Gordenobyte

Colored ink, acrylic paint, and Rapidograph pen on birch plywood, 11.5 X 24 inches. Another weird fish/mud puppy kind of deal.

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"Gordenobyte"

The Gordenobyte is a fishlike, semi-aquatic, amphibian that dwells in small, sun dappled, ephemeral pools in the Fernal Forest. Although it appears to be a single creature, it is in fact, an amalgamation of several symbiotic and parasitic creatures that together form the one. Not unlike the many cells, bacteria, and viruses that come together to form the human body. As a result of its different organic components, the Gordenobyte has the ability to ingest many types of food. Depending on availability of resources, it may be carnivorous, herbivorous, bacteriophagous, or omnivorous. It even has the capability of absorbing nutrients from the air and water through minute feeding pores located on the dorsum of the body. Gordenobytes are typically accompanied by a variety of other symbiotic and parasitic creatures that feed upon leftovers, wastes, and exudates produced by the Gordenobytes. Eventually, many of these smaller creatures become incorporated into the Gordenobyte itself. Living in fleeting pools of viscous, golden liquid, this wondrous creature lives in an extremely harsh environment that at times is entirely aquatic, but alternates between being completely dry. The Gordenobyte, a living fossil, has had adequate time throughout the vast millennia to evolve in such a way as to thrive in such an impermanent ecosystem. To accommodate the various stages of watery to anhydrous conditions it is relegated to exist in, the Gordenobyte can survive for long periods of time in a completely dehydrated, quiescent state for long periods of time. During those times in between, when the pools in which it lives become muddy slime-pits, the Gordenobyte extends its various pseudopod-like breathing tubes through the murky depths to bring in air from above. At these times, it brings in nutrients through the rich primordial ooze in an osmotic action. Reproduction is a relatively simple budding process. As the Gordenobytes reach a maximum population density for a particular pool, body parts are released. These "young" Gordenobytes then travel in search of new habitat. While locomotion is not its primary function, a Gordenobyte can travel across terrestrial surfaces with leg like facsimiles. In times of flood occurrences, these ancient creatures simply flow to new destinations. During severe drought conditions, the desiccated and seemingly dead crystallized bodies may be carried in the wind and dropped inadvertently to new locales. Gordenobytes may also be ingested by other creatures; however, due to their unique physiology, most organisms cannot actually digest them. If, per chance, they are ingested by another denizen of the Fernal Forest, they eventually are eliminated as waste; thus finding yet another pathway of movement to a new destination.