Mustached Nailfin
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The Mustached Nailfin split from its ancestor, the Elegant Nailfin and pursued a different food source. It lives in Krakow Polar Shallows, Wind Polar Coast, Badger Subpolar Coast, Raq Subpolar Coast, Colddigger Polar Coast, Xeno Subpolar Coast, and Morokor Subpolar Coast. Its ancestor hunted both sedentary organisms as well as mobile swimming organisms, both forms being small and dimwitted. Despite this diversity in prey lifestyles its diet was still rather limited, there was a lot of caloric potential developing in its environment over time. They are named for the long bristles that have developed on their lips.
Rather than hunting swimming prey the species eats seafloor life, preferably things that burrow in the soft sand. Their front limbs have become tools for raking shallowly through this sediment to extract prey items by the cluster. Their long nails scoop the hapless creatures toward their bristly mouths where they are sucked up. The bristles have two functions, the first is that they help capture prey and pull it into the mouth in a rolling fashion. The second, after prey is drawn into the mouth via suction, is to prevent its escape as a sieve as water is pushed out before being swallowed.
Though it generally eats small things only a few centimeters in size, it is not one to shy from bigger hauls. If larger creatures, shelled or soft, are dug up they may be crushed by the nailfin's teeth or bitten into pieces. One oddball prey item that may be captured is the marine woollycoat, usually as a plaything, they typically end up drowning it long before eventually eating it.
Like their ancestors the mustached nailfins are social. Groups of both related and unrelated individuals will form pods in shallows and along coastlines. These pods often will work together to find food and share their spoils with adolescent members or those less fortunate. Their tusks have reduced dramatically, in some rare females they are absent all together. When present the tusks are short enough to be concealed by the bushy bristles that grow across the face of the nailfin. Violent fights that utilize the tusks are rare, most often by recently pubescent males before they fully learn it's a problem behavior with the result of being shunned by females. Despite this shift away from internal combat the tusks remain useful as weapons to deter predation, especially when defending youngsters.
The body of the mustached nailfin is thick with blubber. They are denser, allowing neutral buoyancy to be more easily achieved for searching the seabed. The butt-nostril has shortened to a stout snorkel in order to protect the air pipe from predators. Their front limbs, having become more specialized for obtaining food, are no longer used during swimming. When not in use the front limbs and nails are held against the ventral face of the torso tightly to reduce drag. The hind limbs may move individually for mobility or as a single unit with full body input during swimming. Their upper eyes remain useful for keeping a lookout for danger while their lower eyes search the seabed for hidden prey.
The young of this nailfin are birthed small at 10 - 15 centimeters and in litters of up to ten. They are instinctively capable at swimming and stick close to their mother. During this early period of their life the mother will stay closer to shallower waters and the surface to lessen the strain on the baby lungs while they learn to hold their breath for longer lengths of time. Though the mother does share her prey with them the young quickly learn how to forage the seabed on their own and grow rapidly to maturity in three years.