@transfemgodtamer, here's a review.

I doubt Ferrofilaments could be endothermic. At that size, even if it were endothermic, it would lose all its heat. You can therefore assume it’s ectothermic.

The picture is very small. It may be one of the smallest pictures I’ve ever seen for a submission.

“A need to guard more against predators began to emerge over time - a need more than the ferrofilament’s.” This would be grammatically clearer as, “it had a greater need to guard against predators”.
“And uses the rich”. The easiest solution is to make the comma after “colony organism” a period, and making the next sentence begin with: “The Ferrocluster”.

It’s easier to read as (“100 um (0.1 mm) cells”).

Image:

You need to show the whole organism. In the case of flora, you don’t need to show the roots, although many flora show the roots anyway. The picture is also blurry. While it’s possible to make some pictures blurry around the edges deliberatively to give focus or depth, this seems to be an artifact of an unsteady hand when photographing the picture. If you have access to a scanner, this will make a better picture. If not, some image processing after the fact might work.

Template:

12.8 cm is oddly specific. On smaller sizes, like millimeters, decimal values might matter, but it seems less relevant the bigger the organism. Since it’s not outright 1 meter or bigger, though, it could be just relevant enough to be accepted.

You’ll need to space out the template from the description.

Description:

The spacing is off in the description. You might have made the description in Notepad with word wrap on, so it doesn’t adapt to the sizing of the Sagan 4 text box. Using backspace at the start of each line to fit the text box better is one way to fix this.

“It has got”: “It has developed”.
“To help”: “grew, helping” is the easiest re-phrasing.
“Evolved to spread”: “has developed adaptations which allow it to spread”.

Whether specialization of any sort is required depends on the default alcohol tolerance assumed for the lineage. The Vinegob was made when overripe fruit wasn't a possibility. However, given the low alcohol levels, unless this lineage is really sensitive to alcohol or gobbles up absurd amounts of land-gobs in a short period, just one alcohol detoxification enzyme would be more than enough. This is particularly true because eating fat and protein with alcohol slows down its absorption (in humans, at least), and they eat land-gobs whole, rather than just licking the inside of its digestive system.

A quick check: if you're adding the ground to the image, it makes sense to also provide the rest of the background. A solid blue color for the surrounding water will do.

When I designed gob species whose gut microbes produced alcohol, it was so "goblets" could have "wine". The actual concentration of alcohol per alcohol-containing gob (which I created) would be small. Perhaps the equivalent of 0.5 BAC, at most. I don't recall any gobs with a diet particularly high in glucose, such as fruit, which could plausibly make it higher. The exact amount of alcohol per gob in milliliters would be complicated to calculate, because they aren't tiny packets of watery wine. Doing this would probably involve calculating the volume of a vinagob, then its stomach, then the proportion of total volume of alcohol, and then using that value for its descendants (assuming relative stomach size and habitability to alcohol-producing microbes stays the same).

EDIT: A quick check suggests an overripe banana can have 0.2% alcohol by volume (ABV). This is a reasonable reference for something that exists in nature being high in alcohol, but not exceptionally high, like the naturally fermented nectar one tree shrew is adapted to drinking. Alcohol-free beers in the United States can contain up to 0.5 ABV. A reasonable volume of alcohol per Vinagob would be 0.2% ABV in ideal conditions. Given the Mattebelly is largely carnivorous, of the three species the Lutolisk eats, it would likely be the lowest. The three species it eats would likely have lower alcohol levels than the Vinagob, due to their diets. In other words, the Lutolisk would require very little specialization.

It seems you’ve adjusted the art so the mouth looks less like a beak, but there’s still a line suggesting a beak. I see you’ve colored over the original line with a solid color. You’ll get better results by making a custom brush. This is easy. Assuming you’re using GIMP, select a rough circle over the yellow part of the mouth (I suggest the middle, between the two dark blobs) copy it, and then find the copied image in the brush section. Select it and then use the brush over the area. (Technically, GIMP is meant for photo manipulation rather than digital paintings, so there are better programs for this purpose, but I don’t actually know how to accomplish this is other art programs.)

“Eggs” is customarily capitalized in the reproductive methods in the template.

“Concentrated in the legs further”: “legs, further”.
“Looking like a scale”: Though it looks like a scale.
“To defend itself”: One way of rephrasing this is: “as remaining unfused provides greater defensive value against predators”.
“Moist climates”: You mean “moist conditions”.
“Mosit”: Moist. Try making descriptions on a word processor with spell-check.
“Much with”: “much in reproductive methods”. (Technically, I should have recommended: “in its reproductive methods”)
“Compatibility .” There’s a spacing error. It’s minor, but it does look odd.
“Egg still help”: “egg still helps”.

Image:
The Scutestar seems to have a beak, instead of an eversible mouth patch with rows of keratinous mouth bristles. It seems you’ve tried to suggest rows with the black stripes along the upper part of the “beak”, but a line going all the way through still makes it look like a beak, particularly with the asymmetrical, beak-like shape. It may be possible for it to have developed a permanently everted beak-like structure: you’ll have to ask Disgustedorite, as Asterzoans have strange physiology.

The central leg looks laterally flattened, like the fin on the belly of some fish species. Adding curved shading or adjusting the lineart at the bottom edges is the easiest solution.

Template:
“Beans Subtropical Beach” is oddly separated in the template.
Generally, sizes are formatted as “* cm”, with a space. It doesn’t really matter for the concept or readability, though.
I believe more than half of the Sagan 4 submission pages on the wiki since I joined in Generation 153 capitalize the reproductive methods. This isn’t particularly important, though.

Description:
It’s hard to articulate why, but “splitting from its benthic ancestors” sounds better. “Split” might have some unsual grammatical use.
“Muscular Hydrostatic” should not be capitalized.
“terran” should be capitalized. You could also replace it with “Earth”, although “Earth earthworm” does sound strange.
“In its legs, further” “in its legs, further”
“Right & left”: “right and left”.
“Became fused to”: “becoming fused with”.
“In order to”: I recommend “fused with each other, which”.
“At max” doesn’t sound grammatically correct. “Max”, as in short for “maximum” sounds better, although, given the generally formal style of Sagan 4, using “maximum” or “at most” is better.
“Much with reproduction”: “much in reproductive methods”.
“Mate any”: “Mate with any individuals”.
“50/50 chance, in the water”: “mate in the water with any of their own kind, with a 50% chance of reproductive compatibility”.
“Nergali island”: “Nergali Island”.
“Filter-feed with”: “Help the developing young filter-feed”. (“Baby” suggests it has hatched, so it’s not in the egg anymore. Using “developing young” avoids the distinction of whether it’s better to use “fetus” or “embryo”.)
“Readily-made egg yolk” How is it “readily-made”? Do you mean “readily-available” or “a larger quantity of”?
“To ward off”: That suggests intention. Try “which wards off”, or, better yet, “which to some extent discourages”.

Since there’s a range of two to three hours on land, it would help to specify what conditions allow it to stay on land longer. It probably relates to moisture.

Fascinating. I believe this is the first instance of local-level extinction of a genus group by its descendants. It was useful to mention the "Paradox Photolaks".

Other Feedback

Template

Sentences in the template are customarily capitalized, most likely because they look better in this format. On the wiki, lines in the template are almost always consistently capitalized. The uncapitalized sentences are in the Habitat, Size, Diet, Thermoregulation, Respiration, Reproduction. I noticed the Creator, Ancestor, and Support lines are capitalized properly, so it seems this was an oversight.

The standard term for organisms that take on the temperature of the outside environment is “ectothermy”.

Description

A quick check shows that is one massive paragraph. Splitting it up into four paragraphs should be sufficient.

“Chitin” should not be capitalized.
“The test has holes[…] “it to reach […]” “if they sense” […]”. This suggests it’s the tentacles, not the full organism, which senses anything that might be a threat. Is that what you intended?
“Folds inwards”: “it folds inwards”.
“Primarily differing”: “primarily differ”.
“Are unique, one”. The comma should be a period or semicolon.
“Stolen from Globanitrates” This kind of exciting terminology might be popular in pop-science, but it seems unjustifiably emotionally-charged in this context.
“starts life”: “Start life”.
“However only”: “but only”.
"psuedopods": "pseudopods".
“Dependant on”: “dependent on”. Did you make this with spell-check? Even the Notes program on a Mac, which I’m using for this, can pick up on “dependant”.

I believe it's nothing more than a custom or pattern, most likely because it looks better, given the template often features multiple capitalized words (because they're proper nouns). It almost certainly wouldn't matter enough to prevent approval. I simply have a tendency for thoroughness in my reviews, provided I have sufficient time and energy.

The design is novel and the art is pleasant. I like the shading.

In the template, there is a very slight error, or more of an oversight: reproductive methods should be capitalized.
I recommend using “its” instead of “their” for the animal threat display comparisons.
“Isn’t many purpleflora”: “Aren’t many purpleflora”.
“brackish and freshwater.” Brackish and fresh water.
“ their exoskeleton.” Their exoskeletons, but using “its” makes it easier to write.

As stylish as the font is for the Generation number, the “2” does look too much like a Z. There aren’t established conventions for stylistic limitations for Generation numbers, though, so it’s unclear whether this would be a problem.

Formatting
The customary spacing is “5-50 cm”.

Description

There’s a typo; you meant: “End-Binucleozoic”.
“Shardruby was” “Shardrubies were”, or “the Shardruby was”.
“Disway”: Dissuade.
"Casual grazers": How can a grazer be casual? A better phrasing is "all but specialized species of grazing fauna".
“genus Gearrubaid” should be “the Gearrubaid genus group” or “the genus Sagaxafrutex”.
“Taiga’s”: “taigas”.
“Biomes range”: “biome range”.
“Biomes inhospitable”: “biomes’ inhospitable”.



“Gearrubaid now grow” is “Gearrubaid” a weird plural, like “deer” or “sheep”? If so, it would be useful to specify in the description.

It was a good idea to mention its sun regimes. While there are different kinds of “partial shade” (e.g., light shade, dappled shade), given nearly all large flora were wiped out, dappled shade toleration or specification has much less use than normal. It does bring up the question of why it would have partial shade tolerance at all. Does it live in association with Mauvacken in Darwin? Do some species live in association with tall rocks that provide shade?

What are its soil preferences? Clay soil retains water more than other kinds of soil, which can lead to root rot, although, with the paucity of disease-causing pathogens in the Beta timeline, this may very well be less of an issue. It might be an issue if flooded clay soil means the roots can’t breathe, though. A quick check suggests soil preferences can’t be inferred from the taproots: carrots grow best (so far as humans are concerned) in loose, sandy soil, but daikon radishes apparently do best in clay.

If your goal is to trace the evolution of tetrapods from lobe-finned fish, then yes, this species could be a "transitional species" to a tetrapod-esque goal. If course, just because tetrapods are more glamorous than "fishapods" that can't move very well on land doesn't mean a species can't be worthwhile on its own, so it really depends on your goals.

I recommend making the positioning of its leg-fins clearer in the redraw. As it is, it's unclear if the fins are laterally placed (spread directly outward to the side) or more diagonal relative to the middle axis of the body.

Broad Issues:
It seems to stand on two remarkably long, upright, leg-like fins. In real life, there are intermediate stages between the development of fleshy fins and finlike legs. The easiest compromise, which doesn't require substantial re-draws, is that it's only this upright-looking while wading through shallow water. On land, it would scrabble and crawl about.

Image:

Please trim the image to put the organism in the center and remove excessive white space. I recommend trimming it to the upper half of the image (in shadow), and then trimming the edges to the left of the “B” in B21 and to the right of the tail. Main images are almost always not diagrammatic, lacking arrows and text (other than Generation text). When they are diagrammatic, more than one thing is pointed out. In this case, it is best to erase the arrow and text drawing attention to the location of its cloaca.

Template:
When different life stages have different habitats, put it into “Adults: [Habitat, habitat, habitat]; Young: [Habitat]”. Most organisms do not have separate habitats by life stage or migration paths, so the conventions haven’t been written down in the formatting requirements yet. The diet should be formatted in the same way, using a semicolon to separate the stages.
“Diet-“ : needs a colon, like the others.
The names of organisms listed in the diet must be capitalized, like “Spardiflies, Pentamowers”.
Respiration, thermoregulation, and reproduction methods must also be capitalized. Remember to capitalize statements in the parentheses (e.g., reproduction methods).

Description:

“Gallopet” is misspelled in the first paragraph. The capitalization also isn’t consistent. Since you capitalized “Stinzerstar”, I’m guessing you intended to capitalize “Gallopett”.
It’s odd, and overly poetic (for lack of a better word). to call the Stinzerstar its “cousin”. “Relative” would be better.
“To stay on land longer” It’s recommended to not describe organisms as if artificially constructed for a particular purpose, like airplanes. It’s better to say, “It now secretes mucus that protects it while on dry land, which helps it stay on land longer[…]”.
“In humid climate”: In humid climates.
“And altered for”: I recommend: “and more suitable for land, being able to bend and so allow walking.”
“Altered for” and “to better incorporate it” is also artificial directionality, so rephrasing is advisable.
Given the small number (four), it’s more standard to use “four”, not “4”. It sticks out otherwise.
“Mounts nearby”: Did you mean “mounts near”?
“On-land”: “on land”.
“Nearby water sources”: Near water sources.
“New-born”: Newborn.
“They are now able”: “They become able”.
“For the whole time”: What whole time? Did you mean, “Due to greater humidity at night, it can be active on land far longer in nighttime hours.”

Other:
t's necessary to put the Generation number in the the thread title.. You'll need to use full edit for your post to do this, but it's fast and easy.

Optional:
With everything else addressed, the submission would be functional. However, improving the background contrast to eliminate the traces of writing on the back of the page is a quick and simple way to improve the art quality. Erasing the stray lines around the legs would also be ideal. Both flaws, however, are pretty subtle and don't interfere with the interpretation of the organism's physiology, so these are optional.

“Mineral test” in the support should be capitalized.
“Acrost” “across”.
It seems hard to imagine slightly infiltrating something. “Poke through” or “probe” makes more sense.
How would oxygen be “released” into these pockets?
“They are more vulnerable when doing this[…]” This sentence needs a comma after “this” and “however”.
The “if possible” suggests it’s capable of conditional thinking, which seems like a lot for a very large multinucleated single cell. It may be easier for it to have automated behavioral protocol for repairing itself each night in some kind of crevice. Being averse to some kind of light or frequency of light more common at night is one way it can be compelled to stay in shelter for a while, if it happens to mindlessly wander into a shelter.
“The exhaust” They exhaust? The sentence after this point could use some clarification.

Each armor segment is drawn as if it’s flat, like blades of glass or Longisquama scales. However, the shading of the spikes, namely the shading on their undersides, suggests they are not similarly flat, like leaves of grass with triangular tips, but are structures with more depth, like the prickles on a burr or the fangs of a cat. The art uses particular shapes and shading schemes that look like cut-out strips of construction paper placed in curved shapes resembling an armadillo’s segments, with cat fangs glued on, rather than the 3D structure of a a prickle-coated armadillo.

Adjusting the shape of the base of the spikes and slightly reducing the spike density in the first and second segment after the first orange segment, as well as adding better shading to suggest a round shape, would make it clearer. This shouldn’t be that hard to do, since basic shading and therefore depth was already followed on the limbs, neck, and head. Incidentally, the shape and shading choices on the tail suggests a square cross-section instead of a round one, which is odd but not impossible, even if it’s surely more characteristic of flora (e.g., mint stems, which are squarish).

The legs are not only simply drawn or drawn as implausibly dark. They're drawn as mere silhouettes, which is inaccurate.

I, too, realized this will be confusing. I think "tam", and I think "brown furry long-tailed quadruped mammaloid likely to have a button mushroom nose", which is true of most "tams".
"Tamb" as a clade prefix could be a reasonable compromise.

I'm still tired while recovering from the flu, so I'll leave only a quick check for now. The template's spacing needs to be compressed. The habitat names should be capitalized, there's an out-of-place comma after "Triplet Purplestem", and the specific diet items should be in parentheses after "Herbivore". The legs also shouldn't be pure black blobs, but should be naturalistically representative.

Some of the spikes in the middle of the organism look rather flat. It looks rooted to texturally impossible bases on the shell. Making the spikes in the middle section shorter by making them start closer to the left side, and adding shading on the lower sides of each segment, should help make its shape easier to read.

I'll get back to this later, but, for the most obvious issue: this seems to have only three legs, and it's missing Generation information on the picture.

There’s a period at the end of the scientific name, as some kind of oversight. The reproduction methods should be capitalized.

How quickly does it grow? What are the typical lifespans of individuals and colonies? What are its soil preferences? (A quick check, as well as basic knowledge of soil properties, suggests marshy areas tend to have silty or clayey soils.)

And to think, what I thought was a typo was actually a sign of its rebelliousness. (If you're excuse the anthropomorphism.)

The description is sufficient, but rather short. Can you add more detail? How does it capture mist, dew, and drifting snow? What's its cold tolerance? Is it distributed patchily or evenly in its habitat?

"psuedopods," is a typo.Pseudopods" is meant.
For thermoregulation, it can be assumed an ectotherm by default. For respiration, passive respiration (oxygen) seems likely. For “support”, “Tests”, or whatever name has become common for colonial shevs, should be sufficient.
The brick-scale texturing is pleasant to look at, although the background of water doesn’t have the same depth, making it look flat. The gradient used is also a lighting scheme that seems it would be difficult to accomplish in natural conditions, since the beams strike diagonally at multiple ranges. It looks less like like dappled sunlight at the bottom of a pool and more like beams of light from a superhero using a light attack from a big ball of light to the right of the picture.
This will likely enrich its habitats with topographical complexity.

Although I’ve occasionally made small art, that is really small. This is particularly true because the rock is much bigger than the oactual organism depicted. Making the art four times bigger would make it more standard for small-sized Sagan 4 art.

Rocks don’t necessarily provide a similar substrate to petrolignopsids. You could probably specify what kinds of rocks are comparable. Big, eroded and porous rocks covered in organic matter might be the closest equivalent.

“Rainforest they are”: Rainforest, they are.
“Have reduce”: Have reduced.
It’s not the custom on Sagan 4 to specify sunlight regimes in the photosynthesis section, although it is such useful information to know that perhaps a new custom could be made.
I’ll have to get back to this later.

“purpleblade” Purpleblades. I’m pretty sure it’s not an unusual grammatical construction.
“ sciurok is” Sciuroks are.
“vertebra”: Can you elaborate on that? Is it like a spine?
The planet is very warm, given it lacks ice caps. Then again, this is a small ectotherm, and even temperatures above freezing could be a hindrance.

I’m well enough to review perhaps 3-4 submissions which won’t need much attention and attend to some Sagan 4 tasks, though I might not be at full strength for a while. I hope people will use me as a cautionary tale of the perils of getting flu shots too early in the season for one’s area, which leads to expired protection at the peak of flu season.

“, though are able”: Though they are able.
The reproduction details should be capitalized.
“Support” is unfilled, although you did specify it was lignin.
“Hasty” suggests “carelessly fast”, rather than “fast”. It’s not appropriate here, so “speedy” would be better.
“Crooked ancestors” is too easily misinterpreted as “crooked” as in “corrupt”, so it’s better to specify it as “Crooked Cushio”.
“frankenstein” Using this, rather than “Frankenstein’s monster” or better yet “hodgepodge”, seems an oddly colloquial neologism.
“terran” This is a reference to Earth, which in some sci-fi contexts is called “Terra”. Ergo, “Terran” would be capitalized. Alternatively, you could use “Earth’s”.

I like the leaf texture brush and the variety of shapes, and the slight variation in the particular shade of purple. It was a good idea to include the reproductive structures in one of the sample images.

@Cube67, perhaps you didn't hear, but my bout of illness, most likely the flu, will delay my ability to respond to Sagan 4 tasks. I am prioritizing rest now. Please wait three days before summoning me with urgent-sounding cues.

You might have noticed I've been gone from the forum for a few days. I appear to have a mild case of the flu, which became clear on February 15. I've been avoiding anything even moderately strenuous for the past few days to accelerate my recovery. Apparently it's working, but I recommend either waiting a few days for me to return to full health or finding a way around my absence.