NESLife VI

Organism: Venter
Ancestor: Filter
Selective Pressure: Predation from Feasters
Mutation: The development of certain specialized cells whose main focus is the partial nitrification of ammonia in the seawater to form the relatively toxic compound nitrite. This compound will slowly corrode and dissolve the muscle cells of most Feasters, rendering them no longer a threat.

Organism: SunBlanket
Ancestor: sunfeeder
Selective Pressure: Competition
Mutation: As more decedents of the sunfeeder started to appear, some started to anchor themselves to various surfaces, ceasing their drifting life. large numbers of them began to coat the ground in shallow water, where they could remain to soak up the light all day long, without worrying about the currents.

14 evolutions and counting... not going to deadline it yet?

Organism: Tonu
Ancestor: Sunfeeder
Selective Pressure: Need to reach areas with more sunlight.
Mutation: The Tonu has mutated small, parachute like, leaves at the top of themselves that allow them to float higher in the water and find more sunlight. These leaves can retract to sink deeper in the water if need be.

Deadline is here, I am finished the writeup, and am now beginning to draw the organisms. Once that's done, I'll fill out the stats and post the update.

I'll allow a brief grace period if you're already writing up a species.

Epoch I: The Floaterian Epoch

The competition between different Feaster lineages has been the impetus for a grand diversification of multicellular life, as the increasingly deadly apex predators force new adaptations in all other species. First, let us look at the broad assemblage of filter feeders who have differentiated over the last epoch.

The Spires tower as some of the largest and most prominent lifeforms in the sea. To evade benthic predators, Spires excrete an ever-growing pillar of mineralized waste, gradually lifting their living body parts clear of the dangers of the sea floor. These organisms continue growing throughout their lives, until at long last they are defeated by currents and the wave motion of the ocean, snapping and plummeting down to the sea floor.

Floaters have come up with an alternative, but just as successful, adaptation to evade the Feasters. Floaters sequester gases within small sacs in their own tissue, granting their colonies neutral buoyancy. Floating freely on the oceanic currents, Floaters have become some of the most well-dispersed species on the planet.

One of the few groups to remain on the sea floor, the Venters have adopted a strategy of sequestering nitrite within themselves, rendering them unpalatable to unspecialized predators. While the biosynthetic cost of generating so many toxins is significant, the payoff of not getting eaten has made it more than worthwhile.

Other lineages met with less success. The Spawners released bursts of sticky offspring when predated upon, but these spawn rarely made it far- more often than not, they were immediately eaten, and the rather slow speed of the feasters rendered them ineffective as a dispersal mechanic. Meanwhile, the Vertical Filters developed a similar adaptation to the Spires, but without the benefit of having an inedible base. Thus, the diversifying feasters were able to swiftly predate this nascent family out of existence. Finally, the ancestral Filters themselves have gone extinct, suffering from heavy predation by Feasters and competition with the Venters, who, while considerably less resource-efficient, were effectively immune to predation.

Now, let us consider the photosynthetic primary producers, who have had to adapt to many of the same difficulties as the filter feeders.

The Indigestible Sunfeeder has arrays of sharp, silicate crystals within itself, rendering it quite impossible to eat by the current battery of predators in its environment.

Similarly, the Sunshield avoids predation by means of a protein coat resistant to the standard Feaster enzymes.

The Sporer adopts a different strategy, directing its energies into massive reproduction rather than any form of defense. While Sporers remain one of the most predated-upon families of multicellular life, their reproductive models ensure that they are well-represented in almost all environments, and are quick to recover from disturbances. Thus, even though they are generally predated out of existence in stable habitats, they are always the first on the scene when arriving in a new environment, managing to complete several bursts of reproduction before their predators inevitably catch up and extinguish their colonies.

The Tonu opted for a strategy similar to the wildly successful Floater, making use of a buoyant structure to lift its colonial mass to the oceanic surface. While it is buffeted by the Floater clouds, it is able to make use of the strong light by the oceanic surface, and it is free from almost all predation, save for a few Feasters which have adapted to movement in open oceans, such as the Spinelo and Jetter. As such, Tonus have become some of the most wildly successful multicellular photosynthesizers on Lambda.

Such was the competition between the Indigestibles and the Sunshields that other lineages found themselves struggling to get by. The Lightcatcher, with an array of hardened scales surrounding its base and vulnerable sides, was still an easier target than the indigestible Indigestible Sunfeeder, and the impenetrable Sunshield. With its costly defensive adaptations rendered comparatively useless, the Lightcatchers disappeared, leaving only a few anomalous fossils (which many epochs later would provide endless befuddlement to paleontologists) as their legacy. The Growers are an even more obscure group. Lacking any defenses, or the extreme gravidity of the Sporers, Growers depended on their large size as an ablative defense. Unfortunately, the lack of escape mechanisms or defenses proved to be a decisively losing strategy, and lacking solid structures, the Growers would leave an even more enigmatic fossil record than their Lightcatcher cousins. Finally, the Sunblanket, barely distinguishable from its ancestral Sunfeeders (who themselves were driven to extinction by the same heavy predation that doomed the original Filter), quickly learned that being slightly better attached to surfaces does not afford any sort of clear selective advantage when its predators have no difficulty eating their equally-sessile relatives.

Finally, we come to the predatory Feasters and their relatives, whose activities have driven so much of this burst of evolution.

The Muscelo, descended from the apex predatory Feasters, was larger, stronger, and more dangerous than any organism before it. As a tradeoff, it had a dangerously energy-intensive lifestyle, which required to constantly predate lest it starve. It thrived early on in its history, and served as a driving agent for many of the evolutionary changes seen around this time. However, following the extinction of some of the easier prey items midway through the Floatatian Epoch, the Muscelos went into a steep decline. At the present, they carry on, making use of their size to predate on the towering Spires, or to break through the thick protein walls of the Sunshields, but they are able to survive only in the richest and densest concentrations of life on Lambda.

The Spinelo has adopted a set of rigid fins over the end of its long tail. This has granted it speed unmatched by its relatives at relatively little cost, allowing it to surge over the ocean floor, rapidly moving from prey to prey, rendering it one of the most successful members of the Feaster lineage.

The Crawler has developed a series of stubby protrusions, which allow it to rhythmically crawl its way over benthic sands and rocks. Living a comparatively laid-back lifestyle in comparison to its more active relatives, the Crawlers are thus among the most energy efficient and hardy predators, able to spend significant amounts of time in transit between meals without starving to death.

The Thick Feaster, in contrast to the Muscelo, is descended from some of the smaller, more predated-upon Feasters. Rather than developing attack mechanisms, Thick Feasters have developed a defensive cuticle. This renders them reasonably resistant to attack by other Feasters, but slows them considerably, hampering their ability to predate back on other feasters. Thus, Thick Feasters have begun to specialize on immobile prey, ponderously making their way from one cluster of Sunfeeders to the next.

Jetters are quite similar to their close relatives the Spinelos, but with much higher top speeds and lesser endurance. This creatures make use of fin-like wings to glide through the ammonia in quick darting motions. The great similarity in lifestyles between Jetters and Spinelos is a source for intense competition, but the sheer abundance of Floater prey has blunted the effects of this war. Jetters are generally outcompeted by Spinelos in most environments, but their fins, some of which have hook-like gripping tips, grant them a slight advantage when maneuvering through the thick clouds of Floaters which dominate the era’s seascapes.



Notes: I’d like it if people were more specific in defining just what the selective pressure is. ‘Competition’ is far too general- every organism in existence experiences competition. Try naming specific species or environmental challenges, and it’s likely that your evolutions will be more successful.

Also, I’d prefer if organisms were given one-word names, partly to make them easier to put in the picture and partly because I have a strange preference for simple, punchy names.

Awesome update!

Organism: Mawie
Ancestor: Jetter
Selective Pressure: Needed to have a wider range of food to survive.
Mutation: Evolved stronger hooks on their wings and a stinger on its bottom. The Mawie will not only feed on the natural prey of it's ancestor, but it also feeds on other Feasters. They have even been known to fight one another and have been labeled as cannibalistic omnivore relying on their quick acceleration to catch up to a prey as it latches on with it's hooks then stings it until it dies (if it's another Feaster). Once the prey is dead it devours it and moves on.

Organism:Inspire Tower
Ancestor: Spire
Selective Pressure: Wave Motion, Distracting Predators
Mutation: Hollow Spire vents wastes at various points. These wastes can be used by other floater or sunfeeder descendants to grow onto the Tower. Also, maybe a rudimentary "pump" cells to ensure flow.

The Spire was a solitary filter feeder, a mass of growth ontop of pillar of corpses, holding it snobbishy from other organisms. Reliant on currents for food, some Spires begun developing sacs which expand and contract, "pumping" nutrient water through spongy tissue. However, tired, filtered water filled with waste and indigestables needed to be expelled, and vents formed in the tissue to facilitate this.

As older cells died and the new Towers grew, some of the vents didn't close and continued to vent waste water. Soon, another Filter, perhaps a Venter or a Floater, grew on a vent, taking advantage of the constant flow by sacrificing choice bits filtered by the Tower above. Other vents see the growth of Sunfeeder descendants as the vents concentrated minerals usually found floating freely, but never in such density or utility.

And the young Towers begun to develop for this occurrence, changing the shapes of their dying vents to better serve the growing community below and thus offer such a buffet that they, the nobles of this fief ontop of the tower, are ignored as predators feast on their serfs. Hard Sunfeeders like the Indigestible are preferred for their shell complements their own. However, Venters are also desired for preventing feasters from crawling up the vents system. Finally, many a young tower find a start feeding off an older Tower's Vent, and soon tree-like towers with multiple roots, covered with life and infinitely more stable than older Spires spread across the sea of Lambda.

tl;dr. Pumps develop. Pumps cause vent systems to develop. Some Vent Systems are mineralized, and other organisms use concentrated waste water. Towers are selected for efficiency of pump and shaping the vent and waste water content to appeal to certain symbiotic organisms.

@ Iggy: I love the update and the pictures you drew. The Sporer did what I wanted them to do, which is great!

I'm sticking to my former principle of never updating the same organism twice in a row, just to branch off everyone.

Organism: Grazer
Ancestor: Thick Feaster
Selective pressure: Limited food sources, can only eat immobile organisms
Mutation: Improved digestive enzymes, in order to expand upon their all ready limited food source the Grazers have developed strong enzymes to break down more armored immobile organisms such as Sunshields.

Organism: Spinelord
Ancestor: Spinelo
Selective Pressure: The mass harvesting of easy prey of both the Spinelo and Jetter organisms has caused a shortage of this nutrient. Spinelords have adapted from Spinelo's to form a spine structure along their body that enables them to swim at much higher velocities with greatly increased evasiveness and manuevers.
Mutation: Spinelords have adapted with one key advantage. This entails an early spine structure that can greatly strengthen the durability of the Spinelords' body and aides significantly in its manuverability and speed.

Go Spinelo's!

The broken sections of the Spire is all dead (right?), but I can see how this would be profitable on a Tower.

Terrance888 said:

The broken sections of the Spire is all dead (right?), but I can see how this would be profitable on a Tower.

Click to expand...

Well, primarily all of what anything eats is 'dead.' Although with the constant flow of cells and nutrients through the hollow tower it would constantly be pumping out food for the Spinelords unless somehow patched.

Well, Towers are doing the pumping. Spires are just filter feeders on mineral stilts.

By dead as in, when eating a Spire's spire (unless you tore the entire thing down) you are basically munching on rock salt, or calcium bones, or sea shells.

Organism: Burner
Ancestor: Feaster
Selective Pressure: difficulty of dissolving the protein coats of the sunshield and the calcium towers of the spire.
Mutation: The burner has evolved small acid-sacks in its body which it uses to dissolve the protein coats and calcite towers of organisms and extract nutrients from the organisms within.

Is this plausible? organic chem isn't my strong suit by any means.

One question. Further down the road, would it be possible to cross-breed (for lack of a better word) several organisms? As long as they orignated from similar organisms in their ancestry I see little reason why not.

Organism: Svi
Ancestor: Venter
Selective Pressure: The higher energy costs of partial nitrification versus the lower energy input of stagnant water.
Mutation: The creation of small, vibrating "wings" all over its body that fans the surrounding solution, as well as the single celled food source, around the Svi. This fanning inadvertently fans around the nitrite outside of the Svi's body as well, helping to actually deter predators before they get a bite, rather than after. This fanning, while using a lot of Svi's energy, greatly increases the around of food flowing into its body.

Organism: Clapper
Ancestor: Jetter
Selective Pressure: The predatory arms race
Mutation:
The Clapper has for the most part lost the mobility of the Jetter, retaining it only in infancy. Instead, Clapper adults have more pronounced gripping tips, as well a greatly reduced body size (proportionally to the Jetter, their fins, and thus the amount of gripping tips, are significantly larger than their main bodies). They spend the majority of their adult lives gripped onto large colonies of Tonus or Venters, absorbing what few nutrients they require for their small frames. Clapper infants swim only a small distance away from their parent, usually settling on nearby or the same colony of Tonus/Venters. Large Clapper infestations do ultimately lead to the death of the colony. What few Clappers happen to fall on the ocean floor usually die out before they can establish a significant presence, and the few Clapper infants that choose to settle down on Spires find them an insufficient concentration of food.

Organism: Belcher
Ancestor: Venter
Selective Pressure: Inefficient toxin creation resulting in high biosynthetic cost
Mutation: The toxins Belchers produce actively suffocate slower predatory organisms (Crawlers, Thick Feasters), allowing Belchers to double the utility of their toxin creation mechanism.

Excellent. Hope the fast pace continues.

Organism: Jetseer
Ancestor: Jetter
Selective Pressure: Competition for food between the multitude of predators.
Mutation: A Light-sensitive cell cluster (primitive eye) at the 'head' of the body. This will allow the Jetseer - with its superior mobility - to be able to identify potential prey (including other Feaster descendants) far easier than before.

(Iggy, I'm assuming that this hasn't been developed yet, but I'm not 100% sure.)

Grandkhan said:

Organism: Burner
Ancestor: Feaster
Selective Pressure: difficulty of dissolving the protein coats of the sunshield and the calcium towers of the spire.
Mutation: The burner has evolved small acid-sacks in its body which it uses to dissolve the protein coats and calcite towers of organisms and extract nutrients from the organisms within.

Is this plausible? organic chem isn't my strong suit by any means.

Click to expand...

Well, the key here is knowing the predation methods. The hunting method of a basal Feaster is to find something, and then exude a digestive enzyme onto the prey's surface. The feaster then absorbs the digested goo. Acid would allow it to break through calcified structures and denature defensive proteins, although it could be potentially quite costly to produce.

Lord_Herobrine said:

One question. Further down the road, would it be possible to cross-breed (for lack of a better word) several organisms? As long as they orignated from similar organisms in their ancestry I see little reason why not.

Click to expand...

It won't be possible. Crossbreeding is only possible within a single species, and we're working at the level of families here. Orcas can't mate with bottlenose dolphins, even though they're in the same family. You could probably come up with symbiotic relationships, but they wouldn't be able to mate with each other. It's biologically impossible, due to physical mating barriers (behaviour, incompatible genitalia, size), chemical mating barriers (non-matching receptor proteins on egg cells), and genetic barriers (mismatched chromosomes, for example).

Wikipedia has a great article on cross breeding, and where it does and doesn't work.