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No unicellular algae-like goop 'cuz it's boring, jellyfish is pushing it. Cat people and Star Trek forehead-of-the-week rolled under humanoid.
2023-09-16 added Winged, Extinct, Composite since Other is dominant
Taking fun suggestions in comments.
Related questions
Possibly of interest to those proposing other types:
The SCIāFIāIāSPY Catalogue of All Known Types of Alien
Welcome to a 100āÆ% exhaustive listing of every type of alien in every system in every multiverse in theĀ genre!Ā ItĀ may sound asĀ if there should be more than fifty in theĀ collection, butĀ once you've accounted for minor variants within each archetype (andĀ the bastard offspring of illicit interācategory hybridisation), itĀ turns out that all apparent leftovers are just cases of inaccurate reportingĀ ā aĀ remarkable proportion of SFĀ authors needĀ glasses.
e.g. "floating gas bag with tentacles" corresponds to #16: Hydroids
@Irigi "Winged (e.g. birds, pterodactyls)" strong contender for new addition.
Limb counting would add too many options. Looking for iconic archetypes rather than taxonomy.
@Meta_C Some variation on symbiotes/parasites perhaps? Cybernetic organisms would be a fun category if there's a way to rule out basic medical implants and prosthetics.
Cybernetic organisms could possibly take the form of Xenobots. They are machines made from living/organic tissue, and can even reproduce:
This video on Xenobots is also good:
https://www.youtube.com/live/FqkfBish_Ic?si=F5pixQiIASCzZhpm