River Pod-Whorl

The river pod-whorl split from its ancestor the coastal whorl and moved into the Krakow Marsh and River. They are very similar to their ancestors physically, and still have the same pod and adult life cycle. Now though instead of the pod stage being a short stage only getting the whorl ready for its adult life 90% of its lifetime is spent as a pod and only in the last month of its life it lives as a moving adult searching its way through the stream to release its spores so that the specie would be wide spread. Its still has a thin membrane “fin” that curls around its tale propelling the body to higher speeds.

At the pod state spores that reach the river floor or safe ground in the marsh grow into massive pods. These have four tentacles that filter feeds as well as 10 breathing holes in the top and many air release holes scattered along the pod body. Finally at old age the tail will grow and break the shell so the adult whorl could be released. Its has adapted to fresh water as it changed its cellular salt concentration and tweaked with its waste release system to balance the salts in its body.