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fire lizard ostriches
2020-09-13 15:22So, you've read the Pern books. Five colors of dragon and fire lizard, reliably matched to sex and to reproductive strategy, at least for females. Gold fire lizards lay clutches and watch over them, green fire lizards just lay them and run. Kind of weird, like drudge classism for fire lizards, right?
Or not! https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/wir-dragonriders-of-pern-spoilers.859004/post-23249907
And then, even better, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Side-blotched_lizard
"it turns out that there's a real-world example, the side-blotched lizards, who have three types of male and two types of female, each of which has a different reproductive strategy and is helpfully color-coded to match:"
Now, none of that matches fire lizards all that closely, even the two female strategies are different from the ostrich or inferred green/gold division. And the males don't match up, even if we assume there's 'control' of green females by brown or bronze fire lizards. (Golds are clearly in charge when around.) But five color-coded strategies? Neat.
As presented the male fire lizards seem pretty redundant. I did speculate about blues doing more fishing than others, and being camouflaged from prey fish or predator wherries. Alternatively they might be using handicap principle sexiness: "Sure the bronze is big and flies high, but I'm so quick and clever that I can thrive despite looking like a flying sapphire, mate with me."
Tempted to say that bronze/brown is a human distinction, and browns are just bronzes who didn't grow as big.
You could do more if it weren't so clear that fire lizards had colors fixed at hatching, like browns becoming bronzes and dominant if they're the biggest male around.
The wiki tells me that 'modern' fire lizards are actually feral engineered organisms that displaced their wild progenitor; the original 'dragonets' were given Mentasynth and other genetic hanges, which may explain why an alien species Impresses to readily on humans. So maybe there was originally a more dynamic color thing that got 'fixed' by the humans.
There's also the question of whether alien compound eyes see color the same way we do...
Or not! https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/wir-dragonriders-of-pern-spoilers.859004/post-23249907
I have my own headcanon about fire lizard breeding practices. Their clutches are HUGE: dozens of eggs, up to fifty in F'nor's clutch. Menolly can hold three eggs in one hand while climbing. A tiny fire lizard queen couldn't possibly lay thirty or more eggs of that size in a few hours or days. They would weigh far more than she does.
Ostriches have an unusual reproductive strategy. A dominant pair will make a nest and the dominant female will lay up to a dozen eggs. Other females in the area will add their own eggs, which may or may not have been fertilized by the dominant male. The dominant pair doesn't object to the additions, which can bring the total number of eggs in the nest up to 60. The female, who can recognize her own eggs, makes sure they're in the middle and pushes out some of the excess, then the long incubation begins. The extra eggs reduce the chance that a predator will steal all the dominant's eggs. The secondary females have a small chance of surviving offspring without putting in any work. Everybody wins!
A gold fire lizard only lays a dozen eggs, with the rest of the clutch contributed by greens. They're not lazy or stupid, any more than a cuckoo is lazy or stupid for abandoning her eggs. When greens get their eggs in a gold's nest, the eggs get a measure of protection from a larger fire lizard who can command her fair to help. The queen allows it because she puts her own eggs at the center, where they are less vulnerable to tunnel snakes. And when the eggs hatch, the queen's hatchlings have a better survival rate because of their size and strength. Again, everybody wins. Sometimes a green can't find a willing gold's nest. They make their own, smaller nests and abandon them to fate.
And then, even better, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Side-blotched_lizard
"it turns out that there's a real-world example, the side-blotched lizards, who have three types of male and two types of female, each of which has a different reproductive strategy and is helpfully color-coded to match:"
Orange-throated males are "ultra-dominant, high testosterone", who establish large territories and control areas that contain multiple females. Yellow stripe-throated males ("sneakers") do not defend a territory, but cluster on the fringes of orange-throated lizard territories, and mate with the females on those territories while the orange-throat is absent, as the territory to defend is large. Blue-throated males are less aggressive and guard only one female; they can fend off the yellow stripe-throated males but cannot withstand attacks by orange-throated males.
Orange-throated females lay many small eggs and are very territorial. Yellow-throated females lay fewer, larger eggs, and are more tolerant of each other.[4]
Now, none of that matches fire lizards all that closely, even the two female strategies are different from the ostrich or inferred green/gold division. And the males don't match up, even if we assume there's 'control' of green females by brown or bronze fire lizards. (Golds are clearly in charge when around.) But five color-coded strategies? Neat.
As presented the male fire lizards seem pretty redundant. I did speculate about blues doing more fishing than others, and being camouflaged from prey fish or predator wherries. Alternatively they might be using handicap principle sexiness: "Sure the bronze is big and flies high, but I'm so quick and clever that I can thrive despite looking like a flying sapphire, mate with me."
Tempted to say that bronze/brown is a human distinction, and browns are just bronzes who didn't grow as big.
You could do more if it weren't so clear that fire lizards had colors fixed at hatching, like browns becoming bronzes and dominant if they're the biggest male around.
The wiki tells me that 'modern' fire lizards are actually feral engineered organisms that displaced their wild progenitor; the original 'dragonets' were given Mentasynth and other genetic hanges, which may explain why an alien species Impresses to readily on humans. So maybe there was originally a more dynamic color thing that got 'fixed' by the humans.
There's also the question of whether alien compound eyes see color the same way we do...
