Worldbuilding Week 3: Life on Planet M-Franciscae

This week, we listened to environmental scientist Tim Rumage speak to us about the fundamentals on species and life forms, and what they require to survive. He addressed the dynamics of predators and prey, as well as the extraneous factors impacting species that is brought upon by climate change. Connecting issues we currently face in the real world to our fictional worlds is quite important, and brings credibility to the narrative. below are notes I took during the talk; below this is my visualization of Planet M-Franciscae, where discussion had just begun on the previous post.

Notes from Tim's presentation:

  • primary production - who is generating the initial batch of energy
  • consider the food chain
  • death rates factor in...relate back to nutrient cycle
  • "Life wants to live"
  • how is energy preserved? consider dormancy habits in species
  • diversity - complete values of natural world and # of species; survivability; about adaptation
  • consider UV or infrared sight; could be possible mode of communication
Panorama view of a coastal location on M-Franciscae. (The vast majority of species is oceanic life - including mollusks, bivalves, and more; the supertardigrade has diversified and adapted to living on land, where they feed largely on vegetation and gastropods that wash up on shore.)


Life and Evolution: eukaryotes, tube worms, scaly-foot gastropods, mollusks, bivalves, tardigrades (most diversification here...into intelligent supertardigrades)
  • There is a correlation between the reasons for human intelligence and intelligence with supertardigrades: the tendency to exploit environment for survival; keeping to groups; a superior cranial system allowing for communication, memory, and problem-solving.
  • As a result of high levels of electromagnetic radiation left over from the formation of this planet, infrared waves are part of the biology and method of communication for supertardigrades. Communication works in the way a remote points to a TV (which also utilizes infrared waves). Supertardigrades “speak” to one another and are capable of transmitting complex ideas through infrared communication.

Timeline (for human interaction with this planet):
  • Supertardigrades are complex, intelligent extremophiles that desire to exploit all kinds of environments; their goals direct toward searching beyond their own horizons and discovering environments on other planets. They detect any form of external infrared activity, and are limited to searching exclusively for this, and no other form of communication.
  • Humans, some x years in the future, have been furthering study in System X, where they’ve been detecting unusual heat patterns as well as high levels of it. With the help of thermal imaging they zero in on M-Franciscae, and then specific regions of the planet that correspond to locations of the hydrothermal vents, springs, and surrounding oceanic-volcanic regions.
  • A satellite from Earth was sent near to M-Franciscae to collect images. The atmosphere on this planet is far less opaque than Earth’s and objects in the sky are relatively clearer. Supertardigrades have spotted the foreign object with both vision and thermal energy emissions.

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