QUOTE (Cube67 @ Aug 15 2022, 06:01 PM)

The branch seems to decrease in thickness as it goes higher which probably makes that a complex question @Coolsteph

A range between the maximum thickness and thinnest thickness, then.
Just as an plausible anchoring value, a quick Google search suggests the biggest arboreal animal (still extant, anyway) is the Bornean orangutan. A male Bornean orangutan's maximum weight listed on a quick Google check is 220 pounds, and it's 1.25 to 1.5 m (4.1-5 ft.) tall.

I believe that, when I made the Quillfence, I received feedback that volcanic eruptions were actually very rare in Raptor Volcanic. I adjusted the emphasis on volcanic eruption adaptations accordingly. With volcanic eruptions being so rare, it does seem unlikely it would need such extensive, specialized adaptations. Though I had initially designed the tubers of the Quillfence as an eruption-based adaptation, after being given feedback, I rewrote it to primarily be an adaptation to the much more frequent event of herbivory.

It might be more plausible for it to build up a relationship with iron-associated microbes first, build up energy exchanges of some sort with them, and then gain respiration abilities by association. The iron microbes could also play some other role, such as disease protection. (Plants can deal with infections by inhibiting pathogens' access to their iron)

You'll have to specify the microbe or microbes in the description. Depending on how different it is from a "generic" microbe of its type (assuming it's a genus group) you may have to make a microbe submission as part of a paired submission.

Is the Moleroot's stem really white, or just not colored in? It's hard to tell with the white background.

"form the more isolated landmasses" That's a typo: you meant "from the".
If the chitinous lenses are broken, how does it regenerate? Does it scab over?
What are its general sunlight regimes? (I presume full sun, judging by one of its ancestors being a pioneer species.) Does it have any defensive compounds to use against herbivores or pests? What is the general range of its fungus-roots?

There's a typo: "ancestosr".

"It can support small fauna in its prongs, but it will snap if anything too large tries to climb."

Is it a matter of size, or rather heaviness? Is there an approximate size or weight that causes it to snap? For size in particular, that might help guide parameters on relatively large arboreal fauna.

What's the range of decades it takes to grow to full size? 20 years and 90 years, for example, are substantially different. Similarly, how many centuries can it usually live for?

Ways to expand flora descriptions include details on sunlight requirements, whether sunlight requirements change over its lifespan, whether it does well on slopes, soil and moisture preferences, disease susceptibility or resistance, how long it lives, how many seeds or fruits it makes (irrelevant here), wood strength, wood color, whether it is deciduous, its smell, taste, or presence of toxic or distasteful compounds, allelopathic traits or interactions with other flora, and interactions with other fauna, such as herbivores or pollinators (the latter of which is irrelevant here).

The fact it can bud from its roots and make clonal colonies might mean it can tolerate growing in dense single-species stands, unless it has ways to keep out excessive density. Dense single-species stands could increase parasite or disease susceptibility, which might encourage disease resistance measures. This could involve defensive compounds, perhaps sticky pest-trapping sap, or alerting its neighbor-clones by air or through its roots to prepare for possible pest invasions.

In this case, it might be useful to determine if there's a difference between growing in clay or growing in silt.

It has a fairly broad range. It could help boost the description if you specified its sunlight requirements, water requirements, and ideal soil type. Judging by its life history, it seems it thrives in the later stages of ecological succession. If fires are fairly common in some of its habitats, you could specify how it responds to fire. You could also add trivia in the form of sensitivities or hyperaccumulation of certain minerals, its smell or taste, and particular interactions with fauna species.

Yes, I meant "overtime". Apparently I auto-corrected the very example provided.

This is more of an elaboration and clarification than a retcon concern, but, nonetheless, this is an issue for the Warf Gossalizard and its descendants.

As pointed out here it's unclear to what degree descendants of the Warf Gossalizard are endothermic, and how this endothermy is maintained.

The Hairy Gossalizard, while not noted as endothermic, has "proto-fur", which is mentioned as a cold adaptation, and stores fat in times of famine. The use of fat might be a clue on its metabolism.

The Warf Gossalizard is "slightly warm-blooded", has a fur-like integument, and lives in a tundra environment. It's not impossible for an ectotherm to live in the tundra, particularly if the planet's overall climate is warm, but in cold conditions it would require special adaptations, such as antifreeze compounds.

One of the descendants of the Warf Gossalizard, the Desert Gossalizard, retains its status of being "slightly warm-blooded", although it lives in a warmer climate and has less fur-like integument. That it didn't revert to ecothermy when it theoretically could have in just one step might suggest endothermy had been fairly well-developed.

(This might be a useful source.)

By the submission under review, the Turquoise-Helmed Lizalope (if not earlier) it seems likely strong endothermy had been developed. Turquoise-Helmed Lizalopes are specialized for "running faster and longer" (relative to their ancestors) and are always on the move, and seem to eat constantly. Sustained activity like this in colder environments suggests endothermy.

QUOTE

Im pretty sure its due to the fuzzy coats of setae that cover most of its bodies

Bees, moths, tarantulas, and cockchafer beetles are fuzzy, but are not warm-blooded. Meanwhile, naked mole rats are mammals, but largely hairless ectotherms. It's proposed that the extinct goat species, Myotragus, was ecothermic, despite surely having hair. Tunas and mackerel sharks are partly endothermic, which doesn't relate to having hair, but does make a point that there are gradients in endothermy and ecothermy beyond general patterns. It's useful to know just how endothermic it is, and how it's regulated.

"Over time". This is a common error in your submissions.
"This quickly leads to a chain reaction[...]" This sentence is too long, and so shoul be too split.
"thirty five" thirty-five.
"head on" head-on.
"since not many potential predators would not dare come close" There seem to be two "nots"

Calcification of wooden parts seems such a common, independently-occurring adaptation that there might be cause to make a wiki page on the phenomenon.

I wonder if its quick-clotting blood makes it resistant to bloodsuckers, or at least unappealing? Bloodbees were fond of plent blood, and got assimilated into the xenobees genus group, but it doesn't seem that the xenobees drink blood, just nectar and mucus. Xenowasps drink blood, but there's no mention of plent blood, which might be chemically different. This might be opportunity for a specialist Xenowasp/Xenobees descendant.

It's interesting to see a fauna with scars. This is the first time I've seen definite scars on official art, in fact. This adds a big worldbuilding detail that plents have green scars, regardless of skin color. (or at least heavily suggests that for related species)

Are there sufficient differences to justify its new genus? It's broadly similar to its ancestor in physiology, and doesn't diverge greatly compared to its relative, the Passarurso, which still has its ancestor's genus. Its calcified jaws and reproductive habits might be the biggest points to justify a new genus.

I ought to hurry up with my own terrorbeak descendant idea. So many submission ideas...

QUOTE (Disgustedorite @ Aug 14 2022, 10:20 AM)

Don't juvenile trees exist?

That's a good point, although I am uncertain whether they would make berries. Only the berries are relevant for the sake of this question on spreading. Theoretically, if Arid Ferine berries are only a small portion of its diet, the chances it would spread it to new habitats are lower. Admittedly, if Arid Ferines drop their berries to the ground, and Turquoise-Helmed Lizalopes eat those, it could bypass the issue, provided the seeds can still germinate.

When going over this, it might be easier to organize by trophic level and habitat. After all, if a large herbivorous species is aggressive and quick to reproduce, and able to outcompete newcomers, but its own food sources are outcompeted by a newcomer flora, its survival chances would greatly drop.

I like the stripes and coloration.

"on their slightly longer tail" "their casing" The grammar is off for this.
Now, there have been many instances of herbivores spreading flora from one biome to another. Since there are only three flora species spread, the scrutiny should be low.

Roughly what percentage of its diet is Arid Ferine leaves and berries? Although Arid Ferines are 1 m tall and this seems about 80 cm tall, with no neck or apparent ability to stand on its hind legs, the Arid Ferine art's branch growing patterns suggests perhaps one-third of the branches of a full-sized Arid Ferine could be accessible to a Turquoise-Helmed Lizalope. More branches might be accessible if harsh conditions make the Arid Ferines grow shorter, though. This probably wouldn't be under scrutiny at all if it wasn't spreading Arid Ferines to two new habitats, and the fact it's only spreading three flora to two habitats each means this detail is still fairly low in necessary scrutiny.

The Warf Gossalizard is mentioned to be be "slightly warm blooded". Unfortunately, it doesn't specify how. I didn't specify it or elaborate upon it in the Grazing Gossalizard, either. It would probably be useful to add some retroactive clarification for this lineage.

This looks like a slightly different style for you. I like the texturing. It's interesting to see multiple shades of green on a plent.

I noticed it eats young Falsegloxes, which (judging by the description I made for the adults) live near Alpine Cirruses. How does it withstand the rashes of Alpine Cirruses? Is it naturally immune? Does it simply ignore the pain? Are its feet so fuzzy they protect it from the rashes? Does it pursue prey into Drake Alpine rarely enough that the sting of Alpine Cirruses isn't really an issue? Does it eat larval-stage young Falsegloxes, or juveniles, which have a different shape?

A submission awaiting review, the Copperspike, is a microbe that uses heat for energy. The basis for this novel metabolism is a piece of information in the page for the Protohydroia Octherma, the ancestor of its ancestor: "It gets its energy from these as well as the geothermic heat given off from the vents and hot springs."

However, a quick check suggests this kind of metabolism would be difficult for an individual microbe to have. The source suggests it would be easier for a colony to accomplish, but there are still plausibility issues.

One option is retconning the Protohydroia Octherma to make using heat for energy more biologically plausible, while another option is eliminating that part entirely. None of its canon descendants use heat for energy, so eliminating that part entirely may be the easiest solution.

Ah. It was a missing "i" in Octothermia. "Octothermia" and "Octherma" are subtly different.

The Protohydroia Octherma's description says it gains energy from heat, but its diet doesn't list this. There could be plausibility issues with microbes gaining energy from heat directly, although colony-level metabolism might be a workaround. This shall be discussed as a potential retcon or biology issue.

EDIT: This has been brought up for discussion.

I was going to ask about how its metabolism would have evolved when I noticed a more important detail. The Sagan 4 wiki and forum does not appear to have a record of a "Copperhead Octotherma". Was there a mistake? Did you intend to make a retroactive-submission, and erroneously submitted this first? If so, it would be best to wait for the retroactive submission to be approved before posting this.

Well. That is indeed a 'creature". Were it not for the butt-nostril and green ears, it's hard to tell from this portrayal that it's even a plent, which attests to how much plents have changed. For the particular population shown in the image, is the pale coloration on the backs of the thighs and under its tail purely an indication of pale coloration in those areas, or on its underside in general?

"though it is not impartial to"
This seems an overly convoluted phrasing, such as saying "not dissimilar to" instead of "similar to" or "somewhat similar to". "Though it will not pass up" or "Though it will occasionally eat" are better.

The pose and pelage are interesting.

Interesting. This is a retroactively-inserted organism for a time period that preceded my joining of the project in Generation 153. While I have looked at organisms that originated prior to that time period, I'm not as familiar with them. In fact, I recognize only one of the species this submission has been mentioned to spread.

There's a typo: "fledgeling" should be "fledgling".
I like the fuzzy look of the stripes.
Perhaps I'll say more later.

"Bristlekrugg stores additional fat in the back of their bodies for when long drifts do not capture anything to eat." There's a typo. It should be "Bristlekruggs". It's grammatically unclear whether "drifts" as in a noun or "drifts" as in a verb is meant. There's more I could say. I'll have to get back to this later.

The projections resemble the wings of fairyflies, but fairyflies are much smaller. I don't think it could drift along in the wind at that size with bristles so comparatively small.

"everpinks" It took me a while to realize that was based on "evergreens"

Can you add a little more soil and bark detail? They look like mere gradients.

I like the coloring, pattern, and scales. I'll have to get back to the rest later.

Are there any living things that can make chemical energy out of mechanical energy like this? A quick search has revealed no results. How would this evolve?

This might be useful, though it uses a different mechanism: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/...20821143614.htm
This solar-powered hornet might provide information on how to combine technology-inspired energy with biology: https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn1970...lectric-hornet/

The Sproingshell art doesn't suggest it is underwater. In fact, it looks like it's standing upright in a desert against a cloudless blue sky, so I initially assumed it was terrestrial. If you added a pattern of light from above, like the bottom of the swimming pool, or some Flashkelps or other aquatic-only genus group flora, it would be a quick way to convey that it was underwater. The substrate also looks rather bland. Just adding some blobs with faded edges, speckles, or pebbles would improve it. You could also portray some substrate in the background with a bluish tint, making it clearer that it's set underwater.

QUOTE (colddigger @ Aug 4 2022, 12:27 AM)

They still rely on gut fermentation, so it's just a matter of microbes displacing each other in the guts, already a thing that happens with people when they switch from one consistent diet to another.

That's not quite equivalent, because humans are omnivores: their diets are much more adaptable than for a Hanging Frabooball. The bacteria the Hanging Frabooball uses doesn't seem equivalent to normal human digestive bacteria. It seems the Hanging Frabooball got most of its nutrition from giving minerals to its symbiotes, like a less extreme version of the giant tube worm (Riftia pachyptila). It is mentioned the Hanging Frabooball "may nibble the occasional corpse to keep up with certain nutritional needs that aren't met by the symbiomoeba inside it". This suggests eating corpses is a small portion of its overall diet, and that what detritus is does eat is specifically corpses.

For "escaped", you can say "ventured beyond" or "expanded their habitats".