Zainter orbits around the star Beta Comae Berenices, and is third of seven planets in its system (in which the fourth is a double planet). Data relating to the star is not known with certainty and so I have assumed those values most suitable to my tastes, so do not be surprised if information found elsewhere is somewhat different from what is posted on the website. As one can see, Zainter has two moons and rings, resulting in a very interesting night sky, amongst other things...
Life on Zainter is based on biochemistry compatible with organisms on Earth, allowing humans to safely feed off of some of the native foodstuff. Zainter was initially developed as a background for my science fiction story and so culture and society took precedence over biology. The planet is heavily inhabited and thus whenever possible I will try to present the native wildlife through the context of human interactions with it - which may be the most personable way to preview it. I do not have room to describe it all in one post, but I can at least introduce it. Below are some images (I'm sorry for not showing them in color but my scanner is having issues, one reason I have not produced so many of them, and this was all I could come up with).
While I think of Zainter as having forty phyla, most of these will be minor groups and as of yet only eleven have been planned. Representatives of all of them are displayed here; moving from left to right they are the tangle mats (the hairy one at the top), sonar worms, mantle swimmers, chain worms (the one in the background), net sponges, multi-jellies, millicilia (the bulbous one swimming towards the multi-jelly), twoflowers, hard worms, rigidia (the fish-like one) and morningstars (this is not taking into account various subphyla of each that would further increase this diversity). Only the last four have any terrestrial representatives, which is why aquatic forms of each are displayed. The mantle swimmers, hard worms and rigidia contain the most species and are the most dominant, essentially they are analogous to molluscs, arthropods and vertebrates respectively, with the rigidia assuming the largest forms and hard worms only small ones. The tangle mats and multi-jellies are drifting hunters, the net sponges and twoflowers shelled filter feeders, the chain worms colonial feeders, the sonar worms dangerous parasites, the millicilia are tiny symbiotes, and the morningstars powerful predators.
Although I have hundreds of species available (and almost thirty ready for preview), work is far from complete. Zainter's fliers are sadly lacking and most effort has gone into phylum rigidia leaving the others somewhat neglected. While I have a taxonomy planned I do not have Linnaean orders and genera named in Latin. Admittedly this is largely due to laziness, but this is also due to my planned history in which most knowledge of the past was lost to a devastating world war and what survived was transmitted largely orally - given the narrow range of speakers I doubted Latin would survive anyway, and in all likelihood neither would the taxonomic system, though I retain that for efficiency. This is also how I justify some of the coined terms for the various groups on the planet (such as rigidia, above).
These are examples of Zainter's autotrophs. I say autotrophs and not plants because of the three examples here only one is a plant - evolution on Zainter almost skipped them entirely. All these depend on photosynthesis, however they are tinted red rather than green due to using iron-based compounds for the process (depending on the ionic state iron could also give green coloration, but this not the reason for plant's hue on Earth, it is magnesium). The growths in the background are bush mats, colonies of unicellular organisms that create sprawling carpets similar to various bushes and lichens on Earth. The short forms in front of them are sheath grass, Zainter's only true plants, which have been forced into the middle ground by the other autotrophs but have become as hardy and prolific as weeds. The tall organism at the front is a bone tree, and while the name may suggest that it is a plant don't let the term deceive you - it is actually a photosynthetic animal, and a close relative of the rigidia. This is actually just a sapling, as the adult form would be too tall for its leaves to feature in the picture. While they have lost most of their animal abilities they retain basic organs and can still move their branches and leaves.
That concludes the first report. I am describing life forms first because I believe this is what readers would find most interesting, given that I am catering to exobiology experts, but seeing as work on Zainter initially started from the perspective of its inhabitants the website will also contain plenty of material involving the history of the planet and things travelers can expect. Next time, I'll go into detail about terrestrial life on the planet and perhaps say a word about the life of human beings on the planet. More pictures will be made available soon.
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