Previous Work: I've always wondered, what if there was a whole eosystem of microscopic organisms living high in the sky? This is unlikely, but interesting, so that is my environment.
All the animals start out as herbivores, living off just oxygen itself. As they develop, most of them will become herbivores or scavengers. These creatures will usually eat by coming back down to the surface. There they will find either plants or dead animals. The few carnivores and omnivores will almost never come down to the surface, at least until they are fully grown. The omnivores will survive off of the things that pass through the sky, and will usually stay at a lower altitude than the rest. The carnivores will usually eat some of the unlucky tiny spores in the sky, waiting to develop into an animal. They also will eat the other tiny organisms in the sky.
There are some small fungi and bacteria that mostly survive off of the water in the clouds. Some of these are poisonous, but this is very rare, but powerful, because so many tiny organisms drink from the clouds.
The organisms all start as a herbivore, feeding off oxygen, and are tiny dots, and cannot be seen with any microscope as of now.
The tiny creatures become a bit bigger, and now are seen with only the most powerful microscopes.
Now the animals start splitting up into species.
Herbivores (Blue)
They start out as either a blob with legs or a blob with arms. The arms are super thin, and are not used for much, except for pushing the air.
Once they grow bigger, they either grow wings, or legs and arms. The creatures with wings are very fast, and are hardly ever eaten because they can get away. But with arms and legs the creatures can physically defend themselves a bit better, but against a carnivore usually lose a fight.
***The animals are no longer microscopic after this stage***
The birds with wings grow into small, agile birds, tht are great at flying, and use mostly their beak to grab things.
The birds with legs and arms grow more plump, and develop their legs and wings more. They grab things with their arms, and feed themselves more like humans.
Scavengers (Red)
These creatures start out as blobs. Some of them have a sort of "U" shape, and eat by sucking up the dead creature, and then their body decomposes it with the acids inside it.
The other creatures are an "O" shaped blob. They also eat by sucking up the creature. But as the creature is passing through the gap in their body, the chemicals in the creature attract the essential nutrients to the actual part of their body.
This stage the creatures mostly grow bigger. The "U" now has muscles in the lower part of it's body, so it can fly, and the "O" is now shaped like a star, so it can touch things, and fly a bit better. It cannot grab, but the tiniest of creatures might stick to it's gel-like skin.
***No longer microscopic***
Over time these creatures evolve a lot into this stage. The feet of the original "U" creature are now much more diverse and powerful. It can sometimes grab things, and can fly very fast. It now has eyes and can see, and has a mouth. This creature only eats with it's mouth.
The star creature's limbs are much longer, stronger, flexible, and overall just talented. They can grab almost anything, and are good at defending themselves, but they don't make him much faster. They grow a mouth, which can open as far as the creature wants, like the gap in the original "O" stage. It also now has eyes.
Carnivores (Green)
They start off as a circle with arms basically. They have what you might call hands, but are not great at using them yet.
They now evolve into two groups.
Some of them grow wings, and legs with talons. These creatures are very fast, and usually just kill imediately with their talons.
The other group grow teeth and horns. Unlike the other species, these animals usually tustle for a while before killing and eating an animal. They are not very agile, but once they get a hold of something with their teeth, they will not let go.
***No longer microscopic***
The winged creatures grow more powerful legs, and can now walk. Their wings get bigger and stronger, and they grow arms, that also have talons (forgot to draw talons). But no hands. They still kill very quickly. This animal eats in small portions, but eats about once a day.
The horned creatures grow into more of a body, and less of a blob. They now have powerful wings, a very large mouth, and sharper teeth. They still do not have legs. They eat by scooping harmless animals off of the ground, unlike the last stage, where they would fight for a while because they were slow.
Omnivores (Pink/Purple)
These animals start as a blob with legs, short arms, and hands. They can grab things, and eat by forcing it into their body.
Next, they might grow a mouth and longer arms. They now can eat much easier, and use their arms mostly for fighting the prey, not to eat with. They do not eat plants with their arms, just their mouth.
They might grow wings, and lose their legs. These animals are fast, and usually try to knockout the enemy with high speed flying before eating it. They still use their arms to grab and eat things by pushing it into their gel-like body.
***No longer microscopic***
The animals are very similar now. They grow very powerful wings, and a beak to eat with. One species grows strong arms, the other legs.
The creature with arms are more carnivore than the other. They fight for their prey.
The creatures with legs are very fast, and usually eat their prey in one-bite without the prey even knowing. This creature eats more plants than live creatures though.
A youngling grows up.
A tiny spore is floating through the air, enjoying all the scenery he takes in. Some other tiny creatures are eating, some are eaten. After about a week, the spore starts to grow. His body expands, and he grows muscles. He floats around, constantly slowly growing thanks to the oxygen and the water in the air. Even his body meshes into new shape, so he now is taller. After another week he sprouts his legs out of the extra cells his body just grew. They keep growing and growing, and now he flies around and avoids the scary carnivores. His feet keep getting stronger and stronger, and eventually he grows toes, and stubs of arms. He is even faster now, and can almost grab things with his feet. A few more weeks and his arms are fully grown, and he starts using them for more things, like eating plants. He grows hands, and starts to grow a bit of his fings. He now has very strongs legs, feet, and toes. He is growing thinner towards the top, instead of just a fat blob. His arms are now fully capable of picking things up, fighting off enemies, and helping him fly. His wings are not fully grown, but still give him much better balance.
After a couple weeks, his wings grow and develop, and he is nearly fully grown.
A normal day in the kingdom.
The herbivores stay in large schools. They will go to the clouds to drink water first thing. During that timy the omnivores usually attack. They attack about once a week. 2 out of every 10 herbivores get eaten in these attacks. The omnivores travel in packs, but not as big as the herbivores. Every day they don't attack other creatures, they will descend to the surface for some plant to eat. They eat once a day. The herbivores continue their day descending back to the surface, hoping for no more attacks. But, of course, there are always 1-4 carnivore attacks during this time. Again about 1 out of every 10 get eaten. The herbivores take very small bites, and don't eat much, but they eat twice a day.
The carnivores travel alone or in small packs. They eat once a day from the sky. They also swoop down to the surface and pick up animals once a day. But they will soar back and forth about 5 times.
The scavengers travel in huge packs. If they see a dead carcass, they will fight for it. The don't play fair. They go down to the surface to feast once a week. But on that day they take a long time and eat a lot. The scavengers do not care about each other. But, they also aren't cannibals, and will not eat their own species.
How this planet came up:
It started out as a thick layer of fog in between a star and the ozone of a planet. This planet was nutritious, and eventually a couple of organisms emerged from the soil. They start floating throught the air, and dropping leftover soil into the fog. The fog was so thick the organisms and dirt could not leave the area. It eventually grew stronger and stronger, and sucked in a ton of soil. This soil smashed together, and formed a tiny ball. The organisms were smashed yet again into the soil, but this was a key process. More and more soil built up on the planet, and eventually it slowly started to orbit. The organisms kept stretching and working their way to the surface. Eventually they emerged, and they left behind lots of waste behind them. This waste was critical for the planet. It started created a bunch of roots. The roots got bigger and turned to plants. They came to the surface and fed the organisms. The planet kept growing and growing, and eventually the fog ran out. But because the fog allowed the creatures to float, they have taught themselves how to fly.
