Thornbutt Swarmer

The thronbutt swarmer has split from its ancestor the cave swarmer. They have specialized in a detritivore and coprophagic lifestyle. They no longer have pigment since sunlight is lessened by the ice. They no longer have glowing tentacles, but have re-adapted them into woody thorns. This helps protect them against the cave teuthopin. Their eye has gotten bigger to take advantage of the dim light diffusing though the ice and the light coming from its ancestor. Since the ice caves will freeze during the winter they will now hibernate as the ice freezes around them and will comes back to life when the ice thaws again in summer. Since the pools can shift and freeze within the cave they have developed stronger flippers to push themselves from pool to pool. They also evolved cheek pouches to hold in water when out of the water. Their trunk like mouths suck in water by inflating their cheek pouches and then they filter out their food when spitting the water out. They are not very active due to limited food supplies in the cave. They fill an important niche of cleaning up the dead flora and poop of other species in the caves.