Libraphotocyanus imudurulorica
L. imudurulorica is a unicellular polyph living on the bottom of Zone 14, where it breaks down and feeds on detritus. It inhabits depths of 0 to 300 meters.
L. imudurulorica descended from L. imuphotus that were formerly living in the adjacent sea of Zone 10. Like their ancestor, they break down detritus using digestive enzymes and absorb nutrients through their cell membrane. When nutrients begin running low, they use their pseudopods extending from holes in their cell walls to move themselves to a new location where they are able to resume feeding. They maintain appropriate salt levels within their bodies to remain dense enough to stay at the bottom of the water. The ancestor, L. imuphotus, added holes in the cell wall, exposing the cell membrane, which is more permeable causing it to uptake more nutrients and minerals. This caused it to start taking in silica. Over time this lead to L. imudurulorica, which started putting it to use.
The waters of Zone 14, with an average depth of 300 meters, are much deeper than the ancestors had to face in Zone 10, with an average of 40 meters. In response to these environmental changes, imudurulorica strengthened its cell wall and changed from a green color to more of an orange color, relying on photosynthesis far less than its ancestor did.
A reinforced cell wall helps the cell maintain its shape even under the pressure of deep waters. The cell wall is reinforced with silica, which is abundantly available in the sandy substrate of Zone 14. This reinforcement means that the cell wall is less permeable, causing imudurulorica to rely more on the surface area exposed by its psuedopods for absorbing nutrients. It is capable of weakening portions of its cell wall to allow for new psuedopods holes to be pushed through if needed.
Very little light reaches the bottom of the water column at this depth, and so imudurulorica has lost the majority of its chloroplasts. It now has an orange appearance due to the production of carotenoids, which allow it to absorb what little blue light reaches it. The majority of its energy, however, comes from breaking down detritus.
L. imudurulorica reproduces asexually via mitosis. Because it has to work harder breaking down detritus for nutrients, it reproduces much slower than its ancestor, splitting approximately every 8 hours.