Ceryco

Splitting from its ancestor, the ceryco has taken to open waters, evolving various features to aid it in its new environment. The fins of its ancestor, once small flipper-like projections, have evolved into vast wings, allowing it to conserve energy while "gliding" on its own momentum, flapping them only when it needs to reorientate itself in the water column or to pick up speed when feeding. Its tail has grown longer and broader, with powerful musculature that aids it in steering itself as it swims. The sensory tentacles, which sprout from the lower portions of their jaw, have developed dual-tips, which aid them by expanding their view of the world through electroreception. Finally, and what is perhaps its most potentially important feature, the back spines of the ceryco have developed a limited amount of musculature control. Whether or not this may lead to a "re-evolving" of a back pair of appendages is of yet unknown. Semi-solitary organisms, the ceryco spend most of their time floating lazily through the water, speeding up only to feed once they sense food. They will only come together in great numbers when it is time to mate, or when a particularly rich feeding ground is discovered. Should the latter occur, they will work together to school the prey into tight balls with the aid of their wings, during which others will dive in and out of said ball in order to feed. Such socialization helps to ensure that all will be well-fed. Females tend to produce two pups at a time after a year-long gestation period. The pups are given no care outside of being borne in the shallows alongside those of other ceryco. During their youth, they will hide amongst the rocks and vegetation, feeding on small krillpedes and larger miniswarmers until they are large enough to head out into open water. While their increased mobility and maneuverability provides an added protection against predation, there are still some predators out there that can and will hunt a ceryco down. The most common of these is the slender scylarian, a serpentine distant relative that is adapt at tearing crippling wounds into the wings of these beasts. Others, such as the magnificent slaesosaurus, have little trouble biting a ceryco in half.