Fungal Life Found on Colonia 3 C A
- Thread starter Commander Alesia
- Start date
Alesia, Drew is writing the next official Elite novel, Elite Premonition. If you can give him some back-story on your in-game character, and the story of how you found these coral life-forms, he'll write your discovery into the novel. Your commander will then be a part of official Elite lore!
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Do they drop any mats? Are they useful for anything?
Amazing work, Commander!
Congratulations on your find Alesia! 
And nicely documented too I must say [up]
It's interesting that these are all fungal lifeforms, and with a good varied appearance too, analagous to terrestrial fungal forms.
Two things stand out to me though - firstly, given the whole fungus thing going on there, it's curious to see phloem in there, because phloem is the sap of plants of course, not fungi. Suggests there's more going on there in biological terms than simply saying "they're fungi like Earth's".
And then there's the other point...the Cordyceps fungus.
That name is notorious to anyone who knows a bit about fungi because all Cordyceps species on Earth are parasitic...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordyceps
And here's the interesting twist - they're mostly parasites of insects and arthropods.
Elite lore tells us that humanity's past conflict with the Thargoids came to a head when mankind developed a pathogen called the "Mycoid Virus" which was intended to attack the organic nature of Thargoid hyperdrives, but just so happened to also be harmful to the Thargoids' own physiology too.
So now I'm wondering...are these alien Cordyceps fungal growths the source that humanity used to develop the Mycoid Virus? [woah]
And nicely documented too I must say [up]
It's interesting that these are all fungal lifeforms, and with a good varied appearance too, analagous to terrestrial fungal forms.
Two things stand out to me though - firstly, given the whole fungus thing going on there, it's curious to see phloem in there, because phloem is the sap of plants of course, not fungi. Suggests there's more going on there in biological terms than simply saying "they're fungi like Earth's".
And then there's the other point...the Cordyceps fungus.
That name is notorious to anyone who knows a bit about fungi because all Cordyceps species on Earth are parasitic...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordyceps
And here's the interesting twist - they're mostly parasites of insects and arthropods.
Elite lore tells us that humanity's past conflict with the Thargoids came to a head when mankind developed a pathogen called the "Mycoid Virus" which was intended to attack the organic nature of Thargoid hyperdrives, but just so happened to also be harmful to the Thargoids' own physiology too.
So now I'm wondering...are these alien Cordyceps fungal growths the source that humanity used to develop the Mycoid Virus? [woah]
dynamicbob
Banned
Its a start and adds more depth to deep space content. Another eason for more players to go randomly explore the galaxy and find some cool stuff along the way
This is CMDR Tharrn on-site from the fungal colony on Colonia 3 C A in the science vessel Basilisk. As speculations are mounting that these could be the new barnacles producing something similar to Meta-Alloys an emergency science program was initiated to defute this claim.
Lacking better scanners the following assumptions were made interpolating from known terrestial life
- the cones are a shell built by the fungoid colonies just like coralls build shells in terran marine environments
- carefull, one-time harvests of samples without destroying the cone will likely cause minimal damage to the species like harvesting the fruit bodies of terran fungi doesn't kill the species
Carefull consideration was taken not to harvest all fruit bodies in case the assumptions are wrong.
All in all 21 species were harvested, and while the number of samples could surely be bigger the resuts are considered to be conclusive evidence that the Colonia fungoids are by no means as biosynthetically active as the barnacles of the Pleiades.
Of the 21 species only one featured two fruit bodies, which were both harvested. All other species only featured a singular fruit body.
The most numerous species were of the Polyporous Growth kind (figure 1). Cone sizes were classified as small and medium cones. Materials dropped were 6x Manganese (the double fruit body cone yielded 2 units of Manganese), 3x Vanadium and 1x Zirconium. All materials were thus very common or common to Colonia 3 C A.
Figure 1: Polyporous Growth
Second numerous came Cordycep Growth (figure 2). Cone sizes were small and medium again. Materials dropped were 4x Iron, 2x Carbon and 2x Sulphur, all very common to Colonia 3 C A.
Figure 2: Cordycep Growth
Two samples of Mussidaen Seed Pods could be collected (figure 3). Cone sizes were medium and tall. Materials dropped were Tin and Niobium, which are rare on Colonia 3 C A.
Figure 3: Mussidaen Seed Pods
Two samples of Phloem Excrete could be harvested (figure 4). Cone sizes were medium and tall. Materials harvested were Nickel and Antimony, which are very common and very rare respectively.
Figure 4: Phloem Excrete
Conclusions
Due to the small sample size these conclusions are just evidential. Further carefull studies will be needed. It seems like the fungoids harvest the available resources of the planet and each type seems to be capable of metabolizing different materials. While Polyporous Growth and Cordycep Growth only seems capable of utilizing the very common and common materials the Mussidaen Seed Pods and Phloem Excrete seem to be capable of metabolizing and/or secreting the more rare materials.
In contrast to barnacles the materials are not further processed into more complex substances like the Meta Alloys though. A strict conservational policy should thus be established once the necessary scientific programs have been concluded.
Lacking better scanners the following assumptions were made interpolating from known terrestial life
- the cones are a shell built by the fungoid colonies just like coralls build shells in terran marine environments
- carefull, one-time harvests of samples without destroying the cone will likely cause minimal damage to the species like harvesting the fruit bodies of terran fungi doesn't kill the species
Carefull consideration was taken not to harvest all fruit bodies in case the assumptions are wrong.
All in all 21 species were harvested, and while the number of samples could surely be bigger the resuts are considered to be conclusive evidence that the Colonia fungoids are by no means as biosynthetically active as the barnacles of the Pleiades.
Of the 21 species only one featured two fruit bodies, which were both harvested. All other species only featured a singular fruit body.
The most numerous species were of the Polyporous Growth kind (figure 1). Cone sizes were classified as small and medium cones. Materials dropped were 6x Manganese (the double fruit body cone yielded 2 units of Manganese), 3x Vanadium and 1x Zirconium. All materials were thus very common or common to Colonia 3 C A.
Figure 1: Polyporous Growth
Second numerous came Cordycep Growth (figure 2). Cone sizes were small and medium again. Materials dropped were 4x Iron, 2x Carbon and 2x Sulphur, all very common to Colonia 3 C A.
Figure 2: Cordycep Growth
Two samples of Mussidaen Seed Pods could be collected (figure 3). Cone sizes were medium and tall. Materials dropped were Tin and Niobium, which are rare on Colonia 3 C A.
Figure 3: Mussidaen Seed Pods
Two samples of Phloem Excrete could be harvested (figure 4). Cone sizes were medium and tall. Materials harvested were Nickel and Antimony, which are very common and very rare respectively.
Figure 4: Phloem Excrete
Conclusions
Due to the small sample size these conclusions are just evidential. Further carefull studies will be needed. It seems like the fungoids harvest the available resources of the planet and each type seems to be capable of metabolizing different materials. While Polyporous Growth and Cordycep Growth only seems capable of utilizing the very common and common materials the Mussidaen Seed Pods and Phloem Excrete seem to be capable of metabolizing and/or secreting the more rare materials.
In contrast to barnacles the materials are not further processed into more complex substances like the Meta Alloys though. A strict conservational policy should thus be established once the necessary scientific programs have been concluded.
Well done Alesia!!! Great discovery. Does canning these lifeforms gain anything towards exploration rank?
Biology isn't really my forte, however I've been reading up on it in light of Alseia's discovery, and agree that the types of fungi found would plausibly evolve into or evolve from the sort of biology used in the mycoid. I have to wonder about these new species potentially being a pandoras box of infections. Colonia outbreak CG's anyone?
Biology isn't really my forte, however I've been reading up on it in light of Alseia's discovery, and agree that the types of fungi found would plausibly evolve into or evolve from the sort of biology used in the mycoid. I have to wonder about these new species potentially being a pandoras box of infections. Colonia outbreak CG's anyone?
Cordyceps, huh? You had better stay away from that stuff, because we know what these fungi can do to you
Actually, the fungal plot thickens!
Let's look at those Mussidaen Seed Pods...
The taxonomic term Mussidae isn't fungal at all - it's refers to a family of stony corals commonly known as Brain Coral. So it seems that organism at least has thematic ties with our ol' bio-engineered barnacle buddies!
(some brain coral, yesterday)
Here's the thing though : coral doesn't actually have "seed pods".
Curiouser and curiouser indeed...
Let's look at those Mussidaen Seed Pods...
The taxonomic term Mussidae isn't fungal at all - it's refers to a family of stony corals commonly known as Brain Coral. So it seems that organism at least has thematic ties with our ol' bio-engineered barnacle buddies!
(some brain coral, yesterday)
Here's the thing though : coral doesn't actually have "seed pods".
Curiouser and curiouser indeed...
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Amazing find. The first real alien life we've found since the barnacles! Here's a question: do they show up as POI's on your ship scanner?
![[VR] optimal_909](https://d2aefvhu2f0gi9.cloudfront.net/data/avatars/m/109/109067.jpg?1553781733){kind=avatar}
Out of interest: fungae belong to flora, or fauna?
Beautiful find, I also like location where you find them Excellent!
Excellent!