Turnip Limbless

The turnip limblesses almost always stay in the ground, with only their heads showing. This, along with their vaguely turnip-like body shape, gives the species its name.

The mouth of a turnip limbless is rimmed with numerous long, thin teeth. Its dentition is suitable both for catching small fishlike organisms (ex. miniswarmers) and filter-feeding. Since its teeth are not as densely packed as the baleen of a whale, its sieve-mouth is leaky. To compensate for this, it swallows seawater containing a prey item immediately, tilting its head back and tossing the prey into its throat. Later, to prevent salt imbalances, it spits the seawater back up. Due to reactions with the turnip limbless's saliva and digestive acids, the resulting seawater is thicker and more opaque than before.

The spines on the side of a turnip limbless's head anchor it in its burrow. If something tries to pull it out of its burrow, it makes a rough scraping or brushing sound with its mouth. If that something persists, it will spit seawater, writhe madly, and bite.

The turnip limbless lives in the swash zone, where waves break and seafoam collects on the beach. Since it requires its mouth to be open to breathe, before it sleeps it turns in its burrow so its head is facing away from the sea. It also lowers its head, making it more even with the surrounding sand and thus less conspicuous.

It will wait a long time before it eliminates wastes. When it does, it crawls out of its burrow, moves a short distance away, and deposits wastes where the sea will reach it. Over time, the waves will erode the pile, thus keeping the location of the turnip limbless's burrow hidden from predators. While crawling away to eliminate wastes or crawling back after eliminating wastes, it is especially aggressive. It will bite first and spit out if not edible.