"Mutant strains?" Tang Yue took the petri dish from the old cat's hand, "Do you mean they've mutated?" ”

"Bacteria are prokaryotes that do not even have an intact cellular structure, and the stability of their DNA is quite fragile, and mutation is common in the irradiated environment of Mars...... I've been raising these bacteria for a while, and I dare say that every time they replicate and multiply, mutated individuals appear. The old cat nodded, "It's just that most of the mutations are going to a dead end, and the genetic mutation is blindfolded archery, and there are very few who can hit the target." ”

Tang Yue looked curiously at the mutant strains in the petri dish, the colonies were dark oval shapes with smooth surfaces, he didn't know which bacterial variant it was, but it was the first life he had discovered to be born in the Martian environment - although their parents were still from Earth.

Mai Dong woke up at this time and heard the conversation between Tang Yue and the old cat in the channel.

"Mr. Cat, did you plant colonies?" The girl was curious.

"Yes." The old cat replied, "These bacteria are my little pets, and I just got them back from the radiation exposure outside, and I found that one of the bacteria, probably a bacillus, has mutated. ”

"Why are you leaving them out in the sun?"

"Isn't that a common way to keep pets?" The old cat replied, "You can walk the dogs, I'm just walking the bacteria." ”

"The mutation has adapted them to the Martian environment?" Mai Dong asked.

"It's not acclimatized to the Martian environment." The old cat shook his head, it was not very interested in these mutant strains, and turned around and went back to tending to the tomatoes, "They're just adapted to the environment in the petri dish, if you open the lid and dump them on the sand outside Kunlun Station, I don't think they'll live for twenty-four hours." ”

"I'm counting on them to give birth to the next civilization." Tang Yue approached the petri dish and stared at the colony through the lid of the plexiglass, the bacteria on the medium were multiplying and spreading, but they certainly didn't know that there was a pair of eyes above their heads looking at them, "Although I have no interest in becoming a creator god, I want to know what a new ecosystem will look like." ”

"Think about the survival mode of sulfide bacteria, such as anaerobic red sulfur bacteria, if they can successfully evolve into higher organisms......," the old cat revered, "then it could be some large, slow-moving creatures that may look like amoebas, with transparent bodies and crawling on the ground and squirming, but they will be much larger than amoebae, and their body length may be more than several meters." ”

The old cat's description immediately reminded Tang Yue of a slug.

"They roam the Martian wasteland in groups, with shovel-like mouthparts, digging through the soil as they move, and they live by devouring the sand of the Martian wasteland, because the Martian soil is rich in ferrous ions, and these super worms get their energy by oxidizing ferrous ions into iron ions." The old cat continued, "Their transparent bodies have huge rolling vacuoles, and the vacuoles are filled with sulfuric acid, because sulfuric acid is the product of their oxidation of hydrogen sulfide, and in addition to sulfuric acid, the oxidation reaction also produces sulfur elements, so they will excrete sulfur as they move, and the long sulfur strips on the desert are the traces of their activity." ”

"Why are their bodies transparent?" Tang Yue asked.

"Because it has to be transparent." The old cat replied, "Part of their energy comes from photosynthesis, so sunlight is necessary, and the bodies of these organisms are full of acidic photosynthetic pigments, and the sulfuric acid in the vacuoles can provide an acidic environment." ”

"What about gregaries?"

"Living in groups is to resist the harsh living environment, and they will not only live in groups, but they will also hibernate regularly to shelter from the huge global storm on Mars." The old cat replied, "Once the wind starts to blow, these bugs will burrow into the sand and lie dormant until the storm passes." ”

"Will there be a community structure?"

"Any living organism, once it begins to live in groups, must have a social structure." The old cat said, "So in every group of Martian amoebas, there may be a leader, if they are a matriarchal society, then this leader is the only queen with the ability to reproduce, since there is a queen, we might as well deduce a few more steps down - there will also be an individual division of labor in the Martian amoeba community, and there may even be such specialized individuals...... A dedicated energy storage warehouse, larger than all other amoebas, is tasked with eating and drinking every day, and its only value is to provide energy to the dormant swarm during the long night of the storm. ”

Tang Yue remembered the honeypot ants on the earth, these strange ants use their bodies as food storage containers, and they have been ingesting nectar all their lives, they are living food storage tanks, and when the ant colony suffers from a famine of food shortage, they will drag the honeypot ants out and eat them.

It is completely unknown what kind of means the creatures on Mars will use to resist famine, but according to the principle of mediocrity, what has appeared on Earth is also likely to appear on Mars.

"Do they have vision? Will you have hearing? ”

"Sight isn't particularly important here, and they may have evolved from completely different sensory organs of terrestrial creatures, such as the oddly long tentacles that move underground." "These tentacles extend in different directions to detect the abundance of substratum food—ferrous ions and sulfides. ”

"As for hearing, they crawl on the surface and squirm and can sense the vibrations of the ground through their bodies, which may even be their way of communicating, by slapping the ground to produce vibrations of different frequencies." The old cat continued.

"And what about the brain? Do they have a highly developed central nervous system? ”

"Of course it's possible, Tang Yue, everything is possible." Old turned, "Time will give them everything." ”

Tang Yue stared at the colonies in the petri dish for a long time, he didn't know if what the old cat said was really possible, billions of years later, Mars has become a vibrant planet, these bacteria will evolve into swarms of amoebas scurrying forward on the desert, with concentrated sulfuric acid flowing in their transparent bodies, basking in the sun while eating while walking, following the movement of the mineral elements underground, leaving a grain of sulfur - it is really an absurd and funny world.

Even if the prophecy would come true, it would be billions of years away.

Time is a miracle thing.

The old cat finished watering the tomatoes and came over to take away the petri dish, in its 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 petri dish should be placed in a P4-level biological laboratory at this moment - although its threat to Tang Yue's life is infinitely close to zero.

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(Author's gossip: This chapter is updated on the evening of May 22 at normal time, but it has not been sent out because the recently released chapter of the starting point has been changed to manual review.) ）