First Age Lifeforms
At the last meeting, I said I'd try to remember all of the aminals that were devised and get them up on the website. Well, here they are, as best I could render them. Most sketches are, however, unofficial right now- I'd like the original creators to contact me if they have sketches of their own to put up, or are in some way unhappy with the way I have rendered their idea and want it changed. Or, y'know, if I screwed up the description or something, I'd like to fix that. Also, I neglected to inquire as to names at the last meeting. My brother-in-law has come up with some good ones, I think, but again, I'd appreciate it if creators would contact me with their own official names for things, unless they want to keep these. Oh! One other thing- I don't know who prefers internet anonymity vs. public acknowledgement; to be safe, I've left everything anonymous for now. If you want your name attached to your idea on the webpage, contact me about that, too.
Created By: Logan
TAXONOMY: Aminalia->Bichordate->Pentapoda->Lobocaroida
The Ebuna is an active septapod reef predator. It captures it's prey with its forarms, which are on the way to becoming jaws. The seventh limb forms a whale-like tail with flukes formed from two fingers with spines projecting from the tips.
Still to be determined: What it eats, exactly.
Created By: Anonymous
TAXONOMY: Aminalia->Bichordate->Pentapoda->Actinocaroida
I know nothing about the Zortenhoum, except that the back limbs are steering fins. Creator, please tell me about it. Should the barb be pointing down as I have it, or up?
Logan's Conjectures: It's omnivorous, and uses powerful mandibles to slice through plant and sessile animal material and to capture small animals and crush shells. The barb on its tail limb is used as defense against predators, or, if it points upwards, it could be curcled underneath the aminals body and used to stab downwards at prey. Maybe it can launch itself out of the water- this might make a good ancestor for an Age Two membrane-winged flyer.
Created By: Committee
Image UnavailableThe Bromeliactus is a sarcosperm, meaning that its seeds grow in aminal flesh, which lives in the Great Salt Desert. When its fronds are open, it looks like a large bromeliad, but it usually keeps its fronds tight against the central collumn, which is filled with water. When a storm comes, it opens its fronds to catch rainwater before it hits the hypersaline ground. The whole outer surface is covered with a dusting of spores. It emits some sort of attractant odor that brings animals along to eat bits, but something drives them away before too much damage is done. The spores grow inside the aminal, eventually killing it and germinating in the corpse. The Bromeliactus also sends out runners. Any runners which haven't died by the time the flood comes break off and become seaweed, which anchors to the floor and morphs into a mature Bromeliactus when it starts drying out again. The plant is also carnivorous, eating aminals to acquire trace minerals that it can't get from the nonexistant soil.
Still to be determined: What attractant is used? Does it smell like meat to bring along scavengers who leave when they discover its just a plant? Or does it smell good to herbivores who are driven off by some sort of aminal symbiote or poisonous taste? Is the plant completely asexual, or do the spores have to be fertilized somehow? Maybe an aminal has to eat from more than one plant before the spores start to grow. How does it eat? Maybe only large aminals can walk away from eating it, and those below a certain size limit, that don't provide enough material for a new plant to grow in, are killed on the spot and the plant grows around them- but that would create lumps all over the plant, making it more difficult to unfurl the fronds during a storm. Maybe only the ends of runners have eating mechanisms, like larger collections of Venus-flytrap pads or something, which dissapear when the plant matures.
Created By: Anonymous
TAXONOMY: Aminalia->Bichordate->Septapoda->Echinoreptilia I->Cephalidae
The Halomouse is a scaly septapod herbivore that lives in the Great Salt Desert. I fear that sketch makes it look too much like a Halocat, but oh well. It feeds on the reproductive runners of Bromeliactuses. It's two 'tails' are elongated toes of a diminished seventh limb. The white-board sketch had ears, but I don't see any way to get real ears on a First Age septopod, so I've given it temperature control fins that look kindalike ears. Hope that's OK.
Logan's Conjectures: The tails are used for signalling other Halomice. Maybe they live in burrows like meercats? The front rows of teeth have fused into a set of vertically opening jaws, and the bottom radular surface has extended into a tongue and then fissioned to form the two feeding tentacles.
Created By: Logan
TAXONOMY: Aminalia->Bichordate->Pentapoda->Echinoreptilia II
I will be the first to admit that this is not the best picture, but it will suffice for now until I finish touching up the original. Myrmimimoids are another pentapod inhabitant of the Great Salt Desert. There are lots of species of Myrmimimoids, ranging in size from about 10 centimeters up to 1.5 meters. They live in vast underground hives organized by age. Vegetarian varieties farm fungus in their colonies. During the wet years, they aestivate in their tunnels. Wars and slave-taking between hives of different species of about the same size are common. They establish dominance by locking jaws and trying to force each other to the ground. The tail spines are used in fights to dig into the dirt and help the Myrmimimoid hold its ground.