History Main / ArtMajorBiology

* {{Toriko}} thrives on this trope. A gigantic mammoth that the heroes go spelunking inside, searching for the most delicious piece of meat. An overabundance of large predators eating each other. Flowers that detect how {{Badass}} you are. A guy with a skeleton consisting of 4000 bones. Animals with any number of trunks, heads, legs... etc, etc.

** The idea that a neurotoxin can cause people to commit suicide was HighOctaneNightmareFuel TurnedUpToEleven for this troper. Seriously! One whiff and you slit your wrists??? Who thought of that one??? (Oh, I forgot it was Stephen-fucking-King...)

* The Comicbook/{{X-Men}} are all "mutants" because of one gene being wonky. Never mind that genes encode proteins, and there is obviously no flight enzyme. ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' was slightly better, but there is no way it would be the same four genes for every power either.
** Even with the minimum of 2 alleles per gene, with incomplete dominance, that's 81 possible powers.
*** Well, given that temperature, ion concentration, pH, and a half dozen other factors affect protein shape in ways we don't yet fully comprehend...
** And alternative splicing... so yeah, one gene isn't the issue. The magical proteins are.
** Hell, let's just mention the idea that "the next stage in evolution" is a gene that does something at random.
** Or, for that matter, that [[EvolutionaryLevels the next stage in evolution exists]].
** In the ''House of M'' storyline, didn't Hank Pym explain to Beast how he wanted to do experiments to find "the mutant gene" and Beast told him that it wasn't just one a singular thing?
*** I think the law in the ''House of M'' universe had forbidden experiment in mutant cells, still, why they couldn't find the answer another way is hard to explain.
** Isn't the current "mutant gene" explanation saying that the gene causes ''other'' genes to mutate?
** The potential for mutation (explaining both mutants and "mutates," the latter of which includes folks like SpiderMan and [[PsychoElectro Electro]]) was engineered into humanity by [[SufficientlyAdvancedAliens the Celestials]].

*** Whether they are {{Half Human Hybrid}}s ,PettingZooPeople, or [[BeastMan full-on beast men]] (instead of [[IntellectualAnimal trained animals walking on their hind legs]]),they all mix in varying bits of human anatomy, so having fewer/more [[NonMammalMammaries mammaries]] than the animals they are based upon have are the least of their points of divergence with reality as we know it. [[ToothyBird Birds with teeth]],insects with [[CartoonyEyes human-like eyes]],LizardFolk having hair or even dog people having shoulders are 'inaccurate'. They're all MixAndMatchCritters of a kind to begin with. Just because their 'ancestors'/base species weren't mammals doesn't mean they can't be. Look at platypi! Now,if they were born with [[ArmCannons inorganic 'natural' weaponry]],that will be too much to [[WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief just roll with]].

** According to one of the [[ContinuitySnarl many]] [[{{Backstory}} backstories]] for the Aliens, they are bioweapons designed to impregnate anything using any orifice and can survive even on airless planetoids so long as they eat something tanks a complex series of chemical reactions occurring in their bodies.

A SubTrope of RuleOfCool.

* The direct-to-DVD ''Prey'' features lions trapping Bridget Moynahan and [[RoboCop Peter Weller's]] kids on a game preserve. It's {{Cujo}} [[RecycledInSpace in Africa]]! It's a decent thriller if you don't know or don't care that male lions don't hunt.
** Actually, male lions do hunt. It's only once they've got a pride to provide for them that male lions in their prime will need all their energy to defend the pride's territory.

* The designers of [[{{Splice}} Dren]] needed to watch more AnimalPlanet, given [[supersecretspoiler:s]]he has extra bones, joints [[spoiler:and even super-powers]] that mammals just don't have. A product of [[strike:Genentech]] LegoGenetics.

* Between the various undead, the injuries people live through and Giles lack of brain damage from all the times [[TapOnTheHead he gets knocked out]], ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' loves this trope. And that's not mentioning Giant Dawn in S8.

* ''Film/{{Alien}}'': The creatures are so cool, it's easy to overlook the impossibility of the fast growth cycles (even before being speed up in the ''Alien Vs Predator'' movies) no matter how much it ate in that time, the fact that a creature outside of Earth is compatable with species from Earth even as a parasite, that silicon-based lifeforms aren't actually likely due to how silicon bonds, and how blood like that can work. Basically these things are powered by RuleOfCool and RuleOfScary.

** The squid from Watchmen. Granted, it didn't evolve, but why did [[spoiler:Ozymandias]] not create a more probable creature, if he had to fool the entire world? If anyone studies this thing AT ALL, they'll discover that it HAS A HUMAN BRAIN. If they just LOOK at the thing, they'll realize there's absolutely NOTHING protecting that brain. No part of this creature is even remotely plausible. How did [[spoiler:Ozymandias]] pull off this lie?

* At one point in ''CaveStory'', you have to collect "jellyfish juice", which one would assume is made from the organs of jellyfish. Sure enough, you do obtain it by killing a specific jelly--but it comes pre-packaged in jars, found inside the [[InexplicableTreasureChests a treasure chests]] that the jelly drops when you kill it.

* One word: ''Picasso''.
** Another one: ''Dali''.
*** Three more: SmallReferencePools. The Cubist and Surrealist movements both made heavy use of this trope, those two simply happen to be the most well-known examples of each.

* ''{{Fringe}}''. Dear god, the science in this is ''horrible''. Given the premise, it's clear that the producers are deliberately invoking RuleOfCool -- they don't even try to make sense. Perhaps it takes place in [[strike: an alternate dimension]] alternate dimensions with different rules...which would be appropriate for the show.
** That'd be nice if it weren't for the fact that [[DanBrowned the writers continuously parade the show]] as ''not'' being science fiction and [[CriticalResearchFailure that all the stuff in it is plausible "fringe science."]] Still entertaining though.
** ''Fringe'' is HollywoodScience taken to its illogical extreme - given time, it will offend all disciplines. Biology and physics are just the regular whipping boys.

*** Three more: SmallReferencePool. The Cubist and Surrealist movements both made heavy use of this trope, those two simply happen to be the most well-known examples of each.

* ''Film/{{Alien}}'': The creatures are so cool, it's easy to overlook the impossibility of the fast growth cycles (even before being speed up in the ''Alien Vs Predetor'' movies) no matter how much it ate in that time, the fact that a creature outside of Earth is compatable with species from Earth even as a parasite, that silicon-based lifeforms aren't actually likely due to how silicon bonds, and how blood like that can work. Basically these things are powered by RuleOfCool and RuleOfScary.

* Between the various undead, the injuries people live through and Giles lack of brain damage from all the times he gets knocked out, BuffyTheVampireSlayer loves this trope. And that's not mentioning Giant Dawn in S8.

* ''{{Heroes}}'': Evolution does not work that way (see the {{X-Men}} entry above for why).

* In a BattlestarGalactica episode (season 2, episode 13), Dr. Baltar heals president Roslyn's cancer by injecting her with some cylon/human hybrid blood that is more resistant to diseases because it has no antigens (particles that are recognized as hostile by the immune system) and therefore "no blood type". Therefore, it is somehow capable of destroying a cancer in a very late stage. If Type O negative blood (the real type closest to having "no antigens") could do that, there would be a lot less cancer in the world...
* The Weeping Angels from DoctorWho, reveling in this and RuleOfScary, literally ''turn to stone'' when you look at them. Biology does not work that way, and neither does quantum physics, but you'll be too busy crapping yourself to notice.

* MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory: Any game ever which has you inside a main character for a game long FantasticVoyage is going to play into this somewhat, and with the puzzles being solved by Bowser's actions on the top screen affecting the parts of his body being explored by Mario and Luigi on the touch screen... yeah. Making Bowser drink water constantly to flood his stomach and makes bones float out of the way? Making him stand in front of an X Ray machine to make various things vanish and appear? Shooting adrenaline at... something to make him a fifty foot monster who can fight buildings and trains? Heck, making his airway freeze solid to solve puzzles? All there, and the game would be a lot less interesting without it.

* Any FinalFantasy game that has a sci-fi backstory may as well be saying "magic!"

* In ProtectorsOfThePlotContinuum, the agents violate the laws of biology by using Bleeprin, a mixture of bleach and aspirin which, instead of killing the agents, simply erases their memories. But [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve if one reminds an agent that Bleeprin's effects should be biologically impossible, then it stops working]]. Then the agent is likely to kill you for causing it to stop working -- they NEED to erase some of the memories they pick up on the job.

* [=~Darwin's Soldiers~=] has some of this. {{X-Men}} like powers and HollywoodHealing are the most common offenders. Granted, the {{X-Men}} styled powers are treated a ''little'' more realistically (i.e. it is not one gene but multiple genes that determine the power, organisms have to be created with the powers, etc.).

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It's still fodder for {{Deconstruction}}, natch; people can have great fun [[SubvertedTrope subverting]] milder forms of this trope. {{Reconstruction}} will often involve finding new, subtler ways of working ArtMajorBiology in.