#aerrhea

[jfs-worldbuilding-and-art]

Sky humans: The Aerrheans

Pt. 2: Legs

Aerrhea, land of floating islands, strong sun and blowing winds, heat and cold. These conditions bred many adaptations among all kinds of animals and plants, including humans.

For a "modern" or more derived species, the aerrheans exhibit many traits that would be deemed basal or primitive if their fossils were to be found on Earth, but rather, these traits are in reality, derived traits compared to other late *Homo* species.

Today we will take a look at their lower limbs. The legs of aerrheans are not very dissimilar to that of modern humans, having the same general length comparatively. However there are two traits that make them uncannily different.

First off the most noticeable trait, the feet. Aerrhean feet are wide, large and flat, traits useful for climbing activities, providing more surface area for contact between the foot and the bark, leaves, roots and other climbing surfaces found on Aerrhea.

The toes are also adapted for climbing and most importantly, grabbing. They are long, strong and most importantly, have a wide range of motion, being able to open widely and grab large objects like tree trunks and vines. They, of course, can't grab everything, yet the tendons in their feet and toes still grip firmly to bark and foliage.

The second trait that may be unexpected is the motion range of their legs. Due to the often three-dimensional spaces aerrheans need to navigate, their hip to femur joints are very motile, being able to naturally do things that most people can only do with years of mobility-training.

[john-frog]

The humans from my setting, Aerrhea, for more info on Aerrhea check the link:

JF

More about the world from which this creature came from. Its name is Aerrhea, a worldbuilding/speculative biology project i'm working on.

Btw the floating spino is no longer canon sadly, it doesnt fit the rules i have set for the world.

[jfs-worldbuilding-and-art]

Sky Humans: The Aérrans

Pt. 3: Arms and Upper body

Aérra, land of floating islands, strong sun and blowing winds, heat and cold. These conditions bred many adaptations among all kinds of animals and plants, including humans.

For a "modern" or more derived species, the aérrans exhibit many traits that would be deemed basal or primitive if their fossils were to be found on Earth, but rather, these traits are in reality, derived traits compared to other late *Homo* species.

Today we will take a look at their upper limbs. The arms of aérrans are adapted for climbing, with long, curved clavicles, long forearms and hands and larger shoulder muscles, *Latissimus dorsi* (lats) and *Brachioradialis* (the largest forearm muscle, attached to the Radius externally), alongside the *Biceps*.

All of these muscles are related to the pulling motions used in climbing. Making their vertical movement as fast as their own running motion and almost as fast as the running movement of modern humans.

This constant pull of their own body weight, plus the cargo they are carrying almost all the time during their travels give the aérrans strong, muscular bodies due to their constant, but unconscious Calisthenics.

Their long arms also give aérrans an unique quirk for humans, comfortable quadrupedal locomotion. Something that our lineage evolved out of, that returned as a byproduct of the adaptations required for scansorial locomotion.

[jfs-worldbuilding-and-art]

sGorf!

sGorf are flightless azhdarchid pterosaurs native to the third ring(?) of aerrhea.

They have long lost their flight in favor of incredible jumps! They can hop as far away as 10 meters(or more) depending on the species. They achieve such incredible feats using both hind and forelimbs when jumping as shown in the top corner, their arms, with huge triceps working much like the legs of frogs. Their stupidly long feet and hands help them in both the jumping and the landing, acting as a spring, storing energy to be released in the next jump. However these big hands and feet make their walk awkward and silly.

They fill a wide variety of niches, mostly small insectivores and hunters of small tetrapods, frugivores and some even "try their beak" at folivory. All of this though, is made without masticating. They simply swallow most of their food whole, though sometimes they chop it using their sharp beaks.

Their name is literally frog but reverse, even the plural add the 'S' in the start of the word instead of the end. In the same game of words the name of the order is *Aruna*.

[jfs-worldbuilding-and-art]

The two flavors of low fantasy humans:

Summerfolk are by @yzegem

[jfs-worldbuilding-and-art]

Sky humans: The Aerrheans

Pt. 1

Aerrhea, land of floating islands, strong sun and blowing winds, heat and cold. These conditions bred many adaptations among all kinds of animals and plants, including humans.

For a "modern" or more derived species, the aerrheans exhibit many traits that would be deemed basal or primitive if their fossils were to be found on Earth, but rather, these traits are in reality, derived traits compared to other late *Homo* species.

We can start by the trunk -or torso- of aerrheans. In derived humans like us, the ribcage and the pelvis are both narrow for better upright balance, but also something related to our nimbleness. Aerrheans however, have wider ribcages and pelvis. These traits are for two things: 1. Keeping the center of mass lower, useful for climbing. And 2. The wide ribcage stores a larger lung. This is an adaptation for the often high altitudes, and low oxygen conditions of the High Season of Aerrhea, where islands can reach up to 4000 kms high.

Another noticeable trait is found in their skull. It is somewhat similar to that of Denisovans (*Homo longi*) and neanderthals, with a large head, low but large eyebrow ridge and a large nasal cavity, perhaps unlike that of any other hominin, that makes room for a really large nose.

Both of these adaptations are correlated, a large nose and eyebrow ridge are used for filtering air, heating (or cooling) the air that enters the body, and in the case of the large sinus stored by the eyebrow ridge, moisturizing the nose, thus the air inhaled too before they go to the lungs. This combination of attributes is pretty useful for all animals of Aerrhea that must go through the High Season, so enlarged noses and correlated adaptations are not to be unseen in other groups.

Still in the temperature topic, aerrheans are somewhat weird for their hairy bodies. Something that you won't be seeing much in modern humans -but of course, individual variation is a very strong thing in us so you will eventually get to see it-. This is an adaptation for the string winds of Aerrhea, i think there isn't much to explain here, if you get blown by the wind for a time you will eventually get cold. For that a coat of thick hair over your body will help you a lot, even though aerrheans do wear clothes, it is just something bound to happen given their lifestyle and habitat.

Lastly but not least important, the limbs. The trait that would be considered the most primitive in a human species would probably be the length of the forearms, which is long in arboreal apes like chimps, gibbons, orangutans, gorillas and the now extinct ancestors of humans, the australopithecines. This trait, alongside large hands and feet is very useful for the climbing activities of not only humans but most other animals of Aerrhea too. You see, the floating islands are often covered by low canopy forests and lots of vines, traversing such ambients is inevitable for most creatures, so having long arms for reaching the best, most secure branches and vines is a good thing here, in Aerrhea, the sky world.

[jfs-worldbuilding-and-art]

Best pieces from last year, i know i say this every year but i will try doing more art this year, and it is a legit goal now that i have some projects in mind.

[jfs-worldbuilding-and-art]

A [trophyhunter] man, this culture is known for their trophy-hunting rite of passage, where a group of young people will go out and take down dangerous animals, such as chimps, gorillas or other monkeys. Where they are expected to bring back at least one body part that they will carry around as trophy and luck, power or protection charm.

He wears a goatskin skirt warped with a rope belt, where hangs a cephalopod shell knife. Object often traded and requested from cephalopod-riding cultures.

He carries a stonewood club and his trophy is a chimpanzee hand.