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K9: The First writes...

Hello Mister Wiesman, How's your family?

There, I asked a question, I actually wanted to do a ramble of sorts based on my observations on Gargoyle biology. Sort of like someone else did with Gargate genetics. (I'd post what they said, but it's very very long)

STONE SLEEP

Now, obviously at first, this seems to not make a lot of sense. If you're in mid-flight and you turn to stone, you're out of luck. And if a predator or some natural disaster hits you while you sleep, you're not going to have a good chance of making it.

But if one thinks about it, it makes perfect evolutional sense. Of the two main responses to danger from a predator, Flight or Fight, the one that uses the leeast energy and usually has the least chance of injury is Flight, or avoidence from the Fight response for as long as possible, and the best way to avoid Fight is to hide, a.k.a.: Camouflage.

Think about it, if a Gargate, or several Gargates(a Clan) were to either scruntch as tight as possible, huddle close together, or grab hold of a cliff face and make themselves as unnoticable as possible, they would simply look to be nothing more then another rock, or a part of the cliff. This would make them nigh impossible to be found by most predators, and if one finds one or more stone Gargates, it may just walk on by with little care for the prey. But if it dosen't, and still trys to eat the Gargate, it'll be detered from trying again due to either any injuries the predator gets from chomping of the stone, or from the fact that stone doesn't taste very good.

I have another Ramble on Wings, but since I worry as to weather or not it would cause this to be banned, I'll post it separatly.

Greg responds...

Family's good, thanks.

Camouflage... I don't know. Maybe that helps, but you don't need it to explain stone sleep evolution.

Stone sleep is a huge protection against predators in the pre-tool age. Claws and teeth don't bite through stone (or rather the organic stone-like substance that Gargoyles turn into). Even scent is altered. A stone gargoyle is of little interest to and in almost no danger from other animals. It's not until Humans developed tools -- thousands of years after Gargoyles evolved -- that stone sleep became a liability.

Response recorded on July 12, 2007