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labgnome — Dragon Planet Metazoa

Published: 2018-02-05 02:36:11 +0000 UTC; Views: 756; Favourites: 4; Downloads: 1
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Description So here is a larger-scale view of life on this still unnamed dragon planet.  Most all multicellular life is closely related with several exceptions that I will go into later.  Here we have examples of the phylum level divisions.

Endoskelita: Organisms with internal skeletons for support.  Vertebrate analogues.  Dragons, unicorns, and many of the most familiar creatures belong in this group.  Primitive forms are segmented.  Discussed in detail here .

Exoskelita: Organisms with external skeletons for protection.  Arthropod analogues.  My arthropod faeries and various mythical, legendary and cryptic arthropods belong in this group.  it is a sibling clade to the Endoskelita phylum.

Vermosegmenta: Segmented organisms lacking skeletons go here.  They are related to both the endoskelita and exoskelita phylums.  All three of these groups evolved form a common ancestor that could produce asexual buds anterior-to posterior.  Though this was lost it evolved into a repeating segmented body-plan in all three groups.

Venculata: chain-colony organisms.  Though some are independant and non-colonial, most organisims form long colonial chains, anus-to-mouth in the direction of their asexual bubding.

Polycephala: multi-headed organisms.  Though a more accurate description might be multi-mouthed organisms, as most species only have a single major nerve-center.  Thier anatomy is the result of an ancestor that had a reproductive rout that involved asexual budding.  Ultimatly the full budding was lost, but partial budding during development results in a repetition of features, such as mouths.

Paplomazoa: quilt-colony organisms.  Analogues to salps and man-o-wars, and many other planktonic or free-swimming colonial marine organisms.  Some primitive members of this phylum do not form colonies.

Cocheleata: shelled, non-segmented organisms.  Though some species have lost their shells, they are ancestral to the phylum.  Many mythical snails belong in this phylum.

Scopulama: reef-building non-segmented organisms.  Though not all build reefs, ancestrally this group can produce mineralized secretions that allow them to construct protective shelters.  They are a sibling clade to the cocheleata.

Malakosa: soft-bodied, non-segmented organisms.  Many "giants" belong in this group, as do many "krakens".  They are closely related to the shelled cocheleata and reef-building sopulama.

Streidicysta: organisms with a parasitic haploid stage.  These organisms have haploid bodies that live as parasites on, or in other organisms.

Patomata: organisms with a sedentary, independent haploid stage.  Many of these haploid stages are microscopic, others form colonies.

Loulada: flowering plant analogues.  Distinctively, the primitive members of this group are "fern-like".

Peneisa: coniferous plant analogues.

Glomeroruma: spore-plant analogues.

Paraphyta: parasite plants.  Plant analogues that have haploid forms that live as parasites in other organisms.  The myths about people turning into plants given horrible biological reality.

Anerophyta: moving plants.  Plant analogues that produce motile haploid bodies.  This is the group "vegetable lambs" belong in, but also "beanstalks" and "world trees".

Monophyta: carnivorous plants without a motile diploid body.  The prototypical "carnivorous tree" cryptid.

Diphyta: "carnivorous" plants with a motile haploid body.  Dryads maybe?

Tsantata: sack organisms.  Bag-shaped marine organisms that can generate powerful currents to feed, the "old man of the sea".  They are related to the plant-like animals.

Sedatasomata: the most primitive of the "two bodied" organisms.  They have sedentary haploid and diploid forms.

Dendrolichena: the lichen-trees.  The most superficially similar to terrestrial trees in many ways, these arganisims are a symbiosis between a fungus-like host and certain algae.

Xylomanitara: the woody-mushrooms.  Also known as "giant mushrooms" or "mushroom trees", though some do grow to impressive sizes, there are many smaller species as well.  Like lichen-trees they have hard wood-like tissues.

Molliboleta: the soft-mushrooms.  Almost direct analogues of terrestrial mushrooms.  The largest anatomical difference is the presence of more developed "roots".

Terrafingunta:  the  "land molds".  These fungi analogues are more primitive than the "soft mushrooms", and tend to lack the distinctive fruiting bodies.  They do however have adaptations, such as airborne spores and 

Polymorpha: the shape-shifters.  Capable of altering their consistency and arranging themselves into multiple distinct forms, the shape-shifters offer a radically different approach to multicellularity then many other phylums.

Gelatasoma: the gel-organisms.  More complex than any other amoebic organisms, these "blobs" have multiple specialized cells operating at once, sometimes in distinct tissues.

Propagata: the ooze-organisms.  The most prototypical of the amoebic organisms.  They are known for their distinctive "oozing" which grants them slow, but effective motility.  They are closely related to the shape-shifters and gel-organisms.

Limusa: the slime-organisms.  Unlike ooze-organisms, the slime organisms are largely sedentary colonies that feed on decaying matter or other organisms that get caught in their mucus secretions.

Neromouchla: the "water molds".  The most primitive relatives of the fungus analogues and the amoebic organisms.  Some are fulter-feeders similar to sponges.

Archeosomata: the most primitive phylum of multicellular organisms.  Many species are more "colonial" rather than truly multicellular.

So if you wanted to get a better idea of how the vertebrates I've been dealing with relate to most of the other stuff on the planet here is a good start.  The plant/animal division isn't so clear-cut here, but the animal/fungus is possibly more-so.  They are all descended form a common, multicellular or colonial ancestor.  The other major groups of multi-cellular life-forms are the "algae & simple plants" and the "golden apple trees" which will be fairly alien.
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Comments: 4

bensen-daniel [2018-02-07 09:15:05 +0000 UTC]

applause! I love this project!

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labgnome In reply to bensen-daniel [2018-02-08 18:44:50 +0000 UTC]

Thanks, it's a lot of fun to do.  I have some other multicellular groups as well, 3 or 4, but they are relatively minor.  The "simple plants", more biologically analogous to terrestrial plants, but kind of evolutionarily stuck int he Carboniferous, because they were out-competed in many of their niches  by the plant-like animal phyla.  I may also have a red or brown algae analogue clade.  A sore of protist-like "animalcules" clade that are all reduced to microscopic size, due to being out-competed by the animal analogues.  lastly the strangest clade, and the most apparent, a clade of lithitrophic and metallitrophic that fulfills the mythical trope of plants with "golden" (or otherwise metallic, or inorganic) parts.  They are evolutionary hold-overs from an anaerobic ecosystem that dominated the planet before the rise of oxygen producing organisms.

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

bensen-daniel In reply to labgnome [2018-02-09 07:00:50 +0000 UTC]

neat. I love your approach 

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

labgnome In reply to bensen-daniel [2018-02-09 21:39:15 +0000 UTC]

I mean I've seen people who have done his sort of thing in part, but even just restricted to the vertebrates, I haven't seen anyone try to cover all of this comprehensively. 

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