The gorgonians have gone in two separate directions, to compete among the reef. Calcified gorgonians have evolved a proper skeleton made of mostly aragonite as well as chitin and proteins. They also have adapted some of their polyps to grow with longer sweeper tentacles, capable of killing other corals and sponges for territory. These animals have changed the ecosystem completely, out-competing sponges and becoming the dominant reef builder.

While the evolution of calcified gorgonians and calcified tabulate algaes have shaded potential areas for photosynthetic animals, they have created new spaces for others. Thus the dendrogorgonians have evolved. Closely resembling soft corals on Earth, these creatures inhabit lower light zones and deeper coral reefs while feeding on plankton.

Walking Gorgonian: Competition from other reef builders have led some gorgonians into less ideal environments, while some groups adapted to combat this others learned to run away! The Walking Gorgonians have found plenty of nutrients by walking along the sand and scooping up plankton and detritus. They crawl incredibly slowly since their weak polyps' tentacles are unable to support the whole body even with enhanced sclerites. Despite not being called walking gorgonians, many of the walking gorg's relatives possess the walking ability as a defense mechanism and some of these sessile animals even have their polyps on one side of the branch. This creates unique shapes like spirals and helix shapes.

Finally the golden jellyfish have drifted out from the estuaries into open seas. At this time there is still a lack of nutritious macro zooplankton so the jellies have instead opted for even more efficient photosynthesis. Ribbon Jellies are a group that have greatly elongated and flattened their oral arms to absorb as much sunlight as possible. The whole clade they belong to comes in a variety of shapes like leaves and branches, some even have sails not too dissimilar to the Portugese man ó war. Ribbon jellies are the largest organisms on the planet 15myh and are found in tropical open oceans world-wide. When conditions are right, these normally solitary jellies form huge swarms to breed usually dying soon after. After the evolution of Ribbon Jellies, traditional looking golden jellyfish were phased out of the oceans. Populations either gave rise to more derived, stranger forms or went extinct due to out competition. However, golden jellies still exist in estuaries.

Various zoanthid descendants.

1. The Palm Zoanthid is a solitary coral with a very long polyp stem. Tropical photosynthetic varieties typically prefer a sea grass bed habitat since the reefs lack proper space. Non photosynthetic species are more common in cold and deep areas with more nutrients.

2. Joker Zoanthids are longer stalked zoanthids that grow incredibly fast. Their strategy is to grow faster than their competition, so depending on conditions there can be vast sections of reef covered in one joker zoa colony.

3. Terror anemones are voracious ambush predators. They lack the palytoxin of their ancestors, instead they contain a sweet smelling chemical that attracts detritivore benthic animals. Once an animal touches a tentacle, the zoa snaps into action and strangles its prey. Sometimes Terror anemones will detach themselves and smother their prey further if they try to escape.

20 million years without true predation has allowed golden jellyfish to flourish in open seas with little defenses. The lighthouse jellyfish (a type of ribbon jelly) is one example. This group has evolved a gas chamber similar to the Portugese man of war, they rely mainly on diffusion of atmospheric gasses to keep afloat but can produce their own carbon monoxide as well. The coloration of this group is also more varied, lighthouse jellyfish that live on the surface of the ocean are typically brown or green from zooxenthellae while deeper living species are more red. Most species of jellyfish at this point have toxic flesh to protect them from parasitic nematodes, ones that don't will usually have mutualistic relationships with other small animals that protect them from the microscopic worms.

Neotenic golden jellyfish evolved relatively quickly to fill a small sessile predator niche after macrotifers evolved and swam into coastal environments. The unassuming clade of polyps is called the Golden hydra. They range anywhere from a couple hundred micrometers to a few inches. Depending on species they will hunt macrotifers, stabworms, other jellies, and microscopic zooplankton. Since their initial evolution in estuaries they have become spread through out all bodies of water on the planet, some with algal symbionts, some without. They mainly reproduce through asexual budding but can sexual reproduce in stressing conditions.

Due to their scyphozoan affinity, golden hydra don't bud like Earth hydra. Once the polyp is mature and has either obtained enough sperm from a male polyp or has gained enough mass to sustain itself for some days, it will enter it's strobila stage. The polyp starts producing a few ephyra which will split off and settle in another place to become their own polyps. Once all ephyra have budded off the hydra will return to it's non-reproductive state. This clade is technically ovoviparous in a weird cnidarian way.

Stemmed directly from the Golden hydra, Ephyrazoans are (neotenic?) hydras that never go into the polyp stage. They're benthic predators and scavengers present in all shallow marine habitats. To reproduce, the male will eject sperm directly into the female's mouth during copulation. After some time, fertilized eggs will hatch inside the females which will then produce small ephyra directly. To hunt their prey, most species will secrete acid from their stomachs onto whatever they're eating which includes corals, nemerteans, other jellies, and dead bodies. Some species possess eye spots to sense light and dark. At this point their evolution is recent (20my since seeding) so they will likely evolve into many other diverse forms. Around this point, mobile choanoflagellate colonies have disappeared due to competition with these far more efficient animals.

Top left: The Ra star is one of the largest Ephyrazoans. Like others related to it, the Ra Star has thick leathery skin, long chitinous setae, and a gastrovascular system that splits into many vessels and lead into the arms. The Ra Stars are apex predators of the benthos, they will eat anything that moves on the sea floor. These fearsome cnidarians reach several feet long and have a powerful sting.

Top right: The mourning stalker lives deep in the abyss, in a time where very few animals have adapted to harsh deep sea pressures, these creatures thrive without predators. The mourning stalker walks slowly along the sea floor one tentacle at a time, they can stick marine snow from the substrate onto their limbs and drag them into the mouth. Since they very rarely meet other individuals, they are monogamous, meaning couples will stay very close to each other and mate frequently.

Bottom right: The polyp snatcher is a very small Ephyrazoan that has a very strange life style. As its name suggests, it will take the life of one polyp on a calcified gorgonian colony and live there in its place. The little thief will then subsist on coral tissue and symbiotic algae waste for the rest of its life. They are capable of budding and taking over colonies if left unchecked.

Last one: The grazing ephyrazoan is one of the only herbivorous (excluding phytoplankton) species of cnidarian present. These destructive animals feed on the numerous kelp forests in the colder regions of Alluvius. Thousands of individuals will gather when conditions are right and eat entire groves-worth of the prolific algae. Very few animals eat them because of their toxic cnidocytes.

Microjellies and Grorgs, a curious symbiosis. Grorg worms originally evolved from detritivore planktonic nematodes which are pretty much in every ecosystem, even land. These particular nematodes adapted to feed on the fluid and algae within the flapped jellies, using a suction cup face and a stylet needle to pierce the epidermis. These parasites have since moved onto other large organisms such as nemerteans and rotifers. The quick spread of these parasites led to a flapped jelly decrease, so over generations these animals have begun to reproduce faster as a counter measure against them.

Meanwhile, golden jellyfish have diversified into other groups besides flapped jellies. Micro jellies lost their symbiotic algae due to their more predatory nature. They have specialized in hunting the various planktonic animals that now exist in Alluvius' oceans, honing the few weak cnidocytes they had into a force to be reckoned with. Some species of Microjelly developed a mutualistic symbiosis with larger jellies afflicted by the deadly grorgs, the small medusae hunt their partner's parasites in exchange for shelter among the flapped jelly's tentacles. Microjellies have also since moved on to relationships with other animals along with the grorgs, forming a curious symbiosis.

Bristle tooth jellyfish are descendants of golden jellyfish that inhabit all oceanic zones. Their eight arms have adapted to have feathery tips analogous to whale baleen and they have lost their photosynthetic algae symbionts. The bristle tooth jellyfish poises its arms toward the bell and pulses rapidly to swim into swarms of plankton. Each bristle of the jelly is lined with cilia that drag the plankton into the tiny mouths all along the arms. Depending on species, they may be in the deep sea and feed on zooplankton or in the epipelagic zone, feeding on phytoplankton. All lack cnidocytes completely and instead use slimy mucus to stick to prey, the jellies also lack a polyp stage. Planula develop directly into ephyra, then medusae.

Rugose zoas are zoanthid corals that have evolved to secrete aragonite skeletons like the calcified gorgonians. For the most part they have forms resembling rugose corals, large polyp stony corals, encrusting small polyp stony corals, and tabling corals, of which have out-competed the large tabling corraline algae. Rugose zoas are only present in tropical reefs.

Descended from Walking Gorgonians, the Gorgonophores are pelagic coral colonies with morphologically distinct polyps that have different jobs. Swimming, Feeding, Reproductive, and Sensory polyps all help build these ginormous colonies. At first, the group was reserved to small forms that fed upon phytoplankton and microscopic detritus. The evolution of Macrotifers and more advanced nemerteans is what really triggered the group to diversify into so many varieties. Gorgonophores occur in most ocean environments but are mostly commonly found in the abyss. The evolution of larger stabworms and ephyrazoans, especially, have greatly affected the diversity of the benthic Walking Gorgonians. The clade is now mostly pelagic Gorgonophore species.

The collapse of NeoEdiacaran reefs led many Anthozoan clades to extinction, but some adapted and survived.

• Zoracles are solitary derivatives of the Rugose Zoanthids. All members are ectoparasites, growing on the cuticles of Motifers. This symbiosis is usually harmless, but in some Motifer species it can become detrimental. Zoracles, like Earth's Scleratinin corals, love high flow and will often stretch their tentacles out into fast moving water to catch as much food as possible. Species which attach to Motifers in the Epipelagic zone are typically photosynthetic while deep water types are not.

• Drift Lilies are a group of Sea Lilies that choose to settle on a new abundant source of substrate, Mangrove wood. The abundance of land trees has inevitably led to many pieces of wood floating out to sea. Besides growing on these temporary structures, Drift Lilies are very similar to other Sea Lilies though their larval stage is usually longer to accommodate their rarer settle spots.

Borbles are marine benthic cnidarians derived from upside down jellyfish. Most live in sand beds with their tentacles spread out into the sea, catching particulates or wrangling larger prey. Shallower species typically live among sea grass and use their rounder arms to absorb sunlight. Deepwater species of Borbles can either be colorful or pigmentless and eat zooplankton. Most only reach about 20-30 centimeters with some exceptions reaching 40 or so centimeters. A few borbles can also move their bells and slither across the sea floor like Earth's stalked jellyfish. When threatened, Borbles may either burrow, crawl, or swim away. Their life cycles are complicated, polyps usually settle on rocks and form pelagic ephyra which then settle back on the sea floor to form adult Borbles. The ancestors of these specialized jellyfish don't have mouths, instead feeding from multiple canals within their arms that lead to the gastrovascular system. While photosynthetic species retain this feature, Borbles with more carnivorous diets need a larger central orifice to catch prey. Thus most have moved their canals inward to form one or multiple large orifices in the middle of the body, forming a mouth.