Quote:That is utter Earth system only centric speculation. You have no actual system to compare it to and are making broad generalizations with no proof. The only non Earth life form we may have access to is the bacteria like structures that were found in the freakish red rain that India got soaked with for a month or so. That has all the looks of bacteria and no DNA at all. It may be the first truly alien life humans have identified... or something else. Its currently in debate.
Humans have occupied different food chains, while spreading across the planet, and encountered many novel biotoxins, but we have not speciated for that reason alone, contrary to what you are suggesting. Carbohydrate/protein based alien life isn't going to chemically any stranger than what we've already encountered on this world.
Quote:Which is ignoring the entire point about alternate biochemical states of life. Kimono dragons have a bite that is so riddled with rot and bacteria that it will kill pretty much anything else in one bite. Several caterpillars have toxic, foul tasting blood from the plants they eat.
Nor would even major genetic changes necessarily prevent inter-breeding.
The presence of some natural chemicals will make a creatures bodily fluids corrosive/poisonous or the womb far to acidic for sperm to survive in. Foreign chemicals do bad things to organisms in small amounts. That and 'major' changes is rather vague... it also is true that minor genetic changes can sterilize an organism.
Quote:Lighter ,but around the same size that screams not much metal, most of Earths weight has to do with the iron/nickel/metal core. So organic materials and crystal composites (which may mean they have naturally energy radiating crystals like quartz as there main power source). With lower gravity and higher elevations thats probably why the others couldnt catch up fast enough they started off late and had to work harder to get the same distance up.
The third moon is the largest, both by mass and volume, and the most earthlike, being a bit over half the mass and having nearly nine-tenths the surface area, along with actually more dry land... if only marginally.
Quote:So the coral grows around the volcanoes and vents then breaks off and the volcanic currents drive it upwards at which point the lack of constant chemical food for these chemotropic coral-things makes them starve. Which means these things have something-like a pumice exoskeleton which floats then the coral provides a surface for ice to freeze on., Which helps them float. The low mineral content means the water is less saline than the oceans of Earth, so water freezes faster. But the volcanic activity means the bottom of the sea cant quite get to freezing so the surface itself only freezes on the dead coral. All surface life must be around these central cores ecosystems cling to around these floating island.
Either absolutely everything floats - no bones, or solid excreta - or the floating coral is limited to regions where water is welling up from the depths, carrying fresh nutrients with it. Since the ocean is heated from above, and there are no continents to force the water upwards, the best bet is probably at points above active volcanoes
Continents are large coral frozen together. The islands either broken off like icebergs or rather old occasionally they must collide which is going to mess with local legends.