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Description
When designing aliens, many people go for the "ultra cool" and forget that lifeforms can be ridiculous, cute or funny too. Earth has thousands of species which feature in sites like Cute Overload daily. Why should Snaiad be any different?

Blumbomen and their relatives belong in a clade characterized by the groutesque fusion of the first two heads into a vaguely humanoid "face," posession of a facial pouch connected to the genital first head, (to store opulent genitals in males, to shelter the young in females.) and a preferrance for marine littoral environments.

Most blumbomen live like penguins or small seals on Earth; cumbersome on land but graceful underwater. Their mouths conceal muscular, hose-like second heads, which are used to snap up swimming prey, or to grasp around for other organisms in sea plants, sediment or "coral" reefs. With the exception of some species that seasonally eat marine plants, they are all predators on small prey.

Some typical Blumbomen are the Greater Blumbomen (Moronops gularis) and the Spectacular Blumbomen, (Ugrops fascinatus) which prefer warm beaches around the Western continent. They spend equal time in the sea or in land, although they never stay too far away from their home beaches. Blumbomen like these are the most numerous on Snaiad, they have a high species count, including one ring-species complex around the Neomediterranean shores.

Other blumbomen, like the clawless Mikri anyx, are more at home in the sea, and return to land only to breed, or to nurse young.

The presence of a face pouch for sheltering the young has enabled Blumbomeniformes to develop purely marine forms in two separate radiations.

In one end of this spectrum is the bizzarely ornamented Eumegapteros pelagicus, (family Apodoblumbomeniformes) which has lost its back legs completely. They have harpoon-like genitals which are steered by two little fins on their tips, thought to have evolved after a sexual arms race underwater.

The Hadroblumbomeniformes, which are represented here by the truck-sized Thalassomirifex larrana, lack the specializations of the Apodoblumbomeniformes, but nevertheless thrive due to their huge size and insanely-extended second heads, which cannot be retracted into their bodies anymore. Such gigantic necks help to capture relatively large swimming prey by forming a sudden vaccum in a rapid lunge, drawing in the unfortunate victims.

The wild radiation of established bodyplans in isolated environments is a long-observed fact, and it has also worked on the Blumbomeniformes at least once with the fascinating Giant Armless Blumbomen of the remote Mapag island. The furthest these blumbomen venture into the sea is to certain swamps and rivers to drink and sleep. They are completely terrestrial, and feed on a mixture of terrestrial fruits, small animals and beached carrion. Their great size, combined with their horny head-scutes and the ability to vomit stomach acid under stress, protects them from Mapagian predators such as Rape Turtles.

The evolutionary relationships of Blumbomen are hazy, but genetic analyses suggest a tenative affinity or common ancestry with Pescidonts. Their fossil record is scant, although it hints at some very large, probably terrestrial forms.

Some Blumbomen apparently perceive people; bipedal and erect like themselves, as sexual goddesses and try to impress and even molest them with their wild genital displays. Such behavior has led to the development of local slang expressions like "Are YOU a Blumbomen?" used to refer to swingers and sexual miscreants in the local populace.

For more on Snaiad, visit
[link]

Description
When designing aliens, many people go for the "ultra cool" and forget that lifeforms can be ridiculous, cute or funny too. Earth has thousands of species which feature in sites like Cute Overload daily. Why should Snaiad be any different?

Blumbomen and their relatives belong in a clade characterized by the groutesque fusion of the first two heads into a vaguely humanoid "face," posession of a facial pouch connected to the genital first head, (to store opulent genitals in males, to shelter the young in females.) and a preferrance for marine littoral environments.

Most blumbomen live like penguins or small seals on Earth; cumbersome on land but graceful underwater. Their mouths conceal muscular, hose-like second heads, which are used to snap up swimming prey, or to grasp around for other organisms in sea plants, sediment or "coral" reefs. With the exception of some species that seasonally eat marine plants, they are all predators on small prey.

Some typical Blumbomen are the Greater Blumbomen (Moronops gularis) and the Spectacular Blumbomen, (Ugrops fascinatus) which prefer warm beaches around the Western continent. They spend equal time in the sea or in land, although they never stay too far away from their home beaches. Blumbomen like these are the most numerous on Snaiad, they have a high species count, including one ring-species complex around the Neomediterranean shores.

Other blumbomen, like the clawless Mikri anyx, are more at home in the sea, and return to land only to breed, or to nurse young.

The presence of a face pouch for sheltering the young has enabled Blumbomeniformes to develop purely marine forms in two separate radiations.

In one end of this spectrum is the bizzarely ornamented Eumegapteros pelagicus, (family Apodoblumbomeniformes) which has lost its back legs completely. They have harpoon-like genitals which are steered by two little fins on their tips, thought to have evolved after a sexual arms race underwater.

The Hadroblumbomeniformes, which are represented here by the truck-sized Thalassomirifex larrana, lack the specializations of the Apodoblumbomeniformes, but nevertheless thrive due to their huge size and insanely-extended second heads, which cannot be retracted into their bodies anymore. Such gigantic necks help to capture relatively large swimming prey by forming a sudden vaccum in a rapid lunge, drawing in the unfortunate victims.

The wild radiation of established bodyplans in isolated environments is a long-observed fact, and it has also worked on the Blumbomeniformes at least once with the fascinating Giant Armless Blumbomen of the remote Mapag island. The furthest these blumbomen venture into the sea is to certain swamps and rivers to drink and sleep. They are completely terrestrial, and feed on a mixture of terrestrial fruits, small animals and beached carrion. Their great size, combined with their horny head-scutes and the ability to vomit stomach acid under stress, protects them from Mapagian predators such as Rape Turtles.

The evolutionary relationships of Blumbomen are hazy, but genetic analyses suggest a tenative affinity or common ancestry with Pescidonts. Their fossil record is scant, although it hints at some very large, probably terrestrial forms.

Some Blumbomen apparently perceive people; bipedal and erect like themselves, as sexual goddesses and try to impress and even molest them with their wild genital displays. Such behavior has led to the development of local slang expressions like "Are YOU a Blumbomen?" used to refer to swingers and sexual miscreants in the local populace.

For more on Snaiad, visit
[link]