NESLife VI

Organism: Ranis Dustra (Rain dust)
Ancestor: Purple Dust
Selective pressure: Relative dryness of upper atmosphere in relation to the oceans
Mutation: Increased liquid absorption and retention capabilities. (desiccation resistance).
Notes: A slow evolution over time in response to the dryer nature of the upper atmosphere along with the inland areas. Ranis Dustra, more commonly referred to rain dust, spend the vast majority of it's life floating high in the sky. It's name comes from it's tendency to reproduce at an accelerated rate among rainstorms and also be dragged downwards to the planets surface by said rain. Large clouds of them can almost always be found hovering near the surface in a thin purple mist. While a rich target for the few grazers that can target them, the mist quickly dissipates and rises as soon as the shower lets up, still rapidly reproducing.


@Cheef
Nice! would make an excellent point to branch off a flying whale from. might do that next round.

Apologies in advance if this post got anyone excited for progress on the game but I thought this was sufficiently interesting and relevant to warrant it. A nearly perfectly preserved specimen of an early Cambrian predator has been found in China. By the description it could be the next evolution of the Mantiflip.

Link

My predilection for anomalocarids is well known.

Is glorious news, indeed!

Epoch XIII: The Scouring Epoch

None could have foreseen it. What miserably poor fortune. What an astronomically small chance it had been. In a geological instant, life on Lambda had been very nearly reset.

The cause had been a distant star, in some distant arm of the galaxy millions of light years away. This star, a red supergiant, had lived a brief and fitful life, and after 10 million years had reached the end of its life. Its inert core had been steadily accumulating mass throughout this time, and at last it had bloated over the Chandrasekhar limit. A tipping point was reached, and the iron core began to collapse upon itself, accelerating inward at nearly twenty five percent of the speed of light. In an instant, the star's core temperature soared over one hundred billion kelvins. Under immense pressure and temperature, protons and electrons fused into neutrons, releasing a stupendous burst of neutrinos. The neutron core compacted to its nadir, and then, like a squashed spring, pushed back. A terrific wave of outgoing pressure ripped the dying supergiant apart, in a spectacular core-collapse supernova. Amongst this massive release of energy was a single axis of intense gamma radiation.

This thin cone of radiation propagated across empty space, an inescapable, undetectable harbinger of doom. It crossed a tiny handful of star systems over the next thirty million years, before departing the galaxy and continuing on to places unknown.

It was a tragic, cosmic coincidence that one of these systems possessed a peculiar moon, one which possessed life. The gamma ray burst bathed Lambda for barely two hours, and that was it. Thor was not in a position to take a celestial bullet for its curious little satellite, so a large swath of the world's south and east, stretching from Eddoria, across the Arisian Ocean to the shores of Lambridia, was bathed in intense radiation, effectively scouring half of the world of complex life.

The other half would suffer for a significantly longer period of time. Before the planet had even completed a full rotation, the gamma ray burst was over. However, the intense radiation had ionized the vast majority of the eastern hemisphere's atmosphere, generating a massive, toxic cloud of photochemical smog, composed of aerosolized amines, azo compounds, cyanides, and nitriles, not to mention a whole host of highly reactive free radicals. This had the secondary effects of darkening the skies, and severely depleting the azide layer, which played a valuable role in shielding Lambda from high-energy solar radiation.

The toxification of the atmosphere severely depopulated the remaining life on land, although the newly-generated atmospheric compounds rapidly began to decay back into lower-energy states. The atmospheric azides would take significantly longer to recover, which led to a protracted increase in ionizing radiation, which further delayed Lambda's recovery.

Within about a century, the world's atmosphere had largely returned to its prior state. Life, however, had taken a vicious blow at almost all levels.

Purple Dust, which had become so abundant in the previous epoch, was wiped out entirely along with all of its offshoots (such as Rain Dust), taking the whole aeroplankton-dependent ecosystem down with it. Surface-dwelling algae in the global oceans were massively depopulated, causing a food web collapse. Nearly all land-dwelling plant life was wiped out, save for those with the ability to withstand the nigh-intolerable conditions of the mass extinction event, or those which could survive for extended periods in highly-resistant forms.

The loss of primary producers, unsurprisingly enough, triggered collapses in all of their associated ecosystems, adding another complication to the challenge of surviving in an irradiated, toxic atmosphere.



Okianus and Eddoria

Despite being far from the worst-affected area, Okianus has lost the vast majority of its botanical diversity. Ground-Graspers are the only family of immobile photosynthesizers remaining on the northern supercontinent, with the loss of all of the northern plants belonging to the phylum Tonuda, which were less able to tolerate the years of increased radiation that existed following the event..



In this dramatically simplified environment, the cutthroat evolutionary conflict between the Ileum, Maxilla, Lystval and Coetus was abruptly cut short by the toxification of the atmosphere. Each organism possessed a unique and effective mode of respiration, and each was undone by the inhalation of toxic gases generated by the high energy radiation that baked Lambda's atmosphere. Oratan life in the north perished with a whimper. The last of the Lystvals, who had smelled their doom coming and attempted to escape the toxic gases, perished several weeks after the event, starving to death in remote holes deep under the thick soils of Okianus.



The land-dwelling Zebedida were also destroyed outright. The vast majority, which lived primarily on the more habitable subcontinent of Eddoria, died within the first minutes of the event, but those few on Okianus, who had not died immediately, perished in the following years. Their thin skin left them vulnerable to radiation, and they were simply unable to last throughout the leanest decades.



Sundentia

The Satorod had the misfortune to evolve just at a time when the ability to avoid stellar radiation was a great boon. With the ability to expand and contract its stalks to follow lights across the sky, the Satorod was thus even more vulnerable to increased inbound radiation than its relatives, and paid dearly for this maladaptation.

That's not to say, of course, that its close relatives were much better off. The thin leaves of all Horods, coupled with their vulnerable spores, left them defenseless against the changing conditions of the time.

The Venusil, by comparison, had a coincidentally fortunate mutation that helped to ensure its survival. With thick leaves and a squat form, they limited their vulnerability, and managed to make it through the mass extinction event comfortably. The Toilotil and Solarotil both lacked these traits, and consequently failed to survive the epoch. Meanwhile, their slightly more distant Siccabis and Ibero relatives narrowly emerged intact from the mass extinction, but the Ventus has fallen into extinction.



Leafers and Sky-Stealers are the largest surviving Sundentian photosynthesizers, with their thick cuticles and densely-protected bodies offering a degree of protection against the harsh conditions of the event. Vines, which relied on the Horod forests, have found themselves wiped out, alongside their hosts.



Burrowing Needlers and Novites have survived, due to their subterranean lifestyles and physiological simplicity, both of which granted them reprieve from both the initial event, and the difficult years shortly thereafter. From their damp burrows, they continue to feed on plant root material, and are as numerous now as they have ever been.



The Haerent, wildly successful though it had been, was utterly decimated by the loss of the Horod forests. With their habitat destroyed, the Haerents lacked both food and a suitable climate. The Horod forests had held in moisture, helping the dryness-intolerant Haerents to thrive even away from the coasts. Once limited to a narrow coastal range, away from their safe havens in the trees, the Haerents were easy pickings for predatory Watchers and Trappists, who used their excellent vision to hunt in the dark.

Meanwhile, the Paravesters, who were similarly dependent on burrowing into Horod stems to create nests, also sank in population. The Tybillers, with their comparatively advanced respiratory systems, were wiped out in the first wave of atmospheric toxification. Indeed, the only Sundentian animals that seemed to be thriving were the predators, the Trappists and Watchers, whose simpler respiratory systems and subterranean burrows kept them safe through the worst years. However, this success was to be short lived. The Haerents, with so little time to adapt to their new environment, fell into extinction due to a combination of pressures that were too strong to be resisted all at once. The same story held true for the Paravesters. Thus, the predators of Sundentia fed upon the last of the Haerents and Paravesters, then upon each other, until there was nothing left to eat. There were subterranean Needlers and Novites that they could have, perhaps, eaten, had it not been for their strictly visual hunting methods, which utterly failed at detecting prey beneath the ground. Animal life was now all but extinguished on the southern supercontinent.



Global Ocean

There's precious little left in the world's skies, beyond the occasional floating Tenku or Venku, who survived by dint of their resistant spores. Prikipus, Paripus and Ankus, who lacked adaptations that would get them through such harsh times, disappeared. So too did the Vagablimps, which had relied heavily on the now-extinct purple-dust as an ancillary source of nutrients.



The entirety of the Phylum Maves has been wiped out. The soft-bodied, ephemeral Maves were heavily exposed to radiation, and proved to be extremely vulnerable to the caustic atmosphere. Complicating matters was the fact that the whole clade had been struggling to begin with. The Tashes very nearly survived, by dint of their parasitic reproductive strategy, but the population which emerged from the mass extinction event was too small to remain viable, and after a few final decades of desperate struggle the last of the proud lineage, which had contained the Jetter, the Mawie and the Zeph, was forever extinguished.



The Algen, Symbioalge, Stripper, Bundlestrip and venerable Zeppu were all early victims of the mass extinction, suffering from heavy radiation exposure and lacking means to resist or survive past the worst years of the event. Growers and Driers remain as the last families of the Phylum Sporida. The former survived because of their great simplicity, and ability to survive at depth, while Driers survived due to their hardy endospores, which were able to survive the worst years of the extinction event, and re-establish their populations afterwards.



The Indigestibilia were nearly wiped out in the seas. Freefloaters, Ground-Grabbers and Drainers were all surface-dwelling species with almost no resistance to the toxins and radiation spread left in the aftermath of the gamma-ray burst. Tangle Reefs, which often existed in deeper and better-protected waters, narrowly managed to slip through.



The Plasvi was an offshoot of the Galsvi family, which developed a mineralized sheath. While this did provide additional protection against Placebol predation, it did so at a time when Placebol predation was at an all-time low, and when the ability to survive on minimal resources was paramount. Thus, the Plasvi never gained much traction, and was quickly driven extinct due to competition by its softer-bodied relatives.

The rest of the phylum Filtrara, however, were nearly unaffected by the mass extinction. While individual species adapted to shallow water perished, they were all survived by their deeper-water relatives. The only family to disappear completely was the Farfilter, whose relatively energy-intensive lifestyle was too expensive to maintain in the lean years following the mass extinction.



The benthic Curata have survived the best of any group of animals. Their existence at depth helped to shield them from the worst effects of the mass extinction, and their simple bodies proved to be quite resilient against atmospheric contaminants. As much of their lifestyle revolves around scavenging benthic waste or foraging on Svis, there has been astoundingly little disruption in the little microcosm of the Curata.



Benthic scavengers and predators, such as the Padipeds and their kin, were among the least affected by the event. As such, the Vector was one of the rare success stories from this harsh epoch. By developing a symbiotic relationship with a retrovirus, these aquatic Orata gained a powerful tool for horizontal gene transfer, allowing for the asymmetric exchange of genetic information between different individuals. While this retrovirus could also be used as an offensive weapon, the relatively low lethality of the 'genetic vandalism' made this a rather ineffective hunting tactic.



The aquatic Zebedida, like the Curata, have emerged from this mass extinction event largely intact. Flitters disappeared in the time it took for the ocean's microflora to recover, but the rest of their kindred has survived. In some cases, like that of the Clicker, they have even diversified. Clickers make use of their upper tooth to generate clicking noises, whose echoes they detect using a structure beneath their mouth. With this, they have gained a secondary hunting sense, one which is particularly useful against Whiffers, strongly countering their pungent defenses.



Lambda enters a new epoch dramatically transformed. Animal life on land is all but exterminated, although the door lies open for a second invasion of land. While the great Horod forests, and the vast clouds of Purple Dust are gone, many other plants live on. In the seas, the losses are far less severe.



Lambda


Notes: Well, this was a long update... a bit of cleaning house, so to speak. I'm very sad to see so many awesome organisms go, but that's the nature of life. Nothing lasts forever. As always, I'll be happy to answer any questions that you have about the extinction, or about evolution and/or this NES in general.

Oh, right, and a little taxonomic note. For bookkeeping purposes, and to reflect their distinctiveness and evolutionary remoteness, I have split the phylum Tonuda into two new phyla, Ankunia (floating plants) and Rhizophyta (rooted plants). While I'm on the topic, I also hope to begin using the 'template' system to the stats (shortening descriptions by having templates for certain groups of organisms, and only noting how they deviate from said templates) during the next update.

Wow, a lot of organisms became extinct in this epoch. I was pleasantly surprised to see the Venusil survive though. Good update.

DEATH AND REBIRTH

DEATH AND REBIRTH

DEATH AND REBIRTH


Link to video.


Excellent update, Iggy Not only because several of my creations have survived

Iggy said:

While I'm on the topic, I also hope to begin using the 'template' system to the stats (shortening descriptions by having templates for certain groups of organisms, and only noting how they deviate from said templates) during the next update.

Click to expand...

I thought about doing the same in my NESLife, seems like a good idea all round. Perhaps it will encourage us to think about 'components of a system' rather than a list of species in isolation.

RIP maves, just when I thought they had reached a stable position. On the other hand looks like the Vector evolved at the right time.

Organism: Argoped
Ancestor: Mudiped
Selective pressure: relative availability of food in shallower waters and intertidal zone
Mutation: 'Book Gills': leg-derived gas exchange structure with limited functionality in atmosphere.

Notes: There is nothing terribly remarkable about the Argoped: it is a textbook case of evolution moving to fill niches exposed by mass extinction. The Mudiped's basic physiology needed little adaptation to move from the benthos to life in the shallows, but unfortunately it seems the lineage had become accustomed to the hydrogen-rich ammonia often found at cooler, pressurised depths. The Argoped's solution was to build on the existing trend to use its legs as a principle site of gas exchange (they being structures with large surface areas exposed from the main armour of the body).

Larval Argoped look little different to larval Mudipeds, but as they mature, only the front three pairs of limbs become fully functional as legs (and are proportionally bigger). The rear two pairs of limbs retain some primitive traits, becomming paddle-like structures branching into fan-shaped ends, filled with delicate circulatory tubes plugged into the central body-fluid system. These fans can be continually wafted through the ammonia in order to increase the rate of gas exchange. Thus the Argoped can survive in relatively Hydrogen-poor ammonias, be it warm stagnant shallows or sediment-clogged estuaries. The adventurous Argoped will find that its gill-legs also work fine for short spells on land, so long as they remain 'wet'.

Organism: Highleaf
Selctive pressure: Sudden freeing up of vertical real estate
Mutation: A psychoactive compound that causes herbivores that consume the highleaf to become lethargic and inured to danger, thus causing them to be eaten more often. The Highleaf has developed a think stem which is able to support the weight of leaves, which now bud at the top of the stem instead of at ground level allowing it to intercept more light.

Really interesting update. I think this actually opens up a bunch of niches for Ankuridae diversification; I just need to do a bit of research first.

What is the g value of Lambda Ignaceae? Probably should have asked this a while ago, or forgot if I did. Never mind, the front page helped me.

Thlayli said:

Really interesting update. I think this actually opens up a bunch of niches for Ankuridae diversification; I just need to do a bit of research first.

Click to expand...

Indeed, although they got hit pretty hard there's pretty much nothing that eats them anymore and little competition from other plant species.

Organism: Savage Armor (Scientific Name: Saeva Armatura)
Ancestor: Vector
Selective Pressure: Limited amount of prey.

For a predator every kill counts. A single kill can make the difference between life and death. This is even more the case during and after a mass extinction when the amount of prey available becomes even less plentiful.

Which is why the Savage Armor are significantly smaller and hunt in groups. The decreased size of the savage armor means that each individual requires less nutrients in order to survive. While hunting within a group insures that the savage armor not only has a greater success rate with hunting but is also able to take down animals much larger than itself.

Organism: Chewer
Ancestor: Shredder
Selective Pressure: Lack of food
Mutation: A small, mildly acidic pounch in the middle of the digestive tract. This pounch holds the tough parts of armored organisms to dissolve any edible parts that are surrounded by armor plates.

Glad to see my Clicker survived what appears to be a massive event. Nice update with an unexpected event!

I'll see what next abomination I can think of.

A bit to extreme in my Opinion, but meh, it works. I'll start diving for an evolution to try and get the Areo-sphere back into the game. hmm, turn the toxic atmosphere into advantage? so many interesting chemical reactions to play with...

Take nothing for granted. Not all things can exist at once. A whole branch on the tree of life may be felled, but it will be remembered, even as it makes way for new branches to grow. The echoes of its existence will remain etched in the adaptations of the survivors. If a species has but one glorious, unique moment of existence, then that is enough - Daftpanzer, 2014

I was in the process of writing an analysis of the movement of the continents when my blasted browser decided to crash 90% of the way though it. I can't be bothered to type the whole thing out again right now so I'll leave you with the abridged version.

Okianus moving south east and Eddoria moving west while Graderia's southern movement causes Plasidia to rotate around Lambridia, uplifting the smaller plate.

Temporary recreation of supercontinent probably imminent, may get inland sea if Eddoria moves quickly enough to allow capes of Plassidia to contact Eddoria end Okianus.

Westward movement of Eddoria may create new Haskone salt lakes. Okianus-Graderian collision likely if current speeds maintained.

Mountains at Lambridia-Plassidian boundary likely to reach new heights.

Graderia most likely candidate to be first to break free of supercontinent but outside possibility of new landmass being uplifted in Sejessian Ocean.

Organism: Arolu
Ancestor: Venku
Selective Pressure: Filling niches left empty by the mass extinction.
Mutation: The Arolu has undergone a loss of size and developed its tentacles to droop down below it into shallow tidal regions, latching onto passerby creatures and following them around through their lives, leaching energy and nutrients.

Organism: Lungatol (Okianus)
Ancestor: Placebol
Selective Pressure: Competition for svi from others of its phyla, as well as the resulting population explosion of benthic svi-eaters due to the extinction of almost all their predators and competitors.
Mutation: The Lungatol has evolved a primitive system of book lungs, enabling it to crawl onto the shore for extended periods of time in order to graze on dead svis and their descendants which wash ashore. The Lungatol found its niche in Okianus, where the mass extinction eradicated any land-dwelling competitors or predators and left the Lungatol as the only animal on the shore of Okianus.