10 MORE Oldest Characters In The Star Trek Universe
2. The Horta
The Horta's very existence thrilled Federation scientists. They were a Silicon-based lifeform and until their discovery, the idea of such a thing was considered fantasy. The Horta were indigenous to Janus VI. Every fifty thousand years, all of the Horta bar one would die, leaving a single stalwart to care for the next generation.
When Federation miners accidentally stumbled across and began to inadvertently destroy, the latest crop of Horta eggs, the lone Mother Horta began to take care of this new problem - with a highly corrosive acid. Its primary use was tunneling through rock, but it proved just as effective at reducing human bodies to bone fragments.
It was Spock who saved the day. He was able to mind-meld with the creature, discovering it held the staggering age of over fifty millennia, and successfully brokered a deal between both it and the miners. The script notes for Star Trek IV would have shown a Horta ambassador as part of the Federation Council, though budgets prevented this addition.