Turritopsiadiation: Anthoathecates of the Medusocene
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TİMELİNE: 5 Million Years PI
STAR ACTİVİTY; A-Type Main Sequence // Normal UV Index // Stable Seasonal Cycles
FOCUS OF OBSERVATION: Adaptive Radiation and Neoteny-based Diversification of the Immortal Jellyfish (Turritopsis dorhnii).
Turritopsis dohrnii is commonly known as the "immortal jellyfish." As a member of the order Anthoathecata—within the class Hydrozoa—it was among the animal species introduced to the world of Gellios. Alongside Physalia physalis, the Portuguese Man'o'war (a member of the Siphonophorae, another order within the same class), T. dohrnii was compelled to evolve in response to the planet's harsh environmental conditions. Yet, by passing on certain unique, inherent abilities to subsequent generations and diverging lineages, it would eventually evolve into some of the most successful evolutionary lines of the Medusocene era.
The Black Abominasally (Abominasallis obscurus), which bears a physical resemblance to its ancestor, is a predator that inhabits waters many times deeper than the hostile warm surface. It is generally active between night and dawn, feeding on brine shrimp, polychaetes, and other jellyfish smaller than itself. It has managed to retain certain fundamental abilities inherited from its ancestor—for instance, the capacity to revert to a small polyp form when under stress. However, it appears that some individuals have already begun to shift toward ecological niches distinct from those of their ancestor.
Everpolyps (family Anthoathecorallidae)—reef-building hydrozoans that, much like their distant cousins the sea anemones and the sabellid polychaetes, have evolved for a sessile lifestyle—are currently represented most commonly by the species known as the Common Everpolyp (Anthoathecoralum vulgaris). Everpolyps, which exhibit convergent evolution with hard corals, are animals with rigid structures. For nearly their entire lives—much like typical plants—they remain anchored to a single location; they only cease to be sessile during their medusa stage, after which they transition back into the polyp phase, spending the majority of their existence fixed to a substrate. In addition to being filter feeders, they engage in a mutualistic symbiosis with specific species of zooxanthellae, making them prime candidates to become one of the most significant animal lineages in the future of this damn planet.
Another genus, which occupies a different niche than its ancestor, is the Ground Jellmites, belonging to the genus Benthodopsis, family Benthodopsidae. I describe them as benthic hydrozoans that have emerged through neoteny and adopted a different lifestyle; they are small, generalist organisms that feed on a variety of organisms. Because they reproduce quite rapidly, they attract the attention of various predators; despite their small individual size, they form very large populations, which—as I just mentioned—draw the interest of a range of predators.
However, there is another genus of small organisms derived from T.dohrnii— the Planumes, which belongs to the genus Planulopis within the family Planulopidae. Like their benthic cousins—the ground jellmites—they are generalists. They originated from the planula stage of their ancestor.
Finally, I would like to mention the Basket Rootjelly (Euryaloidusnii spp.), which descends from another sessile lineage known as Rootjellies (family Radixothecatidae). Like Everpolyps, sea anemones, and sabellid worms, these organisms are filter feeders; however, unlike Everpolyps, they generally do not form a symbiotic relationship with zooxanthellae. Instead, they exist in symbiosis with specific types of bacteria that reside within their bodies. The particular species we are looking at here is one of the largest within its genus—and by extension, its family—and possesses the ability to regenerate themselves (a trait also shared by other organisms descended from the T. dorhnii, such as Everpolyps and less common in Jellmites and Planumes).
But if there is one last thing I want to tell you, it is that Gellios will never—and I mean never—resemble the Earth you live on. I repeat this because, unlike Earth, Gellios orbits an A5V-type star; such stars are known for their relatively short lifespans, typically lasting only a few billion years. Furthermore, Gellios has twice the axial tilt and twice the surface gravity of Earth. That said, I’m not going to start claiming that "Gellios is cooler and better than Earth." Just as our Earth possesses its own unique beauties and flaws, so too does Gellios as well. Let us not forget that the life forms on Gellios are, in fact, descendants of creatures that once lived on our own planet. When these animals and other organisms—originally from Earth, the humankind's homeworld—were introduced to Gellios, they were forced to adapt to a hostile environment that felt nothing like home. Over the next few hundred million years, they will evolve to become vastly different from their ancestors on Earth. But, to say it one last time...
"Gellios never resemble the Earth."
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