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syraka · 2 years ago

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Theory Avatar : Hexapede (20 theories)

Theory n°1: Hexapedes have mainly binocular vision, as well as peripheral vision provided by auxiliary eyes that enable them to detect aerial predators and survey their surroundings when feeding.

When Jake is hunting a hexapede in the first film, you can see him raise his head for a moment. In this scene, there are some notable features…

First, the position of the eyes:

If you observe terrestrial herbivores on Earth, you'll quickly notice that they almost all have eyes on the sides of their heads. This gives them better peripheral vision and enables them to spot predators attacking from behind or to the sides. Carnivores, on the other hand, have their eyes far forward, for better distance perception.

But hexapeds are not predators. They don't have claws, and they don't have fangs either. So why do they have eyes on the front of their heads?

I think this binocular vision exists to better assess the distances and obstacles separating them from their predators. In addition, the Avatar wiki also explains that hexapeds are very agile and their main strategy is to avoid obstacles, which would make pursuit by a predator very difficult. In this case, binocular vision would enable hexapeds to better assess distances between obstacles, reducing the risk of falling and dying.

However, as I said earlier, the vision of herbivores is not useless, since it enables them to spot predators from almost any angle. A considerable asset for a small herbivore like the hexaped.

So, what ensures peripheral vision?

Well, as I see it, peripheral vision is provided entirely by the secondary eyes.

According to the wiki, banshees' second pair of eyes enables them to detect infrared. At first, I thought this was also the case for most of the animals on Pandora, but when I looked again at the eyes of the hexapeds, I realized that their eyes were very different from those of the banshees.

I therefore concluded that the auxiliary eyes of hexapeds function exactly like their main eyes. They are also always used for peripheral vision, with the advantage, thanks to their position on the top of the skull, that they can be used for eating and detecting aerial predators like the banshees mentioned above.

Theory n°2: Hexapedes are more prevalent in low-light areas.

For this theory, I'll stick to hexapede vision.

When observing hexapede eyes, one of the first things you notice is their size. Indeed, the eyes of hexapedes each occupy a more than decent place in the animal's skull.

I've based this theory on three animals in particular. Squids, night raptors and tarsiers. Each of these animals has two things in common. Their eyes are huge and they are active in dark environments, since squids most often stay at the bottom of the water, where very little light reaches them, while tarsiers and night raptors are both awake at night.

As it seems to be daylight in all the scenes in the film where the hexapedes are visible and active, I think the large size of their eyes is an adaptation to life in the rainforest. In this type of environment, there are so many plants that the canopy is extremely dense, making it very dark both day and night.

The large size of the pupil should also be emphasized. In the film, the pupil of the hexapede hunted by Jake is so large that the rest of the eye is barely visible. Such a large pupil makes it easier to capture light in dark environments. Environments which, as I said, include the rainforest floor.

Finally, the hexapede's iris is a very dark yellow. At first, I thought this was an adaptation to see better, like barn owls. But on closer inspection, I learned that the black eyes don't serve that purpose at all. Their real purpose would be to avoid reflecting light, thus preventing the raptor from being spotted by its prey. In the case of the hexapede, I think this adaptation allows it to be less visible to its predators. Namely, as indicated on the wiki, bats and viper wolves. Banshees would not be affected, as they have infrared vision.

Theory n°3: Their frills are used to intimidate predators and to communicate between individuals. They do not redirect sound.

The hexapede's frill has several distinctive features. It's large, located behind the animal's head on its neck, and features circular patterns and bright colors.

The sources I've drawn on are frilled lizards, common buckeyes, peacock butterflies and butterflyfish, as well as peacocks to a lesser extent. I also used some information from the wiki.

Hexapede ocelli are much too close to their true eyes to be used as decoys by predators, unlike butterflyfish ocelli, which are located on their tails. So, if a predator is attracted by the ocelli, it will be prepared for the fish to swim in the opposite direction to its escape.

I then turned my attention to common buckeye and peacock butterflies. In both cases, the ocelli serve to scare off their predators, who see in the ocelli the gaze of their predators. Frilled lizards are also known to use their frills to appear more imposing. It therefore seems logical that hexapedes should do the same.

I then turned my attention to the tail of male peacocks. It's very wide and has many eye-spots. Peacocks use them mainly for communication, and as the hexapede's frill is located close to its head and therefore close to the eyes, I think it's pretty reasonable to consider that the frill has an intraspecific communication role.

The wiki is therefore 100% right on this point. However, where I disagree with the wiki is when it explains that the hexapede's frill enables them to redirect sound to their ears.

In nature, there is no animal with the equivalent of such a frill. The only animal I can think of is the frilled lizard. However, until proven otherwise, this lizard's frill is in no way used to redirect sound. As I said earlier, it only serves to intimidate predators.

On the other hand, there's another organ used to redirect sound in almost all animals… the ears! And here, we need to look at mammals and nocturnal birds of prey, both of which have characteristics that enable them to redirect sound. In the case of mammals, almost all have a conical structure of the outer ear. As for nocturnal birds of prey, the majority have a "facial disk". This is the name given to the parabola-shaped structure on an owl's head. This facial disk also redirects sound.

Conclusion: In both cases, the animal has a conical structure to guide sound. The hexapede's frill, on the other hand, is flat… so it doesn't redirect sound.

Theory n°4: The membrane they have on their throats is used exclusively for communication between individuals. It is also extensible.

Hexapedes also have a membrane of skin over their throat. This membrane is very similar to the gular dewlap of lizards, so that's what I've based this theory on.

The gular dewlap is an extension of the animal's throat skin. In lizards, it is often colored. It's present in both males and females, but males have much more colorful and imposing dewlaps. It is used both for courtship and to repel intruders.

Thanks to the Frontier of Pandora game trailer, you can also see the difference between a male and a female hexapede. The male has a much more colorful gular dewlap than the female, since it's dark orange, unlike the female's light yellow.

I think hexapedes use their gular baleen for the same functions as lizards. Males use them mainly for sexual displays or to chase away intruders, while females use them to communicate information between themselves and their young.

Theory n°5: The stripes on its body play a role in identification as well as camouflage.

This theory is quite simple. The hexapede has yellow stripes on its body. I think these stripes help females to camouflage themselves in forests where light only reaches the empty spaces left by the dense foliage. The stripes imitate the surrounding light.

The male hexapede seen in Frontiers of Pandora also has many more stripes, indicating a possible reproductive interest. The parallel would be birds of paradise, whose males are often very colorful to appeal to females.

Zebras also have similar stripes, which they use to identify individuals. Hexapedes probably use their stripes in the same way.

The trailer also shows that the stripes of male and female hexapedes are much brighter in the light. This could provide further support for the identification and camouflage reasoning. The brighter colors would mimic the more intense light of clearings.

Theory n°6: Hexapede teeth are white because they are covered with lips.

I think this is an interesting theory, as it explains one of the many criticisms levelled at Avatar's fauna. When we talk about the film's fauna, one of the first things that comes to mind is the difference between the Na'vi and the rest of the animals. One of these differences is often the difference in their teeth.

For example, the animals of Pandora all seem to have black teeth, whereas the Na'vi have white teeth. The problem is that other animals, including hexapedes, have white teeth!

So the question is no longer why do the Na'vi have white teeth and the rest of the fauna black teeth, but why do some animal species have white teeth and others black?

The answer lies on the lips.

What all these "white-toothed" animals have in common is that they have lips. For those who don't know, the teeth we have are considered teeth because they are mainly made of enamel. Elephant tusks, on the other hand, are mainly dentine. The reason for this is that enamel impedes tooth growth. For example, if a human loses a tooth, it will never grow back.

On the other hand, if an elephant breaks one of its tusks, it can grow back because it is not covered in enamel. The evolutionary advantage of this situation is that tusks are often used as tools by their wearers. If a broken tusk did not grow back, it would be very detrimental to the animal. In the case of elephants, for example, this would be tantamount to depriving a human being of one of his hands!

Hexapedes have white teeth because the use they make of their teeth rarely damages them permanently. Their teeth are covered with enamel and are therefore white.

Theory n°7: The fur on the back of hexapedes is a vestige and serves to protect them from the rain. It has a slight communication function, bristling to indicate aggression.

This theory again goes against the "scientifically correct na'vi" since it talks about hexapede fur, which is present in very few Pandorian animals.

I tried to use my brain to come up with an explanation that was plausible enough given the information available. Given that fur is found specifically on the back and not elsewhere, I think we can already assume a slight protective role. As thermal protection is useless in the rainforest, we can already rule out this theory. That leaves mechanical protection. By this I mean protection against the elements (wind, rain, sun, etc.) and protection against predators.

As a predator would be more likely to target vital areas such as the neck and belly, this hypothesis must also be ruled out. Indeed, if this hypothesis had been correct, the fur would have ended up in these vital zones.

The last theory therefore seems to be the last valid one. The fur would offer the animal a minimum of protection against rain or sun when it is present. Perhaps fur is even waterproof? Who knows.

However, mere protection against the elements seems weak to me. So I think this hexapede characteristic is actually a vestige in the making. In other words, in the absence of a major interest in the survival of individuals, animals with abundant fur would no longer be favored by natural selection. As a result, individuals with only fur on their backs would be sufficiently advantaged to survive longer than individuals with abundant fur, and would therefore be more likely to have offspring. In this way, the mutation responsible for the fur on the back would have gradually spread through the population.

Another advantage of vestigial fur is the ability to communicate. Cat fur is an excellent example. We know that a cat that ruffles its fur means it wants to be left alone. I think the same applies to hexapedes, even if the meaning isn't necessarily "leave me alone".

As for the furless mutation, it would seem that it hasn't appeared, or only in a few individuals.

Theory n°8: The first pair of legs is used to control steering and perform auxiliary tasks, while the second absorbs impact and provides traction on the ground. The third pair is used for propulsion.

In the film, when Jake kills his hexapede, the animal is clearly visible.

We can then see that the secondary forelegs of hexapedes have broader shoulders than the primary forelegs.

This feature, combined with the density of the air and Pandora's weaker gravity, led me to believe that these legs probably have hypertrophied muscles, as their main function is to ensure sufficiently powerful traction in the ground to enable rapid running.

As a result, the primary front legs are no longer needed for traction, but for auxiliary tasks such as foraging or fighting between males. They also serve to control the animal's direction, as they are undoubtedly the first legs to land when jumping.

The hind legs are essentially used to propel the animal when jumping.

The combined action of all six legs gives the animal the speed and agility for which it is renowned.

Theory n°9: Hexapedes have a highly developed sense of taste and smell. They have a Jacobson's organ connected to their jugal appendages, which serves to capture odorous molecules. Smell is their most important sense.

The hexapede wiki page indicates that the animal's sense of smell is highly developed. I decided to follow this theory since, as I said above, its frill is not used to redirect sound and its vision is mainly binocular.

Consequently, I think that its hearing is not very well developed and that it is its sense of smell that enables the hexapede to locate the various information essential to its survival, such as the presence of predators or other hexapedes.

For Jacobson's organ, I based myself on the "flehmen". This expression, used by many animals, consists of stretching the neck, raising the head and finally lifting the upper lip. Thanks to the flehmen, animals that use it make it easier for odors to reach the Jacobson's organ located near the palate.

Admittedly, hexapedes only lift their lip and don't extend their neck or head, but I believe that the purpose of this expression remains the same and allows, among other things, odors to be guided towards an organ that would be the equivalent of the Jacobson's organ thanks to a phenomenon of evolutionary convergence.

The wiki also informs us that the excrescences on the cheeks of hexapedes also serve the sense of smell. I therefore believe that these "jugal appendages" can pick up odorous molecules and transmit the corresponding information to the Jacobson's organ, which in turn transmits it to the brain.

Theory n°10: Hexapedes first try to intimidate predators when they spot them, as they are often attacked by predators in small groups such as viper wolves and bats. That's why the one attacked by Jake Sully didn't flee immediately.

I had a hard time explaining this theory because, in nature, the behavior of stopping and intimidating when detecting a predator is rarely used. Nevertheless, I tried to explain the scene and remembered a land animal that uses tactics more or less similar to those used by hexapedes. These are, perhaps to the surprise of some, donkeys.

Indeed, because of their lower agility and speed than horses, donkeys have tended to adopt a strategy of blocking in front of the predator and, eventually, charging. This behavior has the advantage of catching the predator off-guard, which may lead it to abandon the hunt.

Given the hexapede's colorful frill and its ability to spread out, not to mention the fact that it opens its frill when the hexapede spots Jake in the film, I think it's safe to say that the aim is to scare off the predator.

It's even possible to add to this theory since, knowing that the hexapede's two known predators are group animals, we can also assume that the extra time given to the hexapede by the deployment of its frill may be sufficient to allow it to assess the terrain and find the safest escape route to take.

Theory n°11: Raising the upper lip not only enables hexapedes to smell better, but also to intimidate predators and rivals by emitting a distinctive sound that also serves as an alarm signal.

Still in the film's hunting scene, the bellowing emitted by the hexapede is only audible when it raises its lip. I think that this action allows him not only to make a flehmen as explained above, but also to bellow. It's a good bet that this also helps to scare off predators.

The use of such a loud growl also enables the animal to alert other deer when it senses danger nearby.

As male deer use grunts extensively to communicate during mating season and to protect their territory, I suspect the same is true of male hexapedes. Although, in these circumstances, the call is probably different.

Theory n°12: Hexapedes are intermediate evolutionary strategists. They can have up to 4 young at the same time. These young are integrated into the family herd and learn to survive by observing their mother, who takes little care of them. The young thus form strong social bonds. Sexual maturity arrives early, and both male and female young leave the herd at an early age. They stay together thanks to the bonds they forged in their youth.

Evolutionary strategies are complicated expressions that mean something simple. There are two types: the "r" strategist, who favors a large number of offspring with little parental care to ensure survival, and the "K" strategist, who favors long growth and lots of parental care. For example, flies can be described as "r" strategists, while horses are "K" strategists.

The term is a bit of a misnomer, but I'm going to use it anyway, as it sums up pretty well how I think hexapedes work. This is especially true since the wiki explains that the hexapede's survival relies primarily on its high reproduction rate.

However, hexapedes are quite large animals that still need a minimum of parental care to survive when they are young. So I think hexapedes pretty much fit both categories, having 4 or 5 young born at the same time.

These youngsters are very small, but can move around and use their senses within minutes of birth. They are quickly integrated into the mother's herd to benefit from her protection. Apart from this protection, the mother takes very little care of the young, who learn mainly by observing the adults. Young from the same litter will always stay together and never mix with young from another female.

As hexapedes are more preoccupied with reproduction than caring for their young, adult females don't form a real bond with their young and drive them away as soon as they reach sexual maturity. The siblings then form a new herd that remains united.

Theory n°13: Siblings form a herd, all from the same family. They stay together all the time, except during the rut.

For this reasoning, I turned to deer. In particular, roe deer, which closely resemble hexapedes from a physical point of view. Since roe deer live in small groups of several females with their fawns, I think hexapedes work in the same way. According to the previous theory, the young born together will also leave at the same time and stay together for the rest of their lives.

To avoid competition, adult males that come to mate with females during the rut probably chase away the young already present. As explained in the previous theory, females probably follow their brothers, with whom they have more social ties. By being hunted in this way, the young males themselves go in search of a herd of females.

Young hexapedes are also always chased away from their siblings if they try to impregnate their sisters. This prevents inbreeding.

At the end of the rut, the males find their original siblings thanks to the scents left by the females, which they smell with their jugal appendages.

Like roe deer, hexapedes also establish a territory of their own when they have just been driven out of their herds. Females stay on the same territory as their brothers, who remain relatively close to the group outside the rutting season.

Theory n°14: Subarctic subspecies gather in herds of a few hundred to several thousand individuals and migrate. Males become aggressive during the breeding season.

Knowing that Avatar's hexapedes are largely based on terrestrial forest deer, I used the other deer species to determine the gregarious behavior of the hexapede subspecies mentioned in the wiki.

As far as the subarctic subspecies are concerned, the reasoning was quick since there is only one cervid known to live on the tundra, and that's the caribou. This animal is very gregarious and, when not on islands like the Peary caribou, can travel in herds of several thousand individuals.

I therefore believe that Arctic hexapedes behave in a similar way.

Theory n°15: Savannah subspecies live in herds of several dozen individuals, mainly females and young. Males live in separate groups. During the breeding season, many herds, including males, come together. They then fight amongst themselves, the dominant one having access to most of the females.

I based this theory on gazelles and antelopes. In particular, the gerenuk and Thompson's gazelle, which physically resemble hexapedes. In both these animals, males live far from females and remain in small bachelor herds.

However, like their terrestrial counterparts, savannah hexapedes of both sexes gather at rutting time. At this time, the males fight amongst themselves, and the dominant one succeeds in impregnating the majority of the females.

Theory n°16: Mountain subspecies gather in herds ranging from half a dozen to several dozen individuals. Herds are made up almost exclusively of unrelated females and their young, plus a few young males. During the mating season, the males fight to establish a hierarchy and gain access to the females.

For this subspecies, I based myself on the species closest to the cervids that I could find in the mountains. This reasoning is essentially based on the social behavior of mouflons and chamois.

These two species have the particularity of forming herds essentially made up of females, but where the presence of a few males is tolerated. Female mouflons are quick to expel unwanted males, while male chamois fight to establish a hierarchy of access to females during the rut. In both cases, the only family ties present in the herd are those between the females and their young.

Mountain hexapedes probably behave in much the same way.

Theory n°17: When it comes to fighting, males prefer to try and intimidate each other by ruffling their fur and raising their chops to bellow. In real combat, they fight by kicking with their front paws and lunging.

This reasoning is based on theories 7, 8 and 11. When male deer enter the rutting season, they try to fight off potential competitors to secure access to females.

As male hexapedes are strongly inspired by terrestrial cervids, it is very likely that they will fight each other during the mating season. However, as their morphology is slightly different, I've established three different behaviors they can use during fights.

In the wild, fights, when they can be avoided, are always avoided. This rule is essential, as it enables individuals to avoid a potentially lethal situation. As theory 7 suggests, one use of the vestigial fur on the backs of hexapedes would be to indicate a willingness to fight a competitor.

The grunting that hexapedes can utter and the flehmen, which are mentioned in theory 8, may also support the same purpose. However, they could also have a more pronounced reproductive function, as flehmen could be used to detect female pheromones. The bark, meanwhile, would add a sonic dimension and warn foreign females and males that the hexapede is in rut.

Finally, if they had to fight, hexapedes would also be more inclined to strike with their primary front legs or to kick. Indeed, due to the hexapod nature of the animal and the hypertrophy of the shoulders of the secondary legs, the animal would prefer postures where it is more stable and less likely to fall. In the case of the kick, this is a posture that is more stable and less likely to fall.

Theory n°18: Hexapedes are more agile than fast, which gives them an advantage in forests with many obstacles. They are more likely to be found in areas with few clearings and many obstacles that hinder predators.

As I explained in theory 8, the first pair of legs is mainly used for steering control when running. The second and third pairs of legs are used for propulsion and traction on the ground.

In the wild, gazelles and deer use their great agility as an escape tactic against predators, who are often unable to follow them on such complicated courses. Hexapedes certainly function in the same way. What's more, according to theory 1, they are more frequently found in dark areas of forests.

Such a dark zone indicates extensive leaf cover, in order to benefit from maximum light. This highly developed leaf cover indicates that there has been a "race for light". In other words, plants sought to grow as fast and as high as possible to benefit from the light necessary for photosynthesis.

As a result, the environment would be very cluttered, making it more difficult to pursue prey. Hexapedes, on the other hand, could be at an advantage, as their small size and agility enable them to zigzag between obstacles and outrun predators more easily.

Theory n°19: Hexapede peak speeds are probably around 120 kilometers per hour, but they can only maintain this speed for 200 to 300 meters. Their average speed in the forest varies between 60 and 70 kilometers per hour.

This theory does have a terrestrial reference, but the values I'm giving are given with a ladle, so they're not very precise.

Deer, fallow deer, springbok, and gerenuks are all cervids and antelopes that strongly resemble the hexapede. All have running speeds approaching 100 kilometers per hour, but can only keep up for a few hundred meters.

Since hexapedes are hexapods that live on Pandora, a planet with lower gravity and higher air density than Earth, their third pair of legs was originally designed to counteract these differences (information given by Wiki). Since then, however, the shoulders of the secondary front legs have hypertrophied and the primary front legs still have a slight traction role. The problem of air density has thus been resolved. But there's still the weaker gravity that has led the hexapede to become relatively large (about the size of an adult male Elaphe deer).

All this information put together leads me to believe that hexapedes can run at a speed only slightly faster than that of modern deer and antelopes. Probably between 100 and 120 kilometers per hour. This is their maximum speed, and they can't keep up for more than a few hundred meters, in the same way as their terrestrial counterparts.

When not at top speed, as in the forest where they would be hampered by the various obstacles even with their great agility, they stay between 60 and 70 kilometers per hour like roe deer and fallow deer.

Theory n°20: Hexapedes feed mainly on herbaceous plants and fruit that have fallen to the ground. They also dig up roots and tubers.

For the diet, I focused on the bongo. The bongo is an antilopine living in tropical forests. Antilopines are closely related to cervids, and the environment corresponds to that of hexapeds. The animal is the closest equivalent I've been able to find in terms of diet.

Hexapedes have a U-shaped jaw. Terrestrial cervids have a similar jaw.

It's worth noting that jaw shape, particularly in herbivores, can tell us a great deal about their diet. For example, a U-shaped jaw is better suited to cutting grass on the ground, while a beak-like jaw (like ceratopsians) is more effective at eating tall vegetation such as tree branches and bushes.

In this case, the bongo is an animal that will feed solely on leaves, young shoots, and grass.

In fact, with all this information put together, I think the hexapede will feed on the same vegetation as the bongo since these are present all year round in the rainforest.

That's it! The hexapede is finally finished. Phew!

For all those who have read it all, thank you. The idea for these theories came from "WhispertheWolfie" on DeviantArt, who did the same thing for HTTYD.

I noticed that my few ideas about Eywa as a super-organism were more or less appreciated and personally I've always preferred the xenobiologist side of Avatar so… Gift! For anyone who's interested at least.

#avatar the way of water #avatar 2 #avatar #hexapede #yerik #biology #zoology #xenobiology #theories #avatar 2009 #avatar movie #speculative biology #speculative zoology #world building #avatar theory #please reblog

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