Pteroceras

## Pteroceras pteroceras

Latest Mutations: Flaps, More Tentacles, Narrow Siphuncle

Status: Unlisted

Habitat: Tropical Shallows (Upper 50m)

Niche: Benthic Filter-Feeder

Size: 15cm (length)

Nutritional Need: 153 x 15/100 = 23NP

Food / Oxygen Requirement: 23 x 0.25 = 5.8NP per round (Needs to intake 5.8/0.7 = 8.3NP per round)/ 23 x 0.8 = 18NP

Characteristics: Adjustable Buoyancy. Anti-Freeze. Cutaneous Respiration. Food Storage. Inflexible. Intolerant of more than 50m deep. Liquid Excretion. Only Works Underwater; gills and hyponome. Osmoconformer (High Salinity). Permeable Skin. Stationary Respiration. Small-Body Circulation. Solid Excretion.

Perception: Sight 2 (see clearly 5m on either side, monocular vision). Chemoreception 2 (detects chemicals 5m from mouth).

Stats: Buoyancy 0.5. Coordination 2. Desiccation Resistance 1. Digestion 2.5. Evolution 1. Filtration 3. Immunity 2. Respiration 3. Stamina 4. Strength 1. Support 3. Swim Agility 1. Swim Speed -0.2. (Toughness 3 = Shell). UV Resistance 2. Walk Speed -0.5.

Intelligence / Behaviour: Stimulus Response. Hunger hormones = move around. Pain = move around. Move signal = hyponome boost. Tiredness = rest. Masticephalus chemicals = use cirri to filter water into mouth. Mating hormones = move around. Coliteuthis carnivorus chemicals w/ mating hormones = reproduce.

External Features: At the front is the many thread-bearing cirri, followed by the circular mouth and chemoreceptors. It has a thick, conical shell on the back, made of calcite. This is secreted by the mantle, which is a layer on the skin. The skin contains red melanin pigmentation. A pair of camera eyes that focus by moving the lens but have a blind spot, sit on stalks through holes in the shell. Flaps of skin line the sides. At the back of the shell is a hyponome, capable of swivelling.

Internal Features: The hyponome pumps water into the mantle cavity, which contains the six pairs of gills and the phragmocone with a narrow siphuncle. A crop lays behind the mouth. The body has a hemoacoel and a few small blood vessels from the gills and saccate metanephridium. It has sex-appropriate gonads. It has muscles across the body. It has a stomach attached to the coiled intestine. From the ganglia in head is a single, ventral nerve cord with nerves running off. The nerve cord is shielded by the notochord.

Reproduction: Sexual Reproduction. External Fertilization. 1,000 eggs per spawning. Tough eggs.

Castes/Phases: Sexes.

Locomotion: Active (20NP). Undulation, Hyponome Boosting.

External Features: Medium Pigmentation (2NP, +2 UV Resistance). Thick Shell (11NP, +3 Toughness, +1 Desiccation Resistance, +2 Support, -1 Buoyancy, -1.2 Swim Speed, -1 .2 Swim Agility, -1.2 Walk Speed, +Inflexible, -Wriggling). Skin (3NP, +1 Immunity, +Barrier Immunity, +1 Respiration, +1 Stamina, +Cutaneous Respiration, +Permeable Skin). Mouth (0NP, +1 Filtration). Chemoreceptors (2NP, +2 Chemoreception). Camera Eye (11NP, +2 Sight, +Monocular Vision). Flaps (2NP, +1 Swim Speed, +Undulation). Swivelling Hyponome (7NP, +1 Swim Agility, +0.5 Swim Speed, +1 Respiration, +1 Stamina, +Stationary Respiration, -Ram Ventilation, +Hyponome Boosting, +Only Works Underwater). Thread-Bearing Cirri (7NP, +2 Filtration).

Internal Features: Gills (4NP, +1 Respiration, +1 Stamina, +Ram Ventilation, +Only Works Underwater). Crop (4NP, +Food Storage). Open Circulatory System (3NP, +Small-Body Circulation, +1 Stamina). Anti-Freeze Compound (2NP, +Anti-Freeze). Nephridium (11NP, +Liquid Excretion). Muscular System (7NP, +1 Strength, +0.5 Walk Speed, +0.5 Swim Speed, +Wriggling). Monogastric Digestive System (19NP, +1.5 Meat Digestion, +1.5 Veg Protein Digestion, +1 Immunity, +Solid Excretion). Centralised Nervous System (20NP, +2 Coordination, +Stimulus Response). Notochord (4NP, +1 Support). Phragmocone (4NP, +1.5 Buoyancy, +Adjustable Buoyancy, +Intolerant of more than 50m deep). Gonads (7NP, +1 Evolution, +Sexual Reproduction, +Sexes, +External Fertilisation).

Temporal Range: R. 197 - Present (Astathean Stage of the Oliverian)

Distribution: "Central Continent"

Lifespan: 1 year

Predecessor: Atkinsonia primus

Classification: Pterocerasinae (sf), Coliteuthisidae (f)

Discoverer: StealthStyle