Arpaktikoaltis

***Arpaktikoaltis*** ("predatory jumper" in Greek, commonly known as Predatory jumpers or killer jumpers) are the first genus under Arpaktikoaltidae to have ever evolved, and are also the first genus of Arpaktikoaltidae to be discovered by humans when they got to Hume III, and the first species to be discovered was named *Arpaktikoaltis arpaktikoaltis*. The first species of this genus was *Arpaktikoaltis prima*. This genus has the most species out of all the genera in this family. They can be found all over the supercontinent of Omnisterra, all throughout the ocean, except for areas where it's too deep for them, and even on a few Islands, mostly The Cyan Islands. The Aununa and the other four intelligent species love to eat them, so it is speculated that Arpaktikoaltis arpaktikoaltis was introduced to the other continents before they collided, just like how humans have done that with certain fish on Earth, the people of Hume III may have done the same thing. Some species have lost the lungs, other species have gained the ability to crawl around on land somewhat, kind of like tiktaalik, so if there's another mass extinction event that kills off most of the terrestrial life then we have a pretty good idea of what's going to replace them.

## Evolution

This genus evolved around about 363 million years ago. They evolved from the family Arpaktikoskynidae, the genus *Arpaktikoskynigos*, and the species *Arpaktikoskynigos arpaktikoaltis*. The thing that distinguishes them as a new family and not just another genus of Arpaktikoskynidae is the fact that their whisacles act as additional brains. The reason why their whisacles evolved like this is to help them be Ambush predators, by having them act as additional brains. This helps them to catch their food quicker, as they are able to react faster. This genus would go on to give rise to every other genus in this family, as well as many new orders, classes, superclasses, and even a few new phyla.

## Anatomy

### Head

Their head is where their eyes, whisacles, mouth, inner ears, and their brain is kept. Its eyes are on stalks like a snail, so that way they can keep an eye out for predators or prey, their eyesight isn't as bad as *Ilektrika*'s eyesight, but it's not the best either their vision is a little blurry and they can only see in black and white. Their whisacles can be used to smell, but can also grab things like little tentacles, but their main purpose is to act as a lure to lure in prey by either looking like worms or seagrass. Their mouths are what they eat and breathe through gulping water in passing through the gills and then back out the gill slits, they can also open and close their gill slits and pump water through that way, since they are mostly kind of a wait for your meal to come to you kind of animal their mouth is filled with razor sharp teeth, just in case a prey item is too big to swallow whole, the teeth will help rip chunks out, and their tongue is just used as a swallow assist, they do have all the same taste receptors as us, but they are simplified versions. They detect vibrations through their "earstones" called otoliths, them and other wish use parts of their ears to help them with balance. Their brain is a slight bit bigger than the typical Earth fish, and this also shows them to be a slight bit more intelligent, it's hard to measure intelligence in an extinct species, but because the genus is still alive today if we look at modern surviving species of the genus we can make a safe assumption, and from what we can tell it has at least dog level intelligence. They have two gill slits on each side of their face which is one more than a normal Earth fish.

### Body

#### External

Their body on the outside consist of a body, and a tail, and some fins. Their whole body including the head is covered in scales. Unlike later Genera in this family this genus has the vestigial fins on its back, two Dorsal fins and a unknown third fin. It also still has a tail fin that is small and vestigial, and resembles a fan. It has lost its anal Fin and one pair of its pelvic fins. It still has two pairs of pectoral fins and one set of pelvic fins, these fins are very leg-like, but unlike Ilektrika pezoporos and Tiktaalik roseae which had strong muscular fins for pulling itself on to land, these fins were more like coelacanth fins and cannot help the creature move on land, except for a few species that move by dragging themselves across mud or "skipping" across it, much like mudskippers on Earth. Since it doesn't swim anymore it has repurposed its tail to do other things, like help it maintain balance while the wish walked, and helping it dig a spot to lay eggs in.

#### Internal

They have a brain, this brain is responsible for everything in the body. They have calcium bones, just like Earth animals. It has two hearts and it's blood is red. It has lungs that evolved the exact opposite way from Earth lungs, it is unknown how lungs evolved, but it is known that the swim bladder in most bony fish evolved from A Primitive lung, here on Hume III the swim bladder came first and lungs evolved from them. Everything else is what you would expect stomach, intestines, all that good stuff. Unlike most wish, this species has a cloaca, but no penis.

## Habitat

Their point of origin is somewhere in South Primaterra, they could be found in the rivers, lakes, ponds, creeks, basically any body of water in both North and South Primaterra, and could also be found in the ocean. Nowadays they can be found all over the supercontinent of Omnisterra, as well as on Islands and all throughout the ocean, except for the really really deep parts.

## Diet

They ate mostly meat, usually whatever animal they could get ahold of, but sometimes they would occasionally eat vegetation to supplement their diet. It's hunting strategy is to bury itself and have only whisacles sticking out in order to resemble worms or seagrass. When pray bites or attempts to bites the whisacles, the whisacles themselves will send a signal to the rest of the body telling it to lunge, basically this wish has three brains.

## Breeding

Their breeding habits are rather interesting, first the female will lay down pheromones to attract mates. When the mates get there they will have to fight to the death, and the winner will get to mate with the female. This is a little bit different from Ilektrika's mating ritual, instead of the female picking two or more to fight and the others just kind of go away, instead they all fight as soon as they see each other. After this the winner will mate with the female by sticking their cloacas together, then the female digs a hole or finds a nook and cranny to lay her eggs in, she will watch over them until they hatch, but after that they're on their own.

## Adaptations

Their adaptations can vary from species to species. But one notable one is that they can go in both fresh and saltwater. Their whisacles are prehensile, but also act as additional brains.

## Threats

That depends on what time and place they were in, when they first started out whenever they were in the ocean they had to deal with Hharks, and many other predators, but in a pond or in a river they were mostly safe, not really having to worry about much except maybe another one of their own kind, but that would only be when food was scarce, even other Genera of their family would mostly be safe, but after the extinction event and there was barely any food around everything would eat everything, so whenever they were in the same body of water as an *Ilektrika pezoporos* they would have to worry about that eating them, but whenever there wasn't one of those around they would be the top predator and the only thing that they would have to worry about is another one of their own kind.

## Taxonomy

Domain: Exogiinosefkaryotis

Kingdom: Animalisaliena

Subkingdom: Enmetazoae

Phylum: Xenochordata

Subphylum: Psariaskoulikion

Megaclass: Epithymia

Superclass: Skoulikionpsaria

Class: Ostikiepithymia

Subclass: Efchimelovo

Order: Psithyrismenoprosopoiformes

Suborder: Programmataanichnefsiskatoidei

Clade: **Idiotamcaptionemviventem**

Subclade: Ourapterygio

Section: Mobileidiotamcaptionem

Family: Arpaktikoaltidae

Tribe: Arpaktikoaltini

Genus: ***Arpaktikoaltis***

\*\*Extinct Species under **Arpaktikoaltis**\*\*

Species *Arpaktikoaltis prima*

Add your own extinct species here.

\*\*Extant Species under **Arpaktikoaltis**\*\*

Species *Arpaktikoaltis arpaktikoaltis*

Add your own extant species here.