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whalewithlegs — Jetsnail Cladogram
Published: 2009-04-17 00:47:12 +0000 UTC; Views: 3861; Favourites: 49; Downloads: 349
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Description
Jetsnails have a complicated digestive system, excreting internally into their vestigial shells. The feces ferment, compacting into a dense and highly flammable matter which is used as a relatively efficient jet fuel. Most species, like the Inkhorn, are gliders, but a few have become decent true fliers, using the jet for vertical takeoffs and aerial maneuvers.The jet organs are highly modified and shielded anal extremities. Special nodes transmit electric sparks into gas-filled chambers, creating small explosions which ignite the feces in short put powerful bursts.
Many species have lost all flight capability and use the jet as a defensive weapon or to enable great leaps. The Daggershins in particular take advantage of their leaping capacity, delivering rocket-powered kicks with the cutting forward edges of their legs.
Several species have developed psychoactive chaff that can flake off when jet propulsion is activated, leaving predators both disoriented and mildly burned.
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Edit: I tried to clean up the image a little .. there were quite a few artifacts and spaces left colored in that needed to be cleaned out.
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Comments: 41
Sorry if people have already asked you this, but is there any way I can buy prints of your work? Not guaranteeing I will, cause I'm kinda poor, but I really want to and definitely would eventually!
Your stuff is really amazing and inspiring and if I could see these freaking huge charts all at once instead of scrolling through them they would be even MORE AMAZING!!!
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What I can do is 2 things. First, let me extend my images to you for your own personal use. Most stuff in my gallery can be downloaded at full res, and you're welcome to take the image and get it printed yourself. Secondly, it may in fact be easier to simply buy prints here, in which case just pop me a note and I'll enable a particular piece if you're interested in it. Sound ok?
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That sounds awesome, thanks! Well, if you don't mind me making prints for myself I'll try that first. Heehee! <-< >->
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*laughs* Heartsleeve! I like the sense of humor in some of these. Great creature designs.
I never thought about it before, but I guess cladograms can count as "sequential art." Following down the lines and watching the creatures evolve certainly felt a bit like reading a comic.
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haha, if that's true, cladograms definitely count as comics ... like hieroglyphics
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Just... just... awesome... (that was my head exploding).
Seriously, that has to be one of your best cladograms. The bold colors are really eye-catching, and the concentric circles emphasize the concept of species radiation.
All of them are glorious. I particularly like the warbler and greater armored (they remind me of cicadas and treehoppers), and the inkhorn (and regal fingerwalker, come to think of it) is a particularly lovely critter that reminds me of stargazers, pelycosaurs, goblin sharks, and rhinogrades all at once.
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Thanks! I had a lot of fun trying to make this visually appealing but not over the top!
It's always terribly amazing to me the stuff that has come out of my mind mechanically rather than intuitively. The biological side of this project has been in some ways overshadowed by the psychological aspects
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Very appealing, yes.
Psychological, you say? Do explain.
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Oh, mostly just decision making: "What adaptations do I tend to overuse," or "What themes do I return to & why," that sort of thing. These have also ended up being an external memory aid ... looking back through them I mostly remember where I was and what I was doing corresponding to each page.
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The progressions on this are impressive. They do use dung as fuel in certain communities...
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thanks, man! yeah, i thought about buffalo chips a bit when doing this.
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ah, great to see you back on this silly little site
yes, we must categorize our creatures!
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thanks, man! hopefully i'll actually get around to doing something with them someday!
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I could spend hours looking at your drawings.
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thanks, man! I try to make it interesting!
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I'd buy a print. If I had the monies.
I like the way you use the concentric circles, it even seems (to me anyway) to show the speed of their diversification, plus the whole simplification thing.
It's always a joy to look at your stuff.
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haha, thanks! i don't expect people to buy prints, especially from DA, but i put it out there as a 'what the hell' policy
I might even look into seeing what it would cost to print it myself, because most of my art is on wood & not in our budget to transport to Taiwan, unfortunately.
I couldn't help thinking 'loony tunes' about the concentric circles, but continually find cladograms hard to organize visually ... you are exactly correct, the colors & receding order help to quickly get the jist of the diversification and order from a glance.
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You do your stuff on wood? I must admit my ears prinked up at that, tell me more...
Ha! Now I can see your creatures bashing each other over the head etc etc to the loony tunes theme. I must say I enjoy the image!
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oh, i could go on and on about how i hate canvas 
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I see. I hear the term board used a lot. Personally I like my canvas ON board. Framed canvas is a bit mank IMO.
I have never tried wood though. I have been thinking of doing some woodcuts. My problem is I don't have very good tools.
You could go on, I wouldn't mind
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maybe i'll write a little journal article on it soon ... having one of those kind of 'buh' days in a kind of 'buh' life
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Looking forward to it!
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But I'll try. Wow...Okay. Dirtlickers kick ass because they look like a hybrid of mole cricket and slug. (A mollusk cricket??) The Greater Sphinx I can see hibernating down in some pre-Egyptian temple, awaiting the time when its cult will rise again in our world. Warblers and Greater Armored dominate in all their moth- and cicada-like glory. Inkhorn and Regal Fingerwalker again have that Jenny Haniver/Cockatrice vibe I love so much...I especially like the last two iterations of both those. I see the second-to-last Inkhorn as having butterfly spots on its sail.
As always, there is such an alien quality to these, but also an uncanny sense of veracity...It's spooky to imagine some alternate, not-quite-real ecosystem where they live and breathe. Fantastic work!
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thanks, man! I think its one of the main tenents of making creatures, just having them look like they'd hold together, like they betray their movement and behavior through body posture ... i try anyway.
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Naturally, because it is so awesome, I Loves It! 
It's so original too Though!
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thanks, pal! I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!
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You're very much welcome!
Are you ever going to Colour any off of these too, Though!? 
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i might pick some favorites out of them
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I am in awe of the beauty and intricacy! Such a large scale project, yet it never grows stale, well done.
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thanks, man! What can I say, i just crave monstery biology
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Again, a beautiful piece of work. I love your cladograms.
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thanks! it's been a challenge to get them to fit in a square space well, as i imagine you know from your own work, so i feel pretty happy about this one!
Also, despite that above comment, i totally didn't realize you were making descendancy trees yourself ... i missed them somehow in my gallery fly-over! I'm stoked .. so stoked ... i really can;t convey it ... i love this kind of stuff. it's late and i'm retarded from watching my kids all day, haha, so i'm off to sleep now but am definitely going to pour over yours in the morning
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Well thanks in advance. Although mine are tiny pencil sketches, hopefully the descriptions will help you in figuring out what's going on.
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