Plent

Plents are diverse organisms that share both animal and plant features. Some however adapted to a tree-like lifestyle.

Taxonomy

 * More detailed phylogeny of plents and their relatives can be found at Taxonomy.

†: Taxon is extinct

Anatomy
Land Plents have had internal cellulose or "wooden" bones. Both Land Plents and Aquatic Plents have soft cellulose "muscles" and tissue. Tree Plents meanwhile developed a hard wooden trunk with rubbery bark.

Pseudomurids can be identified by their wooden and often rodentlike teeth, while the phlyers/phylers of the Pterophyta order can be identified by their wooden beaks.

Not all plents photosynthesize, so through millions of years of evolution they may lose their photosynthetic organs, as well as their green skin pigmentation. However, non-photosynthetic plents can still be identified as plents by the following characteristics: green ear insides or green ear membranes, two eyes, peanut-like eye "masks", wooden beaks, and butt-nostrils. The presence of butt-nostrils can be conspicuously indicated by long "tails" or "spouts" on the rump or lower back, as well as spikes surrounding the vulnerable region. There are, of course, exceptions, and even if there are not, considering plent diversity it is likely anomalies will eventually arise.

Behavior
Some plents raise their young while others don't; it all depends on the species. For instance, some plents from the Ketter line live in large groups, while the aereo plents seem to live in very small (mother, father, child) families.

Breathing & Blood
Plents breathe using a hole located at their rear. Predators of plents commonly aim for this hole, but some plents evolved spikes for protection. Plents breathe in carbon dioxide just like plants on Earth. Plents have green blood from the chlorophyll that remains in it.

When injured, the sap-like blood will harden around the wound. This scab of hardened sap prevents the lose of blood.

Diet & Energy
Plents are mixotrophs, meaning that they can both eat and convert sunlight into energy. Plents have two "wings" that capture sunglight. However, some plents lost the wings, and thus becoming completely heterotrophic. Many plents are omnivorous, and there is only a few that is fully predatory. One prehistoric species of plent evolved a detritivorous lifestyle. In mobile plents, any waste procured is excreted from their skin, much like sweat would. Anything too large to be excreted has to be regurgitated back up the mouth.

Thermoregulation
Plents were ancestrally ectotherms, but many kinds of land plent and aquatic plent have evolved some level degree of heat generation and insulation. Some terrestrial species of plent bask, using their leaves (if present) not only to soak in sunlight for photosynthesis but to warm themselves up. The majority of plent species have bare glandular skin, like a frog or a hairless mammal, from which their sweat-like urine is secreted; similar to the sweat of humans, this can have a cooling effect.

A few different groups of plent have evolved insulatory integument of some kind. "Fatty lumps" are found in nobits and extinct primitive skuniks, though their actual effectiveness is unknown. Barkbacks and modern skuniks use a bark-like body covering for insulation which doubles as protection. Cellulose-based fibers comparable to fur or proto-feathers evolved far more frequently, appearing independently in many groups; these can be broadly split into two categories, coarser lignified (woody) fibers (such as in sklithraderm) and softer unlignified fibers (such as in downfeathered noleap, cottoncoat, some phlyers, and puratora).

Evolution
Plents began from a photosynthetic unicelluar organism that bore two flagella. The organism then evolved many more cells, and became an organism that sifts the water for smaller organisms while photosynthesizing at the same time. It then colonized the land as a small, ant-sized creature. Modern plents started to diverge from this creature.

Reproduction
All plents reproduce sexually. Walking plents copulate through their mouths, as well as give birth with it. They give live birth, just like mammals. The original ambulatory plents, including nodents, phlyers, bearhogs, gulpers, and similar generally have their womb located on their throat, which is then what swells during pregnancy. Sea plents reproduce by spawning, releasing their genetic material into the water to fertilize on their own. Plant plents reproduce by releasing their genetic material into the wind.

Ambulatory Plents
Ambulatory plents mate mouth to mouth by "kissing". Ancestrally, the male would "spit" genetic material into the female's mouth; however, more efficient methods of delivering sperm have evolved in some groups.

The womb rests in the neck, beneath the esophagus. As they give birth through their mouths, the size of their offspring is typically limited by the size of their mouth; ambulatory plents with small mouths will tend to have small offspring. Some species mitigate this with alternative birthing methods; for example, the glowlicker has a separate reproductive opening so that it doesn't have to give birth through its extremely narrow mouth. Some plents are able to unhinge or warp their jaw to stretch their mouth open wider for birth.

Senses
Plents in the Pseudomuridae family often have two eyes, surrounded by a pigmented "mask." Some Pseudomuridae members have good senses of hearing, and can even hear ultrasonic noises. Some members squeak in ultrasound to communicate with each other. Most fauna cannot detect ultrasound, so this allows the pseudomurids to communicate without being heard by predators.

Size
Plents come in a wide range of sizes, from microscopic 50-micrometer species of whip swarmer to the colossal 35 meter tall spiral plern.

Types of Plents
There are three types of plents. There are walking plents (Mobilophyta), sea-dwelling plents (Ichthyophyta), and completely immobile tree-like plents (Dendrozoa). The walking plents are more complex, and they're one of the first organisms to inherit the land. They can come in many kinds and shapes such as rhino-sized herbivores, bulky elephant-like, flying bird-like, and tiny mouse-sized plents. Tree plents are immobile, and they play the role of trees in different forests. Some have evolved thorns for basic protection from certain herbivores. The sea plents started out as a manta ray-like organism. This eventually became the whale-sized strainbeans, the electrifying bubblepede zappers, and the prolific swarmers.