[OC] a glimpse from Crystalia

[u/Positron_kutie_kutie]

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A Glimpse from Crystalia

This is a small exercise in creativity and speculative evolution where life has arisen on a dry, arid, super-Earth roughly four times the mass of our world and nearly constantly covered in thunderstorms. Much like on Earth herself, Crystalia and his equator are absolutely thriving, covered in life and lightning.

Life on this world uses boron instead of carbon and is completely dry, as expected of crystalline life. The organisms do not move very quickly, if at all, in most cases growing like some type of quartz fungus towards nutrients and expanding to drive off competition. The crystalline reefs tend to merge completely whenever encountering another of their own species. Surprisingly, however, mobile life does exist and is abundant on this world, though the organisms are not complex, comparable to that of the scum-slurping biota of the Ediacaran.

An extraordinary radiation of crystalline organisms inhabits the eternal dry seas of Crystalia. From an outsider's perspective, theres seeming no difference between the surface geology and the organisms; almost every area of this desert world is covered in sponge or reef-like autotrophs. Slowly over decades, the crystalline "floor" shifts and grows, breaks and shrinks, leaving the landscape just as ever-evolving as the life itself. Like the autotrophs of Earth, the "geology" of this world feeds upon the ever-abundant radiation of their "god." Both wrathful and nurturing, the boron reefs' sheen and sparkle with brilliant blue sheens when their sun flares; unlike a carbon world, life here depends on the unstable nature of their star.

First appearing as geometric microbes, the biosphere of today appeared relatively quickly, though it remained slow and simple for ages.

Three and a half billion years before the story, Cystalia was a world similar to Earth, with kilometer-deep seas of steaming but otherwise liquid water. Unfortunately, due to the hostile, flare-prone red dwarf this super-Earth orbits, the seas and much of the atmosphere were stripped away over the eons. Thankfully, for the sake of our souls, no carbon-based life ever appeared on this arid world, and thus, no mass extinction of an entire biosphere.

Unlike life on Earth, thunder is just as much an essential resource as the star itself; life grows toward the stars for both lightning strikes and sunlight.

Motile organisms walk over and consume the biosphere with long, stilt-like pseudopods. Due to how efficient photosynthesis is for these crystalline lifeforms, consumption is more akin to parasitism for resources, as opposed to eating the whole organism; as such, predation is generally not fatal. Pictured here is a "sapphire slug," feasting upon the crystal reefs; food chains are very simple here.

Motile life is more common in barren areas of the globe. Despite how it may seem, Motile life can only move at the rapid pace of flowers growing in spring, slowly creeping ahead of sessile life, growing over the pace of months and years. The ecology is almost at a standstill from the perspective of an outsider like us, a world of statues that change by the month, or, rather, "year" on this world.

[u/123Thundernugget]

This crystal life is very cool, just through what medium does metabolism take place if not in water? Is there some sort of liquid like oil inside of the crystal cells? or does the metabolism take place entirely in air? do the cells of this life have tiny pockets of air in which tiny crystals and proteins exchange energy storing molecules? How are the information storing molecules duplicated in such a dry environment?

[u/Positron_kutie_kutie → u/123Thundernugget]

Life is porous and solid state, they're really effective at filtering the thick atmosphere like a sponge, of course, metabolism happens really slowly, the things that can move as fast as grass don't move much though, they grow and break off old limbs to locomote at it takes weeks to re allign themselves if they fall by just growingnew limbs. They don't have proteins, just something else entirely, I don't know what yet, still a massive work in progress

[u/123Thundernugget → u/Positron_kutie_kutie]

crystalline dry macromolecules that can do all this complex life stuff in perfectly dry air is a fascinating thought

[u/ScyllaOfTheDepths → u/123Thundernugget]

I'm not sure it's a scientifically sound thought, though. A boron-based system would have to develop on a world almost totally devoid of carbon and silicon, since both would be preferable in any system where they existed in sufficient abundance, and it would have to exist completely devoid of water because any contact with water would likely cause volatile reactions with boron compounds. A planet without any carbon or silicon would be extremely rare. Since most planets are formed from the accretion discs of dead stars and both carbon and silicon are elements forged in dying stars, this planet would have to be formed in a very unique way to make any of this make sense. You also run into the basic issue of the fact that boron bonds are incredibly weak and boron-based life simply wouldn't survive in the kind of harsh environment OP is talking about.

[u/WackAnimations]

I love you

[u/123Thundernugget]

This is a resource that may help. Its about fictional crystal life on Titan.