Homo sapiens martianus

Martian human (Homo sapiens martianus, Martian Creole: Marseanes) is a subspecies of human. It inhabits Mars, which is home to 700 million Martian humans which have been kind of isolated in the red planet for around two centuries. The life expectancy of Martian humans is lower than Terran humans, comparable to 21st century human life expectancy.

Taxonomy

Martian human's skeleton morphometrics, mtDNA, and microsatellites differ from the other human subespecies which they evolved from, the Homo sapiens terranus. The influence of radiation in the human DNA made humans in Mars to quickly evolve to a different subspecies.

Description

Martian humans are still belonging to the same species as Terran humans, so they are genetically compatible and can produce offspring. But there are some differences in the physical appearance, but there are no remarkable differences in psychology. Due to the breeding of generations whose parents were brilliant scientists and engineers, it is said that Martian humans are on average more intelligent than Terran humans.

Eyes

Mars is further from the Sun than Terra, so Martian humans developed bigger eyes and some differences in the retina in order to be able to see in darker environment. They have bigger eyes and they have a better sight in the darkness than Terran humans. Their robust skulls (explained below) also give extra protection to their larger eyeballs.

Immunology

Martian humans are not so resistant against patogens and infectious diseases as Terran humans, in fact when a Terran human is visit Mars, they are required by law to stay in quarantine until it is proved that there are not a threat from the fragile Martian human immunology.

Skeleton and muscles

Martian humans have thicker bones (including the skull bones) compared to Terran humans, because bones need to work against the force of gravity to stay strong, thus in the lower gravity of Mars (about 38% of that on Terra), only the colonists with stronger and thickier bones could survive and give birth to another generation. This natural selection allowed bigger bones that could retain enough strength to ward off dangerous fractures.

Martian humans have even thickier bones in the pelvic area, making easier for females to give birth to babies with a bigger skull. So Martian humans have much wider hips that Terran humans.

In accordance with the thickier bones, Martians humans have ease to strenghten their bodies, in order to protect even more their bones, they are also naturally more muscular than Terran humans. The average Martian human is bulkier than the average Terran human.

Skin

Terran humans have different skin colour tones, Martian humans too but they also have a bright orange shade. As a way of protection from UV radiation, Martian humans developed an additional pigment named carotenine which gives them an orangeish skin colour. Carotenine makes Martian more resistant to solar radiation and skin cancer.

Diet

Diet is not noticeably different from the Terran human's diet, the only difference would be the high ingestion of carotene-rich food, like: sweet potates, carrots, wolfberries, mangoes, apricots, spinach, kale...

Culture

Language

Mars is a language diverse planet (but not as much as Terra) and Martian humans use the same languages as Terran humans, with the only difference of Martian Creole or simply Martian, which is the sole official language of Mars and virtually known and used by all Martian humans (and some Terran humans who study it).

Philosophy and arts

Not noticeable differences with Terran humans.

Religion and spirituality

Martian humans as well as most of the Terran humans from the Terran Republic have a very materialistic and rational point of view on the world. They refuse idealism and they prefer everything when it is scientifically proven to be true. But the only difference is that Martian humans do not tolerate religion and spirituality, they see it as a source of conflict and stagnancy, an impediment of the development of humans as species.

Science and technologies

Martian humans are superior to Terran humans in technology, they are able to perform advance genetic manipulation, travel to other solar systems and colonizing other planets. While Terran humans are only able to travel within the solar system and to perform space mining activities and basic genetic manipulation.

Society

Ethnicity

Ethnicity between Martian humans is equivalent to native language, so there are as many ethnicities as mother tongues, that means that all ethnicities are common with the Terran humans, except for the Martian humans whose mother tongue is the Martian Creole.

Government and politics

Martian humans have a unique political system, they have a purely meritocratic system. They do not hold elections in order to choose their ruler. Anyone, from any background and condition is able to climb in the social ladder, depending on their merits. The Martian human with the highest number of merit points (MP) becomes the ruler, the President of Mars.

Kinship

No differences found between Terran and Martian humans.

Trade and economics

Martian humans do not use any currency, compared to Terran humans. All citizens have their basic needs covered by the government but in order to have a more confortable life or climbing the social ladder, you need to accumulate merit points. There are some actions that allow people to have more merits (working hard, served in the Armed Forces or an Expeditionary Fleet, to attain some scientific or technological achievement,...) or to lose them (crimes, corruption, sabotage).

Martians just trade their goods and technology with some Terran factions and other species in exchange of goods they require, no currency is implied in this process.

War

Martian humans refuse to kill members of the same species (including Terran humans), they only fought one war against them, the Confederate-Martian War. During their exploration of other star systems, Martians had and are having military conflicts with other intelligent species. So far, they are the most technologically advanced known species, also militarily.

Trivia

• They are despectively known as orange giants, the orange ones, orange people, space nerds, dust biters or simply dusties by Terran humans.
• They have admiration for Terra, they call it the Mother planet.
• They despite Terrans, saying that they are too busy killing between themselves that they do not even bother to keep evolving as a species.
• They despectively call Terran humans small heads, the tiny ones, the plague bringers or simply tinies.