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Description
This is intended to be an illustration created by a scientific illustrator employed for the human expedition to Verracta which took place between 2294 and 2299 CE.

The artwork depicts a cross-section of some rocks, revealing amongst them an organism of the order Crinitips, commonly referred to as bearded worms, which were part of the larger group Lobatomaxilla (there was debate as to whether or not this group should have been considered a phylum or if it was too large and should have been split; needless to say it was a broad group of Verractan “animals”).

Identifying characteristics of Lobatomaxillans were their many sorts of lobe-derived appendages which formed legs or fins as well as the organisms’ “jaws” which were particularly bristly in Crinitips, as seen in the illustration, though bristles were typical of almost all Lobatomaxillans in some form.

Furthermore, Lobatomaxillans had very specialized lobes which ancestrally merged with the frontal section of the organisms’ digestive tracts, extending out like tongues to snatch prey as the Crinitips in this illustration is seen doing.

Also seen in this illustration is a fossil embedded in the rock face, representing a recent discovery important to the time this illustration was created. That fossil was also discussed in the article that this image accompanied which was published in a major journal on the exploration of Verracta as research was revealed to the public in real time.

Description
This is intended to be an illustration created by a scientific illustrator employed for the human expedition to Verracta which took place between 2294 and 2299 CE.

The artwork depicts a cross-section of some rocks, revealing amongst them an organism of the order Crinitips, commonly referred to as bearded worms, which were part of the larger group Lobatomaxilla (there was debate as to whether or not this group should have been considered a phylum or if it was too large and should have been split; needless to say it was a broad group of Verractan “animals”).

Identifying characteristics of Lobatomaxillans were their many sorts of lobe-derived appendages which formed legs or fins as well as the organisms’ “jaws” which were particularly bristly in Crinitips, as seen in the illustration, though bristles were typical of almost all Lobatomaxillans in some form.

Furthermore, Lobatomaxillans had very specialized lobes which ancestrally merged with the frontal section of the organisms’ digestive tracts, extending out like tongues to snatch prey as the Crinitips in this illustration is seen doing.

Also seen in this illustration is a fossil embedded in the rock face, representing a recent discovery important to the time this illustration was created. That fossil was also discussed in the article that this image accompanied which was published in a major journal on the exploration of Verracta as research was revealed to the public in real time.