Toxic Flesh 6+2, Size Increase 4-1, Shell Seal 6+1, Improved Proboscis 1, Travel Cocoon 1, Eyespots 3, Longer Body 2, Shell Home 3, Mobility 6, Aggression 5.
Vase lancelet shells dot the shallows in vast numbers, deceiving the casualy observer into believing that an equally vast number of lancelets inhabit the region. In truth, less than a twentieth of the shells are inhabited, as the lancelets have evolved the habit of keeping multiple shells as homes and frequently travel between them. This semi-migratory habit allows an individual lancelet to cover a wide area and slightly evades the issue of prey learning to avoid their shells. The main aperture of the shells is sealed with a thick mucous 'flap' to prevent entry by unwanted predators or parasites, and an extra pair of 'gill holes' on the shell allow for a pair of very rudimentary eyespots. Lancelets generally cannot see with any real depth, but they can tell if something passes in front of them in time to emerge from their shells to strike.
The distinctive proboscis of this evolutionary line has atrophied in this species, becoming a short pincered stub and no longer able to extend or retract. Instead, the lancelet has developed powerful muscles that allow it to spring out from its shell when prey is sensed, impaling it by sheer force. Small prey is dragged back into the shell for consumption, while larger prey may be torn apart and fragments taken back into the shell. In either case, lancelets only emerge from their shells to migrate to another shell, establish a new shell to expand their hunting range or deposit offspring.
The general lancelet hunting tactic is to spring out from a house shell upon sensing prey and attempt to stun or impale the prey by impact. The lancelet then repeatedly bites and pummels the already stunned creature until it kills it. Impaling is a relatively rare occurrence, as most prey species have now evolved tougher hides; the scuteslug is a typical example that sports subcutaneous scutes and feeds upon the thick vegetation of the bay. Once settled upon a prey creature, though, lancelets are dogged in their hunt, attacking aggressively until either creature is dead or unable to continue.
When springing out of shells on the attack, lancelets are faster predators than anything else in their home waters. They achieve this by bunching up their muscles and using the shell casing as a springboard for the lunge, allowing them to move up to four metres in less than three seconds. Outside of a shell lancelets move by classic body-rippling like the various other slug-descendents in the water, but their powerful muscles give them a speed edge over most other species. While lancelets are at their most vulnerable while forming a new shell, the extreme toxicity of their flesh protects them as a species (a few still die while predators 'learn') from everything else in the water.
Lancelets still possess the reproductive tendrils of their ancestors (albeit shorter and stubbier) and reproduce the same way, with the exception that instead of digging young into the silt they deposit them in empty shells at the furthest edge of their hunting range.
The slow rise of the seabed has halted, and the water in the shallow bay and islands in which the lancelet lives is clearing up. Armoured slugs now dominate the herbivorous niche of the ecosystem, thinning out the ancient sea ferns that have remained essentially unaltered since the blob age, while fast-moving worms hunt them and compete fairly successfully with the lancelets. The gravid impaler, a two-metre shell-less descendent of the murklurker with a sort of hard cocoon and a longer, worm-like body, hunts murklurkers and other shelled creatures by boring into their shells with their hardened proboscis and feasting on the creatures inside. The impaler is not immune to the lancelet's toxin, although the gravid's proboscis does contain a venom that is effective on most creatures. Fortunately, the two do not compete for niches and the gravid largely leaves the lancelet house shells alone.
GENERATION 5:
Vase Lancelet
An enormous white slug-like creature that secretes a cave-like shell bound to the ocean floor. About a metre long, with a pair of distinctive gill-tubes running along its back (when exposed) and 'breathing holes' along the shell. A short, stubby pincered proboscis is used for feeding, and two genital tendrils can be extended from either side.
REPRODUCTION: It lets out male cells in the current, and polyps grow on the genital tendrils of other blobs where they land. The polyps are deposited in vacant house shells and develop into infant lancelets.
MOVEMENT: Moves by rippling its body, or springboarding out of shells on the attack.
SENSES: Detects pressure changes in the water through receptors on its skin, rudimentary eyespots detect changes in light level.
EATING: Rams prey with its proboscis at high speed, stunning or impaling, then attacking with blunt force until subdued. Eats small slugs and the occasional large worm.
PREDATION: No natural predators, but occasionally killed defensively by prey species. Hunts slugs and worms, migrating between house shells when prey becomes scarce. Still leaves a rudimentary scent trail to attract prey near the shell, and fundamentally still hunts directly from the shell.
COMPETITION: Niche competition is very low, as competitor species now being driven extinct by gravid impalers. Internal competition low, as younger lancelets have wide dispersion limited by existing shell range.
ENVIRONMENT: A shallow, clearwater sea amongst multiple islands. The ancient coral reefs are now a distant memory, and the sea bed is largely sandy and composed of crushed shells and sediment. Light filters down into the depths from above, as the ferns are now controlled by large herbivorous populations. The sea is growing warmer.
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Topic: Adaptation - Another Evolutionary Suggestion Game (Read 17006 times)