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13 Hexastacel

Name: Hexastacel Ancestor: Hexageomus Description: The irregularities caused by microdamage between cells and imperfect joining during development actually reinforces the overall structure through a repair and filling process called bridging, where material is deposited where it is structurally needed. Because more living, useful layers can stack with respiratory requirements able to circulate around or near them, they are able to grow thicker and more visibly. They grow faster and tend to outcompete more basal varieties of hexageomus. Young cells at the surface tend to grow in thin stacks with space between them, filling into a hexagonal lattice as the cells grow to full size by layering their crystalline skeleton. Their surface area allows more respiratory and metabolic reactions that compliment the activities of the older cells, but also break off easily. When they break off theycan spread to new locations, able to remain in a state of dormancy in cooler waters long enough to increase their chances of seeding in optimum surroundings. In a stack of small cells, when the cell forming the base of the stack grows large enough, the small cell above it (at the base of the small cell stack) becomes more fixed and becomes the next larger cell. Food: Dissolved inoganic and organic material Metabolism: Chemolithotrophic and chemoorganotrophic Reproduction: Cell budding Optimal Ambient Temperature: 275°C Regions: Deep hydrothermal vent

Genetic Ancestor(s)