Guardian

Here is a nocturnal view of a habitat in which the inhabitants have evolved extreme forms of bioluminescence. The vertical glowing blobs are the reproductive bulb form of a species with a complex life cycle (to be elucidated in following artworks). The groove-backed, ravenous creatures at the bottom are of the same species as the glowing blobs, but at a different life stage. At center is a rather placid, slow-moving consumer of the bulbs- one who has incorporated its own form of bioluminescence into its respiratory apparatus as a means of camouflage. Names and descriptions will come as soon as possible.

The Garden of Unearthly Delights

Biodiversity in Glow Forest Communities

Down on the floor of the Glow Forest, a startling array of lifeforms has evolved in the cool dark mist. The creatures that comprise the main structure of this biome are known as Vela, and they stretch skyward, consuming all the available sunlight and allowing none to escape below. This species won an evolutionary arms race long ago, and as a result its photosynthetic competitors were pushed to extinction. However being a successful monoculture has its disadvantages. Autotrophs form the base of the food chain in most environments, and now the Vela is the only one. This means it is now the main food source for many other species who would otherwise have more choices. Its main nemesis is the Stragulum. This amorphous creeping wrinkled blanket infects a new Vela pseudopod nearly as soon as it touches the ground. It rapidly takes hold and covers every inch of the surface, slowly digesting it. This in turn attracts a cadre of new organisms which consume the flesh of the Stragulum. Predators are then drawn to the area, and as the number of species grows, a self-perpetuating cycle of increasing biodiversity takes place. Eventually, the Stragulum becomes too much of a burden to the Vela and it severs its pseudopod in order to rapidly grow another nearby. But the biomass of the parasite still lingers for quite some time, feeding a plethora of bizarre and unique organisms scrambling for their share of the resources in this oasis of light amidst the darkness.

Interwoven

Like a giant pink warship, the Rosy Frigate punctuates the endless sea of tendrils. It hosts a crew of disk-shaped ravenous eating-machines called orbics. It is the orbics’ duty to keep the creeping tendrils from strangling and overtaking their home. Fading daylight signals their departure from the safe cluster beneath their giant companion to begin the night’s work of clearing new growth in the near vicinity. Each orbic can consume half its body weight in tube-carpet flesh every night, ensuring they will always have a place to return to at dawn. A Dwarf Blue Cortina observes the melee in confusion. Anything larger than an orbic will send it leaping away for cover, as its curiosity is matched only by its caution. The stoic quartet of Reponos standing solemnly in the background is incapable of seeing or hearing the events taking place nearby. Their role in this ecosystem turns out to be rather bizarre…

Cloud Grazers

Nubes comedenti

A family of Cloud Grazers seeks shelter from strong winds on the leeward side of a sheer rock face several hundred feet above the ground. Thanks to a lightweight body structure and internal hydrogen gas sacs, they are completely neutrally buoyant. Propelled by air jets on their sides, they are most at home at high altitude amongst the cliffs and mountain tops where they can hide from harsh weather and fierce predators. Most of their nutriment is obtained by way of their anterior filtration organs, which they extend while flying to sweep the sky of aerial biota - a sort of sky plankton.

Monolith

The seasonal rains have come to the high desert. Among the first to respond is the monolith. It sends out hose-like tendrils to siphon water and turns on its biolights to attract flying symbionts.

Grandulus

Trifasciatus grandulus

I should preface the description of this creature by giving a short statement about the natural history of its home planet. Early in its evolutionary history, life on this world did not split into such rigidly defined taxa as it did on Earth. For example, the majority of multicellular earth-life is divided into autotrophic creatures (plants) which are immobile, and the highly mobile heterotrophs (animals). On grandulus’s planet, the peculiar biochemistry allows for a much higher rate of horizontal gene transfer and endocytosis. This means that instead of a taxonomic “tree of life” like on Earth, their evolutionary history looks more like a web. In short, this allows for a wide array of photosynthetic, yet mobile creatures. The grandulus is one of these. It moves around slowly with its sticky appendages and positions itself in a spot with maximum sunlight to unfold its inflatable photosynthetic organ from its posterior shell. It also feeds on the internal fluids of metaflora, as well as decaying organic matter. Its many species range in size from that of a quarter to the size of a hippo.

Desert creature

Back to the Depths

An entourage of opportunistic creatures accompanies the deep-sea behemoths during their brief ascent to the surface. Releasing their gelatinous strings of embryos here in the sunlight has a significant benefit - there's far more visibility. The swarm of followers are here in search of a quick meal in the form of the gelatin, which is full of valuable protiens and nutrients. After the feast however, the recipients of this apparent windfall become unwitting hosts for the behemoth's multitudinous offspring, which were embedded in the gel. Adapted to develop inside a wide variety of pelagic creatures, the young grow internally - and sometimes even on the surface of - their hosts until such time as they detach and sink back into the darkness. For most host species, this seems to be a mutually-beneficial symbiosis. At the beginning they receive a large and valuable meal, and usually incur very little detriment due to their temporary parasites. The young behemoths will hide in the dark depths for many years until attaining the size necessary to return to the light and repeat the ancient cycle again.

This is the native habitat of the megamyriapod (at center). This slow-moving, placid beast is about twenty feet tall and feeds primarily on the purple wave carpet organism that is spread across the floor of this scene- gathering it up with its anterior grasping appendages (at left). Other creatures lurk here, including the greenish motile floating feather duster gourds, the yellow/teal walking platter life-forms, and the purple pilantir balls. Growing around and above these smaller living things are the gargantuan lineated gold air-sponges - the megaflora that constitute the main physical features in this environment. All these creatures obtain energy from a combination of photosynthesis and physical consumption of soil nutrients or living tissue. Basically, the strict division of heterotroph/autotroph (plant/animal) that is exhibited by Earth-life simply does not apply here. Rather there is a gradient between those creatures who gain energy exclusively from light, and those who must consume others to survive. The majority of creatures here utilize both approaches.

Early India ink painting of an aquatic predator. (Un-named)