Creature Cladogram
Every Fauna species you will ever encounter in No Man's Sky is likely to be unique. Even without the mixture of varying behavioural attributes, the range of variation in recombined colours, sizes, textures and accessories alone would be overwhelming. But there is a way to classify them all based on the underlying models which form them. Whilst the list is extensive, it is limited, and for several of the classes, it is fairly easy to see examples of them all. For others, it might take a long time to track down the last elusive examples, but it should eventually be possible for the most dedicated. Of course an extinction event could occur which resets everything (such as the Origins game update), so the race is on!
The Code
Like the genetic code on earth which predetermines many of the characteristics of its animals, No Man's Sky has a game code which predetermines many of the characteristics of its creatures. These can be read with special programmes: DNA sequencers for animals and MBIN decompilers for the game.
On top of this, the environment influences the expression of the genetic code on earth. Similarly, in No Man's Sky, a unique procedural seed sets the conditions for the expression of the game code (literally the environment, when certain biome types are tied to a restricted selection of creatures).
Evolution
Earth
On earth, the genetic code varies as it is transmitted down generations. Eventually, the genetic code for two animals is so different that they can no longer produce viable offspring (or spawn). Evolution may occur continuously or in sudden jumps (discontinuously).
In multi-celled animals, sexual reproduction is the main way variations are transmitted. Among single celled creatures like bacteria, genetic code is often transferred horizontally between different species using plasmids.
While the sexes may look very different, they generally contain almost the same range of genetic code (except perhaps for sex chromosomes like the male Y chromosome in humans). On earth a species is a monad (i.e. the two are halves of one).
No Man's Sky
Apart from small patches, the game code doesn't vary between major updates, the last being Origins (3.0). With the same game seed number therefore, the same species will always spawn where they did before, even if a player doesn't return for longer than a creature's notional lifespan. Evolution is therefore discontinuous, and in each major update, existing creatures have been made extinct, although glitches do occasionally occur.
Game code does not spontaneously recombine, but variation is occasionally introduced in patches and more generally in updates, by two main processes: creation, and horizontal code transfer (which means that some code is reused by programmers in constructing different creatures).
In ground classes of creature, two genders will be present for any given species. They will share most elements of the same model and behaviour (but not always all), but will often differ significantly in accessories. However, genders are not like sexes in that their codes can be different and are never recombined. In the game a ground-based species is a dyad (i.e. each one is half of two), while aquatic and flying classes are monads.
Types
Phenotypes
On earth, phenotypes are pieces of real anatomy (not behaviour) that differ between living things.
They can differ between sexes and even today can cause different sexes to be labelled as different species (DNA tests sometimes reveal weird surprises) or mean some species have only ever had one sex recorded. Amongst some groups, particularly fishes, individuals can change sex without changing their genetic code, yet with astonishing phenotype changes.
Morphs
In a game context, model variants are often termed morphs which are visually rendered (to form unreal anatomy).
Every class of creature in No Man's Sky has a model built from a limited set of morph types (e.g. three heads, four tails, three bodies) and ocasionally subtypes which only apply to one type (e.g. an extra two types of head for one of the body types).
Colours, sizes, textures and accessories (e.g. horns or feathers) are added in more random ways.
In No Man's Sky, genders may occasionally be dimorphic (e.g. each gender has a different type of tail morph) as well as having different accessories.
Classical Classification
Earth
Classical animal classification relies firstly on a binomial system: A set of very similar animals which can't produce viable spawn are given a joint genus name followed by a species name which is unique within that genus. In naming terms, the genus and species together should hopefully also be a globally unique combination.
Different sexes share the same name because they are a monad.
Each species is then shoe-horned in a set of increasingly general ranks: family, order, class, phylum, kingdom.
No Man's Sky
In early game versions, each species was binomial but not on the same terms as on earth. The first part was procedurally generated (the 'species'), the second part suggested wider relations (somewhat like a 'family'), and the game code built models using the term 'genus'.
The first update abandoned the use of a full binomial and abbreviated the first term to a single letter. This convention was retained in Origins. It is quite likely that the game Universe will contain different species of creatures with the same name, as the available letter combinations are now far fewer. In origins, the game code was also altered to remove references to genus, replacing it with ID tags which we call classes.
Game naming convention is made more unreliable because different genders can share the same name despite being dyads - hence the need for a morphic cladistic approach.
Cladistics
Earth
Every living species has ancestors with whom it could not spawn (even if they were not extinct), and often with parallel species descended from the same ancestors with whom it can not spawn. This group is called a clade.
Subdivisions like this extend back in evolutionary time and are no respecters of classical ranks: there may be five divisions or clades between one ancestor and a modern species, yet ten between the same ancestor and another modern species. There is no globally accepted way to describe divisions to clades before the final one.
Divisions may be based on phenotypes or more recently, on DNA sequences. Behavioural differences can help, but sometimes merely represent opportunistic ecological niche filling, which can change as ecological circumstances change.
No Man's Sky
Every species has a set of underlying morph models specific to its class. Different genders may sometimes have different morphs, but usually not enough to make them unrecognisable (e.g. if a major type differs such as a tail, the ground colouring may be identical, and the other types are the same).
If we allow genders to cross into related clades, we can draw up unique morphic (i.e. NOT simply species-specific) clades based on the underlying game code.
Allowing for horizontal code transfer in game updates, we need not regard the combination of major morphs as a simple mix and match exercise. We can allow that a clade which shares identical tail type game codes with another is a different clade if it has a different body type, or head type, etc. Clearly, we can not be sure of the order in which coding transfers were made during the programming process. But we can follow the order in which they appear in the game code. This means our cladogram convention could imply that one class appears to have divided on the basis of heads first and tails second, whilst another class did exactly the opposite. Sibling clades however are sorted alphabetically because it doesn't alter their naming.
We do not use behaviours to help define clades because they either don't add morphs (e.g. flocking in birds or aquatic rodents), have exclusive morphs and so add nothing to identification, or are allocated somewhat randomly (giving no predictive power).
Some biomes will tend to have a close association with some creature classes which aids prediction of where to search for them (e.g. Weird class in Exotic biomes), but specific crown clades remain unpredictable. Ground, water, or air-dwelling are therefore not part of the cladistic definitions, whilst aiding greatly with prediction (e.g. birds = air, fish = water).
Crown Clades
Earth
On earth, if a genetically incompatible ancestor is the most recent incompatible ancestor of a species and its sibling species, this final grouping is called a crown clade. It is generally easy to use a classical binomial form to name a species and its crown clade (as genus). Where the results of attempted interbreeding are unavailable (i.e. the general case) assumptions tend to made about species divisions. 'Lumpers' tend to favour the concept of subspecies (e.g. Larus argentatus argentatus and Larus argentatus smithsonianus) while 'Splitters' favour adding species (e.g. Larus argentatus and Larus smithsonianus).
No Man's Sky
In No Man's Sky Origins update, crown clades (or Crowns) represent the end point for major morph divisions in a given class. They begin with the class, subdividing into new clades based on ID tag levels in the game code, until the options are exhausted. Crown names are unique and amalgamate abbreviations of each division (e.g. BeBsRHhΩ is the Crown name for the RHino headed Big shelled Beetle where Ω stands for Crown clade). Lumping in No Man's Sky will tend to reduce clade division options; splitting will do the opposite. NB: Crowns are morph-specific, not species-specific, since some species have genders in two different Crowns. Without any interbreeding possibilities in No Man's Sky, we have devised clade division rules which for now are moderately conservative. Currently Crowns represent all non-accessory subdivisions in the game code including variants, except for the following exceptions:
- Butterfly legs are virtually superfluous and ignored, or their absence would double their cladogram size
- Fish Side (Pectoral) and Rear Side (Pelvic) fins are treated as accessories the way they are in Sharks, although Top (Dorsal) fins in Fish are retained as types whilst in Sharks they remain accessories; this prevents Fish completely unbalancing the combined cladograms
Morphic Cladogram Example
On a PC the divisions are collapsible: expand the appropriate path until you reach its Crown.
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Identification
In No Man's Sky, each species of animal belongs to one or two Crowns (depending on gender attributes). They can be identified by:
- Choosing the correct class
- Opening the correct cladogram page (e.g. Beetle cladogram)
- Selecting the hyperlink for any first division option (e.g. Big shelled) which will link to the relevant section of the correct class page (e.g. Beetle Body Types)
- Choosing the correct clade (e.g. the Big shelled Beetle clade - BeBs)
- Repeating the last two steps for the next division (e.g. Beetle Head Types and the RHino headed Big shelled Beetle clade - BeBsRHh)
- Repeating until there are no more divisions (e.g. BeBsRHhΩ)
- Check to see if there is a second gender that differs
Specimens
Collections
Systematically curated catalogues exist for a number of classes, contributions to which are encouraged.
Types
On earth, the first published species description takes naming rights, and the first deposited specimen becomes the official reference specimen, called the Type specimen.
On these pages, Crown names pre-exist, but the first uploaded example may be recorded as the Type specimen:
- Create a creature page (start a new page with your species name e.g. type "https://nms.miraheze.org/wiki/A._Test" in the address line and hit <Enter>)
- Complete the Creature Discovery Template which will autoload when selected. Save the page twice and if completed correctly, your creature will automatically be deposited in the Universal Fauna Records.
- If yours is the first record for this Crown, it is the Type specimen. Add the page link to the relevant cladogram.
- Add the gender in brackets only if you know it is a dyadic species, but don't assume it is: Many bi-gendered species will actually have monadic morphs, while aquatic and flying classes are only monadic. Redundant tags will only clutter already busy cladograms.
- Do NOT add further examples to the cladogram pages.
Collecting (Twitching)
If you wish to keep your own Crown list (all Twitchers welcome), copy the source of the relevant cladogram to a text editor (e.g. Notepad++). If you wish, you can edit it using our Twitchers Sandbox page which enables collapsing and expanding for very large charts.
NB: Wikipedia's Template:Clade can be used in your own Wikipedia Sandbox. It has extensive extra parameters available including sublabels which we can't employ, but its collapsibility element requires multiple minor edits (each section needs individual numbering). Please be wary of trying to improve the NMS Discoveries Template:Clade as our wiki does not access the modules or LUA code which Wikipedia does.
We do not anticipate hosting Twitching lists on this site so please do not create personal Twitching pages. (Lists made with any more complex parameters from the Wikipedia Sandbox than our template uses will anyway not be sidewards compatible).
Cladograms by Class
Origins update
Current
Crowns number 1,552 so far (numbers are given by class in brackets below):
Antelopes (180)
Beetles (6)
Birds (245)
Blobs (8)
Butterflies (196)
Drills (10)
Fish (140)
Flying Lizards (60)
Grunts (16)
Jellyfish (6)
Moles (5)
Ploughs (10)
Protodiggers (5)
Protoflyers (8)
Protorollers (15)
Sharks (57)
TRexes (255)
Triceratops (330)
Pending
Cats
Cows
Crabs
Robots
Rodents
Snakes
Spiders
Weirds
Special creatures (not spawning normally in nature, not scannable, and not showing up in a Discoveries log) are not broken into clades. These include horrors, fiends, Sandworms, and Rock Creatures.