EVOLUTION ATTEMPTS: Chlorophyll- 1, Nimbler tentacles- 3, Gliding- 6
(the random number gods don't seem to like chlorophyll)
The gliding shoalcore, when it comes to its name, is the opposite of the flying fish. A flying fish glides, but a gliding shoalcore flies. This enables it to completely avert the problems of slogging through thick vegetation, as well as making it the ultimate ambush predator of this time. Spearfaced worms and grindfish from the estuary had moved in, devouring areas of vegetation and hunting us for food, but a simple reaction of leaping out of the water snowballed into true flight. Extremely large and well-muscled pelvic fins provide the bulk of its staying-in-the-air, while the thorachic fins continuously flap to propel it through the air. Its primitive lungs can't keep up this activity for long, but it has meant that a single population now covers both the lake and the river. Its skin has a thin layer of keratinous scales to prevent sunburn in the event of being stranded on land. The fins on its underside have developed simple joints and feet to help push it back into the air if this happens.
The hives, like earlier generations, can now stick themselves onto the shoalcore and its guidelings, before using them like reindeer on a sleigh. The guidelings are able to travel on land to graze.
Clogweed is beginning to cover the banks of the river. Various species of grindfish and spearface have moved in.
GENERATION 16:
Gliding shoalcore
A murky green-and-brown tassled fish-like animal that hunts in the dense growth of the river. They swim with their powerful tails and use their fanged tentacles to attack and kill their prey. They can fly. They grow up to 25 centimetres long, and their offspring are called tentaclets.
SENSES: It has a sense of touch that lets it figure out if it's touching food, and an extremely good sense of smell/taste. Symbiotic guidelings help it find live prey. A keen electrical sense lets it find creatures that are close to it, and it can feel vibrations in the water from moving creatures.
REPRODUCTION: It lets out male cells when they meet a mate they approve of, and growths grow inside of the womb. Tentaclets follow their mother until they can be dropped off at their hive. They eat mucus that the hive creates and, when they are large enough, find a suitable guideling to make a nest with.
MOVEMENT: They move by swimming like a fish. Sacs of carbon dioxide keep them buoyant. They also have jets which also function as their gills, which they use to make fine movement. They fly by using their large pectoral fins as wings and their thorachic fins as engines. Their top fins and bottom fins are not used in flight.
EATING: It impales small animals and digests them by drawing them into the guts. They are able to prey on fast swimmers, and they use venom. Most of their food is from grazing worms and the dense vegetation.
PREDATION: We are mostly unpredated.
COMPETITION: Dwarf spearfaces are the main competition, still.
ENVIRONMENT: An overgrown lake and river. We are the dominant species in the lake, and a highly effective one in the river.
HOME TERRITORY: Massive overgrown lake, Wide river
NEARBY ENVIRONMENTS: muddy estuary, fast-flowing river
Author
Topic: Competition- An evolutionary suggestion game (Read 102764 times)