Sagan 4 Forum [Menu]

Name: Rockjewel (Ankylopetrum mycomimus)
Creator: Cube67
Ancestor: Orpiment Jewel
Habitat: Glicker Temperate Woodland, Glicker Subtropical Woodland, Glicker Temperate Beach, East Glicker Subtropical Beach, West Glicker Subtropical Beach
Size: 8 cm tall
Support: Cell wall (chitin), Exoskeleton (chitin) (NOTE: could this be the accepted default supports for crystal flora? None currently have it labeled)
Diet: Decomposer
Respiration: Passive (stomata)
Thermoregulation: Ectotherm
Reproduction: Sexual (subterranean water-borne spores), asexual (budding from roots)

The End-Binucleozoan Atmospheric Disturbance took its toll on the orpiment jewel’s lineage. Although many are still around due to their ability to parasitize hosts or kill competition, most species have become much rarer. Specializing in nitrogen conservation, the rockjewel has become much smaller—and much weirder.

The rockjewel is a small, toxic saprobe that grows on and decomposes the dead leaves and shoots of large flora. This stands in stark contrast to its ancestor, which grows in soil and uses its toxins to kill live plants in the surrounding area. While this lifestyle is somewhat unusual for an orpiment, it closely mirrors the habits of many Earth fungi.

While rockjewels no longer use toxins to actively prey on other flora, they still produce a concoction of poisonous chemicals to deter competition. Rather than targeting large photosynthetic flora, these toxins have specialized to kill a wide variety of microscopic saprobes that may compete with them for resources. This development notably mirrors the production of antibiotics by many Terran molds (e.g. Penicillium). In addition to producing microbe-killing toxins, rockjewels also produce neurotoxins that deter macroscopic herbivores. These toxins are more effective against binucleids than carpozoans, being quite lethal to the former. They also cause strange hallucinations in asterzoa. This symptom of rockjewel poisoning, in combination with nausea and mild paralysis, often deters asterzoan herbivores just as well as lethality would.

Rockjewels have significantly altered their growth and morphology. Rather than adhering to a specific number and arrangement of facets like nearly every other crystalflora, rockjewels have a variable number and arrangement of facets. This higgledy-piggledy way of growing sometimes even causes their facets to become bent or twisted in shape. Due to their small size and lack of photosynthesis, this “degenerate” condition causes no detriment to the rockjewels. Additionally, they have developed a thinner cuticle in order to conserve nitrogen, consequentially making them a bit more fragile.

Template:
I believe it is customary to capitalize the beginnings of words in each line of the template. For example, “Cell wall (chitin)” would be “Cell Wall (Chitin)”. This is true of the reproductive line and respiration line as well. However, these are only minor problems which could be fixed on the wiki.

Description:
“Plants” should be “flora”.
“In order to” suggests purpose. “A thinner cuticle as a nitrogen-conserving adaptation” is better.

Other:
I like the gradient, lighting, and texturing.
This isn’t particularly important because they aren’t photosynthesizers, but I do wonder if they grow best in dark, moist conditions, as many fungi do.

Ohh, I know we’re always supposed to use flora, but sometimes it feels awkward to use, especially when it comes to more colloquial -sounding sentences. Must be the extra syllable.

I figure this species would be more able to survive in bright light than earth fungi due to the hard (and likely waxy) cuticle being able to retain moisture.