>>5432653As it has for tens of millions of years and will for hundreds more, the harsh sun punishes innovation. In another development far beyond the Flounder Feeder’s comprehension, the orbital trends of the planet has brought it closer to the sun. The closest it’s ever been, in fact. Still extremely distant and under what future Terrans would consider subarctic conditions, the tremendous ice sheets of the planet’s surface have thawed, slightly. Apart from slightly less regular ice chunks, the critical insulation they’ve provided from the radiation has diminished.
Many millions of years ago, the narrow band ecosystem suffered from hellish radioactivity due to a period of turmoil in its star. The radiation searing underwater flesh is even worse and the upcoming era of misery promises to be much longer-lasting. With the radiation levels in the water doubled, if not more so, the casualties in the fine-tuned life-forms of the narrow band ecosystem have been catastrophic. The various creatures suffer hideously, even the lowest bloated with tumors and the highest undergoing utter organ failure if they dare swim too near to the narrow band ecosystem’s upper bounds. Already in a vulnerable position, the Flounder Feeders have been cut down to a handful of thousands. Once again, the Flounder Feeders are at the brink of extinction and their cousins, the Stumble Scoopers, are no less at-risk.
With ambient radiation at obscene levels, the continued survival of the species calls for desperate measures. Further thickening the shell, slowing metabolism to a crawl, even freezing the genome in place, among other esoteric defenses; if it means the future of Flounder Feeders trudging in the mineralized waves, anything and everything is permissible. The broader cosmos knows no mercy and the harsh sun above will show their kind none.
>How should the Flounder Feeders evolve?>5/5 