Made some corrections to things you pointed out.

Changed a few things around in the description.

Decided to go with an ancestor that was a better fit, to hopefully get this thing working.

The legs and toes are still there, just a bit more realistic. Since it had been decided that most scooters did not have a much in support structure.

The legs and toes are the leading edge. They connect back to the tail in a fleshy patagium.

Anyone else have comments for this?

Moved the gills up higher.

QUOTE (OviraptorFan @ Apr 29 2023, 07:18 PM)

QUOTE (HethrJarrod @ Apr 29 2023, 08:13 PM) QUOTE (OviraptorFan @ Apr 29 2023, 07:09 PM) QUOTE (Disgustedorite @ Apr 29 2023, 06:34 PM) I don't think the ancestor produced silk? They still had the silk glands in a few individuals within the population QUOTE As it no longer hunts, its warfarin-silk is useless. Consequently, silk glands are reduced or even absent in most individuals. Since their ancestor was a carnivore they still supplement their diets with meat from dead carcasses they find. In Lizalopes and Pasakerds these were lost entirely, but under the right circumstances the silk glands could find more prominent usage, which seems to be what hethr is doing. Then again the artwork here does not show any sign of the silk producing organs seen in gossalizards that have them, so I got no idea on what is going on. It's a male. Then can you show off a female as well? The silk producing organs being prominent again is a very big change that should be shown.

Is this better?

Nimmoss (Ultravisales musci)
Creator: HethrJarrod
Ancestor: Nimbuses
Habitat: Atmopshere (Troposphere)
Support: Cell Wall
Size: 20 mm wide, up to 50 m wide colony
Diet: Photosynthesis, Parasitic (Cloudgrump)
Respiration: Passive Diffusion
Thermoregulation: Ectotherm
Reproduction: Binary Fission, Fragmentation

The nimmoss is a form of nimbus that has split off from its ancestor. It specializes in parasitizing off of the cloudgrump.

Free-floating nimmoss look like nimbus clouds, but when they encounter a cloudgrump, the microscopic hooks at the ends of their fronds latch onto the surface like velcro. As more nimmoss appear, they latch onto each other like a barrel of monkeys.

There it absorbs water that condenses on the surface, and drifts along with the cloudgrump, absorbing moisture from clouds.

The nimmoss is heavy enough to slightly deform the cloudgrump and cause it to lose a small portion of its altitude. Other than this, they are like their ancestor.


—-
(The current limit of 6 does not apply to flora and non-fauna)

Organism isn't clearly defined. I can't tell if it supposed to glow violet and if the sand is violet. Is it sand or a root connected the three different ones.

Added supplemental images of throat sac and proboscis

Oh!
Okay. Was a bit confused by your art requests.

When I get home from work, I’ll make supplementary art of throat sac and proboscis.

QUOTE (Coolsteph @ May 17 2023, 10:50 PM)

Artwork on Sagan 4 doesn’t need to be perfectly polished, and even Hydromancerx’s more recent art has a few stray lines sometimes. Still, the number of instances and the conspicuousness of the stray lines and color outside the lines in the art here is significant. For the beaks, the lack of cleanup or particular artistic process chosen has even interfered with the clarity of form, which is grounds for rejecting a submission. On a related but less essential note, the lines used on the throat sac make it difficult to tell if it’s supposed to be round and bulging, like a frog’s throat sac, or flattened at the sides, like for an anole lizard. It is possible there are so many conspicuously uncolored spots because you filled it in by hand, instead of using the paint bucket tool. Try using the paint bucket tool. Deleting the Larvaback was sensible. I still don’t understand why the Neuks and Undergroundis were removed, but it’s plausible to omit them, at least. Rustmolds and Chitjorns are still on the list. Please delete them from the list. Of the 9 feedback points given in my follow-up response, you fixed or attempted to fix to 2. Or, in other words, you did not respond to 78% of it. Even though you noted the existence of spelling errors, the misspelling of “cartilage” wasn’t fixed.

Made further edits. I was making them in a different tab, and it hadn’t saved them. My apologies.

I thought it still fit. :shrug:

changed it.

Yes. I had made changes to it.

1) Including a stand-alone image
2) Fixed the habitat range
3) Added Binomial name
4) Added that it split from its ancestor
5) Fixing capitalization

I deleted some of the diet such as larvaback because they didn't fit, as they were too aquatic. Went in and deleted other more aquatic prey as well. The diet was indeed just the same as the ancestor, which usually works.

The spike behind the dorsal fin is now shown instead of completely hiding behind it.

"There are a lot of stray lines and uncolored spots in both individuals depicted."
That's just the artistic style.

Hopefully, I got the rest of any spelling errors that you had noticed.

Nudesferatu


Approval Checklist:
Art:
Art Present?: y
Art clear?: y
Gen number?: y
All limbs shown? y:
Reasonably Comparable to Ancestor?: y
Realistic additions?:

Name:
Binomial Taxonomic Name?: y
Creator?: y

Ancestor:
Listed?: y
What changes?:

• External?: Bigger, lost armor plating, hind limbs and caudal leg have become longer
  outer toes on the caudal leg are further raised off the ground and are smaller in size
• Internal?: crests have also become important for thermoregulation
• Behavioral/Mental?: herds are slightly larger

Are Changes Realistic?: y
New Genus Needed?: n/a

Habitat:
Type?: Tropical, Subtropical
Flavor?: Herbaceous, Mixed Scrub, Woodland
Connected to Ancestor?: y
Contiguous?: yes
Wildcard?: n

Size:
Same as Ancestor?: n
Within range?: y
Exception?:

Support:
Same as Ancestor?: y
Does it Fit Lifestyle?: y
Does It Fit Size?: y
Reasonable changes (if any)?:
Other?:

Diet:
Same as Ancestor?: yes
Transition Rule?: n
Reasonable changes (if any)?:

Respiration:
Same as Ancestor?: yes
Does It Fit Habitat?: yes
Does it Fit Size?: yes
Reasonable changes (if any)?:
Other?:

Thermoregulation:
Same as Ancestor?: yes
Does It Fit Habitat?: yes
Reasonable changes (if any)?:
Other?:

Reproduction:
Same as Ancestor?: y
Does It Fit Habitat?: y
Reasonable changes (if any)?:
Other?:

Description:
Length?: medium
Capitalized correctly?: yes, afaik
Replace/Split from ancestor?: split
Other?: Needs paragraph split at the end

Opinion: Approved

Got rid of some of the more inconsistent diet, and made some art and description corrections.

Name: Palmstar (Spinophyta dentros)
Ancestor: Thornshell
Habitat:
Seedpods: LadyM Tropical Ocean (Sunlight Zone), Mnid Ocean (Sunlight Zone), Jujubee Ocean (Sunlight Zone), Fly Tropical Coast, Hydro Tropical Coast, Jlindy Tropical Coast, Ofan Tropical Coast, Sparks Tropical Coast
Adult: Fly Tropical Beach, Hydro Tropical Beach, Sparks Tropical Beach, Steiner Archipelago Tropical Beaches, Jlindy Tropical Beach, Ofan Tropical Beach,
Size: 3 meters tall
Support: Cell Wall, Trunk Shell (Silica)
Diet: Photosynthesis
Respiration: Passive Diffusion
Thermoregulation: Ectotherm
Reproduction: Hermaphrodite, Airborne Spores, Pod


The palmstar split from its ancestor.

Isolated in the Ramul and Steiner islands, the palmstar has grown into a tree of moderate height of 3 meters. It then spread far beyond to Jujubee's tropical shores Its appearance vaguely resembles a palm tree of the planet Earth. It now utilizes silica in its black algae tissue to provide greater structural strength. This silica shell also absorbs the sun's light to generate a small electric current. The center is hollow, storing salt water as a way to store electrolytes and have a rigid trunk.

The spikes of the shells have tiny bands of darker and lighter layers. The dark bands have about thirty layers, while the lighter bands have half that. The outer dark layer has tiny microscopic grooves, shaped in the just the right way to trap light, focusing it further in to be absorbed. The outer lighter colored layer has bumps which increase its surface area for absorption. Both of these layers have properties that prevent reflection and trap light in a chemical called xanthopterin. A voltage is formed between the lighter colored layers, increasing with the amount of light. A similar type of system exists in a oriental hornet of the planet Earth. The creation of static electricity results in the palmstar pulling dust and other tiny ionized particles from the air, increasing nutrient availability.

The palmstar is made up of years of growth. Every year the palmstar releases spores into the air, which land on the leaves of other palmstars. Once a palmstar receives these spores, it starts producing a large coconut size pod which falls off into the sand or water. It is then carried elsewhere. The first section is usually the one supporting the whole thing. On that section, the silica spike grows excessively long, anchoring the palmstar to the ground. After a pod is grown and detach, the leaves fold downward and become the next segment of the trunk. New leaves are then grown.

During storms, the palmstar can get knocked over entirely. When this happens, the spikes from the sections are spurred into overdrive, growing into the sand to provide more support. The end of the stalk will reorient itself to grow in an upright position.

It takes about 3 years for a palmstar to reach maturity, and can live for 25 years.


Supplemental Image: Support Structure

Take two:

QUOTE (Coolsteph @ May 13 2023, 02:44 PM)

Image: The grey coloration on its “limbs” and “head” suggest color patterning on its skin, rather than a single-cell body with discrete extensions peeking out of a test (shell). Template: There’s a spacing error between the name and the ancestor. Incidentally, if you were going to post this, it would need a scientific name, although, as this is a work-in-progress, that is less important. Description: For such a short description, it’s best to mention how they retain water in the same sentence the ability is mentioned. I know I drew Shelpads like sea turtles, but, at that scale, the “flippers” would be of little use for thrust. The flagella would matter a lot more. How do they attach to the sides of cloud grumps like “leeches”? It makes more sense they would cling to moisture on its body, like a tiny bug stuck in a dewdrop. It doesn’t make sense for it to spontaneously develop photosynthesis, even “weak” photosynthesis. Given the time scales involved, it makes a lot more sense for it to pick up organelles or individual cells from some other photosynthesize in its environment. “Parasite off” does not make sense. “Parasite” is not a verb. I believe I based Shelpads off large, relatively complex protists with "shells", such as testate amoebas. Some rhizarians can get to more than 1 cm long (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhizaria), so I probably based the size range off that. Regardless of the plausibility of that choice, I'm sure it is even less plausible that, if a Shelpad descendant were to become multicellular, it would look exactly as before. If you want a multicellular Shelpad descendant, it's best to look up early multicellularity/colonies among protists, although I believe it is more practical to simply keep the Shelpad descendant a large unicellular organism.

Okay. This whole design was very much based around them being depicted as a type of turtle. I’ll redraw, rework it, not that it is that they are not.

Name: Stormshells

Ancestor: Shelpads
Habitat: Atmosphere (Troposphere)
Diet: Parasite (Cloudgrump), Detritivore, Weak Photosynthesis
Size: 5mm
Support: Exoskeleton (Pectin)
Thermoregulation: Ectotherm
Respiration: Passive Diffusion
Reproduction: Binary Fission

The stormshell split from its ancestor, the shelpad. Countless millennia of being thrown into the sky by storms eventually resulted in shelpads more successful at surviving in the atmosphere. They are able to retain water, and they parasite off the surface of organisms, such as the cloudgrump.

At such a large size, it was a wonder it hadn’t become multicellular sooner. The stormshell has a head in the front containing a cell that is able to photosynthesize. On the sides it has two paddle wings. In the back it has a flagella-like tail.

These can all retract into a middle section resembling a flattened disc. This flattened disc is similar to a shell or exoskeleton and is made of pectin. Inside this middle section is a large vacuole where the stormshell can retain water.

Stormshells are sometimes found attached to the sides of cloudgrumps like leeches. There they are able to absorb miniscule amounts of hydrogen that leak out. They also consume moisture and detritus that doesn’t get absorbed.

“The Minidartirs split off from their ancestors the dartirs. Originating from the Driftwood Islands and shrinking down to the size of only a few centimeters, they rapidly spread to other habitats via sea shrog nests. There they found a plentiful source of food in the form of sea shrog detritus. This allowed them to spread to many different regions. Because they are not able to keep warm at such a small size in colder temperatures, they have not yet been able to spread to subpolar, polar, or montane habitats.”

Is this better?

QUOTE (colddigger @ May 12 2023, 12:36 AM)

''When they became much smaller than its ancestor, '' That's the only one left to switch to they for consistency sake. After that I think it ought to be approved. Could slap an average lifespan on that end sentence of the description as well to beef it up just a little.

Got it. And added lifespan thing as well.

Added Binomial name:
Aquaspherica harenosus

Harenosus ~ “sand-covered”

I like these, and can't immediately find anything wrong.