QUOTE (colddigger @ Nov 17 2021, 12:43 AM)

The title lacks a number Does this matter?

I don't believe it really matters unless multiple Generations are being processed at overlapping times, which is not the case.

"Ichthy Riparian" does not exist. Did you mean "Ichthy Tropical Riparian"?
Upon checking how it has so few local species in its diet, I realized Ichthy Tropical Riparian has no other small local flora, barring Kellaces, which might be inaccessible to this species since they grow on the 7.5 m tall Tropical Crystamboos. Dixon-Darwin Boreal has higher biodiversity and should have more options, though.
"but nostril": "butt nostril".
I'll have to go over this properly later.

QUOTE (CosmoRomanticist @ Nov 15 2021, 04:32 PM)

I kinda want to make another Chromanke descendant before it gets replace, to increase diversity and all, but I'm not quite sure where to go with it. Any suggestions or ideas? Could have one that either has spikes, vaguely resembles crystal flora, or even absurd colors. Heck, could even design one that looks like Kermit the Frog

The Chromanke is notable for its almost certainly full-body color-changing ability, and can take on at least four colors: green, white, brown, and black.

Drake Taiga, which borders one of its habitats, collectively has flora are cyan, red, green, dull yellow (Pandocrystlal and Frigid Vesuvianite trunks), purple-with-orange (Xidhorchia) and three kinds of purple. You could make something that can at least passably blend in with most or even all of those flora, or perhaps make one species with multiple specialized sub-populations adapted to different colors and lifestyles, though their actual diets would be very similar.

Since Chromankes don't need necks anyway, you could make a descendant neck-less and more froglike. You could make things based on skinks or amphiumas. You could make some kind of bizarre duck-frog-chameleon that walks on its forelegs and uses its hind legs to carry foam nests.

QUOTE (CosmoRomanticist @ Nov 16 2021, 11:16 AM)

What are the red parts on the wings? I'm afraid that this looks like some kind of cartoon coral monster more than an actual animal. I'm sad about this, because I like the concept. I just feel like it needs some changes.

"Males on the other hand have bright red wings that resemble Earth coal. [sic]".
Those seem to be large, colorful display structures, and not camouflage, much like the tail feathers of peacocks. If, somehow, that's not considered plausible, it shouldn't be too hard for someone to make a Candycane Bonegrass descendant after the fact that looks like those red wings, or modify the art so it looks a little like Candycane Bonegrass.

"Branching Qupe Tree" For that to be in the habitat list, it must be an extremely big Branching Qupe Tree. That, or it's an error.

"immanent" is a typo of "imminent", since I doubt their extinction was of a divine nature.

"have difficulty warm." You probably meant 'warming up".

QUOTE (OviraptorFan @ Nov 15 2021, 07:22 PM)

So wait, why would a fleet footed species of phlock go down this route? If anything wouldn’t it make more sense for one of the more basal species to do this?

Sagan 4 Alpha does not, at least for the moment, distinguish between subpolar and polar biomes. It could be that it got fatter to adapt to harsh subpolar winters in parts of its range, which necessarily slowed it down somewhat, but additionally made it more buoyant, and perhaps increased its tolerance for immersion in cold water. If it had reason to go into the water frequently, such as a predator that wasn't especially good at swimming or couldn't dry itself off quickly when that was a health concern, or there being more or higher-quality food in the water, or both, it might go in the direction of being a blubbery semiaquatic herbivore.

I'm also not sure how the flora can grow on it, much less in such abundance. Does it have rock-like skin that provides an ideal attachment point? Does its plent-sweat contain "rooting" hormones or a sticky compound? Does it deliberately glue it on? Are these commensal, specialized species?

"snofloa"
That's a typo of "snotflora", because this doesn't seem to a bizarre Snoa flora. (The Mostly Purple Snoa is the only Snoa descendant to still have "snoa" in its name, anyway.)

Knowing that nostrils and teeth are tied together in development, is it even possible for the teeth to work like that without affecting the nostrils, too?

If they have small, simple teeth, it should be possible to pack in so much. It could be like a dolphin and swallow food whole, without chewing. Or it could be like a giant armadillo, which feeds on soft-bodied things that need little chewing.

In real life, wood is generally not as dense as bone. this discussionThis discussion states that a human skeleton made of a particularly strong (that is, hard) kind of wood, black ironwood, would only be 70% as strong as a normal human skeleton.

Orphan Scimitars mostly eat small plents, with wooden bones that would likely snap like twigs or small sticks under its jaws, and some small "normal-bone" organisms. If it has little need for chewing, it wouldn't need complex teeth, and so could have small, simple ones, and so could have a lot. I'm not sure whether small rodent-like plents are really equivalent to the bugs giant armadillos eat, though, and surely the larger ones would have bones tougher than the fish and squids dolphins swallow whole.

I just realized...there are a lot of organisms that eat plents, but how many can actually digest wood? Wood is very hard to digest. Do they eat around the bones? Do they spit up bone fragments? Can they handle the occasional nodent twig-like bone but not, say, dualtrunk leg-bones?

Exactly which organisms should remain in its diet may be up to further calculations, but I'm not sure how it would handle Gulperskuniks, which are well-armored even if it's just cellulose.

There are various formatting errors. I'll have to go over those later.

"in doing so" There's a missing period.
"hosts immune system" Hosts' immune system.
Oh good: genus-group-targeting diseases/parasites.
I can give more information when it's done.

QUOTE (Nergali @ Nov 14 2021, 07:22 AM)

I'm very highly tempted to suggest that there should a mention somewhere of, when any members of this genus snatch a prey and take it with them, it's referred to as an abduction.

I second this notion. One meaning of the Latin term "raptor", from which "raptor" as in "predatory bird" is derived, is "abductor".

It's kind of funny that these things are terrifying aliens to small, rodent-like plents or shrews when the entire point of Sagan 4 is making a planet of purely aliens.

I made a note likening it to potatoes.

Yes, I just updated the description so it almost seems to brag about its invulnerability to digestion, except two things which are really easy to do.

QUOTE (OviraptorFan @ Nov 13 2021, 04:55 PM)

where is the gen number?

I didn't put it on the picture. This one has been nearly complete for months, and I posted it on impulse. I made it a work-in-progress at the last minute because I didn't want to add the Generation number yet.

QUOTE

Biochemistry it's largely unelaborated, so any time you state a species does something biochemical it becomes canon that all biochemistry needed for that is present in previous species. It's pretty great for accidentally turning aliens into Earth clones.

...is that a good or a bad thing?

QUOTE (colddigger @ Nov 13 2021, 04:10 PM)

I'm very happy with the starting statement that inulan is their storage substance.

....why? That's probably one of the more boring starting sentences of Sagan 4 organisms. Were it not its adaptations for volcanic eruptions, which I had to downplay from its original concept, there wouldn't be much to say about it. I was hoping people could ask me questions that would inspire me to say something interesting about it.

Quillfence (Quillotuber ligneus)

Creator: Coolsteph
Ancestor: Quaxaca
Habitat: Raptor Volcanic (4-4.3 km), Dixon-Darwin Rocky (3.6-3.9 kilometers)
Diet: Photosynthesis
Size: 50 cm tall
Respiration: ???
Support: Cellulose Walls
Reproduction: Asexual, Spores, Tuber Budding

A Quillfence stores energy in the form of inulin in its thickened underground stem swellings (tubers). Usually, it uses the energy stored within its tubers to quickly recover from herbivory, especially from Ramchins, a major herbivore. In the very rare instances of volcanic eruption, it can draw upon the energy of its tubers to quickly grow above covering layers of ash and photosynthsize again, or wait out days when the sky is dark from ashes.

The inulin of its tubers is difficult or impossible to digest for most fauna which don't use extensive microbial fermentation in their digestive systems. The most practical workaround of using something with a pH equal to or less than 4 and heating up to at least 40 C (104 F) is irrelevant in its environment, which is not especially prone to fire, and lacks any organisms intelligent enough to use fire or even hot rocks. Thus, only a few herbivores can theoretically digest its tubers.

Quillfences can reproduce vegetatively, something like potatoes, by growing underground shoots from the tuber, which eventually grow into tubers of their own and new individuals. Where the soil is rich and fertile, most often in Raptor Volcanic, it can create many such shoots, roughly evenly spaced from each other. The thin, straight aboveground shoots and spacing brings to mind a fence, hence the name "Quillfence".

Quillfences grow in the more arid, low-lying areas of their habitats. They take roughly two and a half months to grow to maturity, with less for particularly ideal conditions. In conditions of significant ashfall, it survives the outskirts of volcanic eruptions better than their relations. However, their slower maturation rates require good conditions for months to establish populations, and they are somewhat slow to colonize denuded areas. Differential performance under volcanic eruptions is nonetheless difficult to observe, due to the rarity of such events.

Around two months, Quillfence stems start becoming tough and lignified around the tuber. After two and a half months, lignification becomes more substantial, significantly decreasing its palatability to Ramchins. After this point, tuber growth tends to slow down, and it has greater reproductive output. Maximum lifespans for an individual are around eight months, although small clonal colonies can persist for longer. If not broken down or substantially decayed, the lignified stems of Quillfences remain upright for a surprisingly long time, making a fairly good fence for small fauna.

The tubers have a delicious nutty taste, something like pecans and potatoes. The fuzz-like leaves of dead and dying Quillfences are somewhat unusual among purpleflora for being bluish periwinkle-like color, not pink or champagne.

---

(It's going above 4x because of no competition in its size range, although its tubers didn't seem proportionate for a wild plant roughly the size of a sunchoke, which I used for after-the-fact inspiration for its description. Therefore, it's not the maximum of 10x. If not acceptable, 36 cm will do.)

That's a good question.
Judging by a quick check of deep-sea gigantism, it's unclear what causes the phenomenon. Some of the proposed factors could be in place for a sky environment, with the notable exception of oxygen concentrations.
It's likely that larger organisms here would have proportionately large wings, and perhaps extra-large gas sacs, if they use those to float. Beyond that, it is uncertain. Fur or feathers is an option in this environment, and the temperature properties of air and water are different.

"their mother’s tail." Since it's saying "baby waxfaces", plural, the semantics don't quite make sense. "From the tails of their mothers" would skip over that.
I agree with the general location idea.

It is now complete.

I was going to give it parthenogenesis, too, but that seemed unnecessary if it self-fertilized, like for peas.

The diet list says "Syrup Ferine berries", but just says "Sleeve Ferine". What tissues does it eat? Listing out a tree species without listing specific tissues implies most of its tissues are eaten, or it's eaten whole. While it does mention eating fruit in its description and diet, it also has such a broad diet it's not out of the question it could eat other tissues. Squirrels, for example, eat a lot of nuts and seeds, but also other kinds of plant tissue.

"Drakoniskian bjournaratta’s" That's a pluralization error.

Why is the name so lengthy and odd?

I'll go over the rest later.

What sorts of oil, microbes, and irritants? I'm not sure if things like greasy hair would really threaten a flea, or things with different integument. Is its skin really sensitive?
...even these bizarre mammaloids have a cloaca. Sagan 4 is the cloaca planet, apparently. I don't think any alternatives would make Sagan 4 look good on Google, but it's still odd.
How intensive is their nutrient draw from their mother? Do the infants hijack the mother's metabolism, a la humans? Does the placental thread allow the offspring to chemically interact with the mother in some significant way?
I wonder if this is the first Carpozoan to give up having six eyes. It's very unusual. Is that conspicuous dark-blue dot next to its eyes all that remains of one of its pairs of eyes?

"The poisons cause rashes similar to seaweed dermatitis upon skin contact with various fauna, such as Loafpicks and their relatives." That doesn't say it's limited to them.
You could simply say lyngbyatoxin A and debromoaplysiatoxin, the toxins it uses, don't work on it because its biochemistry is so different from Loafpicks, and until recently (evolutionarily speaking) Loafpicks were its biggest trampling concern.

I have updated its diet by including a few genus groups, and added a few notes about its frequent migrations to the upper reaches of Drake Boreal. (I figured it was implausible something of its size, barring significant food-storing adaptations, could be Drake Alpine-exclusive other than in the winter, which was implied)

If it eats Alpine Cirruses, wouldn't it need some protection from the dermatitis they cause? It's worth mentioning.

" having distributing" Having distributed.
"sharps squeaks": Sharp squeaks.

"distressed squeaky gremlin," I see this is the part that makes it a work in progress.
...these spread because they are fun squeaky toys. That is unusual.
Those are a lot of habitats, but it's impossible to evaluate because the habitat rules are apparently outdated.

"it's entire life": Its entire life.
Forest fire: "Forest for", unless you got confused when trying to write a sentence about how they respond to forest fires.

"driftwood islands," Driftwood Islands needs to be capitalized, since it refers to a (somewhat) specific place.

Well, I myself am not in favor of extraneous genus groups like these, but I suppose the descriptions are more detailed than the microbe genus groups or genus-group-boom Meiouks and Aphluks, to showcase just two. It can't be rejected for lack of detail, at least.