Update 2 - The Flailian Epoch
This era is named after the
Flailzord, which was initially known only from enigmatic fossils of its hardened mineral claws, before other fossil beds were discovered which revealed the soft body of this rather horrifying organism. However, the appearance of burrowing scavengers is perhaps the most important development that occurred during this time.
The climate remained stable and warm until the end of this era, with abundant shallow-water habitat and an ongoing diversification of species.
In the millions of years since complex life began to appear, algae mats continued to dominate the seafloor, despite grazing by Dribblers. That began to change with the arrival of
Lochoreg and
Vorzord species. They were not closely related -
Lochoreg has not been matched to any other clade and seems to be the first emergence of a new branch of complex life in the fossil record. It was a simple, wormlike burrowing creature, feeding upon micro-organisms and decaying biological matter; its simplicity allowed it to survive on meagre rations.
Vorzord was much more complex in comparison, being a descendent of the now-widespread Crawlzord lineage. With its multitude of tentacles, it had various modes of feeding and locomotion, and was better able to exploit animal carcasses as a food source.
Both these groups were very successful and seemed to coexist quite happily for the time being. But their burrowing began to disturb the seafloor and finally began to uproot the algae matts, allowing nutrients buried in the sediments to mix with the ocean currents. This in turn led to a greater blooming of life of all kinds, but especially the various plant-like species of the Algaetron lineage.
While Xerotron continued to bloom in vast numbers across the planet,
Ralgetron was a new class of Algaetron that seemed to adapt to take advantage of the increase in nutrients now available, as well as the increasing amounts of seafloor real-estate up for grabs. It was the first lifeform on this world to be recognisable as something like a plant, with primitive leaf-like growths, and root-like structures to hold it in place, allowing it to persist in areas where conditions were favourable, rather than getting swept away. Fossil beds show that Ralgetron grew in dense clusters in certain parts of the shallow sea, seemingly growing faster than any primitive predator could nibble away at it.
Moldus is another enigmatic genus that appeared at this time, barely detectable in the fossil record, but found alongside Ralgetron and initially mistaken for another kind of primitive sea-plant. It appears to have been a loose collection of tiny hyphae that fed by absorbing nutrients from their surroundings, before occasionally forming into oddly-shaped fruiting bodies. It seems to have fed on the scraps left over from other scavengers, helping to recycle nutrients further, though some species also seem to have been opportunistic parasites causing disease in weakened plants and animals.
The Blobster lineage was not standing still during this epoch -
Biggerster evolved from the Bigster, boasting even-more complex filter-feeding structures, as well as developing a coating of poisonous compounds that resisted infestation by Gribblers and attacks by other animals. The disc-shaped creatures were the biggest yet seen on the planet, probably reaching the upper limit in size for any single life-form without gills or a circulatory system.
Bigsters meanwhile had an unexpected revival due to mutualism with the
Clinger, a descendent of the Grabber that functioned as a kind of living chainmail armour, while using its own filter-feeding apparatus to steal a portion of the food that would otherwise have been drawn up by the hungry cilia of the Bigster. Clingers were the first species to evolve a kind of keratinous exoskeleton, most likely a response to the increasing array of pseudo-predators now in existence. It is known that the versatile Clinger genus also attached to other animals, and some species seemed to happily live a barnacle-like existence amidst rocks on the seafloor. But by the end of this era, no fossils of Bigsters are found without Clingers attached to them. It is likely that Bigsters and specialist species of Clingers began to evolve together, synchronising their growth and budding process and forming a kind of colonial organism.
Both Biggersters and Bigsters were thus able to rapidly grow and reproduce if they happened to float into an algae bloom, outcompeting any other floating filter-feeders, but it was almost pure luck if this occurred, as these creatures still had only the most basic senses and no way of swimming against the currents.
Dissolvers were closely related to the Bigster lineage, though by now radically different in appearance and lifestyle - they continued to evolve more complex digestive organs, with adults specialising in eating and digesting other animals. The eyesight and swimming ability of the Dissolver remained very basic, and without any kind of jaws, claws or other weapons, it was limited to whatever it could fit in its mouth by simply swimming into it. However, given the abundance of soft-bodied prey floating around in the ocean at this time, this does not seem to have been much of a problem. It is likely that Dissolvers fed upon plankton and spores as they developed, before growing large enough to eat small, newly-budded creatures as an adult. Fossils show this genus was successful and widespread, though likely limited to areas of shallow sea where prey was available in sufficient numbers.
Further evolutions of the Crawlzord lineage are seen in this era.
Crawlzorg shows signs of reproducing by mass release of tiny spores, many of which would have ended up being eaten by planktonivores. But this allowed the genus to spread itself far and wide, colonising new areas of shallow sea floor. There are also signs that Crawlzorg had evolved some kind of symbiosis with photosynthesising microbes, able to substitute its diet of plankton by ‘farming’ sun-loving microbes within its own tissue.
Meanwhile, the aforementioned
Flailzord evolved on a different path - one of destructive feeding upon other animals. With primitive mineralised claws attached to its elongated, and strengthened tentacles, it seems to have fed by slicing and dicing other soft-bodied animals, absorbing the shreds of fleshy debris that resulted on its feeding cillia, as it had nothing resembling a mouth or stomach - it was doubtless a very inefficient, wasteful and strenuous form of feeding, but as this time it seems to have been successful; it is easy to imagine Dissolvers and other animals also taking advantage of the mess left behind by Flailzord as it slowly crawled along the seafloor.
As this epoch drew to a close, a large continent was forming at the southern pole. This, combined with increasing draw-down of carbon from the atmosphere, seems to have cooled global temperatures slightly. The result was an increase in shallow cold-water habitat and less of the tropical shallow habitat was available, increasing competition amongst the rapidly-diversifying, warm-water species.
Species List + Stats
Notes:
For the Bigster and Swimster lineages in particular, there is selective pressure for some kind of gills in order to grow larger.
Scent Detection would also be useful for animals to detect food at a distance.
Vibration Sense (heading) would be useful for predators to detect prey at night or in murky waters, or for prey to evade predators.
Cold Resistance would aid exploitation of cold water habitats that are now more prominent, as the warm tropics are now getting more contested. As a reminder, there are still deep ocean depths (pressure resistance + cold resistance) and tidal areas (water retention, mucus etc) where there are scavenging options. There are also inland waterways (freshwater tolerance) that may be exploited for plankton and nutrients.
It'll be interesting to see how far these dumb-brained floating micro giants can last.
