[Post Merge: August 21, 2011, 05:55:06 PM]

There is an actual iron cycle on Earth that doesn't run on magic. And there is a constant source of energy, which is the star that this planet orbits.

I don't see a point in any of the three organisms you posted where outside energy enters the system.

Since everyone seems to be ignoring this post, I will repost this here:

But you've never explained how this relates to the Sagan4 iron cycle. Why don't you post the reactions each genus uses in their part of the iron cycle, and the advantages that they gain from said reactions.
Post Merge: August 21, 2011, 05:55:06 PMIf you could, please.

It would always be using too much energy, because it doesn't have a way to get energy in the first place.

The fact that this reaction is needed to complete the iron cycle is irrelevant. An organism only cares about its own survival, not that of the ecosystem around it.

For example, let's compare the iron cycle organism to more familiar autotrophs and heterotrophs - plants and animals. Normally, a plant takes in sun, harnessing the energy in light to move chemicals into a state where they can be harnessed for energy at a later date. An animal will try to take these stored chemicals from a plant by ingesting it or parts of it. Even though plants need to be eaten in order for animals to survive, the plant doesn't care about their survival. The animal's act of eating the plant is harmful to the plant, and so the plant tries to evolve defenses.

Now in this analogy, this autotroph is attempting to create chemicals in a higher energy state, not by using the sun, but by using magic to take the lower energy chemicals and raise them up the energy grade. Instead of storing these valuable materials so that it can use them later, though, the organism performs a nifty little survival trick where it throws them away, allowing completely unrelated organisms to use them instead. Even though it has its faults, it sure is a friendly little guy!

To take the example of plants and animals and adapt it to this situation, it would be like a plant growing and thriving in a sealed off underground cavern with no sun, the animals gratefully lapping up the sugar that it's constantly releasing.

What I'm trying to say is, there's a reason you can't create a perpetual motion machine. In fact, these organisms do rather take away from the case for the huge iron lithotrophs, as now you can just have a symbiosis between a regular lithotroph and one of these guys, and they each have a constant source of energy! You could throw a bunch of them up in space, and so long as they overcame the vacuum they'd keep on chugging along.

Wait, why was this approved? It's diet means that it's constantly losing energy with no way to obtain it.

These guys are really cool!

So how do the muscles work?

Is the Tonboswarmer part of this group too?

I decided to leave it out, mainly because it doesn't use the moving tail-stiff wings arrangement. If you want me to throw it in, though, I'd be fine with that.

i bet that is an example of the larval stage

Yeah

i cant understand how they developed an exoeskeleton.

They inherited it from the armored cloudswarmer. It's similar to the exoskeletons in the diveskimo group.

Fixed.

The iron cycle starts out with specific ferrocycle microbes converting Ferrous oxide FeO into Fe2+.

You'll have to excuse me on this one, because my chemistry knowledge is just a bit sketchy, but don't most iron lithotrophs take advantage of the energy created when oxygen and iron combine? If so, wouldn't splitting apart ferrous oxide result in a net energy loss for the organism?

Thanks. :D

Imgur is superior, especially if you get the browser extension.

This is great, as always. :D
Glass Flora? :3

No, it's a biome that originates as a result of the gelati. I've been giving it some thought, so I might as well type it out now.

Although this gen they'll only start to become modular(I've finished the flora, I'm working on the fauna symbiote), in 147 they'll begin to really blanket the landscape. Two biomes should possibly result from this. One, say, "Gelati plains" will be a direct result of the gelati - organisms here will either practice parasitism on the Gelati, perhaps feeding directly on it or using it to gather nutrients for photosynthesis, engage in a symbiosis with it, or feed on one of the two previous. The second biome is a way to preserve Masonian life in more or less its present form. As gelati mats grow larger and the individuals that compose them follow in the same track, a drought of some form would seriously cripple the entire mat, as all the gelati are interconnected. A solution to this would be to create "domes" of linked gelati over existing ravines and craters, which should be increasingly common as the atmosphere protecting Mason from asteroids weakens. These would be filled with air and amounts of water, forming marsh-like biomes. Decedents of biota, specifically the Stistnite and the Hexdigger, would maintain holes between these, allowing species to spread between these.

Moving on to generation 150, I think I've figured out a method that would allow not only a wide variety of biomes but a good number of terrestrial habitats. Gelati now cover the surface, and far decedents of the provinci have become so integrated socially and specialized that the organism is a sum of individuals, much like termites or ants but farther. The interaction between all of these groups throughout the globe create a sort of slow moving consciousness, too slow to interact to any single event or any individual thing(except maybe the Nauceans. ), and not having the ability to manipulate objects into tools, just enough to have a curiosity of the planet around it and a desire to preserve it. Three groups of gelati now cover the surface; one for the coast, one for the land, and one for the ocean. Each has a hard shell of some undecided component, and each competes with other species at their border, attempting to kill off the neighboring one to expand their own territory. This constant death of individuals causes large amounts of their shells to fall to the sea floor, eventually creating sediment which expands the coast and the land, very slowly. Each species has its own gelati plains biome, and the two inter-species zones are also biomes(in the land-coast biome, this allows organisms from the sea to migrate into the marsh biomes). Two new continents, really no more than large islands, have emerged; one near the top of the current coast(Bruno?), but probably exceeding its current breadth, and a larger one that has resulted from the expansion of the original island(Mendel?). A strong current between the two prevents large buildup, keeping them separate.

Now obviously you've got the final say on this, and I expect some ideas might not be favorable, but these are just my preliminary thoughts on the subject.

Going to throw this in, from a PM with Hydro. This was my plan for Mason before I left, it was very rough and has quite a few holes in it. The basic thought was that a covering of gelati would help preserve the oceans and some land while the atmosphere departed, while an intelligent species would be able to behave altruistically toward the planet as a whole. Large holes in the ground in land areas filled with air and water, but covered in gelati, would be the "lungs" of the land gelati, obtaining water from the edges. Above ground species could flee inward into the "marshes", finding a safe area where they could continue to thrive.

Congrats. :D