photosynthesis

thank you didn't know the name of it, i seen it on discover channel and thats what made me so mad with spore and it goes on

~sciocont wrote:

The org editor can create animals, plants, fungi, etc, or a mix.
Also, what's really interesting is that plants aren't black-leafed, because dark pigments are found in plenty of plants. There is most likely an evolutionary reason for that, we should try to figure it out.

Ah. That's likely for reasons explored in the "Daisyworld" thought experiment. (Wikipedia summary here for those unfamiliar with the concept.) Totally black pigments would absorb too much heat. This would lead to moisture loss in the plant, and (because a plant is by no means a good place to store heat) increases the temperature immediately around the plant. Incidentally, it reduces the amount of light energy reflected back up into the atmosphere, which wreaks seven kinds of havoc with the greenhouse effect (assuming that it is even stable in the first place) and incidentaly messes with a planet's albedo. Plant cover has an enormous impact on a planet's surface temperature.
A colored pigment, on the other hand, means that some light is not absorbed, which then does all the necessary processes of the greenhouse effect that allow us to have a warm planet. Which means that our daisies don't have to do all this cycling of populations and traits to manage their own temperature. (Incidentally, can they crossbreed? Grey daisies would have an interesting effect on this experiment.)

~sciocont wrote:

mike roberts wrote:

on the subject of the sun of a planet i seen on the discovery channel animals early then the dinosaurs at one time had big fins to put near sunlight to warm up(they were cold blooded) or go in the shaade to cool ddown can things like that be included

These were not dinosaurs, they were their predecessors. You are thinking of dimetrodon, which was a large synapsid reptile with a sail on its back that works much like a rabbit's long ears. By circulating the blood through a large surface area, it can be warmed and cooled quickly. Warm and cold blood will be handled in the OE, along with different types of blood, (Iron and copper, ie)

Dimetrodon is no dinosaur ancestor, it's more closely related to YOUR SPECIES!