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From The Primordial Soup

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[X] Speedrun resource gathering and territory-expanding. There's multiple prey and food sources up here.

[X] Genetic symbiosis: The creature can partially assimilate genetic material from it's food or prey, allowing it to (for example) express a predators own anti-toxins
 
[X] Focus on the photosynthesis our exposure to UV has given us. We'll make our own food.
[X] Genetic Marker: Mutable, this organism can quickly adapt to new circumstances by evolving new features and discarding old ones.
 
[X] Mimic Kratholith but with some other metal or mineral found up here. Mica, in particular, is in abundance.
[X] De-activating sequences : Traits are never lost, just de-activated. With every generation, a few members of the species are born as evolutionary throwbacks, expressing morphologies that were not common in centuries or millenia.
 
I won't include any more than one per post, so if someone writes down a multitude of ideas for markers I'll probably just take the first one listed. Listing multiple ideas is good though, especially if people can't think of anything good, so others can suggest those.
 
[X] Electroreceptiors: Specialized cells that detect electrical signals emitted by other organisms, aiding in navigation, communication, and hunting.
[X] Speedrun resource gathering and territory-expanding. There's multiple prey and food sources up here.
 
[X] Electroreceptiors: Specialized cells that detect electrical signals emitted by other organisms, aiding in navigation, communication, and hunting.
[X] Speedrun resource gathering and territory-expanding. There's multiple prey and food sources up here.
 
[x] Electroreceptiors: Specialized cells that detect electrical signals emitted by other organisms, aiding in navigation, communication, and hunting.
[X] Mimic Kratholith but with some other metal or mineral found up here. Mica, in particular, is in abundance.
 
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    • Our Evolving Creature...
    The bacterium in question is now 11 micrometers long. Dull gray in color, both ends have a trumpet-shaped needle that "breathes" out waste heat while taking in oxygen and nutrients. On what might be considered the head, there is a small node that detects electricity and is a natural compass. In its center is a specialized Chromatophoric Organ.

    On its rear are several structures for electrical energy generation / utilization. Six spider-like legs (two sticky for pulling, two strong for pushing and two wide for stability) allow it to move from place to place. It is coated in a glassy shield almost invulnerable to other bacteria.
    BenefitsWeaknessesSpecials

    Multiple Legs (Speed, Sticky Grip, Strong Push)
    Silica Crystalline Shell Casing (Tank-like defense)
    Improved UV Shielding (Radiation Resistance)
    Soglik Toxicaii's Antimicrobial Agent
    Great Heat or Cold
    Greater Hunger    		Multilayered Capacitors (High Speed)
    Electrical Node at the "head" (Genetic Marker: Natural Compass)
    Color-changing Chromatophores (Genetic Marker: Improved Photosynthesis)
    Predators and Prey
    NEUTRAL: Kratholith Microshockii: A rod-shaped bacterium which has a rigid, rust red cell wall that is effectively made of iron atoms. Short hair-like appendages extend from each end that actively convert silica in mountain rock to glass. Its entire body pulses with brief electrical activity that melts sand, leaves trails, stuns prey and deters predators. Its pulsing includes micro-magnetics, allowing it to course along iron-rich rock in order to gain energy from it via acidification of the iron and consuming the resulting mess. It measures 12 micrometers long by 7 micrometers wide.

    THREAT: Lithovorax Noofum: A rod-shaped white bacterium found predominantly in higher mountain alpine environments. It measures about 11 micrometers long by 7 micrometers wide. This bacterium propels itself using a single flagellum which it coils up and launches into the air, coming down and crushing any food it discovers by using its weight. Surrounding it are sensory proteins and receptors that can detect chemicals leaked by other bacteria. Direct hunter of Kratholith and is beginning to evolve its micro-magnetics in order to cruise on metallic sand blown about by mountain winds.

    THREAT: Baldoro Fluvenii: This bacterium is an all-but-invisible ambush predator, mimicing the chemical makeup of the area in which it infests. Slow to move until it senses food, it lashes out with a massive (for bacteria) spine coated in adhesive chemicals. The spine pierces the cell wall, sticks to food, and pulls it back into the bacteria. Can't pierce our bacterium yet, but it won't be long before it can. On one end of its cell, there's a structure that pulls in and intensifies oxygen to lethal levels, farting it out when threatened.

    PREY: Ferroflem Snyii: As the first word in its name may suggest, this is a bacteria which is consuming trace elements of bacteria that cover iron, "purifying" it, leaving little nodes of pure metal wherever it goes. Where it passes, Kratholith can't follow. It follows in Kratholith's wake, but is also hunted by Kratholith as a source of protein. It's super fast, tough to catch by anything including you.

    PREY: Nitrospora Sylenii: Nitrospora is a tiny bacterium that is sucking up chemicals like nitrates, ammonia and methane, locking them into the rock of the mountains. Plants adapted to this unusual mix of chemicals are beginning to sprout up, covering the land in a bold new spray of color (and rather toxic pollen). It has no defenses to speak of -- its claim to fame is its massive population. You won't kill it all.

    PREY: Lasho Valrunum: Lasho has taken a unique chemical from chalk-like deposits in the higher mountains and converted it directly to alternating layers of keratin and enamel (?!), forming layers of itself like tiny stalactites that have extended tendrils for food collection. It can barely move, but it's taken over most of the local cave systems and is almost impossible to pierce. Its weakness? Oxygen (causing it to burst), making it natural prey for Baldoro.
    Chances of Survival
    I'm tallying the rolls and using an average. When we hit 3.5 million years (because I ain't doing evolution through billions of years, no) I'll roll on Random.org and see what we get.

    99+70+11+93+26+55+94 = 448 / 7 = 64% of Survival, +10 for one Critical, -15 for a Critical Failure = 59%

    (Banked Criticals: Enhanced Electroreceptors, Genetic Symbiosis)



    700,000 years, we're almost to the million year mark!

    Our bacterium has found two new sources of food. In the first "chamber" of one of the many large caves in the mountains, it has discovered two different kinds of unique chemical soups bubbling up from the depths.

    The first chamber has a chemical spring of a weird chemical that looks and feels like colorless watery glue... it sticks to everything yet is way too watery to use as a binding agent. Entering the stuff caused our numbers to skyrocket and our size to grow; whatever this stuff is it is extremely toxic to things like Kratholith and Lithovorax. On the plus side there's a lot of this chemical, but to utilize it fully will weaken our UV shielding and ability to photosynthize because of all the time we'll have to spend in the cave.

    The second chamber had a chemical "mud pit" filled with a very slow moving sludge with the texture and color of rotten, chunky peanut butter. This stuff supercharged our nucleus and crystalline shell matrix, and when we divided we found we were still connected to each other by tiny "umbilical cords" of proteins, allowing multiple organisms to group together and begin forming bigger, specialized structures. If we focus on this, it will be likely that we become one of the first (Lasho beat us to the punch) bacteria to be seen with the naked eye.

    We will not be able to focus on both, or at least not easily. It's already hard enough reaching the resources, as Lasho's stalactites have begun dropping on us, and Baldoro is becoming aggressive. It doesn't come near the chemicals, but if we allow it to it will encircle us, preventing growth beyond the springs. Even Kratholith is killed venturing close, but its iron-like cell wall is beginning to assimilate the slow moving sludge just a little bit. Life finds a way.

    We've gained a new genetic marker -- our cell has turned its electric impulses inward, utilizing the light generated in a new way: colorchanging Chromatophores! While not useful right now as nothing has eyes or sees color, it will further evolve later and become useful.

     
    Last edited:
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    • Dang, I know I suggested Chromatophoric color shifting, but I was really hoping for Enhanced Electroreceptors.

    B) Focus on the "rotten peanut butter" sludge. Size matters, plus there's specialization potential here.

    Octobacteria Let's gooooo!
     
    [x] Electroreceptiors: Specialized cells that detect electrical signals emitted by other organisms, aiding in navigation, communication, and hunting.
    [X] Mimic Kratholith but with some other metal or mineral found up here. Mica, in particular, is in abundance.

    Ill just try again.
     
    [X] Focus on the "rotten peanut butter" sludge. Size matters, plus there's specialization potential here.

    I feel like this is a good first step to becoming multicellular lifeform
     
    Brief meta: Both of these (the watery glue and the rotten sludge) are magic-oriented in my D&D world. There miiiiiiiight be a bit of a crossover. :p One's physically-materialized generic "magic points", the other's the stuff dreams are made of. Later on when our lifeform evolves there will be choices involving magic, too. :)
     
    [X] Focus on the "rotten peanut butter" sludge. Size matters, plus there's specialization potential here.
     
    [X] Focus on the "rotten peanut butter" sludge. Size matters, plus there's specialization potential here.

    Agreed. Multicellular life is more interesting anyway, so
     
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