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I'm trying to make a world where bones or any other hard supporting tissue wouldn't develop only creatures without bones can exist. I was thinking maybe something to do with gravity or something to do with sound/shock waves that would shatter bone.

I'm looking for why bones or exoskeletons never evolved on the planet I'm making.

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    $\begingroup$ Is it important that existing creatures with bones can't survive on the planet, or do you just want a world where bones/exoskeletons never evolved? $\endgroup$
    – divibisan
    Commented Feb 11 at 19:25
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    $\begingroup$ Perhaps worth noting that the vast majority of animals on earth do not have bones to begin with. Unclear if you're also ruling out other types of rigid support like cartilage or exoskeletons. $\endgroup$
    – Nuclear Hoagie
    Commented Feb 11 at 19:29
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    $\begingroup$ Please clarify your specific problem or provide additional details to highlight exactly what you need. As it's currently written, it's hard to tell exactly what you're asking. $\endgroup$
    – Community Bot
    Commented Feb 11 at 19:38
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    $\begingroup$ the first thing that jumps out at me is that anything ambient and mechanical (like the "sound/shock waves" in the question) that can shatter all "hard supporting tissue" will also shatter stone. So if you take that route, your world won't ever have had exposed stone, only loose piles of gravel that probably don't form continents. $\endgroup$
    – Samuel Owen
    Commented Feb 11 at 21:19
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    $\begingroup$ Perhaps this is a water world? In the sea, bones are not a hard requirement and many successful groups, including predators, don't have any bones. Teeth are nice though. $\endgroup$
    – alamar
    Commented Feb 11 at 21:50

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I considered a similar world and thought that bones might not develop because an alternative means of developing a skeleton presented itself, specifically a symbiotic relationship with a woody plant.

The animal and plant (or perhaps plants since each bone would likely be it's own living organism) grow together with the animal feeding the plant through it's circulatory system, with the blood consisting of a chemistry that is mutually compatible with the animal species and the plant species. Both plant and animals feed off sugars, it's just that plants can produce their own sugars from sunlight to store up for when the sun isn't shining.

The animal benefits from the plant by having a woody skeleton that grants greater mobility. The plant benefits from the animal spreading seeds further than could be done by seeds blown in the wind or some such. The death of the animal would be something of a "prize" as the rotting flesh would be a large store of energy and nutrients for a large and productive plant to grow from.

Bone is stronger than wood but that could work against the animal if your world has vibrations or something that can shatter brittle bone while woody material could flex out of being more pliable. Wood doesn't heal like bone though so that can be a consideration. If these creatures are intelligent then perhaps they work out surgical means of repair, or some artificial replacements made of metals that won't poison them. Silver and gold are considered non-toxic in the real world but silver can give a kind of "tattoo" from collecting in the skin and giving a blue to gray appearance to the skin. Copper/brass and steel/iron would likely be poisonous unless there's a differing animal biology going on.

Maybe a skeleton or skeletal repairs could be fashioned from stone but that could be just as brittle as bone, or have some other property working against it.

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  • $\begingroup$ I like where you're going here. Questions: how would a new animal acquire a planty skeleton? Once an animal dies and the plant feasts on its former host, what happens then? Does the plant become stationary? Or is an unoccupied plant a "prize" for a younger and growing animal who will take it over the way a hermit crab takes up a new shell? How do the plant and the animal "connect"? $\endgroup$
    – elemtilas
    Commented Feb 12 at 0:24
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    $\begingroup$ I envision that once the animal host dies the plant becomes stationary, grows roots, then matures to produce fruit for the animal to eat and the seeds somehow enter their system to be incorporated in their young. The seeds could be breathed in by the parent animal and find it's way to a fetus by the blood stream or some structure that connects the airway to the womb. Maybe the womb and lungs are the same organ? Birth by exhalation? That can create some interesting anatomy, and interesting breeding if this animal isn't a single sex species. There's a lot of ways that could work out. $\endgroup$
    – MacGuffin
    Commented Feb 12 at 0:51

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