NESLife VI

There's no way for the Tonu to be getting Oxygen- the only sources are in solid ice, and within mineral oxides. So unfortunately, unless you can explain to me how the Tonu gets one of those two things, I don't think it'll work.
 
Organism: Eyejet
Ancestor: Jetseer
Pressure: Increased competition for limited food.
Mutation: The Eyejet has developed the early eye of the Jetseer, making it more sensitive and less vulnerable.
 
Organism: Chairmen
Ancestor: Floater
Pressure: Large predation by Mawies and Clappers when in large floater clouds.
Mutation: Chairmen float around like their brethren Floaters do, but after hitting a Tower, Spire, or Popper, demonstrate their talent. Chairman have a series of mandible-legs, which allow them to climb up the mineralized base, until they climb on top of the Tower, Spire or Popper, and starve it by consuming its food. The mandible-legs can also pierce the juicy parts of these Spire-related species to speed up death. After the base breaks, or they are otherwise shoved off, they then float away regularly to find a new Tower, Spire or Popper.
 
Organism: Zeppu
Ancestor: Tonu
Selective Pressure: Increasing amount of surface-level predation and absence of airborne predators.
Mutation: Increased buoyancy levels and atrophied core body mass (which is part of increasing buoyancy).

At a certain point, a mutated Tonu lineage gained enough buoyancy to rise out of the waters themselves. The air being fairly 'moist', dessication was not a problem that required additional specialization to fix. Being primary producers, this could prove successful since the only food source they require is light, and direct sunlight is in somewhat greater abundance in the atmosphere.

They maintain a 'larval' or sporophyte phase, where pollenated spores drift down into the upper layer of the ammonia sea. These immature plants then grow balloons at surface-level like their Tonu cousins, before rising out of the water slowly and majestically.
 
Hmmm... so few people wanting to mess with the herbivores it makes me sad.

Organism: Digestors
Ancestor: Grazers
Selective Pressure: The decreasing amount of Sunshields compared to Broaders
Mutation: Basic digestive tract. As the Digestors are forced to make the most out of every meal due to the lesser numbers of Sunshields a basic digestive tract was eventually developed. The tract is mostly a crude stomach at the "head" of the organism, or where the nutrients were absorbed in for the Digestors ancestors, this prevents nutrients from escaping the Digestors as well as allow more efficient transfer to them.
 
Organism: Poker
Ancestor: Clapper
Selective Pressure: Shortage of easy sources of nutrition
Mutation: Further decreases in adult bodysize, development of a proboscis.

With the dwindling stock of easy prey such as Tonu and Floater colonies, natural selection favored Clapper individuals that were even smaller, and had some mechanism to pierce the defensive systems of other prey. Eventually they happened upon a primitive proboscis design, that had limited success in piercing the protein coverings of Sunshields. With time, this proboscis became more refined, able to feed on Sunshields with reasonable success, and able, as well, to latch on to and feed off of the occasional large predator while being carried to other regions of the biosphere. Towards the end of the period, some Poker colonies had even evolved proboscides thin enough to feed off Indigestibles without having to worry about the comparably larger silicate crystals inside them.
 
Of all the things to happen when I miss a couple days...

Organism: Aikoater
Ancestor: Broader
Selective Pressure: Crushing Feaster Predatation
Mutation: Parasitic Spores

In response to the Crushing Feaster being able to break the shell of the Indigestible and Broader Sunfeeders, the Aikoater species adapted its' reproductive system to take advantage of the predator. Spores were spread out, which would release as normal if allowed.

However, when they are ingested, they cling to the internal organs of any potential predator and use the predator itself as an egg, so to speak, allowing the plant to grow as normal within the predator, eventually killing the predator and allowing the Aikoater to resume normal life.

OOC: Is this good, or did I attempt too much for one turn?
 
Organism: Greenback
Ancestor: Jetseer
Selective Pressure: Not enough food/energy
Mutation: the development of a secondary cluster of photosensitive cells. However, these cells do not offer any greater view, but, instead absorb light to produce energy in a manner similar to the photosynthesis of the Sunfeeder line.

Edit: Deleted the past one.
 
Organism: Spinseer
Ancestor: Spinelord
Selective Pressure: Increasing number of predators with the ability to see has forced the Spinseer to mutate or be lost in the genetic race.
Mutation: The Spinseer has evolved from the predator line called the Spinelords. The advantage they bring with their evolution entails a primitive optical organ that can 'see' in infrared light. The ability to see in infrared helps the Spinseer identify prey from the cold, murky sea's of Ammonia and water by cutting through the murky and cloudy liquid to identify any sign of life. Because of their infrared sight, they generally do not lose sight of prey or become distracted by movement. This also enables them to find tower-ancestral structures because of the flow of cells that pump through them heating the shell as well as key internal processes in most, if not all, organisms. The infrared detection also allows the Spinseers to predate upon organisms that dwell in the intense dark of the ocean deeps without need of artificial or natural light.

OOC: Does this sound possible, Iggy?
 
Organism: Ro'i
Ancestor: Popper
Selective Pressure: More diverse target for larvae to find, defense against predation.
Mutation: The Ro'i have adapted tentacles that extend out from their top. While still being able to send larvae out and up, the tentacles will wait for something to swim by and brush up against them and then attach the larvae to what ever brushes them
 
OOC: Not sure if I'm jumping the gun with this mutation, so I have a back up plan if it isn't accepted.

Organism: Os-Spina
Ancestor: Crusher
Selective Pressure: The slowness of the Thick Feaster line limited their choice in food, a problem that caused the Crushers to die premature deaths of starvation.
Mutation: As some Crushers began to develop a proto-spine made of stiff cartilage with some muscles attached to it natural selection began to phase out the Crushers which did not have this trait. This primitive spine allowed the Os-Spina to propel themselves through the oceans and reach new sources of food, thus allowing them to live longer lives.
 
Organism: Swei
Ancestor: Svi
Selective pressure: Inter-species competition and the success of the Svi essentially over-competing and starving each other and themselves out.
Mutation: The adaptation of some of the "wings" to new roles as more sort of "legs" to slowly allow individual Swei to crawl to another rock to live on. The advantage is that more movement also equals more food, but a mobile Swei is more susceptible to the upcoming eyes of larger predators.
 
Organism: Chomper
Ancestor: Spinator
Selective Pressure: Sunfeeder protective "plating".
Mutation: The Chomper has developed a set of mandibles, made out of the same "armor" that covers their bodies, but dense enough to bite through the protective plating of the Sunfeeder species that inhabit the oceans. It has also begun to grow basic muscles attached to the underplating of its armor to allow for more flexible movements and give the Chomper control over its mandibles.
 
Organism: Orator
Ancestor: Spinator
Selective Pressure: Competition from other predators
Mutation: The Orator, in order to outperform its competition, has, similarly to the Jetseer, developed clusters of light-sensitive cells in the front of the creature. These primitive eyes will allow the Orator to avoid other predators and find prey with ease.
 
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: Sunseeker
Ancestor: Sunshield
Selective Pressure: OMG where is the sun! What is that? WTF you fat broader plant, you are blocking my daily shinies. You don't care, eh? Man, I'm moving out of this neighborhood!
Mutation: Directional Reproduction Towards the Sun: Protein "Grips" and "Ridges". Produces colonial "Spores" only when well off OR desparate.

The much beleaguered Sunshield suffers from being not as inedible as the somewhat edible inedible Sunseekers and Broader Inedible Sunseekers. Their protein coat suffers from being not as defensive as a layer of glass scales and their sunlight are being covered by the obnoxious leaves of the Broaders.

Slowly, the Sunshield changed it's strategy. Instead of reproducing small colonies to expand in all directions, the Sunshields begun to use apoptosis and directional reproduction to ensure survival of individuals until they arrive at a less shaded area. Literally seeking a place in the sun, their protein coat develops "Grips" and "Ridges" to help keep their relative position in safer zones.

But as time moved on, Sunseekers found a new sinister use of their maneuvering abilities. By reproducing and gripping, they can grow ONTOP a Broader Inedible Sunseeker's leaves and body parts, or indeed, cling ontop other organisms like Spires, Floaters and other creatures. Although relatively benign in the latter cases, for the first they found their true niche. By growing ontop a Broader Inedible Sunseeker, not only do they slowly starve their hated rival, but they also gain themselves directional protection below- the body of their enemy is used to defend from other herbivores. Finally, they can safely use these bases to propagate colonial Sunseekers, which will reproduce, grip, and shimmy their way ontop other Broader Inedible Sunseekers or perhaps some of the newer species like the Zeppu...
 
Spoiler :
Organism: Spinator
Description: An armoured motile, predatory filament of cells with 10 spines for locomotion and defense.
Niche: Armoured, crawling omnivorous generalist.



Organism: Curatol
Ancestor: Spinator
Selective Pressure: Limited availability of food
Mutation: With less threat of predation the spines have become less focused on defensive measures. However, their motive and sensory functions have increased. Some sensory "spikes" have increased in size on one end and allow for more focused "tasting" of chemicals in the ammonia. The Curatol seeks out recently deceased organisms for food and has started to specialize in their consumption.
 
It pleases me to see so many Spinator evolutions :D Let us march forward, my brothers. To victory!



 
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