Penny Magnekite
| Penny Magnekite | ||
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| (Ferroplax nummus) | ||
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| Information | ||
| Creator | Bufforpington Other | |
| Week/Generation | 27/167 | |
| Habitat | Lamarck Water Table | |
| Size | 10 cm Long | |
| Primary Mobility | Unknown | |
| Support | Exoskeleton (Pure Iron) | |
| Diet | Herbivore (Yellow Cushion, Golden Villigrass), Lithotroph (Iron) | |
| Respiration | Unknown | |
| Thermoregulation | Ectotherm | |
| Reproduction | Asexual (Spores) | |
| Taxonomy | ||
| Domain Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family Genus Species | Eukaryota Siderobiota Ferrovermes Siderostegae Magnetocephalia Ferroplacidae Ferroplax Ferroplax nummus | |
| Ancestor: | Descendants: |
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While magnekites have long tried to penetrate into the volcanic regions of Lamarck Water Table, they struggled to do so due to the extreme environment. In the volcanic regions the water is warmer and sometimes scalding hot. Lava flows will erupt from the rocks, killing anything caught in its path. Eventually, a population would adapt and split off from its ancestor, becoming the penny magnekite.
Penny magnekites get their name from their magnetic flanges, which when combined are shaped like a coin. This change was to increase the penny magnekite's surface area, allowing it to better cool itself in the hot volcanic waters of its home range. This is also aided by their smaller size. Like their ancestors, their pure iron exoskeleton is coated in a rustmold species. In this case, it's Fungiferrus publicanus, a species specialized in feeding on the oxidizing iron at the outer edge of its carapace. This smothering of rustmolds helps prevent the exoskeleton from rusting as fast, allowing it to remain viable for longer. Penny magnekites will molt once every four months, leaving the old carapace to be consumed by the rustmolds. A new coat of rustmolds will then grow over the new carapace starting from the nostrils, which act as a refugia for rustmolds after much of the colony is lost with the old shell.
Penny magnekites primarily get their iron from feeding on golden villigrass, which is also its main source of carbon. It will also eat yellow cushions when available. Penny magnekites typically scuttle along the cave floor but can also climb golden villigrass villi to reach higher parts of the plant with some difficulty. Sometimes they are blown off the tops of golden villigrass and carried over short distances by the powerful currents of the volcanic regions to new places. Because the penny magnekite's food sources are so rich in sulfur, they will excrete high concentrations of it in their waste to avoid being poisoned by it. Because of this, penny magnekite dung often has a habit of propagating new colonies of sulfur feeding chemotrophic microbes.