Type: Mixotrophic filter feeder, flying ecosystem
Distribution: The stratosphere and troposphere; migrates from the poles to the equator yearly
Size: 121 to 165 meters
In a world of endless skies, one creature soars greater than them all, piercing the eternal maelstrom.
Larger than a Saturn V rocket, the Colossal Skyspear is the largest nektonic organism to inhabit the turbulent clouds of Gliese 876 c.
Like the whales of Earth, they are migratory filter feeders of any organic aeroplankton they can suck up. They are also chemotrophs that use methane and hydrogen as electron donors for carbon fixation. Like most complex life on Gliese 876 c, they stick to the warmer, denser troposphere and stratosphere, where there is a higher abundance of chemicals necessary for life.
This is where they can find massive blooms of plankton and organic molecules. They mostly stay near the equator in the troposphere, where methane and other hydrocarbons are most abundant, but when one axis of the planet is facing closer to the star, the heat and UV light cause upwelling of methane and other hydrocarbons to the stratosphere, and undergo photolysis. Every century or so, Skyspears migrate up the atmosphere and away from the equator.
Despite their gargantuan size and the high gravity, they remain lighter than the air around them by having much of their body taken up by rows of heated hydrogen gas bladders for buoyancy. To keep from drifting helplessly in Neptune’s supersonic winds, they’ve evolved ramjet-like organs for controlled propulsion. They also store oxygen, using it not only for respiration but to burn hydrogen and methane from the air as a powerful rocket fuel.
Their flexible anuses have been modified as secondary rockets to maneuver and to be pointed forward or sideways to spray fire at attackers. The byproducts of water vapor and carbon dioxide can even be used to extinguish their own flames. This exhaust also slightly contributes to the greenhouse gas warming of the planet.
They are fast and aerodynamic, but not enough to overpower the supersonic storms of a gas giant. Instead, they use their retractable umbrella petals, both to sail on currents of wind blowing in their direction to act as giant aeroplankton, and as a rudder to slow down by catching the air blowing against it.
These are also used to filter feed and particles that become trapped or absorbed in them. They grow rows of collars of spores right in front of their petals and intake valves to asexually reproduce, but they can also secrete nutritious gametes from there and have smaller aeronekton “pollinate” them by flying to another Skyspear. External fertilization is a risky gambit in such a vast world. As young, they are helpless and planktonic, with few surviving to maturity, but as adults, they have only one major predator.
This entry was made by ScifiPug