I've seen references to horses and several other earthly animals. Are they the same animals that can be found on Earth, and if not, how are they different?
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hm2k
Animals on Almea
The short answer: they're similar, but not the same species.
Almea is a different planet, with its own evolutionary tree-- very likely there are some deep incompatibilities in its biochemistry. It has some species that end up pretty similar to ours, close enough to make neat correspondences; but others are quite different. I haven't worked all this out in enough detail to explain fully, however.
The similarities are there ultimately for literary reasons; but my neat parascientific explanation is that the tricks of the universe that give me a window onto the planet are precisely geared to those similarities. It's like some agency could look at the billions of planets in the universe and say "Here, this one is a lot like yours, look at that."
Almea is a different planet, with its own evolutionary tree-- very likely there are some deep incompatibilities in its biochemistry. It has some species that end up pretty similar to ours, close enough to make neat correspondences; but others are quite different. I haven't worked all this out in enough detail to explain fully, however.
The similarities are there ultimately for literary reasons; but my neat parascientific explanation is that the tricks of the universe that give me a window onto the planet are precisely geared to those similarities. It's like some agency could look at the billions of planets in the universe and say "Here, this one is a lot like yours, look at that."