Piscelaboria

**Piscelaborians** are a clade of celernantids that are alive today.

## Evolution and taxonomy

Piscelaborians are a group of aquatic celernantids part of the large aquatic clade closer to the terrarmians, aka the "second wave of terrestrial celernantids". The sister clade to the terrarmians is called Skafospeculata, and both form the Brevinomadia clade. The brevinomadians first evolved 231 million years ago in the Accomodatian, and their diversity was the direct result of the niches that were left open in the aftermath of the Tenerian-Accomodatian extinction event. Eventually one clade went to the land-dwelling route, the terrarmians, which evolved 194 million years ago in the Scelusian. The other were the skafospeculates, which first evolved 203 million years ago in the early Scelusian, with several unique features that made them stand out among various different groups. Various basal groups exist, being the basalmost the ostofortosproboskidans, which already have various features shared by many other skafospeculates, such as flexible muscles on the proboscis, sides of the body and segmented muscles on the tail, as well as a reduced and atrophied endoskeleton, as well as primitively displayed nerve chords on the sides of the body, a characteristic reminiscent of the basal dispeculates, which in most, converged in the dorsal area to help form a unified vertebral column. The basalmost celernantids, the phytovorans, have two lateral nerve chords and no vertebral column, while the celeramontians have a complex bony endoskeleton, but the nerve chords are still separated from each other at the tail, which allows the vertebral column to split there, and in some species allow the formation of "two tails". Crucissymbiotican phylogenetic position seems to suggest brevinomadians lost the complex endoskeletal features very early, though it is also possible crucissymbioticans evolved those independently, like the countless dispeculates before them. The lack of an advanced endoskeleton in basal brevinomadians is shared in ostofortosproboskidans anatomy. They also possess a reproduction tract fused with the digestive tract, which some species have used to store and produce the eggs. This characteristic seems useful, as the production of the eggs is directly related with the compounds that the creature eats. Some species subsequently used this in favour of transferring the eggs to their digestive system and into their mouths, which are then used to lay their eggs safely somewhere else. The brain in ostofortosproboskidans is also placed further back in the body, away from the "skull", though that is a derived feature not present in other skafospeculates, and the eyes are joined by a large ocular "ring", with varying degrees of shape, hidden under the skin. However ostofortosproboskidans basal nature allowed them to take completely unexpected forms, such as a large eye ring placed way behind the head in the middle of the body, as well as two proboscis with bony tips, that end with specialized and advanced proboscis eyes and olfactory pits. Ostofortosproboskidoideans are a sister clade to the consuspeculates, which first arrived 175 million years ago in the Scelusian. The basalmost is the Cyanosarcadon speculatas which, just like, the ostofortosproboskidans, expel their eggs from its mouth. The female lays her eggs from the mouth to the male's mouth, through a special non-feeding oral orifice at the tip of the snout of the male, where they are taken care and fertilized by the male in a special sack behind the throat. Cyanosarcadon is also blind, with its eye ring reduced and completely covered in skin, preventing it from seeing, instead sensing the surroundings through several sensory pits and echolocation. They have openings at the sides of their head that expel thing hair-like proboscis that catch food in the current, or to grab food that is stuck in its shoulder filaments. Unlike ostofortosproboskidans, they have limbs. Just like every celernantid the limbs are supported by bone. Cyanosarcadon glides out of the water, a characteristic that has evolved independently in many aquatic celernantid clades. They are also very intelligent and social, and also super friendly to many Wallacian explorers. The sister clade to cyanosarcadontians ends up being the most notoriously distinct, the piscenomadians. Piscenomadians have a simple eye ring under the head, which then, basally, leads to two openings to form the typical two eyes. Many basal species have evolved lateral proboscis that do not consume food, instead feeding from the central proboscis. Piscenomadians evolved in the early Variagene, 147 million years ago, diversifying in the aftermath of the Scelusian-Variagene extinction event. Despite they still have the reproduction and digestive systems closely connected, the piscenomadians do not require to lay their eggs from their mouths, instead laying them through the cloaca, like the typical celernantid. Skafonomades is the basalmost, a limbless eusocial creature that builds floating nests of polyspeculate matter around the seas. Sister to skafonomadians we finally have the piscelaboromorphs, which first originated 119 million years ago in the Variagene. These split in two groups, the piscelaborians, a group of gliding marine creatures, that first evolved in the Compsogene, 59 million years ago, and the much more diverse consuvocucumians, which evolved also in the Compsogene, some 91 million years ago.

Piscelaboromorpha (119-0)

* Piscelaboria (59-0)
	+ Blue glider
	+ Piscem ducitis
* Consuvocucumia (91-0)

## Characteristics

Piscelaborians are a successful, yet reduced clade of skafospeculates. They retain various characteristics that connect the whole group. Their integument is composed of smooth skin, with limited amount of external armor. Two small armored fins are retained in the blue glider, at the base of the tail, for stabilizing movements underwater and even when gliding. Just like the skin of most basal brevinomadians, they have filamentous structures. In primitive aquatic brevinomadians, these structures were used to help move in bodies of water, later they were repurposed by some to sense the surroundings, sort of like whiskers. In some terrestrial terrarmians, the filaments were also used for insulation. In piscelaborians they have branched into small feather-like structures. In the blue glider, those are very reduced and serve little purpose, other than creating a network for many organisms to hide and grab nutrients in the dorso of these creatures. In Piscem ducitis, these are enlarged and engulf the wings, which are otherwise supported by skin, creating a crystaline-like shine as they swim and glide, creating a slight duplication of its camouflage potential. The eyes of the piscelaborians go in accordance to the basal nature of skafospeculates, with a internalized and fused eye ring, that can either be organized as one simple orb in the top of the head, as in Piscem ducitis, or two large orbs at the front of the head, to hunt prey, as in the blue glider. Like skafonomadians, piscelaborians only feed through the central proboscis. The blue glider has an elongated and deformed skull (a characteristic pretty much common in many skafospeculates) that allows room for the lateral proboscis to retract and shoot out of the head, showing sharp harpoons to kill small prey. It will eventually feed through the central proboscis, which has teeth in it. Piscem ducitis has three proboscis that look very simillar to each other, but only the central proboscis feeds the creature. As a filter feeder, all the three proboscis serve the purpose of gathering the microorganisms, but eventually the lateral proboscis lead the food to the central one, to feed the creature with the organisms the central proboscis couldn't catch on its own. The respiratory orifices are organized laterally across the body, below the body, in the case of the blue glider. The orifices expel water to allow it to have lift when jumping out of the water to glide. This technique is also used by Piscem ducitis, which has a few of them below the last pair of limbs, but most of its orifices evolved into vertical gills in the neck instead. The endoskeleton of piscelaborians is coherent to the basal characteristic of many skafospeculates, with no complex cartilaginous endoskeleton, and having two lateral nerve chords, though slightly more oriented to the dorso. The limbs have bony supports, that allow the wings to remain rigid during gliding, and those are slightly articulated to be able to fold, when not using them underwater. All piscelaborians have eight limbs. The blue glider uses all eight limbs, in unisson to form a large gliding surface of eight wings. Piscem ducitis, instead, has very reduced six limbs at the front, and huge and wide back limbs that they use as only one pair of wings. Their form of underwater locomotion is largely by using their tail, which has a vertically oriented tail fluke.

Piscelaborians vary in size. The blue glider is the largest, measuring 3 meters long, and 4 meters in wingspan.

## Distribution and habitat

Piscelaborians live largely in tropical waters, sometimes present in some temperate and subtropical waters. They are exclusively marine creatures. The blue glider is spread across most of the equatorial waters, but Piscem ducitis lives largely in the ocean waters around Media Insula.

## Diet

Piscelaborians have varying diets. The blue glider is a carnivore, a formidable predator. It uses its harpoon like lateral proboscis to arrow at prey that it hunts either under the water, when swimming fast, or above the water while gliding just above the waves. Piscem ducitis is a filter feeder, however, with its gliding and fast swimming abbilities being a product of sheer necessity of escaping predators.

## Behaviour and sociality

Piscelaborians are largely solitary. They tend to avoid gatherings of the same species outside of the mating season. All piscelaborians have a bluish color in their skin, which gives them a perfect camouflage in the blue ocean and blue sky, which allows them to stay undetected from prey and predators. If predators find them, they have, at their disposal, the abbility of lightning fast underwater speed, and, of course, the abbility of gliding. They can't, however, stay too long in the air, as they need to return back to the water to breath.

## Reproduction

Piscelaborians are oviparous. Largely solitary throughout their lives, they eventually gather in the mating season in large numbers. Females release their extremelly small eggs in the water, while males release their sperm in the water as well, as a means of external fertilization. The eggs will eventually hatch, to form millimeter sized filter feeding larvae, that are inserted deep in the planktonic food chain. As they grow to a more considerable size, they start living in the shallows, and early on, they already start jumping out of the water, and perform rudimentary gliding techniques. When they reach a considerable length, somewhere around half a meter in length, they then migrate to the open ocean, where the adults dominate.