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Infirmignathid

Infirmignathids are a group of derived xenosegmentans from Almaishah. They lived aproximately 470 million years ago.
[Creature design by Erika Gutsick Gibbon]

Basic Information

Anatomy

agmosis has occurred since the original gray segmented creature, with a reduction in segments to 6, including a consolidation of eye spots in the most "cranial" segment. the primary filter feeding opening has experienced a series of mutations so that the hard plates that cover most of the organism's body are loosely connected by column-styled muscle. This allows it to "guillotine" it's prey in a very basal almost placoderm fashion. The strength is very weak, as the muscle attachments are somewhat fragile, but no organisms at this time have evolved plates or skin tough enough to withstand the bite of this creature. It's "eyes" consist of three collections of opsin clusters in slight depressions in the "skull". The organism secretes a mucus that protects the eyes from acidity and salinity changes in the ocean. It's paddles have been reduced to primary and secondary pairs in the 2,3 and 4,5 tagma. Functional gills have conglomerated in four pockets on the 2nd and 3rd tagma.

Additional Information

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

The organism hunts by gently swimming over the substrate and using it's nonfunctional and rigid gill arches on it's last tagma to feel for prey. It can quickly whip around if prey is found, using it's mouthparts to seize it's meal. The eyes are angled upward to detect predators, and thus this animal cannot see below it's body

EXTINCT

Genetic Ancestor(s)