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blackfrog96 — Pink Nulu'
#aliencreature #xenobiology #speculativeevolution #speculativebiology #speculativezoology #speculativexenobiology #nijinkonai
Published: 2021-03-23 15:55:42 +0000 UTC; Views: 11958; Favourites: 148; Downloads: 0
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Description
The Pink Nulù (Nulu abyssus) is a species of Gymnocephalid Paleostomatosoid Ichthyomorph from the southern bathy- to abyssopelagic waters of the Nuwadi Ocean.
This Enetodontid, as many other more derived Gymnocephalids, sports a prehensile tuberculus and no mandibles, using the grappling end of the prolapsed esophagus to grab and hunt instead of their cousin's grabbing of the prey with the jaws and crushing tactic.
What makes the Nulù particularly interesting, however, is how the tuberculus is not retractable, a feature rarely found in Tubercolostomatosids as a whole and which can give us insights on what this animal's diet is like.
The inability to retract the tuberculus is consistent with animals that might feed on burrowing Abranchiates as the fixed structure makes the buccal area much stronger, able to sift through the seafloor while reducing the stress the appendage is under for the whole foraging period.
The other large hint that the fixed tuberculus gives marine biologists is that this animal is not an active hunter of any large animal species but otherwise relies on corpse falls that might come their way.
More flexible Tuberculi like the ones seen in the more active predators like Kugawas give the animal the ability to follow prey better and adapt to their evasive manoeuvrers, while a more fixed tuberculus wouldn't allow for this range of motion.
Nulùs have been sighted as far as 3000 m deep in the Nuwadi Ocean in mixed gender groups up to four specimens, although they have never been sighted interacting with conspecifics if not for the occasional clicking sounds.
More information can be found here:
www.worldanvil.com/w/nijin-kon…
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