Biome: Snieppe Highland Lake

The central highlands of Karmozijnië in tropical Bloëca are quite a place. While still being a warm area located on the equator of Eryobis, the elevation of these highlands makes them significantly less tropical than the savannas and rainforest that surround them. This has granted them a sort of isolation and has allowed for a number of unique creatures to evolve here.

Located in an ancient volcanic caldera is Snieppe Lake. Long dead since, the crater has completely filled up with water and is steadily fed by equatorial rains where it creates a bit of a haven for life. Many rivers spring out from the crater and feed the savannas below.

Great flocks of Chalacheiropterans gather on the shores of the lake, feeding on the wet lushious vegetation facilitated by the lake. Large herds of Kadrians come here to lessen their thirst in peace, as no gingûrs have made their way into the lake yet. A young male decides that today is the day he tries his luck and challenges an older, battle scarred male for control of his harem. 

Meanwhile, an undisturbed Triprotodont feeds in the wet, scarlet flora, unaware it is being stalked by a hunrgy Arachnothere who's crept almost within striking range.

Such are the days near Snieppe Lake, serene yet full of life.

As it was on Earth, so it is on Eryobis that you can encounter small bird like organisms practically everywhere you go. On Eryobis these are often Stauropterygians, such as the collared buwwa's (Chipteryx collaris) that are a very common sight around Snieppe Lake, as well as much of the surrouning highlands. These small Eustauropterans are quite gregarious and seem to spend much of their days foraging and socializing with members of their community. The name we've given them, "buwwa" is an onomatopoeia for the high pitched croaks they often make. They are omnivores and feed on plant seeds, fruits and arthropods alike, as well occasionally feeding on mollusks.
   

The Snieppe kuehrn (Xenotamias snieppensis) is an Austroglire Triprotodont native exclusively to the region surrounding the lake. By comparing the DNA between these creatures and other Xenotamias in the surrounding region, it was revealed that X. snieppensis has been more or less isolated from its cousins for nearly 1 million years, leading biologists to classify it as its own species. These kuehrns are otherwise quite typical for their genus. They are largely solitary herbivores that feed mainly on tubers, hard fruits and seeds and tough vegetation.

The main predator of kuehrns and other small vertebrates around Snieppe Lake is the spotted cloull (Aranictis varius), a relatively small Bloëcatherian native to much of central Karmozijnië. Around the size of a terran ferret, cloulls are typically nocturnal hypercarnivores. Their eight limbs, equipped with four claws each, make them excellent climbers. Their diet consists mostly of small Eustauropterans, Chalacheiropterans, Triprotodonts, small Parasymmetrodactyls native to the region as well as eggs and young of larger animals like the various Kadrians they share their environment with.
 

No creature creates the soundscape of Snieppe Lake as much as the greenfoot ganx (Bloecanser viridipes) does. These Chalacheiropterans often arrive at the lake in massive flocks numbering in the thousands and fill the air with their honking calls that can be heard from miles away. Their striking blue crests and full green lips make them quite peculiar animal to look at. Yet, these vibrant colours do not appear to be sexually dimorphic, as so far all individuals recorded have them. So while the mating behaviour of these creatures is not yet fully known, it is believed that their vivid faces are used to display health, the more colourful, the healthier the individual. 

Ganxes are herbivores that feed on a wide variety of terrestrial and aquatic plants, as well as including the occasional mollusk or fish in their diet.

Kadrians such as the highland surraah (Rhinokadre orestes) are an expected sight at Snieppe Lake, as they are across much of Bloëca. The first thing that becomes obvious about highland surraahs is that they are very sexually dirmophic, with the males being much more robust than females, darker and more striking in colouration and possessing large horns while the females do not. While many Menokadrids possess horns, its only in surraahs where the frontal horn that sprouts up from the end of the nasal tube is the largest. These grazing herbivores typically live in herds consisting of a single male and his harem of up to 20 females, although drinking spots like Snieppe Lake often see multiple of these herds congregating to form much larger herds. When males challenge one another for mating rights, they tend to do so by first showing off their strength and horns and try to avoid injury if possible. If opponents are equally matched, they will fight by locking horns and trying to throw the other off balance. More often than not however, these fights aren't nearly as civilised as that, with many males trying to gouge each others eyes out or some cases even attempting to break their opponents' necks. A lot of males bear scars and display broken or twisted horns from such battles. 

When faced with predators, surraahs will always flee before choosing to fight. They are very fast runners and like all Neokadrians sport large spikes on their shoulders that offer some protection against carnivores. If running is not an option for males, they will attempt to impale their assailants with their horns by charging at them.

There are obviously many more animals inhabiting the region around Snieppe Lake, but our biologists are yet to properly describe the majority of them.

Blunt Stodée

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.

Common names are always quite variable and can differ per region, yet many of the armourless sturgeon like Laminocoeiidans are reffered to as surgées by human explorers. It is likely that this word came directly from the word for sturgeon from one of the imperium's colonies, given the similarity of the words. But curiously, it was the last part of the name that somehow became a standard suffix for Eryobian sturgeon like fish, which led to common names such as the word used for certain kinds of armoured sturgeon like bunnyfish, "stodée".

Stodées, such as the blunt stodée (Humeracanthus breviceps), are rather easy to recognise by their high set pectoral fins which no longer sport any fin rays at all, rather having been turned into a single large defensive spine on each side. Additionally, they have a row of spine like scales running down their backs that culminate in a very large spine at the base of the first dorsal fin. Despite sharing these defensive spines with many Laminocoeiidans, the stodées seem to have evolved them independently, because unlike surgées and kin, stodées possess true teeth and are thus considered Odontocoeiidans.

The blunt stodée can be found in equatorial rivers and lakes in western Bloëca. These fish are on the smaller side as far as stodées are concerned, typically maxxing out around 1.5 to 1.8 meters long. 

Their diet mostly consists of small mollusks and worms, but they have been observed also including various water plants in it. According to reports of both explorers and native Eryobians, these fish taste like mud and require a lot of seasoning to be palpable. This bad taste is likely caused by their freshwater habitat and benthic diet.

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.

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.

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.