Na'vi diversity
 

I was reading the blu-ray pandorapedia and found these passages to be interesting. (Sorry for the all-caps... that's how it appears in the pdf.) Emphasis mine.

From this, it would seem that some of Pandora's Na'vi would look quite different from what we see in the movie (the Omaticaya and their neighbors). For instance, the maximum recorded height is nearly twice as tall as the average Omaticaya male, and some of the other adaptations are so significant that a few scientists thought they were different species.

I think this is cool because it opens up a whole world of possibilities for how Na'vi might look elsewhere on Pandora. But they ARE all blue, apparently. ;)

I get funny images in my head imagining a human standing next to a Navi thats over 3 times his or her own height.

Perhaps this gives a good comparison of what 6 meters tall is like...
http://msnbcmedia3.msn.com/j/MSNBC/C...p.grid-4x2.jpg

Heee, I get funny images of an Omaticaya-sized Na'vi standing next to the taller variety, thinking "this must be how Sky People feel around us." :D

I also get funny images of what polar Na'vi must look like. Being all long and lean wouldn't bode well for heat conservation at all. Maybe instead they're short and blubbery? :xD:

This is very interesting.

Perhaps it is a teaser for Avatar 2?

I am not sure how it ties in with oceans or anything. The sea clans looked about the same as the Omaticaya in terms of body build.

*snorts* Shorter, stockier, wears clothes, I'm guessing. If the Omaticaya have been in Hometree for about ten thousand years, more than than enough time has passed for the more Arctic Na'vi to have internal adaptations like the Inuit and the reindeer-herders in Siberia.

But, hmmm. Clothes would also be good if there was hair/fur to trap the warmth in - maybe Pandora does actually have creatures with hair/fur in other regions? It already have an interesting variety with numbers of eyes and limbs.

But on Pandorapedia website, the stated maximum height is 3.9 meters, not 5.9, with the same mass figure. :S

The Na'vi | Pandorapedia: The Official Guide to Pandora | Own AVATAR on Blu-ray & DVD Now!

...odd.

There are a few contradictions around. I'm not actually sure if the stuff on the bluray was written with any input from the design of the Na'vi (although I would guess not) and I really would not consider it canon at all unless confirmed in a sequel. Such variation is very unlikely, and in effect multiple sentient species - while this may not be possible in most cases, I guess it could be on Pandora, but it's still very unlikely - although the Na'vi ARE significantly older than humanity, humans live in extreme environments without physical adaptations. There may well be differences in lifestyle, but that is to be expected.
Also, Pandora has ~0.7G, where the Na'vi height is perfectly justifiable and well adapted, but being twice that height would cause the individual to run into problems the same way a 4 metre human would on Earth (not taking about problems imposed by society, but physical ones)

Shouldn't this have a genetical origin ? I mean back on Earth, people are born to grow taller than others, or to stay short during the entire life. The Na'vi don't seem to make an exception, they're born to grow tall and 3,9 is a medium height, 5,9 is a maximum height. :hmm:

Based on mass figures, average females are about 90% of average male mass. But from what I see in the movie, females are much slimmer than males. Perhaps females have denser muscles? What would that imply, physically?

Yes and no - genetics plays a large part, but so does nutrition. Average height for men in Elizabethan England was about 5'5 or so - previously, I believe it was much higher, and now days it is back to being higher. That's not genetics, but plain old nutrition while growing up. That said, groups of people do tends to be taller or shorter, which is mostly where I think the Na'vi differences come in - I'd actually be surprised if they were exactly the same, over the whole planet. Humans certainly aren't, and from all implications, we're a much younger species.

...oh, now THAT'S interesting. I'll have to think about that.

Isn't 6 meter long Na'vi too big to ride an Ikran.. ? :S

We are very young, and very short :P I also wonder how could Jake (now Na'vi) meet a higher Na'vi them himself.

Yes, true. 6 meters is very high for a being, it's like 2 storeys of a flat, ground floor and first floor, up to the beginning of the second. That's a little bit problematic, even for riding a Pa'li... except for Thanator and Toruk, which are very big comparing to the others.

Indeed, and it is directly mentioned that Jake is only the 6th Toruk Makto, and it is mentioned in other sources that Neytiri is the first Na'vi to ride a palulukan (yes, I am ignoring the games here, because their storyline bears next to no resemblance to Avatar).
I really don't see 2x height Na'vi happening.

It would be nice to see amphibious Na'vi people in the next movie of the sequel, especially that this time we're going underwater a distance more deep than ground-atmosphere layer on Earth. :)

*shinyeyes* That'd be awesome. And Cameron did originally draw them looking more aquatic, too.

Gahhhh, spoiler-tags people, please.

Oops. Sorry, Sothis, I was not aware that it was regarded as a spoiler, I'll try and remember this for the future. Just curious, how DO you do spoiler tags?

Ooo I didn't know this. Well that's even more awesome :)

Yes :) Their body shape looks very "organic" and adaptable.

What's with the spoiler-tag ? Is it bad or good ? :shoop: :xD:

[On-topic]

Anyway, Ashen, did you ever see Waterworld (1995) with Kevin Costner ? People who evolved through time with this relationship between dry-wet environments have shark-like gills behind the ears.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Cyp1VGqtXq...orld-gills.gif

It would be very cool to find Na'vis who live underwater and on dryland too, having gills behind the ears. I mean it is needed, you can't use the same system to breathe pure air and underwater concentrated air at the same time. It's kinda tricky :)

I actually really don't like the idea - evolutionarily, two sentient species is unlikely (although more likely on Pandora than elsewhere, I guess) due to competition (there is a reason homo sapiens wiped out the other humanoids), and the simple fact that there is zero mention of them would preclude such an appearance of such a significant point, as well as that Jake and Neytiri are not them, and so are stuck as far as options go.
There will be some underwater sequences at least, but it isn't going to be an underwater film. HUGE difference.

Jon Landau said the underwater sequences will be about as significant a part of the film as climbing Iknimaya was in the first one. That sounds about right to me.

This^

I know, HNM, but a possibility could be taken into account :P I didn't say anything about AVATAR being an underwater film, I was just considering "how would that be..." in the case that's about to come :) Anyway, if the Na'vi won't differ, then the fauna will.

I would loooove to see the na'vi in aspects of other regions. Just like the ikran clan of the eastern sea, I would love to see a na'vi clan that lives in moutainous regions. And since there would be different animals, how they would interact with them (ex. would they have ikrans?) so on and so forth. It would be a whole new culture.
BTW I read somewhere about most of pandora being covered in jungle anyway so the absolute percentage of *other*:airquote: na'vi peoples would be smaller . . .I think:hmm:

Right :) But think about the fact that every Na'vi tribe holds borders to their teritory and the percentage might differ from one to another :awesome: