While Molluscs were growing strong
And singing their success song,
We must not forget the foundation
Of Mithra's great creation.
First Amaterasu's light
Blesses us both day and night.
A millionth reaches Terra's seas
To feed life's mysteries.
And so the daughters of Bacta
Farm with light most attracta.
First among them, daughters all
Of Saya answer light's call.
The Blue Green Algae spread
Like living ocean's bread.
They farm the sunlight bright
From dawn until twilight.
The sons of Viros take
Their share for hunger's sake.
From daughters of Saya they steal
To make their viral meal.
And so the viruses were
The predators that were
While daughters of Saya became
The prey in this deadly game.
By viruses came new
Connections strange and true.
A link that none had seen
In life's ancestral scene.
The daughters of Pelagia,
Those sisters whose sagia
Benevolence would show
To all who live below,
The mitochondria's kin
Ate remnants thick and thin
Of Cyanobacteria.
Their numbers would hysteria
Create beyond conceiving—
So many past believing
Their multitudes would grow
In waters high and low.
And then there were of old
Purple farmers, brave and bold,
Who came before Saya's line
With photosynthesis fine.
Roseobella, daughter great
Of Elah's loving state
Of lesbian motherhood,
Among purple farmers stood
As planimal of the sea
Living wild and free.
She continues to this day
Her photosynthetic way.
Among these bacteria small
And viruses and all
The detritus that fell,
All were consumed well
By great crown-tails so fine,
The Choanoflagellates' line—
Our closest cousins true
In waters deep and blue.
Alongside sons of Choanos
Lived the tiny golden rados:
Golden Algae bright and fair
Floating everywhere.
The sons of Dinoflagellus
Saw prosperity's telltale thus
Of Chrysalgos and Choanos,
So they ate both, not manos.
And photosynthesized too
To get more energy through.
They gained more power each day
In their prosperous way.
In their prosperity
Their numbers grew, and see—
The water glowed so bright
In their phototrophic sight.
Their rituals lit the sea
With bioluminescence free.
The ocean sparkled wide
With their phosphorescent pride.
But soon they grew corrupt,
Their morals were abrupt.
The sons of Dinoflagellus
Turned to ways rebellious.
To cannibalism they turned,
While the water burned
Red with carnage from their feast—
They became a bloody beast.
The blood poisoned all
That answered nature's call.
Whatever it would touch
Would suffer very much.
And soon the Rotifers
Swooped in as officers
Of justice from above
With neither hate nor love.
Consuming remnants of
A civilization thereof
That once was great and proud,
The Rotifers ate loud
And grew fat from their meal,
Saving us from the ordeal
Of plague that would have spread
If they had not been fed.
Xanthus the Dinoflagellate
Saw carnage desolate
And fled from his own kind
To leave that death behind.
As he fled he saw afar
The great glass houses, par
Excellence of Diatoms
Who built their holy homes.
Immune to conquest's blight
Of Rotifers' appetite
And sons of Viros too,
The Diatoms lived true
As farmers of the light
Protected day and night
By walls of glass so clear
That kept them without fear.
Then he saw another sight:
Coccolithophores so bright
Who too grew with armor strong
To last their whole life long.
And so he cried out loud
To Mithra from the crowd:
"Why must my line be cursed
To be forever dispersed
Without such protections?
Must I face all rejections
And live life in danger
Like some lonely stranger?"
And then he saw the form
Of refuge from the storm:
Acanther, son of Radios,
A starry greenhouse, glorious.
A great greenhouse open wide
For him to come inside.
And so he went within
And found new life begin.
Within Acanther's frame
He found prosperity's name.
The Radiolarian's shell
Protected him so well.
As floating greenhouse bright
With glass that caught the light,
They farmed the algae green
In partnership serene.
Meanwhile the green algae
Grew so big, you see,
They found protection true
In numbers, through and through.
Sargassos, Lord of Kelp,
Called millions to his help.
He grew a city wide
Of cells on every side.
The greatest of them all
Who answered plankton's call,
His city millions strong
Would last his whole life long.
And so the Fungi came,
The sons of Chytros' name,
To break the great ones down
And earn decomposer's crown.
They ate them and released
A million spores increased
Throughout the watery realm
With Chytros at the helm.
The Fungi are the knights
Who balance nature's rights—
The Robinhoods of sea
Who live quite happily
Coexisting with the line
Of Oomycetes so fine—
The kelp who want to be
Fungi of the sea.
And so they brought the wealth
Of energy and health
To all the little ones
From great ones when day done.
From here the zooplankton
Emerged, their lives begon:
The sons of Foramer
And sons of Cilliofer.
The sons of Foramer
In soils would transfer
Their fishing to the seas
With greatest expertise.
They caught the spores and more—
Radiolarians by score
And all others they could find
Of every shape and kind.
Great shells they built with care
That lasted everywhere.
The snails built their homes
Upon these calcium domes.
The sons of Cilliofer
Were great ones who prefer
To use their cilia
To suck up bacteria
And other tiny food
Into their mouths so good.
With beating hairs they fed
And thus were nourished.
Tiny Trilobites came
To play the hunting game.
They ate the sons of both
Foramer and, by oath,
Cilliofer's children too,
As predators would do.
The food chain thus was made
Where each their role played.
The sons of Chordatus
Burrowed, most glorious,
Through soil to find the food
That from above renewed
Their bodies' every need.
Through gill slits they would feed,
Pumping water through their frame
To nourish in their name.
Out their atriopores
The water freely pours
When they have taken what
They need from nature's pot.
Great Chordatus begat
Two sons: Olfacter begat
And Lancelot the true
Who traditions knew.
Lancelot continued on
The ways his father's son
Had learned from ancient time
In rhythm and in rhyme.
But Olfacter bore two more:
Vertebratus to explore
The spinal cord's great art,
And Tunicatus' part.
Vertebratus worked each day
To perfect in every way
His spinal cord so fine
With neural design.
But Tunicatus chose
To rest where water flows.
He sat upon a rock
Like shepherd with his flock
And filtered water clean
Through systems never seen.
He pumped so much water through
His filter system grew
To be most of his frame—
Water was his name.
His body became the stream
Of his filtering dream.
Tunicatus bore two sons:
Larvaceus when day begun
And Ascidaceus true
Who different pathways knew.
Larvaceus never stayed
In one place, but made
A giant house of slime
That lasted for all time.
With mucus house so grand
He fished throughout the land
Of water, catching food
In nets of mucus good.
Ascidaceus became
Ancestor of fame
Of Sea Squirts everywhere
Who filter with great care.
A wooden tunic bright
Of cellulose so white
He built around his form
To keep him safe and warm.
His mouth on top would feed,
His atriopore indeed
Would let the water out
When filtering about.
Ascidaceus bore two more:
Stolidos to explore
And Proteus the wise
With penetrating eyes.
Proteus begat in time
Thallasus (so sublime)
And Enterogon the strong
Who lived his whole life long.
While brethren lived as squirts
Avoiding nature's hurts,
Thallasus built his city
Floating (what a pity
That none could match his art!)
Across the waters' heart.
His city sailed the sea
Most beautifully.
Thallasus bore a son
Named Dolios, lonely one
Who lived his life alone
And made the sea his home.
A solitary life
He lived through joy and strife,
Fishing on his own
Where he had grown.
The Arrow Worms would feed
On Dolios indeed,
As did the Trilobites
And Jellyfish's bites.
But Thallasus bore more
Sons to explore:
Pyros and Salpus too
Who cities built anew.
Pyros built a tube
So long, like a cube
Extended through the sea—
A city floating free.
Propelled by wastewater
Like some divine daughter
Of engineering's art,
Playing nature's part.
While Salpus built a chain
Through sun and storm and rain
Of beings linked as one
Until their work was done.
From Amaterasu's light
To creatures of the night,
The foundation firm
Of life's eternal term
Was laid by those who knew
That partnership is true
Between the great and small
Who answer nature's call.
The viruses and bacteria,
The algae's bright hysteria
Of photosynthetic life,
Through harmony, not strife,
Built up the living base
On which each higher race
Would find their nourishment
In ocean's element.
From Choanoflagellates
To Chordate's vertebrates,
The family tree grew wide
With ocean as their guide.
Each found their special way
To live from day to day:
Some filter, some hunt,
Some do photosynthetic stunt.
But all together made
The grand marine parade
Of life in all its forms
Through calm and raging storms.
The sons of Chordatus show
How spinal cords can grow
To be the foundation true
Of intelligence new.
While Tunicates remind
Us not to be confined
To just one way of life—
Diversity ends strife.
From tiny plankton small
To creatures standing tall,
The ocean's family tree
Lives through eternity.
In every drop of sea
Lives their legacy:
The builders of the base
Of life's eternal grace.