Animula, Latin for a piece of soul or life, is another sanctuary for life; a planet quite similar to earth, but due to evolution's randomness in establishing traits, is home to creatures awe-inspiringly different superficially, behaviourally and fundamentally to life on earth, down to their very cells. When humans, in in midst of a new foray into space by means of wormhole genesis, discovered this amazing life-filled planet, scientists had at last found conclusive evidence that life did indeed exist out of earth, and not just tiny extremeophilic life; life that was multicellular, sophisticated, intelligent, and all the more astonishing (and massive because of Animula's lower gravity).
A small umbrellachute. The umbrella I drew is a bit too thick.
Life on Animula is quite similar to earthly life, with it too using carbon as a basic building molecule for its organic compounds. It is also similar in terms of genetics, with it too using DNA as a means of storing genetic information, albeit in trihelical form. Parenids are the dominant photosynthesizing life forms on Animula.
This page will be briefer than my other Animula ones, because I don't know much about photosynthesis (and what I do know is mainly from wikipedia).
Time and Timescale measurement in Animula
1. Animula has 328.5 days a year, and 21.6 hours a day, equating to 7095.6 hours a year, as opposed to 8760 hours a year on earth.
2. However, for simplicity, we will measure time based on earth years. Timescale is measured by the amount of years it happened in after the impact of Sagittaan Cluster, with the abbreviation "yai" (for years after impact) used after the number. Contrastingly, "ybi" refers to years before impact.
3. For instance, oceans were mostly fully formed at around 800 myai (million years after impact).
In all cellular life, the two basic cell forms are the simplicells and complecells, an equivalent to earth's prokaryotes and eukaryotes, though with some key differences. The first (that only applies to complecells) is that instead of a golgi body and a membrane designed to let specific things in, both simplicells and complecells have exointral ducts distributed around their membranes, ducts that allow chemicals in and out, and also do the job of packaging proteins. The second is that they have to genetic storage areas, like nucleii, each of which are nearly identical; the cell alternatively uses one or the other as genetic instructions; this split in the nucleus allows for more mutations to occur, and consequently a higher likelihood that a favorful mutation will evolve in the face of a potential extinction scenario. The third is that there is only one single Ribosynthesyzer instead of multiple Ribosomes.
Parenids photosynthesize in a way similar to plants, with the following basic conversion equation: 6CO2 + 6H2O + light → C6H12O6 + 6O2 which essentially means that Parenids take in carbon dioxide and water with light absorbed from light-absorbing pigments, and create the sugar C6H12O6 as chemical energy, along with oxygen as a side product. Most parenids use a variation of Chlorophyll A as a light-absorbing pigment, which absorbs all wavelengths of light except blue and green, therefore giving out a color similar to cyan. Nearly all Parenids but the Aquaphyta have roots, usually in the form of multiple large main roots stretching out in different directions with small, often microscopic roots sprouting off from them. The main purpose of the roots is to take in water for photosynthesis, but plants also obtain important nutrients from soil and other organic remains, if present.
Parenids are generally split into four phyla: Aquaphyta, Terrastratuphyta, Bulbiphyta, and Pullulophyta.
Aquaphyta[]
Despite being the most primitive of Parenids, the Aquaphyta are the dominant Parenid phylum in the ocean, having evolved there long before any other phyla of Parenid. All Aquaphyta but the seastrands lack complex organs and systems, and are essentially individual photosynthesis-capable cells multiplying en masse in a specific way to aid each individual's survival. Individual cells do have specialized exointral ducts which allow chemicals to easily transmit from cell to cell.
Aquaphyta range from near-microscopic free-floating blobs absorbing the sunlight in great clouds blotting out the sun; to metres long thin layers of Parenid growth covering the ocean floor; to massive towers of aquaphyta, formed by live cells on top of towers of dead cells, which keep on rising; to long, thin seastrands up to a hundred metres long.
Terrastratuphyta (Mats)[]
The most primitive but also the most successful of land-based Parenids, Terrastratuphyta, almost always collectively called mats, are actually individual Parenids called Matocytes (despite not being cells) that take root and grow long strandlike leaves that thickly tangle together with those that grow near it, forming large "mats" of tangled Matocytes that cover the ground. Different Matocytes are known to share nutrients through special conjoint roots, which can stretch for hundreds of metres, joining all the Matocytes along the way on a great network of nutrients and sugars.
Mats evolved since the Upper Vitazoic from similar aquaphyta, and have changed very little for hundreds of millions of years. They thrive on plains and deserts too harsh or nutrient-lacking for 'Brellachutes to thrive.
Bulbushes are strange but very common land-based Parenids, and the first to evolve simple solid branches. The branches are keratinous columns of photosynthesizing cells (which in later forms is very dull-colored and has no role in photosynthesis), holding up spheres of dense growths photosynthetic cells around a sphere of complex tubes that deliver chemicals to and from these cells, to and from the rest of the Bulbiphyta.
These bulbs are not exclusively sphere-shaped. In later forms, the bulbs exist in a wide variety of shapes, from ellipses, to strange irregular blobs, to large disc-shaped morphs (the parenids of which are called Discbranches).
A small umbrellachute. The umbrella I drew is a bit too thick.
Pullulophyta ('Brellachutes)[]
Pullulophyta are informally named Umbrella Chutes, Umbrellachutes, and usually 'Brellachutes. 'Brellachutes are medium to large Parenids, which can grow up to 30 metres in height. Essentially, they are thick shoots mainly made of dead keratinous cells, with a few liquid transmission vessels in the middle, holding up one or more massive, disc shaped concentrations of photosynthetic cells. 'Brellachutes congregate in huge forests, thriving in areas with enough nutrition and sunlight to sustain such mass.
