Some of you have been asking what my species calls itself. While we obviously have a way of expressing this term, you’ll have to ask yourself how does one translate nonverbal communication into English. Since we use a different communication system altogether (I will delve into this in a future post), asking “what do you call” this or that in my language would be akin to requesting me to convey the correct pronunciation of “glip glop” using only a static image of a chicken. So I’m going to need your help here. After this post you’ll have a better understanding of my species so I’m relying on you to help me find a suitable name in English for my species (‘Hippobullshitters’ is not an option, sorry).

So where were we? Right, Xeno-Research 101. When studying the evolution of intelligent alien life forms, the most important parameter is the Intelligence Life Potential Threshold (ILPT). Allow me to explain.

Life on Earth began approximately 3.8 billion years ago, with the appearance of single-cell organisms. These primitive life forms are of small significance to us Xeno-Researchers as we are interested in intelligent life forms. It took life on Earth roughly 3.2 billion years to develop into complex multicellular reproductive organisms. Intelligent life could not have formed prior to this moment in time. In order to determine the exact planetary ILPT (on an evolutionary time scale) we generally seek the following biological conditions in organisms:

Bilateral Symmetry – the organism has a defined top and bottom, back and front. Needless to say that this is also an indication of a multicellular complex organism. Energy Affinity – the organism will actively seek energy, either by movement (which indicates a energy-to-movement transference mechanism) or by growth (like growing leaves for photosynthesis or roots for nutrition). Reproduction – the process of creating a new organism from an existing one, either by sexual reproduction, cloning, meiosis or other ways which I may discuss later on.

Once these three conditions are met we can set our temporal reference point. So by this definition, Earth’s ILPT is approximately 600 million years ago (derived from the ‘Bilateral Symmetry’ pre-condition). Xeno-Researchers are less interested with a species absolute age (3.8 billion in the case of humans) and more interested with a planet’s biological ILPT value. As a rule of thumb you can safely assume that the higher the planet’s ILPT, the more biologically complex and environmentally adjusted its inhabiting organisms will become. You can also expect a much higher degree of organism diversity.

There is another biological temporal parameter which plays an important factor when studying alien life evolutionary paths. Mass extinction events. Apparently, just as fires are for forests, a massive kick in the ass does wonders for the evolutionary process. While this may seem counterintuitive, mass extinction events can be major catalysts for the evolution process. If a planet’s conditions at a given moment favor a species, the environmental pressure for evolution is low. If the conditions are harsh, the organisms must evolve in order to survive. A mass extinction event does not mean the extinction of all living organisms on the planet (hence eliminating the entire evolution process altogether, which can occur), but an event which has a profound effect on the surviving organisms. Major extinction events did occur on Earth, but were sporadic and relatively few in number. Not so on my home planet.

In addition, the characteristics of my planet’s binary system cause the seasonal swings to be extreme. For a long period of time, due to these drastically changing climate conditions, my planet had only specific areas with life supporting environments. This of course, is a terribly oversimplified description. During that time period our summers were too hot to sustain life in certain geographic locations. These seasonal changes presented a major challenge for any life form, but also presented an environmental pressure, accelerating the evolutionary rate.

As you probably suspect, there is no scientific model that can accurately predict if and when intelligent life on a planet will emerge. In addition, nature has no preference for intelligent life over non-intelligent life. When it comes to intelligent life, pure luck plays a major role. So every time a major extinction event occurs, nature is throwing an evolutionary dice. Eventually you are going to hit “intelligence”. Even though nature has no preference for intelligent life, there are evolutionary advantages linked to it. Intelligence does not guarantee a species protection from extinction events (a certain technological threshold must be crossed first) but it may help in adaptation to changing environmental conditions.

Let’s get back to my species. Even though my planet’s ILPT value is much lower than Earth’s and my planet has a harsh environmental cycle (and as mentioned before, in many ways thanks to it), our evolutionary path was much shorter than yours. Because of this, our ecosystem should be viewed as less advanced. The degree of diversity of organisms on my planet is much smaller. For example, my planet’s plant life forms have not yet developed mechanisms (poison, thorns, etc) to help ward off herbivore organisms. This helps to explain why my species lacks a complex “taste like” sensory system**. We have very few predatory species and no water life to speak of.

While our evolutionary path was much shorter than yours, there are a few processes which have no short way around. One of them is the oxygenation of the atmosphere. Another is the evolution process itself. Change through mutation takes generations of life forms. So how did my species evolve? This is where today’s story gets very interesting (and weird, to human ears). The following are our best speculations, based on our fossil findings, geological and planetary science.

When my species ancestors evolved, our planet was mostly covered by vegetation and oxygen levels were already high. The exceptions were areas around the equator, too hot to support life and places which were covered by water (a seasonal phenomenon on my planet). Every year, most of these areas would get covered by vegetation growth, with the same vegetation being eradicated later (either by boiling temperatures or by flooding of water). These areas were very fertile (decomposed organic material from the last cycle) and also relatively free of biological competition. Hence, presenting advantages for plant life that could endure the boom and bust cycles. Nature demonstrated its creativity through the different mechanisms that plant life forms deployed to cope with these extreme environmental changes. Some plants burrowed underground to protect themselves from the intense heat. Others evolved seeds that only sprout when the climate conditions are right. All this is nothing you haven’t encountered before here on Earth. However, there was one species of medium-sized “trees”*** that developed a different approach altogether. They moved! These first moving “trees” did not have legs. Instead, they used air roots in order to push and pull the trunk. When the time was right, they would shed their leaves, detach their roots and slowly sprawl to a more suitable location. They did not have any complex sensory organs to speak of. We suspect that they used the planet’s magnetic field for navigation guidance. The fact that these early moving organisms were able to traverse to areas with less plant life competition and high fertility topsoil served as a major evolutionary advantage. In addition, in order to coordinate the movement, a very simplistic sort of brain developed. Nothing close to intelligent life, but hey! You have to start somewhere.

These primitive tree like organisms spread to most of the planet, taking advantage of areas that were seasonally inhabitable for the rest of the planet’s species. Slowly but surely evolution favored movement capabilities. Somewhere along the line, limb like extensions appeared, a more complex sensory system developed and the brain evolved to allow better movement and understanding of the surroundings. These tree like life forms left their roots behind and moved forward (literally!).

These ancient creatures are the link between vegetation and more complex biological life forms on my planet. They evolved about 200 million years after our ILPT. From that point, it took another 100 million years for my species to evolve. We believe that different forms of intelligence life existed on my planet for at least 20 million years while my species age is only about 4 million years old. Much older than your homosapien’s measly 100,000 – 200,000 years of existence, or the ~2 million years old existence of hominids in general. We also had an evolutionary ace down our sleeve. Our reproduction system is very different from yours. In my next post I’ll discuss this, as well as my species path to technology and other aspects of our culture. If this or the previous posts raised any questions for you, feel free to post a question in the comment section below. Also, as mentioned in the beginning, I sure could use suggestions for a name for my species…

* In my binary system, my planet orbits a red dwarf sun which itself orbits a yellow G class sun. So we have two different ways for measuring a “year”. The first I’ll refer to as a “short year” (time to complete a full orbit of the red dwarf sun, closer to my planet) the second a “long year” (time to complete a full orbit of the G class sun, further away from my planet). None of these matches your Earth’s orbit cycle around your sun, but you get the idea. When I mention a “year” I will be referring to the “long year” unless stated otherwise.

** We can sense acidity levels but it is not comparable to your taste buds.

*** Our “trees” are smaller than Earth’s trees due to the higher gravity, so medium “trees” on my planet would be perceived by human eyes to be small.