Mesa Settlements

The idea of a Mesa (technically a butte) is very alluring to me. It's a big tower of rock in the middle of a vast expanse of flat ground.

I have been looking at them for years and wondering, as many people probably do, "what does it look like on top?"

As some of the buttes have a raised 'skirt' around their base it made me think of the defensive constructions used in medieval castles. The raised area was to strengthen the tower and made it more difficult for someone to assault the base.

So then the idea hit me that the Buttes were sort of like "Desert Towers" or Castles in the Desert. Well, if you're going to have a tower, you're going to have people living in them. And if you're going to have castles you're going to have to have someone to protect yourself from.

This got my mind working but nothing ever felt like it was the right thing.

Some of the Buttes that I found may not have the best tops so I thought that maybe they could be tunneled into like caves so that people wouldn't be subjected to the harsh winds at that altitudes.

A butte with tunnels and caves would suggest a community. It would certainly take some sizable effort and food coordination to feed enough workers to hollow out such places.

And then, if I could tie a few of those buttes together (if they were naturally clustered together) then you could have settlements of several buttes as a colony or community.

See where I'm going here? It's almost like a Seich in Dune.
If you could tie them together with rope-bridges then you'd have a community that only touched the ground when needed.

And that left the question: what are they keeping off the ground from?

In Dune they had to face huge sand worms that were the size of several buses strung end to end. That seemed a bit too much. It's not like you'd ever be surprised by one of them coming. So long as you could just get out of their way you wouldn't be hurt by them but they might tear up a harvester from time to time.

However, something smaller - like this creatures from Tremors, would be fast enough to be able to sneak up on someone from under the earth and snatch them like a real predator.

One way to escape these predators (which can tunnel through the soft desert soil but have a tough time with rocks like the butte), would be to stay off the ground. Enter... a glider.

Though the only form of a hang glider I could find looks like a flying triangle, I'm sure that in a fantasy sense, someone could find a more interesting construction. How would they make it?

Simple: you hunt the things that also fly.

So I threw a Pterodactyl into this desert ecology and, of course, have to throw in herds of something that it can hunt; probably antelope.

The flying lizards could be a real threat to any kind of surface creature as they could swoop down from neighboring heights and pluck them from the earth. Also, they could be a problem for the mesa communities because the buttes would be their favorite nesting sites.

Their wing leather would be highly prized by the glider-makers as it's proven to be light and strong enough to handle the wind-sheer.

Antelope meat would only be part of these people's diet so they would have to find some other means to grow crops - perhaps on the tops of the buttes.

Xeno-Species

This would be a huge herbivore that wanders the grass lands

Raptors would also be a perfect species for the grasslands.

This Paras is an herbivore and would be a food supply for the Raptors

This was an experiment.
Perhaps genetically engineered to adapt to the new planet?

This is the equivalent of a Deer on the new planet,
they're everywhere on the grass lands.

Scale Backs

First off: Doesn't this look like the coolest head for a young Dragon? When I found the image I immediately thought of this creature being a dragonette or a hatchling.

Anyway...

SCALE BACK
aka Spike-Lizard

The scale back lizard is native to a planet that is featured in the 'Space Colony' storyline that I've been working on. The Scale-backs are adorned with spiked protrusions from their body in an effort to protect them from predators. Shown here, the Scale-back is young as the horns haven't grown to full size on its head and around its' neck. As they mature, the color variation will intensify and the will have longer and more numerous spikes along their body.

Once the scale-back reaches one full year of life, the coloring shifts from the browns and tans to take on dark streaks along the head, shoulders and back. This allows the creature to blend in with the scrub foliage of the plains where it hunts. As a hatchling, the creature remains near the burrow and must be camouflaged to the dusty brown dirt. As a grown predator, the horns and generally spiked skin creates a defensive perimeter that would make it difficult for any creature to seize it within their jaws.

Notice their small, black eyes. The scale-back is low-light hunter, preferring the hours of dusk and dawn to catch its prey; using motion and other cues to find them in the dim light.

Scale-backs are pack hunters, mimicking the actions of wolves or dingos with an alpha female as the leader of their group. Females go into their cycle twice each year and can produce a clutch of up to eight eggs per rotation with hatching following only ten weeks from conception. Other females will often brood in the same territory and within the same general vicinity as the alpha female, maintaining a vigil over their burrows during the day and trading out with the males off and on to find food.
On the colony planet, the Scale-backs are about the size of an average German Shepherd; between two and a half and three feet at the shoulder. They have a similar life-span and are strict carnivores.