Chapter 203 - Sol Three Hundred and Twenty-Six, The Flocking Amoeba (2/2)
“It’s to let light in,” Tomcat replied. “A portion of their energy source comes from photosynthesis, so sunlight is essential. These creatures’ internals will be filled with acidic photosynthetic pigments. The sulfuric acid inside the liquid will be able to provide an acidic environment.”
“What about living in swarms?”
“They live in groups to withstand the harsh survival conditions. Not only will they live in groups, but they will also enter hibernation periodically to avoid the global hurricanes that sweep through the globe,” Tomcat replied. “Once the wind starts up, these worms will burrow into the sand to hibernate until the hurricane passes.”
“Will they create a social structure?”
“Any creature will have a social structure if they swarm together,” Tomcat said. “Every Martian amoeba-shaped worm might have a leader and it will follow a matriarchal society. Then, the leader will be the only queen that possesses the ability to reproduce. Since there’s a queen, there’s nothing stopping us from making further inferences. The Martian amoeba’s swarm will have the worker class, and it might even have specialized workers… They will be specially made as energy stores; thus, making them bigger than other amoebae. Their mission every day will be to eat and drink. Their only value to provide the hibernating swarm with energy during a hurricane.
Tang Yue imagined the honeypot ants on Earth. These strange ants used their bodies as a vessel for food, and they spent their days gorging on food to be living food storage. When the ant swarm faced a lack of food, they would eat up the honeypot ants.
This was an evolution that a creature from Earth took to resist the environmental changes. What means the creatures on Mars used to resist hunger was still an unknown, but based on the principle of mediocrity, whatever showed up on Earth could equally likely appear on Mars.
“Will they have sight? Will they have hearing?”
“Sight isn’t something especially important. They can evolve completely different sensual organs from Earthlings. For example, they could produce strangely long tentacles that crawl underground,” Tomcat said. “These tentacles could reach out into different directions and be used to find underground food, or in other words the abundance ratio of Iron(II) and Sulfide.”
“As for hearing, they crawl on the ground, using their bodies to sense the vibrations of the ground. It could even be their form of communication. By hitting the ground, vibrations of different frequencies are generated,” Tomcat said.
“What about a brain? Will they have a highly developed central nervous system?”
“Of course it’s possible. Tang Yue, everything is possible.” Tomcat said as it turned around. “Time gives them everything.”
Tang Yue stared at the bacterial colony in the petri dish, unsure if what Tomcat said would become reality. Billions of years later, Mars might become a planet bustling with life. These bacteria could mutate to form amoeba that would form groups as they crawled across the desert. Their translucent bodies flowed with sulfuric acid, and as they walked, they shat, and sunbathed, in pursuit of the mineral elements underground. They would leave behind beads of sulfur. That would truly be a ridiculous and amusing world.
Even if the prophecy came true, it would be billions of years later.
Time was truly something that created miracles.
After Tomcat finished watering the tomatoes, it walked over to take the petri dish away. In its words, it was unknown if these mutated bacteria posed any security risks. Therefore, it was best if Tang Yue didn’t stay too close to them. To ensure that it was 100% safe, this petri dish should have been placed in a P4 laboratory—even if its threat to Tang Yue’s life was infinitely close to zero.