There is another class of life not explained in the manual, the robot.
Robots can survive any where including on rock,in the arctic, and in the ocean.
Robots can evolvesentience, too, but because they are already so advanced, they will not be able to have stone age, bronze age, or iron age cities. They will begin civilization at the level of industrial age. To create robots, simple place one nanotect city of any life form and set an atomic test on it.