Aww that was a very short Q&A session. now our speculation in the comment section is going to go unanswered till later. oh well on to meeting their new classmates and new friends for selkie.
*snort* now that sounded like a proper politician – say lot of words without answering a damn thing whatsoever – and also so polite that i´m sure someone else wrote it for him
Evolution—just like humans… With the possibility of an intelligent alien species intermixing its DNA with Earth’s local wildlife to speed things up (as they may have with humans). It’d explain why Sarnothi and Humans ended up looking quite similar (enough they could fall in love) despite being from different classes of the animal kingdom. I’d be cool if there were some very similar genes the two shared that weren’t found in other species of animals—even ones that were close relatives to either.
Or Maybe humans are the byproduct of an ancient Sarnothi civilization, they might have wanted servants not limited to fresh water habitats, after all while Sarnothi are Amphibious, being on land is somewhat complicated for them, and we don’t know if they can survive in salt water.
So they might have found, making servants to inhabit the surface and get them the resources, simpler than doing it themselves.
Yeah, pretty much everything is ONLY either saltwater or freshwater, if it’s native to fresh water it’ll die in salt water and vice versa. The very few exceptions only switch environments for spawning purposes, and most of these die soon after laying eggs. Has to do with the body’s systems of maintaining water/salt balances, it can’t change the rate it does so so suddenly.
Euryhaline species are numerous and varied. Brackish species even more so.
Everything from Goby, to Bullsharks, ALL of the Poecillae species, Rays, EELS (both standard and electric as well as spiney nosed VERY light salt with them) Lamprey, Salmon, Bass fish. Bettas (yes I’ve seen saltwater betta) Greenland sharks, Most of the African rift valley fish can handle a moderate level of salt as that is a component of PH buffering and Hardwater in general) Puffer fish come to mind, Vespicula (Bastard fish envenomed me a few months back) monos, shrimp, snails, and other inverts.
Thinking about it even more… that chemical Free pool Would almost CERTAINLY be a saltwater pool sterilized with ozone. otherwise it would turn to pondwater VERY quickly. and would smell like well farts very very quickly due to sulfide decay product from the nitrification process without ozone to break down those further nitrates and sulfites/ates.
Looks like I’m not the only pedant here. But still… is “anthropological” the correct word here? Beyond the whole bipeds with opposable thumbs thing, I didn’t think that the Sarnothi were mammals, let alone primates (and thus not hominids, so not anthropological)… I had mostly assumed it was a parallel evolution thing.
para-anthropological, which could /would include not only the Sarnothi but other Not Homindae, genus sapiens life forms not alien to the planet. They can not have applied genus HOMO as they are not of hominid decent.
I submit that Icthios fluviatili sapiens, Subspecies Sarnothi, would be correct
To differentiate between the theoretical Ichthios marinum Sapiens.
Joe, “para-” means paranormal, the existence of Sarnothi is not paranormal. Then is correct in just using Anthropology, as in the study of people, past and present.
@RacingTurtle… I don’t know if you should be so sure of that… the clients of Alana Wolf and Jeff Byrd have had some really “out there” clients… i wouldn’t be at all surprised if one of them was a ghost that haunts a courtroom, or maybe if a judge was coming to them, wanting them to get rid of one haunting his courtroom…
Anthropology is the study of humans, past and present, or in this context, the study of people, past and present.
Paleontology is the study of fossils of plants and animals.
yes and para anthropology would be the study of NEAR humans or species alongside humans Which has to be differentiated from Xenanthropology meaning alien ie not of this earth.
“By the way, Sarnothi have been on this planet for millions of years and we have the fossils to prove it. A spaceship with thousands of humans on it crash landed about 30,000 years ago and, within a few years, you guys wiped out all of our allies, the neanderthals.
Hmmm… Yeah, I don’t think they’re ready for that story yet. Better just stick to ‘I don’t have the anthropological training to answer seriously.'”
*Now has another reason to wish that Douglas Adams hadn’t died so young… Then again, the evidence suggests that Golgafrichan Ark B landed in what would be Great Britain, since Arthur later found what he thought was his cave…*
After re-reading the previous comic where he joked about “fun probing” (and recalling that he doesn’t have any children, though that’s a weak data point), I now wonder whether Then is gay.
That raises an interesting point on how most of Sarnothi culture handles people who are LGBTQ+ in their own species and community. Selkie didn’t react negatively to her uncle being gay but is that common or the exception?
Could you just imagine a trans* Sarnothi using the Echo to undergo gender-confirmation procedures and HRT? Can humans sign up please?
Uh, for a assembly meeting about magical fish people, it was rather short, wasn’t it? How is the government going to go about the general education of them to the public, when Selkie herself had to be basically poisoned to understand her diet and environmental needs?
Don’t forget that this as JUST a local school’s assembly period for a “school announcement about new students” NOT “The Governmet’s Big Reveal Of An Alien Race…. DUN, Dunnn, dunnnn….” so yeah, i can see it being short and sweet (well, except for Then’s attitude, but you know what i mean 😀 ) so that the school can get on with it’s job… that of teaching our children…
Aww that was a very short Q&A session. now our speculation in the comment section is going to go unanswered till later. oh well on to meeting their new classmates and new friends for selkie.
I do like how he covered that answer for a child.
And I’m with Kuraimizu … the anthropology questions need answering!
When time allows, of course. 😉
Yes! I contributed to the anthropological discussions! I need to know how wrong I am!
*snort* now that sounded like a proper politician – say lot of words without answering a damn thing whatsoever – and also so polite that i´m sure someone else wrote it for him
Evolution—just like humans… With the possibility of an intelligent alien species intermixing its DNA with Earth’s local wildlife to speed things up (as they may have with humans). It’d explain why Sarnothi and Humans ended up looking quite similar (enough they could fall in love) despite being from different classes of the animal kingdom. I’d be cool if there were some very similar genes the two shared that weren’t found in other species of animals—even ones that were close relatives to either.
I’d like to remention my theory about them being a byproduct of an ancient advanced human civilization.
Or Maybe humans are the byproduct of an ancient Sarnothi civilization, they might have wanted servants not limited to fresh water habitats, after all while Sarnothi are Amphibious, being on land is somewhat complicated for them, and we don’t know if they can survive in salt water.
So they might have found, making servants to inhabit the surface and get them the resources, simpler than doing it themselves.
Wow, they don’t realize there are seas.
Which makes me curious how their biology reacts to saltwater……not very well I guess.
Yeah, pretty much everything is ONLY either saltwater or freshwater, if it’s native to fresh water it’ll die in salt water and vice versa. The very few exceptions only switch environments for spawning purposes, and most of these die soon after laying eggs. Has to do with the body’s systems of maintaining water/salt balances, it can’t change the rate it does so so suddenly.
Sorry to correct you Pyrpyr,
Euryhaline species are numerous and varied. Brackish species even more so.
Everything from Goby, to Bullsharks, ALL of the Poecillae species, Rays, EELS (both standard and electric as well as spiney nosed VERY light salt with them) Lamprey, Salmon, Bass fish. Bettas (yes I’ve seen saltwater betta) Greenland sharks, Most of the African rift valley fish can handle a moderate level of salt as that is a component of PH buffering and Hardwater in general) Puffer fish come to mind, Vespicula (Bastard fish envenomed me a few months back) monos, shrimp, snails, and other inverts.
thinking about it Almost all the cichlids can handle a modest amount of salt.
Thinking about it even more… that chemical Free pool Would almost CERTAINLY be a saltwater pool sterilized with ozone. otherwise it would turn to pondwater VERY quickly. and would smell like well farts very very quickly due to sulfide decay product from the nitrification process without ozone to break down those further nitrates and sulfites/ates.
I interpreted that as “creatures that must live on land.” Humans aren’t amphibious like they are.
VERY VERY SMOOOTH dude
Selkie’s Dad needs to meet this guys Barber. Or more likely, “stylist” 😉 😀
Looks like I’m not the only pedant here. But still… is “anthropological” the correct word here? Beyond the whole bipeds with opposable thumbs thing, I didn’t think that the Sarnothi were mammals, let alone primates (and thus not hominids, so not anthropological)… I had mostly assumed it was a parallel evolution thing.
para-anthropological, which could /would include not only the Sarnothi but other Not Homindae, genus sapiens life forms not alien to the planet. They can not have applied genus HOMO as they are not of hominid decent.
I submit that Icthios fluviatili sapiens, Subspecies Sarnothi, would be correct
To differentiate between the theoretical Ichthios marinum Sapiens.
Joe, “para-” means paranormal, the existence of Sarnothi is not paranormal. Then is correct in just using Anthropology, as in the study of people, past and present.
Kuraimizu.
para A prefix with many meanings, including: alongside of, beside, near, resembling, beyond, apart from, and abnormal.
Para-anthropological would be correct.
you are mistaking the word for the meaning of the Prefix.
joecrouse is correct. I thought of an example that might help illustrate this:
A “paralegal” is someone who works alongside lawyers, not a ghost that haunts the courtroom.
@RacingTurtle… I don’t know if you should be so sure of that… the clients of Alana Wolf and Jeff Byrd have had some really “out there” clients… i wouldn’t be at all surprised if one of them was a ghost that haunts a courtroom, or maybe if a judge was coming to them, wanting them to get rid of one haunting his courtroom…
Anthropology is the study of humans, past and present, or in this context, the study of people, past and present.
Paleontology is the study of fossils of plants and animals.
yes and para anthropology would be the study of NEAR humans or species alongside humans Which has to be differentiated from Xenanthropology meaning alien ie not of this earth.
I just realized how tough it will be for some of these guys to get jobs on the surface- although lifeguard positions may open up
“someone willing to talk with you” – as in “not me”
You made me waste coffee, that comment is a riot! :–)
“By the way, Sarnothi have been on this planet for millions of years and we have the fossils to prove it. A spaceship with thousands of humans on it crash landed about 30,000 years ago and, within a few years, you guys wiped out all of our allies, the neanderthals.
Hmmm… Yeah, I don’t think they’re ready for that story yet. Better just stick to ‘I don’t have the anthropological training to answer seriously.'”
*Now has another reason to wish that Douglas Adams hadn’t died so young… Then again, the evidence suggests that Golgafrichan Ark B landed in what would be Great Britain, since Arthur later found what he thought was his cave…*
I thought Merlin found the Cave? Am I wrong, AGAIN?
I meant Arthur Dent. Different universes 🙂
After re-reading the previous comic where he joked about “fun probing” (and recalling that he doesn’t have any children, though that’s a weak data point), I now wonder whether Then is gay.
That raises an interesting point on how most of Sarnothi culture handles people who are LGBTQ+ in their own species and community. Selkie didn’t react negatively to her uncle being gay but is that common or the exception?
Could you just imagine a trans* Sarnothi using the Echo to undergo gender-confirmation procedures and HRT? Can humans sign up please?
“So what’s probing”?
“Goodnight everybody.”
…You know, he could have just said “Kinda like when your doctor takes your blood, only not asking permission first…”
Uh, for a assembly meeting about magical fish people, it was rather short, wasn’t it? How is the government going to go about the general education of them to the public, when Selkie herself had to be basically poisoned to understand her diet and environmental needs?
Don’t forget that this as JUST a local school’s assembly period for a “school announcement about new students” NOT “The Governmet’s Big Reveal Of An Alien Race…. DUN, Dunnn, dunnnn….” so yeah, i can see it being short and sweet (well, except for Then’s attitude, but you know what i mean 😀 ) so that the school can get on with it’s job… that of teaching our children…
The words “where you can reach out to someone willing to talk to you” made me burst out laughing. XD