NESLife VI

Awesome. :D

By the way, when I was updating, I gave the Spinator the 'easiest creature to draw' award. ;)
 
It is quite deliberate that I offer neither gene bonuses nor explicit recognition of who is behind each species. ;)
 
Organism: Turretspore
Ancestor: Towerspore
Pressure: Increased predation from / destruction of home/ecosystem by Chairmen [JK Stockholme's creation]
Mutation: Towerspores, the somewhat parasitic creatures that occupy living or abandoned Towers or Spires, have developped the ability to spew toxic or poisonous liquids which, although are swept away by the current eventually, have the immediate effect of injuring or scaring off the floating Chairmen, thus evolving into the Turretspore, a parasite no longer; instead, a symbiotic creature, protecting its 'host', if one exists.

Is it okay that I've been basing their evolution off of newly existing threats, such as the Chairmen? If not it's cool and I can come up with something else, Iggy.
 
Quick reactions are quite acceptable... I will just act as if a reactive evolution appears later in the epoch. :)
 
4 hours from now is a 'soft' deadline. I might accept a few evolutions after that. I'll state the absolute deadline when I reach it. Why do you ask? You've already posted an evolution. ;)

Ah, I see you've gotten rid of it.

Yeah, I don't really like it when people post evolutions then change or delete them. Sometimes I've already drawn them and written about them, and I don't like wasting time when I'm already a slow updater. If you're not positive about your evolution, make a post asking about its feasibility instead and then post your evolution when you're sure you want to stick with it.
 
Oh yes, don't worry, I hadn't drawn yours- my comment wasn't directed at you, it was just a request of the playerbase in general. :)

Sorry if there was a misunderstanding there, I look back at my post and it does indeed look like I'm directing it specifically at you. No, it was just that seeing the deletion reminded me of something that I'd forgotten to say in the thread earlier.
 
19 Evolutions. Cannot wait for the update :D
 
Good luck everyone :)


Link to video.

It is quite deliberate that I offer neither gene bonuses nor explicit recognition of who is behind each species. ;)

I have noted that the lack of bonuses has not curbed anyone's enthusiasm. Nor does straight-line evolution ('evolve from my previous species ad infinitum') seem to be an issue here. Taking notes for NESLife V - I think there was intuition behind my lack of progress. Now I can copy your ideas :))
 
Organism: Dawie
Ancestor: Mawie
Selective Pressure: Jetseer eyesight making hunting more difficult
Mutation: The Mawie was losing ever so slowly food to jetseer eyesight. In a few areas, they were greatly outnumbered by jetseers and could not compete with them for food. In these areas, the Mawie evolved into the dawie, which developed photosensitive cells to hunt down prey more effectively.
 
Shameless ripping-off of other peoples NES ideas is a proud and longstanding tradition of our forum!

I stole the LINES ruleset in its entirety from Kamilian. ;)

Also, I'm updating now.
 
Organism: Greater Broader Indigestible Sunfeeder (Greater)
Ancestor: Broader Indigestible Sunfeeder
Selective pressure: Competition over turf from those other damned Indigestibles
Mutation: Competition is lame, so some Indigestibles opted to rise above it (literally). The Greaters developed a stalk, supported by a rudimentary glass matrix which extended to cover the base as well, that allowed them to out-climb their competitors (albeit slowly). This growth also forced potential predators to leave the relative safety of the Indigestible forests to predate them, a risky proposition for the herbivorous!

OOC: Thanks Iggy for allowing me to post.
 
Accepted because you ran home from work to post it.

Rejected because of the four-barreled name. ;)

Still working on pictures.
 
Epoch III: The Hitcheric Epoch

Following the Towerian collapse of benthic fauna, animal life has returned to Lambda’s ocean floors, in the form of a diverse assemblage all descended from the Thick Feaster. In the photosynthetic world, the highly successful Indigestible lineage has undergone an explosion of diversification. All throughout the tree of life, evolutionary breakthroughs in new senses and new digestive systems take place, and the very first lifeforms have lifted themselves clear of the ocean... though only by a few centimeters. However, the most prominent, epoch-defining change took place in the flourishing floater clouds, hovering just under the ocean’s surface.



Hitchers, descendants of the common Floater, have developed a variety of hook-like appendages, allowing them to latch on to other species. This serves as a useful dispersal mechanism for many smaller members of the Hitcher family, but larger Hitchers are usually too massive to be pulled around by the relatively weak swimmers of this Epoch. However, their hooks have allowed Hitchers to grab hold of other passive floating organisms. The costs and benefits of this development roughly balance one another. While crowding oneself with neighbours reduces the availability of food, it also reduces the predation rates of the hook-owners, as would-be hunters inevitably run into entangled neighbours before they run into the Hitcher itself. The effect of this single species on the Floater clouds has been massive. Clouds no longer, today many of these structures have formed into colossal agglomerations, henceforth known as floating islands, held together like a great clump of velcro by populations of Hitchers. Frequently, the intense crowding effect causes large-scale die-offs in the center of these floating islands, but the decaying matter provides a huge boon for floating photosynthesizers such as the Tonu, who thrive in the decomposing morass.

Chairmen, a close relative of the Hitchers and a fellow descendant of the Floater, threatened to have a similarly profound effect on the tower forests of the ocean floor. Rather than investing large amounts of energy into building stalks of their own, Chairmen descended upon Spires and Towers, clogging, lacerating and growing overtop of them, ultimately leading to the Tower’s death. While this was a successful strategy for a time, and it temporarily pushed back the Towers and their relatives, the Chairmen were eventually undone by two striking examples of symbiosis. First, several species from the Spinator family, specially adapted for life in the Towers, were placed under a fairly significant selective pressure by the wholesale destruction of their habitats. Thus, they began to selectively predate upon Chairmen, frequently destroying the infestations before they were able to kill off the Tower. Secondly, a toxic descendant of the Towerspore evolved, with the ability to exude poison as a defense measure. Neither of these two species did this out of any intelligence or sense of good will towards the Towers- it was a simple matter of behavioural evolution. Those who developed traits to oppose the Chairmen would save their homes, and thus go on to reproduce, passing on their protective genes. Those who failed to do so went on to lose their homes and perish.

The Swei was an unsuccessful descendant of the Svi, which made use of the same microstructures which generated currents around it as a means of locomotion. This development had exceedingly small benefits, and it was rather costly adaptation with a minimal payoff in terms of improved predation. With Svis already abundant over most of the seafloor and largely immune to predation there were very few places to which Sweis could go that did not already have a healthy population of toxic filter feeders. Thus, this exceedingly short branch on the tree of life wasted very little time in withering and falling straight off into the extinction bin.

The Ro’i was a short-lived lineage descended from the Popper family of spires, which developed a set of tentacle-like protrusions to dispatch larvae on passing organisms. This reproductive strategy proved to be of limited effectiveness, as the only free-swimming creatures to contact these tentacles generally worked to dispose of the attached larvae immediately. The tentacles were not particularly effective at promoting long-range dispersal, and thus the Ro’i reproduced less, used a greater effort in doing so, were less successful in dispersing their young, and when their young did successfully disperse they did so with less average starting biomass than their Popper cousins. With these factors all working against the Ro’i, the lineage was outcompeted and driven extinct by the same population that it had diverged from.



Budders have done reasonably well for themselves, investing a greater deal of their energies into reproduction. With only a handful of dedicated predators to threaten them, Budders have thrived, coming to outnumber their more primitive, slower-reproducing relatives.

The Aikoater was another descendant of the Broader with reproductive mutations. By releasing spores, rather than budding like their cousins, Aikoaters are much more effective at dispersing. However, their offspring also face an uphill battle to survive, while Budders start life already close to their mature size. To gain an edge, Aikoater spores are frequently ingested by predatory Crushers. While this usually destroys the spores, in rare cases the spores are able to establish themselves inside the bodies of their predators. Following this, a battle with their host’s primitive immune system ensues. If the germinating spore succeeds (usually when the Crusher is particularly old, starved or otherwise weakened), it will grow within the safety of its dying host, ultimately maturing after absorbing the full biomass of the deceased Crusher. With this nutrient head start, Aikoaters are able to compete relatively evenly with Budders.

The Greater, short for the Greater Broader Indigestible Sunfeeder, developed in a more specific response to the recent increase in predation faced by its ancestors. By developing stalks, the Greater has lifted itself off of the ocean floor, thus freeing itself from predation by Os-Spinas and Crushers, except in the cases where the industrious grazers decide to go through the time-consuming process of chewing through the thick stalks. Greaters also have to contend with cloying Sunseekers, but that is an entirely different evolutionary struggle.

Turretspores evolved from Towerspores as part of an evolutionary arms race against Chairmen. Although that lineage has now been driven extinct, Turretspores remain. While their induced toxicity makes them slower-growing than Towerspores, they suffer significantly less predation, thus ensuring their continued survival for the time being.

Sunseekers have evolved in response to increasingly intense competition by Indigestible lineages. Refusing to become outshaded, Sunseekers have adopted several epiphytic characteristics. By developing gripping ridges in their protein coats engaging in directional growth and apoptosis, Sunseekers became able to climb, at extraordinarily slow speeds, over their competitors. This strategy has proven to be rather effective, and has helped to restore the competitive balance between the various benthic Sunfeeder lineages. At the present, the bigger challenge to Sunseekers remains their desirability for herbivores.

The Zeppu is an even more buoyant descendant of the still highly-successful Tonu. While Tonus float just below the surface, with their bubbles just barely contacting the air, Zeppus float above the ammonia sea’s surface, in the splash zone of the waves. While the lesser size of the Zeppu renders it slightly less productive, it is able to avoid almost all predation, and feed upon the comparatively more intense sunlight available above the surface. By the end of the Epoch, Zeppus had diversified and spread across the entire oceanic surface of Lambda. An alien visitor to this world might stand on a lifeless black beach, and look out over the vast ammoniac oceans to see an unending field of Zeppus stretching off to the horizon, their translucent purple bubbles rising up and down like a great fleet of lanterns, faintly illuminated by the ghostly blue light of Thor.



Hobos, descendants of the successful Sniffer lineage, have thrived due to the development of a simple muscular digestive sac. By concentrating their digestive activities in an interior space, Hobos have become the first predatory organisms able to eat and move at the same time (second, if one is to count the Luasks). The external digestive glands still release enzymes, but now they are used simply to form a slimy coat. This adaptation is both simple and reasonably effective, providing Hobos with an effective escape mechanism from other, more dangerous predators that stalk Lambda’s oceans.

The Eyejet developed, for a time, some of the most complex light-sensitive organs to yet appear on Lambda. However, their niche began to grow increasingly less comfortable as Hitchers multiplied, congealing the rather well-lit and diffuse Floater Clouds into semi-solid masses. The acute vision of the Eyejets was rendered useless within these dark, labyrinthine and intensely claustrophobic environments. In these dimly-lit mazes, blind predators had all the advantages, rendering Eyejets highly vulnerable to predation by their Mawie cousins. Outside of the floating islands, Eyejets found themselves badly limited by their poor swimming ability. Outcompeted both inside and outside their old home environments, Eyejets fell into gradual decline and extinction.

The Greenback, closely related to the Eyejet, was another victim of the transformation of the floater clouds to floating islands. Having independently evolved a method of energy collection similar to that of the photosynthesis used by the Sunfeeder lineage, Greenbacks would perch atop of Floaters, Tonus and other similar organisms, basking in sunlight while slowly digesting their carriers. It was an unlikely strategy, but for a time it worked quite well. However, with the rise of the Hitchers, the vast majority of Greenback habitat was rather abruptly destroyed. Crowded onto the tops and upper edges of these floating islands, Greenbacks were subjected to intensified predation by Mawies, not to mention the whole gamut of open-ocean swimming predators. In environments where they frequently had to flee, maintaining a passive basking lifestyle proved to be impossible, and one of Lambda’s most unique and fascinating lineages met its doom.

The Jetseer itself was soon too driven to extinction- in open seas, it was dramatically outcompeted by the Spinseers, while various Mawies and Dawies whittled down the population within and around the floating islands.

The Dawie was one of several lineages to independently develop dedicated organs for photoreception. However, as with many of the other species living in the floating islands, the dark conditions rendered vision an energy-expensive waste. However, the Dawie has been able to make use of its adaptation on the island edges. Here, the small stinging predator lurks in wait bolting out for short distances in ambush-style attacks against free-swimming creatures who wander too close. Through this technique, Dawies have managed to eke out an existence.

The Poker was a rather odd descendant of the successful parasitic lineage of the Clappers. While Clappers continued to successfully parasitize a wide range of species in the floating islands, Pokers descended to the ocean floor, making use of their proboscises to penetrate and feed off of the soft portions of Sunshields and Indigestibles. However, the extremely poor mobility of the Pokers, coupled with their small size and near-total lack of defenses, left them rather poorly adapted for herbivorous roles on the ocean floor. Predatory Spinators made light meals of them, while herbivorous denizens of the ocean floor were able to handily outcompete Pokers. By the epoch’s end, the Poker lineage had gone extinct in its entirety.

Spinseers descended from an ancestral population of Spinelords, have developed a semicircle of pits around the front of their bodies. These pits contain unique sensory receptors capable of detecting infrared radiation. With this form of vision, the already threatening Spinelords have become an outright terror. These powerful swimmers feed freely on anything soft-bodied that they can find- and they are exceedingly good at finding things.



The Digestor is a successful descendant of the populous Grazer lineage. Circumventing the comparatively slow feeding rate of its ancestors (a necessary limitation due to most of the organism’s potential external digestive surfaces being covered with armoured cuticle), Digestors have invaginated a long, tubular structure through the insides of their feeding heads. Food enters into this simple digestive tract through one opening, and waste ejects through a secondary opening beside the first. This development allowed the Digestors to rapidly outcompete and drive to extinction their slower-feeding Grazer ancestors.

Os-Spinas, derived from the Crushers, possess in the core of their body a muscle-bound, cartilaginous spine. The Os-Spina uses this complex musculature to crawl about with greater speed than its ancestors, and propel its body through muddy, seafloor burrows. With great defensive capabilities, good mobility and a massive supply of available food, Os-Spinas are thriving.

The Spinator diverged into three new groups this epoch. One of these descendants is the Chomper. With a fierce set of mandibles build into its cuticular armour, Chompers are well-suited to feed on both Sunfeeders and the diverse array of recently-evolved armoured benthic organisms. While Digestors may be superior competitors if the menu is limited to Sunshields alone, the omnivorous Chompers have the toolkit needed to break open and eat Digestors, thus forcing their herbivorous cousins to keep their distance when Chompers arrive at a feeding site. Capable of comfortably eating almost anything (save for Indigestibles, Venters and Svis), Chompers are the undisputed kings of the ocean floor.

The Orator was not quite successful as the Chomper, but it still managed to survive through the epoch. Independently of the Jetseer and the Spineseers, Orators developed a simple visual sense, with two protrusible light detecting organs near the front of its body. It is quite likely that this was an adaptation to predation by Chompers, the first organism really capable of breaking through the tough exteriors of the varied organisms descended from the Thick Feaster. With the ability to spot these dangerous predators coming from a distance and outpace them in a chase, Orators have managed to survive by adopting a roaming lifestyle, grazing only so long as it is safe to do so.

Finally, the Curatol has also developed improved senses. Adapting its two foremost spines into long, olfactory organs, Curatols are excellent at following scents wafting through the ammonia seas. In specific, they seek out the scent of decaying organic matter, for Curatols are Lambda’s first dedicated macroscopic scavengers, a role that has brought them considerable success and evolutionary security.



Notes: To thomas.berubeg and other people considering developing photosynthetic animals, it might be useful to search ‘why don’t animals photosynthesize’. I found a good link here discussing animal photosynthesis. This clip from The Future is Wild presents a feasible animal photosynthesizer, along with a discussion of real-life animals who make use of symbiotic algae to photosynthesize.

Next update will be on Saturday.

Spoiler Extant Organisms :
Primary Producers

Organism: Aikoater
Description: A flat mass of photosynthetic cells with silicate crystals for defense, radial extensions for greater light capture, and semi-parasitic spores for reproduction.
Niche: Defensive stationary primary producer.

Organism: Budder
Description: A flat mass of photosynthetic cells with silicate crystals for defense, radial extensions for greater light capture, and budding reproduction.
Niche: Defensive stationary primary producer.

Organism: Greater
Description: A mass of photosynthetic cells with silicate crystals for defense, radial extensions for greater light capture, an organic fibreglass substructure and specialized reproductive cells.
Niche: Tall, defensive stationary primary producer.

Organism: Sporer
Description: A flat mass of photosynthetic cells with highly-specialized tissues for mass-reproduction.
Niche: Mass-reproducing stationary primary producer.

Organism: Sunseeker
Description: A flat mass of photosynthetic cells with specialized reproductive cells, capable of directional epiphytic growth, surrounded by a high-friction defensive protein coat.
Niche: Defensive epiphytic primary producer.

Organism: Sunshield
Description: A flat mass of photosynthetic cells with specialized reproductive cells, surrounded by a defensive protein coat.
Niche: Defensive stationary primary producer.

Organism: Tonu
Description: A mass of photosynthetic cells with specialized reproductive cells, buoyed by a gaseous external sac.
Niche: Ammonia-floating primary producer.

Organism: Towerspore
Description: A flat mass of photosynthetic cells with highly-specialized tissues for mass-reproduction, adapted to live in Tower vents.
Niche: Mass-reproducing stationary primary producer in Tower vents.

Organism: Turretspore
Description: A flat mass of photosynthetic cells with highly-specialized tissues for mass-reproduction and toxic defenses, adapted to live in Tower vents.
Niche: Mass-reproducing toxic stationary primary producer in Tower vents.

Organism: Zeppu
Description: A photosynthetic mass with specialized reproductive cells, buoyed into the splash zone by a gaseous external sac.
Niche: Air-hovering primary producer.


Filter Feeders

Organism: Floater
Description: A cluster of spongy cells buoyed by gaseous internal sacs.
Niche: Passive, floating filter feeder.

Organism: Hitcher
Description: A cluster of spongy cells buoyed by gaseous internal sacs, with peripheral hooks which attach to nearby organisms.
Niche: Passive, floating, agglomerative filter feeder.

Organism: Luask
Description: A jet-propelled cluster of spongy cells buoyed by gaseous internal sacs.
Niche: Motile, low-energy floating filter feeder.

Organism: Popper
Description: A cluster of spongy cells atop an inedible, mineralized pillar. Releases larvae in floating spores, which parasitize floating lifeforms before maturing and returning to the seafloor.
Niche: Passive, stationary filter feeder with parasitic juvenile life stage.

Organism: Sinker
Description: A cluster of spongy cells which modulate their buoyancy with gaseous internal sacs.
Niche: Floating filter feeder in medium to deep oceans.

Organism: Svi
Description: A noxious, unspecialized cluster of spongy cells which circulates water with undulating microstructures.
Niche: Toxic, stationary filter feeder.

Organism: Tower
Description: A cluster of spongy cells pumping cells atop an inedible, mineralized vented pillar.
Niche: Passive, stationary filter feeder with habitable vents.


Swimmers

Organism: Clapper
Description: A motile, filament with prominent gripping hooks.
Niche: Ectoparasite on passive floating lifeforms.

Organism: Dawie
Description: A motile, predatory filament of cells with hooked fins for grip and locomotion, primitive eyes and a stinging tentacle.
Niche: Stinging swimming floating island-based visual predator.

Organism: Grabber
Description: A motile, predatory dorsoventrally flattened organism with fins for grip and locomotion and complex digestive enzymes.
Niche: Swimming omnivorous generalist.

Organism: Hobo
Description: A motile, predatory filament of cells with a sac-like gut, slimy skin, a ribbon-like tail for swimming and an olfactory organ.
Niche: Olfactory swimming generalist.

Organism: Mawie
Description: A motile, predatory filament of cells with hooked fins for grip and locomotion, and a stinging tentacle.
Niche: Stinging swimming floating island-based predator.

Organism: Spinseer
Description: A motile, predatory swimmer with a rudimentary notochord, primitive infrared sense and a ribbon-like tail.
Niche: Open ocean visual swimming predator.


Thick Feasters

Organism: Crushing Feaster
Description: An armoured, motile, predatory filament of cells with crushing, trilateral jaws.
Niche: Armoured, crawling Inedible-specialized herbivore.

Organism: Chomper
Description: An armoured motile, predatory organism with 10 spines for locomotion and defense and a powerful jaw.
Niche: Armoured, crawling omnivorous generalist.

Organism: Curatol
Description: An armoured motile scavenging organism with 10 spines for locomotion and defense, 2 of which are adapted for olfaction.
Niche: Olfactory armoured, crawling scavenger.

Organism: Digestor
Description: An armoured motile, predatory organism with complex digestive enzymes and a cranial digestive tract.
Niche: Armoured, crawling Sunshield-specialized herbivore.

Organism: Orator
Description: An armoured motile, predatory organism with 10 spines for locomotion and defense and two primitive stalked eyes.
Niche: Visual armoured, crawling omnivorous generalist.

Organism: Os-Spina
Description: An armoured, motile, predatory organism with a cartilaginous longitudinal core and crushing, trilateral jaws.
Niche: Armoured, crawling, burrowing Inedible-specialized herbivore.
 
Whoo, a species I came up with survived for once@

Quick question, just out of curiosity. How are the evolutions of the Feaster branch reproducing?

I'm kind of hoping for a planet where sexual reproduction never evolves and every animal breeds by mitosis or spores or something. :p
 
Feasters generate tiny versions of themselves which bud off from the rear of the organism, although some of them bud off from other areas. Filters and Sunfeeders both originally reproduced entirely by splitting in half, although they've evolved a variety of strategies that have been expanded upon in more recent evolutions.
 
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