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Disgnathus (Disgnathus doritus)
Ancestor: Cilios
Habitat: Marine, Abyss Zone, Midnight Zone, Twilight Zone
Jujubee Ocean (Abyss Floor), LadyM Ocean (Abyss Floor), Mnid Ocean (Abyss Floor),
Jujubee Ocean (Midnight Floor), LadyM Ocean (Midnight Floor), Mnid Ocean (Midnight Floor), Jujubee Ocean (Twilight Floor), LadyM Ocean (Twilight Floor), Mnid Ocean (Twilight Floor)
Size: 100 µm Long (not including antenna)
Support: Exoskeleton (Mucosal)
Diet: Detritus, Consumer (Smaller cells)
Respiration: unknown
Thermoregulation: Ectotherm
Reproduction: Binary Fission

Disgnathus split off from the Cilios genus group. Unlike other Cilios, it secretes a mucosal layer of proteins over its cilia on one side of its body. This side will be called the top of the Disgnathus. The cilia on the bottom of the Disgnathus are not coated with this hardened mucus.

Disgnathus has two long flagella in its front, which have tiny barbs along the edges. These barbs hook onto detritus and smaller cells on the seafloor and sweep it toward the Disgnathus’ oral groove.

Like its ancestor, Disgnathus reproduces by binary fission. When two Disgnathus meet, they kiss each other, exchanging genetic material. They then both go off, and encase themselves in a mucus cocoon. Inside the cocoon, the mucosal shell dissolves and the Disgnathus undergoes binary fission, making two, then four, then eight, until the cocoon bursts open.

This post has been edited by HethrJarrod: Apr 15 2023, 03:29 PM

How do they fuse with the shell and spikes in the way?

Could the kissing thing not just be how they fuse temporarily?

QUOTE (Disgustedorite @ Apr 15 2023, 06:48 PM)

Could the kissing thing not just be how they fuse temporarily?

? A bit confused by what you mean temporarily.

Name: Reflectree
Ancestor: Reflectabsorb
Size: 80cm tall
Habitat: Drake (Polar)

Distira Plagu (Plumaluesichthys yarrumosis)

Creator: MNIDJM
Ancestor: Sunlit Plagu (Plumaluesichthys yarrumosis)
Habitat: [[Drake Twilight Floor]], [[Drake Twilight Slope]], [[ Artir Temperate Coast]], [[Coolsteph Temperate Coast]], [[Temperate Sea]], [[Darkov Subpolar Coast]], [[Flisch Subpolar Coast]], [[Justin Subpolar Shallows]], [[Soma Subpolar Sea]], [[Bumpy Polar Coast]], [[Day Polar Coast]]
Size: 40 cm long
Diet: Scavenger (Fauna infected with [[Macululuchia]]) Carnivore ([[Nautipede]], fauna infected with [[Macululuchia]])
Respiration: Aerobic (Mouth Papula)
Thermoregulation: Ectothermic
Reproduction: Sexual, two genders: eggs into the water

Aardox (TBD) (Beach-Walking Fruit-Eater)
Creator: EzekielOfEnrir
Ancestor: Aardoorn
Habitat: Fermi Temperate Beach
Size: 3 meters long
Support: Endoskeleton (Bone)
Diet: Omnivore (Nectarworm, Coastal Nectarworm, Xenobees, Minikruggs, Vermees, Silkruggs, Xenowasps, Dartirs, Sapworms, Fruiting Glog, Mainland Fuzzpalm, Topship Fuzzpalm, Qupe Tree, Fuzzpile, Mangot)
Respiration: Active (Lungs)
Thermoregulation: Ectotherm
Reproduction: Sexual, Two Sexes, Ovoviviparous

Those intrepid Aardoorn that settled the temperate beaches of Fermi and began eating the berries of such purple flora such as Fuzzpalm and Fuzzpile eventually gave rise to the Aardox.

While still omnivores, the diet of Aardox primarily consists of the fruit of various flora. They supplement their diet with the many insect-like fauna that dwell at the tops of flora. When spring comes and the Mangot’s leave-fruits ripen, many individuals congregate during this period to gorge themselves. The ratio of fruit eaten versus live prey is dependent upon different factors that may affect any given individual. An adolescent Aardox’s diet will contain more live prey species than an adult, due to not being able to reach many sources of fruit that an adult could reach. As an Aardox ages and grows larger, more and more of their diet will be made up of the various fruits found on the temperate coasts of Fermi.

The Aardox is longer and taller than the Aadoorn. The tongue of the Aardox is even longer than that of its ancestor. Their increased size and tongue length allows them to forage for food at heights of up to 3 to 3 and a half meters, depending on the individual.

Aardox are just as aggressive as their forebears. Maintaining the attitude that a good defense is a strong offense, the Aardox will primarily protect itself against predation by charging any would-be assailants, threatening to land a deadly blow with one of their foot-claws or shoulder spikes.

A fully grown Aardox will claim a strip of beach as their own territory. They will aggressively defend this territory from invading predators and other Aardox. The only time an adult Aardox will be tolerant of other Aardox encroaching on their land is when the Mangot ripens in the spring time or during their mating season.

During mating season, partnerless adult female Aardox will abandon their territories in search of a mate. They will travel up and down the coast, looking for the males with the flashiest wattles and color displays. Once it has chosen her prospective partner, they will begin to cohabitate in the territory of the male. The female will spend most of her time resting in shade while her partner forages food for her. If their newly shared territory doesn’t have enough resources to maintain both individuals, the males will either expand the borders of their territory, or will choose to go without food for the duration of their partner’s pregnancy. During this period, Male Aardox tend to consume far more live prey than normal, saving foraged fruit for their partners. Aardox mate for life.

Aardox will produce anywhere from 3 to 7 newborn. When born, juvenile Aardox retain some neotenic traits, such as their large heads, eyes, and their prominent tail fin. Unlike their ancestor, these traits will take several weeks, if not months, to fade away as the baby Aardox grows in size. Young Aardox are capable of fending for themselves at birth, if necessary. However, they are small and unarmored. This makes them easy prey for the predators of Fermi. This has led to the development of parental care.

Aardox will rear their young for up to a year before the adolescent Aardox eventually leave the safety of their parent’s territory. During this time they grow rapidly, losing their childhood traits and growing their osteoderm armor within 2 months. For the rest of their time with their parents their objective is just to grow as large as possible. Once large enough to safely leave the protection of their parent’s territory, they will spend a few more years growing on their own before maturing into adults and taking control over their own strip of beach.

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This is my first submission, I'd love some feedback and critique!

Do they replace their ancestor? That's one of the pieces of information that ought to be stated in the description, often times people will put it in the first paragraph of the description just to make sure that it's clearly getting across to people early on in their reading.

Gnomeshell
Creator: Future Tyrannosaurus
Ancestor: Fairyshell
Habitat: Barlowe Plains, Barlowe Chaparral, Barlowe Bush, Barlowe Subtropical Woodland
Size: 30 cm long
Support: Endoskeleton, Exoskeleton
Diet: Herbivore (Marbleflora, Sunstalks, Piloroot berries, Spiny Piloroot berries, Mainland Chime Slingberry berries, Supershrooms)
Respiration: Active (Lungs)
Thermoregulation: Ectotherm (Basking)
Reproduction: Sexual, Eggs, Male and Female

Split from its ancestor, the Gnomeshell became smarter. It can now collect and store food by digging under the soil of its habitats, and put in the stash of food. Gnomeshells sometimes forget this, and end up helping flora spread. These food stashes attract many herbivores, mainly the Sangosho. The Gnomeshell takes advantage of this species, as if the Sangosho is nearby it has a low chance of worrying about predators being around. Regaining eyesight with color, it mostly relies on eyes, and its bristled legs. The bristled legs are now functioning like ears, with even more bristles forming a microphone-like shape to collect more soundwaves. This makes them able to hear for predators, helping the survival rate of young increase. It hasn’t changed much from the ancestor in appearance, but it accidentally looks somewhat similar to the Guangu which is in a completely different habitat and origin,due to convergent evolution. The Gnomeshell has a habit of picking up bones of other fauna, usually sauceback and carpozoan ribs. It hits these bones together to create sounds when it sees fauna approaching. The Gnomeshell creates the bottom parts of the food stashes with skeletons. The Gnomeshell is able to tell that the Sangosho are beneficial, the reason why it does not mind their presence around them. When it is mating season, the males will produce “Songs” using bones from the food stashes, bashing them on rocks or on separate bones. They only do this as long as a Sangosho is nearby, as they know it will attract predators like Great Leotams.

This post has been edited by Future Tyrannosaurus: May 12 2023, 11:01 AM

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.

How are they multicelled while still looking like one ancestral cell?

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.

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.

Take two:

That looks more plausible.

The tail structure would probably work at that size: male stout infantfish are about 7.7 mm, while male Photocorynus spiniceps (a kind of anglerfish) are 6.2 mm, and they have pretty similar tails. I'm not entirely sure whether a microbe could grow a tail like that, though.

I recommend elaborating on how the colony grows into that shape. The bottom of the disc seems a single plate, not a bunch of plates fused together.

Incidentally, warnowiids are a kind of microbe that are notable for having microbe-level eyes, if you wanted some kind of sophisticated eyespot. (Admittedly, a less-sophisticated structure would be easier to research.)