Embedded Files
In the shallow waters of the intertidal zone large spider-like plants anchor themselves in place with leaves that curve down into the sediment. The juvenile anchor plants rest fully submerged under the waves while the adults peak their heads above the water. For the taller adults as waves splash and the tide falls water becomes trapped within their leaves, water that one highly derived verm has found a great use for.
Amphiverms are a social species of verm notable for their amphibious capabilities that allow them to lay their egg clutches in pools of water found to mature anchor plants. To persist in their chosen plant above the water amphiverms required several adaptations, the most obvious being adaptations to breath air. The defining feature of verms is the lack of a lateral fin and the presence of small extensions to their gill arches to paddle water into their gills. While this originally evolved to facilitate a life hiding between cracks to better strike prey, amphiverms were able to use their gill paddles to not only protect their gills from desiccating in air but also to stabilize and even crawl across their nesting plant. Amphiverms adapted six gill paddles on either side of their body for locomotion with an additional pair of gills at either end of their body specialized for above water respiration.
Parental care is slowly becoming more common for all species of squim; however, Amphiverms are taking it a step further. Amphiverms form harems of one male and up to five females, the male will mate with each female and defend its chosen plant from rival males that may wish to usurp it. This system of mating is so competitive due to the scarcity of ideal anchor plants caused by the specific criteria an anchor plant must fit to be considered an adequate nest. The plant must be tall enough such that the top leaves remain above the water at high tide yet low enough that the amphiverms can reach it by jumping out of the water. Finding the perfect plant is crucial, if the leaves were low enough to get swallowed by high tide the amphiverm's eggs could be swallowed by predators. Once a plant is chosen and the clutches have been laid the colony will remain at the nest and protect the eggs until they hatch. While the male protects the nest the females act as sentries and periodically leave the nest to acquire food to share it with other members of the colony by regurgitating through trophallaxis. As the egg clutch finally hatches the pups resemble miniature adults, they crawl their way out of their nest and into the water, they are on their own as their parents only care for them until they hatch and may even eat them as they are fleeing the nest. The pups will spend their lives completely underwater until they reach sexual maturity and at that point will seek out a plant to create a nest of their own.
Generation after generation these verms will become better suited to life above the water and eventually dry land; however, they will not be the first...
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse