NESLife VI

Name: Islander
Ancestor: Aikoater
Selective pressure: Reduced light availability
Mutation: In response to the agglomeration of the floating islands the Islander lineage developed root-like organs. When an Islander spore settled on top of a floating island the proto-roots would anchor the plant into the islands mass, providing a stable attachment with access to stronger light and safety from ocean floor predators. The parasitic reproduction of their forebears has been largely abandoned in favour of the rooting behaviour.

Thats pretty cool.

Organism: Climber
Ancestor: Budder
Selective Pressure: Dense floater-clouds preventing sunlight from reaching the ocean floor in shallow regions.
Mutation: Towards the end of their lives, Climbers begin to create another young budder in the centre of the organism as well as on their buds. As the old organism dies, the centre Climber begins to grow, taking the space of the old organism but growing on top of it. As such the dense Climber-mats continue to grow upwards, built on towers of their own dead parents, to form dense piles of organic mass and getting closer to the surface. The dying Climber also provides a useful nutritional base for the new Climber in its infancy.

Excellent work Iggy

Chairmen came to the wrong neighbourhood! Think you can mess with my Towers and Spinators? All my homies got my back, yo ^^


Link to video.

Now for something different.

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

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Organism: Squrit
Ancestor: Luask
Selective Pressure: feeding and survival.
Mutation: rather than use its hydraulic jets for propulsion, the Squirt now anchors itself in one place and uses a weaker, rythmic pumping to circulate fluid - and the microscopic food it contains - through its internal spaces. Thus it is free from relying on ambient currents, and is able to gather more food in places where fewer rival filter-feeders are established on the seafloor. The gas sacs have atrophied to become little more than self-righting supports. Its outer skin has become flexible and smooth, with just one or two openings for the jets, though its appearance remains somewhat irregular. For defence, it can only frantically pulse its jets in an attempt to dislodge either itself or the attacker.

EDIT: wondering if I can get the Squirts to grow quite large and thick-skinned as well. Seeing as they have a pseduo-gill system and dont need to rely on passive diffusion though the skin?

Woo! 0 for 3

Organism: Stabby
Ancestor: Hobo
Selective Pressure: The prevalence of floating organic islands.
Mutation: a series of rigid spikes controlled by muscle like cells, which allow a stabby to attach itself to larger organisms, and gnaw on them until sated. When sated or threatened (if something approaches it) it can release and swim off to find something else to eat.

Thanks thomas, I didn't want to evolve Hobo again myself, but Stabby looks cool I can imagine them feasting on the decaying undersides of the floating islands, and worming their way deep into the masses for shelter, being slippery enough to get through all the entangled barbs.

Organism: Airpu
Ancestor: Zeppu
Selective Pressure: fellow zeppu making it harder to obtain energy
Mutation: The Zeppu almost literally covered the surface of the sea. Some evolved ever bigger bubbles to obtain ever more light for obtaining the needed energy. not being bound to the ocean floor, eventually, some would leave the water all together. the Airpu took to the skies of Lambda. it is hoped it will be even more successful up there, where literally no predators exist.

My thing lived! Yeah!

Evolution later when I figure out what to evolve.

Organism: Brancher
Ancestor: Towers
Selective Pressure: Competition for space and resources among tower colonies
Mutation: The symbiotic strategy of towers was inherited by the branchers and expanded on it by providing a new surface area for growth. The change was that branchers evolved long, mineralized, branches to increase the surface area for feeding and providing more areas for turretspores to grow deterring predation. These branches also stabilized the tower by allowing it to grow outwards rather than just upwards.

OCC: I finally came up with a mutation from a previous species but not in time for the update. I guess the Brancher will make its evolutionary debut now. I would like to evolve something that moves at some point but I guess I can keep making habitats for other creatures.

Organism: Protlaepish
Ancestor: Dawie
Selective Pressure: Lack of food and habitat near the islands forces the Dawie to search for new sources of food.
Mutation: "Leaping" muscles specifically adapted to allow the Protlaepish to leap up from the water and attack its new primary prey, the Zeppu.

The Dawie struggled to survive. It had basic eyes, yet was unable to make extensive use of them, due to the fact that most habitats thus far have been in very dark locations. However, on the surface, it could make use of them. The only problem was a lack of prey. The now-numerous Zeppu were the only possibility.

Thus, the Protlaepish developed. Though small, Zeppu were numerous and had no natural predator. The Protlaepish managed to "launch" itself out of the water using its rudimentary muscles. It had already developed a quick-acceleration mechanic to allow itself to survive at all near the shorelines, and it was a natural extension to redirect this force upward. This new technique also made use of the eyes of the Protlaepish, as hunting above-water allows them to actually see and target their prey more effectively.

Hey Iggy, would ammonia and water ( I know water is) be a good liquid to conduct electricity in? Think of the electric eels in Earth's oceans.

Irrelevant

@ The Farrow I dunno if Poppers are as attractive as Towers in terms of a naturally manufactured environment. Towers have vents which not only provide shelter but also a steady flow of "waste", which provides extra nutrients.

OOC: Also, I can see Sunseekers growing or crawling their way ontop Floater Islands.

Right now I'm thinking about something to do with the Floater Clouds, or maybe a Tower-Forest enviroment-based organism.

Terrance888 said:

@ The Farrow I dunno if Poppers are as attractive as Towers in terms of a naturally manufactured environment. Towers have vents which not only provide shelter but also a steady flow of "waste", which provides extra nutrients.

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Poppers and Towers are essentially the same. They just have different reproductive strategies. Unless, I am not understanding what you are saying poppers would also have vents.

Poppers are like Spires. No pumps, no vents.

Well, Towers specifically have a pumping system to help facilitate their filter feeding. This pumping system leads to the development of "vent holes" in their hollow tower, which serves as shelter. In addition, the pumping action removes "waste ammonia" from the Tower's digestive system, which has nutrients other organisms can use. That's the whole point of their mutation.

Not saying that Poppers won't have a place in the Spire-Forests, just that they are less adapted to "seek" symbiosis. Towerspores can probably grow on poppers, but their "specialization" is in using "waste ammonia" in the pump system to aid their growth.

Terrance888 said:

Well, Towers specifically have a pumping system to help facilitate their filter feeding. This pumping system leads to the development of "vent holes" in their hollow tower, which serves as shelter. In addition, the pumping action removes "waste ammonia" from the Tower's digestive system, which has nutrients other organisms can use. That's the whole point of their mutation.

Not saying that Poppers won't have a place in the Spire-Forests, just that they are less adapted to "seek" symbiosis. Towerspores can probably grow on poppers, but their "specialization" is in using "waste ammonia" in the pump system to aid their growth.

Click to expand...

I apologize I got towers and spires mixed up. I will change the ancestor since I can still accomplish what I want to. Thanks for the help

Your welcome.

EDIT: Having links to evolutionary post would be useful, but might contradict the current "no ownership" policy which seems to be happening.

Organism: Thrasher
Ancestor: Spinseer
Selective Pressure: The casual diminishing of the Spinseer's more easy to kill prey such as those of the Jetter-lineages and single groups of filter-lineages (thank you floater islands... ) has caused the Thrasher to develop a means to poach out of the vast array of thick feaster origin organisms.
Mutation: The Thrasher has evolved from the predatory Spinseer to accomodate for the abundance of prey along the ocean floor. In order to successfully feast upon these organisms, the Thrasher has developed a simple jaw made out of bone that is reinforced from the spine. This jaw has a small hedge row of sharpened bone slanting inwards towards the rest of the Thrasher that is meant to chomp down on something, and not let go. Once the Thrasher has something edible in its jaw, it uses a ball-like joint at the foremost point in the spine to whip its head from side to side at deathly velocities. All the while during this thrashing, the ancestral acid of the feaster is released and devours the poor victim. This mutation allows the Thrasher to dart down, grab up a creature, and take it up and away from possible retaliations from other species all in the blink of a second.

@Iggy: Hope this isn't too much. Keep in mind that its just a rudimentary jaw.

Organism: Executives
Ancestor: Hitchers
Selective Pressure: Large scale die-offs in the centre of floating islands killing Hitchers and creating competition for flotsam.
Mutation: With the inner ecosystem of floating islands threatening hitchers in the core, while also creating competition to filter the debris, the Executive has adapted the hook appendages of the Hitcher into long arms and increased its filtration intake through expanded pores allowing the Executive to grapple the core of floating islands and be the primary beneficiary of the large scale die-offs.

Organism: Os-Cibus
Ancestor: Os-Spina
Selective Pressure: Lots of food are now on the floating islands which are much harder to reach.
Mutation: The fact that now the Greater could only be reached through the long process of chewing through their thick stalks has caused natural selection to choose for individuals that could get the most nutrients out of the stalks. This has led to a growth of a digestive tract of sorts which allows the Os-Cibus to chew through the stalks for food and then get even more nutrients from the crystalline parts of the Greater along with any other plant life on top of the Greater.

Organism: Mo'wi
Ancestor: Dawie
Selective Pressure: Not enough mobility to out maneuver larger/quicker predators.
Mutation: Basic skeletal system with the hooks developed into more sturdy limbs, with the hooks at the tips of the limbs, so they can swim or crawl easier.