RatteJak's Art

Rough Winters Ahead

Coco

Splatoon OC

Argonaut

Man o' War.

These things aren't actually jellyfish, but a colony of hydroids. They work together, consuming whatever their tentacles catch, and reproduce. It's a simple life. The large, sail-shaped bubble on top actually helps them float to the water surface. Relying on the wind for movement, they haven't evolved many features for locomotion. This unfortunately makes them vulnerable to washing up on shores.

Overthinker

Among Us palette Circus Baby (this is an actual art challenge on twitter right now).

This Doesn't Concern You

Reaction

Marsupial on Grasstree Flowers.

Inspiration

What do you want to make

Spongebob

Sponges are the earliest and most primitive multicellular animals on Earth, and they've done quite well for themselves. Very little change has occurred in them over millions of years. They are completely asymmetrical lumps of cells that can crust over surfaces and form giant monoliths. They have one goal in life: to suck in water and filter out the food within it. This is why sponges form giant tubes (osculum), it's to push out the water that has been filtered through. I mentioned in the description of choanoflagellate illustrations that there may be an evolutionary link from sponges to unicellular life. Choanocytes are the sponge cells filtering food, and they are very similar to the choanoflagellates in appearance. There is a theory that colonial choanoflagellates are ancestors to all other life, i.e the sponges. The sponge, despite it's simplicity, holds a lot of value in science.

Choanoflagellates

This is another very important protozoa. Individually, they resemble sperm cells wearing skirts. The large flagella (tail part) beats and pushes food particles to the microvilli (smaller hairs), where it is then ingested into the cell. Like Volvox, these creatures usually congregate together. When they do, they form a stalk to attach to surfaces, as seen in the second illustration. What makes these microorganisms so interesting is that they are very similar to the choanocytes seen in sponges. Sponges are the most primitive multicellular animals we know of, and choanoflagellates may have been an stepping stone in some way.

Volvox. This structure is made up of many small protozoa forming a spherical colony. It's good to be spherical for structural reasons when it comes to the ocean. They live simple lives, photosynthesizing and sticking together with their flagella. When it's time for reproduction, a few will move to the centre to form daughter colonies (the small balls seen inside the structure). As these daughter colonies grow larger, they will eventually be spat out to become a separate colony. These creatures are incredibly important, as they shows a possible stepping stone into the metozoan body plan (i.e. the body plan of every other animal). It's not only an example of colonial living among unicellular organisms but perhaps an early precursor to cell differentiation, with some cells focusing on asexual reproduction while others remain in place.

Minecraft related illustrations.

Doodles of 2b2t spawn area, Minecraft void limit, the farther lands.

Daphnis

11/02/26

This is an odd elongated moon in Saturn's rings: