Content:Fermi 5

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Contents 1 Tree of Life 2 History 3 Week 1 3.1 Planet 3.2 Species 3.2.1 Base Generation 3.2.1.1 Sagan Moss 3.2.1.2 Starflora 3.2.1.3 Ventgrass 3.2.1.4 Lithworm 3.2.1.5 Siftworm 3.2.1.6 Hungry Fuzz 3.2.2 1st Generation 3.2.2.1 Star Bulb 3.2.2.2 Blanket Star 3.2.2.3 Hungry Stalk 3.2.2.4 Hitchhiker Fuzz 3.2.2.5 Floral Blotter 3.2.2.6 Quadworm 3.2.2.7 Rootworm 3.2.2.8 Mossworm 3.2.2.9 Spreadleaf Moss 3.2.2.10 Sagan towermoss 3.2.2.11 Sagan Shield Moss 3.2.2.12 Sagan Stalk 3.2.2.13 Noxius Flappermoss 3.2.2.14 Ventfeather 3.2.2.15 Puffingworm 3.2.2.16 Venthanger 3.2.2.17 Toungeworm 3.2.2.18 Ventscraper 3.2.2.19 Paddletailed Siftworm 3.2.2.20 Siphongrass 3.2.2.21 Cucumworm 3.2.3 2nd Generation

[edit] Tree of Life

[edit] History

Weeks: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5

[edit] Week 1

[edit] Planet

Homestar: Fermi

Homestar Type: Yellow Distance from the Homestar: 200,000,000 km

Planet: Fermi 5

Revolution around the Homestar: 411

Planet Rotation: 27 Earth-hours per day

Number of Moons: 1

Mone Size: 1/5 size of planet

Gravity: 0.97 G

Axis Tilt: 20 degrees

Air Temperature: Warm

Sea Temperature: Warm

Atmosphere

CO2: Mid

O2: Mid

N2: High

Methane: Low

Dust: Mid-High

Water Vapor: High

Volcanic Activity: Very Active

Ocean Levels: Mid-Low

[edit] Species

[edit] Base Generation

[edit] Sagan Moss

• Size: 1 cm tall
• Energy Source: Sunlight
• Reproduction: Asexual Budding

These species acts much like Earth's moss and grows just about everywhere from hot wet to cold and dry. They are the ultimate survivor species and are the base of a potential food chain. Its purple stem/stalks collect sunlight while its green roots absorb water and minerals from the soil. It can only spread through its child plant budding off from the adult. And growing beside it.

[edit] Starflora

• Size: 5 cm long
• Energy Source: Sunlight
• Reproduction: Asexual Splitting

This species act much like Earth's starfish in the way it lives but it also absorbs sunlight like a plant. Each "arm" is like a leaf with vascular veins. On the bottom of these are small tube feet just like a starfish except these double as roots in which it can gather minerals and water from. It actually has mouth too in the center bottom in which it uses to eat soil or drink water. It lives on land as well as the water. It is amphibious in nature and will walk on the bottom of the sea if enough sunlight reaches it. It reproduces by being torn apart. This can be from the rough waves, or being blown away by the wind. Each leg will regenerate into a new Starflora.

[edit] Ventgrass

• Size: Colonial organism, maximum height of threads = 2cm
• Energy Source: Sulphur compounds
• Reproduction: Asexual spore production

Although named grass this organism is nothing like a plant. It is a colony of fungus-like strands which filter sulphur from the water near hydrothermal vents and use it to produce energy for growth. Although they appear simple the strands are sophisticated and contain specialised cells, including a support system and spore producting 'flower cells'.

[edit] Lithworm

• Size: 5cm in length
• Energy Source: Phosphates
• Reproduction: Asexual budding

Lithworms secrete phosphoric acid from their 'head' to slowly burrow through solid rock in search of mineral deposits on which to feed (Phosphorus compounds for energy, and carbon compounds for building body mass). This process is incredibly slow, and a lithworm may move as little as a centimeter a day. Consequently their lifespans are huge to accomodate their slow pace of life, with some living up to 200 rather inactive years. When a Lithworm reaches a certain size and has ingested enough minerals it sheds a reproductive bud, which grows into a new lithworm. A particulalry sucessful Lithworm may do this once every 25 years.

[edit] Siftworm

• Size: 3 cm long
• Energy Source: Sifts tiny organisms out of the water
• Reproduction: Asexual fertilization

The Siftworm swims by undulating its body up and down. It has a mouth like organ towards its front, though it functions as the stomach as well. The three red protrusions on each side are primitive external gills. It has no complex internal systems. It wander aimlessly around the ocean for its entire life.

[edit] Hungry Fuzz

• Size: Grows in semi-colonial clusters, the height to the tip of the spore pod is approximately 10
• Energy Source: Eats any dead organism it lands on, though rarely it does manage to take hold on a living organism
• Reproduction: Asexual Spore Pods

Hungry Fuzz is a short lived organism. Its spore pods contain many individual spores, which are very tiny, only 1-5 μm in diameter, each one capable of producing a single "hair." Once landed on a food source, it grows a single root-like thread into its food, and a single hair until it has gained enough energy to produce a spore pod. When the spore pod gets to a sufficient size, it bursts, sending the tiny spores into the ocean currents. The hair and thread promptly die afterwards.

[edit] 1st Generation

[edit] Star Bulb

• Ancestor: Star Flora
• Range: Dunes, near shore
• Reproduction: Asexual Splitting

The Star Bulb was the product of a mutation which caused a large lump of food to form under the plant. This grows until the plant can't use its leaves for transportation. The plant grows until it dies. The reproduction works in a way that the bulb gets a tear, from which a bit falls off. This develops into a new Star Bulb.

[edit] Blanket Star

• Ancestor: Star Flora
• Size: (undetermined)
• Diet: Photosynthesis
• Reproduction: Asexual splitting
• Range: Land, Blot Surface

A relative of the Blotter, the Blanket Star emerged in response to the colonization of much of the land and coastal surface by other plants. The Blanket aggressively crawls on top of other plants during the day to steal their sunlight, then spends the night gathering dirt. The way that the blanket starves out the plant it crawls onto proved difficult for those without natural defenses. Such species as the Blot and the Towermoss were able to resist such incursions. Blankets were still sometimes able to overcome sickly or undernourished Blot colonies however.

A Blanket Star has leaves which broaden with distance from the center, forming a near circle. The tips of the leaves taper into small legs. When emplacing over another plant (for example over it's favorite victim, the Shieldmoss) the Blanket Star twists down to form a solid "blanket" covering the other plant. Additionally the Center area has a larger pouch connected to the mouth, for storing dirt. Otherwise the creature is much the same as it's progenitor species.

[edit] Hungry Stalk

• Size: Grows in small colonial clusters, the number of stalks usually number between 6 and 9. The maximum length of a stalk is about 3 centimeters.
• Energy Source: Eats any dead organism it lands on, it is also capable of living off a live organism, however will not live as long (or grow as big) as ones that land on dead organisms.
• Reproduction: Asexual Spore Lamellae ("gills" under the "cap") and Pores. The pores allow for release into ocean currents over time, while the lamellae allow for more Stalks to grow into the community, although the lamellae will whither and become 'sterile' after their first spore release.

Hungry Stalk is a moderately lived organism, and grows on a shared colonial "root". It has evolved to to use a combination of primitive Lamellae ("gills") and pores on the top of basidiocarp ("cap"). Which allows it to release many more spores over it's life time, however in far less numbers (at once) then the Hungry Fuzz. The spores themselves are very small, about 2 μm in diameter. Once released, spores that fall in the same area will usually "join" their root-like structure and grow together. Although still primarily a fungus, the Hungry Stalk is much like a moss in the way that they share a communal root. The colony will die when it's food source is all used. The "Caps" sometimes get covered with bioluminescent bateria colonies (assuming there is a variety of bateria at this point if not, I'll include an alternate explaination below). [Alternate: The "Caps" often appear grow quasi-bioluminescent "spots" on them, these are actually the Stalks pores getting ready to release some spores into the ocean current.]

[edit] Hitchhiker Fuzz

• Size: Grows in semi-colonial clusters, the height to the tip of the spore pod is approximately 5 mm
• Ancestor: Hungry Fuzz
• Energy Source: Only live organism hosts.
• Reproduction: Asexual Spore Pods

This creature is not very harmful for a parasite if such thing even possible. Unlike its ancestor it doesn’t hosts dead organisms but live ones such as the Siftworm. The spores hit the creature’s membrane or skin and attach to it by rooting small hairs. Every one of those creatures live about a week and in its last day alive reproduces asexually and releases spores by exploding its spore’s sack. Using this new reproduction and spreading system this creature can colonize wider areas. It is usually found in colonies. It feeds completely from its host and even gains its needed water from it. Unless the host is covered with more then 15% of its body this creature never leads to it to death.

[edit] Floral Blotter

• Size: 30 cm wide (size is one of the easiest traits to change)
• Energy source: Sunlight
• Reproduction: Asexual splitting

The floral blotter can grow into colonies of hundreds or thousands of individuals. A single blotter will live much like it's ancestors until it has grown to about double the size and 10 times the mass of a normal member of the species. At this point it will divide into 8-12 daughter blotters that will link up an begin floating on the surface. At first the colony will form a thin webwork, with each member forming a node of a hexagonal grid. However as the numbers grow into the hundreds and the colony covers a larger, more stable area, they will begin to fill in the gaps and form a flexibly strong surface, blocking sunlight from reaching the water below. Eventually a colony can reach hundreds of feet from shore. Fortunately for other species, each blotter colony is dependant on specialized members tasked with gathering nutrients from a shallow seabed, so the blotter cannot venture into the open ocean for the time being.

[edit] Quadworm

• Ancestor: branch of Lithworm
• Size: 7 cm
• Energy Source: Phosphates
• Reproduction: Asexual budding
• Range: Rocky mountainous region (huge mountain range). They live in the mountain, not on it.

Quadworms have evolved “seekers”-- long, thin pseudopods that check which way to go by sampling the rock around them to find any mineral rich areas. (Using small patches of specialized phosphate absorbing cells to sample with and phosphoric acid releasing glands to burrow with.)

When it has chosen the most phosphate rich area it will move its mass through the selected seeker expanding the end of that “arm”. That results in small pores all over the organism to expand letting out stomach acids allowing the creature to absorb the minerals at that location and make space for its body, resulting in an interesting tunnel pattern, its a tad faster than its ancestor but not by much.

Quadworms dwell deep in the earth between 10 and 30 meters down in solid rock. Most never get anywhere near the surface. Which is lucky for them. The density of the rock in which they currently reside requires that their acid be so concentrated that it burst into flames on contact with excessive amounts of oxygen. In low oxygen concentrations the ends of the seekers give off an eerie green glow. The quadworms branched off from the "near-surface" lithworms long before the intestinal revolution.

[edit] Rootworm

• Ancestor: branch of Lithworm
• Size: 5 cm long
• Energy source: Phosphates and Sagan Moss roots
• Reproduction: Asexual budding
• Range: Hard rocky soil that also supports any type of Sagan Moss. They evolved in the south with Spreadleaf but have also moved north into Towerleaf territory.

This evolution of the Lithworm has broadened its diet. It eats the roots of mosses as well as still obtaining phosphates from the ground. Rooters can usually be found within 3 meters of the surface, because they never stray too far from their primary food source, Spreadleaf. Even so, when times are lean, Rooters will burrow deep underground to find mineral deposits. Their mouth spincter has evolved into what could be described as "four-pronged, articulate lips." These lips serve, in dual-roles by, one, shoveling loose soil into the rooters mouth so it does not have to move its body forward to eat, and two, as a primitive form of feelers. Due to their abundant, food source Rooters are rarely without food. This agreeable circumstance has lead to rooters reproducing once every 5 years, but at the cost of their considerable lifespan, which has shortened to an average of only 100 years.

[edit] Mossworm

• Ancestor: branch of Lithworm
• Size: 7 cm
• Energy Source: Phosphates
• Reproduction: Asexual budding
• Range: Fields of Sagan Mosses that grow in soft soil or mud. Native to the Towermoss region.

The Mossworm is the product of mutation that should have resulted in only death. The progenitor of this line was born with its acid ducts misplaced on its "lips" instead of inside its mouth cavity. This would have made it nearly impossible to use the normal lithworm technique of funnel feeding. Luckily, this genetic stray was budded near the surface, in the loose soil of an edible Sagan Moss patch. The descendants of this anomaly, have grown bigger and a little faster than their genetic cousins. They rarely funnel through the ground and instead crawl across it. They do, however, digest topsoil on occasion and might make a shallow burrow large enough for them to fit in.

[edit] Spreadleaf Moss

• Ancestor: split of Sagan Moss
• Energy source: Photosynthesis
• Reproduction: Asexual Budding
• Range: The yellow, green, and light blue bands south of the mountains on the temp map. More thickly growing as one moves north into warmer rainer zones. About lat. -45 down I guess, all the way around the planet.

This form of Sagan Moss has evolved flat spread-out leaves to catch more sunlight. Their reproduction is nearly the same as their ancestor's but after budding the new plant doesn't detach itself from its parent. In this way if one moss doesn't get enough water or nutrients it can absorb it from those around it, this keeps all the Spreadleaf moss healthy and allows it to flourish.

[edit] Sagan towermoss

• Ancestor: split of Sagan Moss
• Size: 10-20 cm
• Diet: Sunlight
• Reproduction: Asexual Budding
• Range: Origionally evolving in the area that is red(Centered at lat -18, long -108) and 2 shades of oranges on the temp. map and all darkly colored on the rain map, south of the mountains the Towermoss has completely covered that area. No question. It has also spread eastward across the isthmus along its wet orange band.

The Sagan towermoss is a rather large "offspring" from the traditional sagan moss, it has a hardened tubelike shell at the base offering some support and protection to the plant, the roots has divided in a way that holds the plant firmer to the ground, and makes mineral and water collecting more effective,The stems/stalks have evolved into a hard tall semiflat shape so that it can handle the heavy rainfalls there where they flourish. These plants are always found in masses, covering sometimes large areas.

[edit] Sagan Shield Moss

• Ancestor: split of Sagan Moss
• Size: 1 cm
• Energy Source: Sunlight
• Reproduction: Asexual Budding
• Range: The relatively warm, dry zone (Center at 18, -108). Extending both north and southeast till a dark blue wet zone is reached.

These mosses very closely resemble the original Sagan Moss, but because some bigger leaves at the sides proved very usefull for protecting the plant from harsh, dry winds and the occasional dust storm. It also grew deeper roots, because the mosses were so close to each other that the one with the longest root always got the most water and minerals in this barren zone.

[edit] Sagan Stalk

• Ancestor: split of Sagan Moss
• Size: 3 cm (counting stalks)
• Diet: Water and Minerals
• Reproduction: Asexual Budding
• Range: The Desert (Centered 0, 144) aka the red temp., light rain zone. It has spreaded west to the end of Towermoss country(between long. 36 and 72, it follows the diagonally line of the wet/dry boundry) and north to the green temp. zone. (About lat. 45)

This moss has grown longer stalks with the budding occuring on the end in response to the bleak conditions of its environment that demand offspring be as far away as possible. The buds have the barest minium of nutrients. If they do not take root quickly they perish. This reduction in weight, however, has made the spore capable of being carried by the wind.

[edit] Noxius Flappermoss

• Ancestor: split of Sagan Moss
• Size: 10 cm wide
• Energy Source: Photosynthesis
• Reproduction: Spores
• Range: Along the wet, hot, volcanic mountain-range of the isthmus and spreading both east and west along the mountaintops.

The flappermoss has struggled to evolve in one of the harshest environments Fermi 5 has to offer, on the peaks of active volcanoes. Due to the constant exposure to toxic chemicals and massive cullings by random eruptions, flappermoss has undergone relatively severe biological and genetic changes. To the casual, distant observer the most apparent would be that flappermoss, flaps its leaves! Constant exposure to free radicals made ancient junk DNA not used since its evolutionary break, with the common ancestor it shares with Starflora, come to the foreground. While it is still firmly rooted in the ground, its leaves are capable of waving and flapping. This has the added benefit of spreading flappermoss spore by being hurled a good distance from its progenitor. It is not, however, why the long dead gene became dominant when a random mutantion raised it from its evolutionary grave. Long exposure to volcanic gases and ash allowed pre-flappermosses to evolve to use sulfate as catalyst in photosynthesis. While, this was all well and good for any flappermoss that lived in a wind swept, rainy peak; other flapper mosses needed a way to disperse the byproducts of this process, some of which were even mildly toxic to itself and could lead to suffication (is that the right word for a plant?), due to CO2 deprivation in an enclosed space. It was this need, to circulate the air around itself, that led to the flappermosses genetic reversion to become the successful mutation it was.

You may have noticed the word noxious in the flappermoss's common-name, correct? This is because, should our earlier casual observer become not so distant, they would immediately notice the horrible stench of the flappermoss. Luckily, no Fermi 5 resident (to my knowledge) has developed a sense of smell. The odor could only be described as the aroma one would acquire from starting a bonfire composed of soiled diapers, rotten eggs, car tires, transmission fluid, and rotting skunk meat. This malodorous scent is caused by the staggering variety and number of thiols produced by its biological processes.

[edit] Ventfeather

• Size: 6-13 cm long
• Diet: Sulfuric Gases, and nutrients from ground/rock
• Reproduction: Spores

This evolution of the Ventgrass has extended longer to collect more heat from the gas that escapes the other ventgrass species. To also defend itself, it has evolved scratching brussles around its body to keep of predators. These also hold spores the spores of the Ventfeather, attaching to anything that comes by, spreading it far around the ocean.

[edit] Puffingworm

• Size: 6 cm
• Energy Source: Detritus
• Reproduction: Asexual fertilisation
• Range: Ocean depths

The Puffingworm lives on the ocean floor and sifts nutrients from the silt at the bottom. Slits have developed below its gills to allow for realese of sifted debris. While feeding the worm collects methane, which it stores in a gas bladder on the end of its tail. This allows the worm to maintain bouyancy and spend less energy swimming. Puffingworms near hydrothermal vents tend to feed on ventgrass and trap hydrogen sulphide instead of methane, but the principal is the same.

[edit] Venthanger

• Size: 6 cm long
• Diet: Sulfuric Gases, and nutrients from ground/rock
• Reproduction: Spores

The Venthanger grows off of the rock face of gas vents, and instead of growing upwards like the Ventfeather (and to a lesser extent Ventmoss), they grow down. Hangers use the pouches at their tip to gather sulfur fumes, which they then use for various purposes. Vent hangers are extremely heat resistant and have a very tough and elastic-like 'skin' covering their exposed areas, the underside (the side rooted to the vent) is fairly soft except for the strong roots. The Venthanger also has a strange way of deailing with competition. Instead of venting their waste products into the open ocean, they will vent it into the rock and ground around them, killing off Ventmoss in the area. Ventfeathers are more immune to this, but they to can die if there is a large enough population of Hangers. Coincidently, the hangers themselves seem almost immune to their own waste products.

[edit] Toungeworm

• Size: 5 cm long
• Energy Source: Picks up and eats Hungry Fuzz and Starflora
• Reproduction: Asexual fertilization
• Range: [-------]

The Toungeworm has evolved webbing on around its gills, ungulating to move around. It has also developed a tounge, with some feeling sensors, wandering around the ocean floor picking up Hungry Fuzz and Starflora and eating them. It now uses its tail as a weight to keep itself from wandering off to the surface.

[edit] Ventscraper

• Size: 8 cm long
• Diet: Ventgrass that it scrapes off the hydrothermal vents
• Reproduction: Asexual fertilization
• Range: [-----]

Ventscrapers are heatseaking Ventgrass eaters, finding the hydrothermal vents by sensing the heat with some primitive heatsensitive spots near the mouth, they have evolved a simple stomach able to expand quite abit, usefull when traveling longer distances. The Ventscrapers gills are big and branched for optimal oxygen intake.

[edit] Paddletailed Siftworm

• Size: 6 cm
• Energy Source: Sifts tiny organisms out of the water
• Reproduction: Asexual fertilization

This creature has developed a round end, so now, when it worms along the paddle gives it extra speed, when the paddle reaches the bottom of a swim it kicks and fires the Paddeltail along an extra few centimeters. Also, it has lost its mouth and its skin on the paddle has become superporous so the food simply has to reach anywhere on its giant paddle to get absorbed in and taken up into a tiny stomach just above the paddle.

[edit] Siphongrass

• Ancestor: Ventgrass
• Size: 5 cm (colonial organism)
• Energy source: sulfur componds
• Range: Deep sea
• Reproduction: Spores

Ventgrass evolved creating a connecting rod of spores that always grows. When mature, the spores are expended of the connecting rod and are set free, being carried by water until one vent where they can be fixed. It evolved a siphon inproving the absortion of the nutrients from the water and the roots had become larger for a better fix in the surfaces much inclined.

[edit] Cucumworm

• Ancestor: Siftworm
• Size: 7 cm
• Energy source: small water organisms
• Range: Shallow waters
• Reproduction: Asexual fertilization

The Siftworm evolved to a larger organism, supporting its primitive digestive system, that presents a chamber that goes until the gills. Its gills had become thicker and ramified to allow a bigger absorption of the oxygen dissolved in the water, being also partially covered by the skin of the creature. It also developed small cillia in its tail that, with winding movements, facilitate its movement.

[edit] 2nd Generation

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