"Passive (Oxygen)" is not how respiration should be formatted. Method is required, as passively breathing oxygen could be done in a myriad of ways, such as through skin directly, a porous cuticle, immobile gills, tracheae, stomata, etc.

Support needs to state the material of the shell. In this group, it has two layers, the inner one being chitinous while the outer one was originally made of sulfur but I'm unsure if that still applies to modern species.

In fairness, well-preened feathers can look very smooth due to subsurface scattering.

The leaf shape is clearly evident in the artwork. They aren't more complicated than depicted.

It should say whether it's length or height.

Is the size colony length or organism height?

is "instinct" the correct term to use for an organism without a brain?

Graveyarding on author request.

It's an apng! Unless miraheze doesn't support those, it should display fine, just as past gif submissions have.

@Coolsteph I know you're not available much at the moment, but can you at least look at this? Like, literally, stare into its eyes or something.

Art added. Diet is proving difficult due to the ridiculous number of misplaced organisms in the mangals.

Aren't these already integrated into a genus group? And what justification is there to make them a keystone as you implied?

I was planning to animate descendants, yes

Shimmering Wolley (Figuramutante scintillans) (sparkling shape-shifter)
Creator: Disgustedorite
Ancestor: Greater Wolley
Habitat: Fly Tropical Coast, Hydro Tropical Coast, Oz Subtropical Coast, Time Subtropical Coast, Anguan Temperate Coast, Abello Temperate Coast, Ittiz Temperate Coast, Nergali Subtropical Coast, Clayren Temperate Coast, Maineiac Temperate Mangal, Clayren Temperate Mangal, Nergali Subtropical Mangal, Ittiz Temperate Mangal, Abello Temperate Mangal, Barlowe Temperate Mangal, Oz Subtropical Mangal, Time Subtropical Mangal, Barlowe Tropical Mangal
Size: 64 cm long
Support: Endoskeleton (Bone)
Diet: Carnivore (Miniswarmers, Grabbyswarmers, Krillpedes, Digging Filterpeders, Common Gilltails, Mangal Sauceback, Lesser Bloisters, Scuttlers, Sruglettes, Brushrums, Miniwhorls, Gut Anemoweeds, Hitchhiker Scuttler, Snapper Scuttler, Frabukis, juvenile Scuttleball Gillfin, juvenile Royal Scylarian, Diamond Pumpgill, Sucker Swarmer, Shieldscooter, Left-Right Scalucker, Greater Wolley, Floating Pumpgill, Sikai, juvenile Serpentinuscooter, Seamaw, juvenile Sardchovy, Dunki, Gulperpump, juvenile Ocean Scorpodile, Plump Gillfin, Golden Siever, Dartfin, juvenile Eastward Landlubber, juvenile Grazhun, Makai, juvenile Thrashing Seaswimmer, Larvaback, Iron Siever, Finback, Bubblerorm, Srugeing, Ripping Waterworm, juvenile Scorpodile, Minnosparrow, Triloraker, Pebbleback larvae, juvenile Metamorphling Gilltail, Cryobowler Srugeing), occasional cannibal of young
Respiration: Active (Nasal Gills)
Thermoregulation: Ectotherm
Reproduction: Sexual (Male and Female, Clusters of Frog-Like Eggs in Dens)

The shimmering wolley split from its ancestor. It has continued to develop its ambush hunting habits and its color-changing ability is as quick and complex as that of a Terran cuttlefish. It can even produce animated markings, in the form of pulsating stripes and other patterns which mimic the appearance of light reflected off the seafloor with the aid of bioluminescent flashes and flickers. This allows it to hide anywhere while remaining difficult for most of its prey, or its predators, to spot. Contrary to its generic name, it lacks the “shapeshifting” ability of terran cephalopods, instead relying on patterns to produce a false three-dimensional effect on its smooth skin when disguising among flora. It now has many bioluminescent patches all over its body, rather than purely in a row along its tail.

The shimmering wolley’s arms are robust, allowing it to not only cling to rocks but also directly modify its environment by digging or by grasping and carrying objects such as bones and flora using its opposable thumbs. It is able to transport and use entire flora because many aquatic flora species only have holdfasts, not true roots, and are not killed when “uprooted”. This allows it to engineer the perfect hiding spots throughout its territory. It does this because its physiology leaves it with very little it can do without a hiding spot, as no matter what it does to its color patterns a long and narrow object rising up on a flat seabed will draw attention. It is relatively smart and can find ways to work with unfamiliar material. This ability also allows for the construction of dens, so that eggs do not need to be laid in pre-existing hiding places that might be limited in number. Adult shimmering wolleys are territorial outside of mating.

The shimmering wolley hunts by hiding somewhere and staying very still, waiting for something to enter its line of sight or brush against its barbels. It will then launch out with a stroke of its tail and try to snatch its prey. Its narrow lower jaw cuts through the water with little disturbance. It has a suction cup-like tongue and well-developed hyoid, allowing it to pull its catch down its throat. Its barbels can mimic the appearance of a digging filterpeder’s antennae, allowing it to attract and catch some of their predators, however it will not do this if there are longjakes nearby, as the longjake will prey on it. It will move to different pre-made hunting spots throughout its territory, preventing prey from easily learning where not to go to avoid it.

The shimmering wolley has developed a mating display which makes use of both color-changing and the ability to grasp objects. A male will use objects such as bones, clumps of flora, and sticks like batons or pom-poms, demonstrating the dexterity to produce excellent hiding places for eggs, and rapidly change color, emphasizing both the performance and his fitness. Once he has caught the attention of a female, they dance together and he draws her towards a den he has already constructed. If it is to the female’s liking, they spawn inside the den. They share a territory from then on, taking turns keeping watch over the den while the other hunts. Once the eggs have hatched, they part ways, as do their offspring which are already independent. As juveniles are too small to compete with adults, they are exempt from territorial conflict with adults until they are older; however, adults will still consume juveniles sometimes.

Graveyarding at creator's request

I'm going ahead and rejecting this for the reasons listed above. Please make a transitional form before resubmitting.

I don't think this organism works in its current state. It's seemingly evolving live birth and a novel dispersal method completely out of nowhere from broadcast spawning with no transition. The nutrient transport method also is not convincing, and it should not be able to get enough iron for its iron symbiotes to produce enough electricity to serve as an energy source in its environment.

Spinning as a method of dispersal is better than what it was before at least, but it needs a transitional form to do that, and the energy generation by a separate spinning part should be completely cut.

Do you plan to fix this? @HethrJarrod

Any update on fixing/explaining this?

You know that when you insert submissions like this it doesn't conform to the submission order thing, right?

QUOTE (Primalpikachu @ Sep 30 2022, 08:37 AM)

I think I may scrap this one. I don't have much interest in fauna, so I'll mostly be focusing on my flora submissions.

Does that mean you would like this graveyarded for now?

You are supposed to list the changes of each type under each type

iirc, we have a policy about wips needing to be finished if they are holding up moving on to the next gen.

the respiration needs to state if it's passive, active, or semi-active

QUOTE (Jarlaxle @ Sep 27 2022, 08:12 PM)

QUOTE (Disgustedorite @ Sep 27 2022, 04:04 AM) There's also a tree genus in the Wallace-Koseman area that this species could feed on the berries of. of gen 166, if all approved, I'd add these to their visorbill diet: Sweetworms Uniwingworms Ferries (Berries) Minibees Dragonworms Leepi Meepi Flesh Fairy Mudfish You could also add the Visorbill to Tyranical Corvisnapper diet. QUOTE (Disgustedorite @ Sep 27 2022, 04:04 AM) Oh, that reminds me. Have you seen other recent developments in the flying sauceback department? Particularly-- arboreal "quails" that use their tail spurs for stability in trees and have better eyesight and ophreys that are getting a little better at stability and climbing The Ferry Quail composite eye is an interesting development. Wouldnt each eye see quite a bit more then the components of composite eyes in insects? And the Wallyhawk's climbing method... Now that's a hook in itself, no pun intended. I am guessing there's a multi generational plan for their anatomy going on there? The shared habitat and arboreal nesting... I wonder if a Ferry Quail larva with a colorful hind and large grey spots on its back could convince a visborbill parent to feed it.

They can be added as long as they were submitted before this - the standard has been that prey are submitted before predators. As such, the tyrannical corvisnapper can't technically have your species listed as prey, though you can note that it is preyed on by it.

The compound eyes in ferry quail would be better than an insect eye of similar density, yes. The adaptation of more eyes eventually bundled together like that I feel was a logical development because mirror eyestrils aren't actually all that great at image formation and already rely on redundancy, much like the similar structure used by scallops, but only the quails were able to make the jump to getting more eyes because they don't use their oral ring for food processing the way other saucebacks do (thus more eyes doesn't affect their ability to eat, and in this case was actually beneficial since it created numerous oral spines). The poor image formation is probably something to take into account for jewel-eyed sauceback species as an interesting constraint to be worked with/around, in general.

Wallyhawk was kinda meant as the start of a "better hawk" radiation that kinda pushes other basal falcotheres out of the main "eagle" and "hawk" niches, with the existing falcotheres then specializing into different roles. If you have ideas for new weird things to do with its claws though, I'd be interested in seeing them.

The ferry quail is meant to be the start of a radiation of more distinct kinds of jewel-eyed saucebacks itself...we do probably need more brood parasites. But consider--what if it was a pink-shelled visorbill descendant that was the brood parasite? More kinds of things from more kinds of things.

You can have 3 types.