Ostraops

## Ostraops primus

Latest Mutations: Pump Vessel, High Salinity Tolerance

Status: U

Habitat: Temperate Shallows, Temperate Upper Ocean

Niche: Benthic Filter-Feeder

Size: 2.5cm

Nutritional Need: 145 x 2.5/100 = ?NP

Food / Oxygen Requirement: ? x 0.25 = ?NP per round (Needs to intake ?/0.7 = ?NP per round)/ ? x 0.8 = ?NP

Characteristics: Adjustable Buoyancy. Anti-Freeze. Barrier Immunity. Cutaneous Respiration. Inflexible. Intolerant of more than 50m deep. Liquid Excretion. Only Works Underwater; gills. Permeable Skin. Ram Ventilation; gills. Small-Body Circulation. Solid Excretion. Urine Storage.

Perception: Sight 2 (see clearly 5m to either side). Chemoreception 2 (detects chemicals 5m from mouth).

Stats: Buoyancy -1. Coordination 2. Desiccation Resistance 1. Digestion 2. Filtration 2.5. Immunity 1. Respiration 2. Stamina 4. Strength 1. Support 3.5. Swim Agility 1. Swim Speed -0.9. (Toughness 3 = Shell). UV Resistance 1. Walk Speed 0.2. Warming -0.5. Viscosity 1.

Intelligence / Behaviour: Stimulus Response.

External Features: At the front is the cirri, followed by the circular mouth and chemoreceptors. It has a thick, cap-shaped 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. Six gill slits sit behind the head. Pectoral fins poke through the shell. The central surface has a muscular foot which also has a viscous mucus gland.

Internal Features: It has lysozymes. The body has a hemoacoel, a pump vessel and a few small blood vessels from the gills and saccate metanephridium. There are anti-freeze proteins. It has gonads. It has muscles across the body. It has a stomach attached to the intestine and a bladder. 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.

Castes/Phases: Hermaphroditism.

Locomotion: Slightly Active (+5NP). Paddling. Crawling. Wave Motion.

External Features: Light Pigmentation (2NP, +1 UV Resistance, -0.5 Warming). 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). Cirri (7NP, +1 Filtration). Muscular Foot (3NP, +0.5 Walk Speed, +Wave Motion). Viscous Mucus Gland (7NP, +1 Viscosity). Pectoral Fin (4NP, +1 Swim Agility, +0.2 Walk Speed, -0.2 Swim Speed, +Paddling, +Crawling).

Internal Features: Gills (4NP, +1 Respiration, +1 Stamina, +Ram Ventilation, +Only Works Underwater). Open Circulatory System with Pump Vessel (10NP, +Small-Body Circulation, +2 Stamina). Anti-Freeze Compound (2NP, +Anti-Freeze). Nephridium (11NP, +Liquid Excretion). Muscular System (7NP, +0.5 Support, +1 Strength, +0.5 Walk Speed, +0.5 Swim Speed, +Wriggling). Stomach (7NP, +1 Digestion). Intestine (7NP, +1 Digestion, +Solid Excretion). Bladder (4NP, +Urine Storage). Centralised Nervous System (20NP, +2 Coordination, +Stimulus Response). Notochord (4NP, +1 Support). Gonads (14NP, +Sexual Reproduction, +Hermaphroditism).

Temporal Range: R. 194 - Present (Astathean Stage of the Oliverian)

Distribution: Southern

Lifespan: 2 years

Predecessor: Pteryphysis volanus

Classification: Enapodusidae (f)

Discoverer: StealthStyle