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Description
My entry for 's spec challenge #3
These are the speculations about the creatures found in the alien fossil bed and their environment:
The planet is small, similar to Mars. It has an average temperature similar to Earth. The opal hints that the planet is abundant in sand, water and oxygen. Smaller G-forces enable creatures to be much larger than on Earth and their bones to be less dense, making them hard to preserve. Also the scattered remains hint to violent water currents (maybe caused by storms or by tidal forces).

The remains of two creatures were found:

Xenoanguillia ondulata – represented by a large fragmented skull, teeth (Figure 2 in the holotype illustration), a vertebra, fragmentary ribs, and bony rings attributed to gills. The teeth are small but serrated, implying that the animal was a large predator. The snout was long and narrow hinting that it ate medium soft bodied animals. The two holes on the “forehead” and the curvature of the cranium imply that a sensory organ was present on the snout. The eye sockets are small, thus it is possible that this animal had eyes placed on rods. Most of the postcranial elements are missing, so the length of the creature is based on whales. No fins were found, so cuttlefish like mantles were probably present instead. It is unknown why the gills were positioned so far back. Its coloration allowed it to blend well in the environment.

Decapodus spirallis (Figure 1 in the holotype illustration) – was probably a mollusk like creature that used a set of legs for swimming and attaching on surfaces. The pores in the shell were probably used for filter feeding similar to a sea cucumber.

Description
My entry for 's spec challenge #3
These are the speculations about the creatures found in the alien fossil bed and their environment:
The planet is small, similar to Mars. It has an average temperature similar to Earth. The opal hints that the planet is abundant in sand, water and oxygen. Smaller G-forces enable creatures to be much larger than on Earth and their bones to be less dense, making them hard to preserve. Also the scattered remains hint to violent water currents (maybe caused by storms or by tidal forces).

The remains of two creatures were found:

Xenoanguillia ondulata – represented by a large fragmented skull, teeth (Figure 2 in the holotype illustration), a vertebra, fragmentary ribs, and bony rings attributed to gills. The teeth are small but serrated, implying that the animal was a large predator. The snout was long and narrow hinting that it ate medium soft bodied animals. The two holes on the “forehead” and the curvature of the cranium imply that a sensory organ was present on the snout. The eye sockets are small, thus it is possible that this animal had eyes placed on rods. Most of the postcranial elements are missing, so the length of the creature is based on whales. No fins were found, so cuttlefish like mantles were probably present instead. It is unknown why the gills were positioned so far back. Its coloration allowed it to blend well in the environment.

Decapodus spirallis (Figure 1 in the holotype illustration) – was probably a mollusk like creature that used a set of legs for swimming and attaching on surfaces. The pores in the shell were probably used for filter feeding similar to a sea cucumber.