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Rhynca-Rook — Another Napiphore

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Published: 2023-01-12 00:31:59 +0000 UTC; Views: 818; Favourites: 1; Downloads: 0
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Description This creature is another Napiphore, which is adapted for moving through the air. Its napum is the most distinctive part of its anatomy: Unlike other clades, where the napum functions as a lung, this organism has a huge membraneous sack that functions as a balloon. In this sack is the pneumonephridium, which here is mostly adapted into long fibrous arteries which deliver blood to the flesh of the envelope, as well as providing some support. There are also a few smaller branches which function as regular kidneys, as well as secreting hydrogen to fill the envelope. The outlet slit of the napum is occluded by a seal formed from a hard lump on the inner pneumonephridium. Beyond this seal is the other half of the pneumonephridium, which does the normal work of gas exchange and filtering the blood. This structure sits in a muscular sheath that adapted from an extension of the napum: This sheath serves as the creature's lung.

Below the napum the body is not that far from the typical napiphore. The main distinction is the wings, which are derived from the forelegs of the idiosoma. They are relatively small and weak, having adapted to just steer through the air rather than provide lift. The hindlegs are also unique, with this species bearing a pair of stingers in place of feet. Their anal tube is less mobile than in other clades, and is held soundly between the hindleg girdles and the envelope. Internally, they have an extra organ: This is a large growth on the digestive gland in the head, which contains symbiotic hydrogen-producing microbes which produce this animal's lifting gas.

Their cerebrosoma is small and streamlined, with highly reduced antennae: The frontal pair are fused with the face to form nostril slits, whereas the rear pair form a pair of inward-pointing growths in the path of the lung-sheath. The gnathosoma is long and wormlike, with no bones or limbs on most of the segments. The jaws are mostly exposed, and in this species are adapted for durophagy.
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