Fan Ureel

The fan ureel has split from its ancestor and has switched it’s diet. It is now able to feed almost exclusively on microorganisms due to their huge numbers. The fan ureel spends most of it’s life with it’s head in the sand with its tentacles acting as support against the soft force of the water. It traps its prey by using its tail, which now secretes enzymes from the membrane. As the fan ureel uses its strong muscles to gentle sway its tail, microbes become trapped against the thin membrane by a short layer of hairs. Once the enzyme has broken the microbes up, the hairs decrease the chance of food escaping. The remains of the microbes are then absorbed into blood vessels close to the skin surface, where there are transported to the stomach. Because the fan ureel needs a lot of microbes to sustain itself, there are distributed over large areas and usually don’t stay close to one another for long. The fan ureel will also hunt other small creatures, usually the common dark swarmer, when moving from location to location.

They can still move around to get to a new area with more food. To uproot itself, a fan ureel will thrash its strong tail to disturb the silt around its body. It will then swim to a new area. To embed itself into the sand it will first swim upwards, then dive downwards at high speed. With its tentacles pressed together, it forces itself into the sea floor.

Mating has not changed for the fan ureel. Females still head out to seek courting males and perform a very similar dance. Both females and males look for the fan ureel with the biggest tail to mate with because the bigger the tail, the more food a fan ureel will get.