Die on Mars - Chapter 211

c211 Day 326 (2) Groups of ARMYs

“Mutated strains?” Tang Yue took the petri dish from the old cat, “Do you mean they have mutated?”

“Bacteria are prokaryotes that do not even have a complete cell structure. The stability of their DNA is quite fragile. In the irradiated environment of Mars, mutations are common… I have been raising these bacteria for a while, I dare say Every time they replicate and reproduce, mutated individuals will appear.” The old cat nodded, “It’s just that most of the mutations lead to a dead end. Genetic mutations are like shooting arrows blindfolded, and very few can hit the target.”

Tang Yue curiously observed the mutant strain in the petri dish. The colony was a dark oval shape with a smooth surface. He didn’t know what kind of bacterial variant it was, but it was the first one he had discovered that was born in the Martian environment. Life – even though their parents still come from Earth.

Maidong woke up at this time and heard the conversation between Tang Yue and Lao Mao on the channel.

“Mr. Cat, have you planted bacteria?” The girl was very curious.

“Yes.” The old cat replied, “These bacteria are my little pets. I just took them back from the outdoor radiation exposure and found that one of the bacteria-maybe some kind of bacillus has mutated.”

“Why did you leave them out in the sun?”

“Isn’t this a very common way of raising pets?” the old cat replied, “You walk the dog, I’m just walking the bacteria.”

“The mutation allowed them to adapt to the Martian environment?” Maidong asked.

“It can’t be called adapted to the Martian environment.” The old cat shook his head. It was not very interested in these mutated strains, and turned around to take care of the tomatoes. “They just adapted to the environment in the petri dish. If you open the lid and put them Dumped on the sand outside Kunlun Station, I don’t think they would survive twenty-four hours.”

“I also hope that they can give rise to the next civilization.” Tang Yue moved closer to the petri dish and stared at the colony through the plexiglass cover. The bacteria on the culture medium were multiplying and spreading, but they definitely didn’t know that there was a pair of bacteria above their heads. His eyes were looking at him, “Although I have no interest in becoming a God of Creation, I want to know what a new ecosystem will look like.”

“Think about the survival mode of sulfur bacteria, such as anaerobic red sulfur bacteria. If they can successfully evolve into higher organisms…” the old cat thought, “then there may be some creatures with huge bodies and slow movements that can It may be similar to an amoeba, with a transparent body, crawling on the ground and crawling forward, but their size will be much larger than the amoeba, and the body length may exceed several meters.”

The old cat’s description immediately reminded Tang Yue of slugs.

“They wander in groups on the Martian wasteland. They have shovel-like mouthparts and dig into the soil as they move. They live by devouring the sand on the Martian wasteland, because the Martian soil is rich in ferrous ions. These super super Worms get energy by oxidizing ferrous ions into ferrous ions.” Old Cat continued, “There are huge rolling vacuoles in their transparent bodies, and the vacuoles are filled with sulfuric acid, because sulfuric acid is the product of their oxidation of hydrogen sulfide, in addition to sulfuric acid , the oxidation reaction also produces elemental sulfur, so they will excrete sulfur as they move, and the long sulfur strips on the desert are traces of their activities.”

“Why are their bodies transparent?” Tang Yue asked.

“Because they need to transmit light.” The old cat replied, “Part of their energy comes from photosynthesis, so sunlight is necessary. The bodies of these creatures are full of acidic photosynthetic pigments, and the sulfuric acid in the vacuoles can provide an acidic environment.”

“What about living in groups?”

“Living in groups is to resist the harsh living environment. Not only do they live in groups, they also hibernate regularly to avoid huge global storms on Mars.” The old cat replied, “Once the wind starts blowing, these bugs will burrow into the sand to hibernate. , until the storm passes.”

“Will there be a community structure?”

“Once any organism starts to live in a group, there must be a social structure.” Old Mao said, “So in each Martian amoeba group, there may be a leader. If they are a matriarchal society, then this leader is the only one.” A queen with the ability to reproduce. Since there is a queen, we might as well deduce a few more steps – there will also be individual division of labor in the Mars amoeba community, and there may even be such specialized individuals… specialized energy storage warehouses, It is larger than all other amoeba, and its daily task is to eat and drink, and its only value is to provide energy for the dormant insect swarm during the long night when the storm approaches.”

Tang Yue thought of the honeypot ants on Earth. These weird ants use their bodies as containers to store food. They consume nectar throughout their lives. They are living food storage tanks. When the ant colony encounters a famine due to food shortage, , they will drag out the honeypot ants and eat them.

This is a method evolved by organisms on Earth to resist environmental changes. It is completely unknown what means organisms on Mars will use to resist famine. However, according to the principle of mediocrity, things that have appeared on Earth are also likely to appear on Mars. .

“Do they have vision? Do they have hearing?”

“Vision is not a particularly important thing here. They may evolve from completely different sensory organs of earth creatures, such as the strangely long tentacles drilling underground.” Lao Mao said, “These tentacles extend in different directions. , to detect the abundance of food in the subsurface—that is, ferrous ions and sulfides.”

“As for hearing, they crawl on the surface and can sense the vibrations of the ground through their bodies. This may even be their way of communication, by slapping the ground to produce vibrations of different frequencies.” Old Cat continued.

“What about brains? Do they have a highly developed central nervous system?”

“Of course it’s possible, Tang Yue, everything is possible.” The old man turned around, “Time will give them everything.”

Tang Yue stared at the bacterial colonies in the petri dish for a long time. He didn’t know whether what the old cat said was really possible. Billions of years later, Mars has become a vibrant planet, and these bacteria will evolve into the species that grows on the desert. The amoeba walked in groups, with concentrated sulfuric acid flowing in their transparent bodies. They ate, pooped and basked in the sun as they walked, following the movement of mineral elements underground, leaving behind grains of sulfur—— It was a really absurd and funny world.

Even if the prediction comes true, it will be billions of years away.

Time is truly a miracle worker.

The old cat finished watering the tomatoes and came over to take away the petri dish. In his words, the safety of this unknown mutated bacteria is unknown, so it is better not to get too close. If you want to ensure 100% safety, this The petri dish should be placed in a P4 biological laboratory at this moment – even though the threat to Tang Yue’s life safety is infinitely close to zero.

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(Author Jun’s gossip: This chapter was updated at the normal time, that is, on the evening of May 22, but because Qidian’s recently released chapters were changed to manual review, it has not been released.)