Demorock

The Demorock has replaced its ancestor in the Yokto River. It has grown a bit but still retains the same complex lifecycle its ancestor had. In its second stage, its tentacles become light sensitive and its underbelly has phosphorescent cells. Those light up in complex patterns to signal other Demorocks of its ability to reproduce.

The life cycle of the Demorock begins in microscopic eggs that consist of an outer shell with many embryonic cells inside. Those will grow and feed on each other inside the egg until they grow enough to hatch emerge as a free-swimming unicellular creatures. This free-swimming stage is actually quite large for a singe cell, allowing it to easily consume most other cells that it contacts, even if it's its egg-buddies.

If the Stage-One cell survives, and after consuming a significant amount of food, it will divide and stick together, continuing to swim about until it has roughly two dozen cells, at which point it ceases to swim about and instead begins floating on the surface, converting into a multicellular creature with specialized cell times (it is worth noting that individual cells within the multicultural organism are considerably smaller then the free swimming version). This floating second stage passively feeds with its tentacles, which adsorb prey (single-cells) upon surface contact, while the tentacles wrap around larger food particles and bring them up so they may be broken down by the specialized digesting cells at the base of the tentacles. Along with tentacles and digesting cells, the second stage has a smaller number of cells responsible for building a shell that holds in a small air bubble to help with flotation, protects against the elements, and serves as a primitive skeleton to sustain the organism’s structure.

As this second stage grows, it does not gain new tentacles, but allows cells in the center to divide, slowly moving the tentacles towards the outer edge. Once the second stage reaches roughly one centimeter wide, it uses its tentacles to seek out another individual of roughly the same size, at which point they will “fold” together, creating a single organism out of two. Upon folding, this third stage rapidly undergoes a number of changes, first releasing its air bubbles allowing it to sink, re-orienting the tentacles to extend outwards, and connecting a number of membranes together within the organism. Once fully changed, the third stage has two shells that provide both protection and structure, a number of tentacles along its outside that both move the organism and grasp food particles, pushing them into one of the holes between each tentacle, sending the food into a center cavity lined with digestive cells. In order to provide the inner cells with oxygen, the membranes between the two shells pull them in slightly, then relax, creating a pulse that draws water in then lets it out, also helping with food circulation. The third stage continues to grow, reaching a maximum size at around three centimeters. Thanks to its shells, the third stage is able to travel on land somewhat, provided it still spends most of its time in puddles and never leaves moist areas.

As the third stage grows, it will bud eggs within its central cavity then push them out, releasing them into the water where they hatch a few days later.