Here's a moldy oldie.

This was initially done as part of a class during my brief stint at "ghetto-thug High School" here in Tucson (early my Sophomore year).

The point was to create a creature with a totally unique creature and decide how it communicated. Then we would get into pairs and discuss how our creatures languages would interact.

Being more artistically minded then linguistically minded, I launched myself into creature creation and quiclky forgot the assignment. Fortunately, there was another girl in my class who sat nearby who was also more interested in the imaginative creation of wild critters then studying language interaction, and we fell in together.

For the duration of the period, as well as after class and all through lunch, we debated the differences between our creatures and what would transpire between them if hostilities broke out.

Here creatures very closely resembled very large 'raptors and were considerably intelligent.

My critters were mostly inspired by my love for the "Alien" series. They're inscectoid - a low PH inner body which is mainly gelatinous, covered by a plate-like outer skeleton.
They eat by injecting digestive juices into the body of prey through a short proboscis ringed with tiny saw-like teeth. They then suck out the partially digested matter.

They have a hive based society with a single fertile female and large group of infertile females (male larvae are only spawned late into the Queen's life) who guard, expand, and gather for the rest of the community.

When one of the creatures dies, either by old age, accident or combat, the pressure inside the body cavity is no longer maintained (the internal body is mainly fluidic, with a layer of muscular ligament holding the plates of the outer shell together. The main structure of the body comes from the pressure, and tension of this inner wall of muscle), the fluids inside begin to seep out. It's hivemates will then peel the plates off their dead comrade, and using the sticky, congealed internals as a bonding agent, paste the interior walls of the hive with the tough chitin.

We calculated between ourselves that while my creatures would probubly win in a fight, it would be due solely to numbers - ten of my ravenous critters would swarm and overwhelm one of her creations.

I think we both got very low grades on the assignment, but it was one of the most enjoyable experiences I had at that paticular school.
I find as I get older that most of what I really learned didn't come through the official channels.

D.O.P.R