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The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/CatFish21sm on 2024-11-15 16:43:39+00:00.

All sapient species in the galaxy are herbivores. Some worlds have what are called omnivores that feed on both plants and flesh. When a member of a fauna species dies it is consumed by microscopic organisms that specialize in the task of breaking it down and returning it to forms usable by the plant life. Omnivores where they exist aid in this process by speeding it up.

Omnivores are peaceful yet solitary beings, all of them have this in common. When they do eat the flesh of another being they will almost always eat the flesh of a dead being, the only exceptions, while extraordinarily rare, are those that will feed on dying beings in their death throws. A gruesome sight but natural none the less. None of these have ever made it to sapience, or if they had then their uncooperative nature has led them to never advance technologically beyond perhaps the simplest of tools.

The most terrifying thing in all of this is that many scientists and biologists theorize what they call a “predator” this is a species that feeds almost entirely on the flesh of other beings. Many thing such a being to be impossible, others argue the fact. The theory started with a student actually. They posed a question as to why omnivores exist in the first place. Below is attached a recording of the conversation that started this entire debate.

“Yes what is your question?”

“Well, Professor Yrchiv, if a herbivore consumes a plant for energy then naturally it will use much of that energy in order to sustain it’s biological processes. If that’s the case, then wouldn’t an omnivore receive less energy from consuming a herbivore than it would from consuming a plant, why then does there exist an evolutionary drive to consume other animals?”

“Ah an excellent question! Yes you are absolutely correct. However, there is one thing that you are over looking, the herbivore will not consume a single plant, but many. It’s body naturally takes the energy from these plants and compresses that into a store of energy more dense then what you would find in a single plant. Think of it this way. A machine used to harvest and prepare crops uses vast amounts of energy, more than could be gathered from many crops. Why then is such a machine beneficial? Because it harvests and prepares more energy in the form of plants than it consumes. On a similar note, why is it benificial to be a herbivore rather than a plant that can produce it’s own energy? Because being a herbivore allows one to move from one location to another and consume many plants. Simply put while herbivores do use the energy that they gather from plants, they still gather more plants than they actually need to survive meaning that consuming a herbivore will result in a net energy gain, to an omnivore a herbivore is the equivalent of a crop gathering machine, while it will use some of the energy for it’s self, it will still be more efficient to consume it’s flesh than it would be to consume individual plants. That is why omnivores exist.”

“Thank you I think I’m starting to understand, but then if it’s so beneficial to consume a herbivore then why aren’t there any creatures that have evolved to consume primarily herbivores, or entirely herbivores?”

“Well that’s simple…”

The professor paused for a moment before continuing.

“That’s a good question, I’m not sure honestly. It would be beneficial from an evolutionary stand point. The only reason that I can think of is that there would not be enough herbivores that would be needed to sustain a viable population of such a creature. If it did exist then it could consume herbivores to such an extent that it could drive them to extinction, then if it has trouble processing plants it’s own species would begin to die off. There are no known planters with enough biodiversity to support such a being. If one ever were discovered though, that would be an absolutely terrifying thing to witness. Could you imagine a creature specifically evolved to find and kill herbivores as quickly and efficiently as possible? Theoretically the herbivores would evolve defense mechanisms and the predators would evolve even further to overcome those defenses… Oh, this is all just theoretical and extremely unlikely I’m going to stop here, very good question though. Are there any other questions before I continue with my lecture?”

I will end the recording there. The professor later uploaded this clip to a forum for biological experts and asked if any had heard of such a concept. Many went wild immediately with crazy theories, spikes protruding from exposed areas to prevent depredation, toxins and chemical irritants used to detour predators, or even used by predators. Terrifying creatures that didn’t even exist in the most terrible of fictions until now.

This debate, over whether or not it was even possible raged on for some time. Some scientists caught up in it began sending probes looking for planets with enough biodiversity to support such a life form. Then they found it… The single most terrifying thing ever conceived. It was a world covered in more than 97% water, most of it shallow reefs. There was a creature that consumed others, it was so fast that the herbivores could not outrun it and it would snatch them up and eat them whole while they were peacefully grazing on the algae like microorganisms growing from the rocks.

This proof of concept was enough to send peoples imaginations into utter chaos. Xenophobia began to spread rapidly. However, people were calmed down after further examination led scientists to conclude that such a being could not enter space even if it ever did evolve sapience, it simply would not be cooperative enough.

The reason that I bring this up is because of a recent discovery that was made of a planet in the outer branches of the galaxy. Its a world covered in 71% water, and biologists are very ecstatic because it is only the fourth planet discovered with enough biodiversity to theoretically support a predatory species, in fact it is the most biodiversity planet so far. It’s covered in lush greenery unlike anything discovered so far, and more biomes than are normally present on several habitable worlds combined. The intense gravity is a bit perplexing but even so there are signs of not only intelligent life but a species in it’s first stages of space flight.

The earliest reports say that this species calls it’s home world “Earth” and it’s system “Sol” We plan to study them and the world for a shot while before we introduce ourselves. If an intelligent species truly evolved on a world with predators then what would it even be like? The likelihood of predation is rather low considering that a sapient species was actually able to evolve here, even so scientists are beyond ecstatic to being researching this strange new world.