Goblin Skinface

• Cranium with mostly reabsorbed cranial armor.

 

• Strongly Heterodontic species; strong differences in teeth shape and use.

 

• Premaxillary teeth long and sharp, extruding frontally from the cranium; maxillary teeth short, wide and blunt.

 

• Dorsal armor mostly reabsorbed; nine rows of small osteoderms go down halfway throught the back.

 

• Dorsal fin triangular terminating right before the start of the Gill tail.

 

• Anal I and II reduced and rectangular.

 

• Gill fan large with high ridges;

 

• Caudal fins equally developed.

Polyandrous species.   Eucaligobelua atrox mates at the beginning of the spring, when the temperatures start rising again.   The females will attract the males by spreading into the open waters a chemical attractant.   The males will follow the scent of the female for miles, while she continued to cast her chemical net on her way south to the nesting grounds she was born in.   The classical nesting ground for Eucaligobelua atrox is a large underwater rock pillar or series of boulders, deep enough for the eggs to be away from most harm.   The males following a single female can form large groups following her scent.   The female, once arrived to the nesting site, will let the males fight for mating priority; the males will decide who mates first by fighting eachother. A normal fight between males is quick, with the winner being the first one able to bite the rival using the maxillary teeth. Sometimes injuries from these battles can be fatal.   In order of priority the males will fertilize the female, who will be able to "choose" what semen to utilize for how many eggs, this ensures a high genetic variability in a single season.   The males will leave the female soon after finishing the mating process; the female will remain in the area for a week, incubating the eggs.   She will then lay from a hundred to three hundred eggs in crevices along the nesting site's surface and leave the area until next season.   The eggs will hatch in a month from deposition and the spawn will stay near the nest for two months, leaving it in early summer, when the temperatures are highiest.

Ontogenesis is marked.   Spawns will possess a true cranial armor, protecting them for the first stage of their life; this armor wont grow with them, instead it gets partially reabsorbed.   Loss of natal aculeus at three months of age.

Epipelagic species, found between 0 and 200 m deep.   During the mating season, they'll travel south and nest in the mesopelagic zone, down to 900 m deep.   These animals like colder and clear waters with ample space to hunt in.

Eucaligobelua atrox is an active predator of the open waters.   It feeds mostly on smaller amphibians but has been observed forming momentary packs to take down and feed on big amphibians mostly when Autumn is near and temperatures start dropping.

Sexual maturity in the species at two years from birth.   Sexual sterility at ten years of age.   Long periods of inactivity during the winter, when most plants and preys in the lower arctic zone go into cryostasis.

Normally lone animals, they can be occasionally gregarious during large game hunts and mating season.   Most Elderly specimens tend to be aggressive to younger ones, preferring to avoid social interactions outside of mating. Elderly specimens are the most common perpetrators of lethal wounds in younger males during the mating fights.

It has been used several times by authors to describe evolutionary patterns on the planet; its discovery revolutionized our understanding of the evolution of the Víaiosmandibulae.

Lower arctic zone of the Hetherian Ocean and Arctic Ocean.  

Optimal sight.

Due to their peculiar dental morphology, these animal leaves behind many scraps, creating a commensalistic relationship with many small invertebrates that live in and around the mouth.