tall;
very black;
skeletal;
with huge rib cages;
with a water-holding hump on each shoulder;
silent.
Controlled by tineran children's whistles and signals, the dogs herd:
stathas;
mules;
goats;
neomoas.
For other Terrestrial animals adapted to extra-solar planets, see Makassar And Altai.
2 comments:
Altai I think was more interesting precisely because the human colonization came at an ecologically vulnerable point, where the climate was warming due to increased solar radiation after a very, very, very long period of intense cold and "Snowball Earth" glaciation.
All the native life had adapted to that setting, and when the equatorial and temperate zones were freed from the ice, only a few plants were left struggling to readapt. Then the Terran colonists introduced their plants, which ironically were much more suited to the environment, and they took over all the vacated territory freed by the warming.
The explosive evolutionary radiation of introduced birds and mammals was intriguing too, and very credible. (Feral cats in Australia are increasing in size to exploit larger prey. Give them a hundred thousand years and they'll be tigers, or at least leopards.)
Dear Mr. Stirling,
Very interesting, what you said about how feral cats in Australia are increasing in size to better hunt larger prey.
And your mention of Altai, seen in Anderson's "A Message in Secret," reminded me of how RATS, escaping from human ships, were adapting to Altai, becoming larger to both stay warmer and better able to hunt large prey. AND becoming more intelligent and dangerous. Mention was made of how genetic drift, short generations, etc., would favor such changes among the gurchaku.
Sean
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