Squidwhals

Squidwhals are the descendants of the other surviving population of Uksip Marfinnus, replacing the Justin Polar Shallows population. These smaller marine uksips are similar to their cousin the Uksip Lazarus, the two diverging when the glaciers melted at the end of the Bloodian period. Thus, like the Uksip Lazarus, they have a U-shaped gut (meaning their anus is inside their mouth), a continuously-growing tooth that wears in such a manner that it automatically sharpens through use, a larger brain, a chamber derived from the ancestral sucking function of the mouth which can expand to suck in food, and they are very r-selected. Their suction chamber lacks protective setae inside and is less vascularized than their cousin's, and they depend more on obtaining oxygen through their skin. Far more developed, however, is their filter-feeding ability.

When the two Uksip Marfinnus populations diverged at the end of the Bloodian period, the ancestors of the Squidwhals had taken greater advantage of the booming populations of swarmers. Initially they remained restricted in range, but their new burst in speciation is correlated with the also-recent rise in meiofaunal swarmers. Similar to their cousin, water pushed out of the suction chamber passes through a filter of setae. The setae of the Squidwhals are stiffer and bear feather-like branches, able to capture wriggling zooplankton such as smaller Miniswarmers, as well as the arguably-phytoplankton Microswarmers and kin.

Most Squidwhals are social and live in bands of up to 10 individuals. This is because, making use of their increased intelligence which occurred over the half-eon since their ancestor first evolved, they maximize the number of small swarmers they can eat at one time by coordinating to round them up into dense clouds. The swarmers have little room to turn without colliding, so when the Squidwhals start sucking them in, they will have difficulty escaping. Most Squidwhals will also hunt larger prey, either ramming them with their tooth or otherwise grabbing them and pulling them against it. However, some species have abandoned this practice and likewise have shorter tentacles and a smaller tooth.

Unlike their cousin, Squidwhals do not broadcast spawn. When the breeding season comes along within a given species’ range, they gather in brackish estuaries and the males intentionally spawn over the females’ eggs. Hatchlings resemble miniature adults, and they live in the estuaries until they have reached about half their adult size. They join social bands early in life, usually with others from the same estuary, but if their band is split or massacred by predation, they can form or join new bands. Similar to their cousin, their reproductive opening is inside the mouth and next to the anus.

There are over 200 species of Squidwhal. They can be found all over the ocean, especially around reefs and upwellings where swarmers are abundant. Most species are associated with specific estuaries due to their breeding habits. They come in many colors. Many with an affinity for the open ocean are red or silver, the former making them less visible at greater depths. Those in the shallows are more varied depending on their environment, such as having stripes to disrupt their shape among oceanic flora or bright colors to help them blend in with reefs. Some species change color as they mature, having patterns that keep them hidden in the estuaries but switching to something more plain once they leave.

Like their ancestor and cousin, Squidwhals are soft-bodied. The only hard parts are their tooth, sucker teeth, and compound eye lenses. The only internal skeleton they have is a hydrostatic one formed from their abdominal cavity. They swim using six ribbon-like cuttlefishesque fins and a horizontal tail fin. Similar to their cousin, they can taste and smell with chemoreceptors on their tentacles.