Life in the Pandoran Sea

[HorusRe/Bila'reu]

The following is a general overview of some of the more common species that live in the oceans off the Eastern Coast.

Blood Dagger.

Human Name: Laramont Needle

Human Name Origin: Named by biologist Elizibeth Laramont after discovery, during an early exploration of Pandora by the initial expedition.

Na’vi Name: Reypaytstal

Translation (loose) of Na’vi Name: Blood Dagger

Environment: Aquatic, variations found across the moons seas.

Adult Size: 51 cm (20 inch) long. Females somewhat smaller.

Locomotion: Main propulsion is by the single tail fin, control offered by body posture and the position of the dorsal fins. Can augment this locomotion through a form of hydro-jet propulsion, for short periods only.

Dexterity: Marginal. The animal is very swift in a straight line but lacks notable mobility.

Sustenance Type: Predatory.

Feeding Behavior: Hunts in schools. Attacks prey with the sharp bill, spearing prey and then using its jet propulsion to disengage quickly, and then swallows small chunks whole. As a jawless-type fish-analog the animal cannot chew or bite food.

Prey Type: Tends to schooling animals that are individually smaller than the individual members of the attacking predators. Larger schools will sometimes attack animals as large as a Na'vi, but this behavior is rare - only occuring in periods where other normal prey are not plentiful.

Defensive Behavior: Tends to use their jet propulsion to flee a precieved threat. If cornered, or sometimes in a large enough school, the animals will respond to a threat with agressive/feeding behaviors, but this defensive reaction is quite rare.

Respiration: Internal gill-like membranes. No external indication of these organs.

Reproduction: External. Schools gather into super-schools, once each calm season, and in several instinctual spawning regions across the moon. Eggs are excreted into enormous clouds and simultaneously fertalized. These spawn clouds are left to drift on the currents until the eggs hatch. In plentiful years this super-spawning helps contribute to a strong basis for the aquatic food chain of the moon.

Development: Growth, after hatching, does not dramatically change the characteristics of the animal. The nymph begins schooling behaviors, and hunting behaviors, almost immediately. Only minor physical changes occur as a result of sexual dimorphism. Adult males are larger, a deeper magenta/red coloration, and have a larger main dorsal fin.

Lifespan: Between 20 and 22 seasons (roughly 10 to 11 years).

Senses: Sightless and deaf. The animal has a highly accute sense of smell, detecting minesclue chemical parts from the surrounding water, and uses this to identify prey and predators in the local water. Can also track blood over the distance of several dozen kilometers. Possesses an accurate sense of vibrations in the water medium, this sense limited to a few dozen meters with true accuracy. Also possesses a highly sensitive bioelectric sense, within only a front 10 degree facing, that will detect the firing of muscle tissue through an aquatic environment.

Immune System: Standardized.

Fossil Record/Origin/Species Age: An old species, dating back some 100 million years, that has remained largely unchanged. Fossil evidence suggests that at one point, some 60 million years in the moons geologic past, many larger versions of this species existed. These larger ancestors are believed to be extinct.

Human Use: None current. Could be harvested for food, but this is not currently a practice.

Na'vi Use: Coastal clans use this animal as a staple part of their meat diet. The majority of Na'vi hunt the Blood Dagger with spears or, less frequently, by long-line baited hooks. Rarely clans will net for this animal, but the practice is not so unusual in larger clans, that can afford to make strong nets with such fine netting. The meat is a firm, oily, and pale. The bill and hard dorsal fin are also used for many practical, as well as decorative, applications.

(Based off of): Pteraspis

[HorusRe/Bila'reu]

Blood Fang 1.

Blood Fang 2.

Human Name: None. Not yet discovered directly by humans.

Human Name Origin: NA

Na’vi Name: Srek’reypay

Translation (loose) of Na’vi Name: Blood Fang

Environment: Aquatic, variations found across the seas of the moon.

Adult Size: 1.5 m. (4.9 feet) long, 60 kg (132 lb.) in weight

Locomotion: Undulates a series of semi-mobile scale/fins, on each side of its longitudinal body, to propel itself forward or backward. Can use this locomotion to hold a single place, even in a light current, or move equally well forward and backward. The motion afforded by this is respectable but not nearly as swift as many aquatic species. These scales can also be used to crawl slowly along the ocean floor.

Dexterity: By flexing its segmented body, and controlling its motive scale/fins, the animal can be very mobile when at medium or high depth in its environment. When on the floor it loses most of its maneuverability, at least until it returns to a swimming form of locomotion.

Sustenance Type: Predator and scavenger.

Feeding Behavior: An ambush predator, due to its relative lack of speed, this solitary hunter usually hangs at the edge of a pycnocline (a divergence between water layers with different densities), to mask its presence from species that can sense vibrations in water (as the pycnocline masks its movement from those outside the layer) and waits for prey. It also is known to sit on the floor, in shallower waters, and cover itself in silt, to attack from below. It attacks with twin, curled, mandible appendages, each lined with micro-barbed hooks, and hangs onto its prey, taking large disk-shaped bites out of the target animal. When scavenging it generally remains close to the sea floor, and is fiercely protective of any carcass it discovers. It finds and defines a territory, usually no more than a square kilometer, and generally hunts only within this protected territory. The predator only actively hunts during the day, as it relies heavily on its vision for attack. It will scavenge in and around its territory at all hours. It’s most active hunting behavior is at midday.

Prey Type: Any aquatic life that is smaller than it is. It is well known to prey upon the Blood Dagger schools, thus part of the reason for its Na'vi name, as in times of super schools many individual Blood Fang will converge to hunt the super school. Due to this the two species are considered to have a close relationship by the Na'vi and accorded mystical powers for this shared relationship.

Defensive Behavior: Difficult to define, as there is a great deal of individual behaviors exhibited within the species. Any Blood Fang is equally as predisposed toward fleeing from a potential threat as making an immediate attack. The animal is always territorial, and each regional variation will always exhibit a similar threat display to warn of an impending attack; this being a display of exaggerated body postures, seemingly erratic swimming, and a rhythmic curling of the mandibles. These territorial displays will always precede an attack. Barring such a situation there is no way to predict the behavior of an individual animal.

Respiration: Internal gill-like membranes. No external indication of these organs. Openings for the gills are located between the fins along each side of the front quadrant of the body.

Reproduction: External. Females lure local males into their territory through a release of specific scent markers, these males then compete for reproductive rights through size and aggression displays (this competition usually ends with defeated males returning to their own territories – it is seldom fatal). The victorious male then tentatively approaches the female, as females remain territorial and may attack if provoked. If the female is receptive to the male the pair descends to the floor and creates a shallow depression in the sediment, there the female lays her eggs and the male fertilizes this mass. The ejaculate includes a protectant that binds the egg mass and protects it in a unified clump. The female generally attacks and consumes the male following this, but it is not uncommon for the male to leave unmolested. The eggs are defended by the female, as part of her territory, until the eggs hatch. Females continue to protect the larva until they mature into juvenile Blood Fang, at which time the female starts to see the offspring as potential competition and may cannibalize her own offspring.

Development: Larval Blood Fang gather into swarms after hatching, surviving on other forms of plankton that drift by, and remain close to the sea floor. After the second molt they grow into juvenile forms and develop stronger armoring, as well as lose their grouping behavior. Following the molt into the juvenile form most leave the territory of the mother and travel up into the surface waters. There they seek out unclaimed territory and attempt to establish a territory of their own, it is not unknown for these wandering individuals to travel to the other side of the moon, hunting the open sea for as much as two or three years. Sexual dimorphism sees females grow slightly larger than the males, but males develop longer tail spines.

Lifespan: Females, between 12 and 16 seasons (roughly 6 to 8 years). Males, between 6 and 10 seasons (roughly 3 to 5 years).

Senses: The Blood Fang has fairly acute composite vision, though this has fairly limited range and lacks higher definition. The compound eyes sit atop flexible stalks and thus the animal can train his vision on two different locations simultaneously. The animal has a highly acute sense of smell, detecting minuscule chemical parts from the surrounding water; the Blood Fang uses this to identify pre and predators in the local water, set scent markers to define a territory, locate the marks that define the territory of other Blood Fang, and communicate within its own species. An adult Blood Fang track blood over the distance of several dozen kilometers, but it generally does not venture that far from its territory, preferring to hunt within its limited hunting area. Micro hairs that line the tail operate as a limited form of motion detection, which are used mostly to detect potential threats in the local area. It also possesses a limited form of magnetic sensory organ, this is used to navigate the open waters of the moon with a stunning accuracy.

Immune System: The Blood Fang has a high immunity to disease and cellular degeneration. It’s lifespan is only shortened due to predation and the pressure of other species that compete for territory. It is conceivable, were an individual to be moved into a less challenging environment, it might live as long as a few hundred years, such is the strength of its immune system and genetic code.

Fossil Record/Origin/Species Age: Developed some 30 million years ago, according to the fossil record, and has undergone several variations over that time. The modern version is the survivor of a limited mass extinction roughly 650’000 years in the Pandoran past.

Human Use: None current. Could be harvested for food, but this is not currently a practice, as the species remains unknown to humans.

Na’vi Use: Coastal clans hunt this animal as a food source, with the savory meat being highly sought out and infrequently shared. The majority of Na'vi hunt the Blood Dagger with spears or, less frequently, by long-line baited hooks, but spear hunting is considered the mark of a true hunter and warrior. Young hunters are often sent out and expected to spear and bring back a large Blood Fang as proof of their hunting prowess. Most clans only hunt the adults, as they realize that hunting the juveniles would grossly impact the population of the species, and then many refuse to hunt females due to principles of conservation. Blood Fang are most often boiled, as their flesh is soft and almost liquid before being cooked, and boiling hardens the flesh while preserving the natural flavor. The meat is very firm, dry, and pale. The carapace and appendages are useful as decoration.

(Based off of): anomalocaris

[HorusRe/Bila'reu]

Deep Devil.

Human Name: Akheilos

Human Name Origin: Named after the Greek spirit of sharks, by Daniel Hawthorn, a research assisstant to Elizibeth Laramont, after his first encounter with the creature during early RDA exploration of the aquatic environments of Pandora. Mr. Hawthorn noted the behaviors of the massive female beast and immediately made the analog to the sharks of Earth.

Na’vi Name: Tlqsaytan

Translation (loose) of Na’vi Name: Deep Devil

Environment: Aquatic, limited variations found across the seas of the moon.

Adult Size: 8.7 meters (28.6 feet) long. Males are somewhat smaller. In rare cases females can grow to 12.19 meters (40 feet) given the proper conditions. The largest specimen encountered by humans has been a female 10.9 meters (36 feet) in length.

Locomotion: Main propulsion is the large tail fin, direction and control is offered through pectoral fin variation. Stability is offered through the dorsal and pelvic fins. Tends to an energy conserving slow cruise, but is capable of sustained bursts of impressive speed.

Dexterity: Normal. The animal has impressive flexibility and can turn fairly tightly, within a body length on average, and can employ this mobility at any velocity.

Sustenance Type: Predatory.

Feeding Behavior: Solitary hunter, generally employing an ambush attack from below or behind, with an initial high speed biting attack and then an immediate retreat to outside a range of counter attack. Employs motion and density senses to locate prey and then employs visual senses for the attack. After determining the threat of prey, the animal will either loiter in the area (awaiting the prey to exhibit behaviors of a mortal wound), or return to finish consuming the prey. Against significantly smaller prey the animal employs a simple approach, identify, and consume tactic, usually cruising directly up to the prey and making a slow attack.

Prey Type: As an apex predator this animal feeds upon virtually all other aquatic or amphibious species. Adults will sometimes exhibit cannibalism against adolescent members of its own species. Larger adults have been known to attack human submersible vehicles, making testing bites to ascertain if the object is edible. In one case the initial ambush attack resulted in the destruction of the vessel and the death of the two person crew.

Defensive Behavior: As the animal has virtually no natural predators an adult exhibits no particular defensive behaviors. It is an aggressive and territorial creature and when encountering unknown objects it exhibits only a mild curiosity. Only against its own kind will it behave in a way that could be considered defensive, as smaller adults always give way to larger adults when a massive food source draws a gathering of adults to that site.

Respiration: Internal gill-like membranes. No external indication of these organs.

Reproduction: Internal. Females across the moon enter into a fertile period at the same time, once every four seasons (every two years), and immediately release particular chemical lures into the currents. This draws males from as far as a hundred kilometers, that then challenge each other by size and displays of aggressiveness until only a single male remains to copulate with the female. Females of this species can store the spermazoa of a male for up to seven years (14 seasons) before fertilizing their eggs. About fifteen percent of these eggs will be fertilized, the rest will remain sterile. After the female has found a sufficient site to brood she then fertilizes her eggs. These hatch internally and the pups immediately begin cannibalizing the younger or weaker pups while in the womb. They then consume the sterilized eggs to gain sufficient fat reserves to survive in the open ocean. The female births these pups live, into shallower waters nearer to the coastal shelf. These pups then instinctively move to tidal waters and the surf close to shore, where they are safe from the predation of pelagic species. A female births an average of six pups, and will do so several times in her life.

Development: Adolescent animals remain in coastal waters for the first 6 seasons (3 years) as they grow into their juvenile form, and are about half as large as they will be as an adult. During this early period they stake out small territories, but are still in very close proximity to one another. As they reach their juvenile stage each will independently move into deeper waters, usually returning to an offshore atoll or other safe zone for several years, this is the only time the species is known to congregate for any length when there is not a large enough meal to draw a group to a kill. After a few more seasons, generally between four and ten, these young adults drift off to become pelagic adults. Though females grow larger, and males have a distinct sexual appendage that grows out of the pelvic fins, there is very little sexual dimorphism in physical appearance.

Lifespan: Between 30 and 40 seasons (between 15 and 20 years). Adults of greater size are believed to be upwards of 60 to 80 seasons (between 30 and 60 years) of age.

Senses: This species possesses excellent binocular vision, especially in low light conditions, and it uses its eyesight as its primary attack system. They also possess a very sensitive sense of smell, and track traces of blood or other chemicals that key to feeding or mating, over long distances. Their body is covered in small glands that are sensitive to audible signals in the fluid environment, giving them an impressive (and very accurate) sense of motion in their natural environmental medium.

Immune System: Standardized.

Fossil Record/Origin/Species Age: The Na’vi know this is an old species, but there has been no fossile evidence yet found by human scientists.

Human Use: None current.

Na’vi Use: None widespread. One clan has learned to make tsaheylu with the juvenile form of this animal and the elite of this clan rides this sea creature as other clans ride the dire horse and the banshee, however other uses are not known.

(Based off of): Dunkleosteus.