Na'vi

Na'vi at human made school on Pandora.

The **Na'vi** (English: **The People**) are a race of sentient extraterrestrial humanoids who inhabit the lush jungle moon of Pandora. Humans are known to refer to them as "blues", "savages", "the locals", "hostiles", or "the natives".

The indigenous Na'vi are, on average, approximately 3 meters (~ 10 feet) tall, with smooth, striped cyan-colored skin, large yellow eyes, and long, sweeping tails. Their bodies are more slender than humans. They are the first extraterrestrial species discovered to be sapient like humans. Although the Na'vi are hunter-gatherers with technology equivalent of Earth's Paleolithic epoch, they have developed a sophisticated culture based on a profound spiritual connection to other life on their moon, each other, and an encompassing "goddess" they call Eywa.

## Habitat and Range

Various biomes of Pandora. Population concentrated in rainforest regions. Outlying clans have been detected on each continent and in subarctic, swampland, and mountainous regions.

Some Na'vi clans, including the Omaticaya clan and parts of the Tipani clan, live in tremendously large ancient trees they call Kelutral, or "Hometree".

## Physiology

* The Na'vi cell nucleus does not use nucleic acids to encode genetic information. Therefore, their genetic makeup is not considered to be DNA (thus they most likely do not utilize RNA in the synthesis of proteins).
* Na'vi skin is smooth, iridescent, and cyan in color accentuated with slightly darker cyan stripes. Their bodies have feline-like features such as long sweeping tails, pointed ears and triangular faces with flat bifurcated noses, all framed with large, almost hypnotically golden eyes. Bioluminescent markings that seem to follow the path of the circulatory or nervous system aid in identification and mood display.
* The average Na'vi life span is longer than that of a human – approximately 30% longer – though they mature more rapidly.
* Skin color is due to the presence of the cyanin pigment. It can "tan" to a darker purplish color after prolonged sunlight exposure.
* Despite their cyan skin color, the Na'vi have red blood, utilizing an iron oxygen-transporting compound similar to hemoglobin.
* Na'vi have hair on their heads including the long braid protruding from the base of their skulls protecting their neural queue. The Na'vi appear to have no other body hair, with the exception of eyelashes and a small "bob" of fur on the end of their tails. Human-made avatars are seen with hair on the brow bone whereas the natives are not.
* Waist is narrow and elongated. The shoulders are very wide, creating a V-shaped upper back. The neck is long and body slender. Musculature sharply defined, giving no sense of emaciation despite thin proportions.
* Skeleton is reinforced with naturally occurring carbon fiber. Average male is approximately 3 meters (~ 10 feet) tall; females slightly less, average 2.8 meters (~ 9 feet) tall due possibly to evolutionary "size" dimorphism.
* Tail that can be moved and controlled like any other appendage and is used primarily for balance. It is frequently used to express emotion and is the basis for the Na'vi saying: "Watch your tail, Child!"
* Average male has a mass around 210 kg (approximately 463 pounds). In Pandoran gravity (0.8 Earth g) they weigh 1647.52 N or 370 lb (compared to 2059.40 N or 463 lb in Earth's gravity). Female mass slightly less, around 190 kg (419 pounds 1g / 334 pounds 0.8g) due to lighter build and slightly shorter stature.
* Na'vi have four fingers on each hand including opposable thumbs and four toes on each foot including opposable big toes; unlike the human-created avatars which have five fingers on each hand including opposable thumbs and five toes on each foot with non-opposable big toes due to the influence of human DNA during avatar genetic sequencing.
* Dentition is similar to that of humans, though the canines are more pronounced.
* Highly evolved nervous system includes a queue which resembles a long, rather ostentatious hair braid. This seemingly conventional braid actually sheathes a remarkably intricate system of neural tendrils that can be connected to similar structures of other life-forms. See queue .
* They have roughly four times the strength of the average human.
* Reproduction mechanics (e.g. physical coupling) are similar to humans and other Terran mammals. However, it should be noted that although female Na'vi have breasts similar to those on female humans – also used to nurse their infants – they are not placental mammals and, as such, the actual internal reproductive biology is quite different from Terran mammals.

The Na'vi are fundamentally different from all other large Pandoran animals:

* Na'vi have four limbs and use two legs for locomotion (bipedal tetrapod), while most medium-to-large-bodied Pandoran animals have a total of six limbs (or wings) for locomotion (hexapod).
* Na'vi have only a single pair of eyes while almost all other medium-to-large bodied Pandoran animals have two pairs of eyes; one primary set and another slightly smaller set.
* Most medium-to-large bodied Pandoran animals have two nerve clusters (antennae) extending backward from the head, while the Na'vi only have a single nerve cluster located in their queue.
* Most medium-to-large bodied Pandoran animals possess twin operculi near the shoulder/breast bone which supplies air for both respiration as well as internal body temperature regulation, while the Na'vi possess no such structures.

From the evidence, one may conclude that the Na'vi either diverged a long time ago from the common Pandoran phylogenetic or evolutionary tree, or they may be outsiders to this world. The latter theory supported by the fact that avatars were created by fusing human and Na'vi DNA/transcriptase, as well as the many shared cultural aspects, such as physical intimacy (e.g. kissing/hugging) and the covering of the genital areas. The presence of the single Na'vi queue would appear to indicate an adaptive evolutionary process which would contradict the "outsider" theory as this queue is compatible with other Pandoran lifeforms. The former theory would however be supported by the presence of the blue lemurs that surprised Jake Sully on his first voyage into the Pandoran jungle. Although these blue lemurs appear to be bipedal hexapods while the Na'vi completely lack the second forelimb, supporting the first theory, the lemurs' forelimbs are partially fused and split at the elbow; this indicates they likely experienced a form of limb fusion at some point during their evolution, and that the Na'vi did as well, but to a further extent. Terrestrial lemurs share a common primate ancestry with humans, the presence of blue lemurs on Pandora suggests a similar evolutionary relationship between the Na'vi and other extinct or unobserved species with primate morphology, or another alien influence, the Na'vi being descendants of those avatars.

### Footnote

1. Na'vi are a sentient species from the Movie Avatar.