At this very moment, in the depths of Earth’s oceans, alien lifeforms are waiting. Not alien
in the sense they come from another planet, but alien in the sense that they’re so different
from what we think of as life, they seem not of this Earth. And if our oceans harbor organisms
that appear extraterrestrial, imagine what we’d find in a literal alien sea. Polinices
is a speculative biology project by the brilliant artist and worldbuilder J. J. Aniorte, which
explores life on a planet ruled by aquatic organisms. The infinite forms of this tropical
paradise are among the most creative I’ve ever featured on this channel — pushing
the boundaries of life as we know it. There’s a tremendous amount to discover, and as always
you can follow and support the artist using the links in the description. So, let’s
dive in to these teeming waters, and see what awaits us upon planet Polinices. The planet
of Polinices is dominated by a global ocean that surrounds the planet’s sole supercontinent.
Conditions on land are harsh, due to solar radiation and brutal aridity. Yet just below
the waves, life is overflowing… Beginning in the tropical shallows, we can find the
Stegocaudate, one of the most emblematic groups of Polinices. At a glance, we seem to have
found the fish of this world. Yet Stegocaudate — like all lifeforms we’ll discover on
this planet — are actually something far stranger: colonial organisms. On Earth, colonial
organisms are lifeforms that are in fact made of many different individual organisms working
in tandem to survive. Like organs in our bodies, different individual organisms — which are
called ‘zooids’ — have different functions: from locomotion, to digesting food, to reproducing.
And the zooids that make up the Stegocaudate are no different, with each individual organism
playing a role in the survival of the larger lifeform. In order to understand this unique
way of life, we must follow a Stegocaudate from its birth to its death. As larvae, Stegocaudate
are transparent, and lack the distinctive body shape of adults. As they grow older,
their shell — which is at first covered by a thin layer of tissue — becomes more
and more prominent as the tissue fades away. The end result is a highly unusual lifeform
with exposed digestive and reproductive zooids enclosed within a fish-shaped shell. While
an alien organism taking on a shape similar to Earth fish might be surprising, the laws
of hydrodynamics have shaped non-fish animals into fish-like forms before in our own oceans.
This was the case for the phylliroe, a genus of marine molluscs with a body plan and style
of locomotion almost identical to fish. The shells of Stegocaudate are exceptionally light,
allowing them to swim freely. They can also extend digestive zooid out of their shell
to vacuum up debris that gets entangled in the cavities of their body. A fascinating
lifeform indeed. After the death of a stegocaudate, its light, hollow shell usually reaches the
coast. With the digestive zooids faded away, this skeletal frame has washed up on the shore
of the supercontinent. As on our own planet, death is a central part of life on Polinices…
Yet while they live, the stegocaudate thrive, often taking on the kinds of bright hues we
associate with tropical fish on earth. In particular, they can be found in shallow reefs,
which extend for hundreds of miles across the sea floor in certain areas. These reefs
are made up primarily of hive sponges — an unassuming yet highly unusual lifeform we’ll
discuss shortly. Before we do, there’s a lifeform that clings to the reefs and demands
our attention. This maze-like organism is a type of Onirocolia, a taxon closely related
to the stegocaudates. Their digestive zooids grow in far more sinuous and intricate forms
than their relatives, creating patterns that are completely surreal to look at. Most Onirocolia
remain stationary throughout their life, relying on filter feeding for sustenance. Some genuses,
however, take to the seas like their stegocaudate relatives — able to control their buoyancy
thanks to internal gas bladders. These labyrinthine organisms float along like balloons, and can
feed on a wider variety of lifeforms. A far more fish-like classification of colonial
organism can be found in the common Amphinatans. These intriguing lifeforms don’t possess
visible shells, and swim in small schools similar in composition to many schools of
fish on Earth. Yet while Amphinatans might look like fish at first glance, breaking down
their biology reveals they’re actually quite distinct. Their eyes are located in the center
of their body, with two on each side. Evolved from ancient digestive zooids, they give the
Amphinatans 360-degree vision. Furthermore, their hidden mouth is located under these
eyes, and is connected by the folds of the mantle to two siphons on their front and back.
These siphons can suck in food and release water for a jet-propelled escape. Across the
coastal reefs, different Amphinatans have distinctive diets. The hive sponge eaters
are a notable group that feed almost exclusively on the soft tissue of aquatic hive sponges.
Due to the narrowness of their siphons, they’ve lost the ability to use them as a jet propulsion
organ, although the siphons still possess a tremendously powerful suction force to aid
in consumption. Their patterned skin breaks their silhouette on the reefs, a type of camouflage
convergent with many types of earth fish. And when an Amphinatan is spotted by a predator,
they can take off in either direction. Since their bodies are symmetrical, they can swim
forwards and backwards easily, retracting one pair of their fins and using the others
to propel themselves along. And there is one region in particular where Amphinatans thrive.
The barrier reef of Kýanos Metrópoli is the largest reef system of Polinices, extending
over 11,000 miles, or 18,000 km. Here, hive sponges reach a breathtaking level of size,
color, and diversity. Some of these colonial colonies are almost 10,000 years old, and
their nests can span several hundred square meters. As a result, for the Amphinatan sponge
eater, Kýanos Metrópoli is practically paradise. Here, the Amphinatans have a veritable buffet
of sponges that extends in every direction: a seemingly limitless source of potential
food. Yet as we’ll soon discover, the sponges aren’t entirely defenseless...The hive sponges
themselves might be completely stationary. When menaced by a sponge eating predator,
however, most types of hive sponges have an unexpected defense. They can release swarms
of tiny lifeforms called drones into the water, which descend upon predators to defend their
home. Under magnification, it becomes clear that the tiny drones possess sharp mouthparts,
which can irritate predators that swim too close to the hive. In many respects, the aquatic
drones have converged on a behavior similar to that of Earth bees. Not only do they defend
their colonies with stinging strikes, but they also collect food for the hive sponges
in the form of planktonic organisms. Yet perhaps the most incredible aspect of the hive is
that it communicates with its drones through radio wave frequencies. Specialized structures,
which are actually highly derived drones themselves, serve as signal repeaters to transfer signals
from the hive to drones that travel long distances in search of food. As incredible as this likely
sounds, it’s possible that brittle stars — a close relative of the starfish, can
detect radio waves and might even use them to navigate their surroundings. Although studies
are ongoing, it seems this is possible thanks to specialized structures along their cell
membrane that function like tiny radio antennae. So, the radio wave communication of hive sponges
— while unexpected — is far from impossible. Radio waves don’t travel far underwater,
so a wide variety of biological receivers have emerged to aid in getting signals to
the drones. Yet other lifeforms on Polinices have taken radio communication to even stranger
levels. In the larger taxon of radioscriptorans, the ‘Chain Fish’ are organisms unlike
any other. These lifeforms are characterized by having the body divided into three or more
modules that swim in an orderly line. While they appear to be unique individuals, they
share the same genetic information and cannot live without each other. Therefore — although
they are not linked by any type of tissue, they are considered a single organism. As
stated before, colonial organisms in our oceans are indeed made up of many different living
units working together, although they’re typically connected by some kind of tissue.
But for the various types of chain fish, connectivity comes once again in the form of radio waves.
These bizarre processions communicate and sense each other’s position entirely through
short range frequencies. And so, the Chain Fish move along the seabed, continuing their
bizarre way of life.Throughout the global ocean, perhaps the ultimate realization of
radio communication comes in the form of a larger network that has emerged between individual
sponges. Using complex frequencies, hive sponges can send signals to each other, including
information about their environment, calls for help, or even stimuli like pain, that
other individuals can experience as their own. This intercommunication has, over millions
of years, led to a complex evolutionary arms race — producing adaptations like the encryption
of messages, ‘passwords,’ and even the sending of deceptive signals. This biological
internet is an incredible feat of evolution, and something unique to planet Polinices.
And speaking of unique, another unprecedented lifeform exists in the form of dipterognathes.
As larvae, these lifeforms seem to have two heads, but their mouth is actually located
in the middle of their bodies, which is connected to two independent stomachs located on opposite
ends of their figure. As they get older, these twin digestive systems drag out behind the
‘head’ like tails, connected to the body by long pharyngeal ducts. This strange body
plan arose from the fusion of two digestive zooids — but today, all three regions are
controlled by a single brain. In coastal lagoons, warm and calm waters provide ideal locations
for the Dipteroganthes to flourish. This particular specimen is an Echinocephalus, characterized
by pharyngeal ducts that can reach almost 1 and a half feet, or half a meter in length.
While everything about the Dipteroganthes is somewhat bizarre, they are a highly successful,
albeit highly specialized, form of life in this region. This environment is also home
to distinct varieties of hive sponges, which form impressive reefs on the seafloor. And
nestled among reefs like this one, a bizarre filter feeder is waiting. This is a ‘Sea
Belt,’ a distant relative of the hive sponge. This organism is formed from a stationary
hive and hundreds of drones joined together by suction cups, forming a structure similar
to a circular ribbon. The belt constantly rotates so that each drone passes through
the interior of the hive and deposits plankton trapped during the spin. The living hive then
digests this plankton and transforms it into a ‘nectar’ that feeds the drones. Truly,
there’s no other organism like it. Other organisms get around by very different means.
Rotigrada is a diverse class of lifeforms that traverse the seabed by rotating themselves
via contractions of their muscles. This form of locomotion has earned them the common name
of ‘Sea Wheels.’ Each individual zooid in the larger wheel possesses two legs, which
look a bit like the spindly legs of Earth millipedes. Unlike millipedes, however, Sea
Wheels have no true front or back, with every zooid on the wheel having their own simple
mouth. As a result, which mouth gets used depends entirely on which section of the Sea
Wheel is closest to their prey on a given hunt. And so, the wheel spins on, feeding
upon whatever lies in its path. Along the rocky shore of the supercontinent, we can
find something exceedingly rare for planet Polinices — a creature that can move upon
dry land. At least, to some degree. This massive lifeform is a colony of carnivorous pharyngopods,
which work together to drag the serpentine body of the colony out of the water to catch
prey in puddles along the shoreline. A pair of simple eyes located at each of its ends
provides simple visual information that facilitates navigation in this environment. The flexible
appendages that the colony uses to get around resemble the tube feet of Sea Pigs, an unusual
type of Sea Cucumber that walk along the floor of our oceans on tube-shaped legs. Yet the
thousands of tentacular appendages on the underside of the intertidal colony aren’t
just feet — but are actually individual zooids, with mouths, teeth, and stomachs.
And at almost ten feet, this shambling goliath is one of the largest and most dangerous predators
in its environment. And at last, the final lifeform on planet Polinices we’ll be discussing
is the Laimargia — one of the most recognizable organisms in the Polinices reefs. This bottom
feeding lifeform is adapted to engulf sand and digest the organic matter found in it
— playing a very important role in the ecosystem by recycling nutrients. The most impressive
characteristic of Laimargia, however, is its size. Some species of the genus can reach
almost 200 feet, or 60 meters in length, making them without a doubt the most massive polizoans.
As incredible as this sounds, some of the absolute largest Earth Siphonophore colonies
do reach similar lengths in the deep sea — although they can’t quite match the Laimargia’s
size. In possessing such incredible bulk, the enormous bodies of Laimargia serve as
a habitat for a plethora of organisms — who find refuge upon its trunk. As a result, the
Laimargia resemble a moving landscape steadily shifting across the sea floor. The waters
of Polinices are home to some of the most surreal forms of life I’ve ever documented
for the archive. Even the most alien organisms in our oceans aren’t quite as surreal as
what swims below those waves. If you enjoyed learning about the complex creatures of Polinices,
you can follow and support the artist using the links in the description. An artbook exploring
more about this amazing planet will be coming sometime in the future — so keep an eye
out! And as always, thanks for watching. If you enjoyed this entry, please lend your support
and like, subscribe, and hit the notification icon to stay up to date on all things Curious.
See you in the next video.