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Golden Magnekite
(Magnetocephalous melchiorii)

Creator: Bufforpington
Ancestor: Magnekite
Habitat: Maineiac Water Table
Size: 20 cm Long
Diet: Herbivore (Yellow Cushion), Lithotroph (Iron), Chemotroph (Sultur Compounds)
Reproduction: Asexual (Spores)

The Golden Magnekite descended from a population of Magnekites that ventured into the volcanic fringes of Maineiac Water Table. There, they discovered the yellow cushion, a food source that had yet to be exploited. They began to consume these cushions. However, this would ultimately lead to a series of adaptations that would radically change their exoskeleton. Upon eating the yellow cushions, they also consumed the octthermas contained within their food source. Some octhermas settled among the gut majurums in their digestive tract, feeding on whatever sulfur was passed into the ancestral magnekite's body. This ultimately led to sulfur building up inside of the magnekites' bodies. In order to survive this disturbance, some inidividuals incorporated the sulfur into their exoskeleton, causing it to consist pyrite instead of iron. This would ultimately give the golden magnekite its rough, golden exterior. Apart from this change to their exoskeleton, the golden magnekite remains the same as its ancestor.

"Octthermas" should be "Octhermas".
"Consist pyrite" should be "consist of pyrite".
"inidividuals" is a typo; you meant "individuals".
Does the Yellow Cushion count as a plant for the sake of classifying the Golden Magnekite as a "herbivore"? It is certainly a very strange "plant" by now. The last in its lineage to still use photosynthesis, the Superstickyballs, was from Week 14, Generation 93...and it's Week 26 now. I figure its lineage has been without photosynthesis for a lot longer than most nonphotosynthetic plants of today, if not longer.

For comparison, Monotropa uniflora is a nonphotosynthetic plant in the Ericaceae family. The earliest evidenceof the Ericaceae (heather family) was from the Late Cretaceous about 90 million years ago, and it's been more than 137.5 million years since the Superstickyballs' time. ("more than" because the present Week isn't over yet, and I don't know how many millions of years it was during Week 14 when the Superstickyballs showed up.)

...ah. I just got the reference from a quick Internet search. It's the one of the three Magi that gave a gift of gold. At first, I had assumed it had something to do with Malchior, a villain-of-the-day from Teen Titans, who was a dragon that disguised itself as a soft-spoken wizard and gained Raven's trust, or perhaps some other cartoon character.

This post has been edited by Coolsteph: Feb 8 2021, 12:32 PM

I don't think iron fauna shells are literally made of just iron?

If I have my chemistry right, exposure to water and oxygen should turn the exoskeleton into sulfuric acid. I don't think that's desired behavior.

I knew that pyrite decomposes in the presence of water and oxygen, but I didn't know that it decomposed into sulfuric acid. To be honest, I should've known, but I guess I was so hyped up on the concept of an organism coated in pyrite armor to pay attention to the side effects of having said armor. Not to mention that I intended for it to fill the role of the last magi that bore gold.

Very well then. Ready the nukes. I can do without this species. It wasn't really interesting to begin with.

Wait, hold on. The scaly-foot snail does have a shell partly made of iron pyrite. This needs only a description editing.

I concur with Coolsteph, the scaly-foot snail would make for a great inspiration for the armor of this.

Bufforpington do you intend to continue this?

I’m afraid not. I have to drop Sagan IV for now due to school and conflicting interests. While I think the scaly-footed snail’s use of pyrite is interesting, I don’t think it’ll work here. Iron Fauna have pure iron shells, and the golden magnekite is only a minor derivation of that, with its shell being pure pyrite instead of iron. This would make the exoskeleton implausible due to it decomposing into sulfuric acid.