Skeljúngur

The Arctic regions of the Vernean oceans are far too cold for most marine reptiles and sharks, leaving these dominions to the cetaceans. The toothed whales are the more successful of the two whale clades, achieving diversity not seen on the surface. The Skeljúngur is one such example of this, despite looking similar to sperm whales, the closest relatives to the Skeljúngur are Belugas and Narwhals, evident by the complete lack of a dorsal fin. The Skeljúngur's main defining trait however is the calcified keratin armour covering the head, back and flippers of the whale. The armour protects the whale from attack from the few predators able to threaten them but also gives them a unique way of fighting back. Skeljúngurs are rammers, preferring to charge head on into both predator and prey. 
 
The icy blue keratin armour is mostly used to batter into arctic coral reefs and oceanic shelves, dislodging and injuring hard shelled organisms hiding within. The keratin around the mouth act as a serrated guillotine, crushing the shells of crustaceans and mollusks and slicing through bone of fish and other mammals, although the latter is rarely chosen.
 
Skeljúngur live in mixed-sex pods although males are known to leave their pods for long periods of time into deeper waters to hunt larger shelled prey like cephalopods. There is no hierarchy documented in these pods, instead decisions are usually by the pod as a whole, with the majority in favour of one option wins out. Calving season takes place in the Gulf of Lemuria where the water is significantly warmer and the calves can bulk up and develop what will eventually become their armour before returning to the colder waters to the north. During the migration back to the feeding grounds, the soft keratin growths slowly hardens and calcifies, aided by the dropping temperatures. Although many predators such as aaraluks and wolf sharks pose a significant threat to the calves, the adults are expertly coordinated in their predator defense, cows form a circle around the calves while the bulls orbit around the pod, with some swimming ahead as scouts.