Friday, October 16, 2009

Creature Parade #5

Here be some new creatures to ponderr!

 

Up first we have what I am calling a wooden soul for the time being.  I find it difficult to separate this creature from the Ents of J.R.R. Tolkiens's Middle-Earth or the transfigured and twisted human trees from Dante Alighieri's Wood of suicides but I am happy to express their inspiration.

 

Here we have a creature I call phrexis, and it's only about the size of one of the leaves on the wooden soul or smaller.  This creature acts much like an airborn jelly fish floating through the atmosphere gathering small animals, bacteria and other particles in its noodle-like tentacles.



The next creature I named hemiptera leontopithecus sol (hemiptera=order of insects that contain cicadas and leaf hoppers, leontopithecus=lion tamarins, sol=sun).  This creature spends most of its life up in trees, perched at the canopy, where it's head and tail end absorb energy from sunlight and turn it into food.  Much like a plant, this animal receives most of its nourishment in this manner through chloroplasts that adorn its cells in those areas.

 

Here is an ugi flunara.  The shape of this creatures body is used as camouflage and was a direct result of all of the hedge apples I have seen placed around my home.  This is a burrowing creature that feeds mainly on insects and grubs it finds in the earth.

 

Finally we have a thorny toad.  I meant for this creature to be a light mixture of a toad and a turtle with its beak mouth, clawed feet, and a mildly hardened back.  The antennae on its head are used to lure in prey and the horns or thorns which appear all over its body are a defensive measure, and while the thory toad is a docile creature it can produce a toxic sting.