Planetary Series - Bestiary

Bestiary

(All entities mentioned are nonsentient animals unless otherwise noted)

• Barrel-beast — Semi-sentient beings with barrel-shaped bodies, four legs and four tentacles, and apparently a collective consciousness, which build anthill-like structures of mud and clay. (A Martian Odyssey)
• Biopod — Crawling plant-animals found on the Martian plains; of various forms, but some resemble green grass blades with two legs. (A Martian Odyssey)
• Bladder-bird — Three-foot gliding creature on Europa, capable of brief excursions out of Europa's shallow atmosphere using air stored in their balloon-shaped bladders. (Redemption Cairn)
• Chains — Animals on Uranus, black, about six feet tall and eight feet long, with three pairs of legs. Each creature forms a separable segment of a chain of the animals, neurally linked as long as they remain in contact but capable of independent survival. Thought to be the larvae of some flying animal in the Uranian atmosphere. (The Planet of Doubt)
• Crystal crawler — A silicon-based crystalline moss-like organism found on Pluto, with various forms specialized to devour specific elements (e.g., aluminum, iron, or carbon). (The Red Peri)
• Doughpot — Amorphous, amoeba-like white protoplasm that devours anything it touches. (The Parasite Planet)
• Dream-beast — A black, tentacled predator on Mars that attracts its prey by projecting a telepathic image of something the prey desires; much like an Anglerfish. (A Martian Odyssey)
• Duster — Hawk-sized but highly fragile moth-like flying animals on Venus that feed on clouds of pollen in the skies. (Parasite Planet)
• Friendly tree — Weak, Sluggish cold-blooded plant on Venus that is still enough to allow one to rest on its branches. (Parasite Planet)
• Gamma Rorqual — Warm-blooded animal found on Ganymede, resembling a whale with a long spike-like tooth. (Tidal Moon)
• Hipp — Hippocampus Catamiti ("Seahorse of Ganymede"). Twenty-foot-long "sea-horse" on Ganymede that serves as a riding mount for human settlers.
• Ice-ant — 3-inch long egg-like animal on Titan that builds domes of ice. (Flight on Titan)
• Jack Ketch tree — Carnivorous plant on Venus that traps life in its dangling, noose-like tendrils. (Parasite Planet)
• Knife-kite — Birdlike predator on Titan, the size of a large pterodactyl with a 3-foot-long (0.91 m) beak for impaling prey. Glides rather than flies on Titan's continual winds. (Flight on Titan, The Mad Moon)
• Land leet — Tentacled organism that copies the genetic code of whatever it devours; thus using its prey's adaptations as its own. Found on Ganymede. (Tidal Moon)
• Loony — Lunæ Jovis Magnicaput ("big-head of Jupiter's Moon"). A large-headed, long-necked, native of Io; their ancestors created a now-extinct civilization. They behave in a fashion befitting a psychotic or a schizophrenic as perceived by humans. (The Mad Moon)
• Lotus Eater — Lotophagus Veneris ("Lotus-eater of Venus"). A sentient plant, with a collective mind existing on the dark side of Venus. Most exobiologists believe it to be further along the evolutionary scale than man; as they have evolved to the point where they know all the secrets of the universe - and hence, no longer have a reason to exist, have accepted extinction.
• Martian — Intelligent beings resembling ostriches with an 18-inch long, flexible beak and four-fingered hands. Martians were the founders of a civilization now in its last decline. (A Martian Odyssey, Valley of Dreams)
• Nympus — (Plural nympus.) Intelligent native of Ganymede, with short legs lacking knee joints, long arms joined to their bodies like webs, and heads expanding at the top like mushrooms. (Tidal Moon)
• Parcat — A three-legged, domestic animal found on Io, with two small arms in front and one which they use to hop in the back. Parcats, like parrots, are capable of imitating human speech. (The Mad Moon)
• Pharisee — A carnivorous Venusian tree closely resembling the Friendly tree, but capable of attacking its prey with impaling spikes (Parasite Planet)
• Pyramid monster — Silicon-based animal on Mars that builds pyramids out of 'bricks' that are its excreta and produces small, hollow crystalline spheres that are its spores or eggs. (A Martian Odyssey)
• Slinker — Mus sapiens ("wise mouse"). A semi-sentient, Demon-like species native to Io, builders of miniature colonies that somewhat resemble cities. Vicious, mischievous and incredibly opposed to Humankind, the Slinkers are the biggest problem for Human Colonists on Io. (The Mad Moon)
• Threadworm — Nematoidus Titani. Semi-sentient worm-like animal, with a single eye on a stalk and one fang, capable of hypnotizing its prey with a horrific buzzing noise that vibrates through the ice and parilyzes its intended kill. Always found among the ruins of an ancient Titanian civilization, of which this species may be the creator. (Flight on Titan, The Mad Moon)
• Titanian — Semi-sentient species native to Titan, about four feet long and resembling a seal or large slug. Adapted to endure cold by having a streamlined surface on its skin. (Flight on Titan)
• Triops — Triops noctivivans; plural trioptes The "three-eyed dweller in the dark". A semi-intelligent three-eyed, four-legged creature dwelling in the shadowed parts of the Mountains of Eternity and on Venus' dark side; thought to be related to the native Venusians. (Parasite Planet, The Lotus Eaters)
• Uniped — A large Venusian animal that leaps on a single foot and uses a ten-foot beak to impale prey. (Parasite Planet, The Mad Moon)
• Venusian — Four-legged intelligent native of Venus, with three eyes and a largely unintelligible speech. (Parasite Planet)
• Whiplash tree — Tree with elastic limbs on Titan, capable of delivering a stinging blow when touched. (Flight on Titan)