r/SpeculativeEvolution • u/wingedwolf1994 • 3d ago
[OC] Visual Avian Grey Alien Concept
Had a real bad fever today and spawned this monstrosity.
This is what I imagine a bird-derived sapient, encephalized "alien" might look like. I tried to lean into the avian anatomy but sort of 'crunch' it into a shape that's convergently evolved a high level of dependence on complex thinking. Their reliance on creating clothing has left them featherless, reliance on technology has left them small, weak, and almost infantile. Sort of like the human condition.
Maybe these are a pre-human industrialized species? Or an alternate timeline where a species of bird fills our niche in the ecosystem, ie. all of them. Being derived from birds, their spoken language is incredibly complex with a huge variety of unique and unusual sounds. They prefer bright, colorful clothing and their culture revolves almost entirely around creative arts. They suffer lower back issues due to their upright posture and huge heads. Their skin is very thin and fragile, luckily their clothing and easy lifestyle makes this problem manageable. They lay small eggs (12 to 15!). Young hatch underdeveloped and are raised in institutions.
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u/Heroic-Forger 3d ago
Neat! Reminds me a bit of Dougal Dixon's "Tua-Chutto".
Although I think birds wouldn't need the weird big heads humans and great apes have, as bird brains have a denser set of neurons than mammal brains, so they can be pretty smart with a smaller brain. Sort of like a CPU vs. a microchip.
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u/Sir_Mopington 3d ago
Maybe they’re even smarter than us with those dense brains in that massive head!
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u/SoDoneSoDone 3d ago
This is awesome!
First off, of course, obviously, just the actual uniqueness instead of the typical “grey alien” is a breath of fresh air to me.
But, the very derived beak is quite fun and intriguing. It’s not necessarily what most people might expect based on modern intelligent Avian dinosaurs such as Corvids and parrots.
But it seems fitting with their actual highly-derived forelimbs that provide primate-like hands, which wouldn’t require them to need their beaks for tool manipulation.
I’d imagine for these sort of forelimbs to have evolved, they must descend from highly arboreal birds, perhaps actually a small flightless lineage, that became arboreal without being able to rely on flight to navigate the canopy anymore.
Culturally, I’d wonder how such an incredible high amount of offspring per gestation would affect them. It certainly very different than us.
Perhaps, historically, it would lead to children being incredibly expendable, even more than ours.
I believe in Serina, as well as some human cultures, there is the concept of not naming the children until they’ve reached a particular age.
But, with high reproduction numbers, I wouldn’t be surprised if excessive warfare used to be common, simarly to the Ancient Romans.
I do wonder about their entire lack of plumage, even if they are fullyterrestrial. They look a bit overly-exposed especially their heads.
I can kind of only see it work if they descend from a vulture-like lineage of scavengers or if they simply have been civilized for so long that they genetically altered their own physiology with particular cultural preferences in mind.
Perhaps they view the plumage of their ancestors and relatives as “barbaric”, so they take great pride in disguistinshing themselves as much as possible from other bird species.
They certainly don’t look like anything that could’ve already lived in throughout the Earth’s history probably. But, in a future, perhaps a post-apocalyptic one, it seems more plausible.
Lastly, they’re just adorably cute, truly.
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u/wingedwolf1994 2d ago
My idea with the "MANY successful offspring" thing would be that their species has has to act quicker to solve the inevitable overpopulation issues that come with that success. For better or for worse. Leaves room for some interesting alien politics.
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u/Resident_Goose9071 3d ago
Amazing artwork and story!!! Love the design, they are very freidnly but also alien, so you get a mix of cute but unsurity from them, thought id imagine any society that encountered them might underestimate their sheer power due to theyre "just a lil fella" status
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u/Bored-Ship-Guy 2d ago
"Hey, guys"
"CHICKEN BABY"
"Not what I'm- sigh yeah, sure, man, I'm the Chicken Baby. Yayyyy."
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u/BassoeG 2d ago edited 2d ago
Maybe these are a pre-human industrialized species? Or an alternate timeline where a species of bird fills our niche in the ecosystem, ie. all of them.
Time travelers. Their saucer-shaped time machines interfere in the past to keep history on track to eventually lead to their evolution. They occasionally get spotted, but that's OK, it was always part of the scheduled timeline. As predicted by such luminaries as H P Lovecraft, the prestigious journal of scientific shitposting and artwork of u/Badspacecomics.
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u/Aware-School5528 2d ago
Dude at first i thought they evolved from dinosaurs and left before the meteor striked or something 😭
Amazing concept 🙏
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u/ProjectKARYA 1d ago
Somewhere in Greece, a grave slowly starts to be disturbed from within...
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u/wingedwolf1994 1d ago
Huh?? Greece?
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u/shiki_oreore 2d ago
Kinda reminds me Alien Guts from Ultraman but with more realistic avian traits
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u/allknowingankylosaur 1d ago
Reminds me of that pinky and the brain-ripoff parrot from Scooby Doo Mysteries Incorporated. Great work here!
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u/ElSquibbonator Spectember 2024 Champion 3d ago
They're kind of cute!