Grigory Ryzhakov – Russian Writer

Too often we hurt our eyes looking at the stars and into the Universe without noticing what is under our feet.  Planet Earth is here to inspire all of us. I find that many sci-fi and fantasy writers who describe aliens/monsters in their books could benefit from learning a little bit of zoology. The magnitude of animal diversity on our planet is hard to grasp even for a scientist. Several million species!

Frequently, sci-fi novels feature aliens looking like Arthropoda, a phylum of animals comprising, among others, crustaceans, spiders and insects. Other invertebrate animal taxa remain largely neglected.

I think zoology is a vast source of inspiration in creating fictional extra-terrestrial creatures.

Consider echinoderms like sea urchin or starfish: they look radially symmetric on the outside but are asymmetric anatomically and have up to three body vascular systems – ambulacral, haemal and perihaemal.

Take nudibranchs (more commonly called sea slugs), a group of sea-dwelling mollusks.  These carnivores feed on sedimentary animals like hydroid cnidarians and sponges, and they can protect themselves from bigger predators by accumulating poisons in their tissues (probably derived from the preys) and sporting come shocking coloration to indicate their inedible nature.

Onychophorans or velvet worms are subterranean predators with a hierarchical social structure in the form of matriarchate. What a twat he is, you may exclaim. I agree I need to use shorter words and stop throwing in Latin terminology like it’s a scholarly paper. So, citing Wikipedia, my sentence meant that: “After a kill, the dominant female always feeds first, followed in turn by the other females, then males, then the young.” Velvet worms are begging to get into someone’s novel, not literally. It could be your story, think about it.

So, if you want to be inspired and you are not a biologist, start with Wikipedia and then follow the links, I’m sure you’ll find the subject as thrilling as Oprah’s show. A writer should always expand her horizons and that requires some research.

Lastly, I’d like to mention my favorite sea anemones, which belong to a phylum of Cnidaria along with jellyfish, corals and sea pens. I am a practicing biologist and I study the evolution of immunity in the lab. I am interested in how our defense systems against bacteria, viruses and other pathogens originated and evolved. I study sea anemones and try comparing their immune system to ours to understand how it functions. Below, is the microscopic photograph of the starlet sea anemone (scientific name – Nematostella vectensis). To me it looks like a glowing tree trunk with branches, in reality it is a base of a tiny mouth of the creature with tentacles spreading away. One day I may create a fictional character called Nematostella, the creature deserves it.

What about you? Do you ever use features of earthly beings in drawing characters for your stories?

Your brilliant thoughts

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