"If Terraforming Mars Awakened Something . . . BAD (Part 2)" Topic

QUESTION:

So . . . what sort of critters do you think my Sahadeen will have to face deep in the Martian deserts (once I paint them, that is)?

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* Will they be swarms of smallish but voracious arthropods?
See: TMP link
* Will they be giant ravenous worms?
* Will it be some other sort of creature*, reawakened by water after a long dehydrated slumber?

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CC
* However, as much as I like cephalopods (not as much as DWW, mind you), I find it silly to think of them roaming deserts, dealing with drying temperatures and abrasive sands.

Those stealthy, hungry, sand sharks, that "swim" under the surface of the planet, in the loose sand and dune areas…….

Top Gun Ace,

How big should they be?
Would they have some sort of "armored" skin?

CC

Oooh do you mean landshark as in the D+D Bulette?
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the SandKings!

Maybe something more adapted to a drying climate, retilian or arachnid. Long legged spiders with nasty venom rather than SST "Bugs" or some torporous reptilian humanoids, all dry scales and vicious, enemy mine style rather than gormless gorn.

rock monsters

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Why left over robots left when the Martians pulled out of their remote colonies to deal with their civil war.

Left overs from the John Carter of Mars Era? Seriously… How about JCoM left, and no more earthlings came to Mars? What would they be like now?

BTW, CC, I really like the look of the cork terrain. Where did you buy cork like that?

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Also I cannot remember the D&D line book I read ages ago but it was set in a desert world(not darksun) and it had a land train in it. The "hero" gets stranded in the desert and ends up fighting a bunch of giant sand fleas.

What if it awoke an army of CC's favourite chia pets?
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Tim

Depends what of Mars' planetary characteristics you want to keep for your scenarios.

Low gravity-bigger creature
Low oxygen-oh, oh, smaller creature
Low temperature- even smaller creature

etc.

Ralph

I humbly suggest the following:

Giant Desert Centipede!
Cold tolerance.
Periods of dormancy.
Aggressive
Poisonous
Colorful

What's not to love!

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Something remniscent of a trilobyte, burrowing just below the surface seeking water. Any water. (Dude! YOU'RE water!)

Then there's the critter(s) that feed on the "trilobytes" and new meat sacks. Serpentine or centipede-like and also a burrower with a set of mean jaws and teeth (good for cracking trilobyte shells).

RichardDMB,

This is an example of the cork tiles I used:

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But, instead of purchasing online, I picked up a couple of packs at Hobby Lobby. I think they were $9-10 per pack (total 8 tiles).

Hope that helps a little.

Dan
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Go0gle,

You bring up an interesting point, which is . . .

What should be the basis/foundation for the entire food chain? Re-awakened native fungi or plants? Or solely the flora and fauna introduced during the terraforming process?

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You remember that scene in the 2000 film "Red Planet" (with Kilmer)?

"Burchenal and Gallagher resume the trek. Along the way, they reach a large algae-covered field and Burchenal grasps what has been happening: the insects are native Martian life laying dormant until a food source, such as algae, arrived and took root. The insects eat the algae and excrete oxygen creating the new Martian atmosphere and explaining why they explode when burned.
Unfortunately, the insects go into a feeding frenzy and swarm Burchenal when blood drips from an open wound. He passes his pressure suit (with collected data, air, and sample bugs) to Gallagher, and rather than be eaten alive, he ignites the bugs, causing a chain reaction that burns the remaining algae and much of the region's atmosphere. The explosive fire is large enough to be seen from the orbiting Mars-1 space ship."
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See 3:24 minutes into this clip:
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Thanks so much. You are definitely expaning my view of this.

CC

* However, as much as I like cephalopods (not as much as DWW, mind you), I find it silly to think of them roaming deserts, dealing with drying temperatures and abrasive sands.

Ah, but you're narrowing your imagination to focus on Earth-based cephalopods. Who's to say that Martian cephalopods aren't designed for dry, sandy environments?

Why left over robots left when the Martians pulled out of their remote colonies to deal with their civil war.

I think you mean the robots that turned on their Martian creators and destroyed all of their colonies.

StarfuryXL5: "Who's to say that Martian cephalopods aren't designed for dry, sandy environments?"

Ahh. I see. More like tentacled arthropods or reptilians then? That is cool.

CC

Dremel Man: "I humbly suggest the following: Giant Desert Centipede! Cold tolerance. Periods of dormancy. Aggressive. Poisonous. Colorful. What's not to love!"

Like this one?

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CC

Predatory packs of sand grain-sized nanobots (or a natural equivalent.) They'd blend into the terrain, flow like water when moving, and would just be a plain nasty business to deal with…. ;)

"Dremel Man: "I humbly suggest the following: Giant Desert Centipede! Cold tolerance. Periods of dormancy. Aggressive. Poisonous. Colorful. What's not to love!"

Like this one?"

Yes indeed!
I love this one. It is close to 'reality' with a little twist.

I have to say I like the suggestions made by others to think of the ecosystem in general and not just creatures.

A food chain might work well enough.

Water – Algae – Flying insects – Centipedes – Burrowers.

There is also a rich vein to be mined from the latest movie version of King Kong. That insect scene with those giant grubs and all sorts of arachnids was great too.

Who knows? We may have already started the process and unknowingly sent Mars a few of these guys:

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CC

I love me some Water Bears.
I haven't figured out yet what their position is on the food chain.

What is their respiration?
What are they consuming and excreting?
Who is consuming them?

To quote one of the websites I just looked at:

"These are my new favorite animal".

DMan,

"Water bears feed on the fluids of plant and animal cells. They have stylets which allow them to pierce plant cells or animal body walls. A sucking pharyngeal bulb enables them to then ingest the internal contents of their food items. Some species of water bears are known to eat entire live organisms, such as rotifers and other tardigrades."
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"In fact, they are important components of the food chain, feeding on other small creatures, and in turn, becoming food for insect larvae and other microarthropods. Tardigrades are also eaten by vegetarians, such as deer and cattle, by virtue of clinging to leaf surfaces. They are most certainly eaten in large quantities by unsuspecting humans as tiny morsels of microscopic nutrition in salads, vegetables and fruits!"
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"They keep the company of rotifers and nematodes in the skim of moisture found around creek sediments and among mosses. In that world beyond sight, tardigrades are dominant, says Bartels, and they may serve as a vital link in the food chain between microbes and insects. Still, before the inventory, both their role and their abundance in the Smokies remained more or less unknown."
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They also seem to condition the soil somehow. At least that's what I remember reading in one of the articles.

They are cool, aren't they?

CC

Now, imagine if they mutated on Mars and ended up this size, and developed a taste for us!

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It might me like in this Outer Limits episode (Tempests). Look at 7:00 minutes into this clip:

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Full episode:

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Now THIS would be awesome:

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CC

"Now, imagine if they mutated on Mars and ended up this size, and with a taste for us!"

And why not?
They certainly WOULD go after us if they could.
I suppose they try all the time, but our skin is just too thick and tough.

We just need to rationalize their expansion in size… which would be easy enough since we ARE talking about a scifi game.

The only problem I can see are finding good minies for them. And they are just soo darned cute!
Nothing like those thrice-damned and ugly centipides!

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CC
PS. Shouldn't be so hard to sculpt:
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Cool videos here:

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And this series:

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CC

In less than 10 minutes NGC will have a show on Terraforming Mars:

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Dan

Guys,

Check out this model:

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Dan
PS. I wonder if it's from a movie or some tv show.

Hint – Watch Dr. Who. The Waters of Mars. Gives an idea of something to use.

All this talk of sand worms makes me thing of DUNE… hmmm.