There has never been a rule that rivers must be crossed to get between biomes. They must also be much narrower than they are on the map, as otherwise they would be a few hundred kilometers wide.

I don't think an adult pirate waxface can survive full-time in the driftwood islands that easily. Normally, beach-dwelling populations travel along the beach in search of seafaring shrews to eat. Individual driftwood islands are often very small, however, meaning there is less coastline and less chance of encountering something to eat, not to mention they themselves are moving as well. Further, while pirate waxfaces have the mechanisms to island hop, their method is based around the expectation of finding food when they cross water. The driftwood islands would be quite confusing to them.

I've never seen it before, so it must have never been submitted. Unless it's the mysterious missing gen 160 species that got replaced with Opportunity Shrew.

Uh, MNIDJM I don't think species that have gotten zero comments at all should be approved, even if it technically follows all rules. That's how Devorator and Coral Cish happened in Beta.

I would like to make an argument that this falls under range exception. This species does not live full-time in caves, in fact it depends on them less than bats do--bats need caves to roost, while darth shroom herders can "herd shrooms" elsewhere. Bats are not a textbook wildcard; countless species exist across 2 temperature types plus the caves they need to roost, too much for it to be a rare special exception. Further, the darth shroom herder cannot exist only in the cave, as it must bring logs from the surrounding forest to feed its shroom farms.

MNIDJM OviFan has expressed that he is still working on this, and there are still potentially some outstanding issues.

It is unclear which biome the cave borders. (I also forgot this isn't like Beta, where caves inherit the type of the biome their entrance is in)

I've added section headings.

They can also use fibers from black flora and crystal flora, but it is mostly stem tissue. If they can rip up a plant and get something stringy out of it, that's what they use, which usually ends up being bast fiber. I'll make edits to clarify and explain better where the twine-making behavior came from.

Two hyphens is what gets converted to an emdash by the wiki. My keyboard, as well as most standard keyboards, does not have an emdash button.

They don't remove the flora ahead of time, they see a fire coming and move to defend their home.

There are many things that we can assume about shrews in relation to their similarity to mammals, but I have a feeling that moisture content is not one of them. Mammals are unusually wet and bloody and harbors of all kinds of harmful microbes to an unbelievable level compared to birds or reptiles because of their time spent as primarily fossorial animals in a low oxygen period. Shrews never went through an even remotely comparable grade during their evolution; though they spent time as burrowers, it was never to the same degree of specialization as the ancestors of mammals, and those grades existed during a high-oxygen period. Shrews are probably more like early therapsids in every regard except appearance and milk. Unlike a similar-sized mammal, which would have a pretty awful time if its tail got lopped off, shrogs might not gush and bleed to death as readily. Even if they did, losing a tooth isn't fatal in mammals, and beyond the meatier base, losing the tail is only as bad as losing a hand or foot, which mammals can also survive as long as they can reach around to clean the wound.

The thought process for the harness is something more like, tying log to log makes it not move, therefore tying shrog to log also makes it not move. I'm gonna edit that section to clarify that part and make it less like locking your wife in a basement and more like tying a dog to a doghouse, though.

I've added a paragraph going into more detail about why it can't just sharpen a rock

It's important to note pirate waxfaces can't really tell the difference between a spear and a less effective strip of wood; they're not as smart as shrogs. It's realistic that they might steal and use a spear, though. (I have a descendant of it in mind with that as its gimmick)

I believe stomata are actually passive (air is not being pumped or otherwise forced through the plant), so that would be "Passive (Stomata)"

Edited to reflect the addition of the polar woodland biome.

Adjusted further to fit the addition of polar woodland. I'll see if any of my other pending species need to be edited.

I've removed the alpines.

Ah, this was submitted before the alpine reclassification.

I'm fine with waiting on the results of a pair of suggestions I just posted on the discord server, since this is a perfectly realistic range in real life.

With ballonts, the larger you are the easier it is to support your own weight, weirdly.

Twineshrog (Lutrasorex textor)
Creator: Disgustedorite
Ancestor: Seashrog
Habitat: Dixon-Darwin Boreal, Dixon-Darwin Rocky, Dixon-Darwin High Grassland, Dixon Savanna, Dixon Tropical Scrub, Dixon Tropical Woodland, Javen Tropical Woodland, Javen Tropical Scrub, Darwin Savanna, North Darwin Tropical Scrub, North Darwin Tropical Woodland
Size: 3 meters long
Support: Endoskeleton (Bone)
Diet: Omnivore (Ouranocorn, Westward Haglox, Mudplower, Shroom Herder, Hornboss, Desert Tilecorn, Disasterxata, Cardicracker, Ballichehara, Gnawsferatu, Barkbuck, Cryptic Hornface, Dualtrunk, Supershrooms, Sapshrooms, Berry Arbourshroom, Tamed Berry Arbourshrooms, Grovecrystal, Crystal Brambley, Signpost Crystamboo, Rifamboo, Sklithraderm, Boreal Tubeplage fruit, Feroak berries, Cragmyr berries, Robust Arid Ferine berries, Gecoba Tree fruit, Scrubland Quhft fruit, Bristlepile berries, Fuzzpile berries, Carnossamer fruit, Mainland Fuzzpalm berries, Tropical Gecoba Tree fruit, Scrubland Tubeplage fruit, Fruiting Grovecrystal fruit, Goliath Flunejaw, Long-Tailed Flunejaw, Argusraptor Complex, Tigmadar)
Respiration: Active (Lungs)
Thermoregulation: Endotherm (Fur)
Reproduction: Sexual (Male and Female, Placental, Pouch and Milk)

The twineshrog split from its ancestor and moved inland, its range overlapping with the tyrannical Argusraptor complex. The argusraptors were a nightmare for any other creature to compete with due to their hyper-adaptability; the twineshrog, however, manages to do so as a result of its own hyper-adaptability, powered not by genetic flexibility, but by high intelligence and a very important invention.

==Twine==
Twine is an extremely versatile tool, and one which is very rare to see in the animal kingdom on Earth. On Sagan 4, twine has only been invented three times before, each time by a sophont. It is a tool that one would assume is far too advanced for an ordinary animal to invent. However, while shrogs are far from sophont, they’re far from ordinary either; the twineshrog in particular can be likened to a Terran orangutan, being a highly intelligent, solitary creature with exceptional instinctive tendencies towards tool use. The competitive scene created by the Argusraptor complex pushed the potential of the twineshrog further, which is directly responsible for its invention of twine. The twine-making behavior is technically learned, but it has its roots in natural behavior; it is a modification of flora-weaving behavior which is present in even the earliest tamjacks, which a few other shrogs have also expanded on with using naturally rope-like plant parts. The twineshrog differs in that it constructs twine directly, thus it does not need to spend time searching for pieces which are the right length and strength. The fibers used for twine construction are primarily the bast (or phloem) fibers of purple and black flora, usually either gathered from herbaceous plants in their environment or removed from the bark of logs. It uses this rare tool in nest construction and to hunt large prey--specifically, creatures which argusraptors would struggle to hunt successfully.

===Trapping===
Usually, large predators will target weak prey, such as the sick, elderly, or juvenile. The twineshrog, however, targets large, healthy individuals. It will memorize the patterns of herbivore migration and lay traps along their walking paths, or beneath the trees they feed from. These usually consist of twine stretched over a pit the Twineshrog has dug out, often filled with sharp crystals or stakes, then covered over with dirt and leaves to conceal it. Though weak prey is still sometimes caught, large healthy individuals will be closer to the leading edge of herds, causing them to be caught more often. Some large creatures, such as hagloxes and cardicrackers, can be caught without a particularly massive trap; a bad fall will shatter their limbs, leaving them unable to move. The Twineshrog has been known to eat large disabled prey like this alive, and in the case of a Westward Haglox in particular it will drive a spear through the base of the tail first to paralyze it and prevent it from striking with its thagomizer. Large kills like this can sometimes attract other twineshrogs, and it is more tolerant of its own kind in this situation because the kill is often too large for just one to consume. It will also kill and eat its competitors, such as argusraptors and flunejaws, and if no large prey is available it will also readily eat smaller fauna and test unfamiliar food sources. Though a prominent predator, the twineshrog remains an omnivore, consuming various shrooms, crystal flora, and fruit.

===Nests and Tools===
Like all shrogs and many non-shrog tamjacks, the twineshrog is an instinctive nest-builder capable of using experience and problem-solving to construct sturdy, complex nests. Its namesake invention, twine, allows it to build nests that make those made by its ancestor look like they’re made of paper mache in comparison. While glue-like berries were effective at plugging holes and waterproofing, they were also extremely edible and rotted quickly when not maintained. Twine made of plant fibers, on the other hand, while not as great for waterproofing, is made mostly of cellulose, which is far more difficult for pest organisms to digest. Twine is also considerably stronger and more versatile, and its lack of waterproofing capabilities is made up for by binding wood together so tightly that water cannot easily seep through anyway. The nests are generally dome-shaped and consist of ribs similar to those of their ancestor’s boat nests with the gaps filled in by horizontal logs or planks. Twineshrog nests may also have a basement, but as it is not a natural digger, this is accomplished with tools. Nests commonly have woodyshrooms growing on them in the wooded parts of the twineshrog’s range, despite its best efforts to remove them as they sprout. In the drier open parts of its range, when a wildfire approaches their nests, twineshrogs may defend them by clearing away flora so that there is nothing in between the fire and the nest to burn.

Twineshrog tools are some of the most complex of any shrog. In addition to its use in constructing nests and traps, twine can also be used to attach rocks and bones to sticks to make better spears and variants thereof. Like its ancestor, the twineshrog struggles to use small tools and weaponry, however by tying them to a stick it can use them like it’s a spear. The most common is the stone-tipped spear, an effective variation of the spear which can be used repeatedly or on tougher prey without the tip breaking off. Following this is a tool analogous to a digging bar, where a small flat rock is attached to the end of a stick. This is the tool most often used for digging traps and basements, as it can rip through roots and hard dirt that the shrog would never be able to move with its claws. Rather than using a tool to remove the loosened dirt, the twineshrog will fling it out using its tail. A less common but not rare tool is something best described as a sword on a stick--a long flat stone with a sharp edge tied to a spear, which is used in territory conflicts in regions with less food available. The instinctive spear-thrusting motion is used to slice enemies from afar, rather than stab, disabling them by cutting an important muscle or, when used by an especially skilled twineshrog, sometimes even disemboweling them. This can be more effective than stabbing, as twineshrogs will instinctively attempt to prevent puncture wounds into their vital organs but may not necessarily be able to predict and react appropriately to slicing. However, these weapons do not last forever. Twineshrogs do not have the ability to figure out how to create good rocks for slicing and all the stones they use are ones they simply found that happened to be the right shape, so sword-spears will never take over as their dominant intraspecific weaponry.

The twineshrog's inability to sharpen rocks might come as a surprise, given that it and its relatives readily sharpen sticks and carve up logs. This is because of a distinction in what exactly a shrog has to do in order to accomplish these tasks. Most shrogs have a blade on their tail which is used to cut wood. This is a natural part of their body, a built-in tool of sorts, much like a claw or a tooth. This is quite unlike, say, a Terran ape, which must use an artificial constructed tool such as an ax or a saw to accomplish the same task. To the average shrog, modifying an object is something one does with part of their body. Meanwhile, no part of a shrog's body can modify a rock. The hardest material available on their body is their teeth, which would shatter or wear away if they even tried to use them on stone. While it would be mechanically easy for a twineshrog to do what a human would intuitively do, that is to sharpen the rock with another rock, it never even occurs to them to do so. It is true, of course, that the twineshrog does have the ability to use two objects together, such as tying a rock to a stick to make a better spear. However, while a human might call this a modification, to a shrog, modification and combination are two unrelated concepts. The twine does not edit the stick or the rock nor do the stick and the rock edit one another, but putting them together makes something entirely new, exactly like putting together logs to create a nest. Both of these concepts are also distinguished from using a tool to dig--though the twineshrog would be considered by a human to be modifying the environment with a constructed digging bar, which one would expect to lead into using tools to chip or sharpen rocks, to a shrog this is a variation on yet another unrelated concept. From the twineshrog's point of view, it is "getting" the dirt that's in its way by attacking and loosening it, much like a successful attack on a rival or a prey item. Thus, it does not occur to them to use tools to modify rocks either.

==Other Behavior==
===Territory===
Every individual twineshrog has a set territory, and though twineshrogs are solitary hunters, their territories may overlap considerably if there is a lot of food available. In regions less rich in food, however, territories have strict borders and conflict is common. However, the twineshrog is only naturally uncomfortable with its own kind, not completely intolerant except out of necessity, more like, say, a cat than, say, a badger. A male’s territory will often be very large and overlap with the territories of many females, and the females will allow this because their instincts to reproduce usually overpower their discomfort. When wounded in territorial conflict, mating accident, or by other species, twineshrogs are able to recover and heal, keeping the wounds clean by licking them and avoiding exposure to dirt or irritating flora.

===Reproduction===
Like its ancestor, the twineshrog lacks a mating season, but it has also lost its natural monogamy because it no longer serves any purpose. It has traded its ancestor’s relatively rapid breeding for a slower breeding rate that better fits the capacity of its natural habitat, though females are still almost always pregnant, as whenever they aren’t pregnant or nursing, they will regularly mate with the male whose territory overlaps theirs. Gestation lasts 6 months, meaning that a female will be unreceptive for over half the year, which is why males have such large territories--so they have access to many females and can mate as often as possible. They have only 1-2 offspring per mating, and they stay in their mother’s pouch until they become too large, which happens very quickly for twins but may take as long as 6 months if there is only a single offspring.

====Rogue Reproductive Behavior====
For weaker males with smaller territories, mating regularly is not possible, so they may use their natural problem-solving abilities to find alternative solutions to boost their reproductive success. One is to not have a set territory at all, but instead to wander the borders of other males’ territory, mating with receptive females as they encounter them--effectively “stealing” them from other males. These wandering males generally lack a set nest, sleeping in thickets or building well-hidden makeshift dens along their path and stealing food from traps set by other twineshrogs.

Another solution, used occasionally where food is more plentiful, is for the male to stay in one place but abduct any female which enters his territory. With their tails broken or sawed off and their fangs pulled out, these females cannot fight or escape and become completely dependent on their captor to feed and shelter them. To prevent their scent from deterring other females from entering his territory, the male will not allow his captive harem to free roam, so he may tie the females to his nest or to new nests made especially for them using a sort of thick twine--or rope--harness and leash. The general logical process that leads to the use of a harness is that tying the logs that make up a nest together prevents them from rolling (or "wandering") away, therefore a female can also be prevented from wandering off by tying her to a nest. Though dexterous enough to untie knots, shrogs in general are not as flexible as they look and they cannot reach a knot if it sits between their shoulder blades, so the females cannot easily free themselves.

=====Fate of Harems=====
If the male dies, his harem will usually starve to death, but very rarely a harem female will escape by chewing through the ropes binding her and manage to survive out in the wilderness alone, using crafted tools to replace the functions of her lost tail and fangs. Such surviving escaped females are very rare, popping up about once every few decades across the species' entire population, as for them to survive many factors must come together: they must have not fully resigned to their fate to be able to escape in the first place, they must already be above average at crafting and using tools to be able to find workarounds for their missing tails before they starve to death, and they must be able or willing to steal building material from other shrogs in order to make a sturdy shelter. The latter has more working in its favor than one might expect; as twineshrog nest-making is based on an instinctive blueprint, nearly any piece taken from one nest can be used to construct another.

On rare occasions, some of these females, and twineshrogs in general which have lost their tails in some kind of accident or conflict, may replace their tails in a more literal sense; being mostly bone and keratin with very little non-mineralized living material, shrog tail saws sometimes fail to rot away completely and remain structurally sturdy long after their owners died, so it is possible for a dead, dry shrog tail to be used as a tool or even attached to the tailless individual's tail stump directly like a prosthetic using twine. This is possible because tool use is the act of instinctively using objects as an extension of one's body; these twineshrogs know the tail is not really their original tail, but as they already know what a tail saw does, to use it in its place would seem intuitive to them, even though it requires some practice.

==Behavioral Limitations==
The twineshrog undeniably has what one might call "sophont aesthetic", in that it looks like a sophont when it is not. It is not the first or only shrog to fall into the "sophont aesthetic" category (the drakeshrog famously managed to fool aliens which had been watching over the planet), and one could argue that tamjacks as a whole have this to some extent (the extinct tamustel in particular is even described as living in villages). But the twineshrog's technological advances might make it difficult to see it as an animal, and one would not be shamed for assuming it to be smarter than stated after seeing everything it can accomplish. But tool use is not the only component to personhood, and the twineshrog is actually missing some very important pieces which prevent it from advancing.

The most important missing piece is the complete lack of a language, written or spoken. The twineshrog communicates entirely using instinctive vocalization and body language. Like other shrogs it is capable of attaching meanings to the communication of other species, and it is able to memorize a large number of these, but it cannot reproduce them or comprehend the full complexity of true language. In lab settings it can learn to use a soundboard, but this is a completely unnatural behavior which could never occur in the wild. This means that its ability to communicate ideas is limited to what can be shown, such as the process of making a spear; it is completely locked out of stories or cultural ideas as a result, and without the ability to share and build on old ideas from a variety of sources, knowledge cannot accumulate. This limitation is the primary factor keeping twineshrogs more or less locked in place both technologically and culturally. The only reason they have gotten as far as they have at all is because of their instinctive nest-building, which had been forced into its current state by the need for their ancestors to build large hollow nests sturdy enough to float in the open ocean for months or even years while being constantly battered by storms and oceanic megafauna.

Even in their "hypertrophied" state nearly comparable to the tool use instincts of the Terran human, the nest-making and tool use abilities of twineshrogs still fall short of those of true sophonts. Twineshrogs, and shrogs as a whole, are generally locked into limited, instinctive ways of thinking about their nests and tools, which is most visible in the fact that most shrogs can only use one or two general types of tool and all shrog nests are radially symmetric even across millions of years of separation. They have an instinctive concept of newness, much like humans and cetaceans, which allows innovation to exist, but this is just as instinctively limited to making their existing nests and tools as sturdy and useful as possible without deviating from instinctive blueprints, as in their seafaring ancestors deviating too far from the instinctive nest design could be fatal. Given that the ancestors of shrogs first started making floating nests 35 million years before the Twineshrog evolved, the restrictive instincts have been enforced and reinforced to the point that it may be very difficult, if not impossible, for any shrog to ever gain the ability to intentionally experiment with the shapes of their nests and tools. In a sense, such deviations where they occur are just as much an evolutionary trait as changes to their own flesh. Even the twineshrog's biggest innovation outside of twine, trap-making, has its roots in modified nest-building and food storage instincts.

Outside of the limitations of the characteristics which give twineshrogs their "sophont aesthetic", they also generally fail cognitive tests that a sophont would pass. Being largely solitary, twineshrogs struggle to pass several tests related to recognizing and thinking about themselves and others. Their ability to feel empathy is inconsistent at best across their population, and passing the mirror test is more difficult for them than for more social shrogs. Strangely for a solitary creature, twineshrogs actually do pass some theory of mind tests, such as the false belief test; this is related to their trapping behavior, as they need to trick an organism into not believing there to be a trap by camouflaging it.

==Other Information==
On the twineshrog’s appearance, it has lost most of its osteoderms due to it not having very many predators further inland, though it retains facial spikes because it still finds these attractive; females are more likely to settle in a region if the local males have prominent facial spikes, and the males likewise will be more likely to claim territory that contains females with prominent facial spikes. The twineshrog varies somewhat in color across its range. Populations in more open habitats tend towards a golden color matching Darwin’s naturally yellow soils or off-white matching Dixon, while those in the forests are often melanistic, having jet black fur with only small hints of yellow. Though the twineshrog is not a cat, it is large enough and its appearance is sufficiently cat-like that such melanistic individuals may resemble and even be incorrectly referred to as black panthers.

The twineshrog has caused the spread of the cleaner borvermid and the false cleaner borvermid across its entire range. It defecates outside away from its nest and does a good job of removing rotting food to avoid attracting scavengers, so it does not have a symbiotic shailnitor descendant by its side to clean its nest.

--

Hopefully this shrog isn't too ambitious - it has one of the most important inventions humanity ever made, after all. It's not intended to hit every mark for personhood (or near-personhood), but like other shrogs have excessive strength in some areas while being completely lacking in others to create an uncanny, mismatched, but functional smart animal.

If this is too big even for the colony size exception, I can scale it down if needed. I figured the size jump is justified because only the exterior is alive, it's basically a spherical mat.

QUOTE (TheBigDeepCheatsy @ May 24 2021, 01:17 AM)

"ballont" ?

More technical / formal term for a gasbag organism.

Cloudgrump (Volantigleba megavesica)
Creator: Disgustedorite
Ancestor: Cloudgrass
Habitat: Atmosphere (Troposphere)
Size: 20 cm thick individual, up to 50 meter wide colony
Support: Cell Wall (Cellulose), Flotation Sac (Hydrogen)
Diet: Photosynthesis, Aeroplanktivore (<2 cm)
Respiration: Passive (Stomata)
Thermoregulation: Ectotherm
Reproduction: Sexual (Spores)

The cloudgrump split from its ancestor. It is the result of ordinary division going wrong, producing huge clonal colonies. Initially disorderly, bilateral symmetry was rapidly lost and the colony members produce an ever-growing mass. Pressure from the hydrogen within forces the colony into a more spherical shape, gradually creating a massive, hollow balloon. The outer layer of living tissue is 20 cm thick, which is usually far, far too thick to support a ballont (aerial balloon-like organism); however, most of this is occupied by the ancestral spongy tissue, which is lightweight and serves to allow holes to be quickly patched and healed without the contents of the balloon blasting outwards. The outermost layer--the skin--is no thicker than one millimeter, though slightly thicker surface tubers may be scattered throughout. Attached to the skin is a mosaic of downfeather-like leaves and hanging aeroplanktivorous tendrils, the former most concentrated on the top of the superorganism and the latter most concentrated on the bottom. The downfeather-like structure of the leaves serves both to increase surface area and to collect any moisture at all, whether from the air or from the cloud the huge plant rests in.

Image Caption: Structure of Outer Layer


As is the case with other contemporary flying flora, metals from captured particles of dust and dirt are incorporated into the cloudgrump’s skin, which is helpful in preventing hydrogen from leaking out between its molecules. Tough cellulose fibers also make its skin very resistant to tearing, so that it does not pop if it is caught in a storm or collides with another cloudgrump, though it most certainly still will if it collides with a mountain. It typically floats at a height between two and five kilometers up in the air, with older, bigger grumps generally floating the highest. Cloudgrump populations are at their biggest and healthiest along the equator--the tropical rainforests that exist along the same region get their namesake rain from the intertropical convergence zone, or doldrums, which is constantly warm and wet, and the cloudgrump can only grow when it has access to clouds, going almost completely dormant except for its collection of aeroplankton the rest of the time. The largest colonies will sometimes be mostly dormant except for a small portion which is touching a small cloud, collecting and distributing water for later use.

Cloudgrumps need surprisingly little water for their size due to them being mostly hollow. All of their water is contained in their outer layer and their interior is incredibly dry. This is because even a small contamination of water vapor, such as 0.1%, inside the hydrogen sac will cause the grump to sink. While one would think this would make grumps prone to exploding in a spectacular ball of flame, this is not the case. While spectacular explosions most certainly do occur, especially in the drier parts of the sky, the most common cause of explosions is lightning strikes, and a healthy cloudgrump is more than equipped to handle these. As mentioned before, its skin contains metals which prevent hydrogen from leaking. However, these are also used to form a passive lightning defense system. Instead of passing through the hydrogen sac, which is protected by cellulose which has low conductivity, the electricity is directed along the exterior and down to the bottom of the organism by the far more conductive metal component, where it then exits out a hanging tendril and strikes the ground far below. Most cloudgrumps are struck by lightning thousands of times in their lives without suffering significant injury, but can still eventually die from one if they are struck while dormant and dehydrated; in this case, there will be no moisture to suppress the fire, so it will rapidly reach their interior and cause a nearly instantaneous explosion. Large grumps exploding can devastate the ecosystems below them by causing a massive wildfire, but most grumps which reside in dry environments where this is possible are very small and their burning chunks only cause a fire as big as one the lightning strike could cause on its own. The cloudgrump lacks the ability to actively move towards humidity, instead relying on clouds to form nearby to it as it drifts in the wind.

Like its ancestor, the cloudgrump reproduces using spores. Unlike its ancestor, it could be broadly described as viviparous. When it collects spores from other grumps, it holds onto them after fertilization, passing cloudbubble cryoutines to the developing embryo. The embryo has a bubble of its own from very early on but struggles to float with it, so the parent provides it with the nutrients it needs to grow long stiff fibers. Though the embryo within is just a few millimeters across, the fibers can be as much as 10 centimeters in length at birth. The fibers are transparent, stiff, and hydrophobic. When released, the juvenile, called a bubbling, drifts downwards and and rolls on the ground or the surface of the ocean and is occasionally swept in the air, all the while collecting water from sea or rain which splashes between the fibers before it rolls off. If they are not gobbled up by ground-dwelling fauna, bubblings increase in size until their hydrogen sac is big enough for them to float more than they roll, at which point they start dividing into a clonal colony to form a young grump. Young grumps are often lopsided, not yet big enough to be forced into their round adult shape. The fibers remain until the grump is big enough that it never falls, at which point they are absorbed for nutrients. Because its ability to divide has been repurposed to form clonal colonies, the cloudgrump can no longer produce independent individuals asexually. The exact amount of time it takes for a cloudgrump colony to reach full size varies, but in the most ideal naturally possible conditions (that is, literal constant humidity and access to a never-ending supply of clouds and aeroplankton), it can shockingly reach full size in only 50 years due to its incredibly low density.

==Etymology==
The “grump” in “cloudgrump” is a combination of “grass” and “lump”. This is because of its evolutionary origin as lumps of cloudgrass that failed to divide properly. It was chosen over other names to be humorous.

So this is embarrassing. I did a big oopsie with ghost mycostrum reproduction and figure it should be fixed before Week 4 starts. Basically, I didn't know what sexual conjugation actually was and thought it was ineffective for some reason so I evolved unnecessary traits, which I would like to replace with a more plausible development.

Edited version:

QUOTE

Ghost Mycostrums are an evolution of the Pale Mycostrum which have completely lost their photosynthesis. Their asexual buds have been modified to produce unicellular airborne spores, which grow into new mycelium, and they now primarily form fruiting bodies after sexual conjugation has occurred, making sexual reproduction their primary method. They form a vital part of the nitrogen cycle on land, converting organic nitrogen in the remains of dead organisms and in the waste of fauna back into ammonium in a process called ammonification. Individual species of Ghost Mycostrum are difficult to distinguish, with the only obvious varying feature other than size being the shape of the fruiting body. Many different species can exist in the same area, and hybridization is common; this causes there to be a great variety of different fruiting body shapes present nearly anywhere they can be found. Generally, they don’t fare as well in deserts and icy biomes as in less extreme climates, so there are few distinct regional variants. Polar species do exist, however; they must go dormant over the frigid winters, with all their feeding, fruiting, and reproduction occurring over the summer instead. Thanks to their airborne reproduction, they have managed to cross flyways and become a global lineage. The spores of Ghost Mycostrums are formed inside modified, stunted buds. Most of their spores are released into the air. They land on the ground and germinate into mycelium. Fauna which happen to get caught in the midst of Ghost Mycostrum breeding can also carry their spores far away to new locations. When unrelated mycelium meet, they will exchange genes through sexual conjugation. Like other mycostrums, Ghost Mycostrums spend most of their life simply as a mycelial network within the soil or coating a dead organism, and they send out fruiting bodies when space, energy, and moisture allow.

It looks like Redcap Mycostrums will not need to be edited with this change in mind because Salty neglected the reproduction in its description.

(This is why you don't assume people know what they're doing, folks!)

Did you mess up a species and want to fix it? Post the revisions here for review! If it's reasonable, it may be approved immediately, or there can be a discussion regarding it first.

(Psst, TSSL, Coolsteph, track this topic)