Lost Land Setting: Vicariant marine animals...

This is most probably the final addition to my Lost Land setting. I decided that the invertebrates and fish of the Lost Land lacked a tiny little something. Most other clades had a good variety of speculative, fictional or shall we say vicariant forms, which had illustrations.

So I dived into my archive of unfinished projects, some of which I had already shown on here. I found quite a few vicariant-looking forms which would fit, all that it took was transferring them from one setting to another. Here they are...

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A tiny, planktonic ammonite that is found drifting in the open ocean in large swarms. Diameter of the shell is no more than 3 millimeters.

A small, wriggling lobopod which catches prey actively in the water column. About 10 centimetres long.

A moderately-sized brittle-star which is adapted to swim actively in the water column, in order to move about.

An over-sized descendant of Callichimaera, which reaches a leg-span of about 20 centimetres. An actively swimming predator of smaller invertebrates.

A free-swimming nudibranch that predates upon small open-water invertebrates of various sorts. Reaching 25 centimetres long, it is highly mobile with large eyes and a keen sense of olfaction and touch.

A long-bodied, free-swimming Vetulicolian which feeds by filtering the water for plankton. It reaches about 30 centimetres long and is a streamlined swimmer.

An open-ocean Iniopterygian which reaches about 30 centimetres in fin-span. It plies surface waters in order to hunt small fish, shrimp and young squid.

A pinecone-shaped armored worm of the Machaeridia group, no more than 15 centimetres long.

 
This unusual-looking sea-squirt is distinctive by its bright pinkish or purplish color, and uncanny phallic appearance. No longer than 12 centimeters, it can often be found as epifauna within tropical bivalve reefs.

 
This is a kind of tiny serpentine Carpet-shark, adapted to crawl along the sea-bed in shallow-near-shore seas. It is able to worm and burrow its way under rocks in order to hunt for the small crustaceans and worms that are its main prey. One of the smallest of Aion's sharks, it only reaches about 20 centimeters long. Its skull and brow are scaly and reinforced, allowing it to push its way beneath and between stones and cobbles on the seabed.

 
Descended from an equally weird Crinoid called Ammonoicrinus, this form uses a float-like organ that grows out of its holdfast, in order to live as a pelagic drifter. It siphons water through its coiled body in order to filter-feed on small plankton and organic particles. Sometimes large congregations of these floaters may be seen far out at sea, they tend to do best in tropical or sub-tropical waters. In its natural position, they usually get no longer than 20 centimeters, with a maximum width of the float being 17 centimeters.

This robust Belemnite is found mainly in sub-tropical to temperate oceans, and hunts from ambush, concealed in lee of a snag, rock or growth of seaweed. Reaching no longer than 30 centimeters, it is unique in that both sexes posses onychite-claspers, which in this form have evolved into a jaw-like trap in order to seize prey.

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All images, designs and writing on this blog are the property of Timothy Donald Morris (unless otherwise indicated), do not use, reproduce, or copy them without my permission.
© Timothy Donald Morris 2024

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