Oceanic Nanocalvid
Nanocalvus zephyrum survived air drifts over the oceans and easily spread to new areas thanks to it property of being carried around by wind currents. However, this new variant now specializes in surviving and prospering over these oceans even better than Nanocalvus zephyrum can. The new species, Nanocalvus ociensis, also reffered to as the Oceanic Nanocalvid for its seafaring habits, practically replaces Nanocalvus zephyrum in the far-from-land ocean habitats as the dominant aeroplanktonic species.
What gives the Oceanic Nanocalvid so much success is that it now grows out filaments which are derived from some of the pores in its cell wall that absorbed carbon dioxide and moisture into the cell. These filaments grow up to an eighth of a micrometer (0.125 μm) in length and help to capture water vapor, which boosts the cell's growth by trapping in humidity. Growing these filaments was selected for as the Oceanic Nanocalvid strain could quickly grow to full size and reproduce without ever coming in contact with any liquid. This means it can spread in full abundance in humid areas regardless of rain, and it never has to touch the ocean, lest it gets stuck on the surface and dies off from excess amounts of salt. The time it takes to grow these filaments is canceled out by the faster growth provided from all the moisture gathered as the filaments are rather thin and the growth of filaments grant the cell a bigger moisture "payload." The width of these filaments is approximately a sixteenth (1/16) of their length, or a one-hundred tenty-eighth (1/128) of a micrometer (0.0078125 μm, 7.812 nm). They are not overburdened by the additional weight of water vapor as the square cube law works in the Oceanic Nanocalvid's favor and the water vapor particles are relatively small and already float in the air. Actual raindrops, however, are another story as they are much larger and heavier than the Oceanic Nanocalvid and can bring it down to the ocean's surface, where the cell cannot survive the extra salt content. Cells killed off by the rainfall will then be replaced by other nearby cells that did not get rained on.
The Oceanic Nanocalvid grows its cellular body to half a micrometer (0.5 μm) in diameter and reproduces every ten (10) to fifteen (15) minutes by duplicating its genetic material and splitting itself into two identical copies. It uses carbon dioxide from the air that passes into it through diffusion as energy for the cell to grow and function. Oxygen is then released from the cell as a byproduct. The Oceanic Nanocalvid's other structures consist of a cell membrane, a cell wall that holds it together, and a cytoplasm that contains genetic material within. The cell manually produces its own enzymes to absorb and process carbon dioxide from the air.