Welcome back to Curious Archive. This video is  the second part of a two-part series exploring the  

incredible speculative biology project of Snaiad:  a planet teeming with incredible alien life.  

Snaiad was created by C.M. Kosemen — an  expectational artist and the creator of  

all tomorrows. As usual, I have links below  where you can follow and support his work.  

When we left off, we’d visited many of the basic  lifeforms on Snaiad. Now, it’s time to study  

aliens of greater sizes and stranger biology — in  a journey that will reveal secrets from Snaiad’s  

mysterious past, and perhaps its unexpected future  with humans….and even some never-before-seen  

images from Kosemen’s upcoming book. So let’s  get started. On the curious island of Mapag,  

something on the beaches is walking upright  on two legs. This is an Armless Blumbomen,  

a creature whose facial pouch — in which it is  currently carrying its baby — is so pronounced, it  

almost looks humanoid. Are the Armless Blumbomen  Snaiad’s approximation of intelligent life?  

Not quite. These bipedal oddities are actually  closer to earth penguins than they are to us:  

as they’re cumbersome on land but well-adapted for  the water. But the intelligence of these creatures  

isn’t distinct from other creatures on Snaiad.  Indeed, the author imagines no species currently  

living on the planet’s surface possess advanced  intellect… But looking into the archeological  

record of Snaiad, there’s evidence that  intelligence may have existed in the distant past.  

According to Kosemen, 30-million-year-old stone  axe-heads have been discovered, but there are no  

clues as to their origins. Metallic artifacts of  an apparently artificial nature called the ‘Dosadi  

Screws’ have been dated to even early. As Snaiad  is almost twice as old as Earth, it seems that  

perhaps civilization has risen multiple times only  to be obliterated and erased by mass extinction.  

But all this is uncertain… The creatures that  currently wander across Snaiad, however, are truly  

fascinating regardless of their intelligence. On  numerous offshore islands, the beaches are buzzing  

with the sounds of Grey Blumbomen — a related  type of Blumbomeniform. Like their larger cousins,  

these somewhat awkward looking creatures are also  most graceful under the waves — able to chase down  

numerous marine organisms almost like tiny seals.  Hilariously, Kosemen mentions the Grey Blumbomen  

will one day become a major symbol in the popular  culture of human settlers, and will even form  

the basis for cartoon characters and children’s  toys. That’s right: humans will eventually create  

settlements on Snaiad. Kosemen states that in  the future of this narrative, human history will  

become intertwined with that of Snaiad’s as we  create the first settlements on this alien world.  

The idea of humans trying to coexist with  these awe-inspiring yet often terrifying  

creatures is certainly an interesting one. And one  important future animal to human settlers is the  

Orca Runners: mighty herbivores with distinctive  coloring and a peaceful demeanor. Thanks to their  

fast-running speeds and friendly temperament,  these unusual creatures will, surprisingly,  

become critical domesticated animals similar  to horses in the lives of the first settlers.  

This is a telltale sign that humans and the  planet’s fantastical native life will have a  

wide range of surprising interactions. The windy  crags of the Pontic mountains conceal one of  

Snaiad’s most spectacular animals. The aptly named  ‘Spinies’ possess foreclaws, first-head beaks,  

and dorsal spines all elongated into javelin-like  spikes. Despite appearances, however,  

the Spinies are herbivorous and have evolved  these spikes for defense… so they’re actually  

closer to a hedgehog than they are to some apex  super-predator. Kosemen imagines human colonists  

rarely glimpse spinies due to their shyness,  instead only hearing the haunting sounds they  

produce by rattling their spikes against  each other… Across the mainland continent,  

a hulking, armored lifeform is on the move. This  is the Chasmotaurus — a type of Allotauriform:  

an extremely successful lineage of large Snaiadi  herbivores. Unlike its more amiable cousins,  

however, Chasmotaurus prefers to be left alone:  and will charge down and trample anything  

that invades its territory much like an Earth  rhinoceros. And since they grow up to 22 feet,  

or 7 meters long, their poor attitude will make  them difficult for colonists to study… In the  

misty forests of midland, a much smaller organism  wanders among the trees. The Austrotaurus is an  

Allotauriform which has shrunk considerably due to  its forest habitat, and rarely exceeds six feet,  

or two meters in length. Far from defenseless, the  Austrotaurus has evolved armadillo-like bands of  

segmented body armor, which keeps the tiny titans  safe from predators like the Fututoriformes.  

In all manner of regions across Snaiad, you  might find the fututoriformes on the prowl.  

This particular species is an Arbophobos  — a species whose name alludes to its tree  

climbing abilities, but is indeed able to conquer  most any environment. Like most fututoriformes,  

Arbophobus is an agile, adaptive hunter similar  in many respects to the large cat species of our  

own planet. Indeed, the deadliness of this  predator would end up being its undoing,  

as these fearless hunters would attack countless  settlers in the early days of human exploration.  

As a result, the Arbophobus would  be purposely hunted to extinction…  

But there’s another hunter early settlers  will fear even more than the Arbophobus.  

A creature they’ll know through its shrill screams  on dark nights, and the glints of huge eyes.  

That is, until cameras eventually reveal these  nocturnal organisms are barely over three feet, or  

one meter long. Called infernocyons, these timid  hunters don’t deserve their frightening name,  

as they only use their scissor-like jaws  to feed on small animals, and simply have  

unusually loud calls and large eyes for their  body-size. In the nearby peaks of Oroland,  

a relative of the infernocyons lives in seclusion.  These are the Selenocyon, the largest species of  

their order, and critically endangered. Kosemen  notes they often hunt near forest streams at dusk,  

with the starry sky reflecting off their  enormous, haunting eyes. It will be a truly  

sad loss if these fascinating animals fade  into extinction sometime in Snaiad’s future.  

One species with a far more certain future can be  found in abundance north of the Divider mountains.  

This is a Pescidon, a bipedal omnivore  with a curious penchant for cooperation.  

One of the most social animals on Snaiad,  Pescidons are known to coordinate hunts  

in large family groups, with similar dynamics to  wolf packs on Earth. Their affinity towards social  

bonding will make them a favorite domesticated  animal among future human settlers — with their  

path mirroring that of humans and dogs… if dogs  were ten feet, or three meters long that is.  

Upon the elevated plateaus of the south-east,  another animal that will have a key role in  

humanity’s future is waiting. These bizarre,  spherical creatures — whose first-head faces have  

become mashed directed into their bodies — are  actually cousins of the Pescidons we just visited.  

And indeed, these hulking, heavy beasts  are of a similar size… which will make  

them ideal draft animals filling a role similar  to earth cows in the lives of early settlers.  

Speaking of early settlers, during the first  aerial surveys of Snaiad, vast paths across  

the landscape will be glimpsed, and at first  assumed to be the creation of intelligent species.  

In reality, however, these lines are the  trails of the unintelligent Tractorsnakes,  

massive herbivores of the ‘lophophid’  classification who vacuum the land for  

vegetation like living combine harvesters. At  an astonishing 22 feet, or 7 meters long, these  

giants might not be great thinkers, but they’re  truly impressive shapers of their environment.  

At the edge of the Ankyranian Desert, a more  modest sized Lophophid slithers across the  

sands. This is a Phytophyton — a lifeform that  at first glance shows a high degree of convergent  

evolution with snakes here on earth. Unlike all  types of snakes we’re familiar with, however,  

the Phytophyton isn’t a hunter, but instead  a generalist herbivore like their larger  

Tractorsnake cousin. A fascinating lifeform. If  you’re looking for a carnivorous snake analogue,  

the sprogland along the eastern plains contains  the closest thing. Say hello to a Chasmostomos:  

a rather odd-looking fellow that is a  representative of the poorly-understood  

Sprogophidian classficiation. While a predator,  at only 7 inches, or 20 centimeters long,  

they’re not the most frighting thing on Snaiad.  Yet they do have one truly fascinating adaptation:  

the ability to shed their fatty tails when  attacked — in a strategy not dissimilar  

to some types of geckos. Unlike geckos  however, Chasmostomos tails don’t grow back.  

We’ve now seen species from all over Snaiad,  and have learned about the future role they’ll  

play in the lives of human settlers. But there’s  still one great frontier that we’ve yet to chart:  

the massive oceans. Taking the common Jetshark  as our baseline for underwater life, we’ll see  

that life in the oceans is vastly different from  on land. The group the Jetshark belongs to, the  

jetocetes, take the two-headed Snaiadi bodyplan in  a highly unexpected direction. Their first heads  

are connected to their digestive tract: and their  second heads have become an almost jet-like pump  

connected to an entirely different system.  That’s right: much of undersea Snaiadi life  

is jet-powered, kind of like some species of  squids on earth, just taken to a new extreme.  

The jetshark has found, unsurprisingly, a niche  similar to a shark in the underwater foodchain.  

Far to the north, in the frigid polar waters, you  can find a very different kind of undersea giant.  

Meet the Hadrocetoides: a 22 foot, or 7-meter-long  specimen that is similarly jet-powered. Protected  

from the cold with layers of thick blubber, they  travel in large family pods much like the mighty  

orcas that swim through our own oceans. Unlike  the predacious orcas, however, the Hadrocetoides  

are peaceful filter feeders… And elsewhere in  the ocean, the fantastic conclusion to our tour  

of life on Snaiad is waiting. The Xenoposeidon  Thalassarcos is a truly awe-inspiring beast,  

and the largest animal on the planet at a  staggering 130 feet or, 40 meters in length.  

Their cavernous beaks have an ingenious system of  inlets and holes that allow them to filter huge  

amounts of plankton from the water — giving them  the food they need to reach such incredible sizes.  

Of course, these creatures are most similar to  Earth whales in their size and feeding behavior.  

But what relationship will future humans have with  this animal? That’s a detail the author has yet to  

reveal… And many more details regarding Snaiad  might be revealed later, as Kosemen is working  

on a meticulous remake of the project: which thus  far has yielded some incredible re-imaginings of  

familiar Snaiadi organisms. He gave me a few  never-before-seen images from the upcoming  

book to share which I’m showing with you now,  and in my opinion, these new designs are even  

better than the old ones. If you’re a fan of this  project and like me want to see a book someday,  

please follow and support Kosemen in the  links in the description below! And as always,  

thanks for watching. If you enjoyed this entry,  please lend your support and like, subscribe,  

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