Lazarus Big Balls
| Lazarus Big Balls | ||
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| (Neotestudo insula) | ||
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| Information | ||
| Creator | Colddigger Other | |
| Week/Generation | 27/168 | |
| Habitat | Maineiac Plains Archipelago, Maineiac Plains, Clayren Temperate Coast | |
| Size | 1 meter wide | |
| Primary Mobility | sessile | |
| Support | cellulose (cell walls) | |
| Diet | photosynthesis | |
| Respiration | passive(stomata) | |
| Thermoregulation | Ectotherm | |
| Reproduction | Asexual Super Fast Asexual Budding, Sexual Very Resistant Spores | |
| Taxonomy | ||
| Domain Kingdom Subkingdom Division Class Order Suborder Genus Species | Eukaryota Phoenoplastida Phoenophyta (info) Spherophyta (info) Euspherophyta Collospherales Marblephytacineae Neotestudo Neotestudo insula | |
| Ancestor: | Descendants: |
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Lazarus Big Balls split from their ancestor and rapidly grew ten times in size as there was little competition preventing them from doing so on Maniac plains archipelago. Their bodies were hollow, this allowed them to put all their biomass into the development of their surface for photosynthesis, as opposed to having a bunch of biomass in their center not creating more sugars. To prevent themselves from drying out in the dry air of the plains the Lazarus big balls developed a thicker cuticle. Alongside not disrupting this protective layer it was also beneficial to the buzz themselves to begin developing on the inside of the hollow rather than along the outer surface of their parent. This protected them from pretty much any environmental hazard that wouldn't already damage the mature ball flora. This hollow allowed them to fairly easily float between islands and colonize throughout the archipelago as well. It has even allowed a population to have spread to the mainland, in the biome of maniac plains.
Existing at a larger size, and existing in a dry environment, led to the need to expand their vascular system outside of their own walls and to form a simple root system that allowed them to draw water and nutrients from the soil directly into themselves as opposed to relying on more passive means of obtaining these materials. Their vascular system has become more developed in their walls, with many stomata housed in dimples dotting the tops and sides of their body. The vascular system over time adjusts and lignifies in vertical fibrous strips with the expansion of the body, and this acts as a supportive structure for the hollow chamber inside.
The buds that develop inside of the large ball Flora are allowed to continue growing until about 4 to 6 cm in diameter, at which point hormones from the mother cause them to stop growing. These however do not stop them from budding themselves, which they promptly do into their own cavities to repeat the process at a much smaller scale. Eventually the amount of small Flora inside of the mature Lazarus big ball is too great a pressure on its walls and it will tear open to spill out it's insides. The now free young tumble out of their mother and sprawl across the open ground. Wind may move them about, and after a few days whatever point on their body is rested directly against the ground they will form roots from. They will begin growing larger, and new buds will develop inside them and grow as well. Over time they will reach a mature size of about 1 m in diameter and will fill themselves up with buds and repeat the process.
Their original buds, the ones that they developed when they themselves were trapped inside their parent, do not grow any larger however. When these were trapped inside their own parent, like a nesting doll, rather than budding they created highly resistant spores. Filling their tiny chamber with haploid spores which were then repeatedly coated in resistant substances and desiccated into a dormant state, they cut themselves off from the path of creating more buds. As their parent escaped their grandparent, and the chamber that they were housed in expanded and filled with their much larger siblings, these sporophytic Lazarus big balls remain dormant themselves having already performed everything that they could. Eventually their siblings burst through the wall of their parents and they all spill out. The tiny sporophytic Lazarus big balls do not develop a cuticle to protect themselves from the dry air, their walls rapidly dry out and their dead bodies blow about the environment breaking apart and spreading their spores.
These now free spores drift around in the world until getting caught in on a moist surface, or in the pool of water, at which point their coatings break down and the haploid cell is activated and seek out other haploid cells of their species. They congregate together to form a microscopic ball which then allows them to fertilize one another. The resulting diploid cells then passively drift apart and begin the formation of balls of cells through multiplication which gradually grow into a maturing Lazarus big ball.