Are seaponies mammals?

[Dec Browne 20]

Do you think seaponies like Princess Skystar are mammals or fish? It's hard to know, isn't it?

[Hierok 11,829]

I think so. We'll just have to see if they hatch from an egg

Edited May 2, 2017 by Hierok

[Steve Piranha 28,769]

I think we should judge if seaponies are mammals or not if they breast feed their children. In real life, platypuses and some species of echidna lay eggs, but they are mammals  

[Goat-kun 2,498]

Is chimaera mammal or lizard?

 

 

As far as I'm concerned, it is simplest to classify mythological beasts as Children of deity/magic/event or denizens of certain habitat/element. It's for the sake of one's sanity, but I'm always ready to chart the phylogenetic tree of all fairy tale creatures! For sea ponies I'd say they have more fish organs than pone organs. We should ask Twilight to elaborate on this XCOM style. I'm sure the Tree can provide us with the appropriate facilities 

 

[cmarston1 5,951]

Maybe some kinda weird combination of the two, seeing how they are magical creatures after all.

[Jeric 46,834]

6 hours ago, Hierok said:

I think so. We'll just have to see if they hatch from an egg

They could be monotreme mammals though. As it was pointed out, if we see a baby bottle at anytime, that will confirm they aren't fish. 

or 

Since they have proposed a new clade to pop in lampreys, perhaps merging that specific proposed craniata chordata group with monotremes? 

[AlbaTross 1,581]

12 hours ago, Dec Browne said:

Do you think seaponies like Princess Skystar are mammals or fish? It's hard to know, isn't it?

Hi, as this discussion is founded in the characters and concept from the upcoming film, it has been moved to the appropriate board.

[Leave a Whisper 703]

That's a good question. You know what? Sea ponies and merponies are magical creatures. I say they're hybrids. I mean hey, Pokemon hatch from eggs, so yeah. There's my two cents.

On 5/2/2017 at 8:46 AM, Steve Piranha said:

I think we should judge if seaponies are mammals or not if they breast feed their children. In real life, platypuses and some species of echidna lay eggs, but they are mammals  

Actually they're monotremes. 

Edited May 4, 2017 by Leave a Whisper

[Unlikeable Pony 2,698]

Do seaponies have gills and Lungs? they can talk above water, which implies lungs of some kind, but live at the bottom of the ocean, which implies they also have gills.

So if they have both lungs and gills, its makes things a bit hard to classify.

[Goat-kun 2,498]

22 hours ago, Unlikeable Pony said:

Do seaponies have gills and Lungs? they can talk above water, which implies lungs of some kind, but live at the bottom of the ocean, which implies they also have gills.

So if they have both lungs and gills, its makes things a bit hard to classify.

Fun fact: most bony fish have both gills and "lungs" aka swim bladder. We'll have to fillet one to be sure.

 

Hmm, bottom of the ocean, you say. Is this epipelagic, mesopelagic, or further down? They're quite big vertebrates so if they're in meso or below they can pretty much only be carnivores. It's funny cause the fish they displayed with the castle could easily belong in deep sea. And the deep blue background was quite meso. But the dead coral and giant clams are from a shallow reef. Damn it H-Bro, get your shit straight! To know the beast one must understand its habitat!

[Unlikeable Pony 2,698]

2 hours ago, Goat-kun said:

Fun fact: most bony fish have both gills and "lungs" aka swim bladder. We'll have to fillet one to be sure.

 

 

 

Hmm, bottom of the ocean, you say. Is this epipelagic, mesopelagic, or further down? They're quite big vertebrates so if they're in meso or below they can pretty much only be carnivores. It's funny cause the fish they displayed with the castle could easily belong in deep sea. And the deep blue background was quite meso. But the dead coral and giant clams are from a shallow reef. Damn it H-Bro, get your shit straight! To know the beast one must understand its habitat!

 

>first contact with the seaponies is followed by dissection by the land dwellers

And thus the surface world was invaded-- again
They probably worship Colthulu I bet, the fishes deserved it!

[Goat-kun 2,498]

9 hours ago, Unlikeable Pony said:

>first contact with the seaponies is followed by dissection by the land dwellers

And thus the surface world was invaded-- again
They probably worship Colthulu I bet, the fishes deserved it!

Drawing some parallels with the Deep Ones and Great Old Ones would be nice. Or even taking a few pages from Warcraft Naga in shaping their history: some forgotten calamity forced an ancient pony civilization under the sea. Alas, it's a show for little gir ... I mean, gender nonspecific children. Can't have such complicated lore. Someone's head could potentially explode. We must think of the writ ... the children. Yes, I understand this shouldn't be in the Movie, but it could still exist somewhere (preferably not in the realm of IDW comics).

[Dec Browne 20]

On 05/05/2017 at 0:51 AM, Leave a Whisper said:

That's a good question. You know what? Sea ponies and merponies are magical creatures. I say they're hybrids. I mean hey, Pokemon hatch from eggs, so yeah. There's my two cents.

Actually they're monotremes. 

Momotremes? Crikey! And I'm an Aussie!

 

[lyra as a princess 25]

err.....yes. they were turned from ponies.

[Tiny Hoofs 200]

I'd imagine sea ponies are like chimeras/hybrids of fish and mammals. They probably have mammal traits like endothermy and milk production, and fish traits like gills and stuff.

Sort of similar as to how Griffins are chimeras of birds and mammals.

On 02/05/2017 at 1:29 PM, Hierok said:

I think so. We'll just have to see if they hatch from an egg

I'm more interested to see if the male sea ponies get "pregnant" like seahorses and pipe fish do. The females transfer their eggs in the male's pouch and he fertilizes them, provides them with food/oxygen and then gives birth to newborn seahorses after the eggs hatch. I think it's a part of seahorses having a female biased OSR, in which females compete over males and assume a role similar to the male sex in most species. Biology can be very weird.

Live Science

I doubt we'll explicitly see something like that. So I'm not expecting that anymore than I'm expecting Marlin in Finding Nemo to change into a female fish (clownfish are actually protandrous hermaphrodites).

But maybe a wink and a nod to seahorse breeding habits would be pretty cool!

Edited September 3, 2017 by Tiny Hoofs

[Hierok 11,829]

4 hours ago, Tiny Hoofs said:

I'd imagine sea ponies are like chimeras/hybrids of fish and mammals. They probably have mammal traits like endothermy and milk production, and fish traits like gills and stuff.

Sort of similar as to how Griffins are chimeras of birds and mammals.

I'm more interested to see if the male sea ponies get "pregnant" like seahorses and pipe fish do. The females transfer their eggs in the male's pouch and he fertilizes them, provides them with food/oxygen and then gives birth to newborn seahorses after the eggs hatch. I think it's a part of seahorses having a female biased OSR, in which females compete over males and assume a role similar to the male sex in most species. Biology can be very weird.

Live Science

I doubt we'll explicitly see something like that. So I'm not expecting that anymore than I'm expecting Marlin in Finding Nemo to change into a female fish (clownfish are actually protandrous hermaphrodites).

But maybe a wink and a nod to seahorse breeding habits would be pretty cool!

I never knew this. Also it is kind of a strange place where the little one comes out of. 

[hollow-shades 129]

Im pretty sure they are mammals. Their entire torso, including possibly their rear part, is pony-like. The problem is that their tails are different from land ponies, so its kind of part of their body too. But it could just be a, um, extended back part.

Otherwise, their fish-like parts, which are the gills at the tip of the tail (which problably replaces what would be hair for land ponies) and on the hands problably would't make a difference in it.

[Star Petal 215]

depends entirely whether or not they need to breath air or not. If they do not need to resurface for air, they are fish, if they do, they are mammals. 

[CypherHoof 26,479]

43 minutes ago, Star Petal said:

depends entirely whether or not they need to breath air or not. If they do not need to resurface for air, they are fish, if they do, they are mammals. 

Unless "because magic" of course....

[Star Petal 215]

4 hours ago, CypherHoof said:

Unless "because magic" of course....

If that were true than sea ponies wouldn't exist. There would be zero reason for them to exist. Sea ponies are obviously an actual species of creature, not actually a pony but a sea mammal of some kind. Why would ponies use magic to give them the power to breathe and swim under water? Just doesn't make sense to me. 

[CypherHoof 26,479]

Just now, Star Petal said:

If that were true than sea ponies wouldn't exist. There would be zero reason for them to exist. Sea ponies are obviously an actual species of creature, not actually a pony but a sea mammal of some kind. Why would ponies use magic to give them the power to breathe and swim under water? Just doesn't make sense to me. 

Why wouldn't they? we use technology to give ourselves rubbery outer skins, flippers, and aqualungs. If magic could do those things, we would use magic to give ourselves tougher skin, a flippered tail, and gills.

[Star Petal 215]

Just now, CypherHoof said:

Why wouldn't they? we use technology to give ourselves rubbery outer skins, flippers, and aqualungs. If magic could do those things, we would use magic to give ourselves tougher skin, a flippered tail, and gills.

Yeah, but we don't do it to live there through. Just to explore. Plus, wouldn't it be more commonplace if it was just a normal thing to use a spell to warp your species like that with full functionality? 

[CypherHoof 26,479]

Just now, Star Petal said:

Yeah, but we don't do it to live there through. Just to explore. Plus, wouldn't it be more commonplace if it was just a normal thing to use a spell to warp your species like that with full functionality? 

Willing to bet that if we could, we would - we would have communities on the continental shelves, and consider it prime real estate. We wouldn't need there to be a naturally evolved "seahumans" race either.

And we don't know that it isn't common for non-equestrian communities - we have a very limited view of pony society, with only a VERY occasional non-pony character.

For example, it could be Eastern Unicorn magic, and Western Unicorns don't know how.