Though most are slow crawlers this one's ancestor actually was already jet propelled, I think escaping predators in shallow waters would be an easy explanation.

QUOTE (OviraptorFan @ Apr 30 2023, 09:38 AM)

Hm, I'm surprised this didn't replace their ancestor, since they seem better adapted for life in the frigid tundra.

Oh I should update that, this was written out before you posted yours and I didn't wanna replace it before that.

Possibly name a smaller dumb predator that leaping out of the water would allow escape from




These are basically gliding squid so look into that group of critters for inspiration

What do they grow on?

What form of bark do it's hosts have, if any, does this cause selection for the boring instead of finding cracks to hold on to?

By boring in do they make their hosts susceptible to infestations and infection?


This can be turned into mistletoe next gen, but it's actions are already potentially hazardous to trees.

Due to wing size? That's fair, I didn't want to fill up the main image too much with it but I can draw a more mature individual with larger wings.

Could mention some linking protein complex between the two.

I'll just change it to 15, doesn't change anything else about it.

Oh that's weird.

Okay.

The size is a x3 shrinkage of its ancestor as a flora, so within the x4 size change rule for flora.

I can change that if preferred.

J I guess they kind of have heartwood? But these trees don't really have a cambium layer like a lot of plants on earth, I think they would be more closely comparable to Palm trees? At least in their arrangement of their vascular system. But I can put a little something about the hardened center portions of their trunks and branches.

Could you state whether they replace it split from their ancestor?

What does it sound like

Could do 4 a day pretty comfortably if you want it spread out nicely over 70 days.
More a day if you want it quicker.

If you wanted them to have multiple mates, and lay 300 with each of them, you could go every 2 hours, a pair of eggs, 14 hour active period, gives about 20-25 days of laying before needing to find another mate.

It sounds like they lay one egg at a given time like stick insects, is that right? How much time between laying?

I'm interested in particular with the beachside populations and their adaptations to their environment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coastal_stran...e%20desiccation.

In the description fuzzpalm is misspelled once

I don't think I'm familiar with this ancestor

" the Soripredator uses their keen eyesight and food sense of smell to find their ideal targets"

What does food sense of smell mean

I expect them to taste like cucumber and bee bread. But they could have something else entirely unique.

What a fun design for a critter

Should it be that it just knows to attack them on their tail, sauce backs, or should it be something that they quickly learn? How smart are these?

I don't think I understand the ones that interact with swarmers.

Are they eating the swarmer waste, then getting eaten to be turned into swarmer waste,

Or do the swarmers just hang out around waste?

Ah, a beach builder

Clattered Oothecae Ligneovus sepulcrunativitatis [Tomb and womb of wooden eggs]

Creator: Colddigger

Ancestor: Needlewing

Habitat: Drake Barrens, Drake Badlands, Drake Tundra, Drake Polar Scrub, Drake Steppe, Drake Prairie, and Drake Lowboreal

Size: 60 cm Tall

Diet: Photosynthesis, Omnivore(Botryrophis, Snowpuff sprouts, Windbulb sprouts, Dreidalbulb sprouts, Purple Orbibom sprouts, Tundra Orbibom sprouts, Arid Ferine seedlings, Brickbark Ferine seedlings, Sproutstalk sprouts, Suncatcher Plyent young, Umbrella Plyent young, Wub, Lahnworm, Greater Lahn young, Edward Angle Worm, Pewpa, Flugworm, Mini-Flower Ketter, Creab Walker, Inzcrek young, Marbleflora, Minikruggs, Teacup Saucebacks, Floraverms), Scavenger

Respiration: Active (Lungs)

Thermoregulation: Heterotherm (Basking, Muscle-Generated Heat)

Support: Endoskeleton (Jointed Wood)

Reproduction: Sexual (Two Sexes, Wooden Eggs, Pouch)




The Clattered Oothecae replaced their ancestor the Needlewing on Drake in it's given habitats, they can be found in Drake Barrens, Drake Badlands, Drake Tundra, Drake Polar Scrub, Drake Steppe, Drake Prairie, and Drake Lowboreal. Their size has increased compared to their ancestor, reaching a height of 60 centimeters rather than 40. Their main source of energy is photosynthesis, taking advantage of the very long summer days of their polar and subpolar homes. They will indulge on flora, carrion, and small fauna as well if the opportunity presents itself.


A newborn clattered oothecae begins life in early to mid spring as a 5 centimeter tall larva cracking out of its cask and clambering away from the flock barrow created by its parents. This larval form has several characteristics making it distinct from the adults. Its developing wings remain held by a protective sac, preventing damage during its escape from the cask as well as lowering the young ones surface area to slow heat loss.



Young Clattered Oothecae, warm insulation is see through in this image to display the body shape.

Nearly its entire body is covered in black insulating filaments, these are frayed along their edges to create glochid structures. These glochids act as a deterrent to any would-be predators, the tiny sharp strands easily lodge into any soft tissues or nostrils and leave the spots severely irritated for days. The face and top of the head are exposed so no insulation blocks hearing or sight. It also allows exposed skin for waste excretion. The wing sac may or may not be exposed as well. Finally, the lowest segment of the leg is capable of support and is a functional player in its bipedal locomotion.


Once having squeezed its way out into the sunlight, and getting to its feet, the larval clattered oothecae will open its beady eyes to scan the surroundings. It is drawn to the black fluff appearance of its siblings who will come together to form a flock. This tight flock acts as a larger body capable of keeping its members warmer than they could manage by themselves. The flock of clattered oothecae move as a unit with no permanent leader, as they travel they will consume sprouts of flora or tiny fauna in their wake and when they meet another flock the two will merge, this repeats whenever flocks come across one another regardless of size.


The individual grows quickly, its body becoming heavier and its insulation more thoroughly covering the body over time. After a week of being in the flock the sac holding the developing wings has played its role out and is shed to reveal many photosynthetic tendrils. As the days get longer the flock will slow down and settle near a water source, usually in a depression in the ground. No longer on the move the stance taken by a maturing clattered oothecae is a resting one, squatted down it slowly waddles about on its knees rather than standing upright. Having a sedentary lifestyle in adulthood selected for the lower legs to, rather than matching the growth rate of the body, develop toward defensive uses instead of continued support. The flesh of the lower legs lignify and splinter, creating a pair of sharp and wretched weapons that can pierce a threat and fill the wound with wooden shrapnel. The front limbs hidden beneath insulation, previously underdeveloped in the larval state, follow a similar growth pattern though with large thorns at their bases as well. Their beaks remain tougher, capable of jabbing and prodding would-be food investigators.


Though no longer as active as in their larval state the flock of adults is still capable of moving as a unit as the environment demands. In the larval state all members of the flock moved at once, resulting in a fast moving mass traveling across the landscape. As adults, preferring to stay still as much as they can, movement of the flock is approached differently. As the flock moves, those in the front of the group stay in their new location as long as they can, while those toward the back beeline through the center where it's warmest toward the general direction the flock is moving to become the new front. In this way exploration of their environment is within the borders of their protective flock as much as possible.


Males and Females are basically the same in appearance, with females being somewhat larger on average. Mating is unceremonious and typically occurs between individuals who happen to be nearest one another in the flock. Females may mate four or five times in early summer, each with a different partner due to flock dynamics. Shortly after mating she'll be gestating 20-30 offspring. Placental attachment is rather shallow, with late embryonic diapause occurring after organ differentiation at 0.2 centimeters in size by maternal hormones. At this point rather than flowing material into the embryo, which both puts strain on the mother as well as being hindered by the growth rate of the offspring, extracellular layering of nutrient dense fluid in the form of cysts, alternatively called yolks, appears in two or more points of the placental interface and become contained by a final layering of fibrous protein and saccharides by surrounding uterine tissue.


Clattered Oothecae Egg formation

Once the yolks are formed placental growth is briefly resumed, growing over top of the yolks. In response the endometrium, or maternal tissue, that is in contact with the placenta, grows to form a sac or cyst filled with lymph and concentrated trehalose over top that engulfs the placenta and embryo. A second sac or cyst forms beneath this structure with a wall of several separate membrane layers and holds the yolks. The several pieces of cargo within what is essentially now an egg are held in place by a surrounding placental diaphram that divides the ovicular orb. The porous walls of the egg lignify, with the appearance of a walnut of Earth. Alongside the discharge of chunks of lochia they are imbedded in, the clutch of eggs is born together into the holding pouch with the embryo cargo, and even endometrium tissue, inside remaining in diapause. The surrounding soft tissue is cleaned away by the mother off the eggs with care, individually lifting them into the mouth for cleaning and placing them back into the holding pouch. By this time it is late summer and night has begun to show its face again.


As the nights become longer the main food supply, sunlight, for the clattered oothecae dwindles. Eventually the light is no more and in the darkness they both freeze and starve. This final life stage, brought on by the night, triggers a cellular response causing lignification throughout their bodies, both females and males. The entire clattered oothecae is converted to wood via stress response, and the entire flock is reduced to a pile of the lifeless stuff with exception of the dormant eggs they carry.


The eggs remain dormant throughout the winter darkness, trehalose sopping throughout the inner tissues prevents freezing damages from the cold. The multiple protective woody layers of the egg and dead mother, in combination with the trehalose, protect the eggs from the dessicating dry air of the winter night as well. The katabatic winter winds of inner Drake formed at Mae Peak and Drake Glacier often cause the piles of bodies to become strewn about the wastelands, tucking them away into catchments and crevices.


Eventually spring rolls around, and sunlight begins to touch the ground again in small amounts. As the light levels increase the warmth that settles across the wooden casing holding the eggs triggers dormancy to break. Those unlucky enough to somehow manage becoming trapped in eternal shadow remain dormant. As metabolic activity resumes in the egg the embryo requires oxygen to grow. The two lymph sacs of the egg were constructed unequally, the one containing the embryo having a single layer wall to protect it, while the one beneath the embryo and placental diaphram has a wall comprised of multiple layers. The inner most layer is mainly comprised of fibrous proteins and saccharides, cells of the mother also exist in this layer primarily around the yolk and survive by metabolizing the trehalose inside the lymph sac when not dormant. Two more outer layers comprised of mostly saccharide fibers allow great protection from bumping into one another while allowing for controlled airflow into the egg. Over winter these layers slowly pull apart due to the dry air, providing an internal exposure to oxygen for the egg.


Clattered Oothecae egg, both outside shell and inside displayed

As dormancy breaks the mother cells in the lower lymph sac begin proliferating around the yolk and digesting it layer by layer into substances free to be absorbed by the placental blood supply above them. The heart in the embryo has already formed, and begins beating. The blood vessels quickly invade into the lower chamber of the egg, absorbing yolk nutrients and available oxygen to feed the growing organism. Once the yolk is depleted, and the lower chamber is nothing more than a thin layer of blood vessels stretched around the enlarged upper cavity, then development is nearly complete, though the summer will be nearly over. The trehalose in the upper chamber comtaining the fetus will have been completely absorbed into the tissues but not metabolized. The fetus will reenter a state of inactivity, a deep torpor, and continue to be in this state until early spring. The trehalose in its tissues will prevent cellular destruction during the cold winter.


In spring the tiny plent will hatch from its egg, burning its trehalose as its first food supply, and push its way out the long dead mouth of its mother. This two year wait period results in population explosions and crashes that makes regular predation difficult due to resource pulses.

You didn't say it's ancestor, you just said it's.

I wasn't sure if you meant ancestor, but that makes the most sense.

Air Sifter Challenge

Organisms entered into this contest have to, whether actively or passively, gather food sifted from the air. What that means specifically, and how to approach it, is up to you.
They don't have to necessarily exist in the atmospheric biomes, there are plenty of things closer to the ground that are available to be sifted.

A real life example of an air sifter are orb weaver spiders.

Entries must be done prior to the end of generation 167, and must be indicated as entries for the contest in their text body or subheading.

Says replaced it's Phoenix grass

Missing a word?