Episode 4: Producers, Foundation of All

Even on an alien planet, if there's life, the food cycles are always present. And at the foundation of all food cycles are the Producers.

Producers
Producers are organisms that are capable of producing organic compounds on their own.

In our alien planet at the current state, the producers are billion of autotrophic microbes, floating about at the surface of the ocean. However, due to the great font at the north and the great volcano at the south, Aether compounds and volcanic gases are released into the atmosphere constantly. Attracting and giving birth to other types of microbes, which in turn, help in balancing the atmospheric components.

With the consumers start evolving, so does the producers.

Photosynthetic Microbes
Floating about nearly everywhere on the ocean surface, but more concentrated near the equator, the microbes taking up sunlight to power the photosynthesis, creating sugar for themselves and oxygen as a waste product. On this planet, the majority of the population uses Chlorophyll for photosynthesis, resulting in them giving off a characteristic green color like that on earth.

One group of the microbes evolve to reside within the shell of phyllostomes that attached themselves near the surface, and start living together.

Over time, the microbes start sharing excessive sugar with their host, which in turn helps in nurturing the host with an inexhaustible food source. From easily obtaining nutrients, the host's main body elongates, becoming stem-like. It then starts incorporating the microbes into each cell of their body, becoming symbiotic and ceasing heterotrophic. The concentration of the microbes moves toward the now unused feeding arms, giving the appendages a new function as surfaces to collect sunlight.

However, struggling with forming the shells of calcium sulfate due to the increased size, the host starts forming cellulose cell walls out of the excessive sugar, giving them a rigid yet flexible structure. With the increased size, more energy uptake is needed. By growing more photosynthetic microbe-filled appendages around the stem and living in the shallow water, the sugar production rate increases.

They also incorporate the microbes into their gametes, implanting them into the egg cells to give the larvae a head start on the food source when still floating in the water currents.

The two organisms virtually become one, inseparable from one another, and is now dubbed Polyphyllophyta ("Many Leaves Plant").

Chemosynthetic Microbes
With a massive active volcano, the now-dormant smaller volcanoes, and large amounts of hydrothermal vents around it constantly pouring out volcanic gases and hydrothermal smoke at the southern hemisphere, attracting the chemotrophic microbes, in which their population grows rapidly, both at the surface and the seabed.

One group now floats on the surface water, taking up hydrogen sulfide directly from the atmosphere. This group soon evolves to cluster together into colonies, eventually becoming a multicellular organism. However, hydrogen sulfide dissolves in water means that the organism needs to be constantly in contact with the air all the time, so they start forming large rafts on the water surface, these are known as Chemophyta ("Chemical Plant").

To increase the surface of hydrogen sulfide intake, this organism evolves several radially arranged flat, fin-like structure jutting into the air, and to prevent falling over, evolves a counterweight underneath the raft, giving it bulbous shape. This organism, which formerly reproduces asexually, evolves to reproduce sexually to increase the genetic diversity. Asexually reproduction is still retained.

Due to the organism's shape and property, it is dubbed Bulbochemophyta ("Round Chemical Plant").

Aethersynthetic Microbes
A similar situation that happened to the southern chemotrophs also occurs in the northern hemisphere. The northern hemisphere is rich in elemental Aether leaked through the font and leakages, attracting Aethertrophic microbes to the north.

Similar to the several microbes species, the Aethertrophs evolve to become colonial, which eventually, becomes a multicellular organism. The organism also stays afloat on the ocean surface to increase Aether intake. However, they develop differently.

Instead of inhabiting in an existing structure or floating around by water currents, this organism develops an ability to swim, similar to the hexapterids. From the originally rounded body, it develops a large tail fin, a pair of large dorsal fins, and a pair of pectoral fins. The inner cells become muscle cells, used mainly for locomotion by the fins and tail. And the front has an opening for water uptake. The Aethersynthetic cells now concentrate at the core of the body surrounded by hemolymph and several sacs. However, the location of the core means needing to send Aether-riched air to the core, which is fixed by evolving a trachea system, similar to insects on earth, with the spiracles on the two dorsal fins.

The organism also evolves to used Aether for other reactions. Normally, through Aethersynthesis, gaseous Aether Oxide is produced, which then the Aether atom is extracted and stored in the Aether sac, while the oxygen atoms reform as oxygen gas and then released. Two Aether atoms and a calcium ion extracted from seawater then form a Calcium Aethide, a molecule with property similar to that of calcium carbonate, but is not dissolved in acid. The organism then uses Calcium Aethide to create hard, lightweight, bone-like shells around its body for protection. Its body also grows in size.

This fish-like Aethertroph is now dubbed Ichthyoidmorpha ("Fish-like Form")