Flop

The Flop is a hypothetical Lifeform that may have existed in the Tar Delta region.

Appearance

Section requires expansion.

Databank Entry


Diademimponentia flop, a hypothetical organism that may be the ancestor of all Protean life with a central nervous system.

1. Flip vs flop

Scans of the droopy flip discovered that the organism separates its germ cells, capable of giving birth to new flips, from its somatic cells, which can only grow new parts of the flip's body. This specialization is present in all Protean life with a nerve strand (as well as in you), but absent in corals, jellies, sponges, and combs. The flip may be an evolutionary link.

2. Unflipped

The flop is a hypothetical ancestor animal that resembled an upside-down flip. It crawled over microbial mats, absorbing nutrients through its belly. Although the flop had nerves, they controlled tissue growth rather than motion or senses.

3. Flop life

The flop grew constantly. New segments formed around the central navel, pushing older segments outward. The cells in these segments were capable of unlimited division and regeneration, but they could not separate or give birth to new organisms. Their specialized roles were assigned by HOLOX genes in the nerve cells.

4. Flop birth

The flop gave birth to new flops by transforming nerve cells into germ cells, then growing a new stalk directly from its navel. This centralization of reproduction may have evolved to force the flop's segments to work together—at the cost of the body cells' mobility and ability to transform. From this point on in Protean animal life, specialization by deprivation was the order of the eon.

5. Flipped flop

The flip evolved when flops began to anchor themselves to substrates in order to spawn. Eventually, parent flops raised their baby flops upward to catch falling nutrients. In time this became the flip's entire life.

Assessment: purely theoretical. Likely extinct for hundreds of millions of years.

Gallery

Screenshots needed.