Answer and Explanation:
This happened because when the agar was desiccated, all the water was released, but the solutes used in the culture medium remained in the petri dish, that is, all the nutrients remained available to H. salinarium, which survived by consuming these nutrients. Although the growth of H. salinarium requires a higher level of NaCl than the level left in the petri dish, we can consider that some colonies of H. salinarium adapted to the low level of NaCl and managed to survive, passing this characteristic to new colonies.
When the cell increases in size, the volume increases faster than the surface area, because volume is cubed where surface area is squared. When there is more volume and less surface area, diffusion takes longer and is less effective.
A hormone accumulates on the dark side causing the cells to elongate
