Welcome to the world, Tai Li!
—–
I owe several of you an apology. I went to clear out my spam folder for the comments tonight (it had gotten backlogged to 270 comments, due to sloth on my part) and while most of them were the usual dregs, several of the comments in the spam folder were legitimate reader comments.
I’m not sure why they were there because these are comments I’ve seen through my email notifications, but they somehow got tagged as spam and hidden away.
I’ve approved them for view, although belatedly. I apologize to anyone whose commentary was not promptly displayed. I’ll try not to let the spam folder get so backlogged again.
Props to everyone who saw Tai Li's shape in the egg and predicted a "tadpole" stage. :3
Awwwwww.
Awww!
“A Sarnothi has hatched from the Egg!”
“Would you like to give a name to the newly hatched Sarnothi?”
XxXSephiroth420XxX
BAHAHAHA! 😀
Tai Li uses birth! It’s super effective!
This legitimately terrifies me hahaha. I find Selkie and them real cute, but… I dunno why this freaks me out. Probably the whole, semi-human but also not thing. Like, humanoid creatures that crawl along walls all lizard like freak me out really badly too even if they don’t really -look- that frightening to me. This falls in that same category haha.
GAH AAAGH AAAAGH AAAAGH Oh…
(Gulp) I-isn’t it cute?
SHE Hahahahaha, isn’t SHE cute?
Tai Li is probably one of the most adorifying* things I’ve yet drawn for this comic. XD
*Adorable, yet Horrifying.
I’d have to vote some of Selkie’s expressions above that. Sorry. 😛
you do realize that we evolved from fish right?
Sarnothi are just amphibian, instead of mammal.
it makes sense they would have a tadpole stage of development.
technically tadpole is just a neotenic feature carried over over from when we evolved from fish. In amphibians, such as Sarnothi it’s an extended stage of development after hatching from the egg. In humans it’s one of the short stages of fetal development inside the womb.
She’ll be able to leave the tank after her legs grow in, and her tail recedes. similar to a frog, but she’ll be humanoid.
None of any of that is relevant to my weird fear of uncanny valley like horror of what she looks like.
She’s gonna look like the rest of them eventually, but she right she gives me the creeps.
evolution from fish is not the same as being born a literal fish.
The complete lack of limbs is kinda … shocking….
Fins are limbs. …Aren’t they?
They count as apendedges but I think a limb requires flexible joints like a birds wing counts as a limb but I don’t think a fin dose…
It depends entirely on the skeletal structure inside her body. The fins may be “actual” limbs, but the bone part doesn’t show outside the body. Kinda like how many birds’ (and digitigrade mammals’ too) knees are either within their bodymass or at the very least beneath their feathers. (What people wrongly call “backwards knees” are actually ankles.)
This is true. On the average chicken the knees are between the thigh and the drumstick (the meat on a drumstick is what we call the calf on a human)
On the non-average chicken the knees are right next to the jet engines.
fins evolve into limbs
they are basically the same thing
just with different stages of development
I was taken aback too! Her legs and arms will probably form when she gets older.
The weird part to me is that something that ends up being able to nearly pass for human starts out with an entirely fishlike body… and still has a humanish face and hair.. when we aren’t even born with much hair. Well I was, but not THAT much. it’s weird enough they have it to begin with.
And that is why this comic is a hell of a ride 😀
The full head of hair surprised me too.
What I have to remind myself though, is that Sarnothi are not deviate humans, but a parallel evolution from an ENTIRELY different branch of the bio-tree. There is no reason to expect ANY commonalities except those that serve common purposes (in other words, “form follows function”).
Another example: Suko is pretty darn big for a two year old… or would be for a 2yo HUMAN, but he isn’t human, and there’s no real reason we should expect him to follow a human development curve. That would be very odd. Familiar to us perhaps, but odd.
Squeeeeeeeeeee!!!!
Now that I am over the shock of no limbs I am now looking at that aquarium and thinking “That’s way to small for an exploring baby,” as the mother of a crawling infant I have to ask how long she is going to be stuck in there?
That may be the reason Selkie survived the destruction of her clan: Before the attack her mother had taken her (or her egg) outside their city so she’d have a larger “aquarium” to explore.
till she’s no longer a tadpole
yeah I could assume that but how long is that? weeks months? her first year of life?
Heh. I find it kinda cool that the same time she’s struggling to free herself from the egg and enter the world, I’m struggling to get a good start on YouTube. Finding out how difficult it is to make videos, let alone post them on a timely basis. Struggling with my own perfectionism, which can be paralyzing.
And yeah, the struggle is important. Skipping the struggle leads to a completely different set of skills, a completely different attitude toward your own work and the work of others. So even the frustration of feeling like I’m a failure or not good enough, that has long-term benefits if I push through it and keep going… find out what I’m made of, and refine it.
But man, do I appreciate the YouTubers who can manage one or more videos a day. Or even three a week. It’s crazy.
Creepy but kind of neat, sarnothi are a different species after all so it makes sense they’d develop quite differently from humans.
Hee hee. I like your “It’s A Girl!” photo shoot-style pic at the end. Classic.
Holy smokes, did NOT expect a tadpole stage!
I am a raptor lover. I spend hours every spring and summer watching webcams of eagles raising their young. It’s been a good education. So I was wondering if the baby would have an egg-tooth. You can imagine how happy I was to see it! Great research!
Tadpoles don’t tend to have egg teeth though. Then again, amphibians don’t tend to have hair either. (Or breasts, as somebody pointed out below.) So who knows! It’s Dave’s species and it can have egg teeth if i wants.
I’m not convinced Sarnothi ARE amphibians. They are clearly tetrapods, but the egg looks more like an amniote (reptile, bird, mammal) egg, or maybe a shark egg, definitely NOT an amphibian egg. Amphibians have a very thin egg membrane, and usually many eggs at a time. Amniotes are more likely to make one large egg. I feel like Sarnothi look more like a highly derived species of marine reptiles (many of which existed in our ancient oceans, but went extinct with the dinosaurs). They breathe air and also have gills. Marine mammals and reptiles that exist today never re-evolved gills after the evolution of lungs, but perhaps for a species of reptile that returned to the sea millions of years ago?
Or maybe they are lobe-finned fishes, like Coelocanths and Tiktaliiks, which have convergently evolved human-like traits.
Yeah, I noticed that as well. But I was speaking from the idea that this is a tadpole stage, and tadpoles (which in real life is a stage of amphibian development) don’t generally have egg teeth. Sarnothi don’t fit very neatly into any animal class though. TBH, if monotremes are classified as mammals on the basis that they have hair and feed their young on milk (although not through breasts like Sarnothi apparently do), they may very well be mammals. But they have a tadpole stage and are arguably semiaquatic (if the war hadn’t happened would they have wanted to live on land? do they even leave the water if they don’t live on land?). And as you point out, they have some characteristics more reminiscent of fish or reptiles.
It’s hard to say really. There’s definitely got to be convergent evolution involved there somewhere. Probably quite a bit.
And suddenly I understand why they’re called “guppies.” <3
The “tadpole” part isn’t shocking. The HAIR now – a tadpole with hair. That’s shocking.
Kinda looks like Selkie needs to quit complaining, “I’M NOT A FISH!!!”
It’s like calling someone an ape. Technically true but you’d be offended too I imagine.
Do you know the difference between fish and amphibians
also I mean while calling Selkie a frog would technically be as biologically correct as calling a human a monkey CALLING A HUMAN A MONKEY CAN STILL BE A DEHUMANIZING INSULT??? and Amanda literally uses ‘fish’ like that, specifically to humiliate and degrade Selkie
so no
I look forward to seeing the transition from tadpole, clearly aquatic creature to biped. That should be neat. Do the fins just fall off with time and are replaced by growths that will become fully functioning arms? I assume the “legs” are merged into the tail right now and will differentiate later. Maybe the fins turn into the hands, since they’re already webbed? I’m imagining going from a tadpole to a sort of crawling creature as the arms just out, to upright as the legs fully separate and the fins become more opposable.
Amphibian Humanoids aren’t fish
also hair is made from the same material as scales, feathers, hooves and horn.
Oh my gosh she is so precious. I wish I could hug her without causing her harm.
So cute!
Negg Toof!!
That full head of hair is a little ridiculous.
It’s probably so they can curl up and look like seaweed. Any fish that come by to nibble the “vegetation” become dinner. Any carnivore fish pas by…
…. can anyone else think of an example of complex life that undergoes this extreme of a metamorphosis? cuz I can’t
If by “complex” you mean “vertebrate,” then yes: freshwater eels. (Interesting if we think about the cultural importance the sarnothi seem to place on eels!)
And I’m not sure this metamorphosis would be particularly extreme…it looks like the changes will be mostly musculoskeletal. That’s not so strange, really. Development of limbs is something lots of creatures go through. The surprise for me is that the angle of the foramen magnum (where the spine enters the skull) will have to shift to allow a fully bipedal lifestyle, but that’s doable, she has a lot of growing to do.
If eels aren’t your thing, marsupials start life as basically jellybeans. Since Selkie’s species are apex predators that raise their young, it makes sense that their hatchlings (?infants?) would be more developed…but a “more developed” marsupial baby would still have to go through some pretty drastic changes. XD
All in all, I feel like this makes sense!
Frogs and butterflies come to mind.
I don’t know why, but I was kind of expecting this—maybe because the Sarnothi are amphibious and the egg was so small. Good thing Selkie didn’t end up at the orphanage as a baby. I think she would have been doomed!
Quick question… What is the purpose of Sarnothi having breasts again? Can they actually breast feed? The way the babies are developed doesn’t seem like they should. The babies look fairly self-sufficient and they totally aren’t mammals. Very fascinating people!
Calcium. Sarnothi breast feed for a brief period after hatching until the infant’s jaws are strong enough to crunch up fish bones.
So if Sai fen had to climb in the tank pants-less to give birth, does she climb in the tank to breast feed too?
We have no evidence that Sai Fen exudes her eggs from between her legs, although the drawings of Sarnothi anatomy seems to say so.
Either way, I’m guessing that she could lay the egg outside the water and immediately place it IN the water as necessary– as I’m sure that Tai Li can exist for a moment or two outside of the tank if necessary.
Seeing that explanation, it kinda makes sense, they have quite a few bones to grow between this stage and final form.
Fascinating! I am curious how that will happen with the tank. The babies have to be in water to swim obviously, but can they breath air?
My guess is that air comes later. If they don’t have a way to emerge from the water, why would they need to breathe anything else? She may be able to take a gulp or two of air, but I would be surprised if she could survive more than a few seconds out of her tank.
The tank is making me sad now. Pohl and Sai Fen are going to miss out on a lot of family cuddle time and Sarnothi baby milestones until she can spend time in the air.
Tank’s pretty big — I bet Mom climbs in!
sooo when it starts out wil it have the voice of Leonard Nimoy? for those who don’t get the ref look up Seaman
I’d expected the tadpole stage, but for some reason assumed that gender didn’t happen until the next stage. And that it was just ‘baby Sarnothi’ for a while.
We knew it’s a girl for a while, aparently you can tell by the coloring of the egg or something if I remember right.
Spots on the outside.
Well, lack of spots.
I had flashbacks to the Simpsons episode when they showed baby Lisa and her first word was Bart. Huh.
Egg tooth…
wait, her mama just bought all that human clothes and stuff for the baby. How is she gonna wear any of it if she doesn’t have arms or legs yet? Does she need to remain in the tank still? I’m confused D:
She got excited and jumped the gun. The clothes are for later. 😀
OH! That makes sense XD
That makes sense! She looks too small for regular baby clothes at this point. 🙂 I take it they develop land limbs once they get to be human baby-sized? 🙂
What creased me up was the enthusiastic expression and cry as she emerged. None of that red-faced, yelling in protest, eyes-tight-shut business we go in for!
Not all babies do that—especially if the birth isn’t forced. My kid was quiet and born with her eyes open. She didn’t cry until the nurses took her to do a quick check, and then she quieted when my husband talked to her.
Selkie may have just found her college major: Evo-devo.
Do you happen to watch Orphan Black?
It’s the miracle of life, Charlie Brown! 😀
And lo, on the 777th page, our savior was born again. Praise be to Tai Li, the fishy second coming.
And REEEEEOOOOOHHH to you, young’un.
That is simply precious yet oddly disturbing. Any sort of birthing/hatching process is a bit miraculously freaky in my opinion but whatever, it’s a mermaid!
That thing looks dumb as hell, lol.
Adorable baby in a weirdly-cute way. But I look at that egg tooth and remember that these babies nurse for a short time…Poor Sai Fen!
The egg tooth will probably be reabsorbed or fall off well before then. It usually doesn’t last long in known species.
ive been reading this for a while and would just like to say if this was a male tadpole you would eventually have to draw a penis on it i kinda want to see how you will go about not doing drawing the developing female parts as she turns more humanoid
Creative leg placements, is my plan for that.
Since they are born as fully aquatic it seems logical that external genitals would not become obvious until they grew legs. Even mammals don’t have external genitals when they are fully aquatic. It interrupts the need for their bodies to be streamlined for good swimming.
interrupts = interferes. Tired. 🙂
Even humans don’t have much more than vestigial genitals until they are 8-9 years old. There is a lot of growth that happens between 9 years old and puberty.
Is she really going to grow as big as Suko in only two years? She’s going to be eating a LOT of meat.
Yep, definitely not genus Homo. I say again: go with ‘Aquanthropus’.
I didn’t ‘predict’ the tadpol stage, but I’m more surprised by Tai Li hatching with hair than I am by her hatching without arms and legs.
(edit) Well, she’s kind of got arms with those fins in the front between her neck and gills.
I really, really love her first sound. Like, really love it. I’ve imagined it sounding a few different ways with the same basic pronunciation and they’re all great. Nice work, Dave!
Said it before and I say it again, everything about the Sarnothi (even though we’ve only met 6 characters at this point) is cool! They are a very fierce, but playful species of people—even their birth is a joyous warrior event. Was the idea for their culture based off the behaviors/personality of RL water animals? I see a lot of it in the way the behave and their culture.
Is it just me or does the first panel kinda look kinda phallic? (Kinda a dirty mind sooo….)
So I take it that the tooth she has is an egg tooth?
Holy shit,
that thing looks like something out of Adult swim.