NESLife VII

Sorry to be a pain - since these creatures replicate by simply dividing in two, again I wouldn't see this wouldn't be a benefit!

Well, really.... want I want is these creatures to have a way to sustain these photosynthetic cells.
 
Thanks Iggy :) Although, it's getting a little cramped at the top ;)
 
New Evolution Name: Eccentringus
Evolving from: Thingus
New Trait #1: Sexual Reproduction
New Trait #2: Resistance to Toxofilamenta toxins
Removed Trait(s): N/A
Brief Description: Eccentringus has developed a resistance to the deadly excretions of Toxofilamenta, allowing them to tap into the thus far unexploited food source they represent; the other major change that differentiates them from their Thingus ancestors is the development of two distinct sexes.
 
Welcome! And thankyou for being the first to introduce genetic exchange :)

I had been planning to raise the issue this turn - I was thinking that species with sexual reproduction could get away with slightly bigger leaps of evolution in their descendants, although that sounds alot like 'planning ahead', which as Iggy pointed out is not a realistic representation. So perhaps it could simply be a generic all-round bonus to have.
 
Maybe it should give +1 new trait, but makes you more "sensitive" to mass-extinctions? (Yes I know it doesn't make you more sensitive to mass-extinction in reality, but hey, it could be a gamey rule).
 
*Calling 24 hours notice for any more evolutions*

Some would say it would help species adapt quicker and so would make them less sensitive to mass extinctions ;) I think I'll simply keep it in mind as a hindrance to population growth, WHEN abundant food is available, compared to non-sexual species that can just clone themselves without any fuss... BUT that it leads to better overall 'fitness' and 'hardiness'.
 
Aarmulos: Lord_Herobrine, Era 3
Evolved from: Armolongus (+ Sticky secretion, + Flexible membrane)
Habitat: warm sea
Diet: plankton
Lifestyle: drifting, planktonian
Reproduction: budding/cloning
Description: The Aarmulos has evolved to have much more surface area and the ability to catch free-floating plankton much more easily. The arms now create a form of netting that drastically increases the number of plankton caught.

New Evolution Name: Tarmulos
Evolving from: Aarmulos
New Trait #1: The head of the creature has grown into a form resembling a bullet shape that has two symmetrical flaps at the far end. These flaps help to facilitate orientation and movement for best capture rates through the use of a muscular tension that moves water from front to back over a thin fin.
New Trait #2: A collection of light-sensitive splotches of cells that can detect which orientation is up and possibly keep the creature from bumping into objects.
Removed Trait(s):
Brief Description: The Tarmulos has evolved to become better adapted for open waters and to facilitate organized movement to new food locations.
 
Spinster: Abaddon, Era 3
Evolved from: Rovster (+ Fixing secretion, + Manipulative appendages)
Diet: bacteria, algae
Lifestyle: shallow seafloor crawler and burrower, benthic
Description: The Spinster, oozes. When it opens its digestive tube, the vile mass, mixed with special secretions is very sticky, and solidifies in time. The Spinster manipulates this with specialised cilia to "wall" its favorite tunnels, creating a safe haven to hide in and move about.

Evolves to

New Evolution Name: Wyrglus
Evolving from: Spinster
New Trait #1: Thin, sticky tendrils
New Trait #2: Prostomium-like sensory node on its "head"/top part
Brief Description: The Wyrglus, having evolved from the burrowing Spinster, chooses to create a tunnel and worm its tendrils upwards and catch free-floating food while its body may continue reside within the safety of its hole. Its sensory node is used to "feel" its way through tunnels.
 
Spoiler :
Splont: TheMeanestGuest, Era 2
Evolved from: Sponger ( + Toxin resistance, + Hardy structure)
Habitat: warm-temperate sea
Diet: plankton
Lifestyle: largely sessile, benthic
Reproduction: budding/cloning
Description: Feeding on the plentiful waste products produced by the toxofilamenta as well as planktons and free-floating nutrients, the Splont plants itself amidst clutches of the creatures and the mats they feed on. Indeed, as the toxofilamenta exhaust their food supply and die off the Splont itself delights in the nutrient-rich haze of decomposition - its cilia grasping and grabbing from the water that filters through its porous structure - remaining long after the last toxo has starved. To better take advantage of available nutrients the Splont has becoming increasingly hardy and strong, allowing its skeletal structure to in turn grow larger and larger, thus providing further surface area for the filtering cilia.


New Evolution Name: Nolock
Evolving from: Sponger
New Trait 1: Large clumping bodies (Think moss)
New Trait 2: Expanded Glucose storage
Removed Trait(s): None
Brief Description: Seeing an open area for ecological expansion (and swerving temperatures), the Sponger starts to adapt to the cold and becomes a Nolock. Keeping warmth by clumping together in larger bodies and expanding their glucose storage ability for the increased energy usage needed in such weather.
 
Thankyou guys! Apologies I didn't quite get into gear with the update yet, though I've done most of the pixel art for the evolutions. A good showing this turn!

I'm 'aiming' to get it up tomorrow night (GMT time).
 
8pm local. I worked late today and only just got around to eating. Please expect delays of up to 24 hours :/
 
Ahem... Sorry for the continued lack of an update. Spent all weekend indoors recovering from illness. Exhausted from work. Cold, windy, rainy and miserable weather. Lost all motivation to do anything constructive right now :/

I'm starting to feel better. Drinking more water helps, and I hope you can forgive me if I get an early night tonight!
 
Era 4 - The Killusian Era

[YOUTUBE=300]HWw13brw-1E[/YOUTUBE]

The climate continued to cool during this era, leaving many life forms confined to narrow strips of the equator and increasing the pressure of competition. Thick ice sheets regularly formed at the poles during the global winter. The most nutrient-rich waters were often too cold for complex life forms to survive, leaving vast blooms of plankton to go untouched...

The Kolonia was one life form that adopted a boom-and-bust strategy, making the most of the global summer season to reproduce in as great a volume as possible. Evolved from the Cruizer lineage of simple, tubular, free-swimming filter-feeders, the Kolonia was able to alternate between free-swimming and colonial life stages, the latter consisting of large chains of connected individuals. Though lacking a true circulation system, the colonies were able to share nutrients to a certain extent, growing rapidly at either end when enough plankton was around. At times the Kolonia could bloom in vast numbers, however these blooms were inevitably short-lived.

Other life forms took a slow and steady approach; the Nolock was a new branch of Sponger that evolved starchy energy stores, built up in good times, for use in times of duress. Although the Nolock was not especially adapted to cold water, it could use its energy reserves to help survive the winter months in more marginal areas than most other life forms.

Another interesting branch of Sponger appeared at this time - the Magitapeti discarded the porous mineral skeleton scaffolding that served its ancestors so well, and instead evolved sealed gas-filled chambers that enabled them to freely float above the seabed. Magitapeti are also remarkable for the sizes to which they grew - in columns up to a couple of metres long, which was especially large considering their otherwise very primitive nature. As a defensive measure, this was effective against being swallowed whole, but not against being eaten alive by the Nusance - a new predator that simply coated its prey in digestive fluid. Predation and competition eventually forced the Magitapeti into extinction.

The Syphidae family continued to evolve rapidly, and these species were among the most successful; their muscular bodies combined with a basic nervous system proved to be a key advantage, enabling bursts of speed and better-coordinated movements. These animals survived as filter feeders when small, and predators of other animals when large; Oculisyphus remained fairly common, especially in bright sunlit waters, while the blind tentacle-armed Agarose line gave rise to the Nusance and Manipose...

Nusance was a messy eater, initially digesting its prey outside of the main body cavity, while wrapping it in stinging tentacles - which were deadly against the unprotected skin of its prey. While this was somewhat costly, and not very efficient, it did allow the Nusance to target creatures larger than itself, even to feed on the Thingus and its descendents which had ruled the seabed for so long - leaving half-digested bodies in its wake.

While Nusance became top of the food chain, the Manipose was also successful thanks to its grasping/tearing appendages and its improved digestive tract (the most complex yet). Being altogether more elegant than its cousin, it was efficient at eating some of the sea algaeforms as well as catching small animals. And despite the lack of eyesight, the basic scent organs inherited from the Agarose still allowed both these predators to track food sources over longer distances, or to narrow in on food on the murky seabed.



In the face of these threats, and an ever-increasing array of sessile, drifting and swimming filter-feeders competing over what remained of the warm-water ocean, the Superhydrus family proved simply too over-engineered to survive. In one last flourish the Moderamenus evolved touch-sensitive ‘paddles’ and intricate limb structures, but this brought only minor feeding benefits at the expense of slower growth rates, and with no real defence against predators...

One branch of Superhydrus did survive this era, but it was really something of a degenerate compared to its cousins: the Maceria, which had become a largely sessile creature with only one feeding ‘arm’, surrounded by a phalanx of spikes for defence. The Maceria did however introduce a form of sexual reproduction - one of the first complex organisms to do so - with its ‘arm’ serving the dual purpose of launching sperm and egg cells into the water at regular intervals. Thus the reduced population was able to maintain a healthy amount of genetic diversity.

The closely-related Aarmulous line proved more successful than the Superhydrus, leading to the Tarmulous, equipped with primitive head-mounted ‘fins’ and proto-eyes, it had at least a small chance of avoiding danger. Though, internally this lineage remained primitive, lacking a true nervous system as seen in the Syphidae which hunted them, this did make it easier for these animals to clone themselves and survive through weight of numbers.

While no animal had yet adapted to cold water, some were able to adapt to be resistant to the fungus-like Toxofilamenta blooms, and thus were able to expand into new territory and new food sources; first the Mortovivium, an evolution of the mud-eating Rovster with tooth-like structures attached to its ‘head’, enabling it to slowly attack the hardened Splonts which already coexisted with Toxofilamenta, as well as scrape away algae and bacteria from seafloor rocks.

Secondly, the Eccentringus, a branch of the formidable Thingus family, which could similarly smother and digest smaller Splonts as well as Toxofilamenta. As a side effect, Eccentringus could often absorb the toxins for its own benefit, serving as a deterrent against Nusance attack. Eccentringus is also noteworthy as being another branch of life to adopt a form of sexual reproduction, in this case with two distinct genders - there was not much romance involved, as these creatures lacked a nervous system or much in the way of senses, and simply indulged in mass spawning (adding more food for filter-feeders), but it was enough for Eccentringus to become the most successful of the Thingae.

A side effect of all this was to make Toxofilamenta blooms very short-lived in warm waters where these animals lived. This also reduced the Splont’s advantages of toxin resistance. Wryglus was able to take advantage and grab a greater share of the seabed; like its ancestor the Spinster, it built tubes of compacted sand, gravel and resin within which to hide, but the Wryglus added a touch-sensitive ‘head’ with extendible, plankton-snatching tentacles, reducing the exposure to the main body when feeding. It was a simple but very effective combination, and fossils of this time show that Wryglus was one of the clear winners in the competition for living space in the equatorial shallows, often forming dense colonies of tubes on the sea floor where once had been only slow-growing Splont reefs.

Meanwhile another branch of the Thingus arose - the Dingalingus was a cousin and rival of the Eccentringus; staying clear of Toxofilamentus blooms, it gained a set of basic eye-spots to help navigate to sunlit areas over the increasingly-complex sea floor - though without a nervous system, it wasn’t able to avoid harmful animals such as the stinging Nusance (not that any member of the Thingus family could move especially fast anyway). Dingalingus did however evolve some biochemical tricks that allowed it to maintain its captured chloroplasts for longer periods, reducing the need to feed on fresh algae. Although not as dominant as its ancestors had been, Dingalingus remained fairly common in the equatorial shallows.

Toxofilamenta and Filamenta still flourished in cold waters and deep reaches where no animals went, particularly around deep sea vents which were rich in bacteria and minerals.

There was very little diversification among ‘plants’ during this era. The ’Drinkipoo’ was the only new branch to appear - making use of the adhesive strands which held it together, the Drinkipoo turned them into traps for small animals, which were then slowly digested by its secretions and absorbed. This was a valuable source of nourishment in expanses of warm-water ocean otherwise lacking in nutrients, but otherwise the added complexity and was not an advantage over its cousins.



Hyphomorph continued to grow in peace among the inland lakes waterways, usually remaining ice-free all year and fertilised with eroded minerals, where they lived alongside the Asymenta (a relative of Filamenta) as the only other complex life-form. Aside from Kalus colonisation of the high tide line along the sea shore, the rest of dry land remained devoid of anything but smudges of microbial life.

Otherwise, most algaeforms - like animals as a whole - showed a continued decline in numbers as they were unable to survive in the cold water that now made up most of the ocean. But there was one big exception; Killus was able to thrive in huge numbers, forming vast, tranquil carpets beneath the waves. Having already appeared two eras previously, it remained the only algaeform adapted to survive in cold water, and could now grow almost unchecked in temperate and polar shallows, where it could also take advantage of nutrient-rich currents, and free from attack by any animal. Its starchy, energy-storying body also helped to see it through the global winter. Killus still faced attack from aggressive Toxofilamenta blooms, but these were only a real problem when populations grew too dense in the first place.

With increasing amounts of carbon being absorbed by the Killus blooms, over millions of years, carbon dioxide continued to filter out of the planet’s atmosphere. The cold spell showed no signs of easing as this era drew to a close, and the ancient tropical habitats continued to be put under pressure...


Tree of Life:
Spoiler :


Planet Map:
Spoiler :


Stats:
*Species Stats can be found here*


*New* Diversity bonus:
(this is a function of age, population, lack of previous branching, and method of reproduction)
The following ‘species’ have become diverse enough that any new evolutions from them can have three new traits instead of two…:
* Toxofilamenta
* Eccentricus
* Chalidus
* Killus



Notes:
Apologies this update has been in ‘development hell’: deciding what to about the world map / redrawing the tree of life, re-writing parts where I wrote too much… while recovering from illness, being exhausted from work, deciding to quit my job, and now being gripped by anxiety and wanting to backtrack (I’ll have *that* discussion with my boss tomorrow), starting at the gym after a long absence, and finally catching up with my friends / networking this weekend after an antisocial month (three nights of socialising in a row followed by sleeping til 4:45pm local time today), you could actually say its a wonder I got anything done at all ;)

I do hope to up the pace for the next update...

@TheGentlemanSpy, I'd envisioned your evolution as being a new branch from the base Sponger (as per your submission) though I later realised you most likely wanted to branch from the Splont. Apologies for that.
 
Beautiful as always. And nothing to be sorry about, I can only guess how long an update of this take....
 
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