Permenantly floating creatures

[TwilightWings21 (Death From the Shadows)]

@fralegend015

Irrelevant, you specifically explained that they would evolve motility to be able to access areas with light and thus giving them an advantage over plants, as such it is to be derived from that that their primary method of energy gathering is photosynthesis.

This was just an example reason. Motility for light, motility to be able to gather more plankton, motility to do either, it doesn’t matter. The primary energy source of coral and coral like plants is plankton iirc. Anyway that was effectively just fluff text, it could begin movement for any number of reasons.

@fralegend015

You are the one that is supposed to defend your point, not me.

I’m not trying to defend it! I specifically said that is a major flaw. But it’s useless to repeat that over and over without constructive criticism. I am aware that as it stands right now, it is unrealistic. I acknowledged that. If you insist on still bringing it up, provide alternatives, how you would improve it. If you don’t want to attempt to do that, don’t keep on bringing it up when it has been acknowledged.

@fralegend015

You would have to explain why they don’t evolve, remember that the topic of this thread is Future Game.

If I was actually trying to prove this could be in game, I would indeed have to prove why they wouldn’t evolve/how this would also be viable in the presence of other methods. However, I was and am simply trying to make a scenario where this is theoretically possible;

@50gens

Could a wheeled creature (wheels and the body not denser than water) evolve in the oceans?

And for that theoretical scenario, it is best to assume such things have not evolved. This is for the sake of trying to prove that such things are possible in the first place, without trying to circumvent extra challenges.

@fralegend015

Time is also a problem, if it takes too long for them to evolve to occupy that niche then another species that is more adapted for it will evolve to occupy it.

This is true.

[willow (they/her or yours are was/were)]

@fralegend015

motile plants are not viable.

a lot of corals are filter feeder mixotrophs and also by any definition other than the incorrect on of “anything that doesn’t move and photosynthesizes is a plant” corals are not plants and are actually animals as they are not fungi

@fralegend015

@TwilightWings21

while I used the example of coral a coral-like plant on a world where nothing with normal fins to outcompete it exists would be just as viable without risk of being outcompeted.

You realize right that fins are not the only thing capable of outcompeting what you are trying to make viable?

i’m pretty sure in this scenario we are assuming that nothing can exist that uses softbody movement can exist so there has to be hardbody movement (ex: motors, wheels, propellers, wings, pistons, ect.)

@fralegend015

@TwilightWings21

Secondly, coral is not a plant. It is a cnidarian, in the same class as jellyfish, and consume plankton in addition to energy from sunlight that comes from their symbiotic algae. If plankton can sustain creatures such as the whale shark, there is not any doubt it could potentially sustain this colony of creature, given that improvements could be made on gathering said plankton. Basically I’m just trying to show the main argument against motile plants is not viable in this case, as this is neither a plant nor something that relies solely on sunlight for sustenance.

Irrelevant, you specifically explained that they would evolve motility to be able to access areas with light and thus giving them an advantage over plants, as such it is to be derived from that that their primary method of energy gathering is photosynthesis.

keyword: “primary” as in “majority” not “all” something with it’s primary source of food being photosynthesis ex:

Costasiella kuroshimae

can easily move. they eat algae, process it through their leaves, and digest the photosynthesizing cells once they are no longer useful. this is called kleptoplasty though they do eat they mainly digest the algae for minerals not calories like carnivorous plants

[TristanMisja (DoubleU)]

To add to this, spotted salamanders merge with algae as embryos, allowing them to photosynthesize without eating or hosting photosynthetic organisms like most other photosynthesizing animals. Costasiella kuroshimae are part of an entire family of photosynthesizing gastropods called Sacoglossa. And many sea sponges and anemones host photosynthetic organisms like coral do. Pea aphids can generate ATP from sunlight using carotenoids.