| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Type | Anchored |
| Category | Pylons |
| Species | Pyloraptor mimic |
| Attitude | Defensive |
| Biome | Coral Gardens |
| Plantable | Yes |
| Scan Requirement | Bioscanner |
The Mimic Pylon is an anchored lifeform which seemingly possesses an electrical defense mechanism. The electric shock deals 5 damage to the player. A good way to make a deadly mechanism is to make a Growbed of solely Mimic Pylons.
Appearance
The mimic pylon possesses 3 large wavy leaf-like structures attached to a brown, striped stem.
These “leaves” are a bright orange-yellow gradient and are covered in a polygonal pattern.
In the middle of these leaf structures is a thick vein of sorts that lengthens and curls into a thinner one with rings of cyan and a cyan tip.
Behavior
The mimic pylon lies buried stationary in the sand showcasing its leaf-like structures and stem-like body.
Whenever an organism gets too close to the pylon, it discharges an electrical shock that takes 5 health from the player.
Recipe
| Machine | Ingredients | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Habitat Builder | 5x Fibrous Pulp<br>4x Copper | Mimic Pylon |
Databank Entry
Tentatively Pyloraptor mimic. A predatory animal disguised as a leafy kelp. Discharges electrical shock when disturbed.
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Cephalopod-like body Resembles an octopus or squid planted mantle-down in the seabed, with its arms spread to mimic kelp. Pouches of symbiotic bacteria between the arms allow it to photosynthesize. A beak at the center of its arms is plugged with mucus.
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Electrical hunting The four arms contain electrocytes, organs which build up an electrical charge. When disturbed by prey, the electrocysts discharge, causing paralysis or death. It is unclear if the prey are directly eaten, or if they decompose in a garden around the mimic pylon. (Organisms which feed on external decay are known as saprotrophs.)
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Implies kelp The pylon's cryptic aggressive mimicry of leafy kelp implies that kelp must exist on this world. Most species in Earths' oceans eat to survive, with primary production (the conversion of sunlight into biomass) carried out by plankton and algae. Leafy kelp were a late evolutionary development.
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Cave mouth strategy Mimic pylons tend to cluster around sea cave entrances, perhaps to feed on organisms entering or leaving the caves. Alternately (and speculatively) they may have been planted there by another species to control access.
Assessment: avoid contact to prevent injury. May mark cave mouths.
Source: Scan a Mimic Pylon
Gallery
In Game
 
