In the process of redoing the planet map for Almud, assisted by a website that lets you project images onto a ball to make planets with them. This makes it a lot easier to make sure things still make sense near the poles. I can never tell how stretched out to make things at those latitudes.
This post is an overview of one of the "animal" phyla present on Almud. This is the first of many, since I do plan on making a similar post for each of the others. All art shown here was created using MS Paint, though I may switch to a different program if I find one that works better (probably Procreate, since I have recently bought it, but it's a bit hard to use with just a finger on a phone screen) (Also MS Paint has an AI generator thing now and that's very stinky and bad).
The first thing to cover is how the phylum came to be. Xylovitrians originated as an offshoot of vivitrians, specifically a freefloating colonial species analogous to a hard, glassy man o' war. Its body was hollow, with pores lining its outside to allow water in to be filter-fed through by its tendrils. A color-coded overview of its anatomy is shown below.
Purple: The glassy shells of each zooid. Forms a pocket for water to flow through.
Blue: Same as above, but in a different spot. I don't know why I colored this part differently, besides it being on the bottom. Too late to fix it sadly. MS Paint flattens layers after saving the image.
Red: The soft feather-like tendrils of each zooid. Responsible for filtering nutrients out of the water that flows into its body.
Orange: Also tendrils, but specialized for a different purpose. This thicker bundle not only filters through the water for nutrients, but produces gametes for sexual reproduction. Typically, though, the organism will just reproduce asexually by producing more zooids and splitting apart.
At some point very early into the history of Almudian life, a kelp-like plant species developed a habit of growing on top of these proto-xylovitrians, with their roots sometimes growing through the cracks and into the inner cavity. Here, the roots of the plant and the tendrils of the zooids would sometimes wrap around each other, forming a structure similar to Earth mycorrhizae. In a formation such as this, the animal would absorb some of the sugars from the plant's roots. In return, the plant would absorb some of the nutrients from whatever microorganisms got caught in the zooids' tendrils. This arrangement proved so mutually beneficial that this proto-xylovitrian species adapted an opening at the top specifically for the plant to grow through, and the kelp analogue adapted to only be able to grow on or inside xylovitrians.
The lineage did not stop developing here, however. One offshoot descendant of this proto-xylovitrian eventually adapted to live at the surface of the water, giving the resident plants much better access to the sunlight and gases necessary for photosynthesis. The plants, meanwhile, adapted to have sturdier stems and more water loss-resistant skin, as well as a new way of entering their host. The plants’ spores now enter though the side pores leading into the water cavity, where they will bloom without ever having lived outside. Below is a diagram of this new offshoot’s anatomy and what sets it apart from its ancestor.
Purple: Same as before, but with a thick, waxy coating on the outside to prevent water loss in the above-water level bits.
Blue: Same as before. Nothing to comment on. Only colored this part in differently for the sake of consistency.
Red: The inner zooids' tendrils have lost the ability to filterfeed. Instead, they get all of their nutrition from the plants' roots, which they are permanently wrapped around. The central cavity, despite being above water level, is also still filled with water, preventing the plants from dehydrating. The water is brought in through the side openings, which now also contain a pumping mechanism to prevent backflow. The entire structure is more or less a living vase now.
Orange: Same as before, but with some added features. Not only are the tendrils longer, but some of them have developed the ability to produce toxins. A few toxin-resistant, fish-like creatures use these areas as a refuge from predators, where they will also pick up some gametes which they will spread to the next set of tendrils they hide in, inadvertently acting as vectors for the xylovitrians' reproduction.
Yellow: A gas bladder, which lets the whole structure stay buoyant enough to not sink below the surface. Adapted from a mutated second central cavity.
Given that these are freefloating organisms, it was inevitable that some would eventually wash up on land, where certain adaptations, such as the waxy coating and the inner water cavity, would allow the xylovitrians and their plant partners to continue surviving and thriving. Without much risk of drying out, this small beached population continued reproducing on the muddy shore, gradually accumulating adaptations over the generations that made them even better at living on land. It is at this point that the first true xylovitrians emerged.
Below is yet another diagram, this time of a fully-terrestrial inland xylovitrian. The phylum's diversity exploded after the transition to land, so this isn't totally representative of all species, host or plant, but it's still a generally useful guide.
Purple: Same as before, but now there are sometimes additional openings at the top for the leaves of the plants to grow out of.
Blue: The siphons that connected the central cavity to the outside body of water have become their own separate organs, accompanied by root tendrils outside of the tube to make absorbing water easier.
Cyan: Rather than water, the central cavity is filled with what can be best described as a sort of nutritious goop. The plant gets all of its nutrition from here.
Green: This gland is responsible for producing the aforementioned nutritious goop. Like the water extractor organs, these are specialized chunks of the central cavity.
Orange: The larger bottom tendrils now not only absorb nutrients and produce gametes, but root the colony into the soil. These nutrients are used to nourish both the xylovitrian and the plants. Other than that, they have remained mostly the same, just more spread out.
Yellow: No longer necessary for flotation, the gas bladder now functions mostly as a lung.
Unfortunately, the new arrangement of parts, with the genital tendrils and water tubes both being underground, makes the old reproduction and ensporification method impossible. Fortunately, a new method was devised to replace it, allowing the phylum to live on.
Step 1: The plants and xylovitrians are fertilized individually of each other, with the plants exchanging gametes through the air on swirly reproductive branches and the xylovitrians doing so under the ground with extensions of their roots.
Step 2: An empty juvenile xylovitrian emerges from the ground, while the plants' reproductive branches develop large spores using the exchanged genetic info.
Step 3: One or a few of the plants' spores fall, float, or otherwise enter into the empty xylovitrian, aided by feathery extensions that catch them if they fall close to the brim. Upon reaching the goop pool within, they will germinate, signalling the xylovitrian to continue its development.
Step 4: The new organism pair has been fully established, ready to one day do the same as their respective parents.
Notably, this specific method allows for different species of guest and host to mix and match, since different pair types are often similar enough to be compatible. This is not possible with every species, but it's a common enough phenomenon to where it's worth mentioning.
This is not the only dispersal method that exists, though. One group has adapted to be able to merge the xylovitrian embryos and plant embryos into a single seed, suspended in a sugary slime with a consistency and flavor similar to that of fruit gummies. Admittedly, I haven't fully thought through the mechanics of how this works, so I'll have to revisit it later. Until then, here's a very basic diagram.
Purple: Xylovitrian embryos
Blue: Plant embryos
I may edit this post later to add on or revise details if I feel like anything could be improved. I will also almost definitely make individual posts for specific species or families of xylovitrians that I feel like showing off. This is the end for now, though.
Entrevista con Alfonso González-Calero, editor de Almud Castilla-La Mancha
Alfonso González-Calero, editor de Almud Castilla-La Mancha, ha concedido una entrevista al periódico ABC, en que la que refleja la supervivencia de los libros en papel frente a la nueva era.
Hoy en día, los avances de la tecnología han hecho que lo ‘tradicional’ sea menos atractivo y quizás algo aburrido, sobre todo en la industria editorial que es la más afectada.
Exactamente, 4 de cada 10 librerías, que facturan 1,5 millones de euros, venden lectores, y 6 de cada 10 distribuyen libros electrónicos. Una diferencia de datos que marcan el antes y el después, donde en España cierran dos librerías al día.
“Coexistirán el papel y lo digital; a corto plazo no lo imagino de otra forma”.
Esta industria sigue y seguirá al pie del cañón, porque a pesar de todas las novedades, lo cotidiano, los libros en papel, siempre tendrá un hueco en esta sociedad.
Es más, a quién no le gusta, abrir un libro nuevo, empaparse del olor a papel recién estrenado y tener esa inquietud desde la primera frase del primer capítulo.
