Shardscale

This descendant of the diamond pumpgills is just as adaptable and diverse in its habits as its ancestor was. The shardscale has evolved to exploit the marshes and river systems that dot the coasts of Dixon, not only surviving but thriving in them. Schools can contain over a hundred or so individuals, though they typically only become this larger along the coasts. While they will often enter swamps and riparians in order to feed, they primarily do this now in order to lay their eggs. The resulting larvae that hatch will remain in these nursery regions, hunting smaller organisms amongst the roots of larger flora, until they are large enough to head into more open waters. Once they do so, they will reach sexual maturity within a year, will remain along the coasts for 2-3 more, before eventually returning to the waters of their birth in order to repeat the process once more. Those that survive the relatively dangerous breeding seasons will return back to the ocean, and will repeat the cycle every other year until they inevitably die of old age or predation, whichever comes first.

Perhaps the most notable evolutionary adaptation are their mouthparts. As their beaks are no longer directly attached to their heads in a relatively fixed position, they can now be manipulated about or even extended forward a bit. This allows shardscales to reach deep into burrows or snatch prey from the side. This has allowed them to hunt more elusive prey than their ancestors ever could, and has contributed to their success in the oceans of Sagan 4.