Connoceras

## **Connoceras setus**

Latest Mutations: Lose Lysozymes, Lose Antifreeze, Lose Notochord

The threads on the tentacles of this cephalopod are used to filter-feed. It has no notochord because it's conical shell is backbone enough. Having not lived in frozen biomes in a long time, it no longer has lysozymes or an anti-freeze coursing through it's body.

Status: Unlisted

Habitat: Temperate Ocean

Niche: Benthic Filter-Feeder

Diet: Any fresh meat it can get.

Size: 30cm (length - front to back)

Nutritional Need: 125 x 30/100 = 37.5NP

Food / Oxygen Requirement: 37.5 x 0.25 = 9.4NP per round (Needs to intake 9.4/0.7 = 13.4NP per round)/ 37.5 x 0.8 = 30NP

Abilities: Air Space. Buoyancy. Exothermic. Food Storage. Large-Body Circulation. Liquid Excretion. Low Pressure Tolerance. Medium UV Resistance. Osmoconformer (Quite High Salinity). Permeable Skin.

Perception: Chemoreception 1. Sight 1.

Stats: Coordination 2. Digestion 1 (100% Meat, 70%). Desiccation Resistance 0.5. Dexterity 0.5. Evolution 1. Filtration 1.7. Immunity 1. Respiration 3 (Cutaneous Respiration, Stationary Respiration, 80%). Stamina 3.7. Strength 0.5. Support 0.5. Swim Agility -0.5. Swim Agility 0.3. Swim Speed 0.5. Toughness 3. Tunnelling 0.5. Walk Agility -0.5. Walk Speed 0.

Intelligence / Behaviour: 1. Hungry > Search for food. 2. Food > Filter with cirri. 3. Tired > Rest. 4. Pain > Swim away. 5. Maturity > Reproduce.

External Features: At the front are the four 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 tan 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: Each cell contains lysozymes and piezolytes. The hyponome pumps water into the mantle cavity, which contains the six pairs of gills and the phragmocone with a wide siphuncle. A crop lays behind the mouth. The body has a circuit of blood vessels pumped by a dorsal vessel which pass the gills and saccate metanephridium, containing anti-freeze threitol sugar alcohol. It has gonads in the lower part of the body and muscles across the body. There is a stomach attached to the coiled intestine. From the ganglia in the head is a single, ventral nerve cord with nerves running off.

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

Castes/Phases: Sexes. Males: Have black spots on flaps.

Locomotion: Active (20NP). Hyponome Boosting.

External Features: Medium Pigments (2.5NP, +Medium UV Resistance). Shell (10NP, +3 Toughness, +0.5 Desiccation Resistance, +0.5 Support, -0.5 Swim Speed, -0.5 Swim Agility, -0.5 Walk Speed, -0.5 Walk Agility). Skin (5NP, +0.5 Immunity, +1 Respiration, +0.5 Stamina, +Cutaneous Respiration, +Permeable Skin). Cirri (5NP, +0.5 Filtration, +0.5 Dexterity). Threads (2.5NP, +0.2 Filtration). Mouth (0NP, +1 Filtration). Chemoreceptors (2.5NP, +1 Chemoreception). Camera Eye (5NP, +1 Sight). Swivelling Hyponome (5NP, +0.5 Swim Speed, +0.3 Swim Agility, +1 Respiration, +0.2 Stamina, +Stationary Respiration, +Hyponome Boosting).

Internal Features: Piezolytes (2.5NP, +Low Pressure Tolerance). Gills (5NP, +1 Respiration, +1 Stamina, +Ram Ventilation). Crop (5NP, +Food Storage). Phragmocone (5NP, +Buoyancy, +Air Space). Open Circulatory System (10NP, +2 Stamina, +Small-Body Circulation). Nephridium (5NP, +Liquid Excretion). Gonads (5NP, +1 Evolution, +Sexual Reproduction, +Sexes, +External Fertilisation). Muscular System (10NP, +0.5 Strength, +0.5 Walk Speed, +0.5 Swim Speed, +0.5 Tunnelling, +Wriggling). Monogastric Digestive System (10NP, +1 Meat Digestion, +1 Veg Digestion, +0.5 Immunity, +Solid Excretion). Centralised Nervous System (10NP, +2 Coordination).

Temporal Range: R. 271 - Present (Samadaran Stage of the Oliverian)

Distribution: Southern Hemisphere

Lifespan: 2 years

Predecessor: Atkinsonia punctatus

Classification: new

Discoverer: StealthStyle