The Evolution Game

[Mike_the_Mystic]

On the planet only known as Eden IV, Scientists of earth have divised an extreme experiment. They have selected a variety of plants and animals to populate this world with. In the single ocean of the continent they created a biome with only minimal sea life, with plankton, sea weed, and two species of fish. Salmon and another undisclosed species. On the continent itself the underwater caverns which are found predominantly in the western part of the continent are populated with the salmon as well. Hive minded insects are the norm on this continent. Bees and Ants are bountiful, with cockroaches found in force as well. To the larger vertebrate species, the reptilians are represented by Gharials, which live near the rivers and the caves, feeding on salmon. The avians are represented by Crows, clever creatures who have taken a liking to the roaches, and live on the ground, becasue there are no trees, yet. Instead, fast spreading Daffodils and Hitchhiker Weeds dominate the world, consumed by the ants and bees. Finally, the mammalians are represented by wolverines, who live near the mountain streams and consume Salmon.
This is where the new world begins. There is no telling where it will go. This is Eden.

[Reath]

The daffodils wavered in the slight wind of the fields, greeting the occasional bee as they passed. Oh, the bees collected so little of their pollen! They had to come and go, and come, and go, over and over. But eventually a bee came upon a strange Daffodil sprouting from the earth. The inside of the daffodil had scraggly purple lines sprouting, rubbing against the pollen just lihtly enough to not rip it off. And when he dove in to investigate this brightly colored new material, his legs were shocked by the contact- but at the same time, the Pollen positively flocked to his legs! He flew off merily, his load already half-full, and began to spread the purple-daffodils pollen to other plants.

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The daffodil has developed sets of purple hairs inside of it's bulb, which rub against the pollen and give a positive charge for the bee's negative.

[drum-n-bass]

Lying in the shade on a warm afternoon the gharials are taking a nap after a lunch on salmon. They were enjoying it here, on this new planet, except for the wolverines who occasionally came down from the mountains and tried to attack them. Luckily they were able to push them back to the mountains. Some of the newer gharials have been born with fins along their back.

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The gharials have developed fins along their back to help with more hydrodynamic swimming so they can move faster.

[Tichrondrius]

How lovely it was to fly, to fly and collect nectar for his home. The sun was bright and the fields of lovely daffodils spread out in every direction unbroken by any other plant. He landed and drank some before flying off again, avoiding the water and the few Wolverines down there. The only thing that would make him happier would be the ability to collect more nectar! This would please the queen.

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Bees have grown bigger in this new land.

[Emperor Demonking]

The salmon swam along the river and was eaten. Salmon were the chosen prey of the meat eaters and that wasn't good at all. Yet... there was nothing they could do to stop it, so the salmon swum and swum, only worrying about overfishing.

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Salmon have larger litters

[Tadanori Oyama]

((I'll fluff when I can think of something good to write.))

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Hitckhiker Weed will develope more uniform section divisions, lowing the length range from 1-3 inches to 1-2 inches.

[slurpz]

The wolverines explore their world and find no land animal that they could hunt. They turn to the streams and find it a rich source a salmon. They make salmon one of their main food sources.

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quicker reflexes and larger claws

[Mike_the_Mystic]

The Zooplankton were nearly unbound by the fact that no other species was there to eat them, so some grew to regulate the population of the other zooplankton. The Phytoplankton were likewise free to grow larger without competiton and diversified. The larger seaweeds were also nearly unrestricted, so they grew in size, but also in the number of blades that each had, to maximize sunlight.

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Some zooplankton become carnivorous. Phytoplankton grow larger. Seaweeds (Green Seaweed) Gain an extra blade to consume more sunlight.

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Rollover starts at seven tonight, just to make sure that everyone who's going to post actually does

[Mike_the_Mystic]

Status report on generation 1
The flora and fauna on Eden IV was having some highs and lows. Larger Vertebrates were actually doing good. Wolverine claws were larger, Gharials were growing a rudimentry set of fins, salmon were spawning larger amounts of fry, bees were larger, The HitchHiker weeds were becoming more uniform, and daffodils were gaining positive charges. However things like the species of fish, crows and ants were becoming endangered. Cockroachs didn't change, however, and were doing pretty well. Hopefully Generation 2 would be even better.

[slurpz]

The wolverines are beginning to get tired of the taste of salmon meat. Some of the wolverines begin hunting the crows. Some of the wolverines had small flaps of skin attached to its sides with small bones. They find that by running fast enough and holding out the flaps of skin, they can achieve a basic glide. This allows them to hunt the crows more efficiently.

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rudimentary flight

[sidhe_blooded]

The crows did not like the wolverines hunting them and taking to the skies, but the larger bees had made for good food, allowing the crows to become stronger and faster.

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crows wing muscles enlarge allowing faster and longer flight to escape the wolverines

[Reath]

Bigger bees were taking much pollen and spreading it. A select few daffodils became sturdier, and carried more pollen. These excesses of pollen spread more than other daffodils with less pollen, and became the norm in some parts of the world.

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More pollen, much sturdier stems to support said more pollon.

[drum-n-bass]

Gharials are getting tired of fish. They start to feed off of plants along with the fish.

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some of the teeth in the back are smaller and their stomachs are different to digest the plants.

[Tichrondrius]

The excess of pollen carried by the larger bees cause a massive rise in nectar in the hives. The Queen was not pleased, she tried of nectar. The large bees set off to find foods and a great majority were killed by fish over the river by jumping Salmon. A select few returned, however, stronger, faster, and with meat in their jaws. Cockroach meat.

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Bees get tougher, larger crushing mandibles that can bisect cockroaches. Become omnivorous.

[Emperor Demonking]

The Salmon continued to swim, sometimes they killed bees and sometimes they didn't. The Salmon population was getting bigger but with the big blue ocean, they weren't getting enough Salmon but the Salmon were starting to have even bigger litters.

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Bigger litters

[Tadanori Oyama]

Populations diminished by the introduction of plant feeding animals, Hitckhiker Weed adepts by becoming more capable of enduring in unusual environments. Requiring fewer minerals from the soil and more from rain water, the weed becomes capable of extracting nessisary materials while mobile, even of taking root.

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In the right conditions (thick hair or scales with proper cracks for rooting), Hitchhiker Weed is able to extend its shallow roots and grow activally while still riding latched onto an animal. This leads to smaller stocks but increases the likely hood of effective placement a farther distance.

[painintheear]

As ants slowly formed out of the dredges of the Earth, a new - somewhat civilized - lifestyle was born. The ants work together to build large tunnel complexes and chambers. They eat dead carrion meat and make sweet, and sugary, energy food out of the nectar of daffodils.

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They change in that they begin to make more breeding chambers, as in the queen is still the main breeder and is the leader-esque person in camp... but others are allowed to breed and make more children.

[Mike_the_Mystic]

The Zooplankton and Phytoplankton were still relatively free to do whatever they wanted, and so they grew even larger, the largest plankton being the size of minnows, while the Phytoplankton colonies were as large as moss patches. The Seaweed was staying the same, except for growth spurts.

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Zooplankton grew, Phytoplankton grew, Seaweed Grew

[sidhe_blooded]

Without high places to roost in the crows were in grave danger whenever they had to nest for egglaying, with the wolverines beginning to take to the skies this would get even worse. So the crows began to hatch their eggs internally.

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the crows now give birth to live young.

[slurpz]

As their flight ability was rudimentary at best, the wolverines were beginning to have trouble catching the crows because of the crows' improved flying skills. Some of the wolverines found that they could grasp small pebbles and use that to throw at the birds, mostly to stun. Sometimes a lucky shot would net a kill.

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Claws have opposable thumbs, forelegs are slightly larger

[browng-08]

As one of only a few aquatic species in this new world, the lampreys found it quite easy to subsist in the wide, deep oceans of Eden IV. That is, until their main prey, the salmon, began to swim upstream, far from the lamprey's reach. During these months of hardship some desperate lamprey woud turn to latching onto their own kind. Others were more resourceful; they would sweep through groups of zooplankton, now of a much larger size, and take of the meager offerings heartily. Lamprey did not feed well of flesh; their digestive tract was built for blood, but soon they would do better.

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Lamprey feed on salmon when available, but during their trek upstream lamprey are forced to find other food. One group become cannibalistic. Another feeds off of zooplanton. At this point, lamprey are solitary.

[Mike_the_Mystic]

Generation 2
The stowaways on board of the Eden's fish tank, Lamprey, were actually thriving, having sent the secured species of fish into extinction. Now they had a subspecies, and that wasn't the only one. Gharials were splitting into omnivores and ocean-dwellers, Crows were dividing into internal and external birthers, wolverines were becoming either fish hunters with sharp claws or flying squirrel-like and with an instinct to throw rocks, as the cerebral inhibitors were making sure that all species would reach a bottle-neck when it came to intelligence until the inhibtors naturally collapsed, at around generation 20. The Bees were either growing larger, or doing that and becoming omnivorous. Ants were just chilling, and roaches were being roaches. Hitchhiker weeds were seemingly becoming parasitic, while daffodils were gaining studier stems. Phytoplankton and Zooplankton were both becoming larger, or at least some sub species. Salmon had larger populations as well.

Back on Earth, The new league of scientists were now being trained to handle the opperation of keeping the planet alive, as the older generation was dying out.

[Tichrondrius]

The race of bees was larger as a whole, that was true. They were gathering plenty of pollen and meat for their queen. But they began to notice a sharp divergence as more and more bees started to ignore the orders of her worship, the Queen. These bees were far more aggressive and gathered meat more then pollen, not just from the roaches, but from the more aggressive ants as well. Luckily, the more domestic race were able to keep up by having increased birth rates and the Queen lay more eggs. For the Queen!

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Bees begin to spilit specious. They are both larger then normal bees and both omnivorous, but the more domestic bees obey the Queen and act like normal bees (except for the eating meat part) and have increased birthing rates.

The new specious has began ignoring the Queen and acting on their own, and becoming more predatory.

[puppyavenger]

As the Gharials continued to grow and evolve, a sub-species of more aquatic ones developed, spending more time in water and developing wider mouths to capture more plankton, which is their main food source in their ocean-side habitat.

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develop wider mouths and become better at swimming

[sidhe_blooded]

with the wolverines throwing stones at them the crows they needed a way to make themselves less appealing as meals and perhaps a way to fight back. Their feathers became sharp and a few grew longer and could be used like quills against an attacker.

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feathers become sharp/quill like

[browng-08]

The years passed. Generations grew and aged. The salmon were gone again, up out of the ocean. Times were always tough for the lamprey during this time. The tough need to adapt. Lamprey were tough.
Those of the lamprey who found themselves feeding on plankton soon began to recognize the benefit in superior numbers. Travelling in groups, they could look out for and defend against ravenous cannibal lamprey (who had grown a rather sharp sense of smell), or even the stray oceaan gharail. They fed together, hunted together, and when the salmon returned, rejoiced together. Lamprey were no longer solitary; they travelled in packs.

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Lamprey now travel in packs, adopting a lifestyle much like a wolfpack, as opposed to normal schools of fish or herds of prey.
The canniballistic subspecies of lamprey are now able to detect prey by sense of smell, particularly effective against the wounded.

[Tadanori Oyama]

Finding their new mobile rooting to be to their benefit, the moving weeds begin to adapt farther to a moving lifestyle. By growing more and more dependent on water as their main resource over soil the plants begin to thrive more effectivally by attaching themselves to the water dwelling reptiles. The muddy water of the shallows provided all the minerals they required to grow. With their shallow roots stocks might still tear loose but with their new adaptation they were capable of living on the drift as long as they didn't get so deep as to lose the sun's light.

Inland crops took to traveling aback the wolverines but only wet areas or frequient rain sustained them long with their new alterations.

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Hitckhiker Weed requires minimal mineral support and extracts the vast majority of its needs from water. This allows it to continue on attached to a moving creature so long as it can stay fairly wet and allows the plant to grow while freely drifting.

[Mike_the_Mystic]

Generation 3
While the animals were doing good, subspecies were dying off rapidly, and while others are doing fine. Lamprey were doing good, as were most other species. Hitchhiker weeds were even becoming more mobile. However the fisher wolverines weren't doing so good. They weren't catching as many fish as they should. The gliding wolverines were doing much better. But before any other information could be gathered, a magnetic storm disrupts radio transmissions, the animals are on there own, for the time being...

[sidhe_blooded]

the crows had spent much time adapting to the attacks of the wolverines, but they were still being hunted. with plentiful food supplies the crows continued to grow larger and stronger.

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crows grow larger/get stronger

[Reath]

Daffodils waited, as the world grew all around them. They immobile, and short lived, and served mainly as a source of food. Some flowers adapted that path. They began to store water in their leaves, making them reflective. The lights in the sky that had recently come about created vivid, ever changing colors in the daffodils. But some daffodils began to take a different. path. They grew taller, and taller, and with their stronger bases their newfound height allowed them to live longer without trampling.

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Some daffodils gain reflective petals, others grow much bigger, with the newfound stem support.