Surely that may seem like telepathy. – Ángel Nov 30 '20 at 23:02
  • @Ángel Yep, we apes do stuff by banging rocks together. Or electrons, in the case of the interwebs. But the Andalites seem to do it by organic means. Hmm... maybe they bash stinks together, communicate by smell? – PcMan Dec 01 '20 at 04:37
  • add the imposbility of these two combined: No mouth; eats by absorbing nutrients from grass with its hooves & Genius-level intellect ; Carnivores are on average smarter than herivores, but omnivores top those... – Trish Dec 01 '20 at 09:49