Stegosnaper

The stegosnaper is the apex predator of the Arctic Twilight Sea Mount. It is a gluttonous creature, gobbling up anything that can fit in their gape. Its flexible lower jaw allows it to engulf prey items that are improbably large, and its huge head, which is mostly its oral (mouth) cavity, lets it store its prey until the prey is chomped to submission. Its beaklike mouth has thick, flattened teethlike projections that are suitable for crushing hard-shelled prey. Once its prey has stopped (or mostly stopped) struggling, the stegosnaper swallows it, its loose-skinned throat expanding if needed.

Its eyes are tiny and covered with a thin layer of skin. The eyes are practically useless, for they can sense only very bright light beneath the skin covering. (a useless ability, since the stegosnaper never encounters very bright light in the twilight zone of the ocean)

The stegosnaper moves by hauling itself forward with the backwards-curving hooks on its tiny limbs. Stegosnapers can bury themselves in sand when in danger, but only young individuals do this: adult stegosnapers are too big for any carnivorous scuttler to opportunistically eat.

While it is an apex predator, the stegosnaper will also eat marbleflora that fall from above, excreta, and (experimentally) noodles.

It is found 210–270 meters below sea level.