The Biology of James Cameron’s Avatar

In this video I discuss the biology and zoology of the organisms of the fictional world of Pandora from James Cameron’s 2009 film, Avatar. I examine and apply many evolutionary biology terms and facts to help me create a speculative tree of life on Pandora as a thought experiment.

Hope you enjoy!

My apologies if I neglected to credit you for your artwork or images. Please message me to add credit to you to the description.

[TREYtheExplainer]

Hey guys! Hope you enjoyed the video!

Sorry for the quiet audio, background static, and inconsistent sound levels... new mic and new recording studio. Sometimes it’s hard to tell the problems while editing. Will fix next time.

Also Avatar came out in 2009, not 2012... man am I old.

[beestripes]

The film was actually released in 2009, which makes the effects of the film all the more impressive to me.

[reharp]

Can’t even imagine what lives in the cave systems and oceans of the planet

[bvemsd]

Being a moon, could Pandora have spent significant amounts of time in darkness (in the shadow of the main planet), resulting in the bioluminescence present in the creatures?

[spartangaming]

10:05 preditors usually look forward at their prey so their eyes are usually mounted towards the front of the skull. Herbivores need to have a wider range of vision so they can see predators coming, so their eyes are usually set towards the side of the head so that they can see more coming from the sides. Makes sense that the preditors are losing the eyes on the sides of their heads, its wasted energy.

[BotYep]

I absolutely agree that Pandora's biology is the most interesting part of the movie!! Avatar is one of my favorite films, just for this reason!!

[duckietheduck]

The flora and fauna on Pandora developed bioluminescence because Pandora enters extended periods of complete darkness during it's orbit around Polyphemus.

[carniiliar]

I feel that the Na'vi, when they became hunters and gatherers, their limbs fused to strengthen as a single arm..and since they no longer rely on climbing such as the Lemerus..instead began to use running, putting more energy into only 2 single arms and leg muscles, my opinion.

[Nejvyn]

Trey: talks about limb fusion and limb loss
Me: "I'm still salty that human evolution threw out the tail :| "

[michaelbyrne]

TREY, my man. If you like speculative/alien biology you have got to check out Subnautica, its got a ton of that stuff.

[REHANKHAN-enzn]

Imagine the kinds of fossils found on Pandora.

[chrysalismacosmist]

"The sexy blue cat people"
Honestly, they do look pretty damn lit tho

[DirtMerchant]

I was hoping he would’ve mentioned the weird hair tentacle things most of the animals have that allow the Na’vi to connect to them. Kinda seems like an evolutionary symbiosis that would super interesting to discuss

[maxfischer]

Pandora is such a beautiful world, it almost makes me sad it's fictional

[charlhal]

Did you notice that the Na'vi had four fingers instead of five? The main protagonist has five becuase to make the body they fused human DNA with that of the native.

[Stan]

The designer did initially try to make the Navi with fused limbs, but scrapped the idea after all they said in film test footage was "General Kenobi"

[animeobsessee]

THIS SHOULD BE REVISITED!!! I’m so excited to see if you’d look at analyzing the newest movie to add onto these theories

[urahara]

The main thing that keeps me from accepting the navi as invading aliens is they've adapted a direct brain connector that joins with the antenna of the rest of the creatures.

[thedoomofred]

I support the bone fusion hypothesis.
One can see the lemur creature has been fused just below the elbow.
Second the Na’vi have for fingers, two from each limb fused.

[pineforest]

“The common ancestor on Pandora looked a bit like this”; *ad with human singing loudly.*