#freshwater swimming holes | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

bethanythebogwitch · 2 months

Text

Wet Beast Wednesday: electric eel

Prepare to be jolted this Wet Beast Wednesday as we dive into the shocking world of electric eels. The fist thing to know about electric eels is that the name is a lie. Not the electric part, that's true, but the eel part. Despite appearances, electric eels are actually knifefish, a group of freshwater fish that are more closely related to catfish and piranha than to true eels.

(Image: three electric eels swimming in an aquarium. One in front is seen in profile. It is an elongates, slender, brown fish with tiny pectoral fins and a long anal fin that runs under most of the body. End ID)

There are three species of electric eel, though they are so similar to each other that they were previously classified as one species. The species are Electrophorus electricus, Electrophorus voltai, and Electrophorus varii. The main difference between the species are in the shape of the skull. All electric eels are elongated fish that are cylindrical at the front and flattened vertically at the tail. They have no pelvic or dorsal fins and the tail fin is small and fused with the anal fin, which runs across most of the body. The anal fin is the primary means of locomotion for the eels. By undulating the fin in a wavelike motion, the eel can swim forward, backward, or hover in place. The body of the eel is scaleless, instead bing covered in muddy brown skin. Electric eels grow throughout their entire lives and grow new vertebrae as they get longer. The largest species, E. electricus, can reach 2 meters (6.6 ft) long and weighs up to 20 kg (44 lbs). They are obligate air-breathers, being incapable of obtaining enough oxygen through their gills to survive. Instead, they must surface every two to ten minutes to breathe. The inside of the mouth is wrinkly and heavily vascularized, resulting in a high surface area that can absorb oxygen as long is it stay wet. The floor of the mouth can flex to draw air in and then it is forced out through the gills. Carbon dioxide is excreted through the skin. Electric eels have poor eyesight, but have electroreception and very good hearing thanks to Webers apparatus, a set of tiny bones that connect the inner ear to the swim bladder. The apparatus amplifies sounds that the ear would not be able to detect on its own.

(Image: a close-up of an electric eel's head. It is round and brown, reminiscent of a potato in texture. The mouth is located on the frond and is closes, with no visible teeth. Tje eye is very small and pale blue. Across the head are sensory pits that look like small holes. End ID)

All of the vital organs of the eels are packed into the first fifth of its body length. The rest of the body contains the electric organs. Keeping the vital organs in the front of the body isolates them from the electric organs, preventing the fish from damaging their organs while generating electricity. The electric organs take up so much more space because they need to generate very powerful electric shocks. Most fish that hunt with electricity are saltwater species as salt water conducts electricity much better than freshwater. Because electric eels are freshwater fish, they need to generate much more powerful shocks to effectively hunt other animals. E. voltai can produce a maximum recorded 860 volts of electricity, the highest of any animal. Electric eels are electroreceptive, able to sense electric fields in their surroundings. Electroreception is divided into passive (animal senses electric fields of others) and active (animal generates its own electric field and can sense distortion in that field caused by other objects or animals). Electric eels are active electroreceptors. They sense changes in their electric field using sensory pits on the head that are derived from the lateral line system that all fish have. Electric eels have three electric organs: the main organ, Sach's organ, and Hunter's organ. The main organ sits in from of the Sach's organs while the Hunter's organ sits beneath both. The organs are derived from muscles and consist of stacks of structures call electrocytes, which are made up of specialized cells. When the brain sends a signal to the electric organs to produce a shock, special ion channels pump sodium ions into the cells while different channels pump potassium out. This creates a sudden difference in electric potential, which is what generates the shock. Producing electricity is a costly process and the eels need rest and nourishment between multiple successive shocks. The main organ generates the powerful shocks used to stun prey while the Sach's organ creates weaker shocks used for active electroreception. Hunter's organ appears to support the other two.

(Image: an artistic depiction of a cross-section of an electric eels, showing the structure of the main electric organ. From there, the image is zoomed in on multiple times, showing the the structure of the electrophytes, the protein channels, and the structure of the proteins involved in generating electricity. End ID. Art by Daniel Zukowski)

Electric eels are found in northern South America and the ranges of the three species generally do not overlap. They prefer muddy bottoms or swampy areas. The terrain of their territory changes quite a bit through the year. In the wet season, water levels rise, flooding sections of forest and grassland and connecting streams and ponds. In the dry season, water levels drop and many streams and ponds are isolated. These isolated bodies of water become warm, low-oxygen areas where fish that rely on gills are at a disadvantage while air-breathing fish like the electric eels can thrive. Electric eels are nocturnal predators that detect and stun prey through their electric abilities. Their diet consists mostly of fish, but they will take just abut anything. While mostly solitary, E. varaii have been observed coordinating with each other to hunt schools of tetras. When the electric field generated by Sach's organ is disturbed by another animal, the eel will use the main organ to produce a strong shock to stun the prey. Stunning can be done from a distance, but is more effective if the eel makes contact with the other animal. An initial shock may be used to temporarily immobilize prey long enough for the eel to contact it and release a second shock. Some sources propose that the eel can use its shock to forcibly contract muscles in other animals, either immobilizing prey or forcing prey to move, making them easier to sense. Where or not this is something the eels can actually do is up for debate. Electric eels also use their shocks to deter potential predators. When feeling threatened by something on land, the eel can leap out of the water to make contact with the threat and shock it. Very few animals prey on electric eels, but known predators include caiman, alligators, and piranha.

(Image: six frames showing na electric eel in captivity responding to a perceived threat (a fake caiman head) by partially leaping out of the water and contacting the head to shock it, before returning to the water. End ID)

Electric eels breed in the dry season. Males will use their saliva to glue together mud and sand into nests where the females lay their eggs. The male then fertilizes the eggs by releasing sperm onto them. The females may lay eggs multiple times during the breeding season and can lay up to 1200 at a time. The male stays by the nest to guard the eggs and hatchlings for up to four months. The lifespan of electric eels is in question, but captive specimens can live for up to 20 years.

(Image: an electric eel resting on a pile of wood next to some rocks. End ID)

All species of electric eel are classified as least concern by the IUCN, meaning they are not at threat of extinction. Threats to them mostly consist of pollution and habitat loss. Studies of the electric properties of the eels have lead to multiple discoveries and inventions. In particular, Luigi Galvani was inspired by studies on the eels when he invented the battery. Electric eels are also important in the study of the voltage-gated sodium channel. These channels are used to generate electricity, but are also used to trigger the contraction of muscle cells in many species, including humans. It is hard to study the channels in muscle cells because they are found in very small amounts. The electric organs of the electric eel have much higher quantities of these channels, making it much easier to study them. Better understanding of voltage-gated sodium channels could lead to improvements in prostheses and medical implants.

(Image: a cartoon showing an electric eel swimming with a black cloud emerging from its tail. Threee other eels watch from the side, one commenting "Ew... I can't believe he's still running on fossil fuels". End ID. Source)

#wet beast wednesday #electric eel #fish #fishblr #knifefish #freshwater fish #biology #zoology #ecology #animal facts #informative #science

101 notes · View notes

knight-elkwarden · 1 year

Text

Carpet Drakes are a group of mostly aquatic ambush hunting hexapods found throughout the rivers and lakes of Har Fang. They are believed to be physiologically very similar to the first hexapods of millions of years ago.

While more common and diverse to the west of the continent, some species are still found in modest numbers to the east.

Giant Carpet Drake

Giant Carpet Drakes are found exclusively in the Musonese river basin, where the wide, murky, slow moving water offers them the best environment for their ambush hunting lifestyle. Despite their size and rather clumsy looking body, these giants are capable of surprising bursts of speed and have been known to capsize boats.

They readily see humans as prey, though they tend to back off if they realize their cover has been blown. Sometimes hunted by dragons.

Stubby Carpet Drake

A relatively small species. These drakes live in fast flowing rivers and streams, where they can easily anchor themselves to the riverbed with their long hooked claws. They are most often seen at higher elevations and in colder water, though they are very hardy and can survive a wide range of temperatures.

Not particularly dangerous to humans, but they will bite and scratch if they feel threatened.

Common Carpet Drake

The most widespread of the carpet drake species, hence the name. It is believed that it has either multiple subspecies or is multiple closely related species. These animals are found in almost any freshwater habitat and are extremely hardy creatures.

Not domesticated, but certain riverside communities have managed to tame some individuals. Caution should still be exercised when handling them since their bite is strong enough to sever fingers.

Musonese Carpet Drake

Despite the name, these creatures can be found outside of the Musonese river basin, though they are most common within it. They have a narrower body to help them navigate their often flooded and dense with foliage homes. They live only in warm and wet habitats on the western side of the continent.

Naturally skittish, but can be tamed pretty easily with enough patience.

Nyrian Carpet Drake

These carpet drakes inhabit the dry savannas and deserts of Har Fang, particularly Nyr, but neighboring regions also have populations of these creatures. The only known carpet drake species to aestivate, cocooning themselves in clay and water to stave off desiccation until the rains return and fill the watering holes.

Aggressive and will attack careless humans.

Kelp Stalker

Found wherever kelp forests exist. These derived drakes are the only known carpet drakes that lives exclusively in salt water. These ambush predators hide in the kelp to catch passing fish and other small prey. Closely related to the River Stalker and other free swimming carpet drakes.

Curious about humans and will follow them around sometimes, but tends to avoid dragons.

River Stalker

Fast swimming drakes native to the eastern side of the continent. Only known carpet drake that isn't an ambush predator. Highly social creatures, they are known to hunt in bands consisting of a dozen individuals. They can tolerate brackish waters, but are most comfortable in fresh waters.

Tends to avoid humans and dragons whenever possible.

Dwarf Carpet Drake

Found almost anywhere with fresh water. Thought of as something of a pest in cities, where they infest wells and crawl along roads during heavy rains. In the wild they feed mostly on small fish, insects, insect larvae and generally anything else they can fit in their mouths.

City dwelling dwarf carpet drakes are somewhat bold and will bite if provoked, but in the wild they are extremely skittish. Sometimes harvested by humans and dragons for their magical properties and general abundance.

Jewel Drake

Small tree dwelling carpet drakes from the Musonese river basin. A large number of jewel drake species are known, but they all have a few things in common: Vividly colored and highly poisonous. Their toxins come from their diet, and so people have figured out how to keep them as pets without the high risk of poisoning.

The species pictured here is known as the Ultramarine Jewel Drake. All species posses a sharp claw on their front two pairs of limbs, which can easily puncture skin and cause the poison on their skin to seep into the body. Caution is heavily advised when handling these creatures.

Root Serpent

Originally thought to be a serpent due to it's elongated body, it was eventually figured out that it was instead a carpet drake, though the name stuck. These creatures are found mostly in Musonee, where they hide among the mangroves, looking like roots to fool their prey.

A relatively popular pet and familiar in Musonee due to their elongated shape and gentle temperament.

#spec evo #world building #spec bio #speculative biology #speculative evolution #art #myart #my art #Har Fang #worldbuilding #fantasy #fantasy worldbuilding

479 notes · View notes

ranticore · 2 months

Text

this is as far as i got into a diagram of siphos, the dominant life form of Siren, my big big worldbuilding project. it's fuck ugly and i am not lining this. I really liked the idea of alternating generations and a stupid complex life cycle. Ultimately there are no 'plants' on Siren as we know them. Instead we have the 'sessile' generation of the creatures which, in a different 'active' generation, are among the fastest and most active apex predators in the vast freshwater seas of Siren. It took the first human settlers on Siren years to understand that what they were assuming were completely different animals were in fact all the same animal - and, ultimately, it brings into question the definition of 'species' as it stands.

Tides are regular but slow; a yearly occurrence (when not a neap or spring supertide). When there is no or very little water movement (during a low tide phase), the fresh water forms strongly stratified layers, including an anoxic dead zone near the bottom. the increased water flow of a rising or falling tide increases mixing in the water, and provides enough nutrient flow for the sessile adult phase of the siphos to happily live their lives anchored to the substrate, feeding by suspension. each 'leaf' has a feeding structure which i have not designed yet, but also uses gas exchange to create air bladders in a process not unlike photosynthesis. the bladders raise and lower the leaves in the water column to take advantage of zooplankton density (diel vertical migration).

Each leaf produces two motile clone larva which break out and swim away. It's not uncommon for these larva to be released in a swarm when the adult sessile sipho is under attack or being eaten. The two holes in the leaves will slowly refill with the next clones. The larvae swim until they meet larvae of another sessile adult, whereupon they spawn, releasing planktonic gonads for sexual reproduction. the eggs form thick mats on the sea floor (some with an additional 'worm' stage of joined together eggs which trundles along until it finds suitable substrate) and eventually sprout into more sessile adults.

Whether or not the larva undergo sexual or asexual reproduction depends on oxygen saturation in the water. If the water has a low saturation, it is likely due to a period of stratification in the water column (still water at high or low tide). Because there may not be enough prey for a sessile adult to get by on, it triggers the beginning of the active generation. the larva instead divides asexually and enters a kind of locust phase of rapid development into swarms of nymphs which form most of the "fish" in Siren's seas. The nymphs progress through several stages of development, as the water continues to settle and stratify, until ultimately they are able to leave the water. similar to dragonflies, the nymph 2 stage are the largest flying predators native to the planet, and feed mostly on smaller siphos of other species and the insect-like creatures that swarm around the coastlines. the nymphs are sexually active and can lay fast-developing eggs which will hatch into more nymphs. nymph swarms number in the trillions and are very short-lived, taking advantage of only a few weeks of ideal conditions.

during a neap or spring tide year, when the water is liable to undergo extreme, catastrophic changes, the nymph 2 stage will then become fully active adults; too heavy to fly, the adults of the active generation propel themselves via specialised hydrofoil arms. they prey mainly on nymphs of other species (though cannibalism is common) and, since the settlement of Siren, sea-dwelling or even flighted humans. with the ability to travel very far and very fast, these adults are the means by which entire species can uproot and fuck off to a more livable area if the neap tide decides to turn their aquatic home into a new continent.

They do eventually spawn and, depending on oxygen saturation, release eggs that will become nymphs or sessile adults.

#xenobiologists HATE them #there are many species with roughly this sort of life cycle but some oddballs with terrestrial phases as well #setting: siren

49 notes · View notes

tribbetherium · 7 months

Text

Insects, just as on Earth, have become tremendously successful on HP-02017: overshadowed by the hamsters and their spectacular descendants, but nonetheless unimaginably numerous, diverse, and vital to the balance of the countless ecosystems and biomes that have flourished across the planet for millions of years, from cold polar tundras to temperate forests to scorching deserts and, in the Middle Temperocene, a time of flooded coasts and expanding oceans thriving with life in its sunlit shallows, even the seas itself.

Many dipteran flies and a few hymenopterans too have taken up partial residence in coastal areas, convergent with Earthly brine flies, whose larvae live in shallow, salty tide pools and whose adults gather in massive swarms by the beach, where they in turn feed a wide array of wildlife such as ratbats, pterodents, rattiles, shrabs, squoads and more. But few live out in the open ocean, a realm whose arthropod inhabitants are instead governed by the shrish, their numerous basal krill ancestors and loads upon loads of nondescript zooplanktonic crustaceans. Yet the presence of coast kudzu, an unconventional, fast-spreading sea grass that floats entirely on the surface and can blanket whole square kilometers of ocean surface in favorable regions, provides a suitable habitat for the most unlikely of marine insects: the kudzu seatle (Thalassoscarabus spp.)

Descended from freshwater diving beetles that likely in turn descended from the darkling beetle Tenebrio molitor, one of the planet's earliest colonists, the kudzu seatle's ancestor was among the many victims of coastal storms that were swept out to sea and became unwitting pioneers. While many unfortunately perished and a lucky few made it to oceanic islands where they flourished, others, of more salt-tolerant strains, remained out at sea, some making it to the patches of coast kudzu where their descendants have flourished ever since.

Kudzu seatles spend much of their time clinging among the tangled floating forests of leaves and stems, to rest, hide themselves from predators, and to lay their eggs. Their eggs, laid in clusters of up to a hundred at a time, are attached to the stems of coast kudzu, where they hatch within a few days' time into small, bristly larvae that cling to the coast kudzu with their six thoracic legs to feed on microbial aggregations, algae, plankton and organic detritus, but are capable of swimming actively through jerky wiggling motions of their abdomens. When at rest, the larvae cling near the surface and extend an abdominal breathing tube to the surface, in order to breathe air, quickly diving and holding their breaths when disturbed by waves and ascending once more as the surface calms. As the larvae grow, they become ever more voracious, soon after graduating to feeding on the coast kudzu itself in its later instars. Once it reaches a full size of roughly two inches, it stops feeding and prepares itself for its transformation.

Yet in the open sea, there are few, if any, places for a larva to safely hole up in and become immobile for a prolonged period of time. As such, the kudzu seatle has an unconventional adaptation: a motile pupa, capable of swimming actively through contractions of its abdomen and possesses a specialized reserve of fat to fuel its motility, separate from its energy sources that guide its transformation as it does not eat for the two-week duration of its pupation. It now breathes at the surface through two thoracic tubes, and spends much of its time at the surface, diving back down when disturbed by vibrations and shadows.

At last, after an average of 14-16 days, the adult finally ecloses as a mature beetle, clinging to the surface of the coast kudzu to allow its elytra to harden. The pupae, guided by hormonal and light triggers, all emerge simultaneously just after sunset where they are much safer from predators. By dawn their exoskeletons will have hardened, their elytra now serving as oxygen tanks where they store bubbles of air, and now, swimming along with the aid of bristly legs and possessing excretory organs derived from their gut lining that clear their bodies of excess salt, the adults begin the final phase of their life cycle, being active hunters of zooplankton and larval shrish and pescopods, as well as feeding on the sap of coast kudzu as a supplement of energy-rich carbohydrates, throughout their adult life that can last as long as six months to a year depending on the species and local climate, throughout which they constantly mate and reproduce incessantly, with each female able to produce as many as 600-1000 eggs in a lifetime.

Various species of kudzu seatle are found across the oceans of HP-02017, such as the most common coastal kudzu seatle (Thalassoscarabus larsoni), which is predominantly a omnivorous plankton-feeding denizen of shallow tropical seas, to the larger pelagic kudzu seatle (T. shocirus) that is a more active hunter of smaller invertebrates in coast kudzu patches in open waters far from shore, to the forest kudzu seatle (T. puget) that thrives in the "emergent layer" of seagrass forests and experience massive population booms each summer that become a feast for predators of all kinds. The latter species, ranging around the shores of South Ecatoria, are very familiar to shore-dwelling calliducyons such as the baywulves and riveners as their breeding explosions seasonally blanket the surface with millions of larvae, many of which wash ashore and are considered a seasonal treat by the ocean-side foragers: though "sea bug season" does not last, as, while the larvae and particularly the fat-rich pupae are a favorite of theirs, the hard-shelled adults they eventually metamorphose into are considered bitter, chewy and highly unpalatable. Due to the somewhat shrimplike appearance of the larva and pupa, the calliducyons do not distinguish them from shrish and merely consider them as just another species of shrish, or "seaswimmer bug": though the resemblance of the adult to terrestrial beetles has not gone unnoticed by the riveners who call it in their dialect as "sea land bug", the paradoxical statement of which is the subject of local rhymes, songs and amusing folk stories.

----------

#speculative evolution #speculative biology #spec evo #speculative zoology #hamster's paradise #ask #spectember

78 notes · View notes

dirty-bosmer · 9 months

Note

Tell me about the fish you saw snorkeling please :)

Oh my GOD I nearly burned my self with my coffee when I saw this. Thank you so much for asking, but also you've opened the flood gates because it just so happens I am about to dump so many fish on you. While I primarily study freshwater fishes, I am a lover off all things aquatic, so here we go (all these images are from the internet):

Parrot fish galore and HUGE ones at that. The biggest one I saw looked like this. I don't know my scarids very well, but I do know that I saw a bumphead parrotfish. So funny looking. I was honestly surprised by how all the fish out there are CONSTANTLY nipping at the corals, but the current was pretty strong so we all had to swim a lot. It makes sense that they always need to be eating. I had no idea life on the reef was so turbulent

A lot of acunthurids. No blue tangs but plenty of brown ones and some unicorn tang! The ones I saw had really small humps.

So the common name for acunthirds is surgeonfishes because they have these sharp, blade like spines on their caudal peduncle called a scalpel. You can see it a bit more clearly on the Clown Unicornfishes (which were my fave cause the colors were so bright). Here they're the bright orange processes near the tail.

Wrasses. SO many wrasses. We saw birdnose wrasses with their long snoots, moon wrasses that were as colorful as rainbow lorikeets. My favorite were the cleaner wrasses following all the big parrotfish around and eating their ectoparasites,

I saw a moray!! That was the most unexpected find for me. I was the only one in my group to see one, but it was so far out that the crew working the sailboat had to call me back in 😅 It was brown and spotted black and looked just like this guy. I didn't actually see his head, but I saw his long long body. He was huge!!

Some gobies hiding in their holes. Apparently some species of goby have a mutualistic relationship with shrimp. The shrimp digs a series of tunnels in the sand and the goby stands sentinel at the entrance. The shrimp then maintains contact with the goby with its long antennae so that it knows if the goby moves or startles when predators are nearby.

The goatfish was probably my second favorite find after the moray because I had no idea they were out there. Goatfish have two long chin barbels covered in tastebuds that they use to probe along the sand in search for prey. They are quite dextrous barbels too. They flick em around so fast!

I got stung by something! it whipped me across the face pretty much 20 minutes into the water and it felt long and filamentous so i thought maybe it was some stray strand of anemone or jellyfish with active nematocysts. The crew member said it was likely a small jelly so woohoo! I got stung by a jelly on the great barrier reef :D

Triggerfish. Iw as hoping to see more tetraodonotiforms like puffers or filefish or a cowfish maybe, but I'm glad I still got to see at least one representative of the order cause they are among the most bizarre groups of fishes

This Moorish Idol that looked exactly like Gill from finding nemo

Lemonpeel angelfish, bluegirdle angelfish, emperor angelfish, you name it.

a lot of chaetodontids too. As I said, I don't study marine fishes so all the butterfly fishes looked so similar to me XD most of them were some combination of white, yellow, and black with their characteristically tall bodies and narrow snouts.

Giant clam!!! THEY WERE SO BIG. And so colorful. The movement of their spiracle truly hypnotized me.

Alright. That's all I got time for at the moment, as I need to pack and head up to the rainforest for the last leg of my trip. I'm sure I have forgotten dozens of fish already XD Thank you for attending my show and tell and for expressing interesting. Truly, I'm living any biologists dream rn, and I couldn't be more grateful for the opportunity to visit such a beautiful part of the world 🥲

#asks #personal #great barrier reef

25 notes · View notes

spidermilkshake · 1 year

Text

Underground Landscapes and Biomes

To flesh out the grand underside of Ancardia's world, and to emphasize that, rather unlike the standard "big underground area" of fantasy worlds, this Underground is rich with biomass and potential for life--though the life there is very different from that of the Surface. A sample cross-section map of the way the Underground's world is laid out is presented here, with distinctive types of landforms/chamber structures and biomes labelled. I'll start describing from the top-down:

The Surface

The surface of the world, with all its more familiar sorts of deserts, forests, shores and mountains. The Surface technically counts even those caverns of surface-types, even if they lead to passages that access the Underground, meaning the definition of "Surface" includes from the highest mountain top to the deepest ocean trench, as well as every cave or tunnel up to 100 meters below their openings.

Surface Caverns

The more familiar sort of cave that Surface-dwellers would know. Surface caverns can be small cul-de-sacs formed by volcanic activity, wind, or most commonly running water, or vast labyrinthine networks that stretch on for miles. Most are openings formed of hollows in bare rock--light is generally minimal as bio-luminescent organisms are both rare and scarce in this relative desert. Still, these caves do support some life, including a few species which colonize upwards from the Underground such as the Depthmoss lichens and a few small fungi, but most life here consists of small blind fishes and salamanders, insects like crickets, roaches, and springtails, a legion of bat species which only use such places for shelter, and a number of other incidental Surface animals who shelter or den in caves but spend most of their lives outside of them, such as bears, pigeons, gremlins, wolves, packrats and a number of lizards and snakes. Many humanoids also use these caves for habitation, such as the Parrgeg Troll tribes, orders of Druids of Ulderon or of Valas, and all manner of rangers and hunters. Surface Caverns generally max out in height at around 60 meters, and total chamber length or width at 200 meters. Most are far smaller.

Underground Streams

Whether they resurface at some point or not, these intrusions of Surface water into the caves form much of the basis for the ecosystems below for two reasons: Water seep resulting in the abundant fresh water supplies in many areas of the Underground, and as a means for the ancient ancestors of many animals, alga, fungi and plants that adapted to this underworld. Those that bore through soft areas and end up directly in the Underground are often distinguishable by the distinct lack of weak-swimming animal life in them, and will often include only minimal freshwater sponges, suction-cup minnows, and speedier blind eels.

Surface Sink

Sinkholes are not unheard of in Ancardia, but a Surface Sink is a grade above. These land forms are often back-filled with rubble, sand, and especially glacial debris, but this layer of ground forming the basin is seldom very stable, and any intensive digging, building, or even severe weather can result in smaller sinkholes opening up and giving way completely into Surface-to-Underground Pits. These generally range in diameter from 20 meters to 100 meters, and the layer of the clogging debris is generally between 10 and 25 meters thick only.

Surface-to-Underground Pit

These structures are astoundingly dangerous (including the unstable Sinks that cover them up) and can drop vertically down into the Underground levels for over 300 meters straight down. While ledges can exist along the sides of these gaping holes in the earth, many known to exist are actually very smooth-sided due to their formation being glacial in origin. Some of these periodically remain open to the Surface for decades to centuries at a time, introducing shafts of sunlight down into the area below and making these areas some of the brightest-lit in all the Underground. The largest known pit of this type as of the late 14th Age exists in part of the Northwest Drakalors, directly overtop of the Gnumian city of Edipato and its surrounding countryside--this pit extends for 780 meters from the mountainous elevations and the opening itself is about 137 meters in diameter, producing a shaft of sunlight that supports a number of Surface moss species amongst the Underground natives.

Dry Connection or Pass

A Dry Connection, or a Dry Pass, is a tunnel structure of any shape and size that resembles a Surface cave, but notably connects Surface Caverns to a level of the Underground, or a higher level to one along a lower plane. These tunnels contain minimal bodies of water, usually only small pools formed of condensation or small springs seeping into crevices, and the life within these is still fairly scarce, but consists of many more species of Underground lichens, insects, mosses and hardier fungi such as the Dazal'gulr puffball. Sometimes Surface species of rodents or bats may make it down into these tunnels, but usually do not stay long.

Water Connection or Pass

Similar to the Dry Connections, these passages between Surface and Underground are narrower tunnels or tunnel networks. The main exception is that the Water Connection is primarily defined by a Surface waterway descending through softened limestone layers, though generally not completely filled with water. Sometimes Water Connections will become Dry Connections over time as a result of shifting watercourses on the Surface, and in most cases these subterranean rivers are hazardous to navigate due to the substantial current and vertical drops on their way to other water bodies.

Single-Level Greatchambers

The most basic type of Greatchamber, those of the single-level sort make up over one third of the space within the Underground, and are usually connected to several other similar chambers by dry or water connections or to an even larger one. The term "single-level" refers to the average ceiling height and the absence of high escarpments or deep chasms splitting a chamber into multiple levels. These greatchambers range in ceiling height from 100 meters to 250 meters, and are usually several dozen kilometers in at least one other dimension. Chambers this large are capable of generating their own low cloud systems, wind currents, and if separated from other chambers by a narrow enough passage, these weather conditions can be isolated to single areas and differ dramatically from their neighbors.

Wall Tunnelings

Wall Tunnelings are small pockets or caverns excavated by natural forces, creatures, or sometimes as mines or sheltered areas by humanoid beings, notable in that they essentially form a cave within a cave, and offer respites from the weather that exists in the Underground as well as from wild creatures and natural lighting. Many cultures choose to make their infrastructure and homes using wall tunnelings rather than constructing places in the open chambers--these generally include the Murruk Trolls, Minotaurs, some Dwarven groups, and the Underground's Ogres.

Deepfall

A deepfall is a particular type of waterfall existing only in the Underground, defined as one where a running stream or river plunges from one layer of the Underground (or from the Surface Caverns) directly down the full height of a chamber into its destination. Deepfalls frequently generated very turbulent currents and misting around where they make contact with the lakes, rivers, and pools they feed into, and the depth of the lake or river bottom is often deformed into a deadly pit many meters deeper than the surrounding water, almost always full of powerful cycling currents that transform it into a body-trap. Creatures that live in these pits are limited to certain species of freshwater mussels and other sessile invertebrates, or large predators/scavengers capable of immense grip on the bottom surface.

Stalagmite Pillars

These landforms are usually found on the top of natural rises, with many of the stalagmites meeting the stalactites forming from water seep in the ceiling and combining into massive sloping structures. Cracks and crevices along the vertical surfaces of these structures are the typical denning areas of Slypha, a species of large predatory animals closely related to bats, and a number of lichens, mosses, and fungi are specifically known to favor the height and the airflow when growing high up on the pillars. Dark Elves are known to use these stalagmites and the larger pillars as central anchors for their larger buildings and towers, drilling into the pillar itself and building the levels of the edifice around it in a circular pattern of outward-facing rooms.

Fungal Forest

A very common biome found in all levels of the Underground--teeming with dozens of species of fungi, lichens, and also a variety of understory and forest floor plants that live entirely (or almost entirely) off of the light produced by most other species found here. Supported by the fungi, a great many kinds of insects, arachnids, molluscs, and other animals can be found in these places as well, though megafauna is more limited by the thickly-vegetated areas and tougher, fibrous stalks of fungal trees blocking the larger creatures entry into all areas. Giant wolf spiders, Dire Flatback millipedes, greatrats, greatbats, dire violet rove beetles, cave-lions, dire ants, aegiszarl and a host of other creatures are common under the canopy of the mushrooms. For this biome to form, it generally requires a lowland zone of relatively high humidity and generally little to no acidic content in the soil layer.

Runoff Reservoir Lakes

These bodies of water are still, generally with no current whatsoever and not contributing to any streams or rivers, and are fed from deepfalls or more ordinary waterfalls and seeps from the level above. Their stillness contributes to a great deal of aquatic plant life in these lakes, which in turn support a succession of tiny, small, moderate and even some very large animals.

Waterplant Forests

While most common in runoff reservoir lakes, these thick growths of numerous aquatic plant species and their subsequent animal communities can take root in any still or slow waterway. The largest plants are the Deep-lilypads, whose dark magenta leaves can stretch upwards from their roots over 4 meters and the pad itself be over a meter wide. Large varieties of edible plants and alga grow in abundance in the shallows and on the shores, making these common habitats to find grazing Deepwater rats, Deepmara, and a number of millipede, beetle, and other herbivorous creatures, as well as the predators that hunt them.

Submerged Water Connections

These are passages that connect chambers or entire layers of the Underground together through bodies of water, leaving them water-filled tunnels that aquatic creatures often use to migrate between regions. The fauna in these submerged passes are usually highly bio-luminescent, and generally consist of mussels, hydra, moss-animal colonies, sponges, colony algae, and a number of small crustaceans and fishes. Larger semi-aquatic animals also use these passages, most notably dire waterscorpion and cave fishers while hunting for the smaller creatures.

Water Labyrinths

Naturally-occurring networks of winding, honeycombed passages interspersed with small rooms, water labyrinths are uncommon structures in the Underground and generally regarded with fear. Even among the most adventurous and inquisitive societies dwelling in this subterranean land have not fully mapped out the ones that have been discovered, and of expeditions that have ventured into known entrances, only half are known to have come back alive. Even the usually quite confident and skilled Draulfyn gem-divers and their tame cave fishers regard trying to search water labyrinths as crazy. Many of the Underground’s fish species are known to traverse these places, as well as many water insects and crustaceans, but very little of the sessile life has natural bio-luminescence, making these passages one of the darkest places down here.

Deep Chasm Lake

Formed from deep fissures with vertical or nearly-vertical walls, these lakes are rare phenomena but several are known to exist in the middle layer and the deepest layer of the Underground, some with an ordinary lake flooding the area slightly above the chasm and disguising its true depth. These lakes can descend to over 500 meters deep, and the deepest of which is yet to be fully and accurately measured. The waters of these lakes are often a stable if chilly temperature, and below the 200 meter mark they generally include a dense layering of more brackish salinity, along with a whole new range of aquatic life adapted for such saltwater.

Side-Spar

These are rather large cavities form either partway up the walls of a much larger chamber, or formed in the side of a surface-to-underground pit. While smaller than the proper greatchambers, they still accumulate biomass in a similar way and support microbiomes within. One well-known side-spar zone exists on the upper layer, close to Dwarven territory, cut 40 meters up the walls of a high chamber and extending 100 meters into the rock base, with a thick region of Dark Scrub and Lichen Barrens filling it and supporting a large population of Dorn Beasts, which prefer the isolated location for brooding their vulnerable young.

Chasm Reefs

In Deep Chasm Lakes, the fauna and flora differ strongly from those of other types of lakes in the Underground. Clinging to the walls, the creatures developing communities near and below the brackish zones are often bio-luminescent, and consist of moss-animals, hydras, red alga, sponges, frilled clams, tubeworms, and pit-maggots (a species of larviform giant caddisfly). Swimming freely are a number of unique freshwater jellyfish, isopods, unusual fish, and waterworms. While there is some overlap in the pelagic species between the more common lakes and the Chasm Reefs (especially in the waterworms and jellyfish), most others are found nowhere else.

Upsloping Entry

A structure that occurs when two greatchambers from two different layers connect directly together through a wide chamber-sized passage, usually with little shifts in local climate but still very much vegetated and full of wildlife as each greatchamber. The change in elevation can be gradual, or involve several steep cliffs, but usually the altitude change is roughly 150 meters.

Two-Level Greatchamber

The vast majority of the upper layer of the Underground is made up of many of such interconnected greatchambers—containing within them either significant hollow escarpments which create yet another sublayer atop the main ground level, or deep canyon and ravines that open out to deeper sublayers in the form of bowl valleys. Intensive tunneling and road-building by several dominant societies in the Underground renders these sheer climbs and drops much more navigable, but in areas of total wilderness rock climbing experience is recommended for traveling at all between the sublayers.

Dark Scrub

This is a biome consisting largely of drier climates of the Underground, and generally lacks most of the signature fungus species. The plants are also generally those which generate little to no bio-luminescence, and are adapted to be chemosynthetic organisms which feed on a mixture of carbon dioxide and mineral content absorbed by the root systems. Many of the plants living here are highly toxic, and any herbivores living in dark scrub are those adapted to be resistant or immune to plant poisons, such as the Runda Beetle and the blind Deeps Greatrat. Carnivorous creatures found in greater numbers include the Silky Crown Centipede, the Dire Grub-owlfly, and the Ramidreju.

Stalagmite Highland

Highlands are common in the landscape of the Underground, though Stalagmite Highlands are a bit more unusual due to being built up by natural moisture seep, creating sleek limestone formations over the granite and basalt of the normal outcroppings. Due to their origin, most of these regions will be laced with small springs, cataract systems of small waterfalls, and fast-moving creeks which host a number of small water life and support a number of animals, plants and fungi on the rocky substrate. Wherever soil can collect, common dark nettles, glass milkcaps, bloody mycenas and full-moon morning glories grow in clusters, and Wolpertingers are known to den in cavities they excise into the softer spots. Hy’izhur Rats, known for their jaw strength and aggression, are also more common in these places.

Half-Ravine

A half-ravine is a curious landform where one side of a canyon partially erodes, leaving one side much higher and steeper than the other. The cavities that form in the tall side are commonly anchors for the Devil’s Rose plant, and premium roosting sites for the numerous species of greatbats and denning areas for wild Javunwalla. The low side conversely offers a sandy, rocky terrain preferred by Dire Scorpion, Burbroot, Demon Daisy and a number of burrowing rodents and insects.

Acid Marsh

A common form of wetland in the Underground, these marshes form in areas close to erosion of various sulfur-containing rocks, raising the soil and water’s Ph to a range of 5.5 to 6. Species of fungi that grow here are adapted to be tough and wood-like, resembling medium-sized branching shrubs (these are thought to be descended from Surface coral mushrooms), and the plantlife that flourishes is that specifically preferring plentiful water and acidity—with no fewer than 100 species of mosses alone, as well as sundews, nettles, arums, willows, and wild celery adapted to the Underground. The verges of these biomes are thought to be the origins of the dark elves’ first successes in breeding tomato, carrot, and potato plants which could thrive in the climates of Ancardia’s underground realm.

Riparian Zones

Forming large portions of the lowlands in all levels of the Underground, the rivers that criss-cross each layer draw about them an abundance of biomass, soil deposits, and wildlife of all kinds. With few exceptions, most of the well-known species of animals, plants, and fungi of the Underground can be found at least as some times in riparian zones. Most of the peoples of the Underground, when roads are either inconvenient to build or not available, depend on these networks of rivers for travel using barges and rowing vessels, and due to the richness of these areas, many settlements were situated within these biomes, or at least adjacent to them. Megafauna are also commonly known to migrate through these zones due to their water needs, and include Urkklerats, Titan Giraffe-Beetles, Ztsadri (steed-spiders), Dorn Beasts, Cave Bears and Cave Tigers.

Moss Prairie

Another common biome which supports high levels of life is the moss prairie, where thick gravelly silt mixtures become colonized by about 45 species of moss, 12 species of tall lichen, 14 species of mushrooms which form luminous fairy rings, and 20 species of various other low-growing plants. Moss of Mareilon is famously known to grow in greater abundance here, and grazing on the various plants and fungus are herds of animals like Dire Mole Rats, Deepmara, the wild Riding lizards and Wolkangis.

Riparian Zone Lake

Lakes form along Riparian Zones in the Underground very commonly, and can be expected to be up to 30 meters deep at the most, sometimes spanning multiple kilometers in one or more direction, and supporting a huge variety of aquatic crustaceans, molluscs, insects and fishes. The largest known fish species in the Underground, the Colossal Eel, typically lives in the deepest parts of these lakes, hunting low-flying and surface-swimming animals, but these huge creatures (topping out at 7 meters in total length, with a body diameter of 1.5 meters) spawn in the rivers joining these lakes. There are few societies in proximity to one of these lakes that do not cultivate a strong fishing and shellfish-diving industry, with the only exceptions being the Murruk Trolls, Minotaurs, and the Gnoll tribes. Even so, Minotaurs are known to barter for the many species of alga that form mats atop the surfaces, using them as prime fertilizer and mineralizer for their crops. Islands or peninsulas situated within these lakes are commonly regarded as ideal locations for keeps and developed cities, and many of the greatest cities such as Evrethrdral, M’zonathrl, Itsati-Hob, Stronung and Thundigh are located in such a place.

Lichen Barrens

Common on areas with steeper slopes and in the rainshadows of higher or broader regions of a greatchamber, the Lichen Barren is usually quite treacherous and rocky, splashed with colonies of no fewer than 150 species of hardier lichens. Most of these lichens do not grow any part of themselves taller than about 3 cm, but can spread to be several meters across each, sometimes with one organism enveloping an entire boulder amongst other rocks covered by other species. Smaller insect and arachnid species thrive here, including Vuugas tarantula, fire beetle, Uqu cricket and Cave solenoid. Lightning lizards are also often known to pass through these areas along the edges, likely after insect life with somewhat less of a threat level to hunt, and if the barrens occur in an area of colder temperatures on average, Glacial Salamanders sometimes wander in to do the same.

Rubblefield

These places are those in frequent flux, places where destabilization of older soil and sandstone layers cause consistent landslides with weather episodes. Very little permanent life dwells here, but they sometimes attract Dwarven mining interests for the probability that new shifts will dislodge boulders with seams of crystal ethrite (the raw form of mythril), adamantium ore, or reveal seams of other precious materials in the rock wall that was newly exposed. In some cases, Rubblefields form over other, more ancient biomes, and between the cracks in rubble pieces some mosses, lichens and colonies of insects can be found. If they stabilize, these places often become Lichen Barrens.

Giga-Chamber

Making up more than a quarter of each layer of the Underground are what is called Giga-chambers. Much like the two types of Greatchambers, the Giga-chamber is large enough to sustain cloud formation and weather patterns, but since the size discrepancy is so great, the weather that occurs varies and increases in severity to a much greater degree. Summer lightning storms are common in Giga-chambers, which only increases their nutrient density and biodiversity. Most of the regions of Evrek and of Thwervond are comprised by several Giga-chambers directly linked together. The ceiling height of a Giga-chamber frequently exceeds 500 meters, and they very often are more than 25 kilometers in all directions.

Lichen Tundra

The Lichen Tundra is much like a mixture of the Moss Prairie and Lichen Barrens in conditions, being placed on rich soil but with vegetative life suppressed and adapted for seasonal swings due to the proximity of cold spots of arcane energy which generate the Glacial Extrusions. This is the natural habitat of the Glacial Salamander, but also has fairly numerous populations of Uqu cricket, Wolkangis, Greatrats, Dire Weta, Ochotle Light-fly, and one subspecies of the Dori Centipede. On the middle layer, a vast region of this Lichen Tundra falls within Orc territory.

Glacial Extrusions

Formed from a natural uptick in arcane energy in certain regions, these masses of ice protruding from the rock base calve off small true glaciers and produce regions of the Underground which are far colder than most. The only places where it gets cold enough to snow or have any other form of frozen precipitation in this underworld are within or adjacent to these intrusions, such as in Lichen Barrens or Glacial Warp Beds. The glaciers themselves seldom melt permanently, fluctuating with the increased temperatures of the rocks and Surface above, and if smaller glaciers do melt entirely they are often replaced by increased glacial mass dropping from the intrusion. Very little besides microorganisms live on the intrusions themselves, though Glacial Salamanders will often migrate to be nearer to them.

Salinated Pools

Pools of a volcanic vent origin in the Underground can sometimes become highly salinized by the eroded deposits of salt minerals and form a highly dense pocket of water up to 5 meters deep and 5 meters across. Very little except for some highly-specialized colony bacteria can live in such salty conditions, but the presence of these pools allows some settlements to harvest and treat this water to turn it into a form of “sea salt” without having to dig for rock salt deposits. It is extremely difficult to drown in these pools, as they are so dense, but drinking out of one by accident can have dire consequences due to both salinity and the bacteria.

Glacial Warp Beds

These are regions left behind after calved glaciers from the intrusions have melted or moved off, usually grinding at the mineral base of the rock or dragging a new layer of soil onto a scoured stone face. There are often very unusual shapes in the bedrock stone of these areas, sometimes forming alcoves that provide shelter and other times bizarre shapes that bear names based on animals or occupations they looked most like to the first few viewers. Many lichens and smaller plant and fungi live in these zones, mostly those adapted to colder temperatures, as snow and freezing rain do occur in proximity to the parent glaciers.

Death-Drop

Another formation of volcanic origin, these deep pits form when the more brittle lavarock of cooled volcanic formations wears away over time and leaves a large pinhole in the much harder substrate of the rock base. They have been recorded to have depths of up to 65 meters straight down, and are accurately named for any who slips down without any form of harness or a way to slow descent.

Giga-Forest

This form of forest is dominated by a particular tree-like organism that developed in the Underground and closest related to muscadine grape vines on the surface—the Warpwood. While warpwood vines will grow in almost any temperate or tropical temperature biome with average to high humidity and stable soil base, in the Giga-Forest almost all large plant life are exclusively made up of particularly high-climbing specimens, typically with the oldest individuals reaching from the ground level up to between 200 and 500 meters to the ceiling. These vine-like “trees” often bend and twist and wrap around each other and stalagmite structures, their stabilizing tendrils boring into stone and each other in a contest to reach the best anchoring points on the stones above. From the ground to the ceiling, myriad other life from bio-luminescent flowers and mushrooms to bat colonies to Drakotsadr spiders and dire bee-hives are supported by the iron-hard framework of these huge plants. Clawbugs and their larger, more deadly relatives the Ashitovis Bug are particularly partial to these biomes, and travelers are advised to beware also of creatures like Cave Bears, Dori Centipedes, Shi’echar moth larvas, and packs of Dire Hyena.

Geothermal Pools

In proximity to volcanic hotspots rising closer to the floor of the Underground or to the few active Lava Flow Zones in regions of the layers, Geothermal Pools of various types frequently form amongst other biomes, or in areas of bare soil and rock if the chemical composition (high sulfur or high salt content) or sheer temperature negates the growth of most life. Most pools are simply naturally-occurring ponds which are heated to a safe temperature by volcanic hotspots, and host a variety of microbial life such as copepods, diatoms and rotifers—these are attractive locations for both wildlife and humanoid cultures as naturally occurring hot baths, especially so when they crop up in cold regions near glacial intrusions. Some of these pools, however, are dangerously hot and are more utilized by rangers to boil food, as they can reach an average temperature of 210 degrees Celsius and contribute to geyser activity on the layers above or on the Surface. Some pools are not too hot to soak in, but are contaminated with various mineral salts or sulfur compounds that can burn and irritate skin—these pools are lifeless except for a few types of extremophile bacterium, though some Alchemists take interest in them for straining the active salts and chemicals out of them.

Lava Flow Zone

In certain places on each of the three layers of the Underground, pockets of upwardly-pressed magma not only form zones where geothermal pools are likely, but break through tiny weaknesses in the rock base and form hot, dry regions with layers of solidified lavarock interspersed with active and dangerous streams of lava flow. The amount and cooling of the lava in these areas is dependent largely on the rotation of Ancardia’s world, which draws the magma base down in times of low pressure and means less of the rock remains molten, and the opposite at other times. The Aggbrun, or Fire Lizards, prefer areas in certain proximity to these lava flows for incubating their nests, and the adults are well-known for traversing even the still-cooling lavarock. While dangerous, Dwarves, Kobolds, Gnolls and Ratling traders all make repeated trips into the lavarock to recover rare minerals and crystals formed or carried there by the active lava streams—this is one of the few places in all of Ancardia to reliably find any significant amount of Eternium ore, and also frequently gives up diamonds, rubies, high-quality iron and deposits of crystalline platinum and adamantium.

Volcano Formations

Within the most long-lasting Lava Flow Zones are a rare few places where small volcanic cones have had time to form, spouting sulfurous smoke and ash and leaking lava streams for century-long periods and experiencing dormancy for centuries between. Unique chemosynthetic fungi and lichens tend to cluster around the stalagmites and ceilings in the chambers containing these volcanoes, feeding on the sulfur compounds and methane released. Without these hardy species, active volcanic periods would jeopardize the other life in the chambers, both from air quality and toxicity of the fumes.

Ash Deposit Zones

In places downwind of the Underground’s volcanoes, Ash Deposit Zones tend to form, with a soil content that is mostly ash and worn-down pumice rock spewed by the volcanic activity. While superficially resembling a pale gray desert, these areas are usually possessing of decent groundwater and frequent volcanically-triggered rainfall from the chamber ceilings, and these one support a great deal of tough and specially-adapted plantlife. It is these regions which are the ideal places to find Morgiaroot growing—a taprooted, wiry-leaved plant with notable medicinal uses.

#biomes #fantasy #landscape #map #resource #underground #underworld #ancardia #example #Ancardian Homebrew #fantasy ecology #fantasy biomes #fantasy landscapes #DnD-like #cross-section #the Underground

28 notes · View notes

king-of-wrath · 10 months

Text

We would have to wait and see if this applies to other sinner (fallen human) characters in Helluva Boss or Hazbin Hotel, but it could give fans some ideas for art or roleplay

The client appearing at the beginning of Season 2 Episode 5 was a camp counselor murdered by one of his coworkers. He remembered where he was when he died (on a boat in a lake) and how he died (drowning), noticed that there were holes drilled into the boat before dying and knew he had told the other camp counselors that he couldn't swim

Looking at his design, we can tell the client's appearance is based on aquatic themes: his hair has become kelp, his fingers (and possibly toes) have become webbed, his teeth are more shark-like and he has a "lava lamp" effect on his stomach (like Bee-lzabub in S2 Ep 8)

It would make sense to give him fish-like features, if he died in water (especially if the writers were making a joke about him "sleeping with the fishes" now). However, his skin and eyes are more like a deep-sea fish's than the kind you would see in a freshwater lake. At the same time though, he could've been given "creepier" features because his corpse sank to the bottom of the lake (which would explain the kelp hair) or because the lake's water was dark and murky (consider the Creature of the Black Lagoon)

But we still have the question of why his stomach is a blue lava lamp. A friend of mine noticed this first, but she theorized that the color and bubbles in the lamp are meant to symbolize water. This could also reflect how (specifically) the client died: by accidentally swallowing water as he tried (and failed) to swim

This could tell us that a sinner's demonic form references how they died. We could apply this to the "X" on Alastor's forehead and Vaggie's missing eye (also marked with an x), Loopty's teeth being piano keys (because a piano crushed him to death). If Martha were to appear in a later episode, her left eye might be missing (because Moxxie shot her through the head, blowing-out her eyeball)

But as much as this makes sense, there are many sinners whose forms don't match their method of death (if we know it) or clearly show how they died. For example, Mayberry's demonic form was very basic: her skin turned pink and her head sprouted horns. Lyle's form was red skin, horns and green swirling eyes. Angel Dust is a fluffy white and pink spider, Husker is a cat with red feathery wings and Vox has a television for a head

We also have the fan theory that a sinner's form is a reference to what they did in life. For example, Angel Dust, Arackniss, Molly and Henroin are all spider-like because they were all members of the same mafia crime family (spinning "webs of intrigue", as it were). Husker might look like a cat because like a stray "alley cat", he spent many nights in an alley (because he was either thrown-out of a bar or lost all his money gambling, since he's an alcoholic gambler). Vox might've been a famous television host or network producer, just as Alastor might've been a famous radio host

#ooc nonsense

8 notes · View notes

naturalswimmingspirit · 2 years

Text

idletheorybus

This little swimming hole wasn’t really a destination. In fact, technically, it wasn’t a swimming hole at all. It was just a shallow freshwater pond where local fishermen go to try their luck, where the duck hunters gather during season to scan the waters. - We’d been driving most of the morning through wheat fields and tiny corn sprouts, past combines and grain elevators, and when we saw the sign for the wildlife refuge, JR almost screeched the tires as he made the right-hand turn. - Down the road, which was a raised dirt track surrounded by wetlands and waterways, we found a spot where we could pull the bus over, near the flowering mustard plants. We shed our clothes and dunked down into the still water. We wound up spending most of the day there, swimming, sunning our skin brown, cooking up a light lunch, watching the terns fly over the water and the ducks dabble in the reeds. - You don’t need to chase “The Spot” you’ve seen on instagram or your favorite travel guide to travel well. In fact, destination travel can miss the point entirely, because, really, what is a trip but a collection of unplanned moments that force you to live in the present? If you pause long enough to see what’s in your immediate surroundings, you’ll probably find something gorgeous, like this homely little swimming-hole-turned-paradise out in the middle of Kansas. #alwaysgoswimming

32 notes · View notes

pokemonbiologyirlthetabletop · 1 year

Text

Goldeen & Seaking

Goldeen (#118)

Ceropiscis elegans

General Information: A simple yet elegant Pokémon, Goldeens are a common site in freshwater rivers, ponds, streams, and lakes. They are extremely powerful swimmers, and they (and Seaking) are the only Pokémon capable of learning Waterfall through level-up! Neat!

Goldeens average at 2 feet tall (0.6 M) and 33.1 pounds (15 kg). It evolves into Seaking at level 33.

Habitat: They are indigenous to the New World and can be found in just about any body of freshwater! They’re reasonably tolerant to polluted waters, too, so can be seen in factory waste-water run-off ponds, too.

Life Cycles: The spawning season is every autumn, but the breeding season is in the Spring, when male Goldeens (and Seakings) will swim upstream to form large schools. Here, the Goldeens compete with others of their kind to determine who has the strongest, thickest horn. That’s not a euphemism!

Goldeens will co-parent their eggs for about a month, when they use their horns to bore holes into riverbed rocks for sheltering their eggs. Clutch sizes average at 200 eggs. Once the baby Goldeens hatch, they are left to defend themselves. As indicated by their clutch sizes, plenty of aquatic predators enjoy snacking on Goldeens, like Croconaws and Feraligatrs, but Goldeens can certainly give would-be predators a run for their money with their horns and impressive swimming!

Behavior: Outside of the breeding season, Goldeen are temperamental fish who like to ram humans and others with their horns for the sake of it. Keeping Goldeen in an aquarium is risky business because they will try to smash through the glass! It’s best to keep Goldeens in ponds and such, not aquarium tanks.

Goldeens are known for their elegant dances.

Diet: They eat seagrass, aquatic plants, and water bugs.

Conservation: Least Concern

Relationship with Humans: Goldeens are simple, elegant, unassuming Pokémon that adapt well to most aquatic environments. Many folks enjoy them in koi ponds, though they can be difficult to keep happy to the inexperienced trainer, and require much larger habitats than most folks are prepared to give them.

In general, Goldeens are more common as ornamental pets, fishing bait, or food, than they are on the teams of trainers, but Goldeens have been pretty thoroughly domesticated by the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas, so much of the temperamentality seen in their wild counterparts has been toned down in domesticated stock.

Classification: Goldeen is in the genus Ceropiscis, meaning “horned fish.”

Seaking (#119)

Ceropiscis rubrum

General Information: Seakings are the evolved form of Goldeen. They are extremely powerful swimmers even capable of scaling waterfalls!

Seakings are 4’03 feet tall (1.3 M) and 86 pounds (39 kg) on average.

Habitat: Seakings are found in pretty much any freshwater body that has room for it. They are tolerant of polluted waters

Life Cycles: Seakings live for an average of 25-35 years in captivity, but some have been known to reach lifespans of 60 years! Their mating cycles are the same as Goldeen, but instead of comparing horns they compete for mates through display of their elegant and complicated dances.

Behavior: Seakings have a milder temper to Goldeens thanks in part to them being bigger and stronger, so the compensation is unnecessary.

Conservation: Least Concern

Relationship with Humans: Seakings have been thoroughly domesticated by humans. In the modern world, Seakings have a pretty dedicated fantatic fanbase with two main camp of folks, those who adore them for their horns, and those who adore them for their fins—according to actual canon lore, and these folks never get along! There are also the folks who raise exclusively Seakings and Goldeens for their beauty.

There are a wide variety of Seaking and Goldeen patterns in the domesticated varieties.

Classification: Seaking’s scientific name is Ceropiscis rubrum, meaning “red horned-fish.”

~~~~~~~~

Hey guess what, if you like my stuff, this is my website where you can find other Pokémon I've written on and more information about the game that I’m slowly making! Check it out! I write books sometimes too.

13 notes · View notes

bethanythebogwitch · 1 month

Text

Wet Beast Wednesday: lampreys

Welcome to the first Wet Beast Wednesday covering an agnathan. What is that, you may ask? Why it means jawless fish. But they aren't really fish even though they live underwater and have gills. Taxonomy strikes again. Anyway, agnathans are more closely related to each other than to any bony or cartilaginous fish and they may represent an early stage in the evolution of vertebrates. There are only two living groups of agnathans: the hagfish (which I'll get to sometime) and the lampreys.

(Image: a pair of lampreys, one resting on rocky sediment and one swimming. They are long, green, slender fish-like animals with only dorsal and tail fins, several holes on the sides of the heads, large eyes, and no visible jaws. End ID)

Lampreys are sometimes mistakenly called eels due to their long and slender bodies. All 38 known species are elongated, scaleless animals with a funnel-shaped, jawless mouth called the buccal tunnel or buccal cavity. They do not have paired fins, only two dorsal fins and a tail fin. The head has one nostril on the top and seven pores on each side that allow water flowing over the gills to exit the body, similar to the gill slits of sharks. Adult lampreys have well-developed eyes while the larvae have weak eyes covered with skin. In addition, they have two simple parietal eyes, making lampreys the only four-eyes vertebrates. The mouth acts like a suction cup and is used to suction onto rocks or other animals. Inside the mouth is a rasping tongue that is used to scrape at food. You may think that all lampreys are parasites that feed on blood. This isn't the case, only 18 species are predatory and some of those are thought to be exclusively scavengers. The rest of the species either feed on algae by scraping it from rocks or never eat as adults, subsisting entirely on energy stores gained as a larva. The last common ancestor of all living lampreys (which is estimated to have either lived during the Jurassic or Cretaceous periods) is believed to have fed on blood as an adult. Lampreys are believed to be part of a sister group to all jawed vertebrates and are considered the most basal (closest to the ancestral form) of all vertebrates. They have cartilaginous skeletons and primitive, cartilaginous structures called arcualia instead of vertebrae. Lampreys are some of the most efficient swimmers and swim using a different method to other fish. Instead of using their fins to push themselves forward, lampreys use their fins to generate low-pressure zones in the water around their bodies to pull themselves forward. The pressure equalizing is what does most of the work of moving the lamprey, allowing them to move while expending little energy. In shallow water, the lampreys can use their suctioning abilities to crawl forward and are able to crawl over obstacles like rocks or ramps. Most lampreys are exclusively freshwater dwellers, but 9 species (all of which are carnivorous) live mostly in saltwater (though they can also live in large bodies of freshwater like lakes) and return to freshwater to breed. Of the 38 species of lamprey, only 5 species (in two families) live in the southern hemisphere. The remaining species are all members of the family Petromyzontidae and live in the northern hemisphere. No species lives in the tropics, seemingly because their larvae are not heat-tolerant.

(Image: a lamprey's mouth seen from below. It round and conical and ringed with multiple rows of sharp, yellow teeth. End ID)

The lamprey life cycle of lampreys starts in streams which adults will often migrate to reach. Adults will create nests called redds by using their suction to move rocks and expose the sediment below. Males use pheromones to attract females and the two intertwine with each other. The male presses a patch of heat-producing tissue to stimulate the female to release her eggs. The male fertilizes the eggs as they emerge. All lamprey species are semelparous, meaning they die after mating. In the case of lampreys that don't eat as adults, their adult forms exist only to mate and die, much like mayflies and some species of moth. Other species that can eat as adults spend up to 4 years feeding and growing before they mate. Larvae are called ammocoetes and once hatched, they are carried downstream to eventually settle on soft sediment. There, they burrow their rear halves into the sediment with their heads exposed. In this stage, they are filter feeders who need running water to bring plankton, algae, and bits of organic detritus to their mouths. Instead of the disc-like mouths of adult lampreys, ammocoete mouths are fleshy hood that enclose a sieve-like structures that filters particles out of the water. The lifestyle of ammocoetes is very similar to that of lancelets, which are extremely primitive chordates believed to represent some of the earliest stages of chordate evolution. Ammocoetes require water high in nutrients to survive as they capture only a small amount of water and therefore food. Ammocoetes are photosensitive, allowing them to change color in response to ambient light (becoming dark in the day and ale at night) and detect if they are properly buried. Depending on species, ammocoetes can grow between 10 and 20 cm (4-8 in) in length and they can spend between 1 and 10 years in this state. Metamorphosis to the adult form can last up to 4 months and lampreys do not feed during this process. Metamorphosis is synchronized between members of the same species.

(Image: three ammocoetes buried in sand with only their heads exposed. They are similar to the adults but pink, with small, barely-visible eyes, and their mouth are flexible and look like fleshy flaps. End ID)

(Image: two lampreys mating. they are coiled onto each other with one using its mouth to suction onto the midsection of the other. They are on a rocky stream bed. End ID)

Lampreys are used in science for several purposes. They are often used as a model organism when attempting to understand the biology of early vertebrates and extinct agnathans. They are also studied quite a bit for their nervous systems. Lamprey brains are very simple and likely represent very early stages of brain development in vertebrates. In addition, they are useful for studies of the transmission of electrical impulses between nerve cells due to their axons (the part of a nerve cell that conducts electricity away from the main body and to other nerve cells), which are large enough for microinjectors to inject test substances into them. Lampreys are capable of fully recovering from having their spinal cords severed, something that is of great interest to surgeons and neurologists. Lampreys have been used as a food source in many cultures around the world. Some species have toxic mucus and blood, requiring them to be cleaned before eating. Historically lampreys have been kept in captivity for use in food as well as other purposes. There are records of people being executed or tortured by being thrown into a pit of carnivorous lampreys. In the wld, carnivorous lampreys generally don't attack humans unless they are starving. In addition, there is a record of one Roman statesman named Lucius Licinius Crassus being scolded for being more upset over the death of his pet lamprey than over the deaths of any of his wives. Unfortunately, the thing a lot of people know lampreys for today is the sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) being an invasive species in the great lakes of North America. They have no natural predators in the lakes and feed on a lot of ecologically and commercially important species. Due to their lack of predators, multiple methods are used to try to reduce their numbers and keep them from harming the ecosystem. These include using barriers to keep the adults from migrating upstream to breed, release of targeted poisons called lampricides, and releasing sterilized males into the lakes to mate with the females.

(Image: two sea lampreys suctioned onto a fish. The fish is green and covered with black dots. The two lampreys are suctioned next to each other on the top of the fish's head. Their bodies are dangling off of the fish in different directions. End ID)

#wet beast wednesday #lamprey #sea lamprey #agnatha #agnathan #jawless fish #fish #fishblr #marine biology #freshwater biology #ecology #zoology #animal facts #informative #image described

79 notes · View notes