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KatePfeilschiefter β€” Alien Predator

Published: 2011-03-02 22:49:54 +0000 UTC; Views: 58794; Favourites: 753; Downloads: 0
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Description From a Biology Class project to create an alien for a specific extreme environment. I chose a desert, and created this elephant tyrannosaurus whale: christened, Cetaceros. Meaning whale nose.

It's kind of a boring profile as originally I didn't plan to go back and rework it as much as I did. All I had intended at the time was to show off his odd anatomy.

The idea behind this guy is that its planet was originally covered in an ocean, which eventually dried up into underground sources due to some sun related factor. Aquatic and amphibious creatures had to adapt to the changing environment, and the cetaceros would evolve from a cetacean like mammal. It lacks eyes and relies on its acute sense of smell, echolocation and vibration sensitive feet to locate prey. They would hunt either alone or in pairs, like tyrannosaurs, and share an intelligence and communication similar to elephants. Their tails function like a camels hump, storing vast amounts of fat as well as helping to balance against the weight of the monsters head.

Like elephants they release low vibration rumblings and foot stomping to communicate with other Cetaceros miles away. Which they feel through the support sacs in their feet. The lip is prehensile, and probably served a more important function for the creatures ancestors, but for now is mainly used for communication and display. When the creatures gather in vast numbers to mate, the males pair off to battle and show off for the attention of the females.

As for capturing prey, they hunt large herd grazers which they wear down with their slashing grabbing mantis limbs and bites from their massive jaws. These mantis limbs can jut out at surprising speeds, and are useful for snagging smaller faster prey in addition to the typical large lumbering beast. They typically tuck them under their bodies when running or hold them out at their sides for balancing when making tight turns.

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Graphite, cs5
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Comments: 66

Dinopithecus [2017-04-26 22:05:03 +0000 UTC]

Elephant Tyrannosaurus whale...I LOVE IT!!!!!

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Dark1Moon20 [2017-02-22 23:59:23 +0000 UTC]

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Julianchislitt2004 In reply to Dark1Moon20 [2018-07-30 01:49:02 +0000 UTC]

demaotasica

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EnderLady66 [2016-12-12 19:03:55 +0000 UTC]

You are one ugly motherf***er (no offense plz XD)

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Rek-Dan-Thi [2016-07-04 09:09:12 +0000 UTC]

Well done with an interesting back-story. ^^

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Coloanas [2015-05-08 11:32:31 +0000 UTC]

Wait this is a mammal? I thought it was an alien?Β 

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KatePfeilschiefter In reply to Coloanas [2015-05-17 20:37:39 +0000 UTC]

alien equivalent of a mammal, similar biology is all

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Coloanas In reply to KatePfeilschiefter [2015-05-28 11:17:30 +0000 UTC]

Oh. Nice work though. But for me it looks to alien, but that's just because the aliens IΒ had made hasΒ the same body plan as earth animals (apart from spiracles and six limbs). For my aliens I just did the biochemistry different. It looks very unique though and I love the idea of creatures living in dried up oceans.Β 

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The-Polybius [2015-04-19 16:42:46 +0000 UTC]

I looks better than Alien vs Predator the movie

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EnderLady66 In reply to The-Polybius [2016-12-12 19:04:49 +0000 UTC]

No, no alien is better than those two...even if this is pretty good drawn

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Kuusinen [2015-03-12 10:53:51 +0000 UTC]

Nice one. But why would it lack eyes? Wouldn't it be impossible for such a large being not to have some sort of sight? How is it going to hunt the herd grazers without eyes? Arent all mammals of that size on our planets with eyes and some sort of sight?

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KatePfeilschiefter In reply to Kuusinen [2015-03-15 06:10:25 +0000 UTC]

Yeah, this one is pretty old and my main logic at the time was probably based purely on aesthetics. I do agree that it's extremely unlikely for sight to never develop on a planet that could support life (because in any of it's rudimentary forms it's just so useful), though perhaps something like this could come about by being isolated in a very dark environment or in the case of this desert, a place where sight blocking sandstorms are almost constantly raging. In which case a creature living in a place where sight is seldom used or useless could gradually lose it's vision, maybe lose it's eyes completely. There are examples of this within the animal kingdom, but for the creature design above, yeah there's no reason he shouldn't have eyes.

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conciliarityoftepat In reply to KatePfeilschiefter [2017-07-31 12:10:50 +0000 UTC]

I also thought it was strange but I assumed it had something to do with the oceanic origins of the species. If it was like a whale echolocation was probably more important for it than sight, and if it also lived in the deep ocean, there wouldn’t be much light and eyes wouldn’t be much use so it lost them. It’s easier to lose something than to rebuild it from scratch, so that’s why it’s still eyeless even after making the transition to land. Still, I'd expect it to be outcompeted by other species that hadn't lost their eyes.

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brandon-bowling [2015-02-15 05:10:55 +0000 UTC]

Very cool.

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Sensei-Fisherman [2014-02-11 00:37:58 +0000 UTC]

Request?

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KatePfeilschiefter In reply to Sensei-Fisherman [2014-02-11 03:04:25 +0000 UTC]

Hrmm?

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Sensei-Fisherman In reply to KatePfeilschiefter [2014-02-11 04:31:23 +0000 UTC]

A Shark Elephant Turtle Monkey Rat thing?

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MrJmZack [2013-06-10 15:57:03 +0000 UTC]

Intriguing concept, very thorough and well-executed. I like this.

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ShenzieTheFurry [2013-05-23 10:53:24 +0000 UTC]

Really good and original concept!

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WhIppIng-b0y [2013-05-15 05:58:39 +0000 UTC]

For a second I thought the title was a reference to the AvP movies.

Very intricate and well thought-out creature

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rezzilla [2013-05-15 04:41:27 +0000 UTC]

Really interesting and detailed concept! Reminds me of Wayne Barlowe's aliens!

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thaumh [2013-02-25 23:30:23 +0000 UTC]

I want to see an animated CG!

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Toobworm [2013-01-22 21:52:09 +0000 UTC]

Wow, I love the concept!

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Sagittarius-A-star [2012-06-11 04:38:42 +0000 UTC]

You came up with a rather interesting creature- I like it!! I'm not sure that a large, land-dwelling predator is likely to not have eyes in a sunny environment like this one, but it makes the creature more "alien" to not have eyes. Is that plane we see in the sky a human spaceplane from a starship expedition, or is it an alien craft?

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KatePfeilschiefter In reply to Sagittarius-A-star [2012-06-11 19:21:20 +0000 UTC]

I imagined it was a human craft. And yeah, I don't know the likely-hood of such creatures existing, but eyeless things sure are fun to draw and immediately read as alien.

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Sagittarius-A-star In reply to KatePfeilschiefter [2012-06-28 07:02:03 +0000 UTC]

I agree that eyeless aliens are exotic and fun to draw, but I doubt such creatures will be common outside of extremely dark environments. Eyes evolved from spots covered with light-sensative cells. Light-sensative spots only allowed organisms to sense that light was present. Over time, eyes evolved into cup-shaped depressions that could sense the direction of a light source. Eyes evolved rapidly during the Cambrian Explosion, eventually becoming primitive pinhole cameras. Nowadays, all vertebrates- humans included- have similar sophisticated "camera eyes".

Once primitive eyes developed from "eye spots", a biological arms race to develop improved eyes was on. If there is enough light for organisms to develop areas covered with light sensitive cells, then it is almost certain eyes will develop. If a planet is covered with mist or an opaque layer of clouds, perhaps eyes won't be able to compete with echolocation, heat-sensative pits, and other sensory organs and eyeless aliens will be the norm. However, aliens will almost certainly develop eyes on a planet with open plains and clear blue skies!! Then again, many strange things happen in the universe- perhaps your alien predators evolved in a dark environment- perhaps a sludgy sea- and later came on land without ever developing an eye. Think of how many organisms we might dismiss as fantastical if we did not know they existed, like flying squid, perhaps.

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NewmanD [2012-06-07 20:30:28 +0000 UTC]

its soooo great!

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BlackberryFinn [2012-05-19 00:58:51 +0000 UTC]

Is that a plane I see in the sky?

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Master-of-the-Boot [2012-04-10 08:09:54 +0000 UTC]

Nice work Those front limbs look so cool, fragile almost but deadly against the thick body and legs

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Not-not-kenny [2012-02-26 14:34:34 +0000 UTC]

I really love the look, but i have one question: How is the lip for displey if none of them can see?

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KatePfeilschiefter In reply to Not-not-kenny [2012-02-26 22:34:27 +0000 UTC]

Haha, the Cetaceros can "see", not with eyes but with echolocation. That was still a good question though, I hadn't looked at this guy in a while and you had me wondering for a moment if I had completely forgotten about that.

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Not-not-kenny In reply to KatePfeilschiefter [2012-02-27 07:18:25 +0000 UTC]

So they ecolocate the lips. Hmmm, I guess that makes sense. Thanks ^^

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PeteriDish [2012-01-25 15:28:57 +0000 UTC]

wow! is that an airplane/spaceship in the background or is it an alien life form with jet propulsion? this big animal kind of reminds me of some cave creatures because it has bare skin of pink color and no eyes!

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Kerimako [2011-09-12 20:55:08 +0000 UTC]

Exelent!!!!!

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Serulfen [2011-05-28 11:15:45 +0000 UTC]

I want to pet him! Love this design. ^^ He's cool and very alien. Tough his teeth are a little too "earthly" for an alien creature. Since the creature's origin is so different from our animals, the feeding organs would have been cooler with more original colors (like dark gums or something) and shapes. But the idea works, I still looks like an extra-terrestial predator from a very different place from what we live in. Good work looks good.

But I've gotta say that the project sounds just overly cool. I wish we had similar projects in my school... D: Just PERFECT for a biology class. Understanding of evolution and different organisms adapting to different environments with use of CREATIVITY sounds like something nice that everyone would like to do. Cool.

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Sch1itzie [2011-05-23 14:15:24 +0000 UTC]

A cool and fun picture!

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neojuice [2011-05-11 20:03:47 +0000 UTC]

i like the colors, the sand... the sky... beautiful ^^

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ReSkull [2011-05-06 07:41:42 +0000 UTC]

Very well done on shading, lighting and anatomy for sure ...
but i think there is a confuse in collocation movement of hands and feet ...
left hand and foot pushing back while right hand and foot pulling body front

but still awesome

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KatePfeilschiefter In reply to ReSkull [2011-05-06 08:00:27 +0000 UTC]

His arm isn't apart of his walk cycle/supporting his body. He's just posed weird.

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ReSkull In reply to KatePfeilschiefter [2011-05-06 21:26:18 +0000 UTC]

thx for refreshin' me about what i felt about this

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jonbronx [2011-05-01 17:18:50 +0000 UTC]

have you heard of Wayne Barlowe & his 'Alien Life'?

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KatePfeilschiefter In reply to jonbronx [2011-05-01 18:50:49 +0000 UTC]

Yes I have, though I don't own that book specifically, I own "Expedition". And I'm certainly inspired by his work. I like how his aliens actually look like aliens, and not a mix of earth animals.

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jonbronx In reply to KatePfeilschiefter [2011-05-06 01:57:45 +0000 UTC]

nice! cool work btw...

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Scorpion451 [2011-04-02 22:12:09 +0000 UTC]

Love the design!
The idea of an eyeless predator is really trippy, like your solution of it using echolocation and smell to find prey!
The fat-storing tail is a great solution to the problem facing desert-dwelling predators of unreliable prey.
The colors you used in this picture are well chosen, and the creature blends in oddly well with its environment!
I can see a clever cetaceros of these hiding among dunes and snagging the occasional passing snack.
I love the world you created around it too, has me wondering what the flying object leaving the large contrail is!
Original creatures like this one with a great deal of thought put into creating a plausible biology are my favorite kind.
Awesome piece.

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KatePfeilschiefter In reply to Scorpion451 [2011-04-03 02:37:51 +0000 UTC]

Thank you!

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AlfaFilly [2011-03-17 22:13:26 +0000 UTC]

Such a very intriguing creature! Artistic wise, the texturing of the skin is fantastic. Every little wrinkle flows to the form of the body. I also like the glint of the tongue and gums. Design-wise, I like how you incorporate biological factors into it instead of just slapping something together. When I saw the creature I definitely could catch the elephant-like traits. I'm rather curious how fast a creature like this could run. Elephants can certainly run a lot faster than they appear. Ah, curiosity~

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KatePfeilschiefter In reply to AlfaFilly [2011-03-18 01:07:50 +0000 UTC]

Tyrannosaurs are quite quick as well

Thanks!

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BigOrca107 [2011-03-16 21:02:39 +0000 UTC]

I've found that very few people take the middle ground when it comes to exobiology. They either believe that there are no aliens, or that they're of a make completely unimaginable by humans. Yet I believe they may have a composition similar to ours, and will need to fill certain predetermined niches that we have evolved around. I'm glad I've found an artist that recognizes my point of view.

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alienparrot [2011-03-06 21:41:19 +0000 UTC]

woah thats awesome!!!!!

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ErikShoemaker [2011-03-06 13:47:02 +0000 UTC]

haha very cool creature!

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