Turn 13EventStrength Dice: 75
Temperament Dice: 1
The algea growths have evolved against the heavy predation they were under. Algea populations have spilt into dozens of varieties, some poisonous, some have incorporated silica spikes into their gelatinous bodies, and some are normal. The range of algea stays the same, but the readily consumable ones have greatly decreased in size.
Team PancakeNaturegirl1999:
absent...Kilojoule Proton:
absent...Demonic Spoon: The oil pimples inside adapt into full storages: 2+1= 3
Barrel GreenplateOn the outside, the greenplate forest haven't changed a bit, but there is a difference. The oil pimples that went mosty vestigial eons upon eons ago have been fully incorporated into the plants body. Now the inside of every greenplate is a tubular cavity that contains oil, which stores water and energy.
Status: LC
Description: A green plant shaped like a flat, rough circle supported by a long, fuzzy stem. Its pan is a meter and a half in diameter, and it is stem is 4 meters long. A deep and extensive system of roots at the bottom of its stem dig into the soil and harvest it for water and minerals. It reproduces by producing and shedding a puffy coat of small airborne seeds that cover its stem. The walls of its cells are very durable and sturdy. It has dozens of tiny oil-filled pimples inside its stem, which used to be on its outer surface and for buoyancy on water, but now do not serve much of a purpose beyond being minor storage units. A system of veins course through its every tissue, and transport water and other essentials. It lives like your regular tree, forming vast, dense growths.
Habitat: All around the flat land surrounding The Crater Sea.
Team Pasta VēlōcisA_Curious_Cat: A multi-purpose fluid chamber inside the body: 3+2= 5
King Zultan:
Supports A_Curious_CatSexual Selection vote: Zig-zag muscles to grant the body flexibility: 6
Flexible BlishTo support ever-larger body plans blish evolve into, a hydroskeletal support structure have developed. This large, fluid-filled internal sack grants the blish the ability to.grow larger without having to provide for useless filler tissue. The sack surrounds the middle and lower parts of the digestive tract.
As a complimentary feature mainly evolved from the need to keep the outer tissues rigid enough to keep together at these larger sizes, new, flexible tissues have developed. They then gained the ability to be flexed at will of the blish, which allowes the said blish to spread their smell and vibrations more efficently than the others that could not flex. The result is a very tight knit set of zig-zagging muscles that are hard to control due to their tendency to show off their gains with sudden pulls. They do their job at movement, but are imperfect in their wiring.
Status: LC
Description:An aquatic animal that is 45 centimeters long. It moves along the sea floor and above with a flagella-covered tail and digests any organic debris it can find through its mouth that leads to its complex, three sectioned digestive system, which leads to an anus. It has 10 black dots on its very front, 4 of them larger then the other 6. The smaller six form a hexagon that surrounds a square that is formed from the bigger 4, which surrounds a single jawless mouth. It uses these dots to smell the water around and act according to them, approaching or avoiding alike. These dots and everything this animal has as parts are connected to and commanded by a chord of nerves that runs from front to back of the animal that branches out to the rest of the body. A fluid-filled internal cavity surrounds its digestive system and acts as a hydroskeleton, which is also surrounded by a net of zif-zag muscles that aid in its movement, albeit imperfectly. It is close to a rod of cartilage that supports its body, and has an extension on its front that grants the animal a sense of airflow. A mane of thin and short crimson strands surround the head region, and functions as gills and ammonia disposal, along with a set of pairs of slits that function as additional gills. A system of blood-filled veins course through its body , powered by a single muscle pump. It reproduces by external fertilisation of eggs performed by two distinct genders. The fertilised eggs hatch into tiny juneviles, which reach full size and sexual maturity not too long after.
Habitat: Benthic waters.
Team Lagus Blobflazeo25: Improved internal calcite framework: 5+2+1=
capped at 5Maxinum McDreich: Expansion in diet: 2+1
The Canadian kitten:
Supports flazeo25Sexual Selection vote: Cartilage: 4
Tiktaalik LagusLagus were the first to ever dare to venture out of their watery home. Sure, they can't survive 30 seconds out there, but they can endure brief surfacings.
How do they do it? They owe it to their new skeleton granting them limited movement on land. It is pretty similar to that of a terran tetrapod, with a ribcage, skull and leg bones. The allow its muscles to bear its weight and pull it onto land, allowing it to graze upon the Coastal Pancakes.
How do they do that? Lagus now have a wider rnage of stuff that they consider food, such as pancakes and eachothers corpses. But these new foods do come with a disadvantage, as Lagus has no way of safely and reliably getting them, so they do not have that much of an impact
Finding suitable algea patches for their many young has become very hard.
Status: VU
Description: A oval animal 60 centimeters in length and 35 centimeters in width. It slowly moves along the sea shore and chews algea, but also eats pancakes or corpses. It has a tail resembling of a fish, which it uses to swiftly move around, and it is aided by two pairs of side fins keeping balance, one pair on the front, one on the back. Covering the body, a specialised layer of tissue prevents any nutrient loss. And under that, there is a skeleton that keeps it rigid and provides pathways for its mucscles to work, also supporting cartilage that allows the bones to move smoothly. This is further augmented with a net of nerves just beneath the outer layer, which also controls its movement and grants it a bit of pressure reception that informs it of the depth. This net of nerves converges into a lump in the head, which is a brain that houses a sex-crazed mind. It has a defined front side with a head, which has two giant, organised patches of heat sensitive proteins, kind of like heat eyes, that allows it to detect the amount of ambient and directional heat, and a jawed mouth that leads to a full digestive tract that also handles the ammonia disposal. 6 pairs of fleshy protrusions covered with red hairs function as gills. A set of veins and a heart transport nutrients and oxygen throught its body. Just above the eyes two long and flexible tendrils reside, and these end with fleshy orbs that produce heat, which equals to strong glow in their vision. These orbs also have cone and rod cells inside, which allows these orbs to function as primitive eyes capable of percieving shape, they can even change the amount of heat they produce to send messages to one another. It reproduces by the internal fertilisation by the gamet-injecting tendrils of Eral, and the internal hatching of eggs by Alur, who then releases the offspring onto a suitable patch of algea.
Habitat:.The mostly barren coastal waters.
Team Friendly PancakeKashyyk: Pain reflexes: 1+1= 2
Sexual Selection vote: Splitting turns to budding: 5+1=6
Protester HivecakeAs the vandalisation from the Eelish grew, hivecakes adapted to put their nerves to use. Maybe, a colony "thought" of it?
Now when a pancake gets hurt, their nearby kin attempt to pull them away from danger by tugging their bonding tendrils, along with any Strangler waving their weapons at the general direction of the threat. But hivecake collective has no senses beyond pain, so they have no way of knowing the exactly where the threat is. The enemy usually escapes before they can catch and kill it, and tugging their siblings away only distracts the herbivore.
A less noticable, but still a very important feature appeared as well. A significant amount of hivecake mortalities came from failed spilts. So the hivecake circumvented this, by changing the imherited mass of one offspring. Now most hivecakes support several smaller versions of themselves attached to them. These smaller copies go on to grow into full adults at a very fast rate, while not causing any deaths. But maybe it is too efficent, A colony of hivecakes can't just grow forever, because if they get too big, the currents will tear them apart. Now hivecake colonies split much more often due to growing too fast.
Status: LC
Description: A complex of plants shaped like a flat circles with varying sizes. A ring of long and thin, retractable white tendrils reside, and are used to form connections with others of its kind to transfer nutrients. Surrounding the edges of the pan is a coat of bonding proteins that allows it to stick to others of its kind. It's tissues are tough to prevent injuries. It lives permanently stuck to the sea surface through the dozens of tiny oil-filled pimples across its body, which only some plants have. It can be found as mats numbering several tens of thousands plants, and never alone, as they die if they are separated. It features specialised subtypes. It has the ability to let others know if it is low on or has too much nutrients, or if its in pain by using the communal nervous system, which others will act accordingly by either giving or taking nutrients, or pulling their brethern away from danger and retaliating if possible. The nutrient transfer is accomplished by a communal circulatory system that spans the entirety of a given hive, and it is powered by the beating of tens of thousands of internal water pumps. It reproduces by asexual budding from their pans edges to expand their colonies, and by incubating settlers, which are made by a process that makes them genetically distinct, when creating new colonies.
CastesSuncatcher: The green hivecakes with larger pans and the only ones that have oil pimples in their body, along with only having vestigial water pumps and their tendrils ony being connective ones. They compose the upper surface of a given colony. Their job is to photosynthesize and keep the colony afloat.
Waterraker: The pale white hivecakes with almost non-existant pans and non-existant pimples. Their water pumps are still external. Their job is to filter the water for any essentials and store nutrients in their cells. They do this by specialised filtering tentacles shaped like wide, long feathers.
Incubator: The specialised caste of hivecake that neither photosynthesizes or filters water. Instead, it produces genetically distinct settlers that grow into new colonies inside its oil filled womb, and eject them by turning inside out. It requires a drone to fuse into it everytime it makes a new settler.
Settler: The ones that produce new colonies by horizontally splitting into one suncatcher and a waterraker. They resemble both of their offspring, and are made.
Drones: This tiny, perfectly round caste specialises solely to be genetic carriers between Incubators. They are produced by Incubators and released into the circulatory system, which then they find another Incubator and fuse into it, carrying the genetic material into the mix.
Strangler: A caste of highly modified waterrakers with a single purpose; catching live prey. Their tendrils are longer and have the ability to curl up very fast. They are also covered in a toxin that shuts down gills. They suffocate, then consume the prey, then send the nutrients to the rest of the complex.
: Open ocean.
Team EraclitoLeonardo8: Smarter Eelish that has the concept of personal space: 4+1= 5
GOTOTOTOE: Venom resistance: 4
Sexual Selection vote: Slippery mucus layer: 3
Horde EelishBehold! The serpentine horde has come to feed! The previous evolutionary fiasco has been averted into a solid advantage. Now Eelish are never found alone, and move in large troupes numbering up to a hundred. They can even use new pheromonal signals to tell eachother different things, such as calling for help or signalling direction. This is accomplished by a larger brain capable of more complex thought.
The natural selection have also taken its route on building up defenses against the new predators. The eelish now have a set of special glands near their gills that negate the Stranglers poison. They are not affected unless the dosage becomes too high.
Lastly, a slicky mucus now covers the Eelish, mainly as a smell enhancer. But as it is very slippery, and their locomotion requiring some friction, it himders their seimming a bit. It also helps with getting out of the trapper tendrils of hivecakes, their predator and prey.
Status: LC
Description: An serpentine, aquatic, mucus covered animal that is a meter long. It swims inside the colonies of hivecakes with slithering motions of its muscular body and chews pieces from the said plants through a giant, vertically opening jaw that leads to its three segmented, efficent digestive tract with a stomach and intestines, which leads to an anus. It moves in large troupes numbering up to a hundred and can communicate with pheromonal signals. Its anus is also connected to a chain of gas bladders it uses to control it buoyancy and give its body its shape. It has 10 black dots on its very front segment , 4 of them larger then the other 6. The smaller six form a hexagon that surrounds a square that is formed from the bigger 4, which surrounds its mouth. It uses these dots to smell the water around and act according to them, approaching or avoiding alike. These dots and everything this animal has as parts are connected to and commanded by a chord of nerves that runs from front to back of the animal that branches out to the rest of the body. Two stripes of thin and short crimson strands course through the animals sides, and function as gills, with a set of glands that produce an antipoison to protect them. Derived from these, a system of bloodfilled chambers and muscular valves pump blood through the animals body through thousands of thin veins. It reproduces by external fertilisation of eggs performed by two distinct genders. The fertilised eggs hatch into tiny, neotenic, single segmented juneviles, which reach full size, shape and sexual maturity not too long after.
Habitat: Inside the hivecake collectives.
Team AkınMagmacube_tr:
1) A nervous system: 4
2) A primitive circulatory system: 3
3) A pseudo gut, a tube that ends and begins with a muscular ring to pull and push: 3
Marker AmaranthAmaranth now has a nervous system that surrounds its entire body. These nerves control its movement and metabolism. There is not much to control yet, but it is more efficent than everything just doing whatever they want.
Amaranth have also evolved a ciculatoru system with primitive hearth at the center of its body. This has allowed it to support larger sizes, but as it lacks any structural support, this is not enough on its own.
Lastly, Amaranth have evolved a better way to harvest dirt. Instead of just sliding over it, it can now gulp it in, and let it slide inside it, then expel it out, leaving a trail of harvested sediment behind it. This method is barely more efficent than the previous one though, as it is still a passive way of gathering nutrients, and the outer skin has lost its ability to absorb, becoming fully isolative. The six side flaps are no longer soft, but now they lay vestigial.
It is behind the others, but it will catch up! And when it does...
Status: LC
Description: A semi-oval proto-animal 8 centimeters in length. It aimlessly crawls along the sea floor by using its muscular torso and digests any organic debris by gulping the seafloor soil in, filtering it inside its tubular pseudo-gut, and then expelling it out. It has six, vestigial flaps on its sides. It has a set of long and stiff extensions that line its back, that function as gills. It has a nervous system that controls its bodily functions. It has a primitive, closed circulatory system that distributes the essentials inside its body. A specialised layer of tissue prevents any nutrient loss. It reproduces by splitting in two when it gets too big.
Habitat: Seafloor.
EnvironmentOn the southern hemisphere of the planet Aqautico, a giant warm saltwater crater lake called The Crater Sea resides.
Surrounding the sea, a verdant forest of Greenplate trees cover the flat ground far as eye can see. Its surface is covered with a layer of fluffy seeds that look and act like snow. It is totally silent except for the wind as there are no fully terrestrial animals yet.
Through the east side, four rivers called The Harbringers follow curved, close-by paths to The Crater Sea, coming from a tall mountain range called The Snowtipped Wall. The mountain range is also very close to an active volcano. Along with the four rivers, there is a dry river bed, a remnant of a time when there were five of The Harbringers.
A smaller and much younger freshwater crater lake is also nearby, residing by the north of The Crater Sea. It is connected to the it by a small stream that used to carry toxic, heavy metals from the lake it comes from.
Multicelluar life is abundant and complex. Vast collectives of "eusocial" plants can be seen along the shallow coasts and the deep sea respectively. Sparse algal growths exist as well, and used to be much more widespread than they used to be.
It is also very clearly present on the flat land surrounding The Crater Sea, as the Greenplate forest.
Author
Topic: Competitive Evolution (Turn 18) (11/15) (Read 36785 times)