12 Volafluidus

Name: Volafluidus
Ancestors: Ferruzippus, Ferrorbis and Membrafluidus (symbiosis)
Description: Uses a ferrous-sulphur fluid membrane to encapsulate it's internal environment. This membrane bears molecules such as enzymes, active and passive transport sites, membrane reinforcement, environmental resource signaling, etc. Some of these components are self-replicating (from the membrafluidus and ferrorbis ancestors), while others are translated from the genome complexes (from the ferruzippus ancestor). The whole organism is considered to be the cell, due to the genomic complex's dependence upon it and continued maintenance of it. Some strains of this organism have membranes that are prone to forming internal vacuoles, creating internal surface area for more reactions. Some of these vacuoles become super-concentrated with cohemicals and enzymes specialized to free nutrients locked in the crystalline structure of the hexageomus, which are produced by the independently replicating ancestors of the ferrorbis (additionally, some ferrorbis genes have inserted into the genome complex's genome sequence). These chemical vacuoles are ejected from the cell into the environment where the dead hexageomus is. It can also form outward vacuoles that resemble the cell in miniature (with a random assortment of cell contents and a few copies of the genome), which go on to become new cells, a crude form of cellular budding. Cells also crudely divide when they become too large to maintain their integrity.
It's genomic complexes contain the genome as an RNA molecule, which can copy itself in a translative process of construction stages within the cytoplasmic cellular environment, encased in a sub-complex of proteins which protect the genome and help control it's transcription and translation.
Has formed a symbiotic reliance on the hexageomus, as it is specialized at utilizing the decay products of this species.
Food: Products freed by decay of hexageomus and other volafluidus
Metabolism: Chemoorganotrophic
Reproduction: Budding and division
Optimal Ambient Temperature: 285°C
Regions: Deep hydrothermal vent

Genetic Ancestor(s)

• 4 Ferrorbis (Extinct)
• 6 Ferruzippus (Extinct)
• 8 Membrafluidus

Temporal Range: Late Primordial Eon - ??? Year 1,490,000,000 - Year ???