Our Best Estimates in the study of Kerbals

[mincespy]

I thought Kerbals photosynthesised...

I mean, they have no noses, but they are green!

[Ascensiam]

What about the majority of lizards on earth?

Green does not mean photosynthesis, chloroplasts means photosynthesis, the color is unimportant and is caused by chemistry. On Earth, this just happended to be green.

[Imandreas]

But remember, lizards need food. The Kerbals apparently do not need any, seeing that you do not need life support in the pod.

[mincespy]

I thought chloroplast was green...

[Kryten]

But remember, lizards need food. The Kerbals apparently do not need any, seeing that you do not need life support in the pod.

Does this mean that Kerbal water was brick-solid before 0.9? Or that Kerbin didn\'t rotate? I don\'t really think you can use the fact that stuff hasn\'t been added to the game yet as proof, especially considering life support has been stated to be planned many times.

[Anachronda]

Does this mean that Kerbal water was brick-solid before 0.9? Or that Kerbin didn\'t rotate? I don\'t really think you can use the fact that stuff hasn\'t been added to the game yet as proof, especially considering life support has been stated to be planned many times.

http://www.reoiv.com/random.asp?img=dadbandwandcolour.jpg&page=2

[Xeo]

Kerbals can\'t be plants in my mind, since they\'ve eyes, feet, hands, mouth, brains (?), etc. On the other hand maybe they live in symbiosis with some micro-organisms capable of photosynthesis, hence their green skin. Or they just have green melanine ^^

The 50cm estimation of their height seems right to me. Since everything in the Kerbal universe is smaller than in ours but otherwise has the same characteristics, I think that the average kerbal weight must be close to the average human one.

For the same reason, I\'d say that they reproduce just like any mammal (and female kerbals exist : http://www.kerbalcomics.com/2012/03/11/episode-four-new-meat/ )

Then it seems that they are quite twice tall as wide, so I think their average width is about 25cm.

Finally for me they are mammals since they have hair, no scales, no feathers.

And we could name them Kerbo sapiens I think.

Referring to the Tokonian Langage (http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=140.855, credits to NovaSilisko), Bal wan seems more appropriate for those narcissistic little thing ^^

[VincentMcConnell]

Guys, they have chlorophill (Is that how to spell it?) in their cells... Problem solved.

[Xeo]

Guys, they have chlorophyll in their cells... Problem solved.

Technically, a mammal cannot have chlorophyll in its cells, only plants have chloroplasts. This is why I made the hypothesis of a symbiosis with some micro-organisms (which can have chlorophyll and live in the Kerbals\' cells, same result in the end). Or they simply has a green pigment in their cells.

[semininja]

As far as I know, there\'s nothing that /prevents/ mammals from having chlorophyll, it\'s just that none of them do. Single-cell animals often have chlorophyll; who\'s to say that in the Kerbal universe, the kerbals can\'t?

[Xeo]

In fact the problem is not that they can\'t, you\'re right. But if an organism has chlorophyll, that makes it an autotrophic organism. Or Kerbals have a mouth, and logically enough a digestive system behind it. That means they are heterotrophic organisms.

Edit : Plus it is assumed that the kerbal universe is very similar to our, so I think we can say that if there is not a single animal whith chloroplasts on Earth, it\'s the same on Kerbin.

[semininja]

They can be both auto- and heterotrophic.

Also, physiological aspects of life in the Kerbal universe have never been described, so we can apply to them any traits we find entertaining.

[Xeo]

The only auto- and heterotrophic organisms I know are 'carnivore plants' (dunno how it is called in english), and they are still more auto- than heterotrophic, with roots etc ...

But you are right it\'s not impossible that they are bot. But I do not really see the point for an organism of being autotrophic when it does not have roots and live in an atmospheric environment (which means it is not really likely to produce a lot of matter that way).

In my opinion, if Kebals are both auto- and heterotrophic, they still are far more hetero- than auto- , so it doesn\'t change a lot of things if they\'re green because of chlorophyll or something else.

I\'d be much more interested by your opinion concerning the other suppositions I made

[VincentMcConnell]

Guys, Kerbals are just little images in the bottom right hand corner that are extremely small and refresh every few seconds.

They don\'t really have any biological background. You\'re taking this too seriously...

[Anachronda]

Or Kerbals have a mouth, and logically enough a digestive system behind it. That means they are heterotrophic organisms.

Mouth? No, that\'s where the stem attaches while they\'re still growing on the tree. When they\'re ripe, the area around the stem breaks off, leaving a dimple. The red you can see in the dimple when their 'mouths' are open are the succulent inner fruit. To protect from infection, the peel grows a transparent scab over the region that had held the stem: the 'visor' for the 'spacesuit'.

[Xeo]

Guys, Kerbals are just little images in the bottom right hand corner that are extremely small and refresh every few seconds.

They don\'t really have any biological background. You\'re taking this too seriously...

This is because they don\'t have a background yet that it\'s funny to imagine one

[Radion]

I\'m putting up the poll to decide if the average height of a kerbal is 45-50 Centimeters. Afterward, we can solve for their weight, width, etc.

Also, the binomial name is the scientific name, per say. For instance, the binomial name of a human is

Homo sapiens

[ping111]

I\'m putting up the poll to decide if the average height of a kerbal is 45-50 Centimeters. Afterward, we can solve for their weight, width, etc.

Also, the binomial name is the scientific name, per say. For instance, the binomial name of a human is

Homo sapiens

Ah thanks. I suggest kerbalus kermanus.

[Anachronda]

Ah thanks. I suggest kerbalus kermanus.

I suspect that each variety has its own name. Kerbalus jebediahus. Kerbalus billus.

[VincentMcConnell]

No... They\'re the same species with just different names... You don\'t see humans with separate binomial nomenclature...

[GoodGuy]

May I suggest that they do not have a digestive system? I think their mouths are part of their reproductive system. The males should carry spores inside and the females carries I-dont-know-what (maybe ovaries, since kerbals dont need the intestines, stomachs, and etc).

[silent_prtoagonist]

I think worrying about the finer details of average human height is beside the point. Suffice it to say, 2m is a very tall human. Since the Apollo CM was about 4m in diameter, and the Kerbal CM is 1m in diameter, it\'s reasonable to assume that 0.5m would be a very tall Kerbal (maybe the space cuits are designed such that, with those big helmets, a suited Kerbal always stands 0.5m tall.)

[Anachronda]

No... They\'re the same species with just different names... You don\'t see humans with separate binomial nomenclature...

But you also don\'t see dead astronauts climbing into new capsules. I\'m telling you, Jebediah Kerman is a *type* of kerman, not the name of an individual. Do you name your apples before you eat them? Or do you just think 'Oh, joy! Another Granny Smith!'?

[Radion]

But you also don\'t see dead astronauts climbing into new capsules. I\'m telling you, Jebediah Kerman is a *type* of kerman, not the name of an individual. Do you name your apples before you eat them? Or do you just think 'Oh, joy! Another Granny Smith!'?

Binomial names are for entire species, in the scientific sense, not for personality types.

[Kryten]

I\'d personally prefer something actually latin or greek for a binomial name, rather than some pseudo-latin gibberish. How about Debitos Viatorem (doomed traveller)?