Myscrogen Ribbencauda

A random mutation within colonial females allowed the myscrogen ribbencauda to form and split from the megaorthoceros circumorphos. This evolution has also helped spread their lineage out further again after their significant drawbacks suffered from the enduring ice age. As such, their lineage can now be found throughout a substantial area of the LadyM Ocean, although they still have yet to reach the surface; even so, they can still be found just below the sunlit zones of this ocean.

Ribbencauda almost follow the path of their close yet extinct cousins, the kontributor mynor, in that each of the colony's flagella can be connected to allow for the transfer of materials. However, while kontributor used this to share nutrients between individuals, ribbencauda uses it instead to form an odd defense against would-be predators. After a colony is complete with all six members, the eldest member will be 'sacrificed' for the greater good of the colony. This is to say that, through the colony's release of chemical pheromones, the eldest will begin to convert herself into a defensive weapon. Over the course of a few days her nucleus will hollow out, putting her into an almost comatose state, which she will remain in permanently. At this point, all other colony members will attach their flagellum to the eldest's, where they will fuse and allow a one-way transfer of two items into the 'coma patient'. The first of these items is surplus nutrients that each member doesn't need for themselves to survive, which will be used by the eldest's own body to keep her alive. The second item transferred over is indigestible chemicals that they intake when imbibing upon decaying matter. This is then stored within the now-brain-dead nucleus, where it is held until needed.

When attacked by a would-be predator, the ribbencauda colony will attempt to place the eldest female between themselves and the attacker. Despite being essentially comatose, the other females will release signals through the web of tails to cause the eldest to properly position her proboscis to pierce the foe. Upon doing so, she will automatically release all of her potentially-toxic payload, or as much as she can before the foe gets away.

Colonies are still formed only by females and in a circular pattern, with each member spread an equal distance from the others. Should one die of any means, its body will be reabsorbed by the two surrounding females, and one of these will then being budding off a new member. Colonies only very rarely exceed more than six members, however the largest possible number is eight. Should the defensive member perish, the other members can detach their flagella from hers, with the openings between each sealing up in well under an hour before another member is begun to be produced. At the same time, the now-eldest member will sacrifice themselves for the greater good of the colony.

Males have not changed physically at all, and feed in two ways, combined to allow for their survival: first off they feed on free-floating oxygen molecules, which their bodies then aerobically convert into carbon dioxide. Secondly, they now swarm around colonial females, feeding on excess carbon that the females absorb through their own feedings that they don't actually require, which the females will expel from their bodies. As with the rest of their lineage, they will permanently fuse with a female en masse when a colony requires male genetic code.