Rooted Leafstars
With the southern leafstar’s roots, a bizarre leafy “plant” was able to evolve. Rooted leafstars, as adults, are rooted into the ground like plants, absorbing nutrients from the sediment. They reproduce sexually with water-borne spores ejected from the edges of their leaves, and juveniles float in the open ocean filter-feeding for sustenance until they reach a certain age, variable by species, where they become dense enough to sink to the floor and take root in sunlight and twilight zone sediment. As adults they are completely sessile, only retaining muscles to occasionally slap at a predator, while as juveniles they can swim to some extent—mostly to right themselves if they were to be knocked over. Like their ancestor, they have cell walls and they photosynthesize using chloroplast-like symbiotic cells contained inside their own cells. Their flat radial body takes a shape like four leaves, and roots grow from their bottom center.