Turn 14EventStrength dice: 38
Temperament dice: N/A
Nothing of significance happened this era.
Team PancakeNaturegirl1999:
Supports Demonic SpoonKilojoule Proton:
absent...Demonic Spoon: Better airborne seeds: 3+2=5
Snower GreenplateThe Greenplate compete among eachother for sunligth and water, and as they cannot move, where they germinate is their lot in life. So the ones with the furthest reaching seeds had better chances at finding good and vacant spots to grow on. The result is a new kind of seeds that are superior in every way. They can survive further, fly further and higher. The seeds literally rain now.
As they spread further than ever, they encountered the limits of their continent, a shoreline and a vast ocean that surrounds it.
Status: LC
Description: A green plant shaped like a flat, rough circle supported by a long, fuzzy stem. Its pan is a meter and a half in diameter, and it is stem is 4 meters long. A deep and extensive system of roots at the bottom of its stem dig into the soil and harvest it for water and minerals. It reproduces by producing and shedding a puffy coat of small, perfectly airborne seeds that cover its stem. The walls of its cells are very durable and sturdy. It has a cavity filled with oil inside its stem, which used to store water and nutrients for the mean times. A system of veins course through its every tissue, and transport water and other essentials. It lives like your regular tree, forming vast, dense growths.
Habitat: Nearly all land on the local continent.
Team Pasta VēlōcisA_Curious_Cat: A ganglion that resides on the front end of the spinal cord: 2+2+1=5
King Zultan:
Supports A_Curious_CatSexual Selection vote: A cartilage skull: 7
Big Brain BlishThe ever increasing tasks the nerveous system has to fill have pressured a ganglion into existance. It controls pretty much everything; senses, metabolic activities, movement. It can even do very basic problem solving. Blish can think and stop flexing at last.
But an adaptation that came with it has downplayed the ganglions successfulness. A dozen interlocked rings of cartilage surround the ganglion as a means of protection, but they also grow far too large. They grow and strecth the skin out, and then they break it apart and stop growing. This forms a weird looking crest that is heavy and causes the blish to limp and lose control when swimming. Also, it hurts when it pierces its skin for the first time.
The first animal-to-animal predation has occured, and it has no defenses whatsoever, except escaping. Thankfully it doesn't happens much at all. But still.
Status: NT
Description: An aquatic animal that is 45 centimeters long. It moves along the sea floor and above with a flagella-covered tail and digests any organic debris it can find through its mouth that leads to its complex, three sectioned digestive system, which leads to an anus. It has 10 black dots on its very front, 4 of them larger then the other 6. The smaller six form a hexagon that surrounds a square that is formed from the bigger 4, which surrounds a single jawless mouth. It uses these dots to smell the water around and act according to them, approaching or avoiding alike. These dots and everything this animal has as parts are connected to and commanded by a ganglion, which stands on the start of a spinal chord that runs from front to back of the animal that branches out to the rest of the body. It is close to a rod of cartilage that supports its body, and has an extension on its front that grants the animal a sense of airflow. The nerves also course the animals skin, and along with specialised sensors there, they provide a sense of touch. The ganglion is surrounded by 12 interlocking rings of cartilage, which tend to be hassle because of their size. A fluid-filled internal cavity surrounds its digestive system and acts as a hydroskeleton, which is also surrounded by a net of zig-zag muscles that aid in its movement. A mane of thin and short crimson strands surround the head region, and functions as gills and ammonia disposal, along with a set of pairs of slits that function as additional gills. A system of blood-filled veins course through its body, powered by a single muscle pump. It reproduces by external fertilisation of eggs performed by two distinct genders. The fertilised eggs hatch into tiny juneviles, which reach full size and sexual maturity not too long after.
Habitat: Benthic waters.
Team Lagus Blobflazeo25: Gills to lungs: 1+2+2= 5
Maxinum McDreich:
Supports flazeo25The Canadian kitten:
Supports flazeo25Sexual Selection vote: Fins to legs: 3+1=
Amphibious LagurasThe dwindling algea have forced a section of lagus further and further into land to find food, and that changed them through time. This new, semi-terrestrial clade don't really go into the depths, and stay close to shore. They lack a skin thick enough to hold water in and have no way of removing the ammonia or reproduce without water. So they still take frequent dives.
But they also adapted to live on their dried home as well. The frontmost pair of their gills have been enlarged inwards and has developed to harvest the oxygen from the air, with a structural shape that allows them to keep air inside when diving. The now nostrils have also migrated in front of its face to not interfere with the gills. As the air is much more oxygen rich then the water, size increase ensued
Its fins have also gained further musculature on their four fins, supported by new bones. This gives them a sprawling movement style reminicent of reptiles of here. These legs allow it to take brief trips to inland and eat the seed snow on the ground, while giving it the full access to the vast growths of Coastal Pancake.
But as long as their reproduction stays the same, they will struggle to raise new young. Also it can't pee.
Status: VU
Description: A lizard-like animal 80 centimeters in length and 40 centimeters in width. It slowly strides along the coasts and eats the plant matter there, but also eats corpses. It has a tail resembling of a fish, which it uses to swiftly move around in the wate5, and it is aided by two pairs of short legs keeping its balance, which also allow it to walk on land. Covering the body is smooth skin, which it uses to feel touch. And under that, there is a skeleton that keeps it rigid and provides pathways for its mucscles to work, also supporting cartilage that allows the bones to move smoothly. This is further augmented with a net of nerves just beneath the outer layer, which also controls its movement. This net of nerves converges into a lump in the head, which is a brain that houses a sex-crazed mind. It has a defined front side with a head, which has two giant, organised patches of heat sensitive proteins, kind of like heat eyes, that allows it to detect the amount of ambient and directional heat, and a jawed mouth that leads to a full digestive tract that also handles the ammonia disposal. 6 pairs of fleshy protrusions covered with red hairs function as gills. A set of veins and a heart transport nutrients and oxygen throught its body. Just above the eyes two long and flexible tendrils reside, and these end with fleshy orbs that produce heat, which equals to strong glow in their vision. These orbs also have cone and rod cells inside, which allows these orbs to function as primitive eyes capable of percieving shape, they can even change the amount of heat they produce to send messages to one another. It reproduces by the internal fertilisation by the gamet-injecting tendrils of Eral, and the internal hatching of eggs by Alur, who then releases the offspring onto a suitable patch of algea.
Habitat: Coasts of the Crater Sea.
Team Friendly PancakeKashyyk: Lignin framework that run across the colonies: 4
Sexual Selection vote: Smelling tendrils: 4
Alarmed HivecakeMany of the small colonies now have converged into bigger ones, kept stable thanks to an elastic, but still tough framework of lignin that runs inside the entire colonies. The speed of their expansion still takes its toll sometimes, but not nearly as often. It also provides some more rigidity against its predator/prey thingie.
While that has been happening on its insides, an evolutionary arms race has been happening outside, against a stubborn threat that appears at the dark of night. To detect the hordes of Eelish before they come along, Hivecakes have collectively evolved specialised tendrils that can smell the water around them, creating a short range chemical radar of sorts that pinpoint the location of such hordes, activating the defenses beforehand.
Status: LC
Description: A complex of plants shaped like a flat circles with varying sizes. A ring of long and thin, retractable white tendrils reside, and are used to form connections with others of its kind to transfer nutrients. Surrounding the edges of the pan is a coat of bonding proteins that allows it to stick to others of its kind. It's tissues are tough and supported by a framework of lignin to prevent injuries. It lives permanently stuck to the sea surface through the dozens of tiny oil-filled pimples across its body, which only some plants have. It can be found as mats numbering several tens of thousands plants, and never alone, as they die if they are separated. It features specialised subtypes. It has the ability to let others know if it is low on or has too much nutrients, or if its in pain by using the communal nervous system, which others will act accordingly by either giving or taking nutrients, or pulling their brethern away from danger and retaliating if possible. On every caste there are small tendrils specialised on chemoreception .The nutrient transfer is accomplished by a communal circulatory system that spans the entirety of a given hive, and it is powered by the beating of tens of thousands of internal water pumps. It reproduces by asexual budding from their pans edges to expand their colonies, and by incubating settlers, which are made by a process that makes them genetically distinct, when creating new colonies.
CastesSuncatcher: The green hivecakes with larger pans and the only ones that have oil pimples in their body, along with only having vestigial water pumps and their tendrils ony being connective ones. They compose the upper surface of a given colony. Their job is to photosynthesize and keep the colony afloat.
Waterraker: The pale white hivecakes with almost non-existant pans and non-existant pimples. Their water pumps are still external. Their job is to filter the water for any essentials and store nutrients in their cells. They do this by specialised filtering tentacles shaped like wide, long feathers.
Incubator: The specialised caste of hivecake that neither photosynthesizes or filters water. Instead, it produces genetically distinct settlers that grow into new colonies inside its oil filled womb, and eject them by turning inside out. It requires a drone to fuse into it everytime it makes a new settler.
Settler: The ones that produce new colonies by horizontally splitting into one suncatcher and a waterraker. They resemble both of their offspring, and are made.
Drones: This tiny, perfectly round caste specialises solely to be genetic carriers between Incubators. They are produced by Incubators and released into the circulatory system, which then they find another Incubator and fuse into it, carrying the genetic material into the mix.
Strangler: A caste of highly modified waterrakers with a single purpose; catching live prey. Their tendrils are longer and have the ability to curl up very fast. They are also covered in a toxin that shuts down gills. They suffocate, then consume the prey, then send the nutrients to the rest of the complex.
: Open ocean.
Team EraclitoLeonardo8: A tail fin: 1+1= 2
GOTOTOTOE: Vertical migratory behavior: 1
Sexual Selection vote: Brain: 5
Intellgient EelishThe Eelish have evolved a tail fin. It is an extension of its hydroskeleton. It provides a bigger surface to push water, but in the bigger picture it is insignificant, as Eelish swim with their whole bodies.
The Eelish have also adopted a behavior that is seemingly self harm. They decend for brief periods during the day, all the way to the pressurised deep sea floor, the exact opposite of their habitat in which they evolved for so long. So many Eelish get sick from the pressure and chemical change and venture down only rarely. They also can't risk losing the ever-moving hivecake collective they came from, so they simply do not have time to stay for long. So even though they can, they can't really utilise their omnivory.
But on the bright side, Eelish have developed a true brain, pushed into existance due to smarter being able to seduce better by more complex signals. Eelish can solve basic problems, communicate with a wider variety of ways, have personalities and can have friends.
Status: NT
Description: An serpentine, aquatic, mucus covered animal that is a meter long. It swims inside the colonies of hivecakes with slithering motions of its muscular body and tail fin and chews pieces from the said plants through a giant, vertically opening jaw that leads to its three segmented, efficent digestive tract with a stomach and intestines, which leads to an anus. It moves in large troupes numbering up to a hundred and can hold complex communication with pheromonal signals. Its anus is also connected to a chain of gas bladders it uses to control it buoyancy and give its body its shape. It has 10 black dots on its very front segment, 4 of them larger then the other 6. The smaller six form a hexagon that surrounds a square that is formed from the bigger 4, which surrounds its mouth. It uses these dots to smell the water around and act according to them, approaching or avoiding alike. These dots and everything this animal has as parts are connected to and commanded by a chord of nerves that runs from front to back of the animal that branches out to the rest of the body. This cord of nerves is connected to a well developed brain. Two stripes of thin and short crimson strands course through the animals sides, and function as gills. Derived from these, a system of bloodfilled chambers and muscular valves pump blood through the animals body through thousands of thin veins. A set of glands that produce an antipoison to protect the gills. It reproduces by external fertilisation of eggs performed by two distinct genders. The fertilised eggs hatch into tiny, neotenic, single segmented juneviles, which reach full size, shape and sexual maturity not too long after.
Habitat: Along the general location of Hivecakes.
Team AkınMagmacube_tr:
1) A chain of ganglions that run paralell to gills: 2
2) Six chemoreceptive nubs lining the mouth: 4
3) Flaps to nubs: 3+1=4
Piggy AmaranthThe nerve connections have gathered to form a series of ganglions that control the bodily functions. But these ganglion interfere with the gills they run paralell to, limiting the amount of blood that can go and leave them by squeezing the vessels. They are also kind of redundant, since the old system was doing fine too.
To find better soil to harvest, the mouth has developed a six small extensions, each able to detect the taste of the soil to judge if it is worth the effort to harvest. This has went well, Amaranth now have a way to know about its surroundings.
And as an another development, the muscles on its torso have also started to develop on the useless flaps on its sides as well. Amaranth can walk along the sea surface now, and can get access to better soil quicker.
Reproduction has become a hassle. It is advanced anough to be a true animal.
Status: NT
Description: A semi-oval animal 10 centimeters in length. It aimlessly crawls along the sea floor by using its six small legs and digests any organic debris by gulping the seafloor soil in, filtering it inside its tubular pseudo-gut, and then expelling it out. It has a set of long and stiff extensions that line its back, that function as gills. It has a nervous system that controls its bodily functions, which converge into a chain of ganglion. Six small protrusions line its mouth, and are used to smell around and taste the soil to determine its quality. It has a primitive, closed circulatory system that distributes the essentials inside its body. A skin layer surrounds the animal, giving it the sense of touch. It reproduces by cumbersomely splitting in two when it gets too big.
Habitat: Sea floor.
EnvironmentOn the southern hemisphere of the planet Aqautico, on a continent named Samel, a giant warm saltwater crater lake called The Crater Sea resides.
Surrounding the sea, a verdant forest of Greenplate trees cover the flat ground far as eye can see. Its surface is covered with a layer of fluffy seeds that look and act like snow. It is totally silent except for the wind as there are no fully terrestrial animals yet. But small stepping sounds can be heard if one listens carefully.
Through the east side, four rivers called The Harbringers follow curved, close-by paths to The Crater Sea, coming from a tall mountain range called The Snowtipped Wall. The mountain range is also very close to an active volcano. Along with the four rivers, there is a dry river bed, a remnant of a time when there were five of The Harbringers.
A smaller and much younger freshwater crater lake is also nearby, residing by the north of The Crater Sea. It is connected to the it by a small stream that used to carry toxic, heavy metals from the lake it comes from.
All these are on the continent Samel, which is surrounded by an ocean called The Big Blue.
Multicelluar life is abundant and complex. Vast collectives of "eusocial" plants can be seen along the shallow coasts and the deep sea respectively. Sparse algal growths exist as well, and used to be much more widespread than they used to be.
It is also very clearly present on the flat land surrounding The Crater Sea, as the Greenplate forest.
Any new players can always join in, we have 4 empty player slots.
Author
Topic: Competitive Evolution (Turn 18) (11/15) (Read 33199 times)