Anonymous >> #12237
Posted on 2013-01-31 05:39:26 Score: 2 (vote Up/Down)   (Report as spam)
It's not really cannibalism. It's a lion eating a grub.

eternalDelight >> #12242
Posted on 2013-01-31 05:47:19 Score: 5 (vote Up/Down)   (Report as spam)
Now if it was a troll eating Gushers, we can assume cannibalism.

Anonymous >> #14146
Posted on 2013-02-13 03:43:26 Score: -1 (vote Up/Down)   (Report as spam)
@eternalDelight

that depends on how you view cannibalism, by its strictest deifnition, troll eating another troll, or part of them, isnt cannibalism unless theya re of the same bloodtype, since in the trolls hemotypes are more ro less subspecies since they each have unique traits not found in the tohers. kind of like red ants and balck ants (i forget the actual species names for those).

SirenDucks >> #14149
Posted on 2013-02-13 05:00:29 Score: 0 (vote Up/Down)   (Report as spam)
Anonymous, even if you could consider the troll hemotypes to be different subspecies, they'd still belong to the same species. So it's cannibalism.

There are a bunch of different species of both red and black ants, but I don't know of any species of ant with black and red subspecies.

diff subspecies tho

that'd make for really interesting debate

tbqh subspecies for the most part are an arbitrary enough thing that you could spin it that way

Anonymous >> #14159
Posted on 2013-02-13 07:29:42 Score: 8 (vote Up/Down)   (Report as spam)
Bio-nerd anon here.

Having unique traits is not what defines separate species. Just look at dog breeds, lots of difference between a chihuahua and a german shepherd but they are still the same species. A species is most commonly defined as a group of animals that can mate naturally and produce fertile offspring. Therefore if all trolls can contribute to the... uhhhh slurry... and make healthy little troll grubs that can go on to complete the cycle in kind, then they are all the same species.

Subspecies are members of the same species that differ slightly in genetics or ecology. They can still breed with other subspecies of the same species but generally don't in nature which results in the distinct differences seen between the subspecies. I guess subspecies would be an okay way to understand troll blood color although considering the whole slurry mechanic I always thought of it as more of a continuum, like with human skin or eye color.

(why am i analyzing troll genetics...)
*absconds*

Snuffleheim >> #14161
Posted on 2013-02-13 08:13:08 Score: 0 (vote Up/Down)   (Report as spam)
^Because it's fun and interesting and educational. Don't stop there!

Anonymous >> #14262
Posted on 2013-02-14 05:51:33 Score: 1 (vote Up/Down)   (Report as spam)
I thought Hussie mentioned somewhere that the trolls' hemospectrum was caused by blood pigmentation. I may be wrong though. Though if that were the case, judging from the efficiency of hemoglobin in transporting oxygen to cells, the necessary need for a higher oxygen intake by more complex organisms, and the sheer widespread use of hemoglobin by nearly all vertebrates and several invertebrates on Earth, I figured that most sentient species across paradox space that breathe the same mixture of air that humans do would also likely have the protein running through their veins.

This being said either the pigmentation that saturates Karkat and Kankri's blood is actually rouge-hued (because their tear glands still secrete red-tinted tears), or they are simply albino trolls and lack the pigmentation.

I'm not a bio major though, so tear me down if I said something egregriously idiotic.

Lettucefood >> #14263
Posted on 2013-02-14 06:06:56 Score: 3 (vote Up/Down)   (Report as spam)
My personal interpretation was always that the pigments responsible for hemospectrum pigmentation were completely separate from the proteins/pigments actually moving the oxygen around in their blood. There's several species of reptile and ambibian that carry such high concentrations of bile in their blood that their blood looks green instead of red; stick in a few more colorful additives and some genes to regulate their entry into the blood stream, and you'd probably get yourself something resembling a hemospectrum of sorts.

Anonymous >> #14273
Posted on 2013-02-14 07:37:23 Score: 3 (vote Up/Down)   (Report as spam)
Hemoglobin is the protein found in red blood cells that gives our blood its color. Hemoglobin is a dark red/purple color (think the blueish color of veins), then turns the usual bright red when oxygen binds and triggers a shape change. Some invertebrates use a different oxygen-carrying molecule called hemocyanin. Because this molecule uses copper instead of iron to bind oxygen, hemocyanin takes on a greenish-blue color when oxygen is bound. The oxygen carrying molecule itself could therefore be the cause of blood color differences among troll castes.

For a while I thought the molecule responsible could also be a pigmented protein on the surface of blood cells, like the surface proteins used in human blood typing. However, the troll's tears also appear to be pigmented. Tears are mostly just water, salt, and a few proteins. They contain no blood cells so most likely something other than cell surface proteins or the oxygen-carrying molecule is responsible (as Lettucefood suggested). Perhaps there is a free protein in the plasma fluid found in both blood and tears which acts as a pigment and gives it their specific color.

This blood pigment protein could be linked to the specific traits associated with different castes, such as greater frequency of psychic abilities in warmbloods, for a number of reasons. First, the genes for blood protein and psychic abilities might be linked, meaning they are on the same chromosome and thus have a higher likelihood of being inherited together. Another possibility is protein interactions. Perhaps many trolls carry the genetic potential for psychic abilities (or strength/fins/whatever) but these traits are only activated by interaction with specific types of the blood pigment protein (eg. the gene for fins may be present in the whole population but is only expressed when activated by the violet or fuchsia blood pigments). And there you have it, scientific explanations for magical psychic powers (Eridan would be so proud).

Hope people aren't getting totally sick of these lengthy biological theories on some random Lion Kind gif. I personally find theoretical alien physiology fascinating and the trolls are a goldmine of crazy traits.

1