The northern coast

This scene plays at the northern coast of Borealinsula (the most northern piece of land on Biomnis). The waters are still very warm for Earthly standards, but for Biomnian standards the waters are quite cold. The scene plays some 100 meters out of the coast where the water surface and the seafloor are just separated a little over one meter. These northern waters are not home to plankton-like creatures and are thus very clear. Although the colourful surface waters seem to imply that it’s evening and that the sun is setting, however it is just around mid-day and the 37-hour-day has still approximately seventeen hours to go. The evening like effect is created by a dense fog high up in the sky containing not only a lot of water vapor, but also some gases (amongst which are some greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide) which trap the heat and block out the light, causing only more vapor to rise, making the fog border growing continuously, though very slowly.

On the left we see a little hole from which methane is leaking from the ground. At the water surface it will mix with the air. At some point the methane might rise up and might get to make up part of the fog. Methane is not very abundant on Biomnis and rarely comes to the surface, but due to movements in the crust it sometimes leaks to the surface, especially in the pole-areas. Carbon dioxide is much more abundant on Biomnis and makes up a bigger part of the air, but is also stored in huge reserves deep below the crust of Biomnis and sometimes leaks to the surface as well. In total carbon dioxide makes up some 1.7 percent of the gasses in the air, while on the surface of Biomnis oxygen is very abundant as well, making up some 44.1 percent of the air. Nitrogen, on the other hand, is much less abundant with just some 51.3 percent. Argon is present in 1.2 percent while 1.7 percent of other gasses can be found in Biomnis atmosphere amongst which is an extremely tiny amount of methane.

At the bottom we can see a group of aquatic herbaspheres (the red fluffy dots). Even below the water surface they thrive as there’s enough sunlight in these shallow waters. Although extremely similar in appearance to terrestrial herbaspheres, these aquatic herbaspheres are extremely different from the inside. Just like all other herbaspheres they need to breathe oxygen. But rather than the terrestrial herbaspheres they can’t just filter it out of the air with their primitive lungs. Therefore these aquatic herbaspheres have a much more complicated breathing-system. Their lungs are much more similar to our own. Instead of the usual sack-shaped lungs of terrestrial herbaspheres these creatures have lungs shaped like the tube system in our own lungs. At the end of the branches of each ‘hollow tree’ there are little chambers in which organs are located which can send small electric currents through the water causing it to split into loose hydrogen and oxygen atoms which immediately form hydrogen and oxygen molecules. The hydrogen is then released along with the water that has not been split into tiny (almost invisible bubbles).

As aquatic herbaspheres still have a long way to go before they reach the point where they can fully function below the water surface their distribution is limited. They are mainly found in warmer waters as it is there where the molecules vibrate faster and so the water is easier to split. This way aquatic herbaspheres can split larger amounts of water at the same time and so gain more oxygen per breath, which makes them more active. As this complicated type of breathing takes more time than just filtering out the oxygen of the air, the aquatic herbaspheres can take in less oxygen in the same time where terrestrial herbaspheres would take in a relatively large amount of oxygen compared to the aquatic herbaspheres. Therefore the aquatic herbaspheres are not very active. They have evolved in such a way they can use the energy of the oxygen optimally. In this way they can get just enough energy out of the oxygen to stay alive and to keep up the process of splitting the water.

This optimal use of oxygen can also be seen in herbaspheres which live up high in the mountains. This implies that they may have had a similar ancestor in the past. Still the mountain-herbaspheres are more closely related to other terrestrial herbaspheres than to aquatic ones. The similarity is just a result of convergent evolution. Aquatic herbaspheres can, rather than mountain-herbaspheres, not cope with dry air as they can only breathe by the process of splitting they are not used to breathe without splitting. Although aquatic herbaspheres cannot breathe outside the water as the hydrogen enables them to take up the oxygen molecules and herbaspheres can resist relatively high currents, if this were to not the case the herbasphere could be producing such a high current due to the high amount of oxygen it would take in that it might electrocute itself. Luckily for the aquatic herbaspheres this will never be the case. Next to the small amount of oxygen the aquatic herbaspheres can take in, they also need to cope with a small amount light, a problem the mountain-herbaspheres don’t have to deal with. Rather than the mountain-herbaspheres, the aquatic herbaspheres live below the fog-border, which filters out most of Aurosphera’s light. Next to that, the water also filters out a big part of the light. That is why aquatic herbaspheres are only found in very shallow waters. In this way you can almost be sure you won’t find any aquatic herbaspheres in waters deeper than five meters.
For more information on herbaspheres please look here:

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and:

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The water-fern (the creature on the right that looks like a purple horsetail) is a distant relative of the herbaspheres and, although it has its origins on the land as well, is has evolved a far more efficient way of breathing below the water surface. It ‘drinks’ the water rather than sucking it into a system of tubes and splits the water when it’s inside its body. It is a far quicker way of breathing and the water-fern can split relatively large amounts of water per ‘breath’. Above all it doesn’t need any hydrogen to help it take up the oxygen molecules, so the hydrogen is immediately released through the skin. This way no precious time is lost with breathing out.

The water-fern is similar to the herbaspheres in the fact that it too has tentacles that move slowly and that is body is covered in photosynthetic cells as well. Next to that it has the feature of the mouth in the middle of the body that is shares with herbaspheres as well as other plant- and pollip-like photosynthesabiosans. The main difference with the herbaspheres is that fact that it can also feed on small creatures floating in the water, which are absorbed in the skin. Only the skin of the tentacles is thick enough for this. This enables some water-ferns to live at much deeper parts where there is little to even no light at all. These deep-sea water-ferns rely completely on filter feeding. Other important differences with the herbaspheres are the fact that the water ferns consist out of segments and instead of a sphere like body and a base, they have a ‘stem’. Furthermore water-ferns have multiple roots instead of one and breathe in a different way. Water-ferns are rather than herbaspheres, which are at the base of all plant- and pollip-like photosynthesabiosans, primitive members of the plant-like group and thus distant relatives of creatures as crown-fans.

The spike-headed leaf-tail is a very different creature and its name makes it easy to recognize. It is no member of the Photosynthesabiosa and thus not photosynthetic. It’s body is covered in algae-like creatures which the spike-headed leaf-tail provides a host to. In return the algae donate some of their energy, gained by photosynthesis, to the spike-headed leaf-tail. The spike-headed leaf-tail is a one meter long predator which kills in a very different way than predators on Earth. It kills its prey by goring its prey to its spike. When the prey is dead the spike-headed leaf-tail injects a powerful acid into its prey which slowly turns the prey into a liquid-like substance, digesting it from the inside out, just like spiders do with their prey. Through the spike on top of the head runs a little tube through which the acid is released and the prey is sucked into. As the tube is very narrow it takes some time for this predator to feed. The carcass of the prey will then sink to the bottom.

The head is one of the most important body parts of the spike-headed leaf-tail as in it glands are located in which produce the acid and which hosts the base of the controlling system, a sort of brain. Rather than in higher animals on Earth the brain is not just located in the head, but runs along the entire body. In this way the reaction speed of the animal is much higher. Still the head is not the most important part of the body. That title belongs to the little curled tentacles on the lower side of the creature’s body. In these tentacles the not only the mechanisms for reproduction are located, but also one of the two senses this animal possesses: detecting small electric currents. The other sense is touch. This way all other senses are no longer necessary as it works as an radar system at the same time. It can point out every movement in the nearby environment and detect the small electric currents other creatures make when they move. This way it can make a clear picture of its surrounding and thus doesn’t need the senses of hearing, smell and vision, although small vibrations made by clear noise can also be sensed. As the tentacles are the major source of sense they are in direct connection with the brain.

Unlike photosynthesabiosans the spike-headed leaf-tail and relatives reproduce in a way similar to amphibians in the fact that many will gather and release male-cells and female-cells. Just like in photosynthesabiosans the two types have different little tentacles which grasp each other when a cell of the opposite sex is met and then melt together. Just like in creatures from Earth an XX and an XY structure determines of which sex the youngster will be. Apart from some minor differences the determination of the passing on of genes and natural selection is roughly the same as on Earth.

In the body of the spike-headed leaf-tail the nutrients gained from the prey are converted into energy. This energy and the energy gained from the algae are joined into a big stream of energy used to power the strong muscles of the tail which is able to swing incredibly fast, making the creature reach speeds up to 30 kilometers per hour. Apart from the leaf-like part at the end of the tail a sail runs along the lower part of the tail and the upper part of the tail and the back. Apart from increasing the speed and keeping the creature balanced the sail is also full of gill like organs which filter oxygen out of the water, just like the gills of fish do, without having to split the water first. The faster the creature swims, the more oxygen can be taken up, making the creature last long with its energy reserves, making it a perfect pursuit predator. The spike-headed leaf-tail is just one example of convergent evolution with creatures on Earth as it is very comparable to both spiders and predatory fish. It is also one example of the incredible variety of creatures Biomnis hosts and there are still many more of those waiting to be seen by human eyes.

P.S. This is part of the JWA-FAB project (JWArtworks Fictional Alien Biota project). This scene is fictional and not supported by true discoveries.