Ægiric Ubondo

Some people in the imperium have referred to Eryobis as "a fisherman's paradise". Compared to Earth and the countless colonies of the imperium, Eryobis has a particularly high amount of very large marine creatures that make for great sport fishing. The kicker is, the local goverment of the AnVela Koeliv system encourages sport fishers to come to Eryobis to help document the incredible diversity of marine life that this world possesses. 

A very large portion of the marine biologists currently deployed on Eryobis are indeed just fishermen who take their job seriously.

 As such, a lot of newly found marine creatures also get their names from the fishermen that catch them. While they often call in actual biologists for the binominal names, they tend to give their fish common names with sometimes unclear origins, sometimes derived from their own languages, sometimes from what the native Eryobians call them or something else entirely.

In the case of the Ægiric ubondo (Ubondo aegiricus),  it was named not for any of the above mentioned reasons, but was rather named by the fisherman that first caught it, Agner Ubondo, and named it after himself. At first they called it "Ubondo's fish", but it quickly changed to just "ubondo"  for simplicity's sake.

The Ægiric ubondo grows to around 1.5 meters in length and is a powerfully built pelagic fish with a very large tail fin. While it may not immediately look like one, the ubondo is in fact a kind of bunnyfish, as can be determined by the placement of its pectoral- and pelvic fins. But while a lot of bunnyfish have evolved somewhat shark-like features, the ubondo has evolved to look more like a tuna, with a torpedo shaped body and small front fins. DNA analysis has shown that ubondos are most closely related to the deep sea fish known as gladdos and together they seem to form their own branch at the base of the Odontocoeiida.

Ubondos usually swim between 0 and 70 meters below the surface where they feed on other and typically smaller pelagic fish, as well as llamplelgans and pectinauts.

While most of their teeth are rather small and concealed by their lips, they possess 4 large fangs at the tips of their jaws that are probably used in prey capture, but might also be used for interspecific combat during mating season.

Red-eye Prosse

Toeing the line between camouflage and extravagant display, the red-eye prosse (Ithopoius coccineus) is a curious little bunnyfish that inhabits seaweed forests off coastal Lachoba. The most striking feature of prosses are their enormous pectoral- and pelvic fins that are normally held against the body, but can be folded out for display. These four large fins have colorations and markings resembling large, red eyes.

These fins are used for both attracting mates and to intimidate competitors and predators. As typically solitary animals, prosses carve out little territories for themselves and do not seem to tolerate other prosses of the same sexe within their territory, but these territories do often overlap with those of the opposite sexe.

Red-eye prosses feed mostly on small invertebrates like various annelids, small arthropods and pectinauts. One thing that has been observed by scuba divers is that prosses will approach divers within their territory and search them for parasites, which might indicate that they act as cleaners for larger animals when they stop by.

Despite possessing no teeth, genetic testing has revealed that prosses are most closely related to the Odontocoeiida, the toothed coeaaien, more than any other bunnyfish. This further reinforces that the shark like body shape of various coeaaien evolved independently.

Blue Surgée

Back on Earth, the seeming similarity between sharks and the bony fish known as strugeons was purely superficial and the result of convergent evolution. 

Semantics aside, because Eryobis has a small dozen of different fish groups that are referred to as "sharks" by explorers, the Eryobian equivalent of sturgeons do belong to these "shark" like groups. In fact, it has recently been revealed that the highly derived coelacants often called coeaaien, belong to one of two differernt groups that split long ago before either evolved to look similar to sharks. These groups became the Odontocoeiida, the "toothed coeaaien", and the Lamidocoeiida, the "plated coeaaien". Curiously, the apparent sturgeon equivalents of Eryobis were also part of this split and now it seems that most of the armoured ones belong to the Odontocoeiida while the less armoured or armourless ones belong to the Lamidocoeiida.

One of the most common sturgeon equivalents along the northern Riatic coasts of Guralta and the southern coasts of Tlèëa is the blue surgée (Riatelops caerulus), a 3 to 4 meter long armourless sturgeon equivalent Lamidocoeiidan, specifically of the family Eryosturiidae.

A medium sized surgée, the blue surgée typically stays close to the seafloor and is often found relatively close to the shore. Unlike many other surgées, this species does not seem to venture into freshwater, instead spending its entire life in the sea.

They have downturned mouths at the end of their rather elongated heads and weak jaws that instead of teeth, possess large plates used to crush hard shelled organisms. Indeed, most their diet consists of various benthic mollusks and crustaceans, though small demersal fish are also ingested on occasion.

Despite surgées often being called armourless, they are not exactly defenseless. Their large size makes sure that they are not frequently preyed upon by predatory fish and they possess a long, extremely sharp spine on at the base of their first dorsal fin which, although no evidence has been presented as of yet, its rumoured to be venomous.

Southern Putsaai

In the shallow farsouthern waters of Rubiëra one can find large expanses of sponge reefs that form where waters too cold for corals bring lots of nutrients up from the deep. These reefs possess a huge array of wildlife that live in-, on- or off the sponges. A large number of invertebrates feed on the sponges themselves and can destroy entire patches of reef within a relatively short time if given the chance.

So naturally there are other animals that fulfill the role of cleaners and pestcontrol. So it is within these reefs that one of the strangest bunnyfish can be found.

Typically measuring no more than 20cm in length, the southern pustaai (Catharsichthys meridionalis) is a slenderly built fish that mainly swims by flapping its pectoral and pelvic fins while its tail trails behind. This allows it to effortlessly swim inbetween the sponges and even enter their opening to rid them off their parasites.

It has a long face that terminates in a thick lipped mouth that hides a sharp "beak" composed of fused teeth. While the rest of the fish might look aberrant compared to other bunnyfish, it is this trait that reveals the putsaai as a member of the Lamidocoeiida, the plated coeaaien.

Unlike many other plated coeaaien, putsaaien do not possess defensive spines and in fact lack the first dorsal fin altogether, which is most likely an adaptation for their lifestyle of swimming in tight spaces. 

While not necessarily social animals, they aren't completely solitary either. Rather it seems they are communal, typically living in sponges that they share with other members of their species, but going out on feeding trips alone.

Black Gladdo

The deep sea of Eryobis is a large and scarcely studied habitat, yet it is also likely one of the most biodiverse. ROV expdeditions and deep sea fishing by both researchers and natives continuously bring up extraordinary and strange animals.

When one goes deep sea fishing in the Vyaris Ocean, a fish that is often caught at mesopelagic depths is the black gladdo (Eryobalepus atratus). This up to 40cm long deep sea bunnyfish seems to be quite common in these deep tropical waters. Stomach contents of these fish have revealed that they are not picky eaters and will feed on whatever they think they can fit in their mouths, which seem to be able to open up very widely and can expand to twice the width of the head.

The phylogenetic placement of gladdos is a bit unclear, as they possess a mixture of primitive and derived traits and have therefore been placed in their own branch on the family tree.

Grey Gelant

Just as it was on Earth, stepping out onto rocks in the sea could end with a nasty surprise. One moment your foot is touching wet stone, the next you're in agonizing pain because you stepped in something sharp. On Earth, and a number of colonies for some unknown reason, there are Synanceiids, better known as stonefish, whose venomous stings have been the stuff of nightmares for many a person.

Given all its similarities to Earth, it should perhaps come as no surprise than Eryobis has its own flavour of stinging rock mimicking fish.

The rocky coastal areas of Tlèëa at the northern end of the world are home to a number of such stinging fish, and perhaps one the most common ones is the grey gelant (Lithomimus cinereus). The grey gelant, like other gelants, is a Laminocoeiidan bunnyfish, which means it has no true teeth, but rather possesses a single plate in its mouth that evolved from teeth that fused together.

Gelants are characterized by their enlarged pelvic fins, high set pectoral fins and an anal fin positioned almost directly to- and being part of the caudal fin as an additional lobe.

Additionally, different species can be distinguished by the possession, shape and size of the 2 to 6 sharp spines within their first dorsal fin.

The grey gelant is a relatively large species of its genus at an average of 60 cm long and is not particularly specialized at camouflage compared to some other gelant species. Its skin is rough, with numerous small, but spiky scales covering its body, yet it looks fairly smooth. This, combined with its decently large tail makes grey gelants quite good swimmers for their family. 

They feed mainly on mollusks and crustaceans that live between the rocks on the seafloor, which they make short work of with their wide blunted tooth plates.

It has three sharp spines within its dorsal fin that it can flex up and down. These spines are coated in an, as of yet unidentified, venom that causes excruciating pain when it enters the body. While no deaths from stepping on gelants have been recorded, victims have been known to be unable to walk for up to a week after being stung due to the extreme pain.

Dacruon bathynectes

The Voûlic Ocean located near- and on the south pole of Eryobis has, on average, the coldest waters in the world. Even though barely any permanent sea ice exists, surface temperatures are known to drop below 0°C in winter. The cold waters of the Voûlic however, are also very oxygen- and nutrient rich, resulting in the south polar ocean being some of the most productive waters on Eryobis. Many peculiar organisms can be found in the chilly depths at the southern end of the world, with some more rare than others. 

The waters are often too cold and potentially dangerous for human explorers to dive into, so ROVs are typically employed on expeditions here. ROVs often only ever encounter small invertebrates or small fish too slow to flee from the lights, but on occasion, the ROV may encounter something more rare.

On one such encounter, the ROV came across a kind of fish that had never been seen or heard of. Measuring between 3 and 4 meters long and shaped like long tailed tear drop, the Dacruon bathynectes, still lacking a common name, is very large kind of bunnyfish, as could be determined by the placement of its pectoral- and pelvic fins. 

The enormous fish was found at a depth of around 300 meters, just below the photic zone, slowly cruising with long movements of its tail. Because the fish moved so sluggishly, the ROV was able to place a tracker on its dorsal fin, which revealed that D. bathynectes performed vertical migration; spending the day time hours at depths between 200 and 500 meters and moving up around 30 meters deep during the night.

Footage of the fish's head revealed that it large, flat and blunt teeth within its thick, but deep jaws. This points to D. bathynectes being a durophage, feeding on hard shelled prey like mollusks and crustaceans. While no footage of the act of feeding, or evidence from washed up specimens exist, it is thought that Dacruon most likely relies on pelagic pectinauts as its main food source. The slow swimming nectonic scallops are known to perform vertical migration in other parts of the world's oceans, so it is not unreasonable to assume they might do the same in the cold waters of the Voûlic.

Smooth Erebut

Eryobis is no stranger to dorsoventrally flattened, or "ray-like", marine creatures. The earliest case we know of were the Eurygnathid coelacanths that lived over 300 million years ago. Then of course there are the Planosolincolae, the "flattacanths", which are some of the most successful groups on Eryobis since they gave rise to the Anisospondyli which came to dominate the land. Presently, we can even find siderays living beneath the waves, which are an attempt by nienktvis conodonts at the flattened demersal lifestyle.

While we are yet to discover any highly flattened examples of Holostean fish that also inhabit Eryobis, there does exist a third(?) kind of dorsoventrally flattened coelacanth that persists to the present day: the Erebuthoids, commonly known as erebuts.

Much like rays on earth are essentially just flat sharks, erebuts are flattened coeaaien. More specifically, they are Laminocoeiidans, plated coeaaien. As such they have no true teeth, but rather a single plate that evolved from teeth that fused together.

Erebuts are easily distinguishable from other coeaaien by their extremely hypertrophied pelvic fins that they use as their primary locomotors. Their pectoral fins on the other hand are small and located high up near the spine. It is not yet known what purpose these small fins serve, but some speculate they may play a role in communication.

The species pictured here is the smooth erebut (Opthoffia guraltanensis), a small species native to the east coast of Guralta. The name "smooth" does not refer to the animal's skin, which is rather rough like those of most erebuts, but to the fact that this species lacks the defensive spine on the first dorsal fin present in most plated coeaaien. 

This species primarily feeds on small mollusks and crustaceans that live on the seafloor and can most often be found in coastal zones up to 10 meters deep.

Palefin Coeaai

Much like the sharks of Earth, the coeaaien of Eryobis are subject to rather simplistic names. A prime example of this is the palefin coeaai (Psittacopristis pterochrio), a species of plated coeaai (order Laminocoeaiida) that inhabits the shallow waters along the northern and western coasts of Bloëcan Miesjeta.

As is typical for coeaaien, this species also has two large pectoral fins that are permanently oriented upward to function as dual dorsal fins. While these are mostly fixed, they do possess a small degree of mobility and allow coeaaien, such as this species, a surprising amount of maneuverability and makes them able to turn on a dime. Usually slow cruisers, coeaaien can perform quick bursts of speed to catch their prey and their maneuverability and flexibility allows them to strike fast in many directions around them.

A medium sized species with an overblown ego, palefins are known to be very inquisitive and border on aggression with their tendency to bite and nip things to investigate them. Chain mail is therefore a must for divers.

While they are generally known to feed mostly on small fish and nienktvissen, their plate-like fused teeth are self sharpening and extremely durable, which also allows them to feed on tougher prey such as pectinauts. 

In addition, palefin coeaaien have been reported as avid scavengers that seem to get attracted to spilled blood in a fashion often described to sharks.

Being far from the largest coeaai species that lives around the Bloëcan coasts, they often congregate in groups of up to 30 individuals as protection. This however, also contributes to their perceived aggressive behavior, as they need to be quick and fierce in order to secure food for themselves.

Like many other members of the Laminocoeaiida, they possess a sharp spine in front of their true dorsal fin. Curiously, this spine seems to have evolved and been modified from the "spines" already present in the original first dorsal fin of the ancestral coelacanths.

Tiger Wangvin

The seas of Eryobis are full of horrors and monstrosities with faces hard to love. Evolutionary abominations like llamplelgans, creatures that look like squid-scorpion hybrids that turned out to have evolved from polychaetes, are often considered by explorers to be among the most cursed looking creatures to be found on Eryobis.

Looks are one thing, behavior is another.

Fermourodonts easily take the title of the creatures most unfriendly towards humans, given that they go out of their way to destroy our electric equipment and vehicles, while coeaaien tend to get a bad reputation because of their superficial resemblance to sharks.

There are however a few nienktvissen that also often end up high in the rankings of the most horrible creatures to be found on this world. While this is largely based on appearance, there are real life precedents of nienktvis encounters ending up lethal on our side. While this was likely an accidental anomaly that was only caused by poor handling on the explorer's part, there are other nienktvissen that do actually have a taste for human blood. The losqulas are predatory nienktvissen that regularly feed on large prey, which includes us.

But losqulas are not the only type of nienkvis that prey on large, usually live prey. Considered to be reasonably close relatives to the true squidn'ts, these carnivorous nienktvissen are often referred to as wangvins (Zygopterichthyidae). One the first things anyone remotely familiar with nienktvis anatomy will notice are the large "fins" that flare out from below the eyes. These fins are derived from the barbels seen in other nienktvissen and likely serve as stabilizers and lift generators. An adaptation seen in at least two other unrelated kinds of nienktvissen.

The tiger wangvin (Malascellus tigris), known to live in the Riatis Ocean, is a medium sized species that grows between 150-180 cm long. These wangvins, like most others, are predators with long protruding teeth based on large plates that can all move independently. While they look scary, wangvins are significantly less dangerous than losqulas as they tend to be more wary of their surroundings. It is thought that this wariness might be due to them not wanting to risk their cheek fins getting damaged, as it could pose a large hindrance to their hunting and general life. That said, wangvins are known to get aggressive when they detect blood in the water and there are at least a dozens reports of divers getting bitten in the legs or arms by curious wangvins. Our standard diving suits are multi colored with striped limbs to break the silhouette and deter large predators from attacking, but it seems that these striped limbs can appear like separate, smaller prey animals to the wangvins.

These fish tend not to venture too far out to the open ocean and will usually patrol deeper zones of reefs during the day and come up to the surface at night.

 

Brown Richibi

Most nienktvissen possess 6 or 7 gill slits, with the latter seemingly being the ancestral state. There are a handful however that have even less. The richibi's, as they are often referred to, are conodonts that only have 5 gill slits. That is hardly the only strange thing about them however, as these fish are known to possess a far greater number of functional fins than most other nienktvissen do, moving them in a wavelike fashion similar to how the extinct Anomalocarids of Earth are speculated to have done.

Some researchers have suggested that richibi's might not even be actual nienktvissen at all, but rather another kind of conodont that independently evolved a similar style of locomotion by splitting the ancestral caudal fin into a number of finlets. There is however, hardly enough evidence to confirm this theory and there is too little genetic testing on nienktvissen as a whole draw support from.

Richibi's are almost exclusively found swimming in the coastlines and river mouths tropical and subtropical Miesjeta. The brown richibi (Virrateops fulvus) is a species that can be found inhabiting estuaries, deltas and the waters near river mouths in Bloëca. Spending a lot of time in murky waters, this fish has long barbels with which it can detect food and foe when visibility becomes too low.

It is thought to feed predominantly on plant matter and mollusks, but too little about its lifestyle is known to say for sure.

Whitetip Meadow Coeaai

Much like the sharks of Earth, the coeaaien of Eryobis are subject to rather simplistic names. A prime example of this is the whitetip meadow coeaai (Livadiselache leucacrus), a species of toothed coeaai (order Odontocoeaiida) that inhabits the shallow waters along the eastern coast of Hatèmica. As its name suggests, it has a distinctive white tip on its caudal fin that distinguishes it from other meadow coeaaien.

It is a medium sized species, with the largest individuals reaching around 2 meters long and poses little threat to human divers. It feeds mostly on relatively soft bodied animals smaller than itself such as small fish, nienktvissen and llamplelgans as well occasionally scavenging on deceased megafauna.

As is typical for coeaaien, this species also has two large pectoral fins that are permanently oriented upward to function as dual dorsal fins. While these are mostly fixed, they do possess a small degree of mobility and allow coeaaien, such as this species, a surprising amount of maneuverability and makes them able to turn on a dime. Usually slow cruisers, coeaaien can perform quick bursts of speed to catch their prey and their maneuverability and flexibility allows them to strike fast in many directions around them.

A common species around Hatèmica, it can often be found as bycatch in fish markets on the eastern coast of this continent. It is said that the small, but numerous scales of coeaaien make their skin very tough to chew through, but that the meat underneath is quite tasty. The fact that coeaaien do not excrete urine through their skin like sharks do probably makes them a lot more palpable.

While coeaaien such as this species often remind us of the sharks back home and on many colonies, there is one behavioral trait these fish possess that is most unsharklike. Namely their breeding habits. While sharks practice internal fertilization and often give live birth, the method coeaaien use is more like that of most bony fish. They perform a behavior called spawning, where the male and female freely release their gametes into the water. It likely differs per species and location, but whitetip meadow coeaaien have been observed to dig shallow holes in the sediment or make small "nests" in the vegetation for the breeding pair to spawn into. Curiously, it is often the male that stays behind to guard the eggs while the female goes on to mate with another male, only to repeat the process. This makes them seem like quite dedicated parents and indeed, the male will even keep guarding the young after they hatch, but as soon they start growing teeth, which is usually after around a week, the male is just as likely to eat them as guard them.

Green Sjaul

Far out in the open ocean is where you can often find the fastest swimming animals. Nowhere to hide, in this watery desert, the only defense for anything that isn't translucent is speed. Fish that live here are often thunniform and carangiform in body shape for hydrodynamic efficiency.

It should therefore be little surprise that nienktvissen, conodonts that do not possess a typical fish like body, are not that common far out in the ocean. There are a number of very large bodied nienktvissen that carve out a living in the open ocean by feeding on plankton or small shoaling crustaceans and fish, but these do not typically frequent the surface.

There is one kind of nienktvis that can be found at high sea, the sjaul. Scientifically known as the genus Cephalopteron (and possibly others), there likely at least a dozen species of sjaul to be found in the oceans of Eryobis. 

These are peculiar looking animals, even for nienktvis standards.

Their bodies are cone shaped and possess four very large fins, behind which a much smaller fin is located. It is thought that the large fins are used for propulsion while the smaller ones provide stability or aid in changing or maintaining direction and stability. In addition, sjauls have another pair of "fins" located on top and below their head. These derive from the ancestral barbels present in most nienktvissen and are likely a feature that sjauls evolved convergentlty with some other unrelated nienktvissen such as vlagops. It is still unclear what exactly these are used for.

The green sjaul (Cephalopteron virens) is a species that can be found cruising the open waters of the Tinjis Ocean in its warmer regions. Here it feeds mostly on free swimming arthropods, small fish and plankton. The tooth elements in the back of its mouth are blunt and rounded, which helps them crush the food that they cannot swallow whole.

Sjauls are a much desired catch for fishermen because of their muscular bodies and crustacean induced flavor. But it is not just fishermen that want to eat sjauls.

Because these fish are quite common and often form shoals of several hundred individuals, they get preyed upon by a wide variety of both marine and aerial predators.

The soft bodies of sjauls make them favorable prey for ritsuara's and other Fermourodonts, which often emply hit and run tactics where they will slice a sjaul in half and come back to eat when it has become incapacitated. 

Blueside Molula

Tropical reefs are home to some of the most colorful and diverse wildlife in the oceans. This is as true for Earth as it is for Eryobis. The Caddis Sea and the shallow waters around the Rubiëran archipelago are home to some of the largest reefs on Eryobis and consequently, are home to some of the most stunning aquatic creatures to be found on this world.

A prime example of this is the blueside molula (Molula cyanopleurus), a splendidly colored species of nienktvis. Named for its outward resemblance to the molas from Earth and given the Latin suffix -ula for its diminutive size. Molulas are quite common in tropical regions all around Eryobis, but Rubiëra appears to be especially rich in molula species, with possibly over a dozen having been observed.

The blueside molula is a quite typical molula species most easily distinguishable by its bright blue side with yellow under-borders and white stripes. Like all molulas, it has evolved four of its barbels into large and flat palps for the purpose of feeding. This adaptation is also seen in cyclopses and it is currently thought that molulas share a fairly recent common ancestor with these creatures.

Like some other molulas, it is a carnivore that feed predominately on small arthropods that live in the reefs. With their palps, they are able to manipulate their food to a great degree and have been observed using them to break the pincers off crustaceans in order to eat them without getting injured.

While we have no evidence supporting the fact, Rubiëran natives claim that molulas are poisonous to eat. It is said they occasionally rub dead molulas on their darts to weaponize their alleged toxins.

Sixgill Vibrissotact

The Vibrissotactus hexanchus, more often known as the sixgill vibrissotact, is a small species of nienktvis native to the coastal regions of eastern Guralta. It is commonly found in algae forests where it perfectly blends in with the vegetation.

Based on stomach contents and the morphology of its teeth, it has been determined that these fish are omnivores, feeding on both algae and invertebrates such as various mollusks, echinoderms and crustaceans. Compared to its relatives Vardichthys and Xegeloichthys, which are also members of the family Vibrissotactidae, the sixgill- is a lot less carnivorous. Due to the fact that sixgills- do not possess the bioluminescent organs that other members of the family possess, it is currently thought that sixgills- and other surface dwelling members are the "standard" for the family, while various lineages have independently colonized the deep sea over time.

Sixgill vibrissotact are territorial animals that passionately defend their own little "gardens" of algae against intruders and small carnivores. Because of this, they are not particularly common and not often consumed by the natives or our explorers. Despite this, they are said to taste quite good, with a decent fat content and sweet buttery taste that reminds of crayfish, which is likely due to the fact these fish consume a lot of crustaceans.

Trichasterops riaticus

In the depths of the Riatis Ocean in the north of Eryobis lives a funny looking creature. Akin to a small black squid with four large fins and six small tentacles tipped with bioluminescent bulbs. But it is no squid, it is in fact a type of nienktvis. 

Known as Trichasterops riaticus, this hand sized little fish is best known for its black, leathery skin and bioluminescent organs on the ends of their flattened barbels. It is theorized that these are used to lure and guide plankton and other prey towards its mouth in a similar manner to the lantern leviathan, of which it is suspected to be a close relative.

Not much is known about its lifestyle because it has never been properly observed in the wild. All we have of it are dead specimens that were trapped on deep lines and fleeting ROV footage often rarely more than a few second long. One thing we can say for sure is that Trichasterops are afraid of light, which could indicate that there are other, possibly larger predators in the abyss of the Riatis that also use bioluminescence to hunt.

 

Horse Headed Squidn't

First discovered on a native fish market in the region of Lotharcan Miesjeta known as Vermilijë, a strange looking fish with a face only a mother could love and teeth that reminded of ancient 20th century caricatures instantly caught the attention of the researchers that saw it. They wished to buy the fish to further study it and, as was and still is pretty common, the salesman scammed the hell out of them. While the researchers that bought the fish have never confirmed the price they paid, it is rumored that they paid with a silver wristwatch or some other precious metal jewelry. What ever they might have traded the fish for, the salesman they bought it from had soon after bought out nearly every fisherman in the town, meaning that the price the researchers paid for the fish equated to several million in local currency.

The fish they bought would later be identified as a horse headed squidn't (Thlipsiodon bucephalus), a fish which is actually quite common in the tropical, subtropical and temperate waters of the Tinjis Ocean.

The peculiar teeth that caught the attention of those researchers are quite unique among nienktvissen due to the fact that they are large, blunt and globular, which is pretty much the opposite of the teeth that most nienktvissen have. These teeth, combined with the stomach content the researchers examined in their overpriced specimen led to the conclusion that horse headed squidn'ts are durophages, specializing in feeding on tough and armored prey.

As later live observations would confirm, the bulk of their diet consists of planktonic and nektonic pectinauts, which in many ways seem to fill ecological roles that the extinct ammonites did back on Earth in the Mesozoic period. Like these prehistoric cephalopods, pectinauts are extremely abundant in the oceans of Eryobis. It is therefore no wonder that creatures such as the Thlipsiodon would specialize in such an common and reliable food source.

Since the horse headed squidn't tends to stay near the surface and does not seem to dive more than a hundred meters below the waves, it has been able to become among the best studied nienktvissen to date.

These fish usually grow between 1 and 1.7 meters in length with a wingspan of roughly 80% that length. They only have two, long whiskers that sprout from the lower jaw. Autopsies have revealed that these barbels essentially serve to detect pressure changes and sound waves in the water. 

The seven gillslits of this fish are peculiar in that the exhausts seem to be angled to various degrees per individual slit. This is very likely evidence that nienktvissen use their gills as a way to steer and change direction. 

While not much is known about the mating habits of this species as yet, what observations have shown is that they exclusively happen at night at around 30 meters or below.

Despite being called the horse headed "squidn't", Thlipsiodon is not a member of the Teuthomorphichthyidae, better known as the "true squidn'ts". Its colloquial name is the result of early explorers giving animals that looked superficially similar the same name for the sake of simplicity.

Thlipsiodon is in fact not even that closely related to the true squidn'ts and rather came from a different lineage that convergently evolved a similar body shape. Unfortunate as it may be for classification, the name seems to have stuck.

Umbral Losqula

For those who have thalassophobia, Eryobis is a very pleasant place to be. While there may not be any true sharks present in the seas of this world, some would argue that the realm beneath the waves of Eryobis harbors creatures that are even more terrifying.

While squidn'ts tend to get a bad reputation because of one tragic incident that very early after the first explorers set to sea, they are typically quite harmless. The same can not be said for another type of nienktvis. 

The Pleuropristidae, commonly known as losqulas by the explorers, are a family of carnivorous nienktvissen that are ranked as being the most predatory among their kind. Most nienktvissen and squid'ts are known to feed on prey smaller than themselves that can be easily swallowed. Losqulas on the other hand, seem to have a preference for prey equally to- or larger than themselves. They often seem to specialize in shredding their prey to bits while its still alive. Their teeth are long, sharp and serrated and with the various tooth elements being able to independently from each other, losqulas excel at mincing their prey and inflicting great blood loss. 

That said, they do not shy away from scavenging and it is not uncommon to see them congregating around the carcass of a large deceased animal.

The umbral losqula (Teutharpax umbrosus) that occurs in the Voûlic Ocean south of Miesjeta is a large member of this family that can grow over 2.5 meters long. One might look at these creatures and presume they are awkward swimmers, but these fish are deceptively fast. With two very large frontal fins and four auxiliary posterior fins, umbral losqulas can reach over 30 km/h in short bursts of speed. This, combined with their inquisitive nature makes them quite a nuisance for divers, who nowadays always need to be armed whenever they go on a dive in the Voûlic Ocean.

Umbral losqulas have been observed often following boats to feed on scraps and to steal the harvest of fishermen and are known to hang around native port cities in the south of Miesjeta, occasionally taking their toll in the form of people, most often children, going for a swim.

What makes these fish so dangerous is the fact that they most often hunt around dusk and dawn when they are the least visible to the eye. While one could be forgiven for thinking losqulas do not come close to shore due to their morphology, these carnivores are very much capable of swimming on their sides to enter water as little as 50 centimeters deep.

Not much is known about the lifestyle of these losqulas. As of yet it is uncertain if they are sedentary, territorial or migrate between feeding grounds. What is known however is that they always seem to stick to the continental shelf and will not be encountered in the deep open ocean.

Lesser Sideray

All along the northern shorelines of tropical Miesjeta, you can find a most peculiar looking creature swimming through the sand. From a glance it resembles a Batomorph from Earth, better known as a ray, but the resemblance is only superficial.

Upon closer inspection the differences become more apparent. One anatomical trait that instantly determines this animal to not be a Batomorph is the fact it has gills on its "upper side". To those less knowledgeable on the anatomy of Batomorphs, there is another trait this Eryobian animal possesses that should make it clear that this no true ray.

The creature has but a singular eye on its entire body, adorned with a pupil possessing three prongs to form a "Y" shape. No vertebrate animal from Earth is known to naturally have such a trait. For this reason, many researchers refer to these ray like creatures as cyclopses. Unfortunately for them, the scientific name of Cylopoida is already taken by a group of copepod crustaceans from Earth. Instead, a name that is often used in addition to cyclops is sideray. There are also many researchers who prefer to refer to these creatures by their scientific name solely, as Monobatopsids.

Further research revealed Monobatopsids to actually not only be related to nienktvissen, but that they are actually very derived members of this group. In hindisight, it should have been quite obvious that siderays are nienktvissen. They share some key characteristics such as the lack of jaws, but presence of well developed plate like tooth elements. The six individual gillslits should also have been a dead giveaway since no other non-conodont animal on Eryobis possesses this trait. The presence of a number of barbels sprouting from the lips is also a strong indicator of their identity as nienktvissen.

So it became clear that cylopses are merely nienktvissen that opted for a demersal lifestyle by laying on their sides, but they are not born this way.

When siderays hatch from their eggs, they are extremely small and are virtually indistinguishable from other, related nienktvis larvae. For their first weeks of life, they develop much like other nienktvissen, gaining their characteristic large fins to propel themselves with and this stage, they possess two eyes, one on each side of the body.

But as they mature, they start changing. They start living closer to the seafloor and begin favoring one side over the other. Whether this is left or right usually differs per species or subfamily. They start living near the substrate and will instinctively hide in the sand. It is at this stage that the eye on the side that faces the seafloor starts atrophying until it is completely resorbed into the body.

Why this happens instead of the migration of the eye like is seen in Pleuronectiformes and Planosolincolans is unclear. One would be forgiven for thinking that the entirely cartilage "skulls" of nienktvissen would make such a migration easier than if the skull was bone.

One of the first aquatic animals to ever be encountered on Eryobis by explorers was the lesser sideray (Rajacyclops minor). This creature can commonly seen inhabiting the shallow coastal waters all along the northern coast of Bloëcan Miesjeta, which is ofcourse where the first landing site and colony were made.

It is a small critter, barely two hands wide and only a few centimeters thick. This makes it perfectly adapted for a life in the sand in waters where few predators can reach it.

Yet this little cyclops is often the largest predator in its sandy environment. It feeds on a plethora of invertebrates such as gastropods, sedentary bivalves, pectinauts, brachiopods and small llamplelgans. 

As with many sideray species, the lesser sideray possesses a three pronged pupil in its singular eye. It is thought that this peculiar shape helps siderays see from multiple angles. An imperative ability for an animal that spends most of its time hidden in the sand.

Common Vlagop

The common vlagop (Veleovoltus communis) is one of several species in the genus Veleovoltus that can be found in the Vyaris Ocean, but as its name suggests it is the most common. 

This small nienktvis often occurs in huge shoals of several thousand strong and undertakes long seasonal migrations between the continents of Miesjeta, Guralta and southern Tlèëa. Curiously, the seasonal behavior of this species is largely restricted to the populations that live north of the equator, while the populations south of the equator tend to be more sedentary. As of yet, no solid explanation for this phenomenon has been offered.

As small and abundant planktivores, these conodonts are near the base of many food-chains where they permanently occur and often become seasonal feasts along their migration route.

Being small than a human hand on average, there is a great many predators that will happily make a meal out of a vlagop.

This includes the native peoples of Eryobis, who often harvest these small fish by the dozens by casting nets. Human explorers and researchers are also no strangers to eating vlagops. These creatures are so common in the Vyaris Ocean that even our colonists are allowed to occasionally catch them.

One characteristic of vlagop that immediately catches one's eye is the "dorsal fin" that goes from the mouth to the second gillslit. This "fin" is actually a membrane that stretches from a single large cartilage reinforced barbel on the upper lip that permanently stands upright.

It is thought that this fin serves to stabilize the vlagop as it swims, although it does appear that there are surprisingly many small muscles attached to this fin, which could indicate that it might also serve as a rudder that works in tandem with the terminal posterior fin.