Right on time for my 21st birthday! Thank you!
Genocirculus: Circuit
Evolved from: Circulatus
Genes added: sexual reproduction x1, colonialism x1
Description: The Circulatus began to produce sex cells for reproduction, ejecting its sex cells into the water to be fertilized by other sex cells. Thus, a male and a female division of the species emerged, though the fertilized cells essentially grew on the ocean floor. With the greater need for contact with fellow members of the species, colonial behavior became a necessity. Large colonies of the genocirculus grew at the shores.
As a thought, you don't need genders to have reproduction, and if your sexual reproduction is external, then using terms like 'male' and 'female' doesn't make a lot of sense. What you're describing sounds more like
mating type, which is quite prevalent in fungi. Also, colonialism, in a biological sense, refers to a lot of organisms living in physical connection with each other, like a coral reef or a portuguese man-o-war (or, for that matter, every Spiculid up to this point
). Anyway, Daft's suggestions are good- better terms for the genes you want might be some way of describing your reproduction, and 'social behaviour x1'.
Sexual reproduction isn't the ONLY method of reproduction. Spores and budding are also reproductive alternatives.
The number of methods that could exist for reproduction and dispersal are truly mind-boggling, Circuit's only beginning to list them.
Ah good, because each individual Glacistaram has a big, barbed spike to spike any cells near it.
+Zombie Like Swarming +Mass Reproduction = Feast!
Of course, if you rely on Zombie-like swarming, no one individual gets a lot of food, which is problematic.
I just realized how unique the Spicurus are, being cooperating individuals most of the time instead of being specialized tissues most of the time. I'm going to see how long I can keep that aspect up.
Oh, they're unique for many more reasons beyond that, if you recall my story an update or two back.
oh dear...
I should have gon for non-oxygen producing photosynthesis last turn. *sigh* ah well. I'll do so this turn.
And how do you plan to conduct anoxygenic (non-oxygen-generating) photosynthesis? The only ways I'm aware of doing it involve lots of sulphur and don't take place on anything more than bacterial scales. Thus, your proposal doesn't seem like something that
can be done on an oceanic scale.
Here is a fairly technical overview of the topic.
and now, for something really nasty. I'm going to try and kill the ocean. ^_^
EDIT:
removed due to bad thought process.
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Again, I will back up Daftpanzer here in saying that you shouldn't evolve something just to be evil, and that planning evolutions far ahead is rather bad form. Good on you for backing away from that idea.
looks like a thin slime, that floats near the surface of the water. each cell is individualy boyant, so when it dies, it remains on the waters surface for quite some time.
fish analog brushes it while swimming along, some of the slime will cling to the fish-analog and start growing on it, digging roots into it's flesh, eventually killing it and floating the corpse up to the waters surface.
What is the evolutionary advantage of having the dead slime continue to float? It seems like a disadvantage to me, as it would reduce the light available to living cells. Anyway, this plan relies on swimming life forms having no resistance, immune or otherwise, whatsoever to a slow-moving plant attempting to grow roots into their bodies. While this could be a useful design to provide nutrients to floating photosynthesizers, a lot of things need much more justification.
Kill all things plan: fill water surface with light-blocking layer of much, that only slimes and other buoyant plants can float above.
Layer of much? What? Leaving aside the fact that you're doing one of those 'inefficient evolutions for the evulz' things which I just talked about, this idea makes no sense (If I understand your plan correctly, which I probably don't given the state of the quoted text, it seems like you're trying to block the entire ocean of life with an organic layer- I don't even want to get started on the practical problems a life-form might face in achieving that, so I'll challenge
you to consider a few of the major challenges such an organism might face in doing so.). Also, your typos and often entirely-absent words make your writing very difficult to understand.
That's true! I meant to stress the point - thing with Photosynthesis x3 and above are getting to be mostly undigestible for omnivores. Digestion [+Herbivore] will help here.
Just wondering, what's the reasoning behind this? I'd have thought that specialized herbivores would merely be better able to make use of this, while generalists simply weren't able to get all of the same added benefits of their specialist cousins. It doesn't make a lot of sense in my mind that a highly-efficient photosynthesizer would become inedible to a generalist.
I'll make a post clarifying the rules of adding the [+specialisations] when I can think straight!
Yay!
EDIT: as for photosynthesis not requiring oxygen, its an essential byproduct of the reaction. Hmm... you could have a way of scrubbing oxygen but I don't see how that provides any advantage to anyone.
Note my
previous link about anoxygenic photosynthesis- it's an interesting little overview, though it does use some technical language.
Helispire: Daftpanzer
Evolved from: Helicus
Genes added: Large Size x1, Trapping Cilia x1 [Internal]; Digestion [+1 Plankton]
Genes removed: Drifting x1
Description: the Helispire is a graceful, vertical, towering version of the Helicus. It has become a specialist in eating plankton and small larvae. Too heavy to float, the Helispire must use its water jet method of propulsion at a slow rate to maintain its position in the water. However, this flow of water oxygenates its internal surfaces (in the absence of any true gills or circulation system), and also provides a flow of hopefully plankton-laden water, which is passed through internal filters where suitable particles are trapped and carried off to digestive cells. Its senses are now used to track blooms of plankton, while harpoons and spikes are now a means of defence; harpoons are also used as anchors at times, and also play a role during the Helispire's rough mating practises.
Cool.
I was considering doing an evolution of the Helicus, but with this done I think I'll put in some work on land, or elsewhere.
lack of oxygen production would have oxygen starved a large portion of the ocean, given that they everything else combined.
That assumes that anoxygenic photosynthesizers would form a significant amount of the planet's photosynthetic niches, which is rather unlikely.
