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Description
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

So, some time ago I got interested in Subnautica and looked up all of the creatures in it. And well... disregard for things like anatomy and ecology is unfortunately the norm even for good creature-based media, but what really makes me sad is disregard for basic evolution. What I mean is that there`s absolutely no connection between creatures, no common body plans (unless we consider creature variants that reuse the same basic model), just a pile of random designs. And that just ruins the immersion for me, you know?

That`s what made wanna try this exercise I just made up where I attempt to come up with a wide variety of creatures that are all variations on the same basic plan.Bonus points if they get an obvious gameplay function.

So, here`s some inhabitants of some abstract ocean planet. Lets say they`re not too different from us biochemically or cytologically, aside from the fact that their biology utilises a variety of polyolefins so their skeletons are plastic. This means that in a game there would be a reliable supply of plastic to make things (let`s be honest, you`re not gonna find a lot of metal on an ocean planet), but also a constant threat of your stuff being eaten. Of course, there are ecological analogues of multicellular animals, plants, and fungi, but their evolutionary relationships are completely different.

Oh, and the creatures shown are not to scale!

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We start here with the tube animals (coming up with good names is not part of the exercise). Their basic form (1) is, well, a tube - possibly the result of a Trichoplax-like organism rolling up into a more mobile form. This thing swims using cilia, and a lot of its descendants will keep swimming, but for now we`ll explore the sessile forms (the lack of sessile animals was another thing that disappointed me in Subnautica - there`s something called "coral" but I doubt the devs knew what corals are). The sea filters (2) are simple sponge-analogues, though they work very differently, being solid tubes rather than porous vases. They pump waters through their gut - some with just cilia, others (3) have muscles to actively gulp - and food particles are caught on the eponymous filter stretched across that gut. Though I`m not sure if those filters would be actual living tissue or just nets of slime. Maybe both. Anyway, these thing come in various shapes (4, 5) and sometimes their ends branch (6).
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Among the swimming tube animals, a certain branch has developed gill slits in the throat (1) not unlike our own ancestors, but instead of merely breathing and filtering through these orifices they started to develop jet propulsion. The simplest rocket jellies (2) developed a jellyfish-like bell around the gill region (this image also shows the multiple gonads located on the creature`s body), while the more advanced ones (3) have their whole lower body inside the muscular propulsion chamber. That lower body would eventually fuse to one of the sides of the chamber, breaking the creature`s radial symmetry (though the anus and other orifices still open into the jet).
The basic jetfish (4) look extremely similar to Earth salps (the image shows the arrangement of its oral cavity, gill septum, gut, and jet. As water flows through the jet, the gill septum catches plankton and directs it toward the esophagus). They, however, started developing a simple skeleton - a lattice of plastic supporting the muscles of the siphon and fins. A deviant group (5) extended their dorsal fin into a pseudo-tail, but the majority were content with their jet and some cuttlefish-like lateral fins (6). Some more advanced forms developed stronger wing-like fins like a ray (7), or rows of fins like Anomalocaris (8), but both of them learned to fold the skeletal ring supporting their mouth like a pair of jaws. And while such jaws could have plenty of uses, they also obstruct the flow of water through the jet when closed, so they never became a mainstream success among the jetfishes.
At the same time, another group rose into prominence - the grillwhales (9). The eponymous grill at the mouth entrance prevents anything larger than plankton from getting in without obstructing the flow. As shown here, they developed a variety of head and fin shapes.
The protective grill of these creatures is what eventually gave rise to another, more effective form of jaws (10), which still allows the water to flow through and therefore lets these creatures become agile predators.

Description
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

So, some time ago I got interested in Subnautica and looked up all of the creatures in it. And well... disregard for things like anatomy and ecology is unfortunately the norm even for good creature-based media, but what really makes me sad is disregard for basic evolution. What I mean is that there`s absolutely no connection between creatures, no common body plans (unless we consider creature variants that reuse the same basic model), just a pile of random designs. And that just ruins the immersion for me, you know?

That`s what made wanna try this exercise I just made up where I attempt to come up with a wide variety of creatures that are all variations on the same basic plan.Bonus points if they get an obvious gameplay function.

So, here`s some inhabitants of some abstract ocean planet. Lets say they`re not too different from us biochemically or cytologically, aside from the fact that their biology utilises a variety of polyolefins so their skeletons are plastic. This means that in a game there would be a reliable supply of plastic to make things (let`s be honest, you`re not gonna find a lot of metal on an ocean planet), but also a constant threat of your stuff being eaten. Of course, there are ecological analogues of multicellular animals, plants, and fungi, but their evolutionary relationships are completely different.

Oh, and the creatures shown are not to scale!

______________________________________________________________________________________

We start here with the tube animals (coming up with good names is not part of the exercise). Their basic form (1) is, well, a tube - possibly the result of a Trichoplax-like organism rolling up into a more mobile form. This thing swims using cilia, and a lot of its descendants will keep swimming, but for now we`ll explore the sessile forms (the lack of sessile animals was another thing that disappointed me in Subnautica - there`s something called "coral" but I doubt the devs knew what corals are). The sea filters (2) are simple sponge-analogues, though they work very differently, being solid tubes rather than porous vases. They pump waters through their gut - some with just cilia, others (3) have muscles to actively gulp - and food particles are caught on the eponymous filter stretched across that gut. Though I`m not sure if those filters would be actual living tissue or just nets of slime. Maybe both. Anyway, these thing come in various shapes (4, 5) and sometimes their ends branch (6).
______________________________________________________________________________________

Among the swimming tube animals, a certain branch has developed gill slits in the throat (1) not unlike our own ancestors, but instead of merely breathing and filtering through these orifices they started to develop jet propulsion. The simplest rocket jellies (2) developed a jellyfish-like bell around the gill region (this image also shows the multiple gonads located on the creature`s body), while the more advanced ones (3) have their whole lower body inside the muscular propulsion chamber. That lower body would eventually fuse to one of the sides of the chamber, breaking the creature`s radial symmetry (though the anus and other orifices still open into the jet).
The basic jetfish (4) look extremely similar to Earth salps (the image shows the arrangement of its oral cavity, gill septum, gut, and jet. As water flows through the jet, the gill septum catches plankton and directs it toward the esophagus). They, however, started developing a simple skeleton - a lattice of plastic supporting the muscles of the siphon and fins. A deviant group (5) extended their dorsal fin into a pseudo-tail, but the majority were content with their jet and some cuttlefish-like lateral fins (6). Some more advanced forms developed stronger wing-like fins like a ray (7), or rows of fins like Anomalocaris (8), but both of them learned to fold the skeletal ring supporting their mouth like a pair of jaws. And while such jaws could have plenty of uses, they also obstruct the flow of water through the jet when closed, so they never became a mainstream success among the jetfishes.
At the same time, another group rose into prominence - the grillwhales (9). The eponymous grill at the mouth entrance prevents anything larger than plankton from getting in without obstructing the flow. As shown here, they developed a variety of head and fin shapes.
The protective grill of these creatures is what eventually gave rise to another, more effective form of jaws (10), which still allows the water to flow through and therefore lets these creatures become agile predators.