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Description
The title pretty much says it all; very early Tetrays involved in a mass migration. There's no particular reason to think this, but I imagine them as juveniles all schooling together for safety. Perhaps migrating into the open ocean to join the adult population.

These guys are the most primitive Tetrays I've depicted or indeed imagined, preceding even the Plioray ([link] ) on the family tree. Much earlier than this and there would be little to indicate their "Tetrayality" (?). They still have relatively short necks at this stage, but possess all the major hallmarks of the clade--semi-detached heads, hypertrophied cephalic lobes (perhaps more than I really intended), separated and clearly defined pelvic fins. They swim like sea turtles, and can't yet breathe gaseous oxygen.

I purposely did these as simplified, blurry silhouettes, hopefully evoking the sense that you're getting a shadowy patrial glimpse into the distant and mysterious evolutionary history of the Tetray lineage. The apparent simplicity of the forms belies the amount of effort I put into them, though--I wanted them perfectly symmetrical, so I did half the body as Illustrator paths and then reflected them (about the long axis) to create the other side as a mirror image. It's the same process I use to create bilaterally symmetrical forms for 3D models, and it's very time-consuming--especially because in this case I had to go back and reflect half the body every time I changed the position of the pectoral wings to ensure perfect symmetry. It's not evident from looking at these, but I did put a lot of work into them, really! : /

Description
The title pretty much says it all; very early Tetrays involved in a mass migration. There's no particular reason to think this, but I imagine them as juveniles all schooling together for safety. Perhaps migrating into the open ocean to join the adult population.

These guys are the most primitive Tetrays I've depicted or indeed imagined, preceding even the Plioray ([link] ) on the family tree. Much earlier than this and there would be little to indicate their "Tetrayality" (?). They still have relatively short necks at this stage, but possess all the major hallmarks of the clade--semi-detached heads, hypertrophied cephalic lobes (perhaps more than I really intended), separated and clearly defined pelvic fins. They swim like sea turtles, and can't yet breathe gaseous oxygen.

I purposely did these as simplified, blurry silhouettes, hopefully evoking the sense that you're getting a shadowy patrial glimpse into the distant and mysterious evolutionary history of the Tetray lineage. The apparent simplicity of the forms belies the amount of effort I put into them, though--I wanted them perfectly symmetrical, so I did half the body as Illustrator paths and then reflected them (about the long axis) to create the other side as a mirror image. It's the same process I use to create bilaterally symmetrical forms for 3D models, and it's very time-consuming--especially because in this case I had to go back and reflect half the body every time I changed the position of the pectoral wings to ensure perfect symmetry. It's not evident from looking at these, but I did put a lot of work into them, really! : /