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QUOTE (Coolsteph @ Jan 22 2022, 05:49 PM)

Judging by a quick glance through them, these seem intriguing. I like the diagrams and extra views of them. I spotted a few typos while glancing through one: "overtime" should be "over time", and "vassals" should be "vessels".

Thanks, fixed.
Do any of the Caonach descendants you've been working on grow by river banks? Asking for some hungry Vinegooroons.

Many of them don't have definite habitats yet, so much as particular types of habitats. The Wright Caonach has a ludicrously wide range, so there are a lot of habitat options.

"Starfruit Caonach": Possibly includes a Montane Desert watershed.
"Gelatinous Caonach": Possibly includes savanna watersheds.
"Shade Caonach": Possibly includes rainforest riparian habitats. Planned as a Veinnach descendant, so it won't be available in the first Generation.
"Veinnach": Not presently listed as a riparian dweller in my document, but it makes sense, given its other habitats.

Only a few of them could be released immediately or quickly, though: I had prioritized making some other fairly large flora first. A big chunk of my Caonach ideas are for the Ovi region.

Bundom (Latexamictus limaxdum)
Creator: Jarlaxle
Ancestor: Rainbun
Habitat: Krakow Tropical Rainforest, Krakow Tropical Beach
Size: 12 cm long
Support: Soft-Bodied (Hydrostatic Skeleton), Constructed armor (Rubber)
Diet: Herbivore (Hatted Mycopstume, Ghost Mycostrums, Hexagoleaves, Noodleaves (Juveniles), Tidal Leafstar, Shrub Gazebo (Litter), Krakow Dwarf Gazebo (Litter))
Respiration: Passive-Diffusion
Thermoregulation: Ectotherm
Reproduction: Sexual (male and female, broadcast spawning in nests)

The bundom has split form its ancestor, evolving into herbivores to take advantage of the empty niche, and taking advantage of the newly evolved companions in their environment. While lacking natural defenses or camouflage of their own, they have evolved to instinctively build both. They will wound the rubbery stem of the [[Hatted Mycostume]] and suck in the liquid latex, which they then mix with green plant pulp and regurgitate around their segments, letting the latex coagulate and form rubbery armor pieces that mimic the segments of [[Noodleaves]] in appearance.

Early on, their ancestors responded to the evolution of the [[Hatted Mycostume]] with defenses against blindly swallowing latex and having it coagulate inside their bodies. They evolved a regurgitating instinct, a series of sphincters separating the gut along segment lines, and a horizontal anal cavity with a strong dorsal "butt cheek" that allowed its ancestor to use its weight to grind down and push out stuck rubber pieces. As it evolved to make use of the latex, the first gut chamber stopped absorbing nutrition altogether, instead acting as an esophagus when feeding, and inflating into a relatively air-tight latex chamber during preparations for construction.
The rubber aids in locomotion, providing additional traction, much like rubber tires, and indirectly assists the act of respiration by gulping and pushing air onto the skin in the process of undulation. The armor provides an additional degree of defense from desiccation, as well as predators. When preyed upon, the bundom will tighten the armor pieces together, and when that doesn't work it will strip the armor pieces all together and run away, often leaving a confused predator with an empty rubbery armor piece between its mandibles. Whenever the armor gets lost, broken, worn out or outgrown, they will try to find matching armor pieces or make new ones if none are found.

The outer skin of the counter arms, as the only body parts that are consistently exposed, is covered with small eye spots, each a concentration of exposed light cones, able to navigate color but not quite tell a shape apart. The counter arms have adapted from scraping decayed plant matter to cutting and grinding living plant matter to a pulp, growing thicker and moving to face each other, becoming full mandibles. Their bristles have evolved into primitive keratin covered teeth.
The mouth has evolved into a small proboscises, initially evolved to penetrate the rubber wound of the [[Hatted Mycostume]] and access the latex before it coagulates, it has grown to compensate for the growing counter arms and now acts much like the extruding head of a 3d printer and allows the bundom to shape the rubber the desired artifact, as well as acting as a tongue to take in the insides of the mandibles. The proboscises is covered with chemoreceptors, acting as both taste and smell, often coming up to "lick the air" when in search for food, mates or danger.

During the wet season, they gather in large numbers, fill up on latex and strip their armor. Males will dig mating pools and cover the edge with latex. If it survives the rain and holds in the water, a female will find it suitable to lay her eggs in, which the male will proceed to fertilize. The female will then try to cover it with as much latex as she can, both providing her young with starting material as well as preventing competition from other females for the same nest, while leaving just enough space for water to sip in and oxygenate the eggs. Past a certain point, the male will try to fight her off to leave room for more females to come and lay their eggs in his pool. Due to the violent mating ritual, adults rarely survive long enough to meet the new generation emerging, usually about 3 to 4 weeks after.

This post has been edited by Jarlaxle: Feb 14 2023, 04:17 PM

Spinybun (Biradulus dorsalspina)
Creator: Jarlaxle
Ancestor: Rainbun
Habitat: Krakow Tropical Rainforest, Krakow Tropical Beach, Krakow Tropical Watershed
Size: 6 cm long
Support: Soft-Bodied (Hydrostatic Skeleton)
Diet: Detritivore
Respiration: Passive Diffusion
Thermoregulation: Ectotherm
Reproduction: Sexual (male and female, broadcast spawning in water, eggs)

Spinybuns have split from their ancestors, extending themselves into year-round detritivores. Stemming from the same toothy lineage that produced the [[Bundom]], a mutation has reproduced the toothy extensions of the counter-arm bristles on the main body's gonad coverings. Proving themselves useful defenses, larger "back teeth" were selected for, eventually evolving into long defensive spines. These spines were so successful in deterring predators, that the spinybun has lost most interest in the outside world.
No longer needed as feelers to sense around its environment, the counter arms have further specialized in gathering scraps. Rolling right over the front of the mouth opening, they now work like a pair of radulae, taking turns as one scrap food from the ground below while the other pushes the food into the mouth. If viewed from below, this creates the appearance of having just one extremely fast radula coming in and out of the mouth.
Their body shape has evolved into a flat fusiform, giving room for an extended digestive tract. During the day they will fold their spikes backward and dig themselves under a thin layer of dirt to avoid desiccation. They will erect their spines from under the dirt, as thin tubes around the base of the spines that evolved from their ancestral flaps give them access to above-ground air, as well as collecting basic sensory information such as time of day and weather conditions. During this time they will crawl around and eat whatever useful nutrition is around that spot. If they are hungry and can't find more, they will wait until nighttime, at which point they will emerge from the ground, using chemoreceptors around the spines to find better sources of nutrition during the night, though they will go back underground if they can't find anything by sundown.

They mate during the wet season, lowering their spikes into water sources and spawning their gametes out of their spine-tubes, produced by a pair of gonads placed directly under the spikes in each section of the body.

This post has been edited by Jarlaxle: Feb 14 2023, 04:18 PM

Name: Marajooaney (Fructiradix francisus)
Creator: Lightvsdark777
Ancestor: [[Frootbunch]]
Habitat: [[Glicker Monsoon Forest]], [[Glicker Tropical Rainforest]], [[Glicker Cloud Forest]], [[Termite Tropical Rainforest]], [[Termite Cloud Forest]], [[Cube Swamp]], [[Bot Swamp]]
Size: 50 cm tall crystal, 1 m tall fruiting body
Support: Cell Wall
Diet: Photosynthesis, Detritivore
Respiration: Passive (Stomata)
Thermoregulation: Ectotherm
Reproduction: Sexual (subterranean water-borne spores), Asexual (budding from roots)


In the wake of the mass extinction that affected almost all life on Sagan 4, numerous niches were left open for species to exploit. With a vast majority of the tall crystal flora wiped out, smaller flora could grow taller and taller. One such species of flora is the marajooaney, a descendant of the frootbunch that has doubled in height in response to the lack of competition.

The marajooaney thrives in particularly moist areas, making it a common sight in its range. While most of its population is on Glicker, an isolated population of marajooaney dwells on Termite Island, towering over the rest of the flora, among them including their own ancestors. The answer as to why both it and its ancestor are here lies in a chance occurrance where some spardiflies ate the corpses of large herbivores that ate the marajooaney and the frootbunch. As they ate, these spardiflies accidentally consumed the seeds in the herbivore's gut. While many of these spardiflies excreted the seeds on Glicker or died when it became clogged in their intestines, some spardiflies flew to Termite Island, where they excreted the seeds or died with clogged intestines thanks to the seeds. When the seeds germinated, they found themselves in an environment with very little competition aside from their ancestors. As a result, the marajooaney and the frootbunch completely blanket the inland regions of Termite Island.

Aside from the difference in height, one notable difference in comparison to its ancestor is the main crystalline body. The main body of this crystal flora has much more chlorophyll than its ancestor, causing it to take on a stronger green tint. The marajooaney's fruit has also changed, becoming capable of fostering more berries than its ancestor, and as a result, more seeds. The fruit's "berries" now vary in size to allow smaller fauna to take and eat the berries. The fruit's colors and smell have become more pronounced, with a single individual often being smelled before it is seen. The smell now appeals to not just small arthrotheres, but to herbivores of various sizes, which readily gorge on its fruits.

Another interesting adaptation it has obtained is a developmental indicator in its berries. This feature is present so that any of its underdeveloped seeds are not eaten prematurely. When a marajooaney's fruit first develops, all of its berries are a pale yellow color. At this stage, all of its berries have an extremely bitter taste that deters fauna from eating them. However, when observed over time, its berries will change color from the ground up, slowly turning a deep shade of red. Berries at the bottom of a fruit turn red the quickest as a result of smaller fauna eating them first. Eventually, every last berry on a marajooaney will be "ripe", with their seeds fully developed. These fully developed berries taste extremely sweet and have a single crystal seed at the very center. Aside from these various changes, it is not too far removed from its ancestor.

Mutations

Aside from various minor mutations such as two crystal seeds in one berry, two mutations in the marajooaney are more noticeable. On occasion, one individual can grow two seperate fruits. Though the doubled fruits of these "orthrus" marajooaney are most commonly seperate, some abberant examples of the mutation range from two fruits growing from the same stalk to small, vestigial and inedible fruits growing from the main crystal body. Fruits that sprout from the main crystal body carry no seeds whatsoever.

On very, very rare occasions (1 out of every 20,000,000), a marajooaney's crystal seed will develop either fused to another seed or have a small twin seed sticking out of it at an odd angle. If these seeds manage to sprout, the end result is a "janus" marajooaney. These particular individuals have main bodies that are merged with the main body of a seperate individual that developed in the seed, with the appearance of the "twin" ranging from a small outgrowth on the side of the main body to two seperate main bodies merged together at one of their faces. Despite what one might think at first, the twin is not a seperate individual and is a part of the individual, with these rare mutants living out their lives normally.

Honorable Crownworm (Regalis unicornis)
Creator: Jarlaxle
Ancestor: Bouffant Knightworms
Habitat: Krakow Tropical Rainforest, Krakow Tropical Beach
Size: 3 cm long
Support: Exoskeleton (Chitin)
Diet: Herbivore (Honorable Crown Mycostrum, Hatted Mycostume, Ghost Mycostrums, Redcap Mycostrums)
Respiration: Passive (Tracheae)
Thermoregulation: Heterotherm
Reproduction: Sexual, eusocial (Dutchess/Duke, Externally Fertilized Eggs)

Emanating from the most matrimonial pious and chaste of Bouffant Knightworm bloodlines, their chivalrous ancestors in their noble highness have ballooned their way to the untamed Isle of Krakow on the threads of their mycostrum capes. Recently cleared of its thick vegetation through the strife afflicting the world's flora, it proved a familiar domain ripe for the taking, and so they did, bringing peace and tranquility upon the feral land.

It was during this time that they adorned their earliest of horns, bringing the excessiveness of their armor to their brow to better feed their mycostrum crowns, becoming the '"Honorable Crownworms''.
It was during the time of colonization that they first raised themselves on their 8 legs, chosen for reaching further into the unconquered land and escaping its perils.

Alas, the peace was not to last. Soon the land was known, and the journeys across the land were not as long, so the neighbors grew closer, the nests more populous, and the noble families grew restless. Trouble was brewing under the mycostrum shroud, and only the most fertile would prevail.
To allow for the growing matrimonial demands of their elders and to feed the hunger of their kin, the noblest of youth would spend longer in service of the royal house, taking on whatever duties their growing physique allowed. Over the eons, these evolved into 6 distinct stages of life, each mastering a particular task, each serving in their splendid capacity as their own caste.

==Stages of life ==

Click to expand

(Alignment left of texts)
(Captions: Lifecycle)

[*] ''Larva:'' While not quite a working caste, the mastery of its role should not be underestimated. Evolving to ease its cost on its noble dutchess, it hatches completely limbless, with rings in their place, separated by the locations of future joints, each ready to grow into a segment like a garment worn by the growth of flash underneath.

[*] ''Nannyworm:'' Once gaining the basic abilities to walk, navigate the world and carry objects, it will start taking care of its eggs and young siblings, as the little brats might as well be helpless eggs with mouths, they depend on the nanny to feed and carry them '(Caretaker, Nurse)'.

[*] ''Plebworm:'' Expanding its ancestral antennas 5 branches and taking its first mycostrum crown around a bobbin-like horn, it will start to use its antennae like a loom, moving its antennae back and forth to create different weavers for different uses. Its spindly legs will likewise grow branches, used as hooks to climb between mycostrum strands '(Mycostrum farmer, Tent construction worker)'.

[*] ''Crusaderworm:'' thickening and compressing together its antennae branches, it wields them like axes, cutting pieces of redcap or anything else it might find useful and carrying them against its bulbous hooked horn, both of which will also be used for fighting. Its smaller mycostrum crown is used as a rappelling rope or hauling rope to rally its hauling capacity. Its legs are sturdier, using their thick hooks to climb difficult surfaces ''(Forager, Warrior)''.

[*] ''Countworm:' By Expanding the branches of its antennae in both directions, much like the legs, and compressing together the hooks on its legs into a flat surface, much like its antennae, it can use all its limbs as shovels. With 10 shovels and a thick horn to crack or nudge harder obstacles, it is an expert digger, using its mycostrum crown as a rappelling rope ''(Digger, Diplomatic card, Colonizer)''.

[*] ''Dutchworm/Dukeworm:'' The female and male form of the adult breeding caste, they've evolved to withstand and repel the onslaught of invasions and rebellions their position will attract. Their antennae branches inflate and compress into exoskeleton cracking wracking balls. Their shovel legs expand into full shields, buying them time as they turn to attack. They are mainly differentiated by the larger size of the female and her proportionally large abdomen for laying eggs in mass ''(Breeders, Matriarch, Patriarch)''.


(Caption: Physical development)


(Caption: size ranges)


==Vermpublic==

The vast majority of the loyal subjects in the nest, more formally known as a Vermpublic, will spend most of their lives as plebs and fall as noble crusaders. A small portion will survive to live as counts, whose dangerous proximity to the treacherous breeding age can be delayed by making use of them in the low-oxygen underground tunnels.
The potential heirs to the great houses need constant and sometimes fatal policing, as they lack any pheromonal suppressors of reproductive capacity, and at other times they'll rebel successfully against the graceful royal couple, taking their place and finding a new mate among the other families, or escape the tunnels to find mates in the wild. Despite their disposition, without them, a noble house will surely fall.

The most important use of counts is as Diplomatic cards, as matrimony between great houses releases the jolliest of scents, reinforcing the sanctity of cooperation.

The newly mated pair will leave together, attempting to join or form new colonies, where they can use their flat leg and antenna surfaces o help guide the majestic fall while ballooning, dig down a new borrow, restore an abandoned one, and even act as their nannies as they start breeding before the transformation into duke and dutchess.
Together, their graces will lead to a new royal nest, coming together with other noble families to form a most Serene Vermpublic. They will strike new trade deals, exchange favors, betray, backstab, and rise to power.

Crucially, not a single member of the royal family will ever smudge their consciousness with such improper thoughts, rather it is in the gestalt of the family and the physical structure of the noble house, as a map of long-lasting pheromones acts not as just as signage, but as a political and logistical map of associations, reinforcements, and even crude chemical logic gates.

With the embedded intelligence, they will dig hatcheries, raise walls and family mounds, and deploy mycostrum tents as photosynthetic farms, raising the most glorious Vermpublics.


(Caption: The most serene and [[Honorable Crown Mycostrum]] Vermpublic)

In the last million years, a new construction material has been favored. Their forefathers brought forth the ratchet [[Hatted Mycostume]] and its evil latex defense, and many honorable crusaders have fallen victim to its binding doom. The evolution of the most magnificent[[Bundom]] beast has left a constant supply of rubber armor rolls. The most honorable [[Crown Mycostrum]] has evolved to make use of it, and turn it into a mixture of fatty acids to strengthen sediments and accelerate the growth of youngling.

The most honorable of graces are otherwise much like their noble ancestors, with a soft meaty core and a hard chitin extruding exoskeleton, and proper and pious external mating.

This post has been edited by Jarlaxle: Feb 14 2023, 04:36 PM

I want to thank ahead of time the most gracious and honorable of mods for allowing me to use this image for the main species page, which is technically within the bounds of the rules, and also on a unrelated note I am posting this on my birthday. just sayin'.

This post has been edited by Papainmanis: Feb 13 2022, 11:01 AM

Honorable Crown Mycostrum (Latexivora proteus)
Creator: Jarlaxle
Ancestor: Bouffant Mycostrum
Habitat: Krakow Tropical Rainforest, Krakow Tropical Beach
Size: up to 120 cm long (Sheet/Balloon Form), 2 m tall (Wall form), 5 mm long (Crown Form)
Support: Mycelium Fibers
Diet: Photosynthesis, Detritivore, Mutualist (Honorable Crownworm), Latexivore
Respiration: Passive Diffusion
Thermoregulation: Ectotherm
Reproduction: Asexual (Budding), Sexual (Conjugation)

Having ballooned to Krakow Island along with its symbiont, the most Honorable Crown Mycostrum evolved on top of its most useful Honorable Crownworm mount to make the most of its new domain.


(Caption: Ballooning Crown Mycostrum and its Crownworm)

In response to the increase in rain and stormy weather in the new habitat, it has developed weather sensitivity to temperature moisture levels and electric charge in the air, utilizing thin strands to sample the air before ballooning to avoid being rained on mid-flight and make use of static electricity in the air to help their flight, which it will communicate to its steed by using by releasing a distinct scent. This decreases the number of fallen, but has also increased the isolation on the island, as few would take the chance of flight in the very same stormy conditions that would carry them far away.

As the crownworm stables became increasingly eusocial, the chemical communication between them and their honorable mycostrum riders became increasingly particular, with different signals for different forms, starting at different ages. Indeed, one of the signals was that of a young nannyworm ready to get the first crown. Plebworms have the richest diversity of signals, with combination gradients helping guide strands toward degrees of thread density. Countworms are particularly receptive to the signal commanding them to find their crown a match with which to mate, and they might mate with the other crown's mount as well.


(caption: Honorable Crown Mycostrum eating Bundom rubber armor)

Yet the biggest opportunity was still to come, as the majestic [[Bundom]] started leaving rolls of rounded rubber in various sizes for various ages, the crownworm started taking it as a building material, embedding it in the supporting walls of the nests among the mycostrum threads. Over generations, the crown mycostrum in its infinite majesty has solved the mystery of digesting it, breaking it down into orange fatty acids, much like certain mycelial bacteria of the Micromonospora family from another time and place. The fatty acids are used as a binding agent with which to strengthen the walls, grow more mycostrum, and even accelerate the growth of crownworms when the tasks left for older crownworms were left undone. With this new building material and social structure, the nests took a new form, building towers of rubber tires in mycostrum oil and mud and laying sheets of fibers to dine on the sunlight, creating the distinctive tent citadel appearance.

This post has been edited by Jarlaxle: Feb 14 2023, 04:38 PM

"In response to the increase rain and stormy weather"
"increase in", you mean?

"glorious mycostrum" Unless that's a species literally named that, I recommend re-phrasing it. The other unusual phrasing is poetic and formal, but not too fanciful or unscientific.

"nannyworm"?

"legendary feat" I recommend not using that. "wisdom" I strongly advise against using that, except perhaps in the most intelligent of fauna to poetically refer to the experience of older individuals.

----

There are some it's/its errors in the Honorable Crownworm description.


There are likely other things I could grant feedback on, but I prefer to do so when they are released onto the submissions subforum.

QUOTE (Coolsteph @ Feb 16 2022, 01:11 AM)

"In response to the increase rain and stormy weather" "increase in", you mean? "glorious mycostrum" Unless that's a species literally named that, I recommend re-phrasing it. The other unusual phrasing is poetic and formal, but not too fanciful or unscientific. "legendary feat" I recommend not using that. "wisdom" I strongly advise against using that, except perhaps in the most intelligent of fauna to poetically refer to the experience of older individuals. ---- There are some it's/its errors in the Honorable Crownworm description.

TY, Fixed.

QUOTE (Coolsteph @ Feb 16 2022, 01:11 AM)

"nannyworm"?

For that caste I've considered governess, nursemaiden, nurse, maid, babysitter, aupair...Settled on nanny because it still invokes a class system and even though its traditionally female I've seen people use it to refer to their male nanny, and they don't develop sexual dimorphism until the Duke/Dutchess stage.

QUOTE (Coolsteph @ Feb 16 2022, 01:11 AM)

There are likely other things I could grant feedback on, but I prefer to do so when they are released onto the submissions subforum.

That would be a glorious and majestic thing to say just as you were about to announce the opening of the new week

This post has been edited by Papainmanis: Feb 15 2022, 09:46 PM

Shining Redrum (Acusosis cacasalvatora)
Creator: Jarlaxle
Ancestor: Jocklit
Habitat: Adult; Raptor River, Raptor Temperate Watershed, Rose Subtropical Watershed, Banelord River, Banelord Subtropical Watershed, Dixon-Fermi Southern Temperate Watershed, Leopard Temperate Watershed, Bubbles River, Bubbles Subtropical Watershed, Ofan River, Ofan Subtropical Watershed, Barlowe-LadyM Temperate Watershed; Larvae; LadyM Daylight Zone
Size: 4 cm tall (Adult), 8 mm long (Larvae)
Support: Needlebone
Diet: Detritivore, Filter-Feeder
Respiration: Passive Diffusion
Thermoregulation: Light Reflecting scales
Reproduction: Adult; Asexual (Budding, Fragmentation)
Larvae; Sexual (Broadcast Spawning)

It's autumn, and right on time, the rivers will flow red. On closer examination of the water, it becomes possible to see the roves of tiny swimmers, their dorsal sides are covered with shiny copper-colored scales but for a grey metallic needle along the center, in stark contrast to their white ventral side. They seem to be a tad wider than they are tall, giving them a leafy appearance, with two bulbous heads hanging over a large mouth, and multiple orifices lining the very edge of the leaf.

Long ago, a lineage of Jocklit Larvae developed pores on top of the nephridia, allowing them to expel more of their waste from pores on their dorsal side, delaying the accumulation of waste in the front and increasing the efficiency of their feeding. As it turned out, certain wastes from their mineral-rich diet proved most beneficial precisely when they failed to be expelled completely, leading to specialized nephridia with specialized areas of pores:
[*] All along the back, shiny reddish scales of copper with trace amounts of silver and aluminum, form a reflective surface protecting it from UV rays, which allowed their ancestors to rise to the sunlit areas without being damaged.
[*] Along the middle of its back one can see a visible grey metallic needle, a mixture of processed proteins and iron that results in a springy high carbon-steel alloy, forming its needle bones. Those aid in energy storage as well as in locomotion efficiency, as the muscles pull on the spring to continue the angulation of the body, enabling them to swim upstream and even jump small waterfalls, allowing them to spread in rivers and watersheds.
[*] On the edge of its ventral mantle, multiple pores serve for waste disposal, in effect providing it with a nearly unidirectional digestive system, though divided by waste products.
To support their river-bound lifestyle, their bulbous antennae gonads now include a mixture of chemoreceptors, mechanoreceptors, photoreceptors, and electroreceptors.

Once an obscure creature in the deep, now a visible force of nature painting the seasonal landscape. Every autumn the newborn larvae flow downs the rivers and out of watersheds, breaking out of estuaries into the big oceans, following the food, and splitting in as many directions as they can, using the colder climate to avoid alloy degradation as well as competition and predation by organisms that are more active during the warmer seasons. Occasionally they'll start to create the appearance of red tides in the middle of the ocean surface. Large congregations near the surface are made of many hollow "breeding balls" in which they exchange gametes. As the winter solstice approaches those become increasingly more frequent.
As the weather gets warmer, they'll get larger and start shedding their red-tinted copper scales in favor of lighter shinier shades, prioritizing extracting traces of silver and aluminum through the scale pores. Come springtime, they'll be making their way back to the coasts and estuaries. They'll make use of their vertically angulating spring-like needle bone to jump every waterfall and cross the shallowest of areas, swimming upstream in rivers, though the many that will fall into watersheds will be happy to make it their home if they find a good spot. Along the path, they will use their bulbous sensory antennae to touch and "taste" the sediments and rocks of the river, seeking mineral deposits rich in iron, magnetite, and other useful deposits.

Once they find a good spot, they will attach themselves using their antennae and mouth and begin their transformation. They will lose most of their nervous system and their nutrient ducts will extend into a holdfast, though they will retain and continue to grow their metallic scales out of aluminum and silver, better suited for reflecting high sunlight and withstanding the heat, and in some cases allowing them to survive low tide. The adult form is more detritivorous than that of their ancestor, using gluconic and oxalic acids to bioleach iron and other useful minerals from the sediments, a process which is aided by the heat during the warm seasons. They will continue to use their nephridia pours to expel waste products, as the bioleaching process tends to result in large quantities of useless chemicals, such as vanadium.

As the midsummer passes, they will start growing out fonds, growing each proto-larva on a large scale. They will hold onto their fonds until autumn, when they'll start using pheromone exchanges down the rivers to coordinate, releasing their larvae all together and all at once in a yearly event known as the autumn redrum, increasing the chance that some will make it as they swim down the red flowing river. The Holdfast will remain in place, leaching and storing the minerals in the hopes of growing a larger fond next year.

This post has been edited by Jarlaxle: Feb 14 2023, 04:24 PM

Dragnt Spardyvern (Draculum maculaviridi)
Creator: Jarlaxle
Ancestor: Long-Footed Spardi
Habitat: Krakow Tropical Rainforest, Krakow Tropical Beach
Size: 18 cm long
Support: Endoskeleton (Bone)
Diet: Herbivore (Honorable Crown Mycostrum, Ghost Mycostrums, Redcap Mycostrums)
Respiration: Active (Lungs)
Thermoregulation: Heterotherm (Basking, Muscle-Generated Heat)
Reproduction: Sexual (male and female, live birth)

The [[Honorable Crownworm]]s were fleeing underground in terror as its winged shadow loomed over their Vermpublic nest, a fountain of toxic spit shot through the air, and any crownworm not hit by the stream spit itself did its best to escape the toxic fumes that emerged from it, making their way through the rubble as sheets of [[Honorable Crownworm Mycostrum]] were torn out of place, mycostrum silk bridges collapsed and ballooning refugees where caught out of the air. Satisfied with its share of destruction, the ''Dragnt Spardyvern'' left, leaving the Vermpublic to rebuild before it will strike again.

It didn't always use to be like that. When the Dragnt Spardyvern's ancestor first made its way to Krakow and split from the [[Long-Footed Spardi]], easily accessible sources of mycostrum on the island where scarce, and it had to use its awkward burrow digging skills to dig underneath the fruiting bodies of [[Ghost Mycostrums]] to get a full meal, or accessing the subterranean mycelial networks of [[Redcap Mycostrums]], building up a degree of tolerance to their poison when eaten in small chunks, experiencing it as spicy. An excellent memory was quickly selected, allowing it to memorize large maps of ghost mycostrum locations even when they were not creating fruiting bodies. It has evolved a flattened shovel-like snout to help its digging, and by extending the secondary sliding blade bones of its lateral mandibles into its mouth, it was able to increase its grip and hold them in place when facing them forward to aid in shoveling dirt while digging a burrow or in search of food.
Still needing to spend most of their time basking in the sun to warm up their wings, and lacking large fauna to hide on, they would use their evolving toxic tolerance to find rest where others will usually stay away, namely mats of [[Hexagoleaves]], who's honeycomb pattern it has adopted as camouflage. It has developed two large mucus glands on its vertical mandibles, one ventral, and one dorsal, each forming the center of a triangle between the nostrils and mandibles, capturing absorbed toxic fumes absorbed along the nostrils and mouth, allowing it to sneeze and spit the accumulated toxins. With the arrival of the Crownworms and their Mycostrum nests on the island, all of these adaptations took a new turn, coming together for the single purpose of assaulting these castles for their delicious building materials.


(Captions: toxic spit collection and squirting mechanism)

Using the accumulated toxin in its spit to fumigate areas of the nest and avoid the painful axes of their crusaderworms, is it able to secure portions of mycostrum. It has developed its mouth to actively collect toxins, resting with its mouth open, with mucus excreted from an orifice under the mucus gland between its nostrils, collecting toxic fumes and dripping down the dorsal collector pads and into the ventral oral moats, where they get absorbed into two spongy ventral pads at the back of its cheeks. When it's ready to shoot, it will push its secondary sliding blade bones of its lateral mandibles into its toxin sponges, releasing accumulated toxin spit and folding its tongue in the process to push it into a strong squirt. Muscles in the edge of the tongue allow it to further control its spread and target area, and the shape of the teeth, while flattened to masticate mycotstrum weaves on top, have sharp edges towards the center of the mouth to direct the flow while using its semi-transparent nictitating membrane to protect its eyes from mid-flight backsplash.

Depending on how successful the raid is, it will either fly off with whatever it can take or perch on the buildings to feed before taking more for its young, using the same lateral mandible blade bones to hold onto large chunks of mycostrum in its cheeks to bring home for its young, which will unavoidably get some toxins around them from the pads and help the young build their resistance.
When not shooting or holding food, it will rest its lateral mandibles upwards with the sliding blade outside of its mouth, giving them the appearance of horns.

Despite its aggressive raids, it is still an herbivore, and while there are always casualties in war, it will generally refrain from harming the crownworms themselves, preferring to let them rebuild nests and build new nests in its territory. It uses its excellent memory to remember numerous hive locations, the time since they were last attacked, and their state of disrepair.
This process requires relatively large territories, leading to dispersed populations. To overcome the distances, they will seek out mates in the sky, seeking each other out during the mating season and performing elaborate aerial acrobatics as a mating display, though they are only able to do so for a relatively short time, as their wings can be characterized as dexterous but low on stamina. Once mated, the male will either seek more females or go back to its territory, while the female will dig a larger burrow to give live birth in.

Increasingly more active on ground level, its hind foot gradually regained functionality, from using its toes to get a better grip on the ground while digging, all the way to walking running, and hopping. By growing the 1st and 3rd bones into a muscular secondary femur and tibia and arching its short but dense 2nd bone between them, it can use all 3 limbs to hop into the air, moving from rest to flight in one quick vertical swoop. To be able to do that when pregnant without kicking their developing young when jumping, females developed a heart-shaped womb that splits the litter into two main regions, giving their backside the shallow resemblance to a bubble butt when pregnant.

This post has been edited by Jarlaxle: Feb 14 2023, 04:26 PM

Tootsy Nibbler (Tentacularipodia pesictus)
Creator: Jarlaxle
Ancestor: Toothgrip Bristlebunny
Habitat: Krakow Tropical Beach, Hydro-krakow Tropical Coast, Hydro Tropical Beach, Hydro-Flisch Reef
Size: 4 cm long
Support: Soft-Bodied (Muscular Hydrostat)
Diet: Carnivore (Filterbunnies, Bristlebunnies, Rainbun, Warmbuns, Grapplebuns, Flatbuns, Lurkroufos, Vinacrawlers (Juveniles), Immortazmenian Bunvil (Larva), Bundom (Larva), Spinybun (Larva))
Respiration: Passive Diffusion (Skin-Breathing)
Thermoregulation: Ectotherm
Reproduction: Sexual (male and female, broadcast spawning in water, eggs)

The ''Tootsy Nibbler'' has split from its ancestor when some [[Toothgrip Bristlebunny]] eggs made their way back into salt water. Taking advantage of its relatively flat form to hide under the sand, it evolved into a successful ambush hunter. Spreading along the beaches and coasts from Krakow to Hydro. By extending the gastropod-like foot under the nubs of its anal arm, it was able to form little proto-tentacle nubs all along its body, allowing it to quickly wiggle its way under the sand, and aid it in making its way across the difficult and uneven terrain of the coastal benthic zone.

While the bristles around the nubs provide very little in the way of additional traction for locomotion, they take a major role in its hunting strategy, as each bristle is tied to sensitive mechanoreceptors that sense vibrations in the sand and water above it is hiding under the sand. The nerves go through a local neural cluster around proprioceptors local to each nub, used to filter out sensory input resulting from the motion of the tentacle itself to avoid confusion and sensory overload, where they meet in a central ganglion between the eyes.

The eyes themselves stick above the sand and have a rudimentary lens, protecting against the elements while providing a bit of optical focus. While not quite an eyelid, slight muscles in the "lip" above the eye are used to keep it clean and squeeze out dust particles. When sensing anything above it, it will use its tentacles to leap out of the sand and its counter arms to grab it. Its eyesight lacks object recognition, and so it will try to bite nearly anything, only letting go once the chemoreceptors around its tooth counter arm nubs taste something that has proven unyielding in the past, and even then it is quite slow to relent, providing it with its infamous namesake.

While it still breaths through its entire skin, additional oxygen intake is concentrated along dorsal "vents", acting as gills in practice as they are more likely to be exposed while the rest of the body is under the sediment, though not technically gills due to the open circulatory system. It spawns consistently on a nightly basis, resulting in millions of eggs spreading throughout the year, despite the low survival rate it's enough to promise all who'd dare a potentially very unpleasant stroll along the beach.

This post has been edited by Jarlaxle: Feb 14 2023, 04:28 PM

Updated the diets with pending submissions to make it easier to see once the generation starts.

I believe other people are working on krakow Lunger descendants, and so as long as there will be some predators that can eat animals in the 10-20 cm range (to justify the defenses), the Krakow restoration project should be ready to go.

I encourage anyone to add to that, and if you happen to be making a Krakow predator that fits the requirement of being able to catch and eat 10-20 cm range animals, please include the Bunvil and the Dragnt Spardyvern in their diet.

This post has been edited by Papainmanis: Mar 3 2022, 05:39 PM

Kinble (Flumencopia bullavillus)
Creator: Jarlaxle
Ancestor: Gillking
Habitat: Vailnoff Twilight Zone, North Subtropical Vailnoff Ocean, South Subtropical Vailnoff Ocean, Talon-Orpington Tropical Sea, Dixon-Fermi Subtropical Sea, West Ovi Subtropical Coast, West Dixon Subtropical Coast, East Orpington Subtropical Coast
Size: 1 cm Hexagonal Zooids, 3 cm Pentagonal zooids, 6 cm to 3 m Zoon
Support: Soft-Bodied (Hydrostatic Skeleton)
Diet: Filter-Feeding
Respiration: Passive (External Gills)
Thermoregulation: Ectotherm
Reproduction: Sexual (male & female, broadcast spawning, live birth)

The Kinble has split from its Gillking ancestor, expanding its habitat West of Vailnoff Ocean. By re-evolving an internal separation of skin, muscle, and gut tissue that their ancestors have previously lost, adapting the skin oils and muscle tissue along the anal fingers to transfer nutrition and oxygen, they were able to roll and fold their digestive system. Beyond making better use of nutrition, it has enabled them to evolve the shorter and stockier variety which was ultimately able to bring the gill arms and anal fingers into the same plain. As the gill arms were already adapted to absorbing nutrition, whenever the anal fingers accidentally reached their neighbor's gills instead of merging anal finger to anal finger, they were able to have a healthier flow of nutrition from the anal fingers output to the gills input.

They now form a continuous intersecting weave, growing their gill branches in a cup-like shape to hold onto and fuse with their neighbor's bulbous anal fingers, allowing them to efficiently share nutrition and oxygen across the colony. With 12 exceptions, each zooid will form a hexagon, made of 3 input cups and 3 output bulbs. In the attempt to create a sphere, they form Goldberg polyhedron, which means they will consistently have 12 pentagonal members, known as foundlings, each with a free connection, 6 with a free gill arm that grows outwards from the colonial bubble to add to the overall oxygen supply of the colony, and 6 with a free anal finger that grows inwards, storing supplies and acting as feeders for newborns, who will spend more time within the colony and differentiating the anal arm before joining.

Like their ancestors, males will constantly spray gametes, where most will make their way to the female's reproductive organs, which will constantly give live birth to new members within the colony. When two mature colonies meet each other, the colonies will contract and expand in rhythm and attempt to follow each other in circles, and exchange their gametes in the process of their mating dance. Unlike their ancestor, the resulting brood will be maintained as distinct from the rest of the colony, coming together around one of the feeders. When ready, they will meet outside of the colony and form the colonial juvenile form, each made of 12 pentagonal foundings forming a dodecahedron.

To better coordinate mating and overall locomotion, they've evolved their eyes to gather internal and external visual cues. Evolving from inverted pigment cups, the eyes have expanded further laterally and inverted inwards from the anterior and posterior ends, practically separating into 4 simple cup eyes, a front-facing pair outside of the colony and a back-facing pair towards the center of the colony. This allows them to instantly respond to a motion beginning at the opposite end of the colony, a reaction made faster through the use of color cones in the eyes and colored underbellies. While not easily seen outside of the colony they form a distinct contrast inside the colony.

This post has been edited by Jarlaxle: Feb 14 2023, 04:30 PM