EVOLUTION ATTEMPTS: Poison- 3, Movement- 4+.5=4, Lures- 4
Crawlers have given way to a new species: the swimemone. These new species have developed a system of pheromones, which are mixed in with and descended from the toxins. These creatures are neotenous swimmers that use a fleshy tail to swim with. Their change in lifestyle means that they have had to shrink to 20 centimetres long, but the rewards of a free niche more than make up for it. The front end is the main area of shrinking and the tentacle tips have become more robust and sharp. They mate by scenting out the pheromones and forming a swarm, where they release the male cells. Below some of their gill-tubes, they have sacs of carbon dioxide that help keep them buoyant. This lets them swim far slower without sinking than the newer invasive species, which lets them survey their hunting area far more carefully. The main problem is their lack of a sense as good as vision or hearing, however. They have formed a symbiosis with the tentaclets of the upsidedown tentablob, a tentablob that (as its name suggests) crawls around, upside-down on its tentacles. The tentaclets are immune to the toxins of the swimemone, and they crowd around the swimemone's jaws. The larger predator follows the smaller creatures to food, while the tentaclets get to absorb food from the digestive acids that the swimemone makes during its meal. Adult upsidedown tentablobs are useful sources of cover for swimemones of all ages, and often have the parasites picked off of them by swimemone tentaclets. Swimemone tentaclets may also join the swarms surrounding the head of an adult.
GENERATION 5:
Swimemone
A yellow-and-green cnidarian-like animal that swims over the surface of the reef, hunting for food. They swim with their tail-like foot, and use their fanged tentacles to attack and kill their prey. They grow up to 20 centimetres long, and their offspring are called tentaclets.
SENSES: It has a sense of touch that lets it figure out if it's touching food, and a fair sense of smell/taste.
REPRODUCTION: It lets out male cells when they form swarms, and growths grow on the area of the body derived from the bases of the tentacles. Younger animals are mostly male, and older animals are female, due to the pressures of swimming while pregnant.
MOVEMENT: They move by rippling their foot, swimming like a tadpole or fish. Sacs of carbon dioxide keep them buoyant.
EATING: It impales nearby blobs and digests them by drawing them into the tentacles.
PREDATION: Not hunted by many creatures, due to its toxins. Ground-living blobs are what it eats.
COMPETITION: Swimemones are still mostly hunters of slow-moving blobs, and so stay out of the niche of the jawworm. They usually win out against crawlers, though.
ENVIRONMENT: A shallow sub-tropical sea. Layers upon layers of various types of blobs have built massive networks of reefs. Tentablobs grow above the rest, filtering food from the open water, while crawlers of various species create ditches and clear space. Aciblobs fill the majority of space for animal life, burrowing and swimming and crawling on the seafloor. Flapworms have migrated from the open ocean, and are efficient filter-feeders and danger-avoiders. Jawworms have also arrived recently, and hunt free-swimming animals (although the swimemone's toxins are still an obstacle, and they avoid the warning coloration of it). Upsidedown tentablobs are 60 centimetres or so wide, and are usually the centrepiece of a swimemone's territory.
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Topic: Competition- An evolutionary suggestion game (Read 108053 times)