Doctor Pickle picklicus medicus
Creator: colddigger
Ancestor: Creeping Crystal
Habitat: Slarti Subpolar Riparian, Slarti Mudflat, Drake Prairie, Flisch Subpolar Beach
Size: 250 centimeters
Diet: photosynthesis, detritivore
Support: Chitin Plates, Turgor in Red Tissue
Respiration: Lenticels
Thermoregulation: none
Reproduction: sexual, spores, fruiting body, asexual root budding
Doctor Pickle split from its ancestor, and spread out to the surrounding prairies and beaches. The areas they colonize end up being rather devoid of other flora, resulting in low biodiversity. These colonies, called wards, commonly span a few hectares in size pocked with the fat crystals in a mildly uniform fashion. Fauna life may use it as a temporary home, a possible place to rest or to hide and recover. However the only thing consistent to eat here are the crystals themselves, and Doctor Pickles put up a fight.
At the very top of the crystal, past the growth point of the photosynthetic plates, exists a distinct organ system derived from the hollow-based reproductive structure of its lineage. A hollow, whoopee cushion shaped, sac sits inside at the very top of the crystal. It acts as a massive reservoir for compounds that flood in, produced by the surrounding tissue. These compounds, much of which are derived from the devastating cellulosebane fumigant, form a mace-like cocktail that burns the skin, eyes, and mouths of any would be herbivores. Surrounding this sac is tissue that can squeeze it in order to force it's contents out. This is achieved by rapidly moving water out from this tissue into the surrounding body and flattening the sac. This pushes the mace upward through a funnel valve, housed in a multi-plated horn on top, that atomizes the mace into a puff that wafts and fills the surrounding air.
Reproduction through spores has been redeveloped. Unlike many terrestrial crystals, which form and store their spores directly in the inner hollow (if they're of the hollow crystal lineage) of either branches or their main body and then open up to release them, Doctor Pickles form a more specialized organ. The only branch, or limb, that this crystal will grow is a fruiting body, and only grows one every two years. Fruiting bodies consist of a brittle stalk mostly made of green tissue with a cord of red tissue lacking any hollow filling it's center, a round nearly completely hollow ball on the end of the stalk, and long wiry strands of red tissue directly exposed hanging off a single point on this ball opposite of the stalk. These long red strands act both to catch wind or flowing water, or get stuck on passing fauna. All these options work to snap the fruiting body away violently and carry it off somewhere else.
The hollow ball of the fruiting body can actually float on water. It often gets moved by the resulting streams from glacial or snow melt, and can be shipped along beaches with tides and currents.
Being a member of the hollow crystal lineage it bears a distinct air filled chamber in it's center. The immediate tissue surrounding this hollow chamber has taken up a more mobile role. Through the act of osmosis portions of the chamber wall expand to deform it's shape, while networks of thin tendon-like strips of tissue shrink between the surface of Dr. Pickle and the hollow chamber, so as to morph the shelled surface into a greater area for potential photosynthesis. This movement is controlled by each plate providing chemical signaling when struck by light, the intensity of the chemical signal corresponds in kind with the intensity of the light. Because of this movement the surface of this organism slowly ripples throughout the day, then settles into a more cylindrical shape at night. If damaged the surface can more rapidly contract from the point of contact, this allows the mace horn to be aimed slightly more at the source of danger.
F1. Close up of the layering of permeable and impermeable tissues; F2. Close up of osmotic bulbs and passage polyps; F3. Close up of nitrogen fixing microbial colony layers.
Like it's cellulosebane crystal ancestor, the internal soft tissue of Doctor Pickle is made up of sheets of tissue distinguished by an impermeable layer between them and joined together by masses of structures called osmotic bulbs and passage polyps that act as it's means of water and nutrients transport. Both of these structures find their developmental origin in the impermeable layer cells. From there they push their way into both adjacent sheets of red tissue and differentiate into the more complex mature organs.
The osmotic bulb acts like an osmotic pump, it is an organ comprised of three distinct pieces; the outlet manifold, the reservoir sac, and the squeeze tissue.
Water from the surrounding tissue enters the squeeze tissue, which inflates considerably. Once a threshold of water content difference between the squeeze tissue and the reservoir sac exists then the squeeze tissue begins dumping it's water contents into the reservoir sac it surrounds. A second threshold is met once the reservoir is full and the behavior of the squeeze tissue returns to the previous mode. This inflation causes pressure to occur on the reservoir sac and forces water up and through the outlet manifold, which passes through the impermeable layer, then from which it enters and spreads into the above sheet of red tissue.
Passage polyps are much larger structures comprised of two basic parts, the trunk and the exchange tendrils. The exchange tendrils actively and passively take in and release compounds to allow back and forth exchange of nutrients and hormones between layers. The tendrils of neighboring passage polyps have extreme proximity, this allows the concentration of nutrients entering a layer to be highest nearest the next polyp in line to continue the flow to the next layer, it even allows these structures to bypass releasing into the layer at all if needed (for example hormonal signals meant for tissue not immediately adjacent to one another).The trunk acts as a means to attach the pair of tendril clusters as well as control the flow of substances, becoming a kind of check point for more complex compounds that could be potentially toxic or unnecessary to be broken down; in this sense it could be compared to a simple liver, though very small.
Size comparisons between osmotic bulbs and a passage polyp, as well as display of 3d shape of those organs.
This layer of red tissue, dense with transport structures, permeable tissues, and shifting shapes, comprises only the outer third of the inner tissue of a Doctor Pickle crystal. Further in the two red tissue layers switch ratios, the impermeable layer opening up to house huge colonies of [[Nitrocycle]] that make up the remaining two thirds of the crystals inner mass. This hollow microbiome provides a substantial portion of the nitrogen it's housing organism uses to survive in exchange for a safe place to thrive and reliable supply of sugars and other nutrients. Lining the walls of the central hollow itself is a layer of firm tissue that acts as a base for the thin tendons to reach past the Nitrocycle layer and allows the crystal shape to be manipulated.
Gas exchange is performed along the spaces between the photosynthetic green plates. The red tissue in these cracks are slightly spongy with pores, these pores are the entryways to vast networks of tubes that pass through the impermeable layers. Gaseous oxygen is dissolved from these tubes into a thin mucus layer belonging to the trunks of passage polyps, these structures then transfer the dissolved oxygen into the surrounding tissues alongside other compounds while preventing foreign bodies that may have entered the air tubes from further infiltrating. These air tubes lead all the way to the Nitrocycle layers and allows a continual feed of atmospheric nitrogen to reach them.
The green plates that cover the surface of the crystal are much stouter than many of its relatives and ancestors, this is to allow greater shifting to capture sunlight with the movement of its surface. This photosynthetic tissue is, like with all true crystals, actually an obligate symbiont with a distinct genome and body structure of its own. Compared to it's red tissue counterpart the green tissue has become relatively simplified, relying on much of its nutrient transport and care to be the responsibility of its partner.
The body of the green tissue is discontinuous, the plates are not directly fused but rather even use the red tissue for communicating amongst itself. The structure of a single plate is not homogenous. The innermost sections are wafer thin sheets, infiltrated by red tissue, where nutrient exchange occurs between the two tissues. Gas exchange occurs here for the green tissue, one of the few things the plate does not directly rely on the red tissue for, entering pores in the green wafers that become tubes that feed out into the rest of the plate.Traveling outward these sheets become thicker, the red tissue becoming less pronounce, the cell walls in this region are particularly thick and dense to act as the main supporting structure of the plate. In many crystals this structure provides a significant portion of the body's support as the plates span the length of the entire organism above ground, However in Doctor Pickle its support is less important. More of the structural support is provided by firm red tissues and turgor playing off one another. The outer layer of the green plate is devoid of red tissue, and packed tightly with photosynthetic cells, under a layer of thickly walled protective epidermal cells.
F1 storage lobes, f2 transport cords, f3 indistinct red tissue of root, b2 green tissue dormant bud, b1 growing tip shield
The root structure, being a crystal flora, lacks any bark or covering to separate it from the outside environment beyond its thin epidermis. The reason for this is because it uses this entire surface as a means of actively digesting it's surroundings. Due to the release of digestive enzymes into the surrounding soils, it results in changing the local soil environment into something not very hospitable to most pathogens or potential parasites. The various compounds released by The Root into the soil already creates an environment not particularly welcoming to purple Flora or other competitive organisms, but it also releases compounds found in its ancestral lineage of cellulosebane which have an adverse effect on the cell walls of various Flora that rely on cellulose. This allelopathic affect is what causes the areas colonized by this organism to appear so barren.
Extending out from the initial surface of the root are many heavily branching hands which continue to Branch into hyphae-like bristles or villi with the explicit purpose of increasing the surface area similarly to the root hairs of Earth plants or the mycelium of Earth fungi, playing a role similar to both. The tissue structure of these bristles and hands are not distinguishable from the surrounding tissue of the root itself, nutrients and water taken in passively flow through the tissue toward the main root.
In the more developed portion of the root toward the center, once getting past the indistinct red tissue, what is found is that the tissue gradually becomes more organized in a fashion comparable to the layering found in the above ground body of the Doctor Pickle, with long layers of cells where nutrients and water passively move about separated by an impermeable layer dotted with structures for forcing material in a particular direction.
Even further toward the center of the root are dense lobes of no particular uniform shape, these dense structures are used by the organism as long-term storage of various materials including water and starches and fats. If the crystal takes up toxic compounds it gets stored in these lobes, the cell clusters forming hard cysts that then become cut off from the rest of the organism.
Throughout the indistinct outer layers of red tissue in the roots, there can be found small beads of green tissue, essentially buds, that remained dormant until a particular threshold distance from the above ground body is reached. Distances depend on genetic variables of the colony, which in turn determine hormone sensitivity and production, both of which control this dormancy. Commonly this distance ends up being 4-5 meters between crystals. These buds don't have any particular arrangements in the roots, they're shed by the root tip shield into the red tissue as the root grows.
At the very end of the root the root tip shield can be found which acts as a hard casing that the growing tip can shove through soil so as not to be damaged as it extends. This root tip does not take part in sensing the contents of its surroundings, nor taking up nutrients or water. Both of those jobs are left to the growing red tissue behind it.
The cells of both the red and green tissues are dikaryotic, a trait that has been with the lineage since first diverging from Protosagania. The replication and proliferation of the somatic cells of the binucleid lineages must go through closed nucleus mitosis, unless otherwise having developed alternatives, in order to maintain chromosomal number stability. The method of mitosis among the cells of the Doctor Pickle are unremarkable among the crystal lineages.
Mitosis starts off with spindles of microtubules growing to attach the two nuclei to the equivalent of the four cardinal directions in the cell. One nucleus to the north and west, the other to the south and east (or some other rotationally symmetrical version of this). In a North East, South West orientation contractile rings develop around the respective membranes of both nuclei, and in the same orientation a microtubule tether appears joining the two contractile rings. The chromosome at this point have condensed and formed chromatids, duplicated and ready for division.
Next the spindles begin to contract, pulling the nuclei into elongate forms. The tether between them causes a sickle shape to occur, and prevent the nucleus from being pulled against the cell membrane by the nonopposing forces of the spindles. During this process of karyokinesis, the splitting of the nuclei, chromatids inside are being pulled apart toward each spindle point as well.
Once the chromatids are separated the nuclear contractile rings begin pinching off the middle of the membraneous later they attach to. Further out, along the cell membrane a third and much larger contractile ring develops to begin splitting the cytoplasm is the cell. Soon after, the nuclei are split entirely, the tether and contractile rings completely disassembled with four resulting daughter nuclei, two, one copy of each original nucleus, residing in the two developing cell lobes divided by a quickly receding passageway. Shortly afterward the cytoplasmic contractile ring closes entirely and cytokinesis is complete.
Meiosis, the process of creating the haploid cells destined to venture away as spores, starts off by performing the previously described mitosis. Though not an entirely necessary step from a minimalist point of view, after a cell is dictated to create haploid spores the act of performing mitosis then doubles the number of spores to be created. The dikaryotic daughter cells then merge their two haploid nuclei to create single diploid nuclei inside themselves. Inside the dumps diploid nucleus chromatids are formed, and nuclear exchange between pairs occur. After this the cells divide in more typical karyotic fashion with spindles at their north and south poles. However their nucleus remains intact during the division process, continuing to perform closed mitosis. Because of the chromatid duplication the resulting daughter cells are diploid, and the process of binary fission is executed once more as is typical during meiosis to finally yield four haploid cells each, totaling eight spores.
From a macroscopic glance the inner walls of the mostly hollow fruit body appears fuzzy and off-red in color. A closer look reveals a complex arrangement comprised of two types of tiny structures, both originating from red tissue and green tissue. The first structure, the tallest, is a fan shaped outcrop called a flabellum turris directly attached to the green tissue wall of the fruit body. These brittle towers line the inner wall like fingerprints, twisting around in labyrinthian manners. Along their top crest are narrow fragile shards. These tiny structures are the sporangium tissue of the green half of the Doctor Pickle crystal conglomeration.
The green sporangiums themselves are initially hollow, the cells that make up their very thin walls begin to go through the process of meiosis and give rise to thousands of spores inside them. These spores take in material as they develop and become comparatively large by the time that they mature and are capable of surviving on their own in the air. Once the spores within the sporangium are mature the structure is no longer hollow, it becomes quite full and ceases production at that point.
Below the flagellum turris growths, painting the channels between them, is a fuzzy film of red spores lightly stuck together. The basal stalks of the flagellum turris leach plasmids meant for identifying their body or origin into this sea, which promptly soaks them up. At the bottom of this sea of spores are the red tissue sporangiums. These soft structures, villi-like in appearance only, have their entire surface covered in cells performing meiosis. This continual stream of haploid cells feeds into the mass of spores above them.
As the fruiting body matures the red sporangia dry up. The green sporangia atop their fan shaped homes begin to burst from the slightest disturbance. Soon the fruiting body breaks off from the crystal, either from wind or fauna brushing across it, this jostling is enough to shatter the bases of the flabellum turris and allow them to freely churn the spore layers inside the hollow orb. The spore cloud escapes through any tears, cracks, or breaks in the thin wall of the fruiting body as it moves and continues to churn.
simplified depiction of the reproductive cycle.
The method of reproduction for Doctor Pickle is comparable to other land based crystals, which is itself hardly departed from it's aquatic ancestry.
Spores are initially released from the fruiting body by various means. These spores are either red tissue haploid spores, or green tissue haploid spores. Due to the method in which the Dr Pickle Crystal produces these spores the green spores number far less and act as a population bottleneck. These initial haploid spores drift about in their environments through the air until they are able to land in a moist portion of soil, or a puddle of some nature. In their new environment they drift about until they come in contact with a haploid spore of their same tissue type originating from a different Crystal, their difference in origin is determined by a surface compound essentially creating various mating types. The resulting cell is now considered a dikaryotic protospore, very reminiscent of their binucleid ancestors.
Upon the formation of the red protospore the plasmids that were released, by both parent crystals, activate and begin producing proteins that coat the surface of the cell. These proteins essentially act as a blood type, and can be referred to as such, and are a combination of both parental green tissue blood types. The green protospore also expresses these plasmids, having the same protein results. A red protospore and a green protospore that display the same blood type, or half of a blood type, cannot combine to form a spore modula. They must find a protospore counterpart with an entirely different blood type in order to properly combine to get to the next step of reproduction. Both produce spores replicate, in the standard binucleid fashion of mitosis, spreading through an area until they find a potential protospore partner that meets all of their requirements. This results in a spore modula that has essentially four separate parents.
This spore modula, now surrounded by protospores competing for nutrients takes advantage of the combined abilities of its own two protospores to be able to replicate faster than its neighbors and dominate the given area. Pushing out genetically distinct protospores that failed to reach their next step the spore modula forms a fetal sheet. This sheet of cells is not a particularly standard step in the development of a crystal, but does happen to occur among Doctor Pickle crystals. The fetal sheet is a layer very rich in the heterotrophic red cells that make up a crystal, having yet differentiated and layered into more complex tissues. They house themselves in a mucus which provides a barrier between the actual colony and the outside world and also provides an extra cellular means of holding the colony together. Throughout the colony are the green tissue cells loosely connected to one another, they mainly act as a source of hormonal control stimulating the red cells to proliferate and establish the colony further.
Upon reaching a certain size threshold, the green tissue of the fetal sheet begin to change the growth pattern of the colony. They stimulate the red tissue to begin differentiating at a certain central point, and the green tissue itself begins to thicken and proliferate to surround that point. The green tissue begins forming the more recognizable facets of a crystal, albeit very tiny, while the red tissue inside begins forming the more recognizable tissue layers and organs. As this juvenile Spike grows further the sheets of red cells that made up the fetal sheet become overtaken by the more complex differentiated red tissue from that Central point and are pushed aside by juvenile roots tipped with green tissue root caps. The tiny juvenile Spike resembles a more typical crystal, with the facets reaching from the base to the tip unbroken except along their verticals to create long strips of photosynthetic surfaces. Among Doctor Pickles these facets usually range 12 to 24 in number and seem to be influenced by blood type.
The manner in which a juvenile Spike grows is comparable to the growth of a typical crystal. The the tip of the crystal growing in a vertical manner to increase the height of the organism, with tissue down the body of the Crystal from the tip increasing in growth outward, and increased thickness of the structurally supportive layers of the green tissue plates along that same length. This outward growth and thickness of plate is most recognized at the base of the crystal, that area having existed the longest.
Once the juvenile Spike reaches a height of about 15-20 cm it deviates from the growth habit of other crystals. Once having reached this height the green plates pinch away from the leading growth tip and become separate body parts. The growth tip repeats the process of growing upward and creating new plates, until that same height is achieved and they pinch off again. Along the edges of these plates the green tissue broadens to allow the transfer of pressure to continue the support of the organism. The red tissue beneath the green plates remains unsegmented, and along these breaks in the plates, where the broad contact edges exist, the majority of gas exchange occurs, reaching behind the plates and into the red tissue. The previous layer of photosynthetic facets continues to widen and increase the footprint of the crystal as it ages. This growth rate is greatest in the bottom handful of rows. The rows along the midsection of the crystal grow in a more uniform rate as the crystal matures, resulting in a shape that is less pyramidal and more cylindrical. A doctor pickle crystal, during a good growing season, is able to put on two or three of these rows before going dormant for the cold long winter.
After the formation of about three or four rows of photosynthetic plates the growing tip begins to changes behavior, elongating further and pinching the inner hollow chamber of the crystal. This pinched off section of hollow red tissue inside the growing tip is then triggered to differentiate and form the defensive organ of the Dr Pickle. The tissue at the base of this organ then takes over the role of the growth tip. The new growth ring just beneath the mace horn creates a new row of plates that then continue on the standard growth of the crystal. The size of the mace horn remains fairly constant, the pieces of green tissue that make it up do not grow much at all.
Individuals that have been grown from root buds go through the same process, though skipping any fetal sheets or protospores and simply beginning at the juvenile Spike stage.
Winter survival is achieved in a not particularly elegant combination of various methods. The cells of all the tissue exude their water into the extracellular space so as not to burst has the water freezes. They then also fill themselves with and the intracellular spaces with sugar and proteins that bind water. This prevents the water from crystallizing even at very low temperatures.
This post has been edited by colddigger: Sep 4 2022, 07:14 PM
A brief note: the name is very odd. I recommend "Doctor Pickle", or Doctor's Pickle (e.g., like "St. John's Wort" in name). Both are still very odd, though. "Physicians' Gerkin" (that, is a misspelling of "gherkin", or pickle) sounds more like an actual plant name, which is appropriate for a flora.
waiting for submissions to open, here's some recent art that'll make it into submissions soonish
I just noticed this is lebeled as week 26, lol...will there actually be a new thread?
I just noticed this is lebeled as week 26, lol...will there actually be a new thread?
Trunklahn
Ancestor : Greater Lahn
Creator: colddigger
Height: 5 m Tall
Habitat: Drake Temperate Woodland
Diet: Photosynthesis, Detritivore, Carnivore (Offspring); Males Herbivore (Fuzzpile Seedlings and Berries, Syrup Ferine Seedlings and Berries, Sleeve Ferine Seedlings and Berries, Wafflebark Ferine Seedlings and Berries, Lurtress Seedlings, Lurspire Seedlings, Lurcreeper Seedlings, Marbleflora, Pioneeroots)
Support: Chitin
Respiration: Semi-Active (Unidirectional Tracheae)
Thermoregulation: Ectotherm (Basking)
Reproduction: Sexual (Sequential Hermaphrodite, Eggs), Asexual (Parthenogenesis)
The Trunklahn split from its ancestor, competing with purple flora led to greater emphasis on the height of just a few wings. These wings become fewer and fewer, and larger and larger until the population became what they are now. The mass of wings that grew from the back of the female have become dominated by one wing that has redeveloped its structure into a singular trunk that supports branching growths off of the top and sides. Which wing becomes dominant to form the trunk is determined by greatest blood flow, which just happens to occur in the second front left wing in the majority of Trunklahn. Some individuals experience other wings becoming dominant, however.
Toward the base of the trunk there are offshoots that will point downward in order to anchor into the soil and help resist stresses that may topple it. When mature the other wings are shed or reabsorbed into the female body.
Although it has become a larger structure it still lacks any equivalent of a microphyll or leaflet, continuing to rely on structures that are primarily vascular systems as opposed to any particularly specialized tissue surface or organ for photosynthesis beyond what had already existed in its ancestors.
Being a lineage of worm it still relies on its unidirectional tracheal system in its primary body for all of its gaseous exchange needs. Because of this both the front and rearmost points of the body have moved in order to remain exposed above the surface to maximize their ability to pass air through this tracheal system.
When mature the primary occupying organ of the body of the female is the heart, to be able to move liquid up to the highest most points in the wing it needs to be comparably massive to the rest of the organs. The second largest system in the body are the reproductive organs for churning out offspring. Digestion and absorption of nutrients is performed entirely along the surface of the branching tongue-roots.
Because all gas exchange occurs in the main body of the worm, where their respiration remains, it means that there is no gas exchange at the top of the wings where photosynthesis occurs. Due to this all carbon dioxide used for photosynthesis is passed to the top of the wings through the blood system. The blood does not actually exchange carbon dioxide into the atmosphere via exhaling, as heterotrophic worms do, rather it becomes a sink for co2 while oxygen ends up being fairly freely exchanged as it increases in concentration in the blood due to photosynthesis breaking water and creating more of it that enters into the lahn blood system. Due to this excess of oxygen mature worms tend to be a little bit anemic.
Unfortunately as the worm becomes more dependent on photosynthesis, actually becoming entirely dependent on it for energy purposes once fully mature, the carbon dioxide content of its blood goes down quite a bit. This is simply due to the difference between atmospheric carbon dioxide and the carbon dioxide found in the blood of typical active heterotrophs, the second being about a hundred times more concentrated than the first. This of course is what allows passive exchange of carbon dioxide from the blood into the atmosphere as a heterotroph exhales or however it happens to exchange waste gas with its environment. To get around this sudden drop in available carbon the Trunklahn employs parthenogenetically created offspring.
Parthenogenetically created males stay around their mother tree as long as the tree is alive. This captivation of them by the mother tree is maintained by the tips of specialized tongue-roots that stick out of the surface of the soil and secrete highly addictive compounds derived from attractive pheromones. The males stick around the area going about their daily lives feeding and multiple times a day visit a tongue tip to consume the thin layer of secretion on it.
When not busy satiating their addiction to mucus the males feed primarily on any seedlings of purple flora they can find. These baby organisms are still rich in energy from their seeds and their tissues are still soft and easy to chew. This food preference has the added benefit of thinning potential canopy competition with Trunklahns in the area. When seedlings cannot be found they will settle for other small purple flora.
Similar to their mature counterpart the male worm will not exhale carbon dioxide as a waste gas, rather it has a hyperactive response to excess carbon dioxide in its blood by sinking it into reserves of carbonate that it stores in its body. When the mother tree senses that it's carbon contents is becoming low, then when one of the males begins feeding on a tongue-root tip it will suddenly become stuck and be wrenched downward into the soil where the tongue-roots will kill it to pull all of its carbonate stores from its body. The more complex carbon compounds are gradually broken down to be consumed as well, and any valuable minerals or nutrients along with it.
Sexually produced males are sporadically created as the chance arises, there is no particular breeding season. If a rogue male from another tree is sensed to be feeding from a tongue tip, which is determined via the tongue-root tip tasting them as it feeds, the tip will release true attractive pheromones. These pheromones will put the rogue male in an aroused state and it will mate with the comparatively massive female.
The resulting males from the coupling do not receive much favor from the tongue-root tips as their parthenogenetically born brothers. If one is tasted to be feeding the tip stops producing attractants all together until the male goes away. This weaning and prevention results in sexually produced males straying further away from their mother than their brothers, and becoming rogue wandering males often occurs. Many get picked off, but some stumble across a new Trunklahn with which they will breed. Others that survive but don't find a mate by the end of summer will eventually become large females themselves.
Over the summer the males, regardless of the living situation, will bulk up fat stores on fallen fruit and whatever consumable vegetation they can find. When the temperature starts dropping they either find or create nearby burrows to overwinter while in a state of torpor. During this cold period the female tree will enter torpor as well, gradually absorbing the tissue that makes up it's wing beginning with the tips and branchings. The addicted males will still venture out every so often to attempt feeding on tongue-root tip mucus, only to be dragged down and consumed as the unwitting winter food stores of the female tree. Typically all males are devoured by the time spring emerges. If one somehow survives the winter it will remain in its burrow and mature into a young female tree.
On the death of a female all males under the tree's influence will scatter from the lack of attractant and stimulant. They all become rogue males that go through the process of either finding a mate or becoming a tree.
This post has been edited by colddigger: Sep 14 2022, 12:29 AM
Ballshrog Vulpeluptra ballusshrogus
Creator: colddigger
Ancestor: Maineiac Rivershrog
Size: 80 cm long
Habitat: Maineiac Bush
Diet: Carnivore (Teacup Saucebacks, Minikruggs, Vermees, Sapworms, Silkruggs)
Support: Endoskeleton (bone)
Respiration: Active (lungs)
Thermoregulation: Endotherm (fur)
Reproduction: Sexual (Male and Female, Live Birth, Milk)
The ballshrog split from it's ancestor the Maineiac Rivershrog and moved away from the river in order to colonize the sparse and flat Maineiac Bush. They live in family units based around a dominant mating pair, with several generations of their litters living alongside them sharing in the rearing of their younger siblings.
Their nests have returned to a spherical shape, simplifying to have a single Central chamber comprising essentially the entire nest. The nest is made from thin strips of wood as well as more flexible thin dry pieces of Flora weaved together to create a lightweight, insulating, and durable wall. The walls of these nests are woven in such a manner that there are quite a few points of visibility through it that can be closed off if needed but typically left open. Within this wall various shaped pieces of wood can be stored for example extra pieces for patching damage, as well as storage for hunting spears.
The nest itself is mobile across the ground, the entire family acting as a unit to move it comparable to the movement of a hamster ball. On either side of this unit, during mobilization, each parent will be placed, and the term for each of them will be used to decide the direction that the family will begin moving the ball.
If one of the members spots an object of interest while the ball is in motion it will begin to bark out the name of the parent in the direction that it believes the nest should be moving, the orientation of its somewhat ornate head will cause other members to look and try to observe its focus of interest. If they find the decision agreeable they will join in barking the parents name and when a majority consensus is agreed upon then the mass will drift in that direction and shift the movement of the nest.
Hunting is often performed inside the nest itself just jabbing a thin spear through its wall when a prey item is spotted, impaling it and then quickly pulling it in to be eaten or shared. Running over prey items using the nest itself to squash and trample, while simultaneously impaling with thin Spears, is also a method of hunting, though more often used on larger prey that may be more avoidant. Venturing outside of the nest for hunting is less common but does occur if the nest is not in movement and no prey can be found for a period of time. More typically if a member is outside of the nest it's either to deal with bodily waste or to obtain water.
The ballshrog reaches maturity after about 5 years although offspring often stay twice as long in a nest to aid in rearing their younger siblings. After that time they will leave the nest to search for a mate in the wild, this being the most dangerous point in their life purely due to exposure to the elements and potential to quickly run out of resources. If a mate is found and is agreeable with them then they will both work together to build a simple nest to protect them from the elements. They will, as a pair, work together to move the nest around, hiding and hunting in it, until their first litter is large enough to be able to move on their own and help move the nest. As their family grows the nest will expand with it to accommodate.
This post has been edited by colddigger: Aug 8 2022, 10:53 PM
I guess we're just using this for Week 27 then.
I still need to make a write-up for this but VC on the discord drained my energy haha (and I may need to throw in a few more herbivores). It's another predator for lamarck, but it's an omnivore and can fall back on other food sources if necessary.
I still need to make a write-up for this but VC on the discord drained my energy haha (and I may need to throw in a few more herbivores). It's another predator for lamarck, but it's an omnivore and can fall back on other food sources if necessary.
Contorted Volleypom Corticihirsuti contorta
Ancestor: Shaggy Volleypom
Creator: colddigger
Diet: Photosynthesis
Habitat: Martyk Temperate Woodland Archipelago, Iiteum Plains Archipelago, Iiteum Temperate Beach, Martyk Temperate Beach, South Darwin Plains, Koseman Temperate Woodland
Height 30 m Tall
Thermoregulation Heliothermy, black pigmentation
Support lignified Cellulose Based Cell Walls
Respiration Passive (Tracheal system in leaves, air labyrinth throughout tissue)
Reproduction Sexual, hard shelled megaspores and airborne microspores
The Contorted Volleypom split from its ancestor in Martyk Temperate Woodland Archipelago, shrank considerably, and spread throughout the coastlines of Martyk Temperate Sea.
The majority of their populations hug the coastal edges of their given biomes, getting windswept and contorted as they grow. Though they are unable to survive on seawater they will grow, albeit stunted, behind the high tide mark of beaches and growing along tops of cliffs. Their large bases attach to broad root systems that work quite well at preventing erosion in their otherwise dynamically changing environment.
Both summer and winter leaves have become narrower to prevent dessication from the constant ocean breeze and have a near constant PHB bioplastic coating as a response to the salt in the air and wind. Populations further inland or protected from sea winds do not have this constant layer. The winter leaf has simplified further to only have a single pneumathode on the tip to minimize it's surface. Trichomes are commonly found in varying degrees similarly, and for similar reason, to is ancestor.
The clusters of microsporangia are smaller, individuals being about 2-3 cm long in clusters only 40 cm long, and are less tightly grown together compared to it's ancestor, the individual sporangiums may even be without contact between each other once mature. The megasporangium grow in small clusters of up to three, but more often are lone individuals. These 10 cm papery structures form fewer, and larger, megaspores inside themselves. Sprouts grow at a rate of about 1 meter a year, and begin to reproduce at about 4 years old, producing microsporangium in small numbers, megasporangium appearing a few years later.
A new feature to the megasporangium of the Contorted Volleypom that can be attributed to its success is the formation of an air pocket at it's base as it matures. This pocket is a result of both water being moved from the surrounding tissue into the large megaspores, as well as increased dessication from coastal winds. These pockets are smaller among inland populations due to lack of environmental influence. As fallen megasporangium get moved around their environment, by wind or rain or other organisms, many of these crinkly structures make it into the surrounding saltwaters. Without the air pocket they would sink a short while after entering the water, their heavy megaspore cargo dragging them down. But the air pocket instead allows them to bob slightly at the surface and either wash back to shore from where they came or to new shores to give the young they carry a second chance.
The bark of the Contorted Volleypom is a little smoother with much wider sheets that develop in comparison to its ancestor the Shaggy Volleypom. This change helps protect it from climbing herbivores that may otherwise find footholds along the surface. Dead twigs, killed from environmental stresses, can be common in their canopy. Most other characteristics are fairly similar to their ancestor.
This post has been edited by colddigger: Aug 14 2022, 11:12 PM
I was going through my file of ideas when I found some microbe or tiny parasite options. I am providing these 80-90% done ideas mainly for input on whether I should design them as widespread single species or genus groups. If genus groups, I may need help adding more detail to their descriptions.
Spearsore: Basically, shrog impetigo. Highly infectious, but a minor pathogen: it's mainly just annoying and itchy.
Antisanguine Polyfees
A Polyfees genus group adapted to compete with Sanguine O'Spheres to ensure a reliable blood supply, which inadvertently protect their hosts. May be in a good position to replace Polyfees, if only for a few kinds of organisms.
Nachoetoes
A genus group of commensal microbes which lives on the feet or hands or furred shrews, bestowing them with distinctive odors. It is largely harmless, and, rarely, causes a mild skin infection. It's based on the bacteria or yeast species that live on the feet of dogs and give their feet the smell of nachos. Could use a little more detail.
Spearsore: Basically, shrog impetigo. Highly infectious, but a minor pathogen: it's mainly just annoying and itchy.
Click to expand
Antisanguine Polyfees
A Polyfees genus group adapted to compete with Sanguine O'Spheres to ensure a reliable blood supply, which inadvertently protect their hosts. May be in a good position to replace Polyfees, if only for a few kinds of organisms.
Click to expand
Nachoetoes
A genus group of commensal microbes which lives on the feet or hands or furred shrews, bestowing them with distinctive odors. It is largely harmless, and, rarely, causes a mild skin infection. It's based on the bacteria or yeast species that live on the feet of dogs and give their feet the smell of nachos. Could use a little more detail.
Click to expand
I like all of these
Nachoetoes sound like they would make sense as a genus group.
Spearsore makes more sense as a widespread single entry, but I wonder how that interacts with the wildcard system; I personally wouldn't count it under wildcard since it's a microclimate thing, but Mni might. Alternatively it can be a notable subgenus in a broader genus group that does similar things.
Spearsore makes more sense as a widespread single entry, but I wonder how that interacts with the wildcard system; I personally wouldn't count it under wildcard since it's a microclimate thing, but Mni might. Alternatively it can be a notable subgenus in a broader genus group that does similar things.
| QUOTE (Disgustedorite @ Aug 27 2022, 09:27 PM) |
| Nachoetoes sound like they would make sense as a genus group. Spearsore makes more sense as a widespread single entry, but I wonder how that interacts with the wildcard system; I personally wouldn't count it under wildcard since it's a microclimate thing, but Mni might. Alternatively it can be a notable subgenus in a broader genus group that does similar things. |
How about making Spearsores a notable, comparatively annoying and severe subgenus in the Nachotoes genus? They have similar pathologies and hosts, after all.
Name: Quillroot
The front end (the pointy end on the right) grows toward the strongest sense of iron. Growing in an undulating pattern catching a breath with lenticels. It uses this iron to reinforce its defenses.... iron thorns and quills. Thorns/quills closer to the front are shorter and sturdier. Quills further to the back and longer and more brittle. When this goes back underground, the longest quills will break off. The shorter thorns don't.
Herbivores might still try to eat this but if the thorns and quills don't make the think twice, the reinforced iron will grind down their teeth.
Inside the tip of the iron quill is a spore capsule. After breaking off from the main organism, once the iron begins to rust, the spore will emerge, consuming the iron to grow into a new baby organism. This breaking could be a result of just breaking off as the Quillroot goes back underground, or by being eaten by an herbivore.
It's hard to evaluate the Quillroot without knowing its ancestor, and whether it has known herbivores which justify such extreme defenses. For example, if it lives in a habitat with little or no herbivores, such adaptations would not be plausible.
You'll have to elaborate how the iron reinforces its quills. Try checking out zinc-reinforced ovipositors in wasps, trees with nickel sap, and other examples of real-life organisms with body parts high in metal reinforcement.
You'll have to elaborate how the iron reinforces its quills. Try checking out zinc-reinforced ovipositors in wasps, trees with nickel sap, and other examples of real-life organisms with body parts high in metal reinforcement.
Cousin to the Moleroot
Ancestor: Quillfence
As it burrows it takes in the iron and uses it to encase spore capsules in it. Then as it consumes more iron, more iron is added and it grows longer...
Ancestor: Quillfence
As it burrows it takes in the iron and uses it to encase spore capsules in it. Then as it consumes more iron, more iron is added and it grows longer...
| QUOTE (Coolsteph @ Sep 1 2022, 06:41 PM) |
| It's hard to evaluate the Quillroot without knowing its ancestor, and whether it has known herbivores which justify such extreme defenses. For example, if it lives in a habitat with little or no herbivores, such adaptations would not be plausible. You'll have to elaborate how the iron reinforces its quills. Try checking out zinc-reinforced ovipositors in wasps, trees with nickel sap, and other examples of real-life organisms with body parts high in metal reinforcement. |
Madamedusa Vine (Donecaudamus gorgon)
Creator: colddigger
Ancestor: Baebula
Habitat: Raptor Tropical Rainforest, West Wallace Tropical Woodland, Dixon Subtropical Woodland, Dixon Subtropical Rainforest, Dixon Tropical Woodland, Wallace Tropical Rainforest, Central Wallace Tropical Woodland
Size: Vine Segment (1 Meter), Full Body (Tall as Host)
Diet: Photosynthesis
Support: Cell Wall (Cellulose), Flotation Bubbles (Hydrogen)
Respiration: unknown
Thermoregulation: none? Hydrogen oxidation?
Reproduction: Sexual, Hydrogen Filled Seed Bubbles
The Madamedusa Vine split from its ancestor and took on a very different lifestyle. Rather than attempting to fully support it's entire body on its own it has now begun using other Flora as a support system. In combination to the sudden loss of the limiting factor of needing to support its own weight, as well as the demand to compete for light and resources with its host, The Madamedusa Vine has taken on a climbing sprawling lifestyle, essentially becoming a vine. It has traded its central trunk and branching body form for a repeating pattern of segments along a branching central cord. At each node of segment multiple dormant buds exist to replace damaged cord or activate when the growing tips are too far away to maintain their dormancy, as this state is held by constant hormonal exposure.
These internodal segments are capped off by the bulbous float tethers. The base of the cord is large and hollow, an artifact from initially being the leading tip of its segment before the next segment grew out from it. This hollow starts out rich in hydrogen, the gas compound being created more quickly that it can escape in the young tissues, but becomes a mixture of CO2 and hydrogen as it matures and no longer needs to act as a growing point. Two dormant lobes hang off the face of the cord, pointing opposite of where the cord grows, these become active if the float is destroyed or broken away. They simply grow to become new tethers and create new floats.
Immediately off the base of the tether grows a wiry holdfast, sharing in structural origin to the tether and float. At the ends of these twisting, gripping, strands are an uneven pair stipules of sorts followed by four thin hairs for grasping even more firmly. The flat stipules are derived from the leaves of the more classic Baebula float, while the hairs are derived bubble seed tissue. These holdfasts are typically split into threes. There is a dormant bud at the base that replaces them if they're damaged.
The float at the end of the unbranched tether has several layers to it's construction. The first layer is actually derived from the asexual bubble seeds, having migrated down below the leaves, they no longer act as a standard means of reproduction and instead are the main source of floatation. The distinct bubbles that form the irregular mass have walls only four cells thick to minimize mass, with the inner wall housing nanostructures meant to minimize hydrogen loss. The ballast for the float is actually the tapered end of the drooping tether. The following organ layer is the skirt of leaves that go all the way around the float. The once flat structures are now ballooned and sausage-like in appearance from a hollow inner chamber.
The top layer of the float is a newer organ system. Bubble development occurs in a counter-clockwise fashion, with bubbles occurring one after another in gradual maturity. The ancestral bubble seed was a specialized asexual structure for reproduction, it's cells were chromosomally the same as the somatic cells found through the rest of the bubble weed body. The large structures were made of many cells, and growth could be found all across the surface of the bubble until maturity. The bubbles of the Madamedusa Vine are comparable, initially being chromosomally indistinct from other somatic cells during early development. Eventually a point of growth on the young bubble seamlessly transitions into a haploid state, these cells then dominate the growth of the bubble.
At a size large enough to be noted when observing the wheel of bubbles atop the float, the developing bubble grows a unique tube structure, hollow inside and unbroken from the hydrogen bladder inside the bubble. This growth is a gametangium and begins shedding haploid cells from its outer surface in the form of airborne gametes, or sexual spores. These sit on the surface that created them until they're brushed, or blown, or bumped, upon which they puff away as a cloud.
As the bubble matures further the gametangium continues to elongate into a wispy thread form, it ceases spore production and creates a thin layer of mucus on its surface. The wisp moves with air currents, resulting in it covering more volume of its surroundings than if it were to remain still. If a spore from a Madamedusa Vine, including itself, lands on the wisp it is shuttled to the base via mucus where it fuses with a haploid cell of the bubble. This results in dozens of zygotes before the wisp stops producing mucus.
Once no more mucus is produced the wispy thread growing off the bubble dies and desiccates, it becomes nothing more than a light crinkled wire sticking out. During this period the existence of zygotes trigger the bubble to produce and accumulate a noxious yellowing compound in it's walls to deter foraging from [[Minikruggs]] or [[Floraverms]]. By the time the wire is completely dead and dry the bubble will have fully matured. The point of connection between the parent flora and the bubble will release, the circle of bubbles will appear to shift slightly counter-clockwise as undeveloped bubbles become revealed. The loose bubble will float away at the mercy of the winds, with the brittle wire hanging beneath it. If the wire catches on something, hopefully a large tree, due to it's twisted shape it is likely to snag and hold the bubble in place. Many bubbles however simply drift off and die before bumping into a host.
Once stuck on a twig or branch it's merely a matter of time for the hydrogen, no longer in production, to escape from the bubble and cause it to lose buoyancy. As the sac of air sags downward it tugs on the wire holding it in place, eventually becoming too heavy and easily snapping it. The partially delayed bubble drifts down to the base of its perch, and settles on the ground. On the ground the bubble slowly flattens from pressure loss and its somatic cells slowly die, their nutrients seeping into the actively growing zygotes turned embryos.
These embryos, fed with the cytoplasm of the entire bubble, are able to take root as quickly as any other more conventional purple flora seed. Selection for quickly establishing embryos that can outcompete their siblings is strong, their proximity to one another due to sharing a single bubble causes this pressure. Sometimes a few settle into a dynamic in which they share their spot for anchoring into the soil, but normally a single root system manages to strangle out any others.
Initial above ground growth is of a simple, featureless, cord of tissue. This photosynthetic cord arches and flops over itself as it reaches upward but remains unable to support its own weight. Once reaching about 25 centimeters in length the growing tip begins enlarging to form a hollow inside it and activates hydrogen production. This large hollow filled with hydrogen lifts the cord upward, as it continues to grow and distinguish in shape from the cord it elongates and buds appear near its base. One of these buds develops into holdfasts, another begins to grow another cord, which very quickly starts the formation of a second hollow float. The new cord between these two floats experiences intercalary growth to elongate to a length of up to 1 meter. As the second float behind to mature it repeats the process, and this process repeats indefinitely.
The first float, or immature float tether, having grown into a slight teardrop shape, now develops what were once bubble seeds in it's ancestor. These structures are no longer uniform, sporadically growing to form a robust clump of extremely thin walled floats. The mass is dominated by a handful of floats, with many smaller forms surrounding them ready to grow and take their place if damage occurs. The leaf skirt grows up from the top center of the mass, pointing up as they grow and inflate, then draping down as they mature and get displaced but the circle of developing bubble seeds on top of the now fully formed float. The length of tether between the central cord and the float continues to grow via intercalary growth.
This method of segment formation continues as long as the hosting flora has points for the holdfasts to grasp. As the leading tip moves away from lower nodes it's suppressive influence on buds becomes deadened and the buds form their own growing tips and segments. Over the years other bubble seeds come to colonize the same host, as well as new branches growing off the central cord will proliferate, and the host will become saturated. Even with the hydrogen and thin translucent walls of the floats and tethers and growing tips lessening the burden of weight and the shadow of flora competition for light, the sheer number of floats shading out the host and the strangle hold of the holdfasts on any point that can be grabbed results in the death of the host. Often the remains will stand for several more years, even reinforced by the Madamedusa Vines covering it. Ultimately, though, it will topple to the ground and with it all the vines that lived there, on the ground the delicate vines are crushed by fauna, shaded out by tougher purple flora, and devoured by opportunistic herbivores and detritivores.
This post has been edited by colddigger: Sep 8 2022, 09:18 PM
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