Real Science and Fictional Beasts

Dive deep into the depths of speculative marine-paleobiology, and uncover ancient secrets of Planet 4546B’s past!

[rebuilding-the-garg]

Project Introduction

Howdy, the name’s Asriel! I’m better known as @sciartherp.

For my highschool senior project, I’m going to be mashing all of my knowledge of paleobiology, speculative biology, marine biology, and many other-ologies to recreate Subnautica’s Gargantuan Leviathan! Not only will I be recreating the Garg itself, but I will also be piecing together what role in its ecosystem this massive monster played, and what said ecosystem might have looked like!! While I’m primarily focusing on the Garg, I might assess the other fossilized specimens if I have the time!

This blog was made for both easy archival purposes, as well as stirring up interest in the realm of speculative biology!

I would also like to mention, while I was a developer of the Gargantuan Return mod, I do not want to be associated with the project any longer due to the heavy drama and legal issues surrounding the project. Subnautica fans are more than welcome to reference my research, but I ask that nothing of mine is suggested to be used by the Return of the Ancients dev team. They know what they did.

I don’t know how long this project will take, considering how heavily I have to study +the numerous hours of concept art ahead of me, but I’m aiming to update at least once a week!

[emberglowfox]

fish world…. 2!!

[wolvesintheflowers-deactivated2]

I laughed to hard at this fucking thing.

[nattousan]

[percytheperidot]

Thinking about hypothetical Subnautica biomes in the Ecological Dead Zone.......

Cuz here's the thing. It isn't actually a dead zone.

It isn't deoxygenated and it supports life, it's just that life doesn't have much variety. Because it has forms of life (Ghost Leviathans and a whole lot of microorganisms), it literally cannot be a dead zone.

So, with that in mind, I'm imagining deep-sea creatures that live at the true bottom of 4546b's oceans....... Imagining the environments that would develop so deep down.....

Firstly, everything will be a Leviathan by surface standard. I mean to the point the standard for Leviathan will have to be scaled up. Deep sea leviathans would be 300 meters minimum, because I love deep sea gigantism :]

Maybe passive ray Leviathans of some kind (related to all the other ray species in the game ofc), sized between 300-325 meters from tail to snout? Might design them to look like rabbit rays' giant older brother of sorts. Definitely going to have some kind of bioluminescence because almost everything on 4546b glows, at least a bit. Maybe you could build on them?

I'm a sucker for the Gargantuan Leviathan and plan to include a descendant of the species in my little AU (I guess that's what this is now). I don't really enjoy the common depiction of "mostly black serpent-eel beast," so I've decided I'm going to do some more research on prehistoric sea creatures and then come up with something I think will be scary (at least from a biology standpoint). I'm debating giving it an ability similar to mesmers and lily paddlers.

Also, to be clear cuz I know what I said about the common design: I don't have an issue with Return of the Ancients's depiction of them (in fact, I think it's pretty cool for fanwork), but the design feels a bit overused and I wanted to be original. Also I love specbio so. :D

Current ideas for biomes are:

The Volcano Base - a large rock wall with boulders, cave systems, and lava rivers and pools. This is the base of the Volcano that the Crater is the top of. Swimming too far up the rock wall will get you attacked by Ghost Leviathans, which prevents you from just. Going back to the Crater.

Deep Lava Zone - like the Inactive Lava Zone, but deeper and more dangerous. I'll probably stick some kind of Leviathan (maybe a Deep Sea Dragon?) in this zone.

I'm coming up with a lot of this on the spot so it's probably gonna change and also I'm very open to ideas. I like worldbuilding and going places I'm not supposed to go :}

[briarplant]

Fun fact: by just using imaginary numbers, some Evil Math, and 101 rotating vectors You Can Create a shitty approximation of a fish.

[kirby97]

two points of view on math fish

[rebuilding-the-garg]

F2U Garg Base

ITS TIME FELLAS I had to fix up the base a bit, but now we've got a f2u Gargantuan Leviathan base... like I promised to drop last year.

You can find the lineart PNG here, and download the full PSD here! You're free to use this for adopts, OCs, etc. but NO using in NFTs, AI, or to create stickers/merchandise with.

[rebuilding-the-garg]

Uh oh…

[feral-sins]

Mermay gonna be real here ppl- which world we hoping for? FnaF Mermay? Transformers Mermay? Something Else in Mermay? ---- ------ ---------- Or all of the above~

[rebuilding-the-garg]

It better be Subnautica Mermay or else I'm beaming your location to the nearest Garg

[rebuilding-the-garg]

So, Gargs can in fact do asexual reproduction but is there sexual reproduction between them at all? I’m mostly just wondering what their mating behaviors would be like/what their interactions with other adult Gargs would be like. Also, in terms of intelligence, where do they lie?

There is no form of sexual reproduction at all, as Gargs reproduce through parthenogenesis. Similar to New Mexico Whiptail Lizards, they do still need to find a partner in order to trigger egg production hormones, however! They'll typically pair up at the beginning of the dry season, and a single egg is ready to be laid by the wet season, which they deposit in warm, shallow waters. Both "parents" are able to lay eggs, so it's technically two babies from each pairing. Adults are technically monogamous, as they'll pair up with the same individuals each season and only find a new partner if their old one was killed. Gargs won't typically attack their partners if met outside the season unless they are desperate or one is attempting to steal food from the other. This results in fish divorce, and they won't pair up next season.

Outside of the "mating" season, adult Gargs are solitary, as they're simply too large to live in groups. Meetings between adults outside of the mating season are often deadly, as they need A LOT of food.

As for their intelligence, something so huge doesn't need to have much thought power, as it's an undisputed apex of paleo-4546B. I'd say around tiger shark level? They can recognize each other and form bonds, but they don't need particularly strong social skills or intelligence due to the role they play in their ecosystem.

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

tumblr entertain me

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

tumblr please when is it MY turn to be amused. provide me with whimsy i beg you

[o-winterqueen-o]

this is a sea sapphire!! they are tiny little copepods that have the ability to appear to become invisible to the naked eye!! only the males actually have the ability to flash these brilliantly iridescent shades though! the females are simply transparent!

here are some fun articles about them!!

The most beautiful animal you've never seen

When I first saw a sea sapphire I thought I was hallucinating. The day had been anything but normal, but this part will always stand out. I’

Sea Sapphires and 5 Other Shiny Ocean Creatures

From a shimmery sea mouse to glowing sea turtles, the ocean is full of creatures that light up like the Las Vegas strip.

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

OCEAN GLITTER

[rebuilding-the-garg]

idk if I should send this to this blog or your main one, but...

Modern Human Lyshan AU!!! Guy on the left is Ferdinand, street racer, burn survivor, and most of all: dumbass. Girl on the right is Lyshan <3, weird DJ who makes songs about how she wants to be a sea monster.

YOOOOO THIS IS SUPER COOL!!!! PUTTING IT IN MY MOUTH

[rebuilding-the-garg]

Uh oh…

[joja-corp-anti]

wh- what did you just say to me

[todaysbird]

you heard them. unhand the driftwood, leg boy

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

Look at this girl go! What a champ huh?

Finally, it has begun!! The rainbow trout are all grown and it’s time to give them a little spin in the swimming respirometer. This girl was understandably pretty shocked about being measured and weighed but she quickly recovered once in the respirometer — the fish is swimming against a certain water flow (here it’s about half a body length per second) and she seemed to immediately realise what to do. My supervisor explained that in earlier experiments with brown trout, the brown trout were more prone to not swimming at all and laying on the net in the back, but rainbow trout are more cooperative and raring to go!

[undiscoveredalcoholic]

Fish treadmill

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

In essence yes! When I had to explain this experiment to people who weren’t as knowledgeable in these sorts of things (or biology in general) I literally did call the swimming respirometer a fish treadmill, because it gets the idea across very well!

[herpsandbirds]

Porcelain Crab, Petrolisthes violaceus, family Porcellanidae, coast of Chile

Photograph by matias_saa

[rebuilding-the-garg]

Thank you to everyone who joined the stream! Here’s my update for tonight! ;)

I’ll be drafting more skin concepts in the coming days. Who knows? I might sell the ones I don’t end up using as adopts!

[rebuilding-the-garg]

Remembering I have a whole sheet of these bitty Garg bases ready to be filled out, so let's play a game!

Toss me some fun sea critters, and I'll turn em into Gargs!

I'll also be turning this into a F2U base which will be released later this week.

[ouzel-time]

Just a reminder that while prehistoric fish are cool, there are plenty of neat babies still around!

[cockyroaches]

Some lgbtpn+ subnautica icons because its pretty much a special interest now I think. Bonus for reaper fans :)!

(Don’t use if: trans/nb phobic, lgbt+ phobic in general, truscum, thinspo, ddlg etc)