Siphonus

## Siphonus borealus

Latest Mutations: Siphon

This is a bivalve that uses sticky tentacles to capture detritus and marine snow and pull them into the mouth for feeding. This particular species has moved it's gills inside the mantle and evolved siphons to pump water to them. It is a benthic filter-feeder in the temperate zone of the northern hemisphere of Uteenessa and spends most of it's time in one spot unless it cannot sense food when it needs it. It can move to a location of food by using it's foot.

Status: Unlisted

Habitat: Temperate Ocean, Subpolar Temperate Ocean, Polar Temperate Ocean

Niche: Benthic Filter-Feeder

Diet: Any particle of marine snow meat or organism 0.4mm big or smaller.

Size: 4cm (length - shell front to back)

Nutritional Need: 128 x 4/100 = 5.1NP.

Food / Oxygen Requirement: 5.1 x 0.25 = 1.3NP per round (Needs to intake /0.6 = 2.2NP per round)/ 5.1 x 0.9 = 4.6NP

Abilities: Adjustable Buoyancy. Anti-Freeze. Exothermic. Inflexible. Liquid Excretion. Low Pressure Tolerance. Osmoconformer (Quite High Salinity). Permeable Skin. Small-Body Circulation. Solid Excretion. Subzero Metabolism.

Perception: Chemoreception 2 (detects chemicals 5m from mouth).

Stats: Buoyancy -1. Clam Strength 1. Coordination 2. Desiccation Resistance 1. Digestion 1 (100% Meat, Digests 60%). Filtration 3. Immunity 2.  Respiration 2 (10% off, Cutaneous Respiration, Stationary Respiration). Stamina 4. Strength 1. Support 1. Swim Agility -1. Swim Speed -0.5. Toughness 3. UV Resistance 2. Walk Speed 0.

Intelligence / Behaviour: 1. Hungry > Search for food. 2. Food > Stick cirri out of shell and filter. 3. Tired > Rest. 4. Pain > Close shell. 5. Maturity > Release gametes.

External Features: The red melanin-pigmented and cylindrical body is contained within a calcite, vertical, asymmetrical bivalve shell secreted by the mantle. Around the mouth are sticky cirri and a circle of chemoreceptors. It has six pairs of gills. There is a muscular foot, which can reach out the shell.

Internal Features: Each cell in the body contains lysozymes and a small number of piezolytes. A pair of siphons leads from the outside to the mantle cavity, where the gills are. A system of muscles stretches across the body. Near the lower wall can be found the gonads as well as the saccate metanephridium. Through the mostly lower half runs the monogastric digestive system, from the mouth through the tubes to the stomach and intestines. Ganglia in the head connect to a single nerve cord along the ventral half, which has many nerves branching off it to encompass the whole body. In the middle of the body is a hemacoel with violet (hemerythrin) blood through which an anti-freeze (thrietol sugar alcohol) flows, pumped by a ventral vessel.

Reproduction: Sexual Reproduction. External Fertilisation. 1,000 eggs per spawning.

Castes/Phases: None.

Locomotion: Slightly Active (10NP).

External Features: Skin (3NP, +1 Immunity, +1 Respiration, +1 Stamina, +Stationary Respiration, +Cutaneous Respiration, +Permeable Skin). Medium Pigmentation (2NP, +2 UV Resistance). Bivalve Shell (14NP, +3 Toughness, +1 Clam Strength, +1 Desiccation Resistance, +1 Support, -1 Buoyancy, -1 Swim Speed, -1 Swim Agility, -1 Walk Speed, +Inflexible, -Wriggling). Sticky Cirri (7NP, +2 Filtration). Mouth (0NP, +1 Filtration). Chemoreceptors (2NP, +2 Chemoreception). Muscular Foot (3NP, +0.5 Walk Speed).

Internal Features: Piezolytes (5NP, +Low Pressure Tolerance). Lysozymes (1NP, +Subzero Metabolism). Gills (4NP, +1 Respiration, +1 Stamina, +Ram Ventilation, +Only Works Underwater). Siphon (3NP). Open Circulatory System w/ Pump Vessel (10NP, +Small-Body Circulation, +2 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 (18NP, +1 Meat Digestion, +1 Veg Protein Digestion, +1 Immunity, +Solid Excretion). Centralised Nervous System (20NP, +2 Coordination, +Stimulus Response, +Subconscious Functions, +Body Movement Control). Gonads (14NP, +Sexual Reproduction, +Hermaphroditism, +External Fertilzation).

Temporal Range: R. 252 - Present (Samadaran Stage of the Oliverian)

Distribution: Northern Hemisphere

Lifespan: 2 years

Predecessor: Ithacaria valvius

Classification:

Discoverer: StealthStyle