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Long and sleek cetaceans, aerophins resemble Terran dolphins. They are several evolutions beyond dolphins, however, and have uniquely adapted to the Epoan environment. Aerophins are amphibious mammals, living in both the water and the sky. The aerophin’s green-gray skin is marked by numerous skin flaps along the torso, flaps which can fold up and act as small sails to catch the wind and maneuver. The modified fins of a aerophin can be more than a meter long and widen near the middle, acting as wings to catch the thermal currents of the sky. The tail is muscular and the fluke parallel to the body, able to get strong thrusts in both the water and the sky. Their beaks are long and narrow, perfect for picking fish from their schools and birds from their flocks. The color of the aerophin’s skin comes from a biologically occurring form of pantarbe, allowing them to float surprisingly well for a creature of its size.
Aerophins travel in pods of anywhere from three to twenty individuals. They are quite intelligent and are skilled hunters, able to herd flocks of birds like schools of fish for easier prey. Vocalization is much like that of Terran dolphins, with a variety of clicks, squeaks, and chirps, many beyond the auditory range of humans. They have very sensitive hearing both above and below the waves, giving them the ability to hear for prey and predators. While perhaps not as agile in the sky as creatures that dwell exclusively there, many consider them to be twice as graceful as they float and "swim" in the air.
Additional information
A few alchemists can distill a pure form of pantarbe from aerophin skin, thus some pods are hunted to near extinction by poachers. Quite intelligent, they have been known to fight off attacking wyvrens from vagrant cloud hoppers and wayward travellers. A few frontiersman on some of the more far flung islands of Epoa claim to have such rapport with the creatures that they’ve tamed and saddled aerophins. The legitimacy of these claims are somewhat dubious, but stranger things have happened.
January 12, 2008, 9:58
January 12, 2008, 11:47
January 13, 2008, 9:49
January 12, 2008, 14:00
January 20, 2008, 10:20
April 10, 2009, 1:47
"They are several evolutions beyond dolphins"
You can't say "evolutions" it implies a unit, and I don't think it is a word. Try saying derived. The use of the word "beyond" works if you have a defined starting point, an intermediate and a end point.
April 10, 2009, 11:46
April 10, 2009, 19:04
April 10, 2009, 21:04
However, since evolution can be used as a noun:
http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/evolutions
...
2 a change in the genetic composition of a population of organisms over time.
More then one such change could be considered Evolutions, though obviously this is up for debate.
April 13, 2009, 12:29
Here you can use plural because you are discussing two evolutions, the evolution of the moth and the evolution of the pigeon. Above he is wants to state that his space dolphin shares a common ancestor with the earth dolphin. He a discussing a macro evolution relationship, the use of the terms "evolutions" and "beyond" should not be applied.
If the creature evolved from a dolphin population or reached a dolphin like state via convergent evolution then you are simply discussing the evolution of that population. They did not go through multiple evolutions. Beyond is unfortunate because it suggest a linear relationship, when really it is a branching relationship between related species. Beyond isn't wrong, I just think it should be used carefully.
Writers of speculative fiction deeply effect the general publics understanding of science. When discussing a topic such evolution is it not important that one deals carefully with academic question and considerations?
April 17, 2011, 6:33
Maybe it's the Dr Who fan in me, but I find the notion of aerial dolphins rather neat.
April 17, 2011, 11:04
Why do I have images of how this would fit right into a Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy story. Very Douglas Adams.