Sand Seas; Grain-Plankton, Churners and Snufflers

Grain Plankton: Diatomaceous and Difflugia Shell-Sands

Shell sands are composed of the silicate shells of wee photosynthetic and thermosynthetic animalcules, mostly diatoms and difflugia. For all practical purposes, this sand acts as does any other, ordinary sand. Under a looking-glass, the grains of the sand are revealed to be highly textured and convoluted in form. Secreted safe within its miniscule crystal castle is a wee gobbet of organic substance, the living animalcule. Alternatively, there are regions where the sands are wee mineral-beasts, living crystals.

The primary effect of a large proportion of diatom and difflugia shell-sands in a desert is a massive increase in the amount of organic matter available, as contrasted with a similar desert lacking organic shell-sands. The silica shells make the diatoms inedible to any non-specialized creature. Specialized "churners" and "sand eaters" are generally harmless, but serve as a vital interface between the platform of diatoms and the carnivores of the food pyramid that rests upon them. In general, churners and sand eaters inhale sand, dissolve the nutritious innards, and then pass the shell fragments on out. The expelled sand fragments are soon recycled by the next generation of diatoms.

Most regions of the sand seas are firm enough for walking, but smooth enough for sand schooners and other ski-equipped ships to sail across as easily as other ships sail across water. Scattered through out, and sometimes shifting position, are pockets of ultra-smooth, frictionless sinking sand, a sort of quick sand, which seems to suck terrestrial trespassers into its depths. Even sand swimmers are limited to half their normal speed in such slippery regions.

Churners, Cultivators of the Sand Seas

Sand-sea churners are a group defined not by species but by behavior. Churners include among their number filter-feeders ranging from foot-long flukes easily mistaken for stones to mile-long sand-wurms which don't survive just by inhaling the passing tourist but actually process as much as two tons of diatomaceous sand a day, and, in between, baleen-equipped sand-rays, sand-sharks and sand-whales. Generally harmless, these churners are prey to a wide range of carnivores, some very large.

In common, schools of churners cultivate clearly defined territories of desert, bringing deeper sands to the surface. This continuous circulation results in regions of polished, silky, low-friction sand. These are the Sand Seas. Because these regions are defined by the territories of the churners that maintain them, the sand seas often have very sharply defined edges. "Rivers" may be cultivated to give access to particular mineral sources, while undesirable regions are avoided and become island-oases.

Churner rays are among the non-aggressive sand rays (which SEE) with electrical shock capabilities that often bask just under the surface, forming moats of living electrical mines. Schools of churner rays may number in the thousands, each school keeping to a surprisingly small territory.

Sand Snufflers

Sand snufflers generally inhabit the surface regions of the grain-plankton regions, unlike the deep-diving churners. Various snufflers are clearly descended from resemble aardvarks, anteaters and armadillos; SEE also the wonderfully imaginative ficticiious biological monograph The Snouters: Form and Life of the Rhinogrades, by Gustav F. V. Stuttgart as Harald Stumpke, 1958, for snouters which may be ancestors of some sand snufflers. Razor-dust blasters are sand snufflers which blow out a blast of shattered sand shells, sharp as finely crushed glass, either purely defensively or as a weapon to procure some meat to supplement their diatomaceous diet.

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Apr 4, 2006