Digenia

## Digenia polydigitum

Latest Mutations: Gender, More Cirri

This is a small, fan-shaped soft coral, made of flexible, horny gorgonin that lives permanently attached to a hard surface. It catches passing debris with it's polyps' tentacles but also uses a photosynthetic bacteria to get food from sunlight. They have more polyps than their descendants. It lives in the temperate ocean at both ends of the planet, from the surface to 500m below sea level. It only reproduces during one full moon in early spring, attempty to have both males and female - gender being a new mutation - mix.

Status: Unlisted

Habitat: Temperate Ocean

Niche: Sessile Filter-Feeder, Photosynthesiser

Size: 4cm (colony height)

Nutritional Need: 70 x 4/100 = 3.1NP

Food / Oxygen Requirement: 3.1 x 0.25 = 0.8NP per round (Needs to intake 0.8/0.6 = 1.3NP per round)/ 3.1NP

Abilities: Exothermic. Liquid Excretion. Low Pressure Tolerance. Osmoconformer (Quite High Salinity). Permeable Skin. Retreat Into Self. Reversible Guts. Solid Excretion.

Perception: Chemoreception 1 (senses chemicals 1m from mouths).

Stats: Coordination 1. Digestion 1 (100% Meat, Digests 60%). Evolution 1. Immunity 3 (Barrier Immunity). Filtration 3 (4/4 = 1x2.5 = 2.5NP). Photosynthesis 1. Respiration 1 (Cutaneous Respiration, Stationary Respiration). Sharpness 1. Stamina 1. Support 1.5. Toughness 1. UV Resistance 2. Viscosity 1.

Intelligence / Behaviour: 1. Hungry > Wait for food. 2. Food > Filter with tentacles. 3. Tired > Rest. 4. Pain > Polyps retreat into self. 5. Maturity + Early Spring Full Moon > Release gametes.

External Features: In the skin of the fan-shaped colony is red melanin pigmentation. The colony has multiple polyps, all supported by a gorgonin covering and sclerites. Diterpenes is secreted over the colony and at the base is a holdfast. The polyps have sticky cirri with nematocysts. They also have chemoreceptors.

Internal Features: A nerve net circles the bodies of the polyps which have an incomplete digestive system inside the mouth. It has the muscles capable of retreating the body inside itself. It has a pair of gonads. The cirri have photosynthetic bacteria inside.

Reproduction: Sexual Reproduction. External Fertilisation. 1,000 eggs per spawning.

Castes/Phases: None.

Locomotion: Sessile (0NP).

External Features: Skin (3NP, +1 Immunity, +Barrier Immunity, +1 Respiration, +1 Stamina, +Cutaneous Respiration, +Permeable Skin). Medium Pigmentation (2NP, +2 UV Resistance). Many Sticky Cirri (7NP, +2 Filtration). Nematocysts (5NP, +1 Sharpness). Chemoreceptors (2NP, +1 Chemoreception). Mouth (0NP, +1 Filtration). Gorgonin (10NP, +1 Support, +0.5 Toughness). Diterpenes (3NP, +1 Immunity). Sclerites (4NP, +0.5 Toughness, +0.5 Support, +0.5 Sharpness). Holdfast (2NP, +1 Viscosity).

Internal Features: Piezolytes (5NP, +Low Pressure Tolerance). Photosynthetic Bacteria (1NP, +1 Photosynthesis). Nerve Net (10NP, +1 Coordination). Retreat Mechanism (4NP, +Retreat Into Self). Incomplete Digestive System (15NP, +1 Meat Digestion, +1 Veg Protein Digestion, +1 Immunity, +Liquid Excretion, +Solid Excretion, +Reversible Guts). Sexual Gonads (7NP, +1 Evolution, +Sexual Reproduction, +Castes, +External Fertilisation).

Temporal Range: R. 253 - Present (Samadaran Stage of the Oliverian)

Distribution: Northern Hemisphere

Lifespan: 2 years

Predecessor: Rhipiella temperatus

Classification: Echinosomusinae (sf), Gorgonidae (f)

Discoverer: StealthStyle