Hmpteprou Damptium

The hmpteprou damptium split from its ancestor, the teproutine, and moved to Dixon Tundra and West Wind Polar Beach. It adapted photosynthesizing capabilities, using the CO2 in the permafrost layer of the tundra's soil to extract carbon and oxygen and release excess oxygen to the atmosphere. Two of its flagella are under the soil, while the other are above. The above ground flagella are used, with the help of tiny cilia, to capture minerals from the air, mainly sea salt. This is especially efficient in the polar beach, though it helps giving the microbe a boost of energy in the tundra, when a sudden gust of western bound sea wind comes to the arid wastelands. The two upper flagella are also used to photosynthesize, using brown chloroplasts to gather a large spectrum of light. Though not as efficient as black flora, it helps keep them alive. During the long winter months, the hmpteprou damptium will be covered in ice and snow, and will stop metabolizing for the duration of the winter. Without light it can not maintain its feeding habits, so hibernation is a necessary action in the dark, lightless, months.