Reythia
Knight of Honor
Registered: 11-2005
Posts: 1883
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The biology of bird-song
This was interesting:
Birds' singing in spring linked to hormones
A line at the end states:
quote: But it’s not just our fowl friends that could benefit from this study. Human conditions such as seasonal affective disorder and poor fertility could be connected to a malfunction of the very same cells studied in the birds, Sharp said.
So, along similar lines, what would an intellengent alien species be like that was strongly seasonally-dependent? What if, even in a technological society, mating still occured at a certain time per year -- or a time that could be artificially altered by changing the lighting pattern? What if the seasonally-driven hormones didn't affect reproduction, but something else, like intellengence, or the ability to move or speak? Could we land on an alien planet during "winter" and falsely believe there was no intellegent life there, just because it was all "hibernating" in plain site? What would happen when "spring" came and the situation changed?
--- -- YAR!
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4/24/2008, 4:26 pm
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Firlefanz
Lady of the Land
Registered: 05-2003
Location: Germany
Posts: 6984
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Re: The biology of bird-song
Those are very neat questions, Reythia!
I could absolutely see a population "hibernating" when humans arrive, and spring bringing an interesting development when that species awakes.
Cool!
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4/24/2008, 7:38 pm
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