Limits of useful parasites and waste systems

This is something I'm struggling to find answers for online. I need to be able to explain and justify the biology of a species that capable of surving in multiple environments including changes in temperature, pressure and atmospheric content and perhaps even radiation levels.

It goes much further but the short version is that these creatures are insanely tough and versatile. The problem is that a "˜jack-of-all-trades' species isn't very believable and most environments often require very specialised life.

One option I consider is parasites but struggle to find information on helpful parasites and what they excrete. I know a little about the Excretory systems and the Lymphatic system but what I want to know are the physical limits and whether "˜positive' parasites could or already do bolster these or even result in entire systems evolving over time within the body.

I'm piecing together a complex jigsaw but my first question is whether any of you know of any simbiotic relationships where parasites in a creatures bloodstream, lungs or dermis are directly responsible for coping with oscillations in environmental extremes and excreting or repurposing inhaled or absorbed material from the threatening environment?

(In my head I'm imaging things like bacteria in the bloodstream changing nitrogen gas to nitrogen solid or perhaps some system that takes dust particles from the lungs, combines it with keratin and builds a toughened layer of something on the skin using the aquired materials)

posted almost 5 years ago

Darius Arcturus‭

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