The glass hatchball is very different from its ancestor, the glassball. Its main changes are in how it spreads its offspring. A hatch-like part is on the top of its shell, and three large spore pods have grown from the top of the ball. When the spores are ready to be released, the pods violently eject the spores hard enough to push open the hatch for a few minutes. If the hatch does not close as it is suppose to, the organism will die. The hatch itself is not controlled by the organism, but merely closes because the hatch parts are heavy enough that gravity does the work for it. The hole on the top is very small, so only about 10%-30% of the spores escape. The rest fall to the ground inside the shell and die quickly.
Living Relatives (click to show/hide)
These are randomly selected, and organized from lowest to highest shared taxon. (This may correspond to similarity more than actual relation)
