In this February 14, 2016 illustrative photo, a woman in an alien costume poses for a picture during the annual Alien Festival in Capilla del Monte, Cordoba, Argentina, the site of an alleged UFO sighting 30 years ago. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Science fiction has provided a galaxy’s worth of depictions of aliens, from cuddly animal-like creatures such as Baby Yoda to sagacious humanoids like Mr. Spock. What’s lacking, though, are representations of extraterrestrials based on actual scientific principles.
That’s where Arik Kershenbaum comes in. An Israeli-educated zoologist now at the University of Cambridge, Kershenbaum argues that we can and should consider aliens from a new perspective the evolutionary biology reflected in all creatures great and small on Earth. He’s sharing this perspective in a new book, “The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy: What Animals on Earth Reveal About Aliens and Ourselves.”
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Published April 6, 2021 at 10:36 AM PDT
It s possible that the first alien from space encountered by humans will be neither a bug-eyed green dude or a dead ringer for Mr. Spock. Our own planet provides the clues: creatures on the bottom of the sea do not move and communicate the way us land-based bipeds do.
The conditions on the home planet for any species would likewise dictate what they look and move like. Zoologist Arik Kershenbaum at the University of Cambridge explores this thinking in the book
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Writing for BBC Science Focus magazine in 2020, he said: The most important rule is that life arises by natural selection. Life adapts to its environment. Complex aliens will have evolved from simple aliens, to solve the problems on their planet. Problems like finding food, avoiding becoming someone else’s food, and reproducing.
He suggests that alien creatures will likely follow some familiar patterns - for example they will be bilaterally symmetric - that is their left side mirrors their right side.
There will be predators and prey, which will result in camouflage and armour similar to creatures on Earth. They will be social as well as individualistic and have a range of movements designed to avoid their dominant predator.
When the Aliens Arrive, What Will They Look Like? A Zoologist Has Answers
Arik Kershenbaum, a scientist at the University of Cambridge, asserts that the “universal laws of biology” that govern life on Earth also apply to aliens.Credit.Girton College
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By Kermit Pattison
THE ZOOLOGIST’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY
What Animals on Earth Reveal About Aliens and Ourselves
By Arik Kershenbaum
Is anybody else out there? For as long as humans have recognized Earth as but one planet in a vast, orb-speckled universe, we have pondered the mystery of extraterrestrial life.
After Nicolaus Copernicus introduced heliocentric theory to 16th century Europe, astronomers began to dream about “other worlds” and populate them with imaginary creatures. Pioneering astronomers such as Johannes Kepler (father of planetary motion) and William Herschel (discoverer of Uranus) believed in the existence of alien life. Peering through his telescope, Herschel thought he spied towns and fo