Alien Animals: Difference between revisions

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You've just encountered the Alien Animal. These [[Aliens and Monsters|aliens]] don't have [[Little Green Men|green skin]] or [[Rubber Forehead Aliens|rubber foreheads]], they just look exactly like a specific type of animal. Maybe they make up the entire population of that animal on Earth or only part of them. Sometimes they're leaving Earth because they have knowledge about the impending [[The End of the World as We Know It|end of the world]] and sometimes they just like [[Aliens Steal Cable|watching television]]. Just [[MST3K Mantra|relax]] and go with it.

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~~== Comic Books ==~~* In one [[Fantastic Four]] story Reed Richards hypnotized some alien shapeshifters called the Skrulls into thinking they were ordinary Earth cows. Years later those alien cows got mixed in with ~~some~~ Earth ~~cow~~ and some were slaughtered for beef. The alien flesh though gave some people a virus that [[Cursed with Awesome|shapeshift their bodies into deadly weapons and detect hidden skrulls]] and it would also eventually kill them. The best part? [[Paranoia Fuel|There is no way of telling which cow is a Skrull until you eat it.]]

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== Comic Books ==

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* In one ''[[Fantastic Four]]'' story Reed Richards hypnotized some alien shapeshifters called the Skrulls into thinking they were ordinary Earth cows. Years later those alien cows got mixed in with Earth cows and some were slaughtered for beef. The alien flesh though gave some people a virus that let them [[Cursed with Awesome|shapeshift their bodies into deadly weapons and detect hidden skrulls]] and it would also eventually kill them. The best part? [[Paranoia Fuel|There is no way of telling which cow is a Skrull until you eat it.]]

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== Folk Lore ==

* There is an old British tale (there are different Scottish and English versions, probably some Irish too) about a man that comes across a funeral performed by cats on his way to home. The deceased is a cat in a crown holding a scepter (or the coffin is closed and the crown and scepter are painted over the coffin). When arriving home he tells the strange story to his wife, moment in which the house cat suddenly exclaims "The Old Tom/Tim/Pete/whatever is dead? Then I'm the King of the Cats!" and promptly runs out of the house.

* The chupacabra a hairless ~~dog like~~ animal that feeds on goats blood, it was said to be a pet left behind by aliens.

* The chupacabra. a hairless doglike animal that feeds on goats blood -- it was said to be a pet left behind by aliens.

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** According to novels, it would seem that dolphins are the only native sapient life on Earth.

* Also in ''[[Animorphs]]'', domesticated dogs are the product of Pemalites bonding their souls with wolves before they became extinct. So that counts. Sort of.

** Not an animal example, but one of the ~~sidestories~~ indicates that broccoli was brought to Earth by aliens.

** Not an animal example, but one of the side stories indicates that broccoli was brought to Earth by aliens.

* The cats in the book ''Star Ka'at'' and its sequels. Earth cats were colonists from a planet of sentient cats; when Earth got in danger, the advanced alien cats went to retrieve the Earth cats.

* A [[Spider Robinson]] story in the [[Callahan's Crosstime Saloon|Callahan]] series reveals that we find cockroaches distasteful because they are the degenerate descendants of an evil alien race of overlords.

* A [[Spider Robinson]] story in the ''[[Callahan's Crosstime Saloon|Callahan]]'' series reveals that we find cockroaches distasteful because they are the degenerate descendants of an evil alien race of overlords.

* In one ''[[Mandrake the Magician]]'' story, Narda has a dream ([[Or Was It a Dream?]]?) about finding out that cats and dogs are two warring alien species; the ones on Earth were spaceshipwrecked here, and have exploited the dumb native humans (specifically, cats the females, dogs the males) to survive in comfort without their technology.

* [[Cthulhu Mythos]]: The Cats of Earth's Dream Lands are notable for their intelligence, grace, ability to leap across the interstellar void and their ongoing war with the Cats of Saturn.

* ''Cat-A-Lyst'' by [[Alan Dean Foster]] is another one where cats are really advanced and (mostly-)benevolent aliens.

* There's a short story by [[Orson Scott Card]] in which dogs one day start speaking human languages and announcing that they're ~~aliens—and~~ nobody takes them seriously; even when they start demonstrating their advanced intelligence by solving complicated math problems and the like, everybody shrugs it off as just a cute trick.

* There's a short story by [[Orson Scott Card]] in which dogs one day start speaking human languages and announcing that they're aliens -- and nobody takes them seriously; even when they start demonstrating their advanced intelligence by solving complicated math problems and the like, everybody shrugs it off as just a cute trick.

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* In '80s ''Ziggy'' Sunday strips, the titular character's pet parrot turned out to be an advance scout for an alien invasion force. This idea since seems to have been dropped.

* A ''[[Garfield]]'' cartoon suggests that cats are invaders attempting to subjugate humanity, and that they are responsible for certain seemingly-mindless actions of dogs and lower-class humans.

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== ~~Real~~ ~~Life~~ ==

* Some have speculated the Venus Fly Trap is an example of this in real life, since its naturally found near Carolina Bays (odd circular geological features in North America which may be meteorite impact craters) and its relationship to other Earthly plants is not well understood.

** An [[Egregious]] case of [[You Fail Biology Forever]], because it is extremely unlikely that alien life would use not only DNA but the same four nucleotides; use the same 22 amino acids, evolve a cell structure identical to eukaryotes, gain mitochondria and chloroplasts identical to plant mitochondria and chloroplasts, evolve cellulose cell walls, evolve the exact same complicated alternation of generations that plants have, evolve roots, stems, leaves, with the same structure, tissues, and cell types, and the same kinds of vascular tissue that other earthly vascular plants use, and to top it off, FLOWERS (which are a highly derived trait very unlikely to crop up in THE EXACT SAME WAY twice). When biologists talk about the unity of (earth) life, they are not kidding.

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* In the game ''Sheep'' you have to lead the sheep, who have become stupid in the time they were on Earth, back to their home planet.

* ''[[Baldur's Gate]]'': Boo, the miniature [[Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever|giant space hamster]]. At least if you take [[Cloudcuckoolander|Minsc's]] word for it.

** A ''regular'' space hamster (i.e. a hamster living on a spaceship) resembling Boo makes an appearance in [[Mass Effect 2]].

** A ''regular'' space hamster (i.e. a hamster living on a spaceship) resembling Boo makes an appearance in ''[[Mass Effect 2]]''.

** Ordinary giant space hamsters does in fact exist in the setting (they were bred by a bunch of crazy gnomes to help power their spacefaring 'Jammers), as does miniaturisation magic, so a miniature giant space hamster could well exist. Unless Boo is an ''Awakened'' Miniature Giant Space Hamster, however, he should be just as intelligent as any hamster.

* Some of the NPCs from ''[[Super Mario Galaxy]]'' appear to be either bunnies, penguins, bees, and orcas. ''[[Super Mario Galaxy 2]]'' actually introduced NPCs such as hummingbirds and chimpanzees.

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== Western Animation ==

* There's an episode of ''[[Invader Zim]]'' with warlike alien raiders who look exactly like babies.

* In one ''[[Darkwing Duck (animation)|Darkwing Duck]]'' episode ("Twin Beaks"), the hero gets help from aliens that ~~looks~~ exactly like Earth ~~cows—though~~ this is not exactly this trope, since it is probably only these cows that are aliens, not all cows on Earth.

* In one ''[[Darkwing Duck (animation)|Darkwing Duck]]'' episode ("Twin Beaks"), the hero gets help from aliens that look exactly like Earth cows -- though this is not exactly this trope, since it is probably only these cows that are aliens, not all cows on Earth.

** Possibly a [[Shout-Out]] to a [[Fantastic Four]] story in which Reed hypnotized some shapeshifting aliens into [[Shapeshifter Mode Lock|mode locking]] themselves ~~into~~ cows.

** Possibly a [[Shout-Out]] to the ''[[Fantastic Four]]'' story mentioned above, in which Reed hypnotized some shapeshifting aliens into [[Shapeshifter Mode Lock|mode locking]] themselves as cows.

* In the animated series of ''[[Men in Black (animation)|Men in Black]]'' it is revealed that Frank the Pug looks very much like a dog anyway underneath his disguise suit.

* [[Kid vs. Kat|Kat]] comes from a planet where everyone not only looks like cats, but their language is cat-like, and they have many of the same behavorial patterns as Earth cats. Oh, and there's a race of alien hamsters, too. [[Paranoia Fuel|They're everywhere!]]