This is a continuation using new rules of NESLife V, which was itself a revamping of NESLife 4, in the style of the epic saga that was NESLife 3. Inspired by TuxLife and by the rule advancements introduced by Lord_Iggy in NESLife VI. Welcome back to another world of evolution!
Welcome to our Earth-like, and as-yet unnamed world. Currently rotating once every 18 Earth hours, orbiting a gentle K-type main-sequence star every 250 Earth days. Age, approximately 4 billion years. Axial tilt, 25 degrees. Surface area, 1.3 times larger than Earth's. Surface gravity, much the same, although the atmospheric pressure would be uncomfortable for a human. The sky has a marked blue-green tint compared to Earth's, and also has pinkish and purple tones at times. To human eyes, its sun would shine with a magical gold and orange hue, turning an impressive deep red-pink at dawn and dusk. A bright moon looms large in the sky, making for some spectacular moonlit nights. Three irregular moonlets orbit beyond, tiny and dull in comparison, slowly tracing a path through a sparse ring of rocky debris that marks the outer edge of our planet's gravitational influence.
Oxygen is present, but a human would need breathing gear to stay conscious for long. Normally, the equator is oppressively hot by Earth standards, and plagued by violent storms. Ice ages are few and far between, with the poles ice-free throughout most of the planet’s history. A stormy water ocean dominates the surface, with high tidal surges due to the proximity of the major moon, the shorelines experience rapid erosion into tidal estuaries and sprawling mud flats.
This planet has long been home to microbes. They have adapted to every climate and terrain, and over billions of years they have changed the composition of the atmosphere and the oceans, making way for more advanced forms of life to appear. These new, pioneering multicellular forms have thrived and diversified over many more millions of years. But not all lineages have stood the test of time. Intense competition and changing climates have already taken their toll. And all the while, restless forces linger in outer space and within the planet’s core, threatening to unleash mass extinction at any time.
Few life forms will survive the ages. But some will have a beautiful moment of success...
Rules
The NESLife concept has evolved over the years with NESes run by myself, TerrisH, Tuxedohamm, and Lord_Iggy. The goal is to have fun simulating the evolution of life on another world. Players take an existing ‘species’ (what would really be a whole family or genus of species in real terms) and propose a new evolution to feature in the next update. You may have a few goals in mind, but it is best to be flexible and opportunist in your approach - there will be unexpected effects as new species appear from other players, and unexpected natural disasters and changing climate to contend with, all of which makes the game fun
My pinnacle so far has been NESLifeIII, reaching more than 30 updates. The latest incarnation, NESLifeVI (run by our resident biologist, Iggy), has introduced some new concepts and new, elegant and realistic ways of playing evolution, which has proven itself to work really well - over 11 Epochs and counting! After stalling on NESLifeV (itself a continuation of the microbe-focused NESLifeIV), I realised I wanted to continue the world with the new rule twists that Iggy has introduced. Thus, I will allow Iggy to explain further:
SpoilerLord_Iggy NESLife Overview :
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 []. 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 humorously 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.
Iggy Explains Evolution
Organisms are defined by their genome. A genome is a collection of genes. Genes are units of genetic information, which are carried in DNA. Genes control the traits expressed by an organism.
Organisms reproduce. Their offspring are similar to their parents, as they possess the genes of their parents, but they are not always identical. Sometimes, errors happen when genes are passed on to children, creating new traits. This is mutation.
Offspring compete to reproduce. Those which have the traits that best allow them to survive are more likely to have more children. Their children have a chance of inheriting the features that made their parents successful, thus further propagating the genes. This is natural selection.
Due to random chance, some genes might get passed on more than others. Eventually, this can cause one single population to turn into multiple distinct populations. This is genetic drift.
On average, over millions of years, positive mutations will tend to propagate throughout a species. Random genetic drift will also contribute to these changes. The accumulation of changes can make a species distinctly different from its ancestors. This is evolution.
Evolutions!
Strictly one evolution per player, per turn.
I'm doing things in my own particular idiom, slightly different to Iggy:
Species Name:
Ancestor Species:
Selective Pressure:
Primary Mutation:
Secondary Mutation(s):
Species Name: something smart, relevant, and snappy (or just snappy!). Don't moan at me if I alter your long-winded or blatantly silly names
Ancestor Species: something listed in the most recent stats. The ancestor cannot be something that has died out, or an evolution that another player has just posted.
Selective Pressure: a specific problem or threat you want to do something about, IE predation, inability to find food, inability to survive in different climates/terrain, inability to kill prey/feed, etc etc.
Primary Mutation: this is the main mutation that you want to be included. It should be a response to the selective pressure.
Secondary Mutation(s): one or two other mutations that I may or may not actually include, depending on the situation. Its impossible for me to go through a lengthy Q&A each time, but you can put your 'wish list' here. Also, getting rid of something – having unnecessary organs/appendages atrophy away to save energy and increase reproduction rates - is generally 'free' to do. If I don't see how an inherited trait is useful anymore, it may well become atrophied anyway.
Additional considerations in this NES
Experimentally introducing 'Genetic Diversity' variable in the stats. Greater diversity means greater health and 'robustness'. It may also mean that player evolutions of this species have more chance of getting their secondary traits added; as a general rule, diversity increases over time, but there are complications depending on the population and method of gene sharing (if any) - small populations of a/sexual species can evolve rapidly, while divergent traits may be harder to establish among large, stable populations. New species will generally begin with less diversity than their ancestors, being a sub-set and offshoot from them.
'Species' in the stats are really what we would call families of species. They are not necessarily fixed in stone, as its possible that some traits will be lost due to declining genetic diversity, or just natural atrophy of non-essential traits.
Again, I encourage players to be opportunistic, spread their evolutions around, don't plan too far ahead and don't invest too much in one particular branch. Player species also suffer from trying to be too clever and unique at times. This isn't how nature works - sometimes a simple, practical upgrade works wonders.
So, here we go! I am launching this continuation NES with an update, which you will find a few posts down. New rules and stats are in force, and I’d like to keep the old thread with the old rules, should anyone wish to revisit or compare the old system.
An unsuspecting blue-green world hung majestically in space. Its emerald oceans had warmed since the end of the Frigurian era. While scatterings of ice at the south pole provided a last refuge to those species adapted to the cold, a great abundance of life flourished in the warm shallows, characterised by a great diversification of Spirulids. A wide variety of colonial sea plants flourished in towering forests and drifting clouds of greenery. These, along with colourful colonies of reef-like Petrosa towers, supported a cosmopolitan array of animals and parasites. And at night, here and there, a twinkle of bioluminescent Neofilia might be seen rising from the depths. Meanwhile on land, plant-like Bubblerea had begun to spread beyond the bounds of rivers and lakes, flourishing in rain-soaked tropical sediments. Intrepid animals had followed in their wake, with the first air-breathing forms scurrying far beyond the waterline.
For tens of millions of years, an explosion of complex life had been occurring. The climate shifts of the Frigurian had only done a little to slow things down. Now, a greater threat was looming. Far above the atmosphere, a large comet was approaching with incredible velocity. Eccentrically looping around its parent star for millions of years, it was finally on a collision course with one of the inner planets - our planet. In the final few seconds before impact, gravity tore it apart the into smaller fragments. A spectacular multi-branched trail of light crashed through the atmosphere in barely a few seconds.
The fragments hit like a gigantic shotgun blast, spreading their energy across thousands of kilometres of shallow tropical sea, forming multiple impact craters over a hundred kilometres in diameter. Towering tsunamis rushed out to scour the shorelines for thousands of kilometres in every direction, devastating the crucial shallow water habitats, and continued to ripple back and forth across the planet for days to come. All complex life within a thousand kilometres was dead within moments.
As the initial blasts subsided, seawater rushed back into the red-hot craters, forming fast fields of broiling water amidst convulsing towers of semi-molten rock rebounding upwards from the fractured crust, pumping colossal towers of superheated steam and ash into the stratosphere beneath the initial mushroom clouds. Meanwhile, multiple shockwaves travelling through the planet's crust ruptured major fault lines and volcanic rifts, unleashing tensions that had been building up for millennia, particularly at the opposite side of the planet where shockwaves repeatedly converged. Super-volcanoes erupted almost simultaneously across the planet, devastating further areas of the surface and adding to the growing atmospheric shroud. The world descended into a dark, hellish gloom of fire and ice, which lasted for years to come. The end-Legonian extinction event had begun.
Oceanic phytoplankton, denied its usual sunlight and sensitive to volcanic toxins, was the first to collapse, followed swiftly by multicellular plant-like life. The surviving, hungry animals kept up the pressure on growths and blooms that could no longer regenerate. Any that was not eaten simply began to decay. Soon, the animal food chain also began to crash sharply. Fossil beds laid down at this time show a mass die-off of plants and animals - particularly of filter feeders, many emerging types of Spiculid among them - the dead and dying entombed forever beneath sudden volcanic mud slides from nearby volcanic islands.
There was a brief boom for those that specialised in scavenging and recycling, including certain types of plankton, which also allowed a few filter-feeders to survive the darkest days. Partial sunlight returned within a year, but the survivors struggled with new problems – encroaching cold, rising toxicity, and fluctuating sea levels. Massive volcanic outbursts continued over the next century. The climate swung wildly from cold to warm, as volcanic winters were repeatedly broken by the build-up of greenhouse gases. Tectonic upheaval, massive ash deposits and rapid ice formation played havoc with sea levels, repeatedly stranding massive areas of seabed above water.
Of the sixteen families in six major lineages of ocean plants alive before the impact, only three families survived – the simple parasitic Ngarta, a handful of which leached from the other survivors; the Terras, a simple organism with a mucus coating, providing some protection from elements and enabling it to survive at the very edge of the tidal zone; and the versatile Greenmoss, with its mild defensive poison, highly efficient light-gathering , ability to adopt a floating or static lifestyle, and cellular adaptations against drying out.
A notable loss was the Silvaetus order of colonial, branching plant-like forms headed by the Slippius, which had emerged just before the impact and had come to rule large swathes of seabed, building kelp-like towers composed of individual organisms. While versatile enough to survive the fluctuating sea levels and climate, they simply could not cope with the lack of sunlight and over-grazing by desperate animals.
Inland, the Bubblera were severely thinned out, exposed to the full force of volcanoes and harsh climate. The simple mud-dwelling Slimer, having long abandoned photosynthesis in favour of recycling decaying matter, was one of the few strong survivors. Otherwise it was only the Spiffus and the newly-emerged Bouncer that survived, dominating their habitant of isolated sheltered lakes, reaching new oases via airborne distribution, and crucially having the ability to shut down and hibernate during the worst extremes. Meanwhile the only air-breathing animal, the Adventus, had emerged on one of the small continents, where it now faced harsh climate and lack of food; limited to being a shoreline scavenger, it eventually died out in competition with new lineages of marine crawlers.
Most branches of ocean life were also thinned out. But in a sense, life in this world was fortunate. Despite the collapse of plant life, there were few dedicated plant-eating species, and following the evolutionary pressures of the recent Frigurian upheaval, most genera were able to survive via a few lucky specialists or generalists, though often losing much of their genetic diversity. Notable losses were the Virafilium branch of toxic predators, which had begun to evolve into extravagant bioluminescent forms, along with several older families of Neofilia; the static Petrosa reefs, which could not recover from sea level fluctuations; and several branches of the Spiculids, including the classic spiralform Tremulids, the unusual Agonoria and Aguvericus with their sophisticated eyesight and manoeuvrability - but comparative lack of the useful mouthparts and weapons, and the 'living basket' Helicus filter-feeders, which had just begun to diversify into larger conical forms but could not survive with such meagre rations of plankton. The Stellacula line had also begun to diverge into new forms known as Glacistaram; though they were well suited to cold conditions, they lacked the aquatic plant food they had come to depend upon. All these Spiculids, with their easily-preserved bodies, dominate the fossil beds from the height of the extinction.
But slowly, steadily, the skies cleared, the climate stabilised at globally warm greenhouse conditions, and a new era began. The oceans had been fertilised by massive volcanic deposits, but for now they remained somewhat toxic, and their chemistry had been fundamentally altered by the blooming of opportunistic microbes and protists. Complex life could not immediately spring back to its former glory. Equatorial waters were now especially warm, stormy, toxic and oxygen-poor, with reduced populations and only occasional blooms of phytoplankton. Waters near the poles were the main spawning grounds for floating plants, plankton and filter feeders – clearer, ice-free, temperate, oxygen-rich and blessed with long summer days, at the price of long dark winters.
The land surface had also been greatly expanded. Ocean still covered around 75% of the surface, but two true continents had now emerged, in addition to several long island chains, some of which arched halfway around the planet. Towering volcanic mountains formed a backbone for each of the main continents, sloping gently into sweeping plains of fertile volcanic soil, most of it well watered by rainfall, but now largely devoid of any life beyond microbes. The surviving Bubblera, buoyant and lacking roots, were restricted to growing in lakes, despite their methods of aerial migration; while the emerging Greenmoss had only a few species that could survive on freshwater, and still required open water to develop and spread its spores, restricting its spread inland to little more than a few accidents.
The pull of the nearby moon had always resulted in large tides on the oceans. But with masses ash and debris filling up the seabed, more than 5% of the surface was now composed of sweeping tidal plains; fertile sands and pebble terrain that was regularly flooded by the sea at high tide. This was now the planet's richest biome, dominated in places by vast carpets of the simple Terras which, thanks to its stubby little stems, could grow above any Greenmoss that took hold. An ancient species, the humble Polychende, found itself uniquely well adapted to browsing this slimy tidal carpet, sucking on the Terras and on the biological gunk that tended to accumulate between stems. Where Terras could not take root, the tidal sediment was home to trillions of tiny, simple horsehockeytu, similarly an ancient species that now found itself well placed to thrive, sheltering within its flooded burrows and emerging at high tide to gorge on plankton.
Beyond the tidal zone, the sea was home to a greatly reduced collection of species, each of which had survived with distinct niches. Greenmoss in their free-floating phase now lacked any competition beyond phytoplankton, and vast blooms arose in the open ocean when conditions were right. Alongside these blooms, Aranofilus, a basic tubular filter-feeder, had survived thanks to its simplicity and its ability to clone itself rapidly when food was available. With reduced competition, it now followed a boom and bust cycle, forming large chains and sheets of interlinked animals which gorged themselves on plankton before inevitably being broken up by predators, leaving a few survivors to scatter and restart the cycle. Astercula, the survivors of the Stellacula branch, were somewhat similar, but a little more picky about their water chemistry; their colonies were much slower growing, but they were able to make use of Greenmoss, Araonofilus, and plankton blooms as food sources, a crucial advantage that allowed them to maintain high population throughout the oceans.
On the shallow seafloor, the Petrosa reefs and Silvaetus growths were all gone, and the surviving Terras species did not grow very far below the tidal zone, leaving much of the seafloor with a bleak and empty appearance. Clusters of Umbrafugis added a little colour; these were motile descendants of the Petrosa reefs, maintaining a similar hollow bony structure for defence, using their feeding appendages to actively swim through the water when needed, guided by primitive eye-spots. Usually, they were to be found resting in place, conversing energy while catching plankton from water currents. They grew more slowly, but being very efficient at catching plankton, and somewhat difficult for predators to eat, they monopolised the best feeding spots in shallow water.
Marmoracelyphus emerged as the sole inheritor of the Dentius line, a well-protected grazer and opportunist on the seafloor, with sturdy legs and a strong shell for defence, scraping away at young Terras or Greenmoss growths with its special mouthparts, occasionally scavenging or attacking any smaller crawler it could wrestle into submission. It was also strong enough to make short forays above the waterline, though it would rapidly de-oxygenate outside of water. To some extent it clashed with the Genocirculus, which emerged as the last survivor of the bottom-dwelling Spirulids. Genocriculus was more of a generalist, less well protected but with more of a taste for small animal prey, with much weaker limbs but inheriting the 'harpoons' of its forebears. Its key survival tactic was its brooding and guarding of eggs, a behaviour which had begun with sexual reproduction and gender specialisation; pushed to the brink throughout the upheavals, a handful of individuals had been able to raise enough young to ensure survival of the species.
More life stirred in the apparently barren sediment. Several species of horsehockeytu thrived just as well below the tidal zone. And Dentembula was a particular success story during the mass extinction, being a versatile scavenger able to sniff out meals at a distance and burrow for protection. It continued to dominate the scavenging niche as conditions improved, venturing down to mid-ocean depths where it sometimes rubbed shoulders with deep sea life.
The deep volcanic vents had not been unaffected. The surge in volcanism opened up many new vents to colonise, but also caused others to explode upwards, forming whole new islands and sea mounts. The lack of carrion falling from surface waters forced the surviving Deephunters to become more aggressive towards the vent-dwelling Soleneidea.
Arguably, the main success story of the new era was the Fossornatus. Aside from the Genocirculus, it was the only advanced Spiculid to survive, and in many ways was the most sophisticated animal to emerge so far. The first prototypes emerged just before the mass extinction began. Hard times shaped the evolution of versatile, highly mobile, generalist species. The main advantage of the Fossornatus was its system of gills and internal circulation, although rather primitive, allowing it to maintain a chase, wrestle and wear down other animals that would rapidly exhaust themselves. And with enough food, it was now also capable of growing to larger sizes than any other animal so far – the only animal that came close was the blob-like Magnustella, which had little to fear from other animals except the feisty Fossornatus. Being partially buoyant, it was also able to adapt to life in the open ocean as more food became available there. By the end of the era, some species had adapted to fresh water and colonised river systems and lakes. Its sense of smell and grasping jaws allowed it to poke around for Dentembula and horsehockeytus in the sediment, while it had the vibration senses and harpoons to tackle moving prey in open water. Being able to feed with impunity on the widely-abundant horsehockeytu, Aranofilus and Greenmoss, it soon had abundant food and global distribution. For species at the top of the food chain, they had a disproportionally large population; an abundance of their various shells and beaks in the fossil record mark the end of the tumultuous Fossornian Era.
Meanwhile, little more than a footnote in the fossil record at this time, the Mikri-Oura had appeared. A distant descendant of the horsehockeytu, it began life as a simple burrowing plankton-catcher, with a spiny skeleton for defence, before growing into a free-swiming adult equipped with a strong muscular tail for swimming, and – rarely for animals at this time - a bizarre set of five primitive eyes. These adaptations were likely a response to the Fossornatus, which was the only predator big and fast enough to eat spiny Mikri-Oura, but relied on other senses and had no eyes as such; eyesight was now a crucial advantage in brightly-lit shallow water. Though comparatively small in number, Mikri-Oura spread across the ocean, sticking mainly to coastal zones where it could comfortably browse through Terras fields at high tide, while keeping its eyes out for danger.
The world is now very warm, with temperate poles. There is no ice at the poles.
There are two major land continents straddling tropical regions, widely separated, currently arranged to catch plenty of rainfall, with few arid regions. There are plenty of small tropical islands. Volcanic mountain chains reach high enough to be crowned with ice.
Tree of Life
Comparative Biomass Guide
Species Stats:
Spoiler:
Order Donikae
Terras: static intertidal photosynthesiser.
Genetic diversity: low (cloning).
Description: stubby photosynthetic stalks with anchoring filaments and thick mucus coating to prevent desiccation during low tide, will easily dry out if exposed too long.
Order Floatus
Ngarta: aquatic parasitic photosynthesiser.
Genetic diversity: moderate (cloning).
Description: tiny photosynthetic mass with specialised filaments for active swimming during its planktonic stage, and nutrient leaching from hosts during its reproductive phase.
Greenmoss: aquatic poisonous photosynthesiser.
Genetic diversity: moderate (cloning).
Description: buoyant photosythetic mass with limited desiccation resistance on a cellular level, mild defensive poison, resistance to cool temperature, ability to grow anchoring filaments, and specialised cells for mass reproduction via aquatic spores.
Order Bubblerea
Slimer: intertidal recycler.
Genetic diversity: moderate (cloning).
Description: tiny buoyant mass of cells with limited desiccation resistance, specialised filaments for crawling, and ability to leach nutrients from bacterial growth and decaying matter. Harnesses sunlight for certain chemical reactions.
Spiffus: hardy freshwater photosynthesiser.
Genetic diversity: moderate (cloning/hermaphrodite).
Description: tiny buoyant photosynthetic mass with moderate desiccation resistance, ability to grow aerofoil-shape leaves and distribute itself via the wind in response to pheromone feedback, and ability to shrivel and hibernate in harsh conditions.
Bouncer: hardy freshwater and airborne photosynthesiser.
Genetic diversity: low (cloning/hermaphrodite).
Description: tiny buoyant photosynthetic mass with moderate desiccation resistance, ability to increase its buoyancy to become airborne in response to pheromone feedback, and ability to shrivel and hibernate in harsh conditions.
Order Neofilia
Aranofilius: motile colonial oceanic filter-feeder.
Genetic diversity: low (cloning).
Description: small cylindrical animal with specialised extendible cilia for capturing plankton, a simple internal digestive chamber, and rear cilia for swimming. Specialised reproductive cells for rapid clonal reproduction, creating offspring initially attached to the parent.
horsehockeytu: burrowing aquatic filter-feeder in sandy sediments.
Genetic diversity: high (cloning).
Description: tiny cylindrical animal with specialised extendible cilia for capturing plankton, a simple internal digestive chamber, and rear cilia for swimming and burrowing.
Mikri-Oura: versatile aquatic omnivore.
Genetic diversity: low (hermaphrodite).
Description: small tubular animal with spiny internal skeleton, muscular tail for rapid bursts of swimming and burrowing, and a full digestive tract. Extendible cilia for capturing plankton during its development stage; five primitive eyes, a primitive beak and organs for gene exchange in its reproductive phase.
Toxiwurm: tidepool and freshwater filter-feeder.
Genetic diversity: very low (cloning).
Description: small tubular animal with basic musculature to enable swimming and crawling out of water, limited desiccation resistance, mild poisonous nodules, extendible cilia for capturing plankton, and a simple internal digestive chamber.
Order Petrosidae
Umbrafugis (a.k.a. Shade Chaser): motile oceanic filter-feeder.
Genetic diversity: moderate (cloning/hermaphrodite).
Description: small cylindrical animal with a porous bony framework, thin fleshy cuticle, specialised internal reproductive organs, multiple primitive eye-spots, and multiple large sweeping limbs. Limbs have a mixture of specialised cilia branches, used both for swimming and for trapping plankton, with small digestive chambers at the base of each limb.
Order Soleneidea
Ardens Worm: static deep ocean chemeosynthesiser.
Genetic diversity: moderate (cloning/hermaphrodite).
Description: small tubular animal with multi-branched tail used for swimming in its plantonic stage, and to burrow and provide anchorage in its adult stage; internal chambers nurture chemosynthetic bacteria using nutrients absorbed directly from volcanic vents and seeps on the seafloor. Resistant to extreme pressure and high temperature.
Methanovermis: motile deep ocean chemeosynthesiser.
Genetic diversity: moderate (cloning/hermaphrodite).
Description: small tubular animal with segmented body capable of crawling and burrowing into soft sediment; internal chambers nurture chemosynthetic bacteria using nutrients absorbed from sediment around volcanic vents and seeps on the seafloor. Armed with primitive jaws for defense. Resistant to extreme pressure and extreme temperature ranges.
Order Commendalia
Deephunter: mid-deep ocean scavenger and opportunist.
Genetic diversity: moderate (cloning).
Description: small animal with radial symmetry, numerous legs capable of short bursts of speed or efficient long-distance crawling, and a central mouth with sharp teeth opening to a compact digestive tract. Resistant to extreme pressure and extreme temperature ranges.
Polychende: amphibious plant sucker and scavenger.
Genetic diversity: very high (hermaphrodite).
Description: simple segmented animal with bilateral symmetry, buoyant developmental stage, 6-10 stumpy legs in adult stage, thick flexible skin with limited desiccation resistance, extendible sucking proboscis and simple internal digestive tract.
Marmoracelyphus: armoured intertidal grazer and scavenger.
Genetic diversity: low (hermaphrodite).
Description: small animal with radial symmetry, a thick protective shell, numerous muscular legs capable of short bursts of speed or efficient long-distance crawling, basic olfactory sense, resistance to mild toxins, and a central mouth with teeth optimised for scraping, opening to a compact digestive tract.
Dentembula: aquatic scavenger.
Genetic diversity: moderate (hermaphrodite).
Description: small animal with radial symmetry, numerous muscular legs capable of burrowing into soft sediment, short bursts of speed or efficient long-distance crawling; sensitive olfactory antennae, resistance to cold water, and a central mouth with sharp teeth, opening to a compact digestive tract optimised for handling decomposing matter.
Order Oreillia
Magnustella: aquatic and intertidal grazer, armoured all-consuming blob.
Genetic diversity: low (cloning).
Description: small-medium animal with radial symmetry, partial buoyancy, basic olfactory sense, and a large motile fringe used for crawling, to enhance oxygen absorption, and to seal in strong digestive juices which are exuded directly onto food items on the seafloor, for external digestion. Thick flexible skin for protection, digestive juices can also be used as a defensive weapon.
Order Spiculidae
Astercula: oceanic colonial floating spikeball, grazer and planktivore.
Genetic diversity: moderate (cloning).
Description: tiny-small animal with spherical symmetry; a matrix of feeding spikes of various sizes surrounds specialised digestive, buoyancy and reproductive cells. A few spikes provide basic olfactory sense; others become enlarged hooks to interlink individuals, or enable passive transport via floating vegetation or other animals.
Fossornatus: active oceanic predator and opportunist.
Genetic diversity: moderate (hermaphrodite).
Description: small-medium animal with highly-adapted spiral symmetry, covered by a thin lightweight spiky shell. 6 pairs of maneuverable swimming paddles, buoyancy bladder, basic jaws lined with grasping teeth, basic vibration and olfactory senses, forward facing harpoons to aid prey capture. Basic gill structure and circulatory system. Full but basic digestive tract, basic reproductive organs.
Genocirculus: versatile shallow seafloor omnivore.
Genetic diversity: low (sexual).
Description: small animal with highly-adapted spiral symmetry, covered by a thin lightweight spiky shell. 8-10 primitive crawling and swimming limbs, buoyancy bladder, basic vibration and olfactory senses, forward facing harpoons to aid prey capture and mating, and small shell-mounted spikes. Sharp teeth open onto a full but basic digestive tract. Gender specialisation and sexual dimorphism, with males fighting to fertilise and guard the eggs produced by females.
Mikri-Oura: versatile aquatic omnivore.
Genetic diversity: low (hermaphrodite).
Description: small tubular animal with spiny internal skeleton, muscular tail for rapid bursts of swimming and burrowing, and a full digestive tract. Extendible cilia for capturing plankton during its development stage; five primitive eyes, a primitive beak and organs for gene exchange in its reproductive phase.
Species Name: Mirikiri
Ancestor Species: Mikri-Oura
Selective Pressure: Low genetic diversity
Primary Mutation: Switch from hermaphroditism to two distinct genders, allowing for more dramatic gene exchange, increase the robusticity of the Species. The Mirikiri "Female" Produces a large number of eggs which she attaches to the ocean floor in beds, then marks with a pheremon. Males, attracted by the pheromones, come and release their sperm, fertilizing the eggs.
Secondary Mutation(s): Pheremones to mark fertile areas
oh.. what they hey.. you actualy have got me thinking of starting up a NesLife of my own now. though.. it might not exactly be Life as we know it. anyway, first creature... (drat, to slow)
Name: Great-Moss
Ancestor Species: Greenmoss
Spoiler:
Greenmoss: aquatic poisonous photosynthesiser.
Genetic diversity: moderate (cloning).
Description: buoyant photosynthetic mass with limited desiccation resistance, mild defensive poison, resistance to cool temperature, ability to grow anchoring filaments, and specialized cells for mass reproduction via aquatic spores.
Selective Pressure: Competition with self primarily, with predation and environmental change/shock secondary.
Primary Mutation: Increased tendency to Link with other Greatmoss and form Large interwoven mats, to better block out competition with other plants.
Secondary Mutation(s): means to move energy/water from one Greatmoss to another, increased resistance to water loss, stronger filaments
Notes: While still individually small, Greatmoss found the tendency to link with others of it's own kind a slight advantage over it's green moss ancestors. their tightly packed nature easily blocked out the light for any plants below these mats, and maximize the number of Greatmoss that could fit in a given area. these mats could easily drift freely on the open ocean, or anchor themselves to the sea floor where only a small part of the mat touched it. there is even conjecture based on secondary evidence that they might have produce Anchor lines, thin columns of themselves extending from the seafloor to the mats dozens of feet above to hold the mats in position in the deeper shallows, though there is no fossil evidence of this, or that the mats might have been able to briefly survive on the shores during low tides
Thanks very much guys! I hope there will be enough interest to keep this going. I know my updating record hasn't been great recently, but I'm really feeling a lot happier using Iggy's ruleset. A LOT happier. It takes a whole load of worry out of updating... Part of the reason for me stalling in the first place was I could feel the 'Lego' gene and evolution system wasn't quite right (IMO).
Also, I plan to give NESCraft a similar revamp, that is not dead!
Marmoracelyphus: armoured intertidal grazer and scavenger.
Genetic diversity: low (hermaphrodite).
Description: small animal with radial symmetry, a thick protective shell, numerous muscular legs capable of short bursts of speed or efficient long-distance crawling, basic olfactory sense, resistance to mild toxins, and a central mouth with teeth optimised for scraping, opening to a compact digestive tract.
Species Name: Scamper
Ancestor Name: Marmoracelyphus
Selective Pressure: Competition for food among other Marmoracelyphus
Primary Mutation: Improved desiccation resistance
Secondary Mutation: Crude proto-eyes
Notes: The Scamper is the descendants of the weaker Marmoracelyphus that could not compete for the prime food sources. In response they would scavenge during low tide when there was minimal competition. As a result those that could remain outside of the ocean longer were much more successful.
Species Name: Servoleto (The Perceptive Killer)
Ancestor Species: Fossornatus
Selective Pressure: Intraspecific Competition for Prey
Primary Mutation: Vision
Secondary Mutation(s): More extensive, thicker and sharply-barbed predatory harpoons.
With the position of 'Apex Predator' clearly within its grasp, various lineages of Fossornatuss felt selective pressure not from other families, but from rivals within their own clade. There is limited ecological space at the peak of the food web, so competition is intense. Several mutations rose to prominence, but the most significant, and most successful was the development of sight. A pair of sensory filaments have become adapted for vision, coiling up to form simple discs packed with light-sensitive cells. These muscular, spiculin-based discs are capable of modulating their shape, flexing to adjust the primitive eye's focus. This vision gives the Fossornatus' offshoot, the Servoleto, a fearsome predatory toolkit, able to hunt for a broad range of prey in a diverse set of environments.
A further development of the Servoleto has been in the fine-tuning of its predatory harpoons. Relying not on its jaws alone, the Servoleto unleashes a salvo of filamentous barbed harpoons once its binocular vision has judged the range to its prey. Once these harpoons latch, it is a simple matter to reel the captured prey back into the Servoleto's mouth. While the Fossornatus already had this adaptation, the harpoons of the Servoleto are longer, more substantive, and possess muscular barbs which pop outwards once the sharp-tipped harpoon has embedded itself, preventing the prey from sliding back off of the harpoon's end.
Thanks! And as Iggy pointed out in chat, I messed up the evolution template. 'Selective pressure' is meant to be part of that. But looks like people got that anyhows ^^
Species Name: Slimarta
Ancestor Species: Ngarta
Selective Pressure: Inability to attach and remain attached to host species.
Primary Mutation: Slime glands and pores (see below)
Secondary Mutation(s): thicker, more robust exoskeleton.
Notes:
Primary Mutation:
Produces a clear, slime-like adhesive substance which coats its outer body. As a suitable host species passes by or attempts to eat the Slimarta, the adhesive coating allows it to be attached to the host species.
Secondary Mutation:
In order to ensure that if a host species were to attempt to consume the Slimarta, it has an increased likelihood of surviving the initial attempt at consuming it and then proceed to attach itself to the host species' internal organs or systems.
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