History Literature / TheSnoutersFormAndLifeOfTheRhinogrades

* BizarreAlienReproduction: Most snouters breed few and far between (due to their low mortality rate from the lack of predators), and many do not suckle their young (some species don't even have mammary glands).* [[spoiler:But by far the strangest are the hermaphroditic marine species found off the coast of Antarctica (one of which breeds by gemmation)]].

* ChestMonster: The Flower-faced Snouters, Lilysnouters, and the Orchidsnouters (among others) all disguise themselves as flowers to attract insects.

* AlluringAnglerfish: The Lilysnouters hunt at night and have glowing mucus.

* SpeculativeBiology: While not as well-known as later works in the genre like the seminal ''Literature/AfterMan'', it came out more than twenty years before that, making this a TropeMaker.

!!This book provides examples of:

* GagNose: The [[UpToEleven final evolution]] of this trope. The rhinogrades have, at minimum, absurdly large, human-like noses which they utilize for almost every conceivable activity, with some species being more nose than body.

* OurMonstersAreWeird: Really, '''[[UpToEleven really]]''' weird. The Snouters are a group of shrew-like mammals which have evolved to resemble and behave like molluscs, nematodes, carnivorous plants, and insects more than vertebrates.

You heard correct; they use their noses for '''everything'''. Including eating, singing, walking, jumping, grabbing, camouflage, burrowing, and swimming... among other things. As ridiculous as it sounds, the author [[MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness documents them like real animals, right down to the last details]].

A [[SpeculativeDocumentary speculative]] {{mockumentary}} book first published in 1957 and written by German zoologist Gerolf Steiner (under the pseudonym of [[AuthorAvatar Harald Stümpke]]). It documents a (fictional) order of strange mammals (mostly) native to the Hy-yi-yi Islands known as the Rhinogrades, or Snouters. Among other things, the most unique trait of the Rhinogrades is the ''nasarium'', an organ derived from the nose that has evolved to fill every conceivable purpose imaginable.

** The book was inspired by Christian Morgenstern's nonsense poem "Das Nasobēm", which is suggested in-universe tthat Morgenstern visted the Hy-Yi-Yi Islands before its formal discovery.* *Some Rhinogrades may have evolved into Turbellaria "flatworms".

%% * GagNose: The [[UpToEleven final evolution]] of this trope.
%% * HistoricalInJoke: Some Rhinogrades may have evolved into Turbellaria "flatworms".

%% * {{Mockumentary}}

%% * OurMonstersAreWeird: Really, '''[[UpToEleven really]]''' weird.
%% * PrehensileTail: Because of their reduced limbs, some species have a very long tail that works like this.

* ShoutOut: The Rhinogrades were inspired by the poem ''Das Nasobem'' from the ''[[GermanHumour Galgenlieder]]'' (Gallows Songs) by Christian Morgenstern (1871-1914). This is lampshaded in several places in the documentary.

* SpeculativeBiology: While not as well-known as later works in the genre like the seminal ''Literature/AfterMan'', it came out before that, making this a TropeMaker.
%% * SpeculativeDocumentary: One of the oldest, if not THE oldest.

* DeathWorld:
** [[AvertedTrope Averted]], there is nothing especially dangerous about Hy-Yi-Yi or its inhabitants. Even for the snouters, life is easy; besides ''Tyrannonasus'' and occasionally sea birds (which are only found on a few small islands), nothing preys on them.
** Subverted when [[DownerEnding the islands sink and everything living there drowns]].

* GagNose: The [[UpToEleven final evolution]] of this trope.
* HistoricalInJoke: Some Rhinogrades may have evolved into Turbellaria "flatworms".

* {{Mockumentary}}

* OurMonstersAreWeird: Really, '''[[UpToEleven really]]''' weird.
* PrehensileTail: Because of their reduced limbs, some species have a very long tail that works like this.

* SpeculativeDocumentary: One of the oldest, if not THE oldest.

A [[SpeculativeDocumentary speculative]] {{mockumentary}} book first published in 1957 and written by German zoologist Gerolf Steiner (under the pseudonym of [[AuthorAvatar Harald Stümpke]]). It documents a (fictional) order of strange mammals [[spoiler:mostly]] native to the Hy-yi-yi Islands known as the Rhinogrades, or Snouters. Among other things, the most unique trait of the Rhinogrades is the ''nasarium'', an organ derived from the nose that has evolved to fill every conceivable purpose imaginable.

* SuperPersistentPredator: ''Tyrannonasus imperator'' (Heberer's Predatory Nasobame), will chase its prey for HOURS, but it's [[JustifiedTrope justified]], because of its low metabolic rate and its ability to store glycogen (glucose energy) not just in its liver. Even so, they rarely catch their prey.

* {{Expy}}: To RealLife, the Shaggy-faced Snouter is really obviously based on the woolly mammoth. They are covered in thick fur, eats plants, have large slab-like molars, uses their noses to grab things, travels in herds, and are one of the largest Rhinogrades.

* SpeculativeBiology: While not as well-known as later works in the genre like the seminal Literature/AfterMan, it came out before that, making this a TropeMaker.

* BizarreAlienLocomotion: Most of them can only move around on their noses (if they move at all) and the limbs of many have become highly

reduced.

* BizarreAlienLocomotion: Most of them can only move around on their noses (if they move at all) and the limbs of many have become highly reduced.
** The Earwing (''Otopteryx volitans'') flies with its ears (using its nose to steer).
* BizarreAlienReproduction: Most snouters breed few and far between (due to their low mortality rate from the lack of predators), and many do not suckle their young (some species don't even have mammary glands).
** [[spoiler:But by far the strangest are the hermaphroditic marine species found off the coast of Antarctica (one of which breeds by gemmation)]].

-->''"The noteworthy fact that the captured Nasobame weeps has psychological interest, for it presupposes that the animal possesses [[ItCanThink insight and the power of reflection]]."''

** AlluringAnglerfish: The Lilysnouters hunt at night and have glowing mucus.
* DeathWorld: [[AvertedTrope Averted]], there is nothing especially dangerous about Hy-Yi-Yi or its inhabitants. Even for the snouters, life is easy; besides ''Tyrannonasus'' and occasionally sea birds (which are only found on a few small islands), nothing preys on them.

* EarWings: The [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Earwing]].

* {{Irony}}: Strangely enough, some species of Rhinogrades breath through their tear ducts (despite having multiple noses).

* HumansAreBastards: Nearby secret nuclear testing sinks the Hy-Yi-Yi Islands (which have been around for almost 300 million years), along with all the world's specialists who were holding congress on the islands at the time.

* SuperPersistentPredator: ''Tyrannonasus imperator'' (Heberer's Predatory Nasobame), will chase its prey for HOURS, but it's [[JustifiedTrope justified]], because of its low metabolic rate and its ability to store glycogen (glucose energy) not just in its liver. Even so, they rarely catch their prey.

* EverythingIsBetterWithSpinning: The ''Nasobame'''s last resort defense against a ''Tyrannonasus'' is to grab a branch with its tail and spin around, confusing the predator and making it dizzy to the point of throwing up.