I've mentioned it a couple times before, but I'll mention it here too so it can promote further discussion: I don't really like how the submission name is implemented into the image here. The large size of the text is distracting, and the overly-stylized, mixed capitalization, likely dyslexia-unfriendly font doesn't help.


I don't have anything to say yet about the submission itself, other than that it looks a little bit like some of Jarlaxle's ideas for the lineage. It kind of looks liek a mix between a hairless mammal and a velvet worm.

theres a typo in one of the zorcuspine habitats (you put an extra letter u)

Name: Lutolisk (Parasiluro reptolimus)
Creator: Cube67
Ancestor: Scarletshell Sandhopper
Habitat: Cube Tropical Watershed, Glicker-Rhino Tropical Watershed, Bot Tropical Watershed, Glicker-LadyM Tropical Watershed, Cube Swamp, Bot Swamp, Glicker Tropical Rainforest
Size: 38 cm
Support: Exoskeleton (Bone shielded by keratin)
Diet: Adults: Carnivore (Mattebelly, Fluterump, Villati, Common Namnder, Strontode); Larvae: Scavenger, Detritivore
Respiration: Active (Unidirectional lungs)
Thermoregulation: Ectothermic
Reproduction: Sexual (Oviparous, 2 sexes, Internal fertilization)


Finding themselves in a strange new environment, the sandhoppers of Glicker were forced to adapt rapidly. Within only a short amount of time, one population of them began to deviate relatively quickly from the ancestral form. The result of this, while not particularly different from its ancestor genetically, may be one of the most strange-looking organisms to date on Sagan 4: the Lutolisk.

Physical Adaptations

In order to better serve as a proper walking lumb, the lutolisk’s frontmost pseudo-toe has hypertrophied into a long spike, allowing it to pull itself across dry land and riverbed alike. In order to facilitate this mode of locomotion, a new exoskeletal plate has evolved on the bottom of its caudal fin, forming a bony “sled”. This feature has a similar genetic basis to the small bony knob on the end of the grovestalker’s tail fin, with its curved shape serving to keep its precious reproductive-tied anal fin from scraping on the ground. Additionally, the tail has truncated significantly in order to further reduce friction with the ground. This also has the positive side effect of reducing the amount of bare skin on its body, meaning that it doesn’t dry out quite as quickly. However, the adult lutolisk’s strange body shape and rigid exoskeleton makes it a poor swimmer, so when they are fully submerged underwater they usually just crawl around on the bottom. Their torso is roughly barrel-shaped (except slightly laterally compressed), with a somewhat flatter area on the underside.

To suit their slightly more terrestrial lifestyle, lutolisks’ lung chambers have become larger and more vascularized, albeit with a smaller external plate. Though their gills may atrophy away as they age, lutolisks retain large gill chambers into adulthood, which now store additional air much like a Terran bird’s air sacs. As with the scarletshell sandhopper, the gill chambers (or, in this case, air sacs) are connected to the dorsal lung. Also like their ancestors, lutolisks retain two pairs of chamber openings nestled between the lung plate and thoracic bone. However, unlike their ancestors, all of these openings are primarily used for exhalation, while the nostrils are used for inhalation. This innovation allows lutolisks to breathe unidirectionally, much like their grovestalker kin.

Hunting and Feeding

Because of its cold-bloodedness and somewhat awkward, jerky locomotion, the lutolisk is primarily an ambush predator. Its purple-and-black-striped shell helps it blend in with stands of purpleflora, concealing it from its favored prey: terrestrial carpolantaians. When an ill-fated carpolantaian (or a small namnder, which are similarly soft-bodied) comes too close, the lutolisk quickly grabs it with its tentacles, using its sharp teeth to puncture and hold onto its prey. If the prey is too large to swallow whole, the lutolisk will use its firm grip to dismember it. While the lutolisk’s gut is slightly more specialized for its diet, it does not differ too much from its ancestor’s, mainly because their ancestors already had a diet consisting of fully and partially soft-bodied prey, including aquatic carpolantaians.

Behavior and Perception

Lutolisks are solitary, only ever spending time around each other in order to mate. While lutolisks do not have defined territories, they are usually aggressive towards other members of their species as adults, especially if they are of the same sex. If two lutolisks do encounter each other in the wild, they will spread out their tentacles and slowly wave them around, intimidating each other with their sharp teeth until one of them retreats. This is used as a warning signal in order to avoid further conflict, comparable to baboons baring their teeth, cats arching their back, or iguanas bobbing their head when threatened.

This species doesn’t really burrow anymore, but do partially conceal themselves in mud or sand when there isn’t many purpleflora to hide in (or if the only kind around is purple spheres, which it does coincidentally resemble when only its knees, eyes, and lung are sticking out).

The lutolisk has vertical slit-shaped pupils, giving it highly motion-sensitive vision. Its color vision is only mediocre, being most sensitive in the red range in order to discern its blue prey from surrounding purple flora. It is also able to quickly discern between dull and glossy surfaces, so that it does not get lost in patches of crystal flora where it is most visible. Lutolisks’ eyes are placed high up on their heads and are angled slightly forwards, allowing it to get a good look at its prey and not have its vision be obscured by its legs. Lutolisks have an excellent sense of smell, using it as their primary means of detecting prey and predators from afar. This is to compensate for their lack of ears, as the only way the lutolisk is able to ‘hear’ is by detecting vibrations in the ground using its tail bone.

Life Cycle

Like their ancestors, the lutolisk is still bound to the water by its reproduction, although due to improved osmoregulation they are now able to have their offspring in brackish and freshwater. They mate belly-to-belly, partially or mostly submerged in water. The female lays many small eggs into a small depression underwater and then covers them with a small pile of sand using her tail. The larvae initially look like a slightly rounder and more truncated version of their ancestors’ larvae. Like the larvae of other amphibious siluros, lutolisk larvae have a dorsal lung, but it’s small and filled with water from the gill chambers. As in their ancestors, the larvae take time to develop their exoskeleton. Only when their shell is partially grown do they start showing the signature traits of a lutolisk: their front finger starts to elongate, their tail shortens even more, and their lung plate takes on a slightly conical shape. It is during this stage that they stop swimming as much and begin to switch to a lifestyle resembling that of their adults, although they are not considered fully mature until they stop eating carrion and grow twofold from there to reach their full size. Lutolisks can live for around 20 years but usually die before they reach that age.

(Supplementary image of head)

(Sketch of isometric and front views for the gallery)



POST-SUBMISSION NOTE: this thing is supposed to camouflage within stands of Stellafrutex so maybe approve that first

Name: Stellafrutex (Stellafrutex spp.)
Creator: Cube67
Ancestor: Purpleblade
Habitat: Glicker, Glicker Freshwater
Size: 30-50 cm (excluding inflorescence)
Support: Cell wall (cellulose)
Diet: Photosynthesis
Respiration: Passive (stomata)
Thermoregulation: Ectotherm
Reproduction: Sexual (2 sexes, gamete spores, monoecious, viviparous (enclosed seedlike propagules)), Budding

With the once-prosperous reign of crystal flora now reduced to rubble (sometimes literally), certain areas of Glicker were left with few advanced purpleflora and large gaps in size between the few remaining floral species. However, with a few minor advantages, a new generalized genus of purpleblade was able to explode in diversity and spread throughout Glicker, providing sustenance for a more robust community of herbivores and sheltering the carnivores that hunt them. This new player in the story of Glicker is the genus Stellafrutex.

Though diverse, Stellafrutex species tend to look somewhat similar to each other despite their relatively wide climate tolerance, with their main climate adaptation being stomata count. Though they may be similar to each other, Stellafrutex are noticeably different from their ancestors in several ways, mainly in regards to their reproductive organs. Unlike their evolutionary cousins, which usually have 3 appendages on their inflorescence, Stellafrutex species have 5 or more of them, with a few species having a whopping 15. This change gives them far more surface area devoted to macrogamete production. Their “seeds” are now around 1 cm long and teardrop-shaped. They possess a thicker and harder coating to prevent them from germinating near their parents. The area of the leaf that produces microgametes is more specialized, appearing as a roughly 2-centimeter-long oblong bulge near the tip of the leaf.

While the reproduction of Stellafrutex is their most derived trait, they also have some slight differences in their leaves. The leaves of Stellafrutex are thinner and more numerous than their ancestors’. To make up for this, their leaves curl up at the edges and have thicker cell walls. This combination of traits makes them prone to getting a sharp bend once they reach a certain length or are disturbed, although it doesn't hurt the leaf that much since the veins are flexible enough to withstand it.

Most Stellafrutex species form large patches or fields wherever sufficient sunlight is available, often interspersed with multiple Stellafrutex species and other purpleflora.

Name: Soldierpods (Vlephytum spp.)
Creator: Cube67
Ancestor: Flopleaves
Habitat: Barlowe
Size: 3-5 cm (shell length), 5-8 cm (stem)
Support: Mixed support - Flexible exoskeleton / Cell wall (cellulose), Woody plates
Diet: Detritivore, Photosynthesis, Scavenger
Respiration: Passive (Stomata)
Thermoregulation: Ectotherm
Reproduction: Sexual (sequential hermaphrodite, male to female (unless retconned), seed-like eggs)

Soldierpods are a diverse genus of flopleaves endemic to Barlowe. While they are relatively closely related to the basal genus, they are still too distantly related to produce any offspring. While soldierpods are quite common in barlowe, they do not outcompete the ancestral flopleaves due to effective niche partitioning.

Soldierpods are mainly distinguished from their ancestors by the dense, wood-like armor on the top of their leaves and stem. This armor is made of essentially the same material as their seed-like eggs, and likewise offers them protection from potential predators and the elements. These armored leaves are somewhat concave on their inside, allowing the soldierpod to fold up into an enclosed ellipsoid shape, protecting their soft and fragile underside and stem. Soldierpod armor is highly variable between species, varying in shape and thickness. While this armor is scratch- and tumble-resistant, it is still somewhat flexible and cannot protect the soldierpod from being crushed by large objects. Due to their thick and opaque “armor”, soldierpods are also slightly worse at photosynthesis than their ancestors, though this isn’t an issue as they are slightly more active to make up for it.

Soldierpods usually locomote by pulling themselves along using their root-feet and highly flexible stem, though they are able to stand up by stiffening their stem using muscles and water pressure. Rarely, some species of soldierpods will even travel “backwards” by dragging themselves along on their stiff leaves, though they are quite clumsy at this. Soldierpods are also far less arboreal than their ancestors, having no gliding species and usually only climbing onto fallen logs and tall rocks in relatively open areas to reproduce. This is due in part to their weaker and more worm-like stem, but is mostly a result of the fact that they evolved in a time where all flora that could be considered a “tree” went extinct.

Soldierpods generally prefer temperate and colder subtropical environments to tropical ones, and have a variety of adaptations to deal with the winter. Soldierpods are able to hibernate when the weather gets too cold, lowering their metabolism to a metaphorical snail’s pace and entering a deep state of torpor. Soldierpods can stay in this state for weeks, and it can take hours for a soldierpod to wake up once conditions become more favorable.

Reproduction in soldierpods (remains the same/changes to sequential hermaphroditism, depending on if flopleaves are retconned). Soldierpod eggs are rounder than their ancestors’, making them able to roll around better. Soldierpods don’t remain in their larval state for as long as flopleaves, beginning to move around only a matter of hours after hatching. They are slightly more developed at birth than the ancestral flopleaves, making this less risky. Soldierpods take a few weeks to fully develop their woody “armor”.

POST-SUBMISSION NOTE: The last part of this desc. is slightly WIP, someone tell me what I should do regarding the reproduction because I forget if it was ever retconned

(alternate main image since idk which one of these to use, but more likely the background one)

Name: Mauvacken (Polyramidendron spp.)
Creator: Cube67
Ancestor: Spoke Cushio, Crooked Cushio
Habitat: Darwin
Size: 5-12 m tall
Support: Cell Wall (Cellulose), Woody Stem
Diet: Photosynthesis
Respiration: Passive (Stomata)
Thermoregulation: Ectotherm
Reproduction: Sexual (monoecious hermaphrodite, airborne structures)

With little in the way of competition after the End-Binucleozoan Atmospheric Disturbance, the variable canopies and numerous Globanitros-filled root bulbs of the cushios allowed them to quickly become large treelike organisms. They now dominate the canopies of younger forests on Darwin, though they are able to be succeeded by taller and more durable flora.

Mauvacken (plural of mauvack) are somewhat woody, having rudimentary lignins to help with structural support. However, because mauvacken primarily invest energy into speedy growth and have few parasites to contend with, they do not invest very heavily into lignifying their trunks and branches. As a result, they are a bit softer than most woody plants on earth. In order to combat predation, mauvacken also retain the hard, wart-like thickenings of their crooked cushio ancestors. These bumps are far more lignified than the rest of the trunk, making them even more durable and unappetizing. Thanks to this, large herbivores have a difficult time scraping away tissue from mature mauvacken. The distribution of these thickenings can vary between species, though they are only found on the trunk and lower branches.

Mauvack canopies vary in size and shape, as do mauvacken themselves, though generally these canopies are fuller and rounder than those of their ancestors. The smallest branches on a fully-grown mauvack usually only get a centimeter long. Like their ancestors, mauvacken grow in a somewhat self-similar fashion, with branches taking the form of smooth rods that grow smaller versions of themselves on their tip. While new branch growth starts out in sync, it may deviate from this pattern and become more random. Mauvacken usually grow branches in sets of three, though this number can differ between species and individual branches.

Like their ancestors, mauvacken have large taproots. However, in most species the taproots have been reduced in favor of having more extensive roots near the surface to collect rainwater. Species that retain longer taproots tend to live in high-competition areas, where accessing the water table may simply be more reliable than trying to collect rainwater like most of the surrounding trees.

Mauvacken are the result of an unlikely hybridization between a population of spoke cushio and a population of crooked cushio, two relatively unrelated species within the same genus. This new genus’ success comes from the variety of features it inherited from both sides, leading to mauvacken being far more adaptable than either of their parent species. Mauvacken are usually found growing in temperate forest environments with nutrient-rich soil composed mainly of decomposed floral litter, but also thrive especially well in high-clay riparian habitats. More riparian or swamp-adapted species have larger lenticels, and more terrestrial species have wider root systems for capturing rainfall. Mauvacken are unable to germinate in sand or gravel.

The reproductive structures of mauvacken are especially unique, being a sort of hodgepodge of the reproductive methods used by their ancestors. Like the crooked cushio, their inflorescence (or “comb”) is composed of a central stalk (or “quill”) with ketkins branching out from either side at regular intervals. Unlike the crooked cushio, mauvacken grow separate inflorescences for each sex, making them monoecious. Like the crooked cushios, female ketkins are larger and thicker than male ones, though there is otherwise little difference between the two types of comb. Most mauvacken possess 3 pairs of ketkins per comb, though some species have more.

Each individual mauvack within a given species produces ketkins of both types at roughly the same time, largely abandoning the male to female shift that the crooked cushios undergo. This adaptation helps protect against predators, as the sudden abundance of food will cause predators to eventually get full and lose interest. This strategy resembles that of Terran cicadas, and is called predator satiation. To avoid further hybridization, different species of mauvack reproduce at different times of the year. Furthering the similarity to Terran cicadas, different mauvacken species often reproduce at different intervals. Some bloom annually, while others only reproduce periodically. Some mauvacken wait 15 whole years before reproducing, whereupon they produce huge lavender clouds of stringy male ketkins, followed a couple of weeks later by an equally large boom of small, aeroplanktonic “seed ribbons”.

Edited the description to include the beaches and a description of swimming habits.

This is a sort of pleasant surprise! While I'm not the biggest fan of previous implementations of animations as main images, this one's kind of nice, since it can still be recognized by a still frame. Maybe a future submission could go a step further and have an animation for a cuttlefish-like pattern?

QUOTE (Jarlaxle @ Sep 24 2022, 08:26 PM)

QUOTE (Cube67 @ Sep 25 2022, 02:16 AM) I have to agree that naming an organism after some real-life drama, however important or silly, isn't good practice. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason for the reference, anyway (although I think this is a good thing because it can be changed without altering the organism itself). Any name ideas?

maybe something more... descriptive? like "Giant Saliscuttler" (it's big, lives in saltwater, and is a scuttler)

Alternatively, a name that's shorter and derived from obscure roots, like "Selpunai" (truncated from French "sel punaise", or "salt bug")

@[@Oofle]

QUOTE

While it is certainly a good one, and the image is quite nice too, I don’t think a poem is considered an acceptable form of primary description. At the least there should be a debriefing or summary on it that’s clearer if you really want to keep the poem (though I don’t know how that would fly regardless)

The poem should definitely be kept. Removing it would just be stifling creativity.
If we must have a more standard description, I think a summary or alternate description in a more traditional format after the poem would suffice.


The sauce position of this organism is weird, although I think the anterior sclerite arranement is really cool.

Are the white parts feathered or bare skin?

I have to agree that naming an organism after some real-life drama, however important or silly, isn't good practice. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason for the reference, anyway (although I think this is a good thing because it can be changed without altering the organism itself).

I wasn't even aware that the mangroves for some reason were "farther out" than the beaches upon submission. Does such a gap between regular forest and mangrove forest occur in real life, anyway? (and would having the beaches in the biome list contradict its lifestyle or add too many flavors?)

This is a ridiculously detailed and impressive submission. Was it made specifically to help elaborate on how crystal flora work?

I think the omission of the negative connotation of "alienified" (or the inclusion of only the negative connotation of "earth clone") paints a skewed picture of the terms. They're both somewhat vague and have seen negative connotation (if at different times).

I think "flora" and "fauna" could be clarified a little, since the obvious following question would be "well why don't we just call them plants and animals?" (the answer being, of course, that "plant" and "animal" refer to specific Earth taxa).

The "indestructible" reference for the shrews probably needs clarification, given that "indestructible" also has the connotation of physically indestructible (i. e, could be misinterpreted as the shrews themselves having endurance and strength beyond that of their earth equivalents).

Could you add "pedes", "crystals", and "mason replacement"?

Could you also add "Terran" (notable for being a synonym of both "Earthling" and "earth clone" and appearing whenever referring to Earth organisms in descriptions)?

Ohh, the larval diagram makes the appearance of the claws make much more sense to me. They are just extensions of the wing rays, but the covering of the wing by skin makes the claws look more distinct once the larva grows up. I wouldn't have said anything about the claws before if I knew the explaination for how batworms get their wing membrane.

"entirely inaccurate" sounds weird when it lacks the meta context. I think just "inaccurate" would do given the following description.

I have do say that I find it a bit odd that each claw already appears fully distinct like a vertebrate or arthropod claw. I know little hard bits aren't hard to form genetically in any case, but I feel like it'd have made sense to basically just curve the tip of each ray (or whatever they should be called, since "wing parts" seems vague) into a gradually sclerotized clawlike point.

@Coolsteph

If you're wondering, it's a reference to the "Bruhs", an organism from 2s2t (which is basically a joke project I made in discord intending to host intentionally poorly made organisms (but which became a semi-serious project in its own right)). They were made by Oofle (who you also probably don't know of).

Grammar Time!

QUOTE

They're torso and tail gain most of their support from the sauce and cere , the latter of which has become more of a semi rigid sheet of chitin rather than remaining defined segments.

Their

QUOTE

It's brain has shrunk considerably from similar selection.

its

QUOTE

This allows its larvae to take advantage of much smaller sources of debris than it's ancestor, such as simply existing in layers of leaf litter. Lessening the burden of obtaining fuel for metamorphosis into adult forms the Leepi Meepi remains exothermic it's entire life.

Latter sentence is incomplete and should be joined to the former one with a comma. also its, not it's.

QUOTE

The the head has become very small and narrow and elongate,

Accidental double "the". Also, I think you could replace the first "and" with a comma, given that this is a list.

QUOTE

If they are Disturbed however

Why is disturbed capitalized?

Microlungs should be one word throughout.

Given that this is a genus group, shouldn't this group be referred to in the plural? Actually, what is the plural? Leepi Meepis?

Grammar Time over - this organism is very skrunkly.

Given that there are real-life aquatic snakes and that this hardly looks like any of them, I'd probably find a different name choice. Unless it's trying to pull a "shrew" or "quail" again.

What a nice and funky little creature. The coloration makes it resemble some sort of fantasy candy animal.

One thing I found odd, though: would they really only eat ferries? I know it's a whole genus, sure, but there's nothing to indicate they're completely specialized for them. What's stopping them from exploiting the other flora in their range?

The name in the topic title and the name in the actual post aren't the same. Is it the Plexgender or the Plehexgender?

I know little about this lineage and I'm not sure how much would be required for them to evolve such a feature. I'm probably not qualified to answer.

"like a whale" is misleading given the slow speed of this organism.

To achieve the speed of 2 feet a day, wouldn't this need similar adaptations to a grass (i. e., highly expandable cells)?

It's actually just from "leemalla" and "dactyl". I don't think it's the most clever creature name I've come up with, but it rolls off the tongue.

Name: Malladact (Bipollex albauris)
Creator: Cube67
Ancestor: Leemalla
Habitat: Barlowe Tropical Rainforest, Barlowe Subtropical Rainforest, Barlowe Subtropical Woodland, Time Subtropical Rainforest Archipelago, Barlowe Tropical Mangal, Time Subtropical Mangal, Time Subtropical Beach, Barlowe Tropical Beach
Size: 1.2 meters long (including tail)
Support: Endoskeleton (bone)
Diet: Omnivore (Mainland Fuzzpalm fruit, Penumbra Fuzzpalm fruit, Tluvaequabora fruit, Topship Fuzzpalm fruit, Fuzzpile fruit, Parasitic Branch-Lantern nectar, small Minikruggs, Cloudswarmers, Xenobees, Sapshrooms, immature Obsidibarrage spore chambers, immature Obsiditall spore chambers, Qupe Tree fruit (uncommonly))
Respiration: Active (lungs)
Thermoregulation: Endotherm (fur)
Reproduction: Sexual (male and female, viviparous, offspring reared on milk in pouch)


While the leemallas do resemble Terran koalas in many respects, their occasional foraging of fruit gave them a source of easy energy not seen in their Earthling counterparts. Those that ate even more fruit did not have to waste as much energy digesting tough, nutrient-poor foliage, allowing them to have more energy for reproduction and fast movement. Eventually, this population became so different that they were no longer able to mate with other leemallas, resulting in the speciation of the malladact.

Physiological adaptations
Compared to their ancestors, malladacts are quicker and more nimble, owing to their higher metabolism and loss of the large gut that their ancestors needed to digest leaves. This not only makes them better at avoiding predators and competitors, but also allows them to supplement their diet with small, fast-moving fauna. Their jaws have become longer and less robust, helping them snap up fruit and ‘bugs’ instead of masticating leaves.
Since malladacts spend most of their lives in the canopy, a climbing mistake can be very dangerous, resulting in injury if not danger from predators. Because of this, malladacts have evolved many adaptations that help them with climbing. Their longer limbs and digits help them reach food and climbing surfaces from further away, and their sharp claws help them cling to branches. They also have two opposable digits on each front paw and one opposable digit on each back paw, allowing them to grip more firmly. Additionally, malladacts’ tails also aid in gripping branches, as they are somewhat prehensile and bear a claw-like tip derived from the vestigial keratinized paddle of their ancestor. Because the tip of the tail-claw points dorsally, the tail grip is actually most effective with the underside of the tail facing outwards.

Behavioral adaptations
Unlike the more helpless offspring of their ancestors, baby malladacts are able to cling to their mother after leaving the pouch, staying with her and learning to forage for a short period before being able to forage on their own. Because of this, baby malladacts are no longer restricted to a nest, prompting significant changes to their mode of parental care. Malladacts no longer build nests, with solitary malladacts of any age using abandoned leemalla nests as shelter or using no nest at all. Adult male malladacts are now polygamous, forming loose groups consisting of one male and a small harem of females. The larger number of females allows a given male to sire more offspring than he would otherwise be able to, and also protects the group as a whole from threats via the principle of safety in numbers.
While malladacts aren’t vocal outside of their mating calls and don’t usually need to communicate, they are able to move their ears as a limited form of nonverbal communication, especially during a conflict between two males. These ear gestures are made more apparent by the large white tufts running down the upper edges of the pinnae. When being aggressive or asserting dominance, the ears flare out to the sides, with the tufts pointing laterally. When displaying fear or submission, the ears point backwards, the tufts pointing towards the rear. When relaxed the ears point in a direction intermediate to these two extremes. Malladacts also possess a small dewlap on their neck. In mature males, this dewlap is larger and has a more apparent red marking than in females and juveniles.
Malladacts are not fond of swimming, but they are able to paddle around should the only escape from danger be through the water. The proximity of mangal reefs to the shore and the frequency of water-related mishaps on wooded beaches means that malladacts often form semi-isolated populations in offshore mangal forests.