NESLife VII

Daftpanzer · Feb 8, 2015

[youtube=200]23iuPKuPd30[/youtube]

A long, long time ago in a star system far, far away...

A blue-green world hangs in the void of space, awash with clouds and oceans. Its mass, a little bigger than Earth’s; its atmosphere, a little thicker; its orbit around its parent star, quite a bit further - but that’s just fine, as our host star is a slightly hotter, brighter version of our own sun. The planet has little axial tilt, but it also has an eccentric orbit that causes alternating hot and cold periods throughout the year - meaning seasons are simultaneous in both hemispheres. Otherwise, this planet is rather earth-like in many respects.

Around three billion years may have already passed on this emerald orb. In that time, life has taken hold and terraformed the planet for its own benefit, stabilising the climate and pumping vast amounts of oxygen into the seas and atmosphere, ready for a new chapter to begin... But that new chapter has been a long time coming. Microbial life did not give up its dominance easily; it was only in the aftermath of a recent comet impact that multicellular life forms have been able to gain a noticeable foothold. Still, microbes monopolise most of the shallow sea floor, forming a thick carpet of biological ooze that will be hard to dislodge.

A moon, similar to our own, also happens to orbit this planet, but in between there is a thin ring system - perhaps the remnants of another moonlet, long since pulled apart by gravitational tides. This pristine world offers spectacular sunrises and sunsets, where there a conscious observer to appreciate it. Indeed, were you to walk upon this planet, there would probably be nothing more than a few green-brown smears to indicate the presence of any life at all. But from such humble beginnings do great things emerge. This is where you come in...

What is NESLife?
It is a series of ‘evolution games’ that have previously taken place on the NES Forum. Whether you want to ‘play to win’ (with the idea of establishing a species at the top of the food chain or most abundant population), or you simply want to experiment and see what happens, or, some combination of both - you are very welcome to jump in. NESLife games are somewhat unique in that you don’t need to make a lasting commitment to the game. Simply contribute an evolution (max one per customer, per turn) and wait for the update to see what happens next...

I’m going to be using the rule innovations introduced by Lord Iggy, and I’ll let his words do the rest of the talking:

Spoiler :

“This is a NESLife, so many of you will already know the basics. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the concept, I will provide a brief overview. Players in this NES serve as ‘agents’ of evolution, prodding the development of life in various directions. You play by submitting evolutions, which are variations on existing species. You are the archons of branching, mutation and diversification. I, the moderator, am responsible for upholding the harsh, brutal, mighty and inexorable forces of nature. Lineages who have thrived for millions of years may go extinct in a geological blink of an eye if they are unable to cope with changing conditions. Natural disasters may threaten to extinguish all complex life on Lambda. You may propose an evolution that just doesn’t work, and never comes to be at all.

Yet, despite all of this, some life will make it through the filters of competition. Some life will thrive, and their descendants will diversify, spreading into countless unique forms, occupying a vast array of different niches in the vast tapestry of ecology. It will not necessarily be the largest, nor the strongest, nor the smartest, but those which are most able to pass their genes on to the next generation, by whatever means necessary. Together, we shall build up a strange and beautiful new world- a world that has never existed, but one that could exist.

[...]

In previous NESLife games, we have typically used what is sometimes called ‘Lego Genetics’. Players added genes to each new evolution, such as adding on ‘+1 Walking, +1 Poison’. While this worked as a game, I felt that this was a somewhat clumsy and inflexible system that encouraged people to view their evolutions as collections of statistics, rather than as holistic organisms. The game became a race to have the highest carnivory rating, or the highest intelligence rating, and many players would present their evolutions with long-term plans in mind. This second fact bothered me quite a bit, as my education in biology has led me to understand that macroevolution is really just the accumulation, over millions of years, of a series of short-term evolved solutions. In this regime, proper long-term planning is effectively impossible- thus, in real life you wind up with all sorts of interesting leftovers, such as human beings and our astoundingly poor ability to give birth, our inefficient bipedal gait, and our humourously redundant digestive organs (here’s looking at you, appendix). All of these are things that any NESer with a half-decent sense of forward thinking would be careful to avoid.

But I want to keep that stuff in the NES. I want to make an earnest attempt to simulate the evolution of all multicellular life on this world. To do that, I am going to attempt to abolish the old building block and statistical genetic system we have used in previous games, replacing it with a more qualitative descriptive system. As organisms get more complex, I am going to begin using ‘templates’ as abbreviations. As a real-life example, I could do a template for mammals, so that I would not have to re-describe the same system repeating in goats, bears, bats, whales, guinea pigs and elephants. This will become more clear as the NES progresses.

And while I’m on that topic, I’ll note that the resolution of this NES will be roughly at the level of families. Some well-known examples of families are Dolphins, Pine Trees, and Bees. Thus, each evolution you create can be assumed to contain a variety of individual genera and species.” - Lord Iggy, 2013

^ I will be illustrating this game with my pixel art creations, for which I have a fetish. Prehistoric Earth looked something like this. What will the NLVII world look like?

NESLife VII
Essentially, the rules are simple. Each turn, you may choose one already-existing family of life as a starting point. You will be adding two new traits or features - for example, compound eyes and a primitive stomach, or defensive spines and olfactory senses. The list is indeed endless, and I will be on hand to provide any guidance on what does or does not contribute one ‘trait’.

Your creation may never work out at all, or it might go extinct before it becomes established, or it may contribute new traits without being quite successful enough to branch out into a whole new family. Otherwise, all going well, it will branch out and form a new node on the tree of life.

You can also nominate some existing traits that you’d like to ditch - like lizards no longer growing gills, or humans losing their tails. Nature is not a perfectionist, but she does appreciate a bit of streamlining.

TL;DR

New Evolution Name: x
Evolving from: (what existing family?)
New Trait #1:
New Trait #2:
Removed Trait(s): (optional)
Brief Description:

Examples:

New Evolution Name: Wavy
Evolving from: Blobster
New Trait #1: A single, large worm-like tail.
New Trait #2: antennae to detect vibration.
Brief Description: The Wavy features more cellular specialisations than the Blobster. Though it still lacks a true nervous system, it has long, thin appendages on its 'front' end that are able to detect movement in the nearby water. Via a chemical feedback system, its 'tail' end can then attempt to propel the organism in that direction. The Wavy is aggressive, attempting to swallow, suffocate and eventually digest anything smaller than itself.

New Evolution Name: Eater
Evolving from: Blobster
New Trait #1: Digestive juices.
New Trait #2: Flexible body form.
Brief Description: The Eater looks much like its Blobster ancestors while drifting above the seabed. However, once fully grown, the Eater flattens out into a pancake shape, exposing its digestive cells on its underside, and descends to the seabed. It simply sits on a patch of bacteria or algae and begins extruding digestive juices, created by specialised tissues within its body mass, and the resulting nutrient soup is eventually absorbed by its underside.

Daftpanzer · Feb 8, 2015

Natural History:
Era 0 - The Septusian Era
Era 1 - The Toxofilamentian Era
Era 2 - The Splontian Era
Era 3 - The Kalusian Era
Era 4 - The Killusian Era

Tree of Life as of Era 4:

Spoiler :

Stats as of Era 4:

Spoiler :

Daftpanzer · Feb 8, 2015

Era 0 - The Septusian Era

Sea levels are high, and only the shield cores of the land continents rise above the waves. Nothing but microbes lives on land, leaving bare expanses of sand and gravel dotted with soaring mountains. But in tropical waters, cushioned from the extremes of winter at the poles, and stirred by the storms that rage across the equator in summer, multicellular life has emerged in three main lineages.

Blobsters are hollow, balloon-shaped masses of cells with neutral buoyancy and two specialised layers of cells; a hardy outer layer of cells provides insulation from the elements, while inner cells handle digestion and repair using inward-facing cilia. One or more openings are periodically opened to allow fresh seawater, nutrients and tasty microbes to enter the inner chamber, while debris and wastes are allowed to exit. The whole organism reproduces asexually, by simply budding off tiny new spheres at intervals. Individuals have no aging process and in theory could live for thousands of years.

Hydrus, close cousin of the Blobster, also has an inert central sphere of cells that provides buoyancy. But feeding is provided by long trailing ‘arms’ composed of thousands of interlinked cells exposed to open water, each with many cilia for feeding and movement. Microbes are caught and digested locally wherever they touch the arms. Movement is chaotic but, using chemical signals between cells, the whole organism can sometimes move itself in one direction or another. Reproduction occurs when one of the arms breaks off and forms a new ‘body’. Hydrusi tend to be more fragile and demanding than Blobsters, but can feed and reproduce more rapidly when conditions are favourable.

A distant relative of the Blobster, the Sponger doesn’t bother with drifting around in the open water - it grows on a prominent spot on the seabed, and lets the water currents do the hard work. Its cells come together in a seeming random arrangement of tubes, with no formal body pattern. Some cells specialise in structure, gradually creating a mineral skeleton that cements the body together. Other cells have cilia that capture passing microbes and absorb nutrients. Similar to the Blobster, it reproduces whenever a cluster of cells becomes detached and carried away by the current. The cells with cilia are capable of swimming around until they hit a new anchorage point. Like the Blobster, a Sponger is technically immortal if left undisturbed.

A distant relative to all of the above is the Algamorph. Its cousins roam the oceans as simple single-celled phytoplankton, gaining energy from sunlight, but at the mercy of currents and tides. In the Algamorph, similar cells are glued together in strands with little specialisation between them. The benefit is simply being able to monopolise a good location on the seabed and staying clear of the surrounding microbes and debris. As with other organisms of the era, it reproduces simply by budding, or when clusters of cells are finally dragged away by the current. Algamorphs rapidly dry out and die if they are exposed by low tides.

Finally, Filamenta are somewhat similar to Terrestrial fungus and slime moulds. In multicellular form, they exist as a loose network of cells buried in the sediment. These cells use long filaments to connect with each other, as well as to leach nutrients from surrounding bacteria and microbes. They can tolerate extremes of temperature and pressure and are known to live around volcanic vent systems. To reproduce, their cells migrate towards one another and form small stalks on the sea bed, used as a launching platform for ejecting pioneer cells into the current, using filaments to aid in drifting. A few of these will survive, settle and multiply to repeat the cycle.

This era had a fairly constant, pleasantly warm climate, with only temporary ice at the poles during winter. However, massive amounts of nutrients remained locked up in the ancient microbial mats that still lined the sea bed. Filamenta had only made a minor dent in this, and no other life forms were yet able to burrow through, digest or otherwise attack this blue-green carpet…

Tree of Life:

Spoiler :

World Map:
(made in <2 hours using Daftpanzer Graphics Engine™ aka Photoshop - details on request)

Spoiler :

Daftpanzer · Feb 8, 2015

Era 1 - The Toxofilamentian Era

Link to video.

The climate remains warm, sea levels remain high. Roughly 10 million years after the Septusian Era and the diversification of multicellular life is well under way. The ancient microbial seafloor mats are gradually losing ground on two fronts, already freeing up nutrients for other lifeforms and causing plankton to bloom in greater abundance.

Firstly, the Eater - a pancake-shaped descendent of the Blobster - has descended on the seafloor, steadily digesting bacteria from above. It has become very successful indeed. Common fossils from this era are simply the circular marks left where Eaters have rested upon the seabed and digested their way into the bacterial mats..

Secondly, the Toxofilamenta attacks the microbes from below, sending digestive filaments through the compacted ooze, and further breaking them down with toxic secretions - a happy accident of biochemistry. By the end of the era the Toxofilamenta is starting to thrive is huge numbers across the sea floor, forming orange-tinted sediments that are visible from space. These areas are also toxic to many other forms of life, including other Filamenta species. Indeed the Toxofilamenta has a tendency to burn itself out, consuming all available food and leaving behind barren poisoned sediments studded with decomposing spore-stalks...

In the meantime, plankton began to bloom in much greater numbers, and various life forms took advantage. The Cruizer, a simple two-foot-long, football-shaped tube, is found in small numbers throughout the ocean, actively swimming against the currents with many tiny cilia; the Chalidus, a bizarre plant-like adaptation of the Hydrus, typically seen at river mouths, growing in leaf-like shapes up to a meter of more in height, benefiting from a primitive circulation system; and the Armolongus - a creature with jointed, articulated arms that squabble with each other for food, and indeed sometimes drop off to go their seperate ways. Nonetheless it is the latter that benefts most from dense blooms of plankton, as it is able to sweep up greater amounts of food, and thus Armolongus followed the same boom-and-bust cycles as the plankton - at times thriving in huge numbers, at other times ticking over with small numbers.

Finally, some evolution in the algaemorph lineage. The Klis has evolved to be free-floating, living their whole life-cycle near the water surface. Their advantage over single-celled phytoplankton being a specialised protective layer of cells, capped with waxy secretions, serving to greatly reduce damage from the powerful solar rays. A side benefit to this is increased resistance to drying out during low tide. In the absence of herbivores, the main threat to the Klis is starvation through lack of nutrients and being sucked up in the huge storms which frequently raged across the equator.

Tree of Life:

Spoiler :

World Map:

Spoiler :

Stats:

Spoiler :

Daftpanzer · Feb 8, 2015

Era 2 - The Splontian Era

Link to video.

Multicellular life truly begins to flourish in this era. Although the era is named for the distinctive fossils of Splont that appear in the fossil record at this time - their towering homes being much more readily fossilised than the soft bodies of their neighbours - it is sometimes more humble species that have the biggest impact….

The Rovster is an organism that has a disproportionate effect on the world around it. Although very primitive, it is the first life form to make an effort to burrow into the seafloor with its determined little cilia. The Rovster is also unique in having the beginnings of a true stomach, though for now it is happy to fill itself with nothing more than mouldy sediment and digest the microbes within. But the simple act of physically stirring up the sea floor, and leaving behind mini burrows, over millions of years, allows many more nutrients to filter out into the water. All other multicellular life now benefits directly or indirectly from the bold little Rovster - albeit, with thanks to the Eater and Toxofilamenta for having cleared away the surface growths of microbes in the millenia beforehand.

In any case, plankton now blooms like never before, and there is room for more filter feeders to appear; the Syphus is a descendent of the Blobster equipped with a true muscle system under its outer skin, and a simple net of neurons to coordinate its movements. Like a living syphon, it can squeeze itself open and shut, pumping water through its internal filtering cillia, and providing thrust to move itself around. Though at the cutting edge of evolution, it may be noted that the Syphus has no real sense of vision - beyond perhaps a few light-sensitive cells - and very little in the way of senses at all. Thankfully there is very little danger to be found in the open ocean at this time...

The Toxo-Armolongus lineage evolves to make use of similar toxins as those found in Toxofilamenta, but at this time it confers little defensive advantage aside from being able to poison a Blobster if accidentally swallowed - which is a rare occurrence. Toxo-Armolongus itself remains equipped to feed only on plankton, but with shorter feeding arms and greater complexity than its cousins (which were still thriving), it is eventually out-competed and made extinct before the end of the era.

Meanwhile the seafloor is a little more dangerous, with the Eater remaining successful and widespread - here there is an army of amorphous pancakes, attempting to digest anything they can smother. Perhaps in response, the Splont evolves from simple Sponger with a couple of defensive adaptations. The first is resistance to the toxins secreted by Toxifliamenta growths, allowing young Splonts to establish themselves in areas that Eaters cannot reach. The second is a larger, sturdier body form, with an army of skeleton-building cells pulling off some intricate engineering at a microscopic level, creating strange and beautiful homes for themselves. Rising up to a metre or more from the surrounding sea floor, they are a comfortable fortress for the filtering cells embedded within them.

Meanwhile, the Thingus has evolved from the Eater to become the new king of the seabed. It exhibits Kleptoplasty - IE, stealing the photosynthesising parts of the cells it eats, and embedding them within its own tissues, to gain additional energy in shallow seas. This combined with a primitive circulation system allows individual Thingus to become quite large, up to two metres wide (or long - they have no strict body plan), and to thrive in numbers all across the equator.

Eaters and Thingus remain vulnerable to the toxins of the Toxofilamentus, however, and so much of the shallow sea floor remains in flux, constantly going through a kind of three-stage cycle - first microbes and Algae-forms bloom, then they are attacked by the grazers, followed by Toxofilamentus spores establishing themselves and blooming in the disturbed ground - although not necessarily in that order. The dynamics help to drive ongoing evolution...

The Killus branch of Algamorph appears in this era and rapidly spreads worldwide. Neither attempting to float at the surface nor stay fixed in place, Killus is adapted to roll with the currents along the seafloor. Lacking the adhesive strands of its ancestors, it has only tiny growths of photosynthetic cells growing from a central mass. But this core acts a storage for energy and nutrients. This, combined with greater tolerance for extremes of water temperature, allows the Killus to survive further from the equator in winter, which proves to be its competitive edge..

The aftermath of a storm. Microbes continue to rule above the waves - and in freshwater systems for that matter.

Not to be confused with the above, Kilseet is a new branch of the free-floating Klis, but adapted to grow in larger, thicker bundles, and at an accelerated rate. Kilseet is common only in certain parts of the tropics where there is both enough sunlight and nutrients to sustain this faster growth, and it is a dangerous lifestyle, as most of the floating bundles end their days stranded on a beach after a high tide, or being dumped even further inland by a storm.

Back on the seafloor, Anchus is another branch of Algamorph that grows around a core of largely inert, spiny material produced from older growths. These bundles simultaneously raise the younger photosynthesising cells closer to sunlight, while keeping them away from seafloor grazers.

Finally, Aretta is something of an oddity; a branch of the Filamenta psuedo-fungus that has evolved symbiosis with photosynthesising microbes - in this case, a rare lineage of microbes that use a purple pigment to absorb light in place of chlorophyll. This is less efficient overall, but competes for different wavelengths of light compared to Algae-forms and plankton that may compete with it for space - and adds a dash of striking violet to the seabed. These symbionts grow in branches on converted spore-stalks; a pioneering system of tiny tubules within the stalks allows energy and nutrients to be exchanged with the web of filament cells hidden beneath the surface.

Some climate instability crept into the end of this era. An increase in greenhouse gases pumped from volcanoes was, roughly, so far, being matched by increased absorption from the oceans and from weathering of old mountains. But occasional cold and warm periods were getting more and more pronounced.

Tree of Life:

Spoiler :

World Map:

Spoiler :

Stats:

Spoiler :

Daftpanzer · Feb 8, 2015

That's all for now. Apologies for the massive bold text, its a symptom of copying from The Frontier (different size values).

Please feel free to post comments / evolutions :salute:

erez87 · Feb 8, 2015

Subbed

thomas.berubeg · Feb 8, 2015

*Kliseet: Zannh, Era 2
Evolved from: Klis (+ Stronger adhesive strands, + Faster growth)
Habitat: warm-temperate sea
Lifestyle: drifting, planktonic, photosynthesis
Reproduction: budding/cloning
Description: To best utilise this new source of energy, the Kliseet has developed stronger adhesive strands which allow more of the photosynthesising cells to stick together, thus forming larger sheets of Kliseet which can absorb more of the sunlight and seem more imposing to potential predators. Also with the excess energy that is around, Kliseet have been budding faster/ simply reproducing more quickly to quickly spread over a large area of the surface of the seas [GM note: when enough nutrients are around!].

New Evolution Name: Kalus
Evolving from: (what existing family?)
New Trait #1: Nutrient absorbing tendrils
New Trait #2: Fluid retention and exchange network (perhaps the same tendrils?)
Removed Trait(s): (optional)
Brief Description: Kliseet that end up on land used to dry up and die rather quickly. However, the Kalus has developed a series of useful traits to mitigate this: Some tendrils gently extract nutrients and water from the environment. Additionally, the Kalus has developed a network of resource exchange between individual cells, allowing resource rich networks to exchange with resource poor, theoretically over very long distances.

Lord_Herobrine · Feb 9, 2015

Armolongus: Angst, Era 1
Evolved from: Hydrus (+ Limb joints, + Elongated limbs)
Habitat: warm sea
Diet: plankton
Lifestyle: drifting, planktonian
Reproduction: budding/cloning
Description: Simply pressured by evolution, the Hydrus armolongus developed longer arms as to feed on organisms further away. A simple joint is made by a concentrated cell cluster, where the "outer" half of the joint has a larger concentration of cells that can prolong or retract themselves, allowing for a joint - it will actively wave the arm back and forth in a fanning motion. The intent is to catch more microbes than was possible by simply letting the arm hang loosely. This way, the arm is both longer and covers more space, allowing more efficient feeding (GM note - in areas where food is dense).

New Evolution Name: Aarmulos
Evolving from: Armolongus
New Trait #1: Developed a sticky residue that can catch and hold free-floating plankton and microbes.
New Trait #2: A thin membrane has been stretched between the arms to capture more plankton in its grasp.
Removed Trait(s): (optional)
Brief 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.

Daftpanzer · Feb 9, 2015

Thankyou guys! That's currently 2 evolutions here and 1 on The Frontier. I can update with that, but I'll give it another day at least.

:salute:

erez87 · Feb 9, 2015

New Evolution Name: Agarose
Evolving from: Syphus
New Trait #1: Muscular Tentacles
New Trait #2: Chemical sensors
Brief Description: The Agarose continues the growth of the Syphus family as it begins to aim its swimming with elongated muscular tentacles and the ability to truly feel its surounding. Using chemical cues the Agarose can aim to locate itself to richer areas or the escape predators if any threaten it as it swims with direction using its muscular five tentacles. The tentacles are not a unique organ but in fact a direct continuation of the body plan.

Angst · Feb 11, 2015

This is great, as always, just subbing to this thread.

Daftpanzer · Feb 12, 2015

Era 3 - The Kalusian Era

Link to video.

This era is marked by colder winters and hotter summers than previously encountered, and was a strenuous time for other reasons; the gradual, ongoing collision of the Thule and Celtonia continents threw up a mountain range where once had been a shallow, sheltered sea, what had been one of the cradles of complex life - of which, fossils could now be found thrust among jagged, snow-capped peaks miles above sea level.

Not only was shallow-sea habitat in short supply, the summer heat would often strike tropical shallows and lagoons and strip them of their life-giving oxygen, and of course leave them more prone to drying out completely. Many of the fossils from this era are victims of such exposure, having been sun-baked and then buried again by flash floods.

Only a few Algaeforms were able to adapt: the Hyphomorph was a branch of primitive stringy Algaeform adapted for living in freshwater, slowly working its way into rivers and lakes with the aid of hardy colonist cells; whereas the Kalus was an evolution of the more-complex, free-floating forms, adapted to be able to survive being stranded for extended periods, though it could still burn up under equatorial sunshine; somewhere in-between was the Covex, which was able to grow happily along shoreline rocks and in brackish, seasonal lagoons. These three families were especially successful - aside from colonising new habitat, they also freed themselves from the threat of Eaters and Thingus.

The Algaeforms were not alone in colonising the continents; the Asymenta was a branch of Filamenta pseudo-fungus adapted for freshwater life, feasting on microbial life found in lakebeds and swamps. It was also the first life-form to propagate itself by specialised airborne spores - its delicate spore-stalks did not have to worry about being damaged by any animal life.

Back on the seabed, the mix of species remained much the same as the previous era. Thingus remained the dominant life form, continually grazing on Algaeforms, bacteria and basically anything it could safely smother (and fearing only the Toxofilamenta). One new addition was the Spinster, a branch of the successful Rovster, which continued its ancestor’s sediment-churning and recycling lifestyle, but now was able to create hardened tunnels to hide out in. This may have given the Spinster extra protection against drying out in low tides, as well as helping to keep it safe from harassment by other life forms. In any case the Spinster was a success, and was one of the key species - along with Splonts - that helped to build up ‘reef’ habitats on the seabed where many other species could flourish.

Meanwhile, there was increasingly fierce competition for plankton in the open waters. A menagerie of drifting and swimming filter-feeders sucked and swept the water during this era, trying out different body forms and limb designs... First the Agarose took off from the successful Syphus, adding muscular tentacles which could be used for swimming and obstacle avoidance, as well as scent-receptors to detect signs of plankton blooms - this proved to be a very successful combination. At the same time, the dangly-armed Armolongus diversified further, giving rise to the Aarmolous and the Superhydrus...

The Aarmolous developed a stretchy membrane connecting the upper parts of its arms - this greatly assisted movement, as well as directing more plankton towards the feeding parts of the arms, which were now coated in sticky ooze - this ooze made a marginal improvement in capturing plankton, but also meant that many older Aarmolous would become clogged up with bits of sediment and eventually starve (and/or suffocate) to death.

The Superhydrus, on the other hand, can be noted for its complex muscular arms with intricate paddle-like endings, designed to sweep through the water to collect plankton. Perhaps the strangest-looking lifeform to evolve so far, and a signature fossil from this era, the benefits of the arms seem to have been matched by its costs, and so for now the Superhydrus remained in the shadow of its cousins.

Finally, one more evolution to mention - the first true predator of the oceans, the Oculisyphus, equipped with very primitive eyes (little more than basic motion detectors) and a digestive chamber that could break down the tissues of complex life forms. While newly-calved Oculisyphus would feed on plankton, the fully-grown adults were aggressive, attempting to eat anything they could suck into their mouths. Small, undeveloped creatures were a staple food item. This predatory experiment was a success, and for now the Oculisyphus enjoyed a complete lack of competition.

While the summers where getting hotter, so too were the winters getting cooler, as the continents moved to block off ocean currents that would normally serve to even out temperatures throughout the year. At the end of this era, sea ice was now a common feature of winter at the poles, and concentrated currents of cold water could kill off many life forms in their path as they approached the tropics; so far, the humble Killus was among the only complex life able to fully benefit from these often nutrient-rich waters, thriving in larger numbers than any other individual algae-form as the era drew to a close.

Tree of Life:

Spoiler :

World Map:

Spoiler :

Stats:

Spoiler :

erez87 · Feb 12, 2015

New Evolution Name: Nusance
Evolving from: Agarose
New Trait #1: Stinging cells (Nematocysts!)
New Trait #2: Digestion cells
Brief Description: As the Agarose continues to hunt for plankton, the Nusance begins to feed upon other life forms. With its chemical sense able to find location of food the Nusance can now locate major food sources and then use its array of stinging cells coating its body - and mainly its muscular tentacles - to hunt down and kill, and then drag into its mouth opening, anything it can. Together with this voracious appetite and stinging cells the Nusance now has a unique layer of cells, usually occurring on the inside of the creature, that is now able to release digestive fluids out into the inner body, where the muscular tentacles brought prey, to break it down and use the ancient invention of cilia to quickly bring the food source into the Nusance's cells. Nusance is a horrible blind predator attracted to anything that releases chemicals that then quickly stings its prey, attaches to it, bringing it into its mouth-opening and then quickly digesting it first outside the cells with unique cells that spit out corrosive digestive fluids, and then inside the cells that quickly bring small food pieces into the body using their cilia.

OOC: The maps are pretty and I do like seeing how the planet looks, but yours are a bit overextended, I don't think its required to put all the little creatures on the map, maybe just a single one to mark a whole territory? (will work when certain families will begin existing only on certain continents etc...)

Immaculate · Feb 13, 2015

*Kliseet: Zannh, Era 2
Evolved from: Klis (+ Stronger adhesive strands, + Faster growth)
Habitat: warm-temperate sea
Lifestyle: drifting, planktonic, photosynthesis
Reproduction: budding/cloning
Description: To best utilise this new source of energy, the Kliseet has developed stronger adhesive strands which allow more of the photosynthesising cells to stick together, thus forming larger sheets of Kliseet which can absorb more of the sunlight and seem more imposing to potential predators. Also with the excess energy that is around, Kliseet have been budding faster/ simply reproducing more quickly to quickly spread over a large area of the surface of the seas [GM note: when enough nutrients are around!].

evolves to:

Drinkipoo
Traits (photosynthesis, adhesive strands, stronger adhesive strands, faster growth)
New Trait 1: Adhesive (paralytic) toxins
New Trait 2: Carnivorous (animalia)
Description: With the growing number of animalia family lifeforms that have begun to swim and move about, and the kilseets already very strong adhesive strands, a number of animals have, over phylogentic time become entangled in Kilseet strands and therein died. These decayed and their biomass served as nutrients for the growing kilseet. Drinkipoo are evolved from those kilseets who were most adept at absorbing this biomass and incorporating it into their fast-growing forms. Over genetic time, they have become adept at absorbing animal tissue directly into their photosynthetic strands. Furthermore their adhesive strands have developed a secretion that both serves to increase adhesion to animalia that swim into their strands and paralyze their forms that they not thrash about and damage the Drinkipoo.

Considering the massive energy demands of the Kilseet and its descendants, the Drinkipoo’s survival rests upon its ability to absorb sugars and nutrients from sources other than the sun.

thomas.berubeg · Feb 13, 2015

*Thingus: Daftpanzer, Era 2
Evolved from: Eater (+ Kleptoplasty, + Circulation system)
Diet: bacteria, algae
Lifestyle: shallow seafloor crawler, benthic
Description: Thingus exhibits Kleptoplasty - IE, stealing the photosynthesising parts of the cells it eats, and embedding them within its own tissues, to gain additional energy in shallow seas. This combined with a primitive circulation system allows individual Thingus to become quite large, up to two metres wide (or long - they have no strict body plan), and to thrive in numbers all across the equator.

Dingalingus
New Trait 1: Pass along photosythnetic cells to offspring, allowing them a greater chance of survival.
New Trait 2: photoreceptors
Description: Photoreceptors allow the dinaglingus to lazily swim towards sunlight, where other lifeforms that can be incorporated.

Daftpanzer · Feb 13, 2015

Thanks guys :salute:

erez87 said:
New Evolution Name: Nusance
Evolving from: Agarose
New Trait #1: Stinging cells (Nematocysts!)
New Trait #2: Digestion cells

@erez, that's cool but just to let you know, the Nusance will be a blind/ mostly-dumb creature stinging things by luck more than anything. Not to say that can't work, it seems to work well for jellyfish and anemones IRL

[edit: forgot about the scent receptors though!]

erez87 said:
OOC: The maps are pretty and I do like seeing how the planet looks, but yours are a bit overextended, I don't think its required to put all the little creatures on the map, maybe just a single one to mark a whole territory? (will work when certain families will begin existing only on certain continents etc...)

Yes I tend to get OCD about these things

I was thinking the same - just have a scattering of icons here and there. Sounds like a plan...

thomas.berubeg said:
Dingalingus
New Trait 1: Inherint photosynthetic structures
New Trait 2: photoreceptors
Description: Photoreceptors allow the dinaglingus to lazily swim towards sunlight, where other lifeforms that can be eaten congregate.

@thomas, just to let you know I see Trait #1 as being unnecessary, and biologically very difficult to say the least. I could see the creature using pigments to gain some energy from sunlight directly (there are RL examples) but that would be a downgrade in this case.

filli_noctus · Feb 13, 2015

Spoiler :

New Evolution Name: Magitapeti
Evolving from: Sponger
New Trait #1: Drifting
New Trait #2: Large size
Removed Trait(s): Mineral skeleton
Brief Description: Magitapeti are a breed of sponger that have left the ocean floor and taken to floating in the open ocean. Ditching the skeleton to aid buoyancy has allowed them to spread out over a wide surface area to catch falling algae and plankton. Losing the skeleton has increased their vulnerability to being damaged by strong waves and currents but they remain simple enough that any sections torn off the larger organism are capable of independent growth and survival - in fact it is their primary method of reproduction.

thomas.berubeg · Feb 13, 2015

Daftpanzer said:
@thomas, just to let you know I see Trait #1 as being unnecessary, and biologically very difficult to say the least. I could see the creature using pigments to gain some energy from sunlight directly (there are RL examples) but that would be a downgrade in this case.

Edited!

Daftpanzer · Feb 13, 2015

thomas.berubeg said:
Edited!

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!

NESLife VII

canonically ambiguous

canonically ambiguous

canonically ambiguous

canonically ambiguous

canonically ambiguous

canonically ambiguous

Lord of Random

Wandering the World

Back in the Saddle

canonically ambiguous

Lord of Random

Rambling and inconsistent

canonically ambiguous

Lord of Random

unerring

Wandering the World

canonically ambiguous

Hmmn

Wandering the World

canonically ambiguous

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