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My offering to the Anatomically Correct Series.

I came across a curious creature, the Hatch!

The Hatch is an adaptable creature whose wide-ranging diet allows it to integrate easily into most ecosystems. The Hatch has no eyes and is completely blind, although a photosensitive patch atop its head is capable of detecting even minor changes in overhead light, making it prefer dark caves and tunnels.

//Pictures edited out for now, as I'm not sure they are allowed.

The Hatch's life cycle:

Hatch Egg Hatchling Adult Hatch

It's variants, based on its diet:

Sage Hatch (wider range of organic food):

Sage Hatch

Stone Hatch (wider range of minerals):

Stone Hatch

Smooth Hatch (metals):

Smooth Hatch

The main issues are some of its features:

• It can sustain itself on a strictly mineral diet, though it can eat organic food too
• It poops out coal!
• A single creature, depending on its diet, lays different eggs, which hatches its variants. The variants can lay eggs, which hatches the "normal" Hatch.
• The last one, the Smooth Hatch, eat raw metal ores and poops out refined metal

These features are also the question. Can a biochemistry enabling this creature exist? Can the variants exist and "born" from a single creature?

BONUS:

(This can be skipped, if can't be answered)

1. Could the Hatch evolve naturally?
2. Could the Smooth Hatch exist? (Supposedly it can refine iron, copper, gold and even tungsten - so to me this feels the most unnatural)

My offering to the Anatomically Correct Series.

I came across a curious creature, the Hatch!

The Hatch is an adaptable creature whose wide-ranging diet allows it to integrate easily into most ecosystems. The Hatch has no eyes and is completely blind, although a photosensitive patch atop its head is capable of detecting even minor changes in overhead light, making it prefer dark caves and tunnels.

The Hatch's life cycle:

Hatch Egg > Hatchling > Adult Hatch

It's variants, based on its diet:

• Sage Hatch (wider range of organic food)
• Stone Hatch (wider range of minerals)
• Smooth Hatch (mostly metals)

The main issues are some of its features:

• It can sustain itself on a strictly mineral diet, though it can eat organic food too
• It poops out coal!
• A single creature, depending on its diet, lays different eggs, which hatches its variants. The variants can lay eggs, which hatches the "normal" Hatch.
• The last one, the Smooth Hatch, eat raw metal ores and poops out refined metal

These features are also the question. Can a biochemistry enabling this creature exist? Can the variants exist and "born" from a single creature? Like with all other AC question, some leeway is allowed if it enables the creatures existence.

BONUS:

(This can be skipped, if can't be answered)

1. Could the Hatch evolve naturally?
2. Could the Smooth Hatch exist? (Supposedly it can refine iron, copper, gold and even tungsten - so to me this feels the most unnatural)

My offering to the Anatomically Correct Series.

I came across a curious creature, the Hatch!

The Hatch is an adaptable creature whose wide-ranging diet allows it to integrate easily into most ecosystems. The Hatch has no eyes and is completely blind, although a photosensitive patch atop its head is capable of detecting even minor changes in overhead light, making it prefer dark caves and tunnels.

The Hatch's life cycle:

It's variants, based on its diet:

Sage Hatch (wider range of organic food):

Stone Hatch (wider range of minerals):

Smooth Hatch (metals):

The images are representative and NOT restrictive of possible answers! The main issues are some of its features:

• It can sustain itself on a strictly mineral diet, though it can eat organic food too
• It poops out coal!
• A single creature, depending on its diet, lays different eggs, which hatches its variants. The variants can lay eggs, which hatches the "normal" Hatch.
• The last one, the Smooth Hatch, eat raw metal ores and poops out refined metal

These features are also the question. Can a biochemistry enabling this creature exist? Can the variants exist and "born" from a single creature?

BONUS:

(This can be skipped, if can't be answered)

1. Could the Hatch evolve naturally?
2. Could the Smooth Hatch exist? (Supposedly it can refine iron, copper, gold and even tungsten - so to me this feels the most unnatural)

The images come from here.

About the licensing: This image comes from the video game or from websites created and owned by its publisher, the copyright of which is held by the publisher or developer of the game. All trademarks and registered trademarks present in the image are proprietary to the publisher of the game. The use of images to illustrate articles concerning the subject of the images in question is believed to qualify as fair use under United States copyright law, as such display does not significantly impede the right of the copyright holder to sell the copyrighted material.

My offering to the Anatomically Correct Series.

I came across a curious creature, the Hatch!

The Hatch is an adaptable creature whose wide-ranging diet allows it to integrate easily into most ecosystems. The Hatch has no eyes and is completely blind, although a photosensitive patch atop its head is capable of detecting even minor changes in overhead light, making it prefer dark caves and tunnels.

//Pictures edited out for now, as I'm not sure they are allowed.

The Hatch's life cycle:

Hatch Egg Hatchling Adult Hatch

It's variants, based on its diet:

Sage Hatch (wider range of organic food):

Sage Hatch

Stone Hatch (wider range of minerals):

Stone Hatch

Smooth Hatch (metals):

Smooth Hatch

The main issues are some of its features:

• It can sustain itself on a strictly mineral diet, though it can eat organic food too
• It poops out coal!
• A single creature, depending on its diet, lays different eggs, which hatches its variants. The variants can lay eggs, which hatches the "normal" Hatch.
• The last one, the Smooth Hatch, eat raw metal ores and poops out refined metal

These features are also the question. Can a biochemistry enabling this creature exist? Can the variants exist and "born" from a single creature?

BONUS:

(This can be skipped, if can't be answered)

1. Could the Hatch evolve naturally?
2. Could the Smooth Hatch exist? (Supposedly it can refine iron, copper, gold and even tungsten - so to me this feels the most unnatural)

My offering to the Anatomically Correct Series.

I came across a curious creature, the Hatch!

The Hatch is an adaptable creature whose wide-ranging diet allows it to integrate easily into most ecosystems. The Hatch has no eyes and is completely blind, although a photosensitive patch atop its head is capable of detecting even minor changes in overhead light, making it prefer dark caves and tunnels.

//Pictures edited out for now, as I'm not sure they are allowed.

The Hatch's life cycle:

Hatch Egg Hatchling Adult Hatch

It's variants, based on its diet:

Sage Hatch (wider range of organic food):

Sage Hatch

Stone Hatch (wider range of minerals):

Stone Hatch

Smooth Hatch (metals):

Smooth Hatch

The main issues are some of its features:

• It can sustain itself on a strictly mineral diet, though it can eat organic food too
• It poops out coal!
• A single creature, depending on its diet, lays different eggs, which hatches its variants. The variants can lay eggs, which hatches the "normal" Hatch.
• The last one, the Smooth Hatch, eat raw metal ores and poops out refined metal

These features are also the question. Can a biochemistry enabling this creature exist? Can the variants exist and "born" from a single creature?

BONUS:

(This can be skipped, if can't be answered)

1. Could the Hatch evolve naturally?
2. Could the Smooth Hatch exist? (Supposedly it can refine iron, copper, gold and even tungsten - so to me this feels the most unnatural)

My offering to the Anatomically Correct Series.

I came across a curious creature, the Hatch!

The Hatch is an adaptable creature whose wide-ranging diet allows it to integrate easily into most ecosystems. The Hatch has no eyes and is completely blind, although a photosensitive patch atop its head is capable of detecting even minor changes in overhead light, making it prefer dark caves and tunnels.

The Hatch's life cycle:

It's variants, based on its diet:

Sage Hatch (wider range of organic food):

Stone Hatch (wider range of minerals):

Smooth Hatch (metals):

The images are representative and NOT restrictive of possible answers! The main issues are some of its features:

• It can sustain itself on a strictly mineral diet, though it can eat organic food too
• It poops out coal!
• A single creature, depending on its diet, lays different eggs, which hatches its variants. The variants can lay eggs, which hatches the "normal" Hatch.
• The last one, the Smooth Hatch, eat raw metal ores and poops out refined metal

These features are also the question. Can a biochemistry enabling this creature exist? Can the variants exist and "born" from a single creature?

BONUS:

(This can be skipped, if can't be answered)

1. Could the Hatch evolve naturally?
2. Could the Smooth Hatch exist? (Supposedly it can refine iron, copper, gold and even tungsten - so to me this feels the most unnatural)

The images come from here.

About the licensing: This image comes from the video game or from websites created and owned by its publisher, the copyright of which is held by the publisher or developer of the game. All trademarks and registered trademarks present in the image are proprietary to the publisher of the game. The use of images to illustrate articles concerning the subject of the images in question is believed to qualify as fair use under United States copyright law, as such display does not significantly impede the right of the copyright holder to sell the copyrighted material.