For Kirby’s 25th anniversary I’ll start uploading these phylogenetic trees of life in Popstar I’ve been working on, these take way longer than I thought but I love the results!! Happy Birthday Kirby! Thank u for everything! You’ve enriched my life in ways too beautiful!
The descriptions and names for each family and species is under the read more, I wrote some fun pokedex-like entries :>
Indistinctoidea
This order of popstarian life is part of the Mollistosoma clade, informally known as “Squishy Boys”. Indistinctoidea itself is characterized by having undifferentiated limbs (no specified structures from the rest of the body). They are further divided into two main groups: Asteromorpha and Languidumorpha.
Asteromorpha
They are characterized by having a star-like body plan, presenting 5 extensions throughout their bodies, two forelimbs, two hindlimbs and one cephalic protuberance. The manner in which this cephalic protuberance grows is what further divides this group, into Unicuspida and Odontocuspida.
Unicuspida
Cuppie (Cingopterus cupidae) : Commonly known as Cuppie, C. cupidae hovers throughout popstar shooting down other creatures with their arrows in a very elegant arc-like fashion. They seem to do this only for fun.
Snooter (Comedostoma furia) : The mouth of a Snooter has specialized in such a way that their eyesight is severely hindered due to all the space their lips take in the face. Perhaps that’s why they get so angry when you bump into them, they can’t see you coming through those reduced eyes.
Odontocuspida
Prank (Renideo ludus) : R. ludus individuals have shown impressive crafting abilities, they are able to build all kinds of booby traps out of stuff they find in the ground or is given to them by their friends. All this ability i used solely for entertainment purposes.
Starman (Transilio aster) : T. aster are usually found in pairs, this is because they know you may bump into one of them too hard, and they don’t want you to lose your chance at soaring the skies like them. It seems the purpose of these creatures is to share as much as possible the experience of temporary flight.
Languidumorpha
Languidumorpha has very few extant representatives, their low-to-the-ground body plan doesn’t seem to proof much effective in most environments. The only two remaining species are fairly separate from each other, but both have come up with astonishing adaptations to counter or make use of their morphological characteristics.
Hemiasterida
Droppy (Mimus polymorpha) : One single Droppy can shapeshift both superficially and functionally into at least 20 different species. The nature of this ability is still under study, but it’s certain it has to do with a highly flexible nucleic acid, similar to DNA, but made with Arabinose instead of Ribose, this gives a soft pink hue to their transformations.
Clivumida
Minny (Vitus minuscula) : V. minuscula, despite their physiology disposed for creeping, is capable of achieving extreme speeds, specially for their size. This allows them to retreat very fast into a small crevice where they won’t be seen by others, usually after they get embarrassed by something.
