| rdfs:comment | - The Mummy-nest Flyer is a small flying creature native to planet Darwin IV's northern tundra. It has a pair of fast-moving wings, which allow it to hover like a hummingbird; and a long rigid tail which is bent downwards. The Mummy-nest Flyer is so named because it makes its nest inside the mummified corpse of a much larger creature, dried out by the constant arctic wind. The nest's entrance is located where the corpse's head should be. Near it is a small bioluminescent appendage which likely helps the flyer to find its way to the mummy-nest.
- The shrill pinging of this flyer can be heard as it heads rapidly towards something. It can compete, in an agitated manner, with its own kind and other species for the things it needs: food and shelter. With blurred wings it can hover. It will seek out mummy-nests, and once it finds one it will circle around it, land upon the mummy's "head" and disappears into the hole. After this, it does not seem to ever reappear. Readings indicate that the cryptobiotic mummy-nest is providing warmth and shelter to the little flyer.
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| abstract | - The Mummy-nest Flyer is a small flying creature native to planet Darwin IV's northern tundra. It has a pair of fast-moving wings, which allow it to hover like a hummingbird; and a long rigid tail which is bent downwards. The Mummy-nest Flyer is so named because it makes its nest inside the mummified corpse of a much larger creature, dried out by the constant arctic wind. The nest's entrance is located where the corpse's head should be. Near it is a small bioluminescent appendage which likely helps the flyer to find its way to the mummy-nest. It is possible that the nest animal is actually still alive and kept so by the flyer's nurture. Although their relationship is still unknown, it seems likely that the flyer brings food to its host, which in turn provides warmth, moisture, nourishment and shelter. While this could be explained as some strange form of symbiosis, Wayne Barlowe also proposes a theory in which the flyer and the mummy-nest were, at one point, part of the same organism. The portion corresponding to the creature's head develops wings and breaks free from the rest of its body, which is then mummified by the wind and becomes the nest.
- The shrill pinging of this flyer can be heard as it heads rapidly towards something. It can compete, in an agitated manner, with its own kind and other species for the things it needs: food and shelter. With blurred wings it can hover. It will seek out mummy-nests, and once it finds one it will circle around it, land upon the mummy's "head" and disappears into the hole. After this, it does not seem to ever reappear. Readings indicate that the cryptobiotic mummy-nest is providing warmth and shelter to the little flyer. There is one small clue to the reason out of the relationship between the nest-creature and the flyer, when the mummy-nest flyer enters the husk. As it backs into the "head" cavity its configuration seems to line up with the rim of the opening as if the two had once been joined. This leads to the speculation that the flyer and the husk were one and the same animal, separated at some point in the flyer's development. It is concluded that the husk remains alive through the flyer's tending and serves to protect it from the harsh climate. There is no proof to support the theory of the two once being one creature, and as only one individual mummy-nest was encountered during the First Darwinian Expedition, the answer remains a mystery.
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