Genus (Evolution)

The Genus is a micro-biological organism known for its ability to quickly evolve from microscopic cells into new and increasingly complex forms, forming elaborate ecosystems and generating new species within a matter of hours or days whereas any other lifeform might take years or even centuries to achieve the same amount of change.

Biology
These lifeforms have a bio-chemistry based around nitrogen rather than carbon, and have a much faster metabolism than Earth-born creatures, as they are able to evolve into new species within a matter of hours or days, rather than millennia. They also have ten different fundamental bases in their DNA, whilst Earth organisms have only four. Exposure to high temperatures, such as explosions or fire, cause the super-cells that makes up these aliens to go into self-destructive overdrive, essentially hitting the fast forward button in terms of evolutionary change. Independent lifeforms merge to become one large, super-organism capable of propagating in much the same way as their microscopic predecessors; each one splitting into two after a certain period of time.

The origin of these creatures is unknown, though it can be assumed that their lifecycle is somewhat parasitic; worlds that become infested with these creatures are eventually destroyed by their rapid evolutionary cycle, sending new colonies of cells out into the universe to repeat the cycle on a new world.

The Genus first arrived on Earth as blue-colored unicellular lifeforms locked inside of a porous meteorite, and soon started to evolve into multicellular lifeforms, spawning an entire ecosystem within the crater where the meteorite first landed, which included species analogous to lichens, worms and insects.

All Genus lifeforms reproduce asexually, that is to say without a mate, which is interesting given that this form of reproduction is often believed to be associated with slow, rather than fast, evolution. After a few days, some vertebrate analogues escape the crater and begin evolving into several reptilianoid, and later mammalianoid forms, which then threaten to take over Earth's entire ecosystem in no more than a few months. The only thing hampering their progress is that they cannot survive for more than a handful of hours outside of the alien ecosystem native to the crater, being incapable of breathing without a balanced mixture of oxygen and nitrogen gasses. Eventually however, some Genus species do evolve the ability to breathe in an oxygen rich environment and become far more dangerous. Based on projections made by Dr. Reed's team, it was estimated that the alien ecosystem, if left unchecked, would overwhelm the United States in little more than two months.

In an attempt to wipe out the aliens before they could spread any further, the USA military decided to carpet-bomb the impact site, hoping to wipe out the alien ecosystem and destroy the infestation. They were unaware, however, of the creatures' intense biological response to such explosions, and instead of killing the aliens, the explosion results in the smaller lifeforms growing uncontrollably and fusing together as their cells going into self-destructive overdrive in effort to combat the threat, the entire ecosystem coming together to form a gigantic, amoeboid super-organism.

Thankfully, a weakness of the aliens' biology is discovered: selenium, which is in the same position relative to nitrogen as arsenic is to carbon, making it an incredibly potent poison when used against them. Using large quantities of selenium deluded from common household shampoo, a small team managed to sufficiently dose the alien and destroy the infestation.

Appearances

 * Evolution (2001)
 * Alienators: Evolution Continues (2001-2002)