Colonialball

Splitting from its ancestor, the colonialball has moved into the open waters and has shrunken in size. It forms large floating colonies that drift upon the currents, their buoyant nature keeping them near the surface as they photosynthesize. They reproduce via either producing spores which join the plankton that surrounds it or by having various individual orbs fall off and start new colonies. Within their molted bodies is a small amount of fresh water which they have separated from the surrounding salt water in order to make themselves lighter than it, as well as to supply their photosynthetic functions.

While colonies rarely grow very large due to herbivores and such, some rare ones can be found containing over a hundred members. At these sizes, though, individuals deep within the mass tend to die out due to being unable to photosynthesize, and this itself can lead to the colonies breaking up.