Content:Gaswing

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Gaswing
Creator	Flytdais (Look for more content by this person)
Stats
Diet	Omnivorous (see text)
Other information
Locomotion	Floating, walking, gliding
Environment	Marine cliffs, females pelagic
Size	Male: 4 ft; female: 6 ft; queen: 250—300 ft wspan
Lifespan	Males, 25 yrs; females, about 8 years; queen, up to 340 yrs.
Personality	N/A
Classification
Kingdom	Animalia
Phylum	Chordata
Class	Amphibia
Order	Neoamphibia
Family	Protodae
Genus	Proteus
Species	multiformis

Gaswings are aerial alien creatures that display extreme sexual dimorphism and go through metamorphosis. The species belongs to its very own family, Polymorphidae, and are classified as tripeds, despite the adults' lack of limbs. Adult males float by means of "flight bladders": gas-filled membranous sacs that lift the creature into the air.

Contents 1 Life cycle and morphology 2 In-game description 3 Taxonomy 4 Standard Taxonomy 5 Gallery 6 External links

[edit] Life cycle and morphology

Gaswing larva hatch from eggs in nest-holes on the sides of coastal cliffs. Only about twenty percent of Gaswings born are females, and Gaswing young in general have a low survival rate their first year. At birth, larva are extremely helpless and subsist on food stockpiled in the nest itself. At this time, they do not resemble adults in the least: they are grey and blue, walk on three legs, and have a distinct head. For the first year, young Gaswings survive on food brought to the nest by males. Here they quickly grow to nearly double the adults in size. In this time of growth, their legs also atrophy and shrivel away, in fact falling off after a time. Their bodies go through extreme changes: the spine bends, the head is sunk back into the chest, the legs become wings, and most importantly, the flight bladder develops (specifically, from a region in the creature's neck). When development is done (after about fifteen months), the young resemble the adults and are ready to take to the sky.

Though both sexes go through this change, the females end up slightly larger than the males. However, approximately one out of every ten or so females born is a special case that develops into a Queen. She is larger than even the other female Gaswings, and retains her hind legs and grey color completely after metamorphosis. These "princesses", as they are known, are entirely carnivorous and feed by cannibalizing on regular female Gaswings as well as consuming other species. A princess Gaswing walks with a bipedal gait (though eventually, she too will cast off these legs). As she develops, her flight bladder atrophies, her wings grow as extensions of her hipbone, and she loses flexibility of her spine. After another year of metamorphosis, she has become a full-fledged Queen.

A young queen has a wingspan of 40—50 feet, though this will eventually grow to almost 300 feet in her lifetime (which may last for hundreds of years). Her body is jet-black, rigid, and mostly featureless. Queens fly over the ocean from the moment they are ready, and never land again in their lifetime. Their bodies are eighty percent hollow and filled with the same buoyant gas that lifts their male counterparts. Queens direct their flight by siphoning a special dense fluid between their wings to offset the weight in each wing. They can also control the level of gas and fluid in their body to descend or rise. But mostly, their flight is subject to the whims of the wind. Queens prefer to fly over the sea, where males frequent and warm currents of air aid in flight, but they have been known to move into more inland areas for a time, either accidentally, or to find new marine territory. They feed on airborne microphytes.

The purpose of queens is simple. Regular females are sterile, and either die quickly or are eaten by princesses. Thus, males flock to queens constantly, landing on her broad back. Nearly a hundred males can be found on a queen's back at a given time. The males breed with the queen by fertilizing eggs produced in any one of hundreds of ovaries located on the upper side of her wings. After breeding, a male will attempt to locate a well-developed egg (visible as a conspicuous white bump on the wing), and carry it back in its mouth to a prepared nest. The male will build up a supply of food in the nest in the coming months. When the eggs hatch, the cycle begins anew. This behavior can be considered odd in that the male cares for eggs and young which do not necessarily carry his genes. However, this ensures ultimate species survival.

[edit] In-game description

Gaswing: Gaswings undergo multiple metamorphoses throughout their life cycles. Young Gaswings are born tripedal, but lose their limbs as they mature, and instead develop a gas-filled flight bladder. The life cycle of females is even more unusual. Tags: dimorphism, float, levitate

Gaswing young: Young tripedal Gaswings look like a completely different species than the floating adults. They spend the first year of their lives inside nests, waiting on parents to bring them food. During this time, their limbs shrivel, and the flight bladder develops. Tags: dimorphism, nymph, tripedal, young

Gaswing juvenile female: About one in ten Gaswing females born is larger and more ferocious than her ilk. These females go through stages just like their male counterparts, but after two years, they begin their metamorphosis into queens. This is the intermediate stage. Tags: biped, dimorphism, female, juvenile, queen

Gaswing queen: Gaswing queens are immense, with wingspans over 250 feet in size. They spend their entire lives gliding in the air, never landing. Male Gaswings land on her back to breed with her, then carry back fertilized eggs to the nest. Tags: black, colossal, flying, glide, immense, queen

[edit] Taxonomy

• Kingdom: Unnamed
• Phylum: Arthroskeleta
• Class: Tripoda
• Order: Monopropoda
• Family: Polymorphidae
• Genus: Polymorphus
• Species: P. pendens (a.k.a. Flytdais, 2008)

[edit] Standard Taxonomy

• Kingdom: Animalia
• Phylum: Chordata
• Class: Amphibia
• Order: Neoamphibia
• Family: Protodae
• Genus: Proteus (Flytdais, 2009)
• Species: P. multiformis (Flytdais, 2009)

[edit] Gallery

Adult male Gaswing with float bladder.

Young Gaswing with all three legs.

Juvenile Gaswing female that will become a Queen.

Gaswing Queen with male (lower left) to show difference in size. (Not scaled to test drive area)

[edit] External links

• Sporepedia: "Gaswing queen"
• Sporepedia: "Gaswing juvenile female"
• Sporepedia: "Gaswing young"
• Sporepedia: "Gaswing"