>>5396083One advantage the Flounder Feeder has is its method of reproduction. Unlike many species, Flounder Feeders have two distinct sexes, the releaser and the vomitor. The releaser constantly releases small clouds of genetic material into the water which the tide moves quickly. Sometimes, a vomitor has its mouth open in the right direction, catches it, and processes the genetic material to create from one to three new Flounder Feeders that are a mix of both. These offspring are held in a crude pouch at the roof of the vomitor’s mouth for three local days, or roughly three Terran weeks, until they grow enough that the crude pouch bursts and the vomitor instinctively vomits them into the tide. These newborn Flounder Feeders are a fourth the size of their parent and most don’t survive the Terran month it takes to grow and reproduce on their own.
A handful do, and this continues the species. There are several problems with the Flounder Feeder’s method of reproduction. A releaser has no way of ensuring that its cloud reaches a vomitor and isn’t dispersed to nothing by the tide, a vomitor has no way of sensing a cloud outside of its vibration or detecting where a cloud may be, and due to the crude pouch’s location at the roof of the vomitor’s mouth, it is occasionally ruptured too early by a Lump Grazer’s muscle as it is consuming its prey. Even with its problems, the Flounder Feeder’s method of reproduction works and isn’t an urgent issue. All in all, the Flounder Feeder suffers a miserable existence but is not burdened with a consciousness that can understand it.
>How should the Flounder Feeder evolve?Remember, the simpler it is, the less likely it is to go wrong! The harsh sun punishes extreme innovation. Once enough of you have weighed in after roughly 8-12 hours, I’ll explain how the system for this works by showing you firsthand and we’ll roll some dice. I would’ve done it in this update but one infodump per post seems like a reasonable benchmark. The Flounder Feeder is a very simple organism and there are millions of directions you can try to take them.
>5/5 