Plausibility of a plant/animal organism with asymmetrical alternation of generations?

A hypothetical organism alternates between plant and animal stages over its life cycle. The organism exhibits equally extreme sexual dimorphism.

The generations are diplobiontic a la some species of red algae: gametophyte (androphyte and gynophyte), carposporophyte (microcarpophyte and megacarpophyte) and tetrasporophyte (microtetraphyte and megatetraphyte).

The life cycle occurs like so:

1. the animal-like gynophyte is fertilized by contact with the pollen of the plant-like androphyte
2. the gynophyte gestates animal-like carposporophytes which consume their mother
3. many carpophytes are produced by a single gynophyte and their motility allows them cover more distance
4. the carposporophytes asexually gestate plant-like tetrasporophytes which eventually consume their parent and root in nearby soil
5. the tetraphytes will asexually clone themselves to cover more ground
6. the megatetraphyte asexually spawns motile gynophytes which may travel further away
7. the microtetraphyte grows multiple androphytes which are completely dependent on their parent a la angiosperms

(This organism is based on the "pequeninos" from Speaker for the Dead with some inspiration from the specworld Illion.)

Is such an organism and its reproductive cycle plausible?

posted about 7 years ago

Anonymous‭

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